E. Y. Harburg

Wrote first songs for features (with Gorney), "What I Wouldn't Do For That Man" for Helen Morgan in "Applause" and "It Can't Go On Like This" also for Morgan in "Road House Nights"

1930

First hit song, "I'm Yours"

1932

Wrote "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" with Gorney

1932

Began collaborating with composer Harold Arlen; over the course of their collaboration, they would write 111 songs

1940

First collaboration with composer Burton Lane

1947

"Finian's Rainbow" opened on Broadway

1950

Blacklisted while working on feature musical "Huckleberry Finn" with music by Lane

1951

Returned to Broadway with "Flahooley"

1962

Returned to features after being blacklisted; wrote lyrics to Arlen's music for animated feature "Gay Purr-ee"

1968

Final Broadway show, "Darling of the Day"

1971

Last stage musical "The Children's Crusade" opened at University of Vermont

Videos

Cabin In The Sky (1943) -- (Movie Clip) A Thing Called Joe Little Joe (Eddie "Rochester" Anderson) comes back to life, prompting Petunia (Ethel Waters) into her sparkling performance of "Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe" by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, in MGM's Cabin In The Sky, 1943.

Gold Diggers Of 1937 (1936) -- (Movie Clip) Life Insurance Song From director Lloyd Bacon and Warner Bros., opening with William Davidson as the insurance big-wig pulling bons vivants Rosmer (Dick Powell) and sidekick Oglethorpe (Lee Dixon) to the Atlantic City convention stage for a nutty original by Harold Arlen and E.Y. “Yip” Harburg, in Gold Diggers Of 1937, 1936, also starring Glenda Farrell and Joan Blondell.

Gold Diggers Of 1937 (1936) -- (Movie Clip) Speaking Of The Weather Dick Powell and Joan Blondell, who married in September of 1936, before this picture was released December 26, with as cute a number as any they did, another Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg original, begun after she, the newly hired secretary, ribs him, the dilettante insurance salesman, for not finding her a job, in Gold Diggers Of 1937, 1936.

Ship Ahoy (1942) -- (Movie Clip) I'll Take Tallulah Like many Eleanor Powell numbers, another suggesting she was the best dancer of her generation, devised by Billy Connolly, Bert Lahr and Red Skelton warbling, Tommy Dorsey's band, song by Burton Lane and Yip Harburg, clever bit for drummer Buddy Rich, in Ship Ahoy, 1942.

Ship Ahoy (1942) -- (Movie Clip) Poor You Frank Sinatra is the dandied-up singer performing Burton Lane and E.Y. Harburg's "Poor You," with Tommy Dorsey's band in the Eleanor Powell and Red Skelton vehicle Ship Ahoy, 1942.

Gay Purr-ee (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Mewsette Following the credits, Morey Amsterdam narrates as we meet star Judy Garland voicing heroine Mewsette, Robert Goulet her suitor Jaune-Tom, his song by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, and Red Buttons the sidekick Robespierre, in Warner Bros. Gay Purr-ee, 1962.

Gay Purr-ee (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Roses Red, Violets Blue Mewsette (voice by Judy Garland) has decided to leave her country home to discover Paris, and her celebrations to a tune by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg are overheard by the maybe dangerous Meowrice (Paul Frees), in the Warner Bros. animated feature Gay Purr-ee, 1962

April In Paris (1952) -- (Movie Clip) Life Is Such A Pleasure Imagining himself president, bumbling diplomat S. Winthrop Putnam (Ray Bolger) launches into a specialty tune by Vernon Duke and E.Y. Harburg, Leroy Prinz the credited choreographer, in the Warner Bros. musical April In Paris, 1952, starring Doris Day.

Finian's Rainbow (1968) -- (Movie Clip) Me Magnetic Feather Finian (Fred Astaire) has sneaked into the night in Misstucky, U.S.A., to bury the pot of gold he's brought from Ireland, convinced it will grow, when he meets leprechaun Og (Tommy Steele, his first scene), who has a complaint, in Finian's Rainbow, 1968.

Finian's Rainbow (1968) -- (Movie Clip) Look To The Rainbow Petula Clark sings the Burton Lane and E.Y. Harburg tune, as she and Fred Astaire (playing her Irish father) traverse the United States, in Francis Coppola's charming, if geographically incoherent, opening credit sequence, from Finian's Rainbow, 1968.

Finian's Rainbow (1968) -- (Movie Clip) Something Sort Of Grandish Irish Sharon (Petula Clark) has just fished leprechaun Og (Tommy Steele) from the well at her new home in the U-S-A, though he doesn't realize she's fallen for another, as they deliver a tune by Burton Lane and E.Y. Harburg, in Finian's Rainbow, 1968.

Finian's Rainbow (1968) -- (Movie Clip) Follow The Fellow Fred Astaire (as Finian, fresh from Ireland), age 68, in his last musical, leads Petula Clark (as daughter Sharon), who was convinced she couldn't dance with him, into their first number, all the American kids supporting, Francis Coppola directing, in Finian's Rainbow, 1968.

Family

Ernest Harburg

Son

Margaret Harburg

Daughter

Companions

Alice Richmond

Wife

Married 1923; divorced.

Edelaine Gorney

Wife

Silent screen actor. Married 1943; previously married to Jay Gorney who wrote songs with Harburg.

Bibliography

"Who Put the Rainbow in 'The Wizard of Oz'?: Yip Harburgh, Lyricist"

Harold Meyerson and Ernie Harburg, University of Michigan Press (1993)

"At This Point in Rhyme"

E Y Harburg, Crown (1976)

"Rhymes for the Irreverent"

E Y Harburg, Grossman (1965)

About

Filmography

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Family & Companions

Bibliography

Biography

Filmography

Writer (Feature Film)

Producer (Feature Film)

Music (Feature Film)

Music (Special)

Music (TV Mini-Series)

Life Events

1929

1929

1929

1930

1932

1932

1940

1947

1950

1951

1962

1968

1971

Videos

Movie Clip

Family

Companions

Bibliography

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