22 Facts About Harry Warren

1.

Harry Warren wrote the music for the first blockbuster film musical, 42nd Street, choreographed by Busby Berkeley, with whom he would collaborate on many musical films.

2.

Over a career spanning six decades, Warren wrote more than 800 songs.

3.

Harry Warren was one of America's most prolific film composers, and his songs have been featured in over 300 films.

4.

Harry Warren was born Salvatore Antonio Guaragna, one of eleven children of Italian immigrants Antonio and Rachel De Luca Guaragna, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York.

5.

Harry Warren's father changed the family name to Warren when Harry was a child.

6.

Harry Warren sang in the church choir and learned to play the drums.

7.

Harry Warren began to play the drums professionally by age 14 and dropped out of high school at 16 to play with his godfather's band in a traveling carnival.

8.

Harry Warren played the piano in cafes and silent-movie houses.

9.

Harry Warren wrote over 800 songs between 1918 and 1981, publishing over 500 of them.

10.

Harry Warren was the director of ASCAP from 1929 to 1932.

11.

Harry Warren collaborated on some of his most famous songs with lyricists Al Dubin, Billy Rose, Mack Gordon, Leo Robin, Ira Gershwin and Johnny Mercer.

12.

Harry Warren's first hit song was "Rose of the Rio Grande", with lyrics by Edgar Leslie.

13.

Harry Warren started working for Warner Brothers in 1932, paired with Dubin to write the score for the first blockbuster film musical, 42nd Street, and continued to work there for six years, writing the scores for 32 more musicals.

14.

Harry Warren worked for 20th Century Fox starting in 1940, writing with Mack Gordon.

15.

Harry Warren moved to MGM starting in 1944, writing for musical films such as The Harvey Girls and The Barkleys of Broadway, many starring Fred Astaire.

16.

Harry Warren later worked for Paramount, starting in the early 1950s, writing for the Bing Crosby movie Just for You and the Martin and Lewis movie The Caddy, the latter containing the hit song "That's Amore".

17.

Harry Warren continued to write songs for several more Jerry Lewis comedies.

18.

Harry Warren is particularly remembered for writing scores for the films of Busby Berkeley; they worked together on 18 films.

19.

Harry Warren wrote the opening theme, "Hey, Marty", for the film Marty, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1955.

20.

The last musical score that Harry Warren composed specifically for Broadway was Shangri-La, a disastrous 1956 adaptation of James Hilton's Lost Horizon, which ran for only 21 performances.

21.

Harry Warren continued to write songs for movies throughout the 1960s and 1970s but never again achieved the fame that he had enjoyed earlier.

22.

Harry Warren is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.