In his early career worked as a pianist and song plugger for the Gus Edwards and Harry Von Tilzer publishing firms (one of his co-workers at Edwards' place was the young Walter Winchell, who was also a song plugger).From 1917-1920, Ruby collaborated with songwriters Edgar Leslie, Sam Lewis, Joe Young and George Jessel on the hit songs “What’ll We Do Saturday Night When the Town Goes Dry”, “When Those Sweet Hawaiian Babies Roll Their Eyes”, “Come on Papa”, “Daddy Long Legs” and “And He’d Say Oo-La-La Wee Wee.”[4] Ruby found his most sustained success as a composer after meeting the man who would become his longtime partner, lyricist Bert Kalmar.[5] A good friend of Groucho Marx, Ruby appeared several times on his television program, You Bet Your Life.In his 1972 concert at Carnegie Hall, Marx gave the following introduction before performing a song of Ruby's: "I have a friend in Hollywood ...[laughter] His name is Harry Ruby [applause] and he wrote a lot of songs that I've sung over the years ..."[6] In The Dick Cavett Show, recorded June 13, 1969, Marx also sang a second stanza, and introduced it with, "Isn't that a beautiful melody?
So Long Oo-Long (How Long You Gonna Be Gone?) - played by the
Van Eps Quartet
. Original music by Harry Brooks and Burt Kalmar. Arranged for banjo by
Ruby Brooks
.