Composer, lyricist, songwriter and teacher, educated at City College of New York (BA), and Harvard University (MA). He was an instructor in English literature, and a writer for theater, radio, television and film. He joined ASCAP in 1945, and his chief musical collaborators were Robert Kurka and Elie Siegmeister. He co-wrote the classic song "The ...
Meeropol wrote the song "Strange Fruit", a powerful anti-lynching song made famous by 'Billie Holliday', in 1939 after he saw a photograph of a black man who had been lynched by a white mob in Georgia. The song became a big, and controversial, hit. Shortly after WWII, MGM hired Meeropol to write a song for a short film they were making about tolerance, The House I Live In (1945). After the film came out, Meeropol was incensed to discover that the studio had cut out one line in the song, "My neighbors who are black and white", as they thought it would cut into the film's ticket sales in the South.
Soundtrack
Title
Year
Status
Character
Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill
2016
TV Movie writer: "Strange Fruit" - as Allen/Meeropol
$6 Million
