Hit songwriter ("Mule Train", "Clancy Lowered the Boom"), author and
publisher, educated in a Philadelphia high school. His daughter is
actress
Hope Lange. He joined the music staff
at film studios in 1937 and resumed his film music career in 1946 and
1947 in collaboration with
Lew Porter. He
also wrote special material for night club singers, and the "Ice
Capades of 1950". Joining ASCAP in 1940, his chief musical
collaborators were
Archie Gottler and
Jack Meskill, and his other popular-song
and inspirational compositions included "I Left My Sugar in Salt Lake
City", "(That's What) Uncle Remus Said", "Blue Shadows on the Trail",
"Pecos Bill", "Chapel in the Valley", "N'Ya, N'Ya, N'Ya, The Little Red
Fox", "Somebody Bigger Than You or I", "Santa Claus is Ridin' the
Trail", "Easter Sunday on the Prairie", "I Asked the Lord", "I Found
the Answer", and "He's Only a Prayer Away".