Lyricist, born in New York City, New York, USA. He studied journalism, wrote poetry at Columbia University, and translated plays for the Shuberts before meeting composer Richard Rodgers in 1918. They collaborated on four songs for Poor Little Ritz Girl (1920) and did their first complete score for The Garrick Gaities (1925). During the next 18 years they collaborated on a string of successful Broadway and Hollywood musicals, including On Your Toes (1936), The Boys from Syracuse (1938), and Pal Joey (1940). Although they created many popular songs, such as With a Song in My Heart (1929), Blue Moon (1934), and My Funny Valentine (1937), Hart's show lyrics were distinguished by their clever wordplay, intricate internal rhymes, and often sardonic attitude. Dissatisfied with his life, he went on a drinking binge and died of pneumonia.
Lorenz "Larry" Hart (May 2, 1895 - November 22, 1943) was the lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart.
Biography
Hart was born in Harlem, New York, to Jewish immigrant parents. He loved to throw parties, and had an insatiable taste for the 'high life.'
Hart attended Columbia University, where a mutual friend introduced him to composer Richard Rodgers in 1919, and the two wrote songs for a series of amateur and student productions. They continued working together until Hart's death in 1943, along the way producing scores for a series of hit shows and making a substantial contribution to the Great American Songbook.
Hart struggled with his own homosexuality in an era when such a lifestyle was socially unacceptable and with alcoholism, which eventually contributed to his death. His personal problems were often the cause of friction between him and Richard Rodgers, and in fact led to a brief breakup in 1943, at which time Rodgers started working with Oscar Hammerstein II, who was actually a school friend of Hart.
Rodgers and Hart teamed up one final time in the fall of 1943 for a revival of A Connecticut Yankee.
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