# Kalmar and Ruby

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**Kalmar and Ruby** refers to the famous songwriting team of the first half of the 20th century of [Bert Kalmar](/source/Bert_Kalmar) and [Harry Ruby](/source/Harry_Ruby). Among the songs they wrote were the major hits "[I Wanna Be Loved by You](/source/I_Wanna_Be_Loved_by_You)" and "[Who's Sorry Now?](/source/Who's_Sorry_Now%3F_(song))"

## Bert Kalmar

Bert Kalmar was born on February 10, 1884, and died on September 18, 1947. He was an American [lyricist](/source/Lyricist). Born in [New York, New York](/source/New_York,_New_York), Kalmar ran away from home at the age of 10 to become a [magician](/source/Magician_(illusion)) at a tent show, and retained an interest in magic all his life. He never got much of an education, but decided to make a career in show business. He earned enough money as a [vaudeville](/source/Vaudeville) performer to start a music publishing company called **Kalmar and Puck.**

## Harry Ruby

Harry Ruby was born on October 29, 1895, and died on February 23, 1974. Like Kalmar, Ruby was also born in [New York City](/source/New_York_City). Ruby failed in his early ambition of becoming a professional [baseball](/source/Baseball) player. Touring the [vaudeville](/source/Vaudeville) circuit as a [pianist](/source/Pianist) with the *Bootblack Trio* and the *Messenger Boys Trio* he met his long-time partner [Bert Kalmar](/source/Bert_Kalmar).

## Partnership

Kalmar hired Ruby as a "song plugger", and as a result of a knee injury that stopped him from dancing professionally, turned to writing songs full-time. Ruby, who had gotten a job at the firm of **Waterson, Berlin and Snyder,** got Kalmar a job at the same firm writing song [lyrics](/source/Lyrics). Before [World War I](/source/World_War_I), he had begun to write lyrics for a number of different composers. One of them, Ruby, who had also had a number of collaborators, saw a strong compatibility between the two, and by [1920](/source/1920_in_music), Kalmar and Ruby recognized that they should form a permanent songwriting team. They also wrote comedy for stage and screen for [Wheeler & Woolsey](/source/Wheeler_%26_Woolsey), [Eddie Cantor](/source/Eddie_Cantor) and the [Marx Brothers](/source/Marx_Brothers).

Together, Kalmar and Ruby formed a successful team until Kalmar's death in 1947. This partnership is portrayed in the 1950 [Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer](/source/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) musical *[Three Little Words](/source/Three_Little_Words_(film))* starring [Fred Astaire](/source/Fred_Astaire) and [Red Skelton](/source/Red_Skelton).

## Film credits

- *[Animal Crackers](/source/Animal_Crackers_(1930_film))* (1930)
- *[Check and Double Check](/source/Check_and_Double_Check)* (1930)
- *[Horse Feathers](/source/Horse_Feathers)* (1932)
- *[The Kid from Spain](/source/The_Kid_from_Spain)* (1932)
- *[Duck Soup](/source/Duck_Soup_(1933_film))* (1933)
- *[Hips Hips Hooray](/source/Hips_Hips_Hooray)* (1934)
- *[Kentucky Kernels](/source/Kentucky_Kernels)* (1935)
- *Bright Lights* (1935)
- *Walking on Air* (1936)

## External links

- [Harry Ruby song list](https://www.songhall.org/profile/Harry_Ruby)
- [Bert Kalmar song list](https://web.archive.org/web/20090213165849/http://songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C266)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Kalmar and Ruby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalmar_and_Ruby) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalmar_and_Ruby?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.