Larry Clinton
bAugust 17, 1909, New York (Brooklyn), NY, USA,d. May 2, 1985
Overview
Bandleader Larry Clinton was most active during the 1930's and 1940'sHe is recalled today as one of the outstanding composers and arrangers of the periodHis forte was adapting the classics to popular music

Early in his career, Clinton arranged for big bands, among which were lsham Jones, Glen Gray, and Tommy and Jimmy DorseyIn 1937, he formed a studio orchestra whose recordings became so popular, that he became a top attraction at many venues

Among his compositions that reached 'Your Hit Parade' show, were:
1937 "Dipsy Doodle"
1938 "My Reverie"
1939 "Our Love"
"Moon Love"

After 1941, his career wanedHe tried to make a comeback in the late 1940's, but the big band era was slowly coming to a close, and he never regained his former popularity.

Elia Cmiral
b1957,Czechoslovakia
aka: Elia David Cmiral (pronounced smear-al)
When he was just 18 years old, he scored "Cyrano de Bergerac" at his father's theater. Czechoslovakia was still under Communist control, and Elia was able to 'escape' to Sweden, where he scored a full-length battle scene for a National Theater production entitled "Nemesis". In 1987, Elia moved to Los Angeles, CA, where he enrolled in the Univ. of Southern California to study film scoring. With the help of some friends, he was able to find work scoring the cult film Apartment Zero. In 1989, he returned to Sweden when he was offered a monetary grant to produce his own record. Four years later, in the winter of 1993, Elia again relocated to Los Angeles and resumed his scoring career. In 1996, he was employed by Don Johnson to score the first season episodes and theme for Johnson's new CBS TV series, Nash Bridges

During this same period, Elia, working with the same director with whom he had worked on the film Apartment Zero, scored the show Somebody Is Waiting, which unfortunately didn't get U.SdistributionMichael Sandovall, of MGM/United Artists, gave Elia the opportunity to audition for John Frankenheimer's "Ronin." It was his big breakThe score was released on Varese Sarabande to rave reviews, and Elia signed to be represented by "The Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency", the largest film scoring agency in the world

Elia's wife, Sachiko, is of Japanese descent, and they have one son, Tamao, who studies karate (and in 1999, was working towards a black belt)

TV and Film Chronology:
Flickan vid stenbänken (1989) (mini TV Series --as Elia D. Cmiral)
Apartment Zero (1988. aka in Argentina: 'Conviviendo con la muerte')
Pålivoch död (1986. aka in USA: 'A Matter of Life and Death')
Super Freak (1988)
Apartment Zero (1988)
"Rosenholm" (1991 TV Series)
Barnens Detektivbyrå (1991 TV Series)
Sökarna (1993)aka Searchers, The...aka: Seekers, The
"Macklean" (1993 mini TV Series)
"Nash Bridges" (1996 TV Series, - also 2nd season theme)aka: "Bridges"
Somebody Is Waiting (1996)
Sunsets by Candlelight (1997)
Last Express, The (1997)
Babies for Babies (1997)
Ronin (1998)
Visions of America (1998)
Prophecies (1998)
Decadent Visitor, The (1998)
Stigmata (1999)
Wishing Tree, The (1999)
Six-Pack (2000)
Battlefield Earth (2000)aka USA: Battlefield Earth: A Saga for the Year 3000)

