Edgar Leslie

Born in Stamford, Connecticut, and educated at Cooper Union College, Edgar Leslie wrote his first hit song in 1909 (“Lonesome”) with the Haydn Quartet. He went on to collaborate with Irving Berlin and other Tin Pan Alley writers, Jewish and not. With Berlin, Leslie was a founding member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers that protected the intellectual property rights of these authors, and he later cofounded the Songwriters Protective Association (now the union Songwriters Guild of America). His songs were featured in The Jazz Singer (1927), Moon over Miami (1941), and For Me and My Gal (1942).