Honored for Hope’s ‘Thanks for the Memories’ : Oscar-Winning Lyricist Leo Robin Dies

Leo Robin, who won an Academy Award for putting words in Bob Hope’s mouth when Hope sang “Thanks for the Memories” in “The Big Broadcast of 1938,” has died.

Robin was 84 and died at the Motion Picture Hospital in Woodland Hills on Saturday.

With such collaborators as Ralph Rainger, Jerome Kern, Jule Styne, Richard Whiting and Vincent Youmans, Robin was lyricist for many of the nation’s most popular songs.

Among them were “Louise,” Maurice Chevalier’s most memorable song; “Love in Bloom,” Jack Benny’s theme; “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” and “Beyond the Blue Horizon.”

For 10 years he and Rainger were the mainstay at the Paramount lot when musicals were in their heyday.

For Paramount and other studios he did the scores for more than 30 films, including “Little Miss Marker,” “The Big Broadcast” series of 1935, ’37 and ‘38, “Waikiki Wedding,” “Casbah,” “Tales of Manhattan” and “My Sister Eileen.”

Robin once had three musicals running simultaneously on Broadway: “Just Fancy,” “Alley Oop” and “Hit the Deck.”

Of his dozens of lyrics, he was best known for “Thanks for the Memories,” which Hope has adopted as his signature song; “For Every Man There’s a Woman” from “Casbah”; “In Love in Vain,” with music by Kern, from “Centennial Summer,” and “June in January.”

Robin, who began as a law student and journalist, is survived by his wife, Cherie; a daughter, Marceline Ora, and three grandchildren.

Services are scheduled Thursday at noon at Hillside Memorial Park Chapel.