{{Short description|American actor and songwriter (1907–1995)}} '''Edward Pola''' (June 23, 1907 – November 3, 1995)<ref>Ancestry.com. ''Social Security Death Index'' [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2009.</ref><ref>Ancestry.com. ''Oregon Death Index, 1903-98'' [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2000.</ref><ref>U.S. Census, 1930, State of California, County of Los Angeles, enumeration district 46, p. 3-A, family 52.</ref><ref>Passenger list, S.S. ''Transylvania'', port of New York, 20 August 1931.</ref> was an American actor, radio/television producer, and songwriter. He is credited with co-writing Andy Williams' 1963 hit "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year."
==Biography== Pola was born '''Sidney Edward Pollacsek'''<ref name="Kuntzman 2017">{{cite web |last=Kuntzman |first=Gersh |title=The Best Christmas Songs Were Written By Jews |website=Newsweek |date=25 December 2017 |url=https://www.newsweek.com/best-christmas-songs-were-actually-written-jews-758528 |access-date=20 February 2024 |quote=Andy Williams—not Jewish—got a huge hit in 1963 with this classic by Pola, a Hungarian Jew born Sidney Edward Pollacsek, and Wyle, born Bernard Weissman.}}</ref> in New York City, the son of Ida (Friedmann) and Alexander Pollacsek, who were Hungarian Jews.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}
In the 1920s, Pola began to write songs. He scored one of England's first sound films, ''Harmony Heaven'' (1930). Toward the end of the decade, he moved to the United States. He produced the radio comedy ''The Alan Young Show'',<ref name="sies1">Sies, Luther F. (2014). ''Encyclopedia of American Radio, 1920-1960, 2nd Edition, Volume 1''. McFarland & Company, Inc. {{ISBN|978-0-7864-5149-4}}. P. 16.</ref> as well as dramatic radio programs. He continued as a producer, moving to television in the 1950s.
His most famous songs include: * "I Didn't Slip, I Wasn't Pushed, I Fell" (co-written with George Wyle) * "I Love the Way You Say 'Good Night'" (co-written with George Wyle) * "I Said My Pajamas (and Put on My Pray'rs)" (co-written with George Wyle) * "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" (co-written with George Wyle) * "Quicksilver" (co-written with George Wyle and Irving Taylor) * "Till The Lights Of London Shine Again" (co-written with Tommie Connor) * "Caramba! It's the Samba" (co-written with George Wyle and Irving Taylor)
In the 1980s, Pola taught Creative Writing to elementary school students at Smiley Elementary School in Redlands, California.
Pola died in Jackson County, Oregon at 88.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|0688760}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pola, Edward}} Category:1907 births Category:1995 deaths Category:Songwriters from New York (state) Category:Jewish American songwriters Category:20th-century American male actors Category:20th-century American composers Category:20th-century American male composers Category:20th-century American Jews Category:20th-century American songwriters
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