Joseph E. Howard
| Joseph E. Howard | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Joseph E. Howard |
| Born | February 12, 1878 |
| Origin | New York City, New York, United States |
| Died | May 19, 1961 (aged 83) Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Genres | Musical theatre |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, Lyricist, Librettist |
Joseph Edgar Howard, known as Joe Howard (February 12, 1878 – May 19, 1961) was a Broadway composer, lyricist, and librettist. A famed member of Tin Pan Alley along with wife and composer Ida Emerson as part of the song-writing team of Howard and Emerson, his hits included "Hello! Ma Baby" and Broadway musicals like "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now?".
Joseph Howard was born on February 12, 1878 in New York City. He toured in a stock company production of "Little Eva," then he appeared in Vaudeville as a boy soprano at the age of 11. He was married to singer actress Mabel Barrison who died in 1912. At 17, he met a young singer named Ida Emerson who would become Howard's second wife.
They played the Midwestern vaudeville circuit, drawing notice enough in Chicago to catch an engagement in New York at Tony Pastor's Music Hall on 14th Street, where they were a bit hit in 1898.
Their fortunes would change for the better in 1899 when they wrote the song "Hello! Ma Baby" which became one of the most popular songs of its day, selling over a million copies of the sheet music, the predominant way of making money on music prior to recordings, in just a few months. They found themselves space at the famed Tin Pan Alley where they continued to write songs for Vaudeville .
They penned another hit, "Goodbye, My Lady Love" in 1904.
They moved back to Chicago, where Howard performed and composed his tunes, and produced some of the biggest Chicago Musical hit shows from 1905 to 1915. Howard produced a string of pop jazz hits including "What's the Use of Dreaming?," "I Don't Like Your Family," and "A Boy's Best Friend Is His Mother."
The tunes that he is most often associated with in modern times are "Hello! Ma Baby" and "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now". The latter was a jilted man's waltz that made its debut in the 1909 Broadway musical The Prince of To-Night and became the subject of controversy many years later when one of Howard's employees, a composer, sued and won the right to remove Howard's name from the piece as its primary composer.
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