Ten songs by Frank Loesser:
- Two Sleepy People
- Luck Be a Lady
- Baby, It's Cold Outside
- Blue Nightfall
- Heart and Soul
- See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have
- Hoop-Dee-Doo
- On a Slow Boat to China
- Jingle Jangle Jingle
- Spring Will Be a Little Late
Frank Loesser died on this date in 1969. But Wikipedia says he died on July 26. Or at least it did, until I changed it. I didn't just take IMDb's word for it, of course; I accessed the ProQuest historical newspapers archive through a library website to find Loesser's obituary from the New York Times. Said obit is dated July 29, 1969, and begins as follows:
Frank Loesser, the composer-lyricist who gave the Broadway stage "Guys and Dolls," "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," and "Where's Charley?," died of lung cancer yesterday in Mount Sinai Hospital. He was 59 years old.
From which I inferred that the IMDb date was the correct one. But Wikipedia editors being Wikipedia editors, I also checked Loesser's obit in the Washington Post, also available through ProQuest, and it said the same thing. (Technically, it said he died "Monday," but I checked a perpetual calendar and determined that July 29, 1969, was a Tuesday.) And then I checked another online historical newspaper archive via a different library website, and found obits from dozens of other papers, all published on July 29, 1969, all agreeing that Loesser had died the day before. So I went ahead and made the change.
So anyway, how about that Frank Loesser? He won an armful of Tony Awards, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, an Academy Award, and a Grammy, and of course wrote dozens of songs that have become standards. Not too shabby for a guy who was only 59 when he died.
