Gordon, Mack

Gordon, Mack (originally, Gittler, Morris), Polish-born American lyricist; b. Warsaw, Poland, June 21, 1904; d. N.Y, March 1, 1959. Gordon was a prolific songwriter for the movies; he wrote songs used in at least 90 feature films, almost all of them released by the major Hollywood studios, between 1929 and 1956. Usually writing only the lyrics (though he also wrote music on occasion), he collaborated most often with composers Harry Revel, Harry Warren, James V. Monaco, and Josef Myrow. His slangy, conversational words to Revel’s songs in the 1930s typified the upbeat philosophy Hollywood adopted to counter the Depression, but he hit his peak in his work with Warren in the early 1940s, defining the Swing Era with such novelty songs as “Chattanooga Choo Choo” and “Fve Got a Gal in Kalamazoo,” and such romantic ballads as ”I Had the Craziest Dream” and “You’ll Never Know” (which won him his sole Academy Award among nine nominations). His other biggest hits included “I Can’t Begin to Tell You,” “My Heart Tells Me,” and “Good Night, My Love.”

Gordon’s family immigrated when he was a child and settled in N.Y. As a youth he sang in a minstrel show, then became an actor, comedian, and singer in vaudeville. In 1925 he and Anton E Scibilia wrote lyrics to music by George David Weist for the shows Flashes of the Gay White Way and World of Pleasure. Weist had changed his name to Weiss by the time he and Gordon teamed up again for the revue Padlocks of 1929, but he was still credited as Weist for “White Way Blues,” a song he cocomposed with Max Rich to Gordon’s lyrics for the November 1929 film The Song of Love. Gordon and Rich wrote two other songs used in the movie; he and Rich had songs in two other films released before the end of the year. Also in 1929, Gordon met British composer Harry Revel (1905-58), who became his accompanist in vaudeville.

Gordon next wrote songs with composer Abner Silver for the June 1930 film Swing High. He had his first popular song with “Time on My Hands (You in My Arms)” (music by Vincent Youmans, lyrics also by Harold Adamson), which was used in the Florenz Ziegfeld-produced musical Smiles (N.Y, Nov. 18, 1930), then became a hit in equally successful recordings by the orchs. of Smith Ballew and Leo Reisman, albeit not until the fall of 1931.

Gordon and Revel commenced their eight-and-a-half-year songwriting partnership contributing songs to the musical Meet My Sister (N.Y, Dec. 30, 1930). They were then hired as the principal songwriters for what turned out to be the final edition of the Ziegfeld Follies, supervised by Ziegfeld himself; it ran 165 performances. Gordon and Revel’s next few Broadway shows were failures, but they scored a hit together in December 1932 with the independently published “Underneath the Harlem Moon,” the most popular recording of which was by Joe Rines and His Orch.

Gordon and Revel scored two more independent hits in June 1933, “An Orchid to You,” recorded by Eddy Duchin and His Orch., and “It Was a Night in June,” recorded by Anson Weeks and His Orch., after which they moved to Calif, to write for the movies. Their first assignment, for United Artists, was Broadway Thru a Keyhole, which opened in November. Then they signed to Paramount and wrote songs for White Woman, also released in November, and Sitting Pretty, released in December. The latter contained “Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?” (a best-seller for Eddy Duchin) and “Good Morning Glory” (a hit for Tom Coakley and His Palace Hotel Orch.).

Gordon and Revel were the primary songwriters for five movie musicals released by Paramount in 1934; four of them produced hit songs. We’re Not Dressing, featuring Bing Crosby and Ethel Merman, opened in April and included five hits: “Good Night, Lovely Little Lady,” “Love Thy Neighbor,” “May I?” and “Once in a Blue Moon” for Crosby; and “She Reminds Me of You” for Eddy Duchin. Shoot the Works, released in July, featured “With My Eyes Wide Open Fm Dreaming,” a hit for Leo Reisman. Crosby was also the star of the September release She Loves Me Not, and he recorded “Straight from the Shoulder” for a minor hit. College Rhythm, out in November, featured “Stay as Sweet as You Are,” which became a best-seller for Jimmie Grier and His Orch. in December. Gordon and Revel also were loaned out to RKO to write songs for the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers film The Gay Divorcee, and upon its November release “Don’t Let It Bother You” became a hit for Fats Waller.