Will D. Cobb
Currently no information available for this lyricist
Will was active at the turn of the century (1900). Among his works are (Composed alone unless otherwise credited):
"The Beer I Left On the Bar", with Lew Brown and Leo Edwards
"Captain Baby Bunting"
"Come Take A Swim In My Ocean", with Gus Edwards
"Dixie Dan From The Great White Way"
"Goodbye Dolly Gray", with Paul Barnes
"I Can't Tell Why I Love You", with Gus Edwards
"I Just Can't Make My Eyes Behave"This tune was composed for famed producer Florenz Ziegfeld's wife, singer/actress Anna Held, and it was her biggest hit.
"A Table at Rector's", with Raymond Hubbell
"Our Navy Second To None", with George Jessel and Gus Edwards
"Paradise", with Theodore Morse
"School Days", with Gus Edwards (Cobb's biggest hit. This was composed to be the theme song for Gus Edwards' extremely successful vaudeville act. Gus would find promising youngsters and present them in the show, many would go on to later fame, including such men as George Jessel and Eddie Cantor, among many others. The tune was originally published by the Gus Edwards Music Publ'g Co., in 1907. It became a No1 hit for 11 weeks when singer Bryan G. Harlan (a friend of Thomas A. Edison) recorded the tune.)
"Sunbonnet Sue", with Gus Edwards
"Yip I Addy I Ay", with John HFlynn
"You Are My Fire Bug", with Gus Edwards
"There's A Girl In This World For Every Boy", (Ted Snyder music Publ1907)

Dorcas Cochran
Writer/Lyricist
Dorcas worked primarily as a writer for the Hollwyood studios, and is also credted with the lyrics on a few tunes. She was most active during the 1940s to '60s. Perhaps her only big hit tune was "Again" (Lionel Newman music) which was recorded by well over a dozen vocal groups

As a lyricist, Dorcas worked on such films as:
1840Night at Earl Carroll's, A (lyricist)
1859"Adventures in Paradise" TV Series (lyricist for show's theme song.)
1964Global Affair, A (1964) (lyricist)
1965Cincinnati Kid, The (lyricist) (uncredited)
As a writer, she worked on such films as:
1941Swing It Soldier
1941Fighting Bill Fargo
1942 .Frisco Lil (story)
1942Jukebox Jenny
1944 .Swing Out the Blues
1946People Are Funny (additional dialogue)
1946Wife of Monte Cristo, The
1946Girl on the Spot

George M. Cohan
bJuly 3, 1878, Providence, RI, USA,d. Nov. 5, 1942, New York, NY, USA
né: George Michael Cohan
Note: Only those aspects of Cohan's career dealing with composing and lyrics will be covered here. However, his life's work also includes playwriting; acting, and a vaudeville song and dance man. Here's a photo of George M. Cohan.

Overview
This great American song and dance man spent 56 of his 64 years on the stage. During his lifetime, he wrote 40 plays, collaborated with others on another 40 plays, and shared production of still another 150 plays. He made over a 1000 appearances as an actor. Some of the more than 500 songs that he wrote were major national hits.

His parents were circuit traveling vaudevillians, Jeremiah and Helen Cohan, who had three children. The first died in infancy, Josephine was the second child preceding George by just two years. As was the life of vaudevillians in those days, the family 'lived out of a trunk', traveling from town to town, staying in shabby boarding houses. Often the children would sleep in the theater dressing room while the parents were on stage.

George had only a mild taste of public school education, as well as just a few lessons on the violin. The theater became his school, - and he was an apt pupil. He appeared in one of his parent's stage sketches as a 'prop' while still an infant. When he was nine years old, he became a member of the act, with his sister Josephine joining him just one year later. Now, the act was officially billed as The Four Cohans. George would do sentimental recitations; a bootblack specialty, and often perform a "buck and wing dance." By age 11, he was writing special material, and by age 13 he was writing songs and lyrics for the act

He was just 16 years old when in 1894, he sold his first song to Witmark Music Publishing.
1894"Why Did Nellie Leave Home?", Witmark paid him $25.00.
1895"Hot Tamale Alley", sold to vaudevillian May Irwin for her act.
1897"The Warmest Baby in the Bunch"
1898"I Guess I'll Have to Telegraph My Baby"

'The Four Cohans' were now 'headliners' commanding a $1000.00 per week. George was writing the songs and the sketches; He became the starring actor. He was also selling original songs and sketches to other acts. And, he topped this all by managing the family's business affairs. He was now 20 years of age, and in complete control of the act. Isidore Witmark, in his autobiography, has pointed out that the young (and also the mature) George Cohan was an opinionated, brash, cocky youngster with a very high opinion (justified) of his own gifts

In 1899, George married his first wife, Ethel Levey, a popular singing comedienne. She became the 'fifth' Cohan in the act.

