Fisher was born in Cologne, Germany.[1] His parents were Max and Theodora Breitenbach. After visiting the United States in 1892, he immigrated in 1900, where he adopted the name Fred Fischer. He founded the Fred Fischer Music Publishing Company in 1907. During World War I he changed his surname to Fisher to make it seem less Germanic.[2]
In 1914, Fred Fisher married Ana Fisher (née Davidovitch, later anglicized as Davis; born 1896). Their children – Daniel ("Danny"; 1920–2001), Marvin (1916–1993), and Doris (1915–2003) – also wrote songs professionally.[3] Fisher died by suicide in Manhattan, New York,[4][5] and was interred at Maimonides Cemetery in Brooklyn.
"If the Man in the Moon Were a Coon," by Fred Fischer, Will Rossiter (1867–1954) (pub) (1905) OCLC497077685 (this was his first hit; it combined two then-popular song themes, Moon songs and Coon songs)
Oh, You Beautiful Doll (1949) – This film is a fictionalized Hollywood biography featuring many of Fisher's songs. A Tin Pan Alley promoter (Mark Stevens) turns serious composer Fred Breitenbach (S.Z. Sakall) into songwriter Fred Fisher.
Gallery
Come Josephine In My Flying Machine 1910
They Go Wild, Simply Wild, Over Me 1917
Dardanella 1919
Chicago 1922
References
General references
Source Citation:
American National Biography. 24 volumes. Edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999
American Popular Songs. From the Revolutionary War to the present. Edited by David Ewen. New York: Random House, 1966
American Songwriters. By David Ewen. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1987
The ASCAP Biographical Dictionary. Third edition. New York: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, 1966
ASCAP Biographical Dictionary. Fourth edition. Compiled for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers by Jaques Cattell Press. New York: R.R. Bowker, 1980
Biographical Dictionary of American Music. By Charles Eugene Claghorn. West Nyack, NY: Parker Publishing Co., 1973
Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 1: January 1946 – July 1949. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1949
Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 6: September 1961 – August 1964. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1965
Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 15: September 1986 – August 1988. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1988
Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 16: September 1988 – August 1990. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1990
The Complete Encyclopedia of Popular Music and Jazz, 1900–1950. Three volumes. By Roger D. Kinkle. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House Publishers, 1974. Biographies are located in Volumes 2 and 3
Dictionary of Pseudonyms. Third edition. By Adrian Room. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1998
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Third edition. Eight volumes. Edited by Colin Larkin. London: MUZE, 1998. Grove's Dictionaries, New York, 1998
The Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music. Composers and their music. Supplement. By William H. Rehrig. Westerville, OH: Integrity Press, 1996
The New American Dictionary of Music. By Philip D. Morehead with Anne MacNeil. New York: Dutton, 1991
The New Grove Dictionary of American Music. Four volumes. Edited by H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan Press, 1986
Notable Names in the American Theatre. Clifton, NJ: James T. White & Co., 1976. Earlier edition published as The Biographical Encyclopaedia and Who's Who of the American Theatre
The Oxford Companion to Popular Music. By Peter Gammond. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1991
Popular American Composers. From Revolutionary times to the present. A biographical and critical guide. First edition. Compiled and edited by David Ewen. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1962
Songwriters. A biographical dictionary with discographies. By Nigel Harrison. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1998
Sweet and Lowdown. America's popular song writers. By Warren Craig. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1978. Biographies appear in the 'After Tin Pan Alley' section, beginning on page 91
Tin Pan Alley. An encyclopedia of the golden age of American song. By David A. Jasen. New York: Routledge, 2003
^Jack Gottlieb, Funny, It Doesn't Sound Jewish: How Yiddish Songs and Synagogue Melodies Influenced Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood, Volume 1, p. 25, SUNY Press (2004) ISBN0-8444-1130-2ISBN9780844411309
^Honor Roll of Popular Song Writers: No. 13 – Fred Fisher, by Jack Burton, Billboard (magazine), p. 48, March 19, 1949
^Songwriters Attend Fred Fisher's Rites: Buck Praises Him for Great Contribution to Music,The New York Times, January 17, 1942
^ abcdefParker, Bernard S. (2007). World War I Sheet Music – Volume 2. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. pp. 489, 547, 586, 758, 764, 787. ISBN978-0-7864-2799-4.
^ abcdParker, Bernard S. (2007). World War I Sheet Music - Volume 1. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. pp. 80, 303, 378, 415. ISBN978-0-7864-2798-7.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fred Fisher.
Come Josephine In My Flying Machine 1910
They Go Wild, Simply Wild, Over Me 1917
Dardanella 1919
Chicago 1922