Gordon and Revel had four Paramount film credits in 1935, although Revel wrote the music for only one of the songs for Love in Bloom, which opened in April; Gordon wrote both music and lyrics for the rest, including “Lookie, Lookie, Here Comes Cookie” and “My Heart Is an Open Book,” which became hits for Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orch. Stolen Harmony, also released in April, featured a minor hit for Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, “Would There Be Love?” Ray Noble and His Orch. topped the hit parade in August with the title song from Paris in the Spring. The same month saw the release of Two for Tonight, starring Bing Crosby, who made hits out of “From the Top of Your Head to the Tip of Your Toes,” “Without a Word of Warning,” and “I Wish I Were Aladdin.”

Gordon and Revel wrote songs for a final film at Paramount, Collegiate, released in January 1936 and containing the hits “I Feel Like a Feather in the Breeze,” recorded by Jan Garber and His Orch., and “You Hit the Spot,” recorded by Richard Himber and His Orch. They then signed a two-year contract with 20th Century-Fox at the unprecedented rate of $50,000 per film; their first assignment was to write for the studio’s biggest star, Shirley Temple. Poor Little Rich Girl, released in June 1936, contained “When I’m with You,” which topped the hit parade for Hal Kemp and His Orch. in August. That same month Gordon and Revel scored one of their few independent hits, when Kemp took “A Star Fell Out of Heaven” into the hit parade. The team’s second Shirley Temple vehicle, Stowaway, released in December, gave them another hit with “Good Night, My Love,” which went to #1 for Benny Goodman and His Orch. in February 1937.

Both Poor Little Rich Girl and Stowaway found Gordon writing for Alice Faye; he would write the bulk of her lyrics for the rest of her career. He and Revel were the principal songwriters for five Fox features released in 1937. Three contained hits. Wake Up and Live (in which Faye starred), released in April, contained two songs that went into the hit parade, “Never in a Million Years” for Bing Crosby and “There’s a Lull in My Life” for Teddy Wilson and His Orch. with Billie Holiday on vocals. You Can’t Have Everything (also starring Faye), released in August, contained “Afraid to Dream,” which became a hit for Benny Goodman. And “Sweet Someone,” a hit for Horace Heidt and His Orch., came from Love and Hisses, released in December.

Gordon and Revel earned screen credit as the pri-mary songwriters for six films released in 1938, including Love Finds Andy Hardy, for which they were loaned to MGM. But their first hit came from an interpolation when “Sweet as a Song,” one of the two songs they contributed to the February release Sally, Irene and Mary (starring Alice Faye) reached the hit parade for Horace Heidt. The other hits from their films of the year were “Where in the World” from Josette, recorded by Hal Kemp, “I’ve Got a Date with a Dream” from My Lucky Star, recorded by Benny Goodman, and the title song from Thanks for Everything, recorded by Artie Shaw and His Orch. On Jan. 14, 1939, following a first marriage that produced two children but ended in divorce, Gordon married movie actress Elizabeth Cooke. They too later divorced.

Gordon and Revel split up in 1939; their last song together, “I Never Knew Heaven Could Speak,” from the May 1939 release Rose of Washington Square, starring Al Jolson and Alice Faye, was a hit for Bob Crosby and His Orch. Following the breakup, Gordon sometimes wrote his own music and also tried working with other partners. In December he and composer James Van Heusen had an independent hit with “Speaking of Heaven,” recorded by Glenn Miller and His Orch. Another independent song, “In an Old Dutch Garden” (music by Will Grosz), recorded by Dick Jurgens and His Orch., was in the hit parade from February to April 1940. And “This Is the Beginning of the End,” for which Gordon wrote music and lyrics, was featured in the April release Johnny Apollo and recorded by Tommy Dorsey and His Orch. with Frank Sinatra on vocals, though it did not become a hit song until later.

