Ben Oakland

Ben Oakland (born September 24, 1907 in Brooklyn , New York City , † August 26, 1979 in Beverly Hills , Los Angeles ) was an American pianist and songwriter .

Life

Ben Oakland gave a piano concerto at New York's Carnegie Hall when he was nine years old . In the 1920s he accompanied the vaudeville artists Helen Morgan and George Jessel and increasingly worked as a songwriter. In the early 1930s he wrote songs for Broadway productions, including the Ziegfeld Follies . In Hollywood, he worked as a songwriter for Paramount Pictures from 1931 . In 1937 he was awarded a contract with Columbia Pictures , where his songs especially for B-movies as Criminals of the Air (1937), but also for large-scale productions such as The Awful Truth ( The Awful Truth , 1937) with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant were used . Several times he wrote songs with the songwriters Oscar Hammerstein , Bob Russell , Milton Drake , L. Wolfe Gilbert and with bandleader Artie Shaw . With Hammerstein, Oakland was nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Song for A Mist Is Over the Moon from the film The Lady Objects in 1939 . The song If I Love Again , Oakland wrote in 1933 with Jack Murray for the musical Hold Your Horses , was used again in 1975 in Funny Lady sung by Barbra Streisand .

1939: Oscar nomination in the category Best Song for A Mist Is Over the Moon from the film The Lady Objects together with the songwriter Oscar Hammerstein

personal data
SURNAME	Oakland, Ben
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American pianist and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH	September 24, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH	Brooklyn , New York City
DATE OF DEATH	August 26, 1979
Place of death	Beverly Hills , Los Angeles