Leo Robin

Prolific American lyricist, best known for his collaborative efforts with the composer Ralph Rainger. His many popular standards include "Prisoner of Love," "Louise," "Beyond the Blue Horizon," "No Love no Nothin," "Moonlight and Shadows," "My Ideal," "If I Should Lose You," "Blue Hawaii," the 1938 Oscar-winning "Thanks for the Memory" and two numbers fondly remembered for Marilyn Monroe's rendition: "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" and "A Little Girl from Little Rock" (written for the 1949 original Broadway score of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"). Robin was educated at the University of Pittsburgh Law School and Carnegie Tech's drama school. He worked for two years as a newspaperman and then as a publicist. Though his ambition was to be a playwright, he achieved his first measure of success writing hits for Broadway musicals. His 1930 lyrics for the Rainger composition "I'll Take an Option on You" commenced a celebrated partnership. In 1932, the duo joined Paramount in Hollywood as staff composers. Within three years, the innovative Robin had become the favorite lyricist of legendary director Ernst Lubitsch. Through the following decade, first at Paramount then at 20th Century Fox, Robin and Rainger wrote for many of the top singing stars of the period, including Bing Crosby, Alice Faye, and Rita Hayworth. After Rainger's tragic death in a mid-air plane collision in 1942, Robin continued working and enjoyed fruitful collaborations with other prominent composers, including Sam Coslow, Jule Styne and Nacio Herb Brown.