Milton Ager

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Milton Ager (born October 6, 1893 in Chicago , † May 6, 1979 in Los Angeles ) was an American composer of Tin Pan Alley , who was best known for songs like Ain't She Sweet .

Live and act

Ager began to play the piano autodidactically in 1900 after his sister bought him a piano. In 1907 he graduated from McKinley High School in New York City, initially working as a pianist in film theaters and in vaudeville . As a song plugger he found a job in 1910 at the music publisher Watson, Berlin, and Synder. In 1913 he worked for the Meyer Music Company in Chicago. Here he published the song Win her in the Old-Fashioned way with the lyricist Charles A. Myers . In the summer he performed as an interpreter of his own songs in Indiana in Elwood and at the Alexandria Opera House. In addition to Win her in the Old-Fashioned way , he sang the songs Meet me in the vale of dreams, I wish I had a doll and Mechanical Living man. In 1914 he moved to New York for the publishing house and began arranging and composing songs. In the early 1920s he met the songwriter Jack Yellen , with the first hit hits like Everything Is Peaches Down in Georgia (1918) and Anything Is Nice If it Comes from Dixieland (1919), both of which were interpreted by Grant Clarke . Sophie Tucker popularized the Ager / Yellen songs Lovin 'Sam (The Sheik of Alabam) (1922), Louisville Lou (1923) and Mama Goes Where Papa Goes (1923). Another Ager / Yellen song was I Wonder What's Become of Sally .

In 1927 Ager and Yellen hit the charts with five songs, with Ain't That a Grand and Glorious Feeling, Crazy Word, Crazy Time, Is She Still My Girlfriend and Forgive Me ; their biggest hit that year was Ain't She Sweet , a hit number for Ben Bernie and in the early 1960s for The Beatles . In 1929, Ager and Yellen moved to Hollywood, where they wrote I'm the Last of the Red Hot Mamas for Sophie Tucker in the 1929 film Hony Tonk . After the title song for the film Glad Rag Doll and the hit Happy Days Are Here Again (1928, known in Germany as Weekend and Sunshine by the Comedian Harmonists ), the Ager / Yellen team split. After film scores such as The Jazz King (1930) and Napoleon on Broadway (1934), Ager retired in 1944. In 1972 he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame .

Ager was married to the film critic and journalist Cecelia Ager from 1922 until his death in 1979 . The marriage had two daughters, including the journalist Shana Alexander (allegedly he composed Ain't She Sweet for her as a baby). Ager is buried in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

literature

  • Ken Bloom: The American Songbook - The Singers, the Songwriters, and the Songs - 100 Years of American Popular Music - The Stories of the Creators and Performers . New York City, Black Dog & Leventhal, 2005 ISBN 1-57912-448-8 )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Notes from Songdom . In: The Inter Ocean . Chicago May 11, 1913, p. 28 (English, newspapers.com ).
  2. ^ Song Writer here . In: The Alexandria Times-Tribune . Alexandria, Indiana August 25, 1913, pp. 1 (English, newspapers.com ).
  3. ↑ Herbert Mitgang: Cecelia Ager, 79; Critic of Films Who Wrote for Variety and PM . in the New York Times on April 4, 1981
personal data
SURNAME Ager, Milton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American composer
DATE OF BIRTH October 6, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago
DATE OF DEATH May 6, 1979
Place of death Los Angeles County