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J. Fred Coots
His mother taught Fred piano while he was still attending grade school. He
left high school at age 16, and began working as a clerk in a Wall Street
firm. In 1914, he decided to make music his career, after hearing a song
plugger working in a music store.
He got his first job in the music business as a song plugger in the New
York offices of Chicago's McKinley Music Company. He wrote some special
material for Sophie Tucker and the vaudeville team of Van and Schenk.
Fred had met Eddie Dowling at New York's Friar's Club. Eddie was planning
on producing a show to be called Sally, Irene and Mary. Coots persuaded
Eddie to let him write the musical score. In 1922, the show opened on
Broadway, and ran for over two years. Coots established his reputation
with this success. He wrote a great many songs, and also during the
1920's Coots continued to work as a vaudeville performer himself. Coots
is given credit for teaming Jimmy Durante, who he found working in The
Alamo, a Harlem nightclub, with Eddie Jackson and Lou Clayton, forming the
team of Clayton, Jackson and Durante. Even after the decline of vaudeville,
Coots continued to perform in nightclubs. Over his career, Coots wrote many songs for the stage, nightclubs and
the motion pictures, including such hits as:
With Benny Davis as his lyricist, Coots wrote scores for three Cotton Club
Revues, in 1936, 1938, and 1939. In 1952, Coots wrote a series of
Children's songs, which were recorded by Rosemary Clooney.
Coots died at age 87, survived by bis wife Marjorie Jenning Coots, two
daughters, Patricia Coots Chester and Gloria Coots Baldwin, as well as by
a son, John Frederick Coots, Jr. Over his long career, J. Fred Coots had
more than 700 of his songs published. Coots is a Songwriters' Hall of Fame member.
Sam Coslow
In 1940, he went into business with James Roosevelt, FDR's Son,
manufacturing coin operated machines that showed sound films. He next
produced several of his own films including 'Out of This World' and
'Copacabana'. He worked on productions for the English stage and screen
during the mid-50's. He finally became devoted to publishing trade
periodicals for the financial community.
Brief Chronology of his songs:
1934 For film, 'Murder at the Vanities', "Cocktails For Two"
He is a member of the Songwriters' Hall of Fame.
Jimmie Cox
Francis Craig
Mrs. Jesse Crawford
1926 "Within the Prison of My Dreams", words and music by Helen Crawford.
(Published by Forster Music Publisher, Inc. Chicago.)
Henry Creamer
Among his songs are:
Creamer and Layton contributed songs for Bert Williams' 1911 Ziegfeld Follies
act. The team scored the 1922 show 'Miss Lizzie'. Creamer was one of the founders of
the Black Entertainers group called 'Club Clef'.
Gretchen Cryer
Cryer had been 'keeping company' with a student named David Cryer, and when
he graduated, the two got married (in Indiana), after which David enrolled
in Yale University's Berkeley Divinity School. Nancy Ford also married a
man who was attending the Divinity School and so the two ladies went to
live with their husbands in the Yale married students dormitory, and both
got day jobs as secretarys. Cryer, from age 18, had performed as a chorus
girl in summer stock musical shows, but never took any formal courses in
playwriting. Gretchen's family had told her that she had two distant
cousins, David Niven, and Cornelia Otis Skinner.
In 1967, the team mounted a musical 'Now Is the Time For All Good Men', on
the New York Stage. It was produced by Cryer's husband and David Poland (no
one else wanted the property). The show was about Cryer's Pacifist brother,
and was panned by the critics. In 1970, their off-Broadway show 'The
Last Sweet Days of Isaac' was a big success. It won an Obie; Drama Desk;
and Outer Circle Awards, and was hailed by the critics. Nancy Ford's music
for the play has been described as 'Baroque Rock'.
In 1973, their first Broadway show, 'Shelter' had no great success despite
some pleasant critical reviews. The show's main character was a computer
that wrote commercials.
Gretchen was working as a chorus girl in Broadway musicals, helping to
support the family. But, her feeling that she was not taking
responsibility for her own life finally ended the marriage. In 1968, Cryer
was divorced from husband David. David has given up the ministry for the
theater. Her son Jon Cryer has appeared in many films and TV shows.
Daughter Robin has appeared with her mother in Cabaret shows and youngest
daughter Shelley works in theatre make-up.
Nancy and Gretchen had been continuing to write songs and singing them in
cabarets. In 1978, her next show was 'I'm Getting My Act Together'; it
contained much autobiographical material. Cryer sang and acted in her own
play, with material relating to her own life. Despite being panned by the
New York critics, the show eventually gained an audience, and producer Joe
Papp moved it from the Public Theater to Circle On The Square Theater on
Broadway, where it enjoyed a three year run.
When last heard of, Cryer was working on a show of Eleanor Roosevelt's
life. It was to be mounted on a San Diego stage.
Manny Curtis
Among Curtis' other works are:
Aina Swan Cutler
The Finnish-born Aina Swan Cutler's parents, John and Edla Swan Juotsen, had emigrated to the USA at the turn of the 20th century. Of all the children of a family full of musical talent, Aina was the only one that did not become a professional musician. Instead, she made writing her creative outlet. Her brother,
Einar Swan's, compositions include "When Your Lover Has Gone", which has been recorded by such artists asElla Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Art Tatum, and no less than 100 others.
Mrs. Cutler was instrumental in establishing libraries in several Boston area elementary schools. She was active in the Finnish-American community and for many years collaborated as a lyricist with Finnish musicians, providing original lyrics as well as translations of Finnish works. In 1995 she was awarded the Order of the White Rose by the government of Finland in recognition of her work on behalf of Finnish music.
Aina often worked with Heikki Sarmanto, a highly esteemed composer whose music has been recorded all over the world. His career began in the early 1960's, when he participated in an international Jazz recording contest in Minneapolis. He has composed more than a thousand songs and released some forty records. He has also given his name to a musicians' foundation founded in 1997 in Minneapolis.
Friends for almost thirty years, Heikki Sarmanto and Aina Swan Cutler have co-composed more than 200 songs. Cutler started by translating the finnish lyrics of Sarmanto's songs into English, resulting in three music books: "Autumn, and other songs", "Moment Musical", and "Moonlight in the Forest".
In 1980 the American singer Jeannine Otis recorded Sarmanto's "Magic Song", with Cutler debuting as a fully-fledged lyricist on her own. "Tears in the Night" is the first Sarmanto/Cutler collaboration with a Finnish singer.
In October 2002, Finnish vocalist Sari Ann Annika had a CD released, entitled "Tears in the Night", that featured songs composed by Heikki Sarmanto to lyrics by Aina Swan Cutler. The album is built around the "Tears in the Night" trilogy, with lyrics inspired by the sorrow following the death of Cutler's daughter. Some lyrics are also translated and arranged into english from the poems of Eino Leino and Aaro Hellaakoski.
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