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George Gard "Buddy" DeSylva (January 27, 1895 - July 11, 1950) was an American songwriter. He was born in New York City, but grew up in California and attended the University of Southern California. DeSylva's first successful songs were those used by Al Jolson on Broadway in the 1918 +Sinbad production, which included "I'll Say She Does." Soon thereafter he met Jolson and in 1918, the pair went to New York and De Sylva began working as a songwriter at Tin Pan Alley. In 1925, he became one third of the songwriting team DeSylva, lyricist Brown and composer Henderson, one of the top Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the era. The writing and publishing partnership continued until 1930. The 1956 Hollywood film The Best Things in Life are Free, starring Gordon MacRae, depicted the life of the DeSylva, Brown and Henderson team. De Sylva joined ASCAP in 1920 and served on the ASCAP board of directors between 1922 and 1930. He became a producer of stage and screen musicals. DeSylva relocated to Hollywood and went under contract to Fox Studios. In 1941, he became the Executive Producer at Paramount Pictures, a position he would hold until 1944. During his tenure at Paramount, he produced movies such as The Little Colonel, The Littlest Rebel, Captain January, Poor Little Rich Girl and Stowaway. He was also an uncredited exectutive producer for Double Indemnity and The Glass Key. In 1942, Johnny Mercer, Glenn Wallichs and De Sylva founded Capitol Records. He is sometimes credited as: Buddy De Sylva, Buddy DeSylva, Bud De Sylva and B.G. DeSylva. Buddy De Sylva died in Hollywood and was buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Broadway credits
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