Irving Caesar

Irving Caesar (July 4, 1895 – December 18, 1996) was an American lyricist and theater composer who wrote lyrics for numerous song standards including "Swanee," "Sometimes I'm Happy," "Crazy Rhythm," and "Tea for Two," one of the most frequently recorded tunes ever written. He was born and died in New York. In 1972 he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Biography

Caesar, the son of Morris Keiser, a Romanian Jew, was born Isidor Keiser. His older brother Arthur Caesar was a successful Hollywood screenwriter. The Caesar brothers spent their childhood and teen years in Yorkville, the same Manhattan neighborhood where the Marx Brothers were raised. Caesar knew the Marx Brothers during his childhood. He was educated at Chappaqua Mountain Institute in Chappaqua, New York.

In his career Caesar collaborated with a wide variety of composers and songwriters, including Rudolf Friml, George Gershwin, Sigmund Romberg, Victor Herbert, Ted Koehler and Ray Henderson. Two of his best known numbers, I Want to Be Happy and Tea for Two, were written with Vincent Youmans for the 1925 musical No, No, Nanette. Another of his biggest hits, Animal Crackers in My Soup, was popularized by Shirley Temple in her 1935 film "Curly Top." Just a Gigolo, his 1929 adaptation of an Austrian song, was a hit for Louis Prima in the 1950s and again for David Lee Roth in the 1980s.

Julius Brammer

Julius Brammer (9 March 1877 – 18 April 1943) was an Austrian librettist and lyricist. Some of his better-known works were written in conjunction with the composers Emmerich Kálmán, Oscar Straus, Leo Ascher, Edmund Eysler and Robert Stolz.

Brammer was born in Sehraditz, Moravia (now: Sehradice near Zlín), the son of Hermann and Julie. He trained as an actor and first appeared in the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich. He later transferred to Vienna, where he became involved in operetta productions at the Theater an der Wien. From 1908 he concentrated on writing libretti, often with Alfred Grünwald, and became one of the leading creative artists of the Vienna "Silver Operetta Period" (about 1900 to 1920).

After the Anschluss, as a Jew, he was forced to emigrate and went to Paris, and after the fall of that city to the unoccupied south of France, where he died in Juan-les-Pins.

One of his most enduring numbers, still popular in several translations, is "Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo", in English "Just a Gigolo" (lyrics by Julius Brammer, music by Leonello Casucci). It was recorded by many musicians of the time, including Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Dajos Béla and Richard Tauber, later by Louis Prima, and is still being recorded in different languages. The song appeared in a 1931 film, a 1932 Betty Boop cartoon, a 1978 movie and a 1993 TV-series, all titled after the song.

Just a Gigolo

Just a Gigolo may refer to:

Just a Gigolo (TV series)

Just a Gigolo is a 1993 British sitcom starring Tony Slattery as Nick Brim, a teacher who must become a gigolo to pay for his house.

Other characters include his younger brother Simon (played by Paul Bigley), who has also been on a few dates with some clients (Including a dog), and Natalie, Nick's love interest, played by Rowena King.

Only seven episodes were produced.

External links

Just a Gigolo (1978 film)

Just a Gigolo (Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo) is a West German 1978 film directed by David Hemmings and starring David Bowie. Set in post-World War I Berlin, it also featured Sydne Rome, Kim Novak and, in her last screen appearance, Marlene Dietrich. The hostile reception the film received led Bowie to quip that it was "my 32 Elvis Presley movies rolled into one".

Plot

A Prussian officer (David Bowie) returns home to Berlin following the end of the Great War. Unable to find employment elsewhere, he works as a gigolo in a brothel run by the Baroness (Marlene Dietrich). He is eventually killed in street fighting between Nazis and Communists. Both sides claim his body but the Nazis succeed in capturing it and bury him with honours, "a hero to a cause he did not support".

Production

Around the time of its release, David Hemmings said that Just a Gigolo was intended to be "highly ironic, tongue-in-cheek, about the period". Marlene Dietrich was persuaded to come out of retirement to make the film, reportedly receiving $250,000 for two days' shooting.