Nat D. Ayer

b. Nathaniel Davis, 30 Sept 1887, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, d. 19 Sept 1952, Bath, Britain. A composer, pianist, and performer, before shifting to Britain where his profession really became popular, Ayer published one enduring regular, ‘Oh, You Gorgeous Doll’ (1911), using a. Seymour Dark brown (b. 1885, d. 1952), and collaborated with Dark brown on other numbers such as for example ‘Moving Time In Jungle Town’ (1909) (evidently a mention of Theodore Roosevelt’s hunting visit to Africa) and ‘If You Chat INSIDE YOUR Sleep, Don’t Talk about My Name’ (1911). He also added to Broadway musical comedies and revues such as for example Miss Innocence (1908), The Newlyweds And Their Baby (1909), The Echo (1910), A Winsome Widow as well as the Wall Street Female (1912). Ayer’s initial trip to Britain was as an associate from the Ragtime Octet, at the same time when American jazzy and ragtime music – especially that of Irving Berlin – was starting to sweep European countries. In 1916 Ayer teamed with lyricist Clifford Gray to create the score for just one of the Western world End’s biggest Globe War I strikes, the revue The Bing Guys Are Right here, which starred George Robey and Violet Loraine, and included the immortal ‘If You Had been The Only Female In The Globe’, along with ‘Another Small Drink Wouldn’t Perform Us Any Damage’ and ‘The Kipling Walk’, amongst others. Ayer and Gray followed that using the music and lyrics for The Bing Guys IS THERE (1917, ‘Allow THE FANTASTIC Big World Maintain Turning’) as well as the Bing Guys On Broadway (1918), using its sensitive ballad, ‘First Like, Last Love, Greatest Love’, that was presented by Robey and Clara Evelyn. Aswell as composing the music – and occasionally the lyrics – Ayer frequently made an appearance on stage himself, notably with Alice Delysia in the revue Pell-Mell (1916, Clifford Gray, Hugh E. Wright) and with Binnie Hale and Gertie Millar in the musical humor Houp-La! (1916, Howard Talbot, Hugh E. Wright, Percy Greenbank). Among the countless other London displays to which he added had been Hullo, Ragtime (1912, ‘You’re My Baby’ using a. Seymour Dark brown), 5064 Gerard (1915, ‘At The Foxtrot Ball’ Dave Comer, Irving Berlin, Henry Marshall, Stanley Murphy, et al.), Yes, Uncle! (1917, Gray), Baby Bunting (1919, Gray), Snap (1922, Kenneth Duffield, Herman Hupfeld), ‘Shufflin’ Along’ (with Ralph Stanley), The Smith Family members (1922) and Stop-Go! (1935, Edgar Blatt).