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Sammy Cahn

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sammy Cahn (June 18, 1913 – January 15, 1993) was an American lyricist, songwriter and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premiered by recording companies in the Greater Los Angeles Area. He and his collaborators had a series of hit recordings with Frank Sinatra during the singer's tenure at Capitol Records, but also enjoyed hits with Dean Martin, Doris Day and many others. He played the piano and violin. He won the Academy Award four times for his songs, including the popular song "Three Coins in the Fountain".

Among his most enduring songs is "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", cowritten with Jule Styne in 1945.

Cahn was born Samuel Cohen in the Lower East Side of New York City, the only son (he had four sisters) of Abraham and Elka Reiss Cohen, who were Jewish immigrants from Galicia, then ruled by Austria-Hungary. His sisters, Sadye, Pearl, Florence, and Evelyn, all studied the piano. His mother did not approve of Sammy studying it though, feeling that the piano was a woman's instrument, so he took violin lessons. After three lessons, he joined a small dixieland band called Pals of Harmony, which toured the Catskill Mountains in the summer and also played at private parties. This new dream of Cahn's destroyed any hopes his parents had for him to be a professional man.

Some of the side jobs he had were playing violin in a theater-pit orchestra, working at a meat-packing plant, serving as a movie-house usher, tinsmith, freight-elevator operator, restaurant cashier, and porter at a bindery. At age 16, he was watching vaudeville, of which he had been a fan since the age of 10, and he witnessed Jack Osterman singing a ballad Osterman had written. Cahn was inspired and, on his way home from the theater, wrote his first lyric, which was titled "Like Niagara Falls, I'm Falling for You – Baby." Years later he would say "I think a sense of vaudeville is very strong in anything I do, anything I write. They even call it 'a vaudeville finish,' and it comes through in many of my songs. Just sing the end of 'All the Way' or 'Three Coins in the Fountain'—'Make it mine, make it mine, MAKE IT MINE!' If you let people know they should applaud, they will applaud."

Cahn became a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972. He later became president.

Cahn died on January 15, 1993, at the age of 79 in Los Angeles, California from heart failure. His remains were interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.

He was married twice: first to vocalist and former Goldwyn girl Gloria Delson in 1945, with whom he had two children, and later, in 1970, to Virginia Curtis.

Over the course of his career, he was nominated for 31 Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, and an Emmy Award. He also received a Grammy Award nomination, with Van Heusen. He won the Christopher Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, and the Theatre World Award.

In 1988, the Sammy Film Music Awards (the "Sammy"), an annual award for movie songs and scores, was started in his honor.

Actor

The Perils of P.K

1986

Joys

1976

as Self

Big Night Out: The Peggy Lee Show

1961

Writing

Once Upon a Brothers Grimm

1977

Lyricist

The Night the Animals Talked

1970

Lyricist

Thoroughly Modern Millie

1967

Lyricist

Jack and the Beanstalk

1967

Lyricist

How the West Was Won

1962

Lyricist

High Time

1960

Lyricist

Let's Make Love

1960

Lyricist

Party Girl

1958

Lyricist

The Long, Hot Summer

1958

Lyricist

The Opposite Sex

1956

Lyricist

Anything Goes

1956

Lyricist

Our Town

1955

Lyricist

How To Be Very, Very Popular

1955

Lyricist

The Seven Year Itch

1955

Lyricist

Peter Pan

1953

Lyricist

Double Dynamite

1951

Lyricist

Purple Heart Diary

1951

Lyricist

I'll Get By

1950

Lyricist

It's a Great Feeling

1949

Lyricist

Romance on the High Seas

1948

Lyricist

The Miracle of the Bells

1948

Lyricist

Glamour Girl

1948

Lyricist

It Happened in Brooklyn

1947

Lyricist

Ladies' Man

1947

Lyricist

Earl Carroll Sketchbook

1946

Lyricist

The Falcon's Alibi

1946

Lyricist

The Kid from Brooklyn

1946

Lyricist

Cinderella Jones

1946

Lyricist

The Stork Club

1945

Lyricist

Hollywood Victory Caravan

1945

Lyricist

Anchors Aweigh

1945

Lyricist

The All-Star Bond Rally

1945

Lyricist

Eadie Was a Lady

1945

Lyricist

Tonight and Every Night

1945

Lyricist

Carolina Blues

1944

Lyricist

Janie

1944

Lyricist

Step Lively

1944

Lyricist

Silent Partner

1944

Lyricist

Follow the Boys

1944

Lyricist

Knickerbocker Holiday

1944

Lyricist

Pistol Packin' Mama

1943

Lyricist

The Heat's On

1943

Lyricist

Let's Face It

1943

Lyricist

Thumbs Up

1943

Lyricist

Lady of Burlesque

1943

Lyricist

Johnny Doughboy

1942

Lyricist

Youth on Parade

1942

Lyricist

Go West, Young Lady

1941

Lyricist

Time Out for Rhythm

1941

Lyricist

Rookies on Parade

1941

Story

Rookies on Parade

1941

Lyricist

Double or Nothing

1940

Lyricist

The Knight Is Young

1938

Lyricist

Ups and Downs

1937

Lyricist

Sound

Journey Back to Oz

1972

Songs

Robin and the 7 Hoods

1964

Songs

The Road to Hong Kong

1962

Songs

Ocean's Eleven

1960

Songs

Say One for Me

1959

Songs

The Edge of Innocence

1957

Music

The Greer Case

1957

Musician

Pardners

1956

Songs

The Court Jester

1955

Songs

Love Me or Leave Me

1955

Songs

The West Point Story

1950

Songs

Romance on the High Seas

1948

Songs

The Kid from Brooklyn

1946

Original Music Composer

Manhattan Merry-Go-Round

1937

Songs

Ups and Downs

1937

Original Music Composer

Hotel a la Swing

1937

Songs

Sammy Cahn

Actor

Documentaries

Production

Writing

Sound