Gordon finally found a new partner in Harry Warren, who moved to 20th Century-Fox from Warner Bros, following his split with lyricist Al Dubin. Gordon and Warren’s first film together, the Shirley Temple vehicle Young People, released in August 1940, was not a success, but Down Argentine Way, which opened in October, established the team, featuring “Down Argentina Way,” a Top Ten hit for Bob Crosby and Gordon’s first Oscar nominee, and “Two Dreams Met,” a minor hit for Tommy Dorsey. It also marked the film debut of lively Brazilian performer Carmen Miranda and made a star out of Betty Grable, who had sung Gordon lyrics previously but who now began to alternate with Alice Faye as one of the lyricist’s most frequent film singers.

Gordon and Warren wrote songs for four Fox features released in 1941, enjoying their greatest success with Sun Valley Serenade, released in September. The film, which featured Glenn Miller’s orch., contained three hits, all recorded by Miller: the chart-topping, million-selling Academy Award nominee “Chattanooga Choo Choo”; “I Know Why (And So Do You)”; and “It Happened in Sun Valley.” As a result, three of Gordon and Warren’s films of 1942 also featured swing bands. Orch. Wives, released in September, reunited them with Miller, resulting in another million- selling #1 Oscar nominee, “I’ve Got a Gal in Kalamazoo,” a Top Ten hit, “Serenade in Blue,” and a third chart entry, “At Last.” Iceland, released in October, featured Sammy Kaye and His Orch., who made a hit out of “There Will Never Be Another You/7 And the November release Springtime in the Rockies, which starred Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda, gave a supporting role to Harry James and His Orch., as James made a #1, million-selling record out of ”I Had the Craziest Dream/7

“You’ll Never Know” was a Gordon/Warren interpolation into the March 1943 Alice Faye vehicle Hello, Frisco, Hello. Dick Haymes had the most popular recording of the Academy Award-winning song, a million-seller that hit #1. Sweet Rosie O’Grady, a Betty Grable vehicle released in October 1943, had a full Gordon/Warren score, including “My Heart Tells Me,” made into a chart-topping record by Glen Gray.

Warren left 20th Century-Fox at the end of 1943, and Gordon teamed with composer James V. Monaco for three films released in 1944, among them the Betty Grable vehicle Pin Up Girl, released in May, which contained “Once Too Often,” a minor hit for Ella Fitzgerald, and Sweet and Low- Down, released in October, which contained “I’m Making Believe,” a #1, million-selling hit for the Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald and Gordon’s fifth Oscar nominee in as many years.

Songwriter and producer Billy Rose engineered a quick reunion of Warren and Gordon for Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe, starring Betty Grable and Dick Haymes, which was released in May 1945 and featured “I Wish I Knew” and “The More I See You,” both of which became Top Ten hits for Haymes. With Monaco, Gordon’s next film was The Dolly Sisters, again starring Betty Grable and released in November. From it, “I Can’t Begin to Tell You” went to #1 and sold a million copies in a recording by Bing Crosby; it was nominated for a 1946 Academy Award.

Monaco died suddenly, but Gordon found his fourth and final major collaborator in Russian emigre Josef Myrow, with whom he wrote regularly for the last decade of his career. Their first film together was Three Little Girls in Blue, released in September 1946, which Gordon produced and which contained their first hit, “On the Boardwalk (In Atlantic City),” recorded by the Charioteers. Warren contributed the music for “This Is Always,” made into a Top Ten hit by Harry James. The most memorable song from the film turned out to be a non-hit, “You Make Me Feel So Young,” which later was interpolated into several other movies and was given its greatest exposure in a 1956 recording by Frank Sinatra. Gordon’s biggest hit to emerge from a 1946 film, however, was “Mam’selle” (music by Edmund Goulding) from The Razor’s Edge, which was given a million-selling, chart-topping treatment by Art Lund and also hit #1 for Sinatra.

