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Billy Rose
Billy Rose (1899-1966) was an American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist. For years both before and after World War II, Billy Rose was a major force in e...view moreBilly Rose (1899-1966) was an American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist. For years both before and after World War II, Billy Rose was a major force in entertainment, with shows such as Billy Rose’s Crazy Quilt (1931), Jumbo (1935), Billy Rose’s Aquacade (1937), and Carmen Jones (1943).
Born William Samuel Rosenberg on September 6, 1899 to a Jewish family in New York City, he attended Public School 44, where he studied shorthand under John Robert Gregg, the inventor of the Gregg System for shorthand notation. He won a dictation contest using Gregg notation and writing forward or backward with either hand. Rose began his career as a stenographic clerk before becoming a lyricist, best known for writing and co-writing lyrics to “Me and My Shadow,” “Great Day”, “Does the Spearmint Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight”, “I Found a Million Dollar Baby” and “It’s Only a Paper Moon.”
In 1934, he opened The Billy Rose Music Hall at 52nd and Broadway in New York with the first Benny Goodman Orchestra. He produced Jumbo, starring Jimmy Durante, at the New York Hippodrome Theatre. In 1929, he married Fanny Brice, who would go on star in the 1931 Broadway production of Billy Rose’s Crazy Quilt. They divorced in 1938. That same year he opened Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe, a nightclub in New York City’s Times Square in the basement of the Paramount Hotel. He also founded the Billy Rose Sculpture Garden at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Israel. From 1949-1955, Rose was the owner-operator of the Ziegfeld Theatre. From 1959 until his death on February 10, 1966, he was the owner-operator of the Billy Rose Theater. He was honored posthumously in 1970 when he was inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame.view less