{{Short description|American songwriter, drummer (1892–1960)}} {{More citations needed |date=November 2020}}
'''Frank Silverstadt'''<ref>{{cite news |title=Frank Silver |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/62601770/frank-silver/ |access-date=November 5, 2020 |work=Chattanooga Daily Times |agency=Associated Press |date=June 15, 1960 |location=Tennessee, Chattanooga |page=11|via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> (September 8, 1892 – June 14, 1960), better known by his stage name '''Frank Silver''', was an American songwriter, jazz drummer and vaudeville performer. He was best known for co-writing and co-composing the popular song "Yes! We Have No Bananas" in 1923 with Irving Cohn. He wrote at least 75 songs in his career.
Born in Boston, Silver grew up on the lower East Side of Manhattan. He began playing drums in a Bowery music hall's orchestra when he was 15.<ref name="obit" />
Early in Silver's career, he conducted orchestras in vaudeville houses and was a drummer in Loew's Metropolitan Theatre's orchestra. After those jobs, he toured with his own 12-piece band, playing one-night stands. He also performed with the ''Hitchy-Koo'' traveling revue of Raymond Hitchcock and worked at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.<ref name="obit" />
Other songs that Silver wrote included "Icky Wicky Woo" and "What Do We Get from Boston? (Beans, Beans, Beans)".<ref>{{cite news |title='Banana' Song Writer Is Dead |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/62601967/frank-silver/ |access-date=November 5, 2020 |work=The Evening Sun |agency=Associated Press |date=June 15, 1960 |location=Maryland, Baltimore |page=4|via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>
Silver was married twice, Dora Silverstadt (born Mandelbaum) and had two sons, Robert and Arthur; Victoria Silverstadt (born Martinkus) and had a son, Frank.<ref name="obit" />
On June 14, 1960, Silver died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Brooklyn Jewish Hospital at age 67.<ref name="obit">{{cite news |title=Frank Silver, Song Writer, Dies; Did 'Yes! We Have No Bananas' |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/114950796 |access-date=November 5, 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=June 15, 1960 |page=41|id={{ProQuest|114950796}}}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|1952370}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Silver, Frank}} Category:1892 births Category:1960 deaths Category:American jazz drummers Category:Songwriters from Massachusetts Category:Songwriters from New York (state) Category:American vaudeville performers Category:Drummers from Boston Category:20th-century American composers Category:20th-century American drummers Category:American male drummers Category:Jazz musicians from Massachusetts Category:American male jazz musicians Category:American male songwriters Category:Jewish American musicians Category:20th-century American songwriters Category:Drummers from New York (state) Category:20th-century American male composers
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