Sammy Cahn

Birth : 1913-06-18, Lower East Side, New York City, New York, USA

Death : 1993-01-15

History

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.

Movies

Frank Sinatra: The First 40 Years
Gala tribute to the Chairman of the Board.
Once Upon a Brothers Grimm
Lyricist
While traveling to meet with the Hessian King, the famed Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, travel through an enchanted forest where they find themselves trapped in the world of their fairy tales.
That's Entertainment, Part II
Himself - Host
Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.
Joys
Self
Over fifty of the greatest living comedians are called to a party at Bob Hope's house, where each of them is systematically killed (and their bodies thrown in Hope's pool!). Hope and the rapidly shrinking cast try to discover who is the mysterious killer known only as "Joys."
Journey Back to Oz
Songs
Revisit the enchanting Land of Oz as Dorothy and Toto return to find the Scarecrow as ruler of the Emerald City. Unfortunately for the new mayor, the wicked Mombi is conspiring to take over the city for herself. With the help of the Tin Woodsman, the Cowardly Lion and other familiar friends, the brave lass from Kansas sets out to save Oz. This animated musical film features an impressive voice cast, including Liza Minnelli and Ethel Merman.
Jack and the Beanstalk
Lyricist
A retelling of the popular fairy tale that mixes live action and animation.
How the West Was Won
Lyricist
The epic tale of the development of the American West from the 1830s through the Civil War to the end of the century, as seen through the eyes of one pioneer family.
The Road to Hong Kong
Songs
When Chester accidentally memorizes and destroys the only copy of a secret Russian formula for a new and improved rocket fuel, they are thrust into international intrigue, trying to stay alive while keeping the formula out of enemy hands.
Ocean's Eleven
Songs
Danny Ocean and his gang attempt to rob the five biggest casinos in Las Vegas in one night.
Party Girl
Lyricist
Slick lawyer Thomas Farrell has made a career of defending mobsters in trials. It's not until he meets a lovely showgirl at a mob party that he realizes that there's more to life than winning trials. Farrell tries to quit the racket, but mob boss Rico Angelo threatens to hurt the showgirl if Farrell leaves him.
The Long, Hot Summer
Lyricist
Ben Quick arrives in Frenchman's Bend, MS after being kicked out of another town for allegedly burning a barn for revenge. Will Varner owns just about everything in Frenchman's Bend and he hires Ben to work in his store. Will thinks his own son, Jody, who manages the store, lacks ambition and despairs him getting his wife, Eula, pregnant. Will thinks his daughter, Clara, a schoolteacher, will never get married. He decides that Ben Quick might make a good husband for Clara to bring some new blood into the family.
The Edge of Innocence
Music
An unscrupulous criminal lawyer falls in love with a wealthy widow and becomes involved with her brother's disappearance and murder.
The Opposite Sex
Lyricist
Former radio singer Kay learns from her gossipy friends that her husband, Steve, has had an affair with chorus girl Crystal. Devastated, Kay tries to ignore the information, but when Crystal performs one of her musical numbers at a charity benefit, she breaks down and goes to Reno to file for divorce. However, when she hears that gold-digging Crystal is making Steve unhappy, Kay resolves to get her husband back. The Opposite Sex is a remake of the 1939 comedy The Women.
Pardners
Songs
Rich momma's boy Wade Kingsley Jr. an Eastern dude, tries to follow in his murdered father's footsteps by returning to the West to partner up with Slim Moseley Jr.,the son of his father's former partner. Wade overcomes Slim's initial reluctance to accept him by using his fortune to buy a prize cow and new car to help Slim in his job as foreman on the Kingsley family ranch, currently under siege by a gang of outlaws called "masked raiders." Wade generously tries to pay off the ranch's mortgage with $15,000 of his own money, but unfortunately neither "pardner" realizes that respected banker Dan Hollis, the son of their fathers' murderer, is the leader of the gang.
Our Town
Lyricist
Change comes slowly to a small New Hampshire town in the early 20th century. People grow up, get married, live, and die. Milk and the newspaper get delivered every morning, and nobody locks their front doors. This musicalization of Thornton Wilder's classic play stars Frank Sinatra who introduces the song, "Love and Marriage," which would go on to be immortalized as the theme song to the sitcom Married with Children.
Love Me or Leave Me
Songs
A fictionalized account of the career of jazz singer Ruth Etting and her tempestuous marriage to gangster Marty Snyder, who helped propel her to stardom.
Three Sailors and a Girl
Producer
A group of sailors invest in a musical revue.
Romance on the High Seas
Songs
Georgia Garrett is sent by jealous wife Elvira Kent on an ocean cruise to masquerade as herself while she secretly stays home to catch her husband cheating. Meanwhile equally suspicious husband Michael Kent has sent a private eye on the same cruise to catch his wife cheating. Love and confusion ensues along with plenty of musical numbers.
Cinderella Jones
Lyricist
Judy Jones can claim inheritance only if she marries a genius.
Cinderella Jones
Original Music Composer
Judy Jones can claim inheritance only if she marries a genius.
Knickerbocker Holiday
Lyricist
The wild and woolly early days of New York -- when it was still known as New Amsterdam -- provide the backdrop for this period musical-comedy. In 1650, Peter Stuyvesant (Charles Coburn) arrives in New Amsterdam to assume his duties as governor. Stuyvesant is hardly the fun-loving type, and one of his first official acts is to call for the death of Brom Broeck (Nelson Eddy), a newspaper publisher well-known for his fearless exposes of police and government corruption. However, Broeck hasn't done anything that would justify the death penalty, so Stuyvesant waits (without much patience) for Broeck to step out of line. Broeck is romancing a beautiful woman named Tina Tienhoven (Constance Dowling), whose sister Ulda (Shelley Winters) happens to be dating his best friend, Ten Pin (Johnnie "Scat" Davis). After Stuyvesant's men toss Broeck in jail on a trumped-up charge, Stuyvesant sets his sights on winning Tina's affections.
Rookies on Parade
Story
The story details the misadventures of two itinerant songwriters named Duke (Crosby) and Cliff (Foy) as they try to survive Army boot camp. Intending to boost the morale of their fellow draftees, our heroes stage a big musical show, which they eventually hope will graduate to Broadway.
Double or Nothing
Lyricist
In this Broadway Brevities short, a stunt double is hit on the head and imagines himself in a series of movie scenes with doubles for various stars.
The Knight Is Young
Lyricist
June never leaves her apartment, which has a view of an advertising sign of a knight in shining armor. She is two weeks behind in her rent and believes that if she leaves the apartment, the landlord will never let her back in. The only way she gets food is when her friend, singer Earlayne Schools, brings it to her. One evening June sees Hal, a tap-dancing sign painter, painting over her knight. She explains her predicament, and he does his best to help her out.
Hotel a la Swing
Songs
In this musical-comedy short, an out-of-work theatre troupe assumes management of the debt-ridden Grand Majestic Hotel.