Buddy De Sylva was an American songwriter, film producer and record executive. Along with Johnny Mercer and Glenn Wallichs he founded Capitol Records, and also served for some time as the Executive Producer at Paramount.
Background
Buddy De Sylva was born George Gard De Sylva on January 27, 1896 in New York City. He was the only child of Aloysius Joseph De Sylva and Georgetta (Gard) De Sylva. His father was a lawyer who had appeared in vaudeville under the name of Hal de Forest. When George was two, his family moved to Los Angeles, where, as a child, he did a song-and-dance routine at the Grand Opera House.
Education
De Sylva toured the Keith vaudeville circuit. This did not interfere with his education in public schools in Los Angeles, at Citrus Union High School at Azusa, California, and at the University of Southern California. While attending high school, he supported himself by working as a shipping clerk, and at college by making public appearances with a Hawaiian band.
Career
While still in college, De Sylva started writing song lyrics, some of which he dispatched to Al Jolson. De Sylva's first lyric to be performed was "'N Everything, " which Jolson set to music and introduced. Jolson continued to write music for De Sylva's lyrics and featured some of them in the Winter Garden extravaganza Sinbad in 1918, among these being "Avalon, " "Chloe, " and "By the Honeysuckle Rose. " When De Sylva received his first royalty check, for $16, 000, he decided to come to New York.
There, in 1919, he worked as a staff lyricist for the music publishing house of J. H. Remick, and in collaboration with Arthur Jackson contributed the lyrics for George Gershwin's first Broadway musical, "La, La, Lucille, " whose principal song was "Nobody But You. "
In 1920 De Sylva worked with the composer Jerome Kern on the songs for Sally, a highly successful Broadway musical that yielded the song classic "Look for the Silver Lining, " and for the Ziegfeld Follies of 1921. Between 1922 and 1924 De Sylva was George Gershwin's lyricist for the George White Scandals. Up to this time, his principal songs were "April Showers" (1921), music by Louis Silvers, popularized by Al Jolson in Bombo; "A Kiss in the Dark" (1922), music by Victor Herbert; with Ira Gershwin, "Stairway to Paradise" (1922), music by George Gershwin; and, with Al Jolson, "California, Here I Come, " music by Joseph Meyer, introduced by Jolson in Bombo during its out-of-town tour in 1923. For the George White Scandals of 1922, De Sylva also wrote the libretto and lyrics for a one-act opera, Blue Monday (later renamed 135th Street), music by George Gershwin.
In 1925 he joined lyricist Lew Brown and composer Ray Henderson to form one of the most successful songwriting teams in popular music history. They wrote all the songs for the George White Scandals in 1925, 1926, and 1928. The most successful score of these was the 1928 show, which included "Black Bottom, " "The Birth of the Blues, " "The Girl is You, " and "Lucky Day. "
De Sylva went to Hollywood as a producer for Fox, 20th Century-Fox and Paramount. His films included five starring Shirley Temple. Between 1933 and 1947 he directed nine of his stage musicals for motion pictures. At periodic intervals, he returned to Broadway as producer and colibrettist for such distinguished musicals as Cole Porter's Du Barry Was a Lady (1939) and Panama Hattie (1940), and Irving Berlin's Louisiana Purchase (1940). With these productions he achieved the distinction of becoming the first Broadway producer since Florenz Ziegfeld to have three musicals running simultaneously.
Late in 1942, with Johnny Mercer and Glenn Wallichs, he helped to found Capitol Records.
Achievements
Connections
On April 15, 1925, De Sylva married Marie Wallace, a Ziegfeld girl; they had no children.