Cohan now began to turn his attention to the Broadway Musical Comedy stage
In 1901, 'The Governor's Son' was his first musical
In 1903, 'Running For Office' was his second
Both were based on his vaudeville sketches, and both were failures
In 1904, George and Sam Harris formed a partnership that was destined to become one of Broadway's most successful producing firms
1904, Cohan's 'Little Johnny Jones' opened on Broadway, with Cohan playing the role of a jockeyIt became a huge hit. Among the songs were:
"The Yankee Doodle Boy" (aka "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy")
"Give My Regards To Broadway"

1906, 'Forty Five Minutes From Broadway', book, music, lyrics by Cohan
Cohan was not in the show. Victor Moore and Fay Templeton starred (But Cohan did have a role in the 1912 revival.)
"So Long Mary"
"Mary's A Grand Old Name"
1906, 'George Washington, Jr.' Cohan starred. In this play, he adopted a sketch with which he would be identified for life. He would march up and down the stage carrying the American flag while singing a very patriotic tune. In this play, the patriotic song was:
"You're A Grand Old Flag."
The original title was "You're a Grand Old Rag", but some folks objected, and Cohan renamed the tune

In 1907, Cohan divorced Ethel, and later in the same year, George married Agnes Nolan. Agnes was a sister of Sam Harris's wife.

1907, 'The Talk of the Town'
"When a Fellow's On the Level with A Girl Who's On the Square"
"I Want You"
"Under Any Old Flag At All"
1908, 'Fifty Miles from Boston'
1908, 'The Yankee Prince'
"Come On Downtown"
1908, 'The American Idea'
1909, 'The Man Who Owns Broadway'
"There's Something About A Uniform"
1910, 'Get Rich Quick Wallingford', a non-musical comedy.

In 1911, the Cohan-Harris partnership had no fewer than 6 hit shows on Broadway, and controlled 7 theaters
1911, 'The Little Millionaire'
1913, 'Broadway Jones', a non-musical comedy.
1913, 'Seven Keys to Baldpate', a non-musical comedy.
1914, 'Hello Broadway'
1916, 'The Cohan Revue, 1916 Edition'
1917, 'The Cohan Revue, 1917 Edition'

In 1917, Cohan composed his greatest hit song. America had just entered World War 1. Cohan was living in New Rochelle ("Forty-Five Minutes From Broadway"). On the train down to New York, he thought of a song. Cohan has said "I read those war headlines, and I got to thinking and humming to myself, and for a minute, I thought I was going to dance. I was all finished with both the chorus and the verse by the time I got to town, and I also had a title. "The title was "OverThere"Charles King introduced the song in the New Amsterdam Theater in 1917; the Nora Bayes,recording made it a national hit (photo from the cover of the 1912 sheet music "When It's Apple Blossom Time In Normandie"). Here's an audio file of another famous singer of theday, Billy Murray, singing "Over There", here digitally re-engineered by Mr. Verne Buland. Some 25 years later, Congress authorized President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to present the Congressional Medal of Honor to Cohan for this patriotic war song.

In 1919, Actor's Equity called a strike in an effort to gain recognition as bargaining agent for it's membership. This strike closed the Broadway theaters. As a producer, Cohan was affected. He took it badly. Many of the people who aligned themselves with Equity, were folks whom Cohan had helped with their careers. He became quite bitter, lost his enthusiam, even broke up the successful Cohan-Harris partnership, and retired from show business. He even cancelled his memberships in the Friar's Club and The Lambs (Two Broadway organizations.). But show people can no longer stay away from the stage, than composers can stay away from music. After some rest and travel, Cohan returned to Broadway.

