Fact #37513

Harry B. Smith, a celebrated composer of songs, musicals and operettas, dies of a heart attack in his room at the Marlborough-Blenheim Hotel, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA. Raised in Chicago, Smith became drama critic for The Chicago Daily News and wrote wrote songs and sketches for burlesques staged at the Chicago Opera House. His best-known composition is perhaps the jazz standard The Sheik Of Araby. The most prolific of all American stage writers, he is said to have written over 300 librettos and more than 6000 lyrics.