Sammy Cahn
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Sammy Cahn (June 18, 1913 – January 15, 1993) was an American lyricist, songwriter and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premiered by recording companies in the Greater Los Angeles Area. He and his collaborators had a series of hit recordings with Frank Sinatra during the singer's tenure at Capitol Records, but also enjoyed hits with Dean Martin, Doris Day and many others. He played the piano and violin. He won the Academy Award four times for his songs, including the popular song "Three Coins in the Fountain".
Among his most enduring songs is "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", cowritten with Jule Styne in 1945.
Cahn was born Samuel Cohen in the Lower East Side of New York City, the only son (he had four sisters) of Abraham and Elka Reiss Cohen, who were Jewish immigrants from Galicia, then ruled by Austria-Hungary. His sisters, Sadye, Pearl, Florence, and Evelyn, all studied the piano. His mother did not approve of Sammy studying it though, feeling that the piano was a woman's instrument, so he took violin lessons. After three lessons, he joined a small dixieland band called Pals of Harmony, which toured the Catskill Mountains in the summer and also played at private parties. This new dream of Cahn's destroyed any hopes his parents had for him to be a professional man.
Some of the side jobs he had were playing violin in a theater-pit orchestra, working at a meat-packing plant, serving as a movie-house usher, tinsmith, freight-elevator operator, restaurant cashier, and porter at a bindery. At age 16, he was watching vaudeville, of which he had been a fan since the age of 10, and he witnessed Jack Osterman singing a ballad Osterman had written. Cahn was inspired and, on his way home from the theater, wrote his first lyric, which was titled "Like Niagara Falls, I'm Falling for You – Baby." Years later he would say "I think a sense of vaudeville is very strong in anything I do, anything I write. They even call it 'a vaudeville finish,' and it comes through in many of my songs. Just sing the end of 'All the Way' or 'Three Coins in the Fountain'—'Make it mine, make it mine, MAKE IT MINE!' If you let people know they should applaud, they will applaud."
Cahn became a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972. He later became president.
Cahn died on January 15, 1993, at the age of 79 in Los Angeles, California from heart failure. His remains were interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.
He was married twice: first to vocalist and former Goldwyn girl Gloria Delson in 1945, with whom he had two children, and later, in 1970, to Virginia Curtis.
Over the course of his career, he was nominated for 31 Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, and an Emmy Award. He also received a Grammy Award nomination, with Van Heusen. He won the Christopher Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, and the Theatre World Award.
In 1988, the Sammy Film Music Awards (the "Sammy"), an annual award for movie songs and scores, was started in his honor.
Fotos
Películas (93)
Frank Sinatra: The Voice of Our Time
1990
The Perils of P.K
1986
Frank Sinatra: The First 40 Years
1979 · Self
Boardwalk
1979 · Morris
Once Upon a Brothers Grimm
1977 · Lyricist
That's Entertainment, Part II
1976 · Himself - Host
Joys
1976 · Self
Whiffs
1975 · Songs
Journey Back to Oz
1972 · Songs
The Night the Animals Talked
1970 · Lyricist
Thoroughly Modern Millie
1967 · Lyricist
Jack and the Beanstalk
1967 · Lyricist
Robin and the 7 Hoods
1964 · Songs
Johnny Cool
1963 · Songs
Come Blow Your Horn
1963 · Songs
How the West Was Won
1962 · Lyricist
The Road to Hong Kong
1962 · Songs
Big Night Out: The Peggy Lee Show
1961
High Time
1960 · Lyricist
Let's Make Love
1960 · Lyricist
Ocean's Eleven
1960 · Songs
A Hole in the Head
1959 · Songs
Say One for Me
1959 · Songs
Some Came Running
1958 · Songs
Anna Lucasta
1958 · Songs
Party Girl
1958 · Lyricist
Rock-a-Bye Baby
1958 · Songs
The Long, Hot Summer
1958 · Lyricist
The Edge of Innocence
1957 · Music
The Joker is Wild
1957 · Songs
The Greer Case
1957 · Musician
The Opposite Sex
1956 · Lyricist
Heritage of Anger
1956 · Music
The Big Slide
1956 · Music
The Country Husband
1956 · Music
Rendezvous in Black
1956 · Music
Sizeman and Son
1956 · Music
Written on the Wind
1956 · Songs
Pardners
1956 · Songs
Anything Goes
1956 · Lyricist
Paris in the Springtime
1956 · Lyricist
The Court Jester
1955 · Songs
The Tender Trap
1955 · Songs
Our Town
1955 · Lyricist
You're Never Too Young
1955 · Songs, Lyricist
How to Be Very, Very Popular
1955 · Lyricist
The Seven Year Itch
1955 · Lyricist
Love Me or Leave Me
1955 · Songs
Three Sailors and a Girl
1953 · Producer
Peter Pan
1953 · Lyricist
April in Paris
1952 · Lyricist
Double Dynamite
1951 · Lyricist, Songs
Purple Heart Diary
1951 · Lyricist
The West Point Story
1950 · Songs
I'll Get By
1950 · Lyricist
It's a Great Feeling
1949 · Lyricist
Romance on the High Seas
1948 · Songs, Lyricist
The Miracle of the Bells
1948 · Lyricist, Songs
Glamour Girl
1948 · Lyricist
It Happened in Brooklyn
1947 · Lyricist, Songs
Ladies' Man
1947 · Lyricist
Earl Carroll Sketchbook
1946 · Lyricist
The Falcon's Alibi
1946 · Lyricist
The Kid from Brooklyn
1946 · Lyricist, Original Music Composer
Cinderella Jones
1946 · Lyricist
The Stork Club
1945 · Lyricist
Hollywood Victory Caravan
1945 · Lyricist
Anchors Aweigh
1945 · Lyricist
Thrill of a Romance
1945 · Songs
The All-Star Bond Rally
1945 · Lyricist
Eadie Was a Lady
1945 · Lyricist
Tonight and Every Night
1945 · Lyricist
Carolina Blues
1944 · Lyricist
Janie
1944 · Lyricist
Step Lively
1944 · Lyricist
Silent Partner
1944 · Lyricist
Follow the Boys
1944 · Lyricist
Knickerbocker Holiday
1944 · Lyricist
Pistol Packin' Mama
1943 · Lyricist
The Heat's On
1943 · Lyricist
Let's Face It
1943 · Lyricist
Thumbs Up
1943 · Lyricist
Lady of Burlesque
1943 · Lyricist
Johnny Doughboy
1942 · Lyricist
Youth on Parade
1942 · Lyricist
Go West, Young Lady
1941 · Lyricist
Time Out for Rhythm
1941 · Lyricist
Rookies on Parade
1941 · Story, Lyricist
Double or Nothing
1940 · Lyricist
The Knight Is Young
1938 · Lyricist
Manhattan Merry-Go-Round
1937 · Songs
Ups and Downs
1937 · Lyricist, Original Music Composer
Hotel a la Swing
1937 · Songs