Gordon and Myrow’s second film was the Betty Grable vehicle Mother Wore Tights. Released in Aug. 1947, it featured “You Do,” which had five Top Ten recordings, the most successful of which was by Dinah Shore, and was nominated for an Academy Award, as well as “Kokomo, Indiana,” recorded by Vaughn Monroe for a Top Ten hit. Writing with Alfred Newman, Gordon earned another Oscar nomination for “Through a Long and Sleepless Night” from the July 1949 release Come to the Stable and got his ninth and final Oscar nod for “Wilhelmina” (music by Josef Myrow) from the Betty Grable vehicle Wabash Avenue, released in April 1950. But his only chart record during this period was a revival of “With My Eyes Wide Open I’m Dreaming” by the Patti Page Quartet in January 1950, and 20th Century-Fox dropped him after 14 years. Gordon worked on a freelance basis thereafter.

Gordon was brought over to MGM by Harry Warren and the two wrote songs for the Judy Garland-Gene Kelly film Summer Stock, released in August 1950. Ray Anthony, a former member of Glenn Miller’s orch., peaked in the Top Ten with his own orch/s revival of “At Last” in April 1952. Don Cornell finally made a hit out of “This Is the Beginning of the End” in August.

I Love Melvin, a 1953 feature for which Gordon and Myrow wrote the songs, produced a Top Ten soundtrack album. Gordon’s last film was Bundle of Joy starring Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds and released in December 1956. He died at age 54 in 1959. After his death his most frequently revived songs were those he had written with Harry Warren: “At Last” was taken into the R&B Top Ten by Etta James in 1961; “Chattanooga Choo Choo” reached the Top 40 for Floyd Cramer in 1962 and Tuxedo Junction in 1978; and Chris Montez had Top 40 revivals of “The More I See You” and “There Will Never Be Another You” in 1966.

Works

Works (only works for which Gordon was a primary, credited lyricist are listed): MUSICALS/REVUE S (dates refer to N.Y openings): Flashes of the Gay White Way (1925); World of Pleasure (1925); Padlocks of 1929 (1929); Ziegfeld Follies (July 1, 1931); Fast and Furious (Sept. 15, 1931); Marching By (March 3, 1932); Smiling Faces (Aug. 30, 1932). FILMS: The Song of Love (1929); Swing High (1930); Broadway Thru a Keyhole (1933); White Woman (1933); Sitting Pretty (1933); We’re Not Dressing (1934); Shoot the Works (1934); The Old Fashioned Way (1934); The Gay Divorcee (1934); She Loves Me Not (1934); College Rhythm (1934); Love in Bloom (1935); Stolen Harmony (1935); Paris in the Spring (1935); Two for Tonight (1935); Collegiate (1936); Poor Little Rich Girl (1936); Stowaway (1936); Everybody Dance (U.K., 1936); Head over Heels (U.K., 1936; U.S., 1937 as Head over Heels in Love)- Wake Up and Live (1937); This Is My Affair (1937); You Can’t Have Everything (1937); AH Baba Goes to Town (1937); Love and Hisses (1937); Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938); Josette (1938); Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938); My Lucky Star (1938); Hold That Co-ed (1938); Thanks for Everything (1938); Star Dust (1940); Young People (1940); Down Argentine Way (1940); That Night in Rio (1941); The Great American Broadcast (1941); Charlie Chan in Rio (1941); Sun Valley Serenade (1941); Week-End in Havana (1941); Song of the Islands (1942); Orchestra Wives (1942); Iceland (1942); Springtime in the Rockies (1942); Sweet Rosie O’Grady (1943); Pin Up Girl (1944); Sweet and Low-Down (1944); Irish Eyes Are Smiling (1944); Bitty Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe (1945); The Dolly Sisters (1945); Three Little Girls in Blue (1946); Mother Wore Tights (1947); When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948); Wabash Avenue (1950); Summer Stock (1950); I Love Melvin (1953); The Girl Next Door (1953); Bundle of Joy (1956).

—William Ruhlmann