HAROLD ARLEN - BMHOF CLASS OF 1997

Harold Arlen wrote some of the greatest hits from the 30's and 40's, including the entire score to the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz. Songs such as Over the Rainbow, Get Happy, Stormy Weather, It's Only a Paper Moon, I've Got the World on a String, and Last Night When We Were Young are just some of the standards that live on today and have distinguished Harold Arlen as one of the Great American Composers of the 20th Century. 

Harold Arlen, born Hyman Arluck in 1905, began his career as a singer and piano player in Buffalo. He dropped out of Hutchinson High School at 16 and formed “The Snappy Trio” and later “The Se-Mor Jazz Band”

In the summers of 1923-25, with “The Southbound Shufflers”, he played on The Canadiana - the Crystal Beach boat that took Americans to Canada where prohibition did not exist.

In 1925 Harold became a member of the “Yankee Six”, as their pianist, vocalist and arranger. They were the house band at Geyer's Restaurant and Ballroom, in the center of the Buffalo theater district. Harold was earning the considerable sum of $100.00 a week. The group became an 11-piece unit and changed their name to “The Buffalodians”, and their popularity took them out of town. Music history was about to be written. 

You can find more information about Mr. Arlen at :
http://www.haroldarlen.com/home.html