Sammy Cahn

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia 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 standalone 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 singers 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 AustriaHungary 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 womans 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 Cahns 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 theaterpit orchestra working at a meatpacking plant serving as a moviehouse usher tinsmith freightelevator 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 Im 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 FountainMake 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