Biography
Con Conrad, a composer focused on popular songs, supplied material for Broadway shows across the 1920s before turning to assignments in Hollywood that continued through the mid-1930s. Born in New York City in 1891 as Conrad K. Dober, he accompanied silent films on piano, then joined vaudeville circuits that carried him through the United States and Europe, eventually placing his first compositions with publishers in the 1910s. A handful of successes followed in the late 1910s and early 1920s, among them “Singin’ the Blues,” after which he began creating scores for the stage. Moonlight (1924), Kitty’s Kisses (1926), and Take the Air (1927) were among the productions that featured his work. By the late 1920s Conrad had relocated to Hollywood, where he contributed songs to one of the earliest sound pictures, Fox Movietone Follies of 1929, and later supplied numbers for Broadway (1929), Happy Days (1930), Gift of Gab (1934), and Here’s to Romance (1935). While based on the West Coast he also placed several Tin Pan Alley successes, including the 1931 hit “You Call It Madness.” Other widely recognized compositions from his catalog include “Margie,” “Memory Lane,” “Lonesome and Sorry,” “Ma,” “Champagne Waltz,” and “Midnight in Paris.” Although he collaborated with many lyricists over the years, his most regular partners were Buddy DeSylva, Joe Young, Benny Davis, and, toward the end of his career, Herb Magidson; with the last of these he wrote “The Continental,” the first song to receive the Academy Award for Best Original Song, featured in the 1934 film The Gay Divorcee.