1923 'The Song and Dance Man'
1927 'The Merry Malones'
1929 'The Tavern', a revival of a 1920 play
1928 'Billie', his last musical comedy.
Basically, none of these were successful, and this added to Cohan's bitterness. Cohan remarked to a friend, "It getting to be too much for me, kid. I guess people don't understand me any more, and I don't understand them. "He was due for still another disappointment
In 1932, he starred in a Hollywood film, 'The Phantom President'
In Hollywood, he found directors, who had never acted or sang, trying to teach him how to sing and dance, and to wave the flag. He felt that the big Hollywood moguls did not give him the homage that was his due. He returned to Broadway, and vowed never to return to Hollywood. But success was again hovering just around the corner.

1933, Cohan starred in Eugene O'Neils 'Ah, Wilderness', A hit!
1937, Cohan played F.D.Roosevelt in 'I'de Rather Be Right'
a Rodgers and Hart hit show
1940, Cohan wrote the Broadway play, 'The return of the
Vagabond'It had a 7 performance runCohan told a friend
"They don't want me no more."
1942, Hollywood filmed 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' a biography
(so-to-speak) of his lifeJimmy Cagney won an Academy
Award for his impersonation of Cohan.

In was in 1942, while Cohan was recovering from an abdominal operation, that he paid his last respects to Broadway. He asked his nurse to accompany him on a taxi ride from Union Square (14th Street) up to Times Square (42nd Street), stopping briefly at the Hollywood Theater, to watch some scenes from 'Yankee Doodle Dandy'Cohan was taking one last look at all the places he had worked and starred. He was never to see Broadway again.

George MCohan died on Nov. 5, 1942. President Roosevelt wired "A beloved figure is lost to our national life."

Chester Conn
né:Chester Cohn
Currently no information available
Chester Cohn was the manager of Feist Music Publishing Co., in New York. Ned Miller was the Feist -Chicago Office manager. And, these two men often teamed to write songs. Among his songs are:
1926 "Sunday", written by Chester Cohn, Ned Miller, Jule Styne and Benny Kruger
1929 "My Suppressed Desire", an Annette Hanshaw hit vocal
1929 "You Don't Like It, Not Much"

Cy Coleman
bJune 14, 1929, New YorkNY, USA, d. Nov. 18, 2004, New York, NY, USA. (Heart Attack)
né:Seymour Kaufman
Cy was the youngest of five sons of a Russian emigre. His father was a carpenter, and his mother owned two tenement buildings in the Bronx, N.Y., where Cy was born and raised. By age 4, he was already picking out tunes on the piano. This activity so irritated his father that he nailed down the keyboard lid. But a local piano instructor was so impressed by the child, that she gave him free classical musical lessons.

Cy was a child prodigy. Between the ages of 6 and 9, he had already given recitals in New York's Town Hall, Carnegie Hall and also Steinway Hall. In 1948, Cy graduated from the High School of Music and Arts. He then decided to pursue a career in popular music rather than in the classics.

His first job was as cocktail lounge pianist in Billy Reed's Little Club, after which he worked for 2 years at Manhattan's plush Sherry-Netherland HotelHe also played the piano on Kate Smith's television showIn 1950, his trio, with vocalist Margaret Phelan, was seen in the film short 'Package of Rhythm'.

His early collaborator was Joseph Allen McCarthy, whose father - Joe McCarthy - wrote for the Ziegfeld shows 'Rio Rita' and 'Kid Boots', both of which starred Eddie CantorAmong the songs the team wrote at this time were:
1950"The Riviera", a Johnny Mathis hit later
1951"I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out of My Life", Buddy Greco vocal hit
1952"Why Try to Change Me Now", a Frank Sinatra hit vocal
1953"Tin Pan Alley", in John Murray Anderson's show 'Almanac'

