O’Hara, Geoffrey
O’Hara, Geoffrey
O’Hara, Geoffrey, Canadian-born American composer; b. Chatham, Ontario, Feb. 2, 1882; d. St. Petersburg, Fla., Jan. 31, 1967. He settled in the U.S. in 1904 and became a naturalized American citizen in 1919. He studied with Homer Norris and J. Vogler; then acted in vaudeville as a pianist, singer, and composer; wrote the song Your Eyes Have Told Me for Caruso. In 1913 he was appointed an instructor in American Indian music as part of a program of the Dept. of the Interior; in 1917, became an army song leader; was instructor in community singing at Teachers Coll., Columbia Univ. (1936–37). He wrote the operettas Peggy and the Pirate (1927), Riding Down the Sky (1928), The Count and the Co-ed (1929), and The Smiling Six-pence (1930); also about 300 songs, of which the following were extremely popular: K-K-K-Katy, I Love a Little Cottage, The Living God, I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked, and Give a Man a Horse He Can Ride.
—Nicolas Slominsky/Laura Kaun/Dennis McIntire