Arlen, Harold (redirected from Hyman Arluck)

Arlen, Harold (är`lən), 1905–86, American jazz and popular composer, b. Buffalo, N.Y., as Hyman Arluck. From the age of seven Arlen sang in the synagogue where his father was cantor, at 15 he left school to play jazz piano, and at 16 he left home. After coming to New York City in 1925, Arlen achieved fame by writing songs for various reviews and for the shows at Harlem's Cotton Club (1930–34). Many of his songs became jazz standards because of their genuine blues feeling and haunting melodies (e.g., "Ill Wind," "Stormy Weather," "Blues in the Night"), and the harmonic richness and melodic inventiveness of his other songs (e.g., "That Old Black Magic," "Get Happy," "One for My Baby") also had their roots in jazz. In 1939, Arlen won an Academy Award for the song "Over the Rainbow" in the film The Wizard of Oz. Among the 29 other films for which he wrote scores are Cabin in the Sky (1943) and A Star Is Born (1954). He also wrote the music for eight Broadway shows, notably House of Flowers (1954).

Bibliography

See biography by E. Jablonski (1961, repr. 1985, rev. ed. 1996); Harold Arlen Songbook (1987).

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Arlen, Harold

 orig. Hyman Arluck

(born Feb. 15, 1905, Buffalo, N.Y., U.S.—died April 23, 1986, New York, N.Y.) U.S. songwriter. After working as a performer and arranger, in 1929 he began a collaboration with lyricist Ted Koehler (1894–1973) with the song “Get Happy”; until the mid-1930s they wrote many songs that were featured in shows at Harlem's Cotton Club. Arlen's scores for Broadway musicals include Bloomer Girl (1944) and St. Louis Woman (1946). For Hollywood films Arlen wrote the songs “It's Only a Paper Moon,” “Let's Fall in Love,” and “That Old Black Magic.” His most famous song is perhaps “Over the Rainbow” (lyrics by E.Y. Harburg) from The Wizard of Oz (1939).