Otto Harbach

Otto Harbach
Otto Harbach, circa 1920
Background information
Birth name	Otto Abels Hauerbach
Born	August 18, 1873(1873-08-18)
Origin	Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
Died	January 24, 1963(1963-01-24) (aged 89)
Occupations	Lyricist, librettist

Otto Abels Harbach, born Otto Abels Hauerbach (August 18, 1873 – January 24, 1963) was an American lyricist and librettist of about 50 musical comedies. Some of his more famous lyrics are for "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "Indian Love Call" and "Cuddle up a Little Closer, Lovey Mine".

Biography

Harbach was born in Salt Lake City, Utah to Danish immigrant parents Adolph Hauerbach and his wife Sena Olsen, and attended the Salt Lake Collegiate Institute, transferring to Knox College, in Galesburg, Illinois, where he was a friend of Carl Sandburg, joined Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, and graduated in 1895. He obtained his masters degree in English from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, and attended Columbia University in New York with the goal of becoming an English professor. In the early 1900s, complaining of eye difficulties making prolonged reading uncomfortable, he became a newspaper reporter. He also worked at various advertising agencies.

He collaborated as lyricist or librettist with Karl Hoschna, Rudolf Friml, Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern, Louis Hirsch, Herbert Stothart, Vincent Youmans, George Gershwin, and Sigmund Romberg. He was a charter member of ASCAP in 1914, serving as its director (1920–1963), vice president (1936–1940), and finally president (1950–1953).

He was lyricist for many songs now in the standard repertoire, including "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," "Yesterdays", "Indian Love Call," "Cuddle Up a Little Closer," "One Alone," "The Night Was Made For Love," "I Won't Dance" and "She Didn't Say Yes".

Harbach, an inductee of the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, died in New York City.

Selected work

• Early work
  • 1907 Three Twins (music Karl Hoschna)
  • 1909 Bright Eyes (music Karl Hoschna)
  • 1912 The Firefly (music Rudolf Friml)
  • 1913 High Jinks (music Rudolf Friml)
  • 1915 Katinka (music Rudolf Friml)
  • 1918 Going Up

• with Jerome Kern
  • 1925 Who?, a six-week #1 hit for George Olsen and his Orchestra
  • 1925 Sunny, a Marilyn Miller vehicle
  • 1931 The Cat and the Fiddle
  • 1933 Roberta

• with Oscar Hammerstein II
  • 1924 Rose-Marie by Rudolf Friml
  • 1926 The Desert Song by Sigmund Romberg
  • 1927 Golden Dawn, music by Emmerich Kalman and Herbert Stothart

• with Vincent Youmans and Irving Caesar
  • No, No, Nanette

Persondata
Name	Harbach, Otto
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	August 18, 1873
Place of birth
Date of death	January 24, 1963
Place of death