Dietz, Howard

Dietz, Howard

(born Sept. 9, 1896, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died July 30, 1983, New York City) U.S. songwriter. He studied at Columbia University and later joined an advertising agency, where he designed the trademark roaring lion for Goldwyn Pictures (later MGM). He joined the film studio in 1919 and became director of advertising, a post he held until 1957. From 1923 he wrote lyrics in his spare time. In 1929 he met the composer Arthur Schwartz (1900–84); the duo established their reputation with The Little Show and went on to write such Broadway shows as Three's a Crowd (1930), The Band Wagon (1931), and The Gay Life (1961). Dietz wrote about 500 songs; the Dietz-Schwartz collaborations include “Something to Remember You By,” “Dancing in the Dark,” and “You and the Night and the Music.”

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Dietz, Howard (1896–1983) librettist, lyricist; born in New York City. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War I, then went to work in public relations for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. At the same time, he began to write lyrics for Jerome Kern and other composers before beginning a long collaboration in 1929 with composer Arthur Schwartz. He wrote lyrics for their successful revue The Little Show (1929) and the musical The Band Wagon (1931), which included "Dancing in the Dark," their most famous song. His work was curtailed after he developed Parkinson's disease in 1954 but he collaborated with Schwartz on Jennie (1963).