Mitchell Parish

Mitchell Parish (July 10, 1900 â€" March 31, 1993) was an American lyricist.

Parish was born Michael Hyman Pashelinsky to a Jewish family in Lithuania. His family emigrated to the U.S. and arrived on 3 February 1901 on the SS Dresden when he was less than a year old, settling first in Louisiana where his paternal grandmother had family and later moving to New York City. By the late 1920s he was a well regarded Tin Pan Alley lyricist in New York City.

His best known works include the songs "Star Dust," "Sweet Lorraine," "Deep Purple," "Stars Fell on Alabama," "Sophisticated Lady," "Volare," "Moonlight Serenade," "Sleigh Ride," and "One Morning in May."

He died in Manhattan at the age of 92 and is buried in Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, New York.

In 1987 a revue entitled "Stardust" was staged on Broadway featuring Mitchell Parish's lyrics; it ran for 101 performances and was revived for further performances in 1999.

Work on Broadway

Continental Varieties (1935) - revue - featured lyricist
Lew Leslie's Blackbirds of 1939 (1939) - revue - performer
Earl Carroll's Vanities of 1940 (1940) - revue - featured lyricist
Bubbling Brown Sugar (1976) - revue - featured lyricist
Sophisticated Ladies (1981) - featured lyricist for "Sophisticated Lady"
Stardust (1987) - revue - lyricist

References

* Hill, Tony L. "Mitchell Parish, 1900-1993," in Dictionary of Literary Biography 265. Detroit: Gale Research, 2002.

External links

* Mitchell Parish at the Internet Broadway Database