From the Late 1950's to 1962, Cole and lyricist Carolyn Leigh had a somewhat stormy relationship. Together they wrote such songs as:
"Witchcraft" Sinatra Vocal hit
"The Best is Yet to Come", a Mabel Mercer Hit vocal
"A Moment of Madness"a Sammy Davis, Jr. Vocal hit
"When In Rome (I Do As the Roman's Do)", a Barbra Streisand hit
"You Fascinate Me", a Mark Murphy vocal hit
"Playboy's Theme"
"The Rules of the Road"
"It Amazes Me"
"I Walk a Little Faster"
"Firefly" Written in 1958 for a Coleman and Leigh musical on the memoires of Burlesque Queen, Gypsy Rose Lee. The project was abandoned, but the song was a hit for singer Tony Bennett in his 1962 Carnegie Hall concert.

In 1960, the Coleman-Leigh team wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musical 'Wildcat'. (Basically a vehicle for actress Lucille Ball.)
"Hey, Look Me Over", later a big hit for vocalist Peggy Lee
"Then is Then, and Now is Now"
"El Sombrero"
"What Takes My Fancy"
"Give A Little Whistle"
"I've Come Home"

In 1962, Coleman and Leigh produced the Broadway show 'Little Me', with a Neil Simon librettoIt starred a truly wonderful comedian/actor Sid Caesar
"I've Got Your Number"
"Love You, deep Down Inside"
"I've Never Done This With A Real Live Girl", Sid Caesar Vocal
"Ask What The Lady's Doing Now", (a Julie Wilson hit record)

After the show 'Little Me', the team of Coleman and Leigh parted company, although they did get together briefly in 1964, to write a song titled "Pass Me By", which was later played over the credits for the Cary Grant movie 'Father Goose'. Also in 1964, Coleman wrote "Take a Little Walk", a hit for Buddy Greco.

Cy then teamed with the brilliant lyricist Dorothy Fields, who was at that time, his senior by 25 years. In 1966, the Coleman and Fields team had a Broadway smash with 'Sweet Charity'
"If My Friends Could See Me Now"
"There's Gotta be Something Better Than This"
"Baby, Dream Your Dream"
"Where Am I Going?"
"Big Spender"
"I'm a Brass Band"
In the 1969 film version of 'Sweet Charity', the Coleman-Fields song titled "The Rhythm of Life" had a great Sammy Davis, Jr. performance.

In 1973, the Coleman and Fields Broadway show 'Two For the Seesaw'.
"It's Not Where You Start, It's Where You Finish"
"Nobody Does it Like Me"

Dorothy Fields died in 1974 (a very great loss for American -and all- songwriting).

1977 Broadway show, 'I Love My Wife', book and lyric Michael Stewart
"I Love My Wife", -later a Frank Sinatra vocal hit
"Hey There, Good Times"

Coleman also contributed to the show 'On The Twentieth Century', with lyric and libretto by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

1979 scored the show 'Home Again' with lyric by Barbara FriedThe show closed in Toronto, Canada in April 1979, before reaching Broadway.

1980 Scored Broadway show 'Barnum', with Michael Stewart Lyrics
"Follow the Band"
"One Brick at a Time"

1989 Scored Broadway show 'The City of Angels', David Zippel lyrics
"With Every Breath I Take"

1991 Scored Broadway show 'Will Rogers Follies: A Life in Revue'
"Never Met A Man I Didn't Like"
"Marry Me Now/I Got You"

Cy Coleman's film work includes:
1963 'Family Business'One critic wrote "One of the most appalling scores in recent memory!"
1964 'Father Goose', starred Cary Grant
1964 'The Troublemaker'
1965 'The Art of Love'
1972 'The Heartbreak Kid'
1984 'Blame It on Rio'
1984 'Garbo Talks'
1986 'Power'

He also won three Emmys, two Grammy Awards and he received an Academy Award nomination for the film version of "Sweet Charity."

Cy has worked with symphony orchestras in Fort Worth, TX, Milwaukee, WI, San Antonio, TX, and Indianapolis, IN. He has been an ASCAP Director, as well as Governor of the Academy of Televsion Arts and Sciences, and the Dramatist's Guild.

