The World of Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby–Part Two

As we mentioned in the overview, we have come to another MGM hit from 1950 that Conrad Salinger worked on, the movie Three Little Words. It is the biopic about the songwriting team of Bert Kalmar (lyrics) and Harry Ruby (music). Click on the following link to read more and to listen to some of their music.

They had separate careers until 1920, when they decided to create a partnership. They wrote popular songs, songs for the stage and then songs for the screen.

We are going to start this second segment with “My Sunny Tennessee,” a popular song that Kalmar and Ruby wrote in 1921 and first sung by Eddie Cantor. In this clip, it is sung by Fred Astaire and Red Skelton in the 1950 movie, Three Little Words.

“Thinking of You” came from the Broadway show, The Five O’Clock Girl in 1927, and is sung in this clip by Vera-Ellen (dubbed by Anita Ellis) in the 1950 movie, Three Little Words.

“I Wanna Be Loved by You” came from the Broadway show, Good Boy in 1928, and is sung in this clip from the 1950 movie, Three Little Words, by Debbie Reynolds (dubbed by Helen Kane, the woman who introduced the song on Broadway in 1928).

“Hooray for Captain Spaulding” came from the Broadway show, Animal Crackers in 1928, and is performed here by Groucho and Zeppo Marx from the movie adaptation.

The last song in this segment will be “I Love You So Much,” which was written in 1930 for Wheeler & Woolsey’s movie, The Cuckoos. In the following clip, we see Arlene Dahl sing the song in the 1950 movie, Three Little Words.