Harry Carroll

Carroll taught himself how to play the piano and began playing in movie houses before he finished grade school.[1] After he graduated from high school, he moved to New York City, where he worked as an arranger in Tin Pan Alley and at night entertained at the Garden Café and accompanied various vaudeville shows. He contributed the song (lyric by Ballard MacDonald) "Nix on the Concertina, Lena" to the Ziegfeld Follies of 1910.[2]

In 1912, Carroll was hired by the Schubert brothers' Winter Garden productions as a contract writer. He worked with Arthur Fields to produce his first hit, On the Mississippi. In 1913 he again collaborated with Ballard MacDonald on the big hit song "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine."[3] He wrote several Broadway stage scores including some popular favorites: "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" (based on a section of Fantaisie-Impromptu by Frédéric Chopin), "By the Beautiful Sea" and "There's a Girl in the Heart of Maryland."[4] Harry married Anna Wheaton and together they had two children. Later he moved west to Los Angeles and became involved in early movies. He served as the director of ASCAP from 1914 to 1917.

He died on December 26, 1962, in Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, survived by his wife and 2 daughters and numerous grandchildren.

In 1970, eight years after his death, Carroll was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.[5]

• Harry Carroll at the Internet Broadway Database
• Harry Carroll recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.