Sammy Timberg

Sammy Timberg was a New York-born contemporary of George Gershwin and Aaron Copland, and shared the same music teacher, Rubin Goldmark, with them -- and his music was nearly as ubiquitous in our popular culture, even if his name wasn't remotely as well known. The youngest child in a Jewish immigrant family from Austria, Timberg (who was sometimes credited as Sam Timberg or Samuel Timberg) was born in New York City in 1903, and from his early teens had entertained serious hopes of being a concert pianist. The death of his father in 1919, when he was 16, however, forced him to turn to vaudeville for a living -- his older brother Herman was already a successful comic and Sammy joined him as the straight man in the act. The two later turned to writing for other performers, including The Marx Brothers and Phil Silvers early in their respective careers. Sammy Timberg wrote songs for such Broadway musicals as The Duchess of Chicago and The Street Singer -- although he was versed in classical music (and had even written and conducted a critically acclaimed jazz rhapsody for 100 instruments), his preferred idioms were jazz and popular music.

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