Songwriter, composer, writer, panelist, director, singer and pianist, educated at City College of New York and New York University. He began his writing career as a script writer for "Duffy's Taven" on radio, and later, the Rudy Vallee program. He sang in his own radio shows , in night clubs, and on television. He wrote the Broadway librettos for ...
December 18, 1910, New York City, New York, United States
Died
May 17, 1985, New York City, New York, United States
Place Of Birth
New York City, New York, USA
Profession
Writer, Music Department, Producer
Spouse
Caron Smith Kinzel (m. 1950–1985), Ruth Levinson (m. 1938–1948)
Children
James Burrows, Laurie Burrows
Star Sign
Sagittarius
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Quote
1
When you're dealing with songwriters, I think you're dealing with the most intuitive kind of guys. None of them can explain where the hell their stuff is coming from. They're all a little nuts - and it comes out. See, everybody forgets that the purest example of abstract art in our world is music. Music gives you all of those things - love, hate, anger, fear - all of it in abstract form.
2
[on Frank Loesser] He always could write songs. They burst out of him! How, or why or where? I don't know how you can ask that. What makes an artist, even a Van Gogh or whoever? The stuff was pouring out of him, It was always there. He read a lot, he asked questions a lot, he knew a lot. He was fascinated with words, the way I am.
3
Doctoring seldom cures a show. The sickness usually starts at the moment the author puts the first sheet of paper into his typewriter. All the redirecting and recasting can never help much if the basic story is wrong.
4
Glamour: the indefinable something about a girl with a big bosom.
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Fact
1
Frank Loesser and his musical, "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" at the Porchlight Music Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for a 2014 Joseph Jefferson Equity Award for Midsize Musical Production.
Won four Tony Awards from four nominations: in 1951, as writer of the Book, along with Jo Swerling, of Best Musical winner "Guys and Dolls;" and, in 1962, as Best Director (Musical); and, along with Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert, as Best Authors (Musical) and writers of the Book for Best Musical winner "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,
10
Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 87-88. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
11
In addition to his fine work as a composer and playwright, he was also much in demand as a "script doctor". If a Broadway show needed a rewrite, he was often called to do the job. His talents were so well known, he was mentioned by name in the "Baby Fat" episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961).
$700,000
