Real name: Jerome Bresler

American songwriter, conductor, and pianist

Born: May 29, 1914 in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
Died: March 17, 2000 in Delray Beach, Florida, U.S.A.

Bresler was a musical wunderkind who started playing the piano at age 2 and directed the NYU orchestra at age 14. As a teenager, he attended Theodore Roosevelt High School in Albany Park, Chicago. In 1931, he wrote the school's fight song, "Go, Rough Riders, Go."

In the early 1940s, Bresler moved to New York and started a career as a songwriter. He had hits with "I'm All For You" (1940), "Just for Laffs" (1940), and "Five Guys Named Moe" (1941, with lyrics by Larry Wynn). From October 1941, he served as a Warrant Officer with the US Army, first at Fort Dix in New Jersey, in 1944 at Fort Monroe in Norfolk, VA.

In 1950, Bresler joined ASCAP and began producing night club shows in New York City for Robert Goulet, Sophie Tucker and Arlene Dahl. In 1956, Bresler went to Hollywood and teamed up with Lyn Duddy to write music for TV shows, most importantly for "The Jackie Gleason Show" and its "The Honeymooners" sketches (1957) and the Merv Griffin Show (1962-1963).