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Sammy Cahn

Known For
Sound

Known Credits
11

Gender
Male

Birthday
June 18, 1913 (113 years old)

Place of Birth
Lower East Side, New York City, New York, USA

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.

Known For

Writing

1977Once Upon a Brothers Grimm...Lyricist
1970The Night the Animals Talked...Lyricist
1967Thoroughly Modern Millie...Lyricist
1967Jack and the Beanstalk...Lyricist
1962How the West Was Won...Lyricist
1960High Time...Lyricist
1960Let's Make Love...Lyricist
1958Party Girl...Lyricist
1958The Long, Hot Summer...Lyricist
1956The Opposite Sex...Lyricist
1956Anything Goes...Lyricist
1956Paris in the Springtime...Lyricist
1955Our Town...Lyricist
1955How to Be Very, Very Popular...Lyricist
1955The Seven Year Itch...Lyricist
1953Peter Pan...Lyricist
1952April in Paris...Lyricist
1951Double Dynamite...Lyricist
1951Purple Heart Diary...Lyricist
1950I'll Get By...Lyricist
1949It's a Great Feeling...Lyricist
1948Romance on the High Seas...Lyricist
1948The Miracle of the Bells...Lyricist
1948Glamour Girl...Lyricist
1947It Happened in Brooklyn...Lyricist
1947Ladies' Man...Lyricist
1946Earl Carroll Sketchbook...Lyricist
1946The Falcon's Alibi...Lyricist
1946The Kid from Brooklyn...Lyricist
1946Cinderella Jones...Lyricist
1945The Stork Club...Lyricist
1945Hollywood Victory Caravan...Lyricist
1945Anchors Aweigh...Lyricist
1945The All-Star Bond Rally...Lyricist
1945Eadie Was a Lady...Lyricist
1945Tonight and Every Night...Lyricist
1944Carolina Blues...Lyricist
1944Janie...Lyricist
1944Step Lively...Lyricist
1944Silent Partner...Lyricist
1944Follow the Boys...Lyricist
1944Knickerbocker Holiday...Lyricist
1943Pistol Packin' Mama...Lyricist
1943The Heat's On...Lyricist
1943Let's Face It...Lyricist
1943Thumbs Up...Lyricist
1943Lady of Burlesque...Lyricist
1942Johnny Doughboy...Lyricist
1942Youth on Parade...Lyricist
1941Go West, Young Lady...Lyricist
1941Time Out for Rhythm...Lyricist
1941Rookies on Parade...Story
1941Rookies on Parade...Lyricist
1940Double or Nothing...Lyricist
1938The Knight Is Young...Lyricist
1937Ups and Downs...Lyricist

Sound

1975Whiffs...Songs
1975Two's Company...Main Title Theme Composer
1972Journey Back to Oz...Songs
1964Robin and the 7 Hoods...Songs
1962The Road to Hong Kong...Songs
1960Ocean's Eleven...Songs
1959Say One for Me...Songs
1958Some Came Running...Songs
1957The Edge of Innocence...Music
1957The Greer Case...Musician
1956Heritage of Anger...Music
1956The Big Slide...Music
1956The Country Husband...Music
1956Rendezvous in Black...Music
1956Sizeman and Son...Music
1956Pardners...Songs
1955The Court Jester...Songs
1955Love Me or Leave Me...Songs
1950The West Point Story...Songs
1948Romance on the High Seas...Songs
1946The Kid from Brooklyn...Original Music Composer
1945Thrill of a Romance...Songs
1937Manhattan Merry-Go-Round...Songs
1937Ups and Downs...Original Music Composer
1937Hotel a la Swing...Songs

Production

1953Three Sailors and a Girl...Producer

Acting

1990Frank Sinatra: The Voice of Our Timeas
1986The Perils of P.Kas
1983This Is Your Lifeas Self
1979Frank Sinatra: The First 40 Yearsas Self
1976That's Entertainment, Part IIas Himself - Host
1976Joysas Self
1971Great Performancesas Self
1962The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carsonas Self
1961Big Night Out: The Peggy Lee Showas
1953The Oscarsas Self
1948The Ed Sullivan Showas Self