March 16, 1915: Birth of Duluthian and Song writer Sammy Gallop

On this day in Duluth in 1915, future songwriter Sammy Gallop was born to Russian immigrants Morris and Dora Gallop. According to Zenith City’s David Ouse, Gallop grew up in Duluth and attended Central High School, graduating in 1932. The 1932 Zenith, Central High’s yearbook, indicates he didn’t participate in many extracurricular activities. His older brother Robert graduated in the same class. In the 1940s Gallop headed to New York City to sell his songs. His first hit was 1941’s “Elmer’s Tune.” Another song that turned out to be a hit for Gallop was the oddly titled “Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy” (1945), which was recorded by Dinah Shore in 1946 and was her first top-ten hit (the song also appears several times in John Updike’s novel Rabbit at Rest). Gallop would pen the lyrics to many other popular songs, including “Autumn Serenade” (1945), “Maybe You’ll Be There” (1947), “Count Every Star” (1950), “Somewhere Along the Way” (1952), “Wake the Town and Tell the People” (1955), and “Joey’s Song,” written for his uncle Joe Gallop. His songs were recorded by Harry James, Artie Shaw, Jimmy Dorsey, Spike Jones, Stan Kenton, Guy Lombardo, the Andrews Sisters, Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians, Julius La Rosa, Margaret Whiting, and Frankie Vaughan. You can read much more about Gallop here.

Sammy Gallop. (Image: Public Domain)