Jean Schwartz

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Jean Schwartz (November 4, 1878–November 30, 1956) was a songwriter.

Schwartz was born in Budapest, Hungary. His family moved to New York City when he was 13 years old. He took various music related jobs including demonstrating and selling sheet music in department stores before being hired full time by the Shapiro-Bernstein Publishing House of Tin Pan Alley as a staff pianist and song-plugger. He published his first composition (a Cakewalk) in 1899. He became known as an accomplished lyricist, although he also continued writing music.

In 1901 he started working with William Jerome. They collaborated on many songs which were used in Broadway shows, including "Mr. Dooley," sung by the title character in The Wizard of Oz, as well as the Ziegfeld Follies. Their biggest hit together was the 1910 song "Chinatown, My Chinatown," still popular with Dixieland bands. Schwartz and Jerome stopped working together in 1913.

Schwartz continued working on show tunes through 1937. He died in Los Angeles, California.

[edit] Songwriters on parade

In the late 1930s Schwartz and several of his fellow hitmakers formed a revue called "Songwriters On Parade", performing all across the Eastern seaboard on the Loew's and Keith circuits.