Mabel Wayne

Mabel Wayne (July 16, 1890 – June 19, 1978)^[1] was an American songwriter. She is an inductee of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, where she is credited as being the first woman composer to publish a hit song.

She was born in Brooklyn, New York as Mabel Wimpfheimer in 1890 (although she preferred to use the dates 1899 and 1904 later), and studied piano in Switzerland and then at the New York School of Music. She performed as a concert pianist and singer, and as a dancer in vaudeville, and had a short-lived marriage to a salesman in the 1910s. In 1925, she co-wrote the music to the hit song "Don't Wake Me Up, Let Me Dream", with lyrics provided by L. Wolfe Gilbert. In 1930 she wrote It Happened in Monterey for the film King of Jazz−it was later recorded and popularized by Frank Sinatra in 1956. She also wrote the hit songs "Ramona", also with Gilbert; "In a Little Spanish Town", with Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young; "It Happened in Monterey", with Billy Rose; and "I Understand", with Kim Gannon.^[2] She was particularly noted for her Latin-tinged songs. She later wrote for British films, including Dance Band (1935).^[3]

She married Nick Campbell, a music publisher based in New York, on March 15, 1948 in the Little Church of the West, located in Reno, Nevada. Lanny Ross and his wife served as the best man and matron of honor.^[4]

Mabel Wayne was inducted to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972.^[2] She died at Glen Cove, Long Island, in 1978 at the age of 87.

References