On thursday Nov18, 2004, Coleman attended the opening night performance and party for Michael Frayn's "Democracy" on Broadway. That night, after he left the party, he went to New York Hospital where he collapsed and died. Coleman was survived by his wife, Shelby, and daughter, Lily Cye, and two sisters. The lights of Broadway theaters were dimmed Friday, before the 8 p.mcurtain, in honor of Coleman

Cy Coleman is a member of the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.

Juan Carlos Cobián
b: May 31, 1896, Pigué Argentina, d: Dec9, 1953, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Overview
Juan Carlos Cobián was a composer and pianist who carried Tango music to new heights of glory when played on the piano. Many of his tunes were composed with his lyricist friend Enrique Cadícamo. Handsome and aristocratic, he loved the Social 'whirl' and the night life of Buenos Aires, and in the end, it was the bright lights and alcohol that did him in.
In a family of 12 brothers, Juan was number 8. He studied piano until age 18, with his teacher Numa Rossotti, in Blanca Bahiá, then left home for Buenos Aires, with only a ticket and a pocket full of dreams.

In 1913, he replaced Roberto Firpo in the set of the "tano" Genaro Esp�ito. He also worked in the orchestras of Eduardo Arolas, and Osvaldo Fresedo, before forming his own group.

In 1916, he disobeyed Military Conscription orders and became a deserter, even assuming a pseudonym to confuse the authorities. But in 1922, at age 26, he finally complied with the order.

In 1923, the passionate love of a lady took took him to the United States, -via Paris, France where he could still hear the successful echoes Argentina's own Tango. Also in 1923, he was present at the memorable Jack Dempsey - Luis Firpo prizefight, and later had supper with Dempsey. The U. S. was still suffering under the famous Prohibition "Dry" Law banning all alcoholic drinks Cobián, not wishing to deprive himself of his daily dose of alcohol, began to make wine in his own home. He also often watched the dancing of his friend Rodolfo Valentino. In addition, between 1923 and 1926, he recorded several times in the United States cutting discs with Sambas, Foxtrots, Charlestons, as well as Tangos.

Cobián is well remembered today as a dominant member of the "Guardia Vieja" (Old Guard), who introduced the Piano both to Tango music, and to the "Orquestas Typica" (Tango Orchestras). His ideas were seminal to the Tangos of the "old guard" and were the base on which the "New Guard" continued with the "Decarena School" of Tango, when Julio de Caro continued it with his famous Sextet.

By 1937, he had already honeymooned in Europe, returned to Buenos Aires briefly, gone on to Rio de Janeiro, and Cobián was now a "divorcista". He invited his friend Cadícamo to come and stay with him in New York. Some time later, they returned separately to the "tanguero" Buenos Aires of the 1940s.

But Cobián's fame and abilities were now slowly fading due in part to his unrelenting nocturnal, and wild, immoderate habits. His enormous hands, -once so useful in a street fight, -once so able to include a very large section of the piano keyboard between 'Pinky' and 'thumb' had been incapable to retaining the economic benefits of his artHe spent the money before it arrived in his pocket.

As composer his instrumentals have been unsurpassed, and have become a permanent part of the vast Tango repertoireSome of the titles include:
        "Mi refugio"',(My Refuge)
        "Pico de oro", (Gift of Gab)
        "Los Mareados", (The Annoying Ones)
        "La casita de mis viejos", (Small House of my Old)
        "Nostalgias",(Nostalgia)
        "A pan y agua", (To Bread and Water)
        "Niebla del Riachuelo", (Foggy Brook)
        "Rub�,(Ruby)

On Dec. 9, 1953, only 57 years old, his lver, drowned in alcohol, called it quitsCobián died. The talented little boy from Bahiá Blanca had completed his work. As a Pianist, Leader, and composer, his talent and personality were decisive in the Tango's musical evolution.