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Gus Kahn & Walter Jurmann
The One I Love (Judy Garland Cover)
Leo Feist, New York
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Gus Kahn; Edward Eliscu; Vincent Youmans
ORCHIDS IN THE MOONLIGHT - from the film Flying Down to Rio
Harms Incorporated
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lyrics by Gus Kahn, Melody by Grace Le Roy
I Wish I Had a Girl
Robbins Music Corp, Inc. NY
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Vincent Youmans; Edward Eliscu; Gus Kahn
Carioca
Max Dreyfuss ; Vincent Youmans
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Doris Day, James Cagney, Cameron Mitchell, Robert Keith, Tom Tully
Love Me or Leave Me
Warner Home Video
DVD
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Lauren Bacall, Julius J. Epstein, Lee Katz, Ron Haver, Irene Lee Diamond
Casablanca
Warner Home Video
DVD
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Hy Anzell, Colleen Dewhurst, Shelley Duvall, Russell Horton, Carol Kane
Annie Hall
MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD
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John Arceri, Robert Alan Beuth, David Burdick, Frances Chaney, Donna Hardy
When Harry Met Sally
MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD
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Sean Penn
Sweet and Lowdown
Sony Pictures
DVD
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Dolores del Rio, Gene Raymond, Raul Roulien, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire
Flying Down to Rio
Turner Home Ent
DVD
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Doris Day, Danny Thomas, Frank Lovejoy, Patrice Wymore, James Gleason
I'll See You in My Dreams
Warner Home Video
DVD
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Gus Kahn
Gustav Gerson Kahn
Lyricist, Vaudevillian
(1886 - 1941)
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Gus Kahn was born in Germany and came as a child to Chicago where he began his musical career writing for vaudeville. A prolific lyricist, Kahn was versatile and had a poet’s turn of phrase. Eddie Cantor and Al Jolson popularized many of his songs: “Pretty Baby” (1915), “Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goodbye)” (1921), “Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby” (1925) and “Makin’ Whoopee”(1928), the last two written with Walter Donaldson. Kahn and Donaldson produced a string of hits, including the torch song associated with Ruth Etting, “Love Me or Leave Me”(1928) that became a movie starring Doris Day as Etting (1955), and “My Baby Just Cares for Me” which became Nina Simone’s signature song.
His association with Isham Jones was equally successful and produced “It Had to Be You” (1924) which Johnny Mercer called “the greatest popular song ever written.” It has appeared in over 40 films, including Casablanca, Annie Hall, and When Harry Met Sally. Another huge hit was “I’ll See You in My Dreams” (1924) which became the title of a 1951 movie biography of Kahn, played by Danny Thomas with Doris Day as his wife. Howard Alden dubbed the song on guitar for Sean Penn in 1999’s Sweet and Lowdown.
While some of his songs may seem dated, Kahn’s work still crosses musical boundaries. “Dream a Little Dream of Me” (1931), for instance, was introduced by the Wayne King orchestra, popularized by Kate Smith, picked up by Frankie Laine in 1950, recorded by both Louis Armstrong and the Mamas and Papas in 1968, and appeared on the soundtrack of Beautiful Thing (1996).
- Sandra Burlingame |
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