Composer; born in New York City. After a start in Broadway theaters as a song-plugger and rehearsal pianist, he began contributing songs to musical shows. With librettist Guy Bolton, he wrote his first hit show, Very Good, Eddie (1915), which brought a new sophistication to musical theater by connecting songs and story more closely than the popular shows of the time. With lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, he wrote his most important work, Show Boat (1927), in which he further integrated lyrical text with the dramatic demands of plot and character to create the first American musical play. In 1939 he moved to Hollywood and wrote only for films. One of the most influential songwriters in American musical theater, he is credited with over 1,000 songs in 104 stage and film productions, including such standards as "Ol' Man River" (1927), "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" (1933), and "All the Things You Are" (1939).