Harold Rome; Composer, Lyricist for Broadway Hits

Harold J. Rome, composer and lyricist for such Broadway hits as “Destry Rides Again” and “Fanny,” died Tuesday in New York City. He was 85.

Rome died in his Manhattan home of complications of a stroke, the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP) announced Tuesday.

His 1962 Broadway show “I Can Get It for You Wholesale” about the garment trade was noted for introducing Barbra Streisand. Costumed as a mousy secretary, she stopped the show with Rome’s song “Miss Marmelstein.”

Rome’s concern for socially conscious subjects was said to inhibit massive success. Nevertheless, he achieved commercial and critical respect over the years, earning the Drama Desk Award, ASCAP’s Richard Rodgers Award, and membership in the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Theater Hall of Fame.

He never wanted a great song to get in the way of a good show--excising any tune that became “too important” by itself.

“I have never deliberately set out to write a hit song . . . ,” Rome told The Times in 1973. “Hits come out of the shows, but all of my songs are written to solve a specific problem in advancing the musical, to communicate ideas, character and story. What I want people to say as they exit the theater is, ‘What a good show!’ If they say anything else, we’re in trouble.”

Critic Stanley Green once called Rome “a people’s composer and lyricist who . . . provides the common man with uncommon musical experiences.”

Rome mailed a few songs west, but generally avoided Hollywood and the movie business.

“I hated Hollywood,” he told The Times in 1973, “because you weren’t your own boss. You were completely at their mercy and whim. Broadway is the only place where the author is still nominally his own boss.

“I sold Hollywood ‘Call Me Mister,’ took the money and ran. I knew they were going to kill it and I didn’t want to watch.”

Rome was born in Hartford, Conn., May 27, 1908. He studied law at Yale but became an architect. He turned to music and songwriting to supplement his income during the Depression and became musical director at a resort in the Adirondack Mountains.

In 1937, his satirical revue “Pins and Needles,” which was originally written to entertain members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), launched him on Broadway. The show included two of the songwriter’s most enduring songs, “Sunday in the Park” and “Sing Me a Song With Social Significance.”

His work also included the 1938 show “Sing Out the News” with its signature song “FDR Jones”; the 1946 show “Call Me Mister” with the song “South America, Take It Away”; the 1952 show “Wish You Were Here” remembered for “Where Did the Night Go” and the 1954 show “Fanny” with its memorable title song.

Rome also composed words and music in 1965 for “The Zulu and the Zayda” about racial and religious intolerance and in 1970 for “Scarlett,” a musical version of “Gone With the Wind,” which was produced in Japan and brought to Los Angeles’ Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in 1973.

Survivors include his wife, Florence; a son, Joshua of Kyoto, Japan; a daughter, Rachel, of Los Angeles and two grandchildren.