Biography
Walter Kent entered the world in Manhattan during August 1911 and remains chiefly associated with the wartime standards “The White Cliffs of Dover” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” He completed coursework at CCNY before continuing his musical education at Juilliard. His earliest notable songwriting achievement arrived with the 1932 number “Pu-Leeze Mister Hemingway,” created with Milton Drake and Abner Silver and introduced by Guy Lombardo. Toward the close of the 1930s he began supplying material for motion pictures, including several Westerns. World War II proved his richest source of inspiration; collaborating with lyricist Nat Burton, he composed “(There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover,” a romanticized portrait of England’s stand against the Nazi threat that became a major success for Glenn Miller in 1941. Two years later Kent scored the film adaptation of For Whom the Bell Tolls. He soon formed a steady partnership with poet and lyricist James Kimball “Kim” Gannon that yielded the holiday classic “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” Bing Crosby’s recording, released one year after his blockbuster “White Christmas,” connected deeply with overseas GIs and the families awaiting their return. Continued work with Gannon brought Kent two Academy Award nominations for Best Song: 1944’s “Too Much in Love,” heard in Song of the Open Road and recorded by Frank Sinatra, and 1945’s “Endlessly,” featured in Earl Carroll Vanities. In 1946 the pair supplied three songs for the Disney animated short Johnny Appleseed, and in 1950 Frankie Laine scored a hit with “I’m Gonna Live Till I Die,” later covered by Frank Sinatra. That same year Kent’s “You’re Always in My Dreams,” written with Al Hoffman and Manny Kurtz, was recorded by the Ravens. The Gannon partnership also produced the 1951 Broadway musical comedy Seventeen. After that point Kent maintained a lower profile, although a handful of his compositions surfaced in films during the late 1950s.