Robert King

American composer and songwriter (b. September 20, 1862 in New York, NY – d. April 15, 1932 in New York, NY).

King started his career at age 16 when he joined the New York branch of music publisher Charles Ditson & Co. Soon, he began writing songs himself. By 1903, he was managing the Teachers' Department of another publisher, Leo Feist. In 1907, he began his association with the music publisher Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. King's best-selling waltz "Beautiful Ohio" (1918), published under the pseudonym Mary Earl with lyrics by Ballard MacDonald, became an unprecedented publishing hit for that firm, selling more than 5,000,000 copies of sheet music.

King composed and arranged more than 900 works, mostly pop songs. His first hit was "Beyond The Gates of Paradise" (1901, with lyrics by [a=Henry Neal (2)]). Others include "Romany Waltz" (1915); "Dreamy Alabama’’ (1919, with Ballard MacDonald); "In Old Manila’’ (1920); "Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye" (1921, with Gus Kahn); "Go 'long Mule" (1924, with Henry Creamer); "Why Did I Kiss that Girl?" (1924, with Ray Henderson and Lew Brown); "Peter Pan (I Love You)" (1925, with Ray Henderson); "Seminola" (1925, with Harry Warren); "The Convict and the Rose" (with Ballard MacDonald); "I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream" (1927, with Billy Moll and [a=Howard Johnson (4)]); and "Moonlight On The Colorado" (1930, with Billy Moll). Several of these songs Kings published under pseudonyms, not just Mary Earl, but also Robert A. Keiser and Betty Chapin.