Tobias Brothers papers, 1943-1981

The Tobias Brothers—Harry (1895-1994), Charles (1898-1970), and Henry (1905-1997) — were responsible for hundreds of song hits, having written songs for many stars of radio, stage, television, and records, in addition to scores for Broadway shows and motion pictures.

Charles Tobias was the most prolific of the trio, writing mainly lyrics, and occasionally music. After singing on radio and in vaudeville, he formed his own New York publishing company in 1923, and started writing songs soon afterwards. From 1928 through to the early 40s, Charles wrote various songs for Broadway shows. His contributions to films continued until the early 50s. In 1962, after a period of relative inactivity, Charles wrote ‘All Over the World’ (with Al Frisch) and ‘Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer’ (with Hans Carste), both of which were successful for singer Nat ‘King’ Cole.

Charles’ older brother Harry, was a prominent American songwriter. After military service in World War I, he spent several years in the real estate business before returning to songwriting in the late 20s. In 1931, with band leader Gus Arnheim and songwriter Charles N. Daniels (under pen name “Jules Lemare”), he wrote ‘Goodnight My Love’ and ‘Sweet and Lovely’, which became Arnheim’s theme song, and a big hit in the United Kingdom for Al Bowlly. In the same year he collaborated with singer songwriter Harry Barris and singer Bing Crosby on ‘At Your Command’, which gave Crosby one of his earliest successes. During the next 20 years, many of Tobias’ lyrics were heard in films. In the 50s he concentrated more on his music publishing interests.

Henry Tobias had a varied career. He wrote special material for artists such as Sophie Tucker, Eddie Cantor and Jimmy Durante, was a producer and director for summer stock shows, and worked for CBS Television as a producer and musical director. With his brother Charles he contributed to the Earl Carroll revues in the 1930s, and wrote many other popular numbers with collaborators, including his two brothers.