Jay Gorney

December 12

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On this date in 1896, songwriter Jay Gorney was born, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants who came to the United States when he was a young child. The composer of "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" was, like the lyricist Yip Harburg, a nonbeliever who ended up being blacklisted for his liberal views. Jay Gorney is the man who discovered Shirley Temple and for whom he wrote her first movie song "Baby, Take a Bow" (in Stand Up and Cheer). He wrote such standards as "You're My Thrill" and "What Wouldn't I Do for That Man?" plus hundreds of popular songs for theater, film, and television. "We were not a religious family," his widow Sondra Gorney said in a telephone interview. They were not married in a church or synagogue. His memorial was held at the New York Public Shakespeare Theater, not in a religious setting. D. 1990