Richard Adler (b.

August 12, 1923)

&
Jerry Ross (b. March 9, 1926
d. November 11, 1955)

JOHN MURRAY ANDERSONS ALAMANAC (revue) date; perfs - theatre

Composer/Lyricist: Adler & Ross
Director: John Murray Anderson; Cyril Ritchard
Book: Committee
Choreographer: Donald Saddler
With: Harry Belafonte; Billy De Wolfe; Larry Kert
Songs: When Am I Going to meet Your Mother?; Which Witch?; Youre So Much a Part
Of Me
THE PAJAMA GAME May 13, 1954; 1061 perf. St. James Theatre
Composer/Lyricist: Adler & Ross
Director: George Abbott; Jerome Robbins
Book: George Abbott; Richard Bissell
Choreographer: Bob Fosse
Producers: Frederick Brisson; Robert E. Griffith; Hal Prince
With: Eddie Foy Jr.;
Peter Gennaro; Carol Haney;
John Raitt
Songs: Im Not All In Love; Hey There; Steam Heat; Hernandos Hideaway; 7
Cents; There Once Was a Man
DAMN YANKEES May 5, 1955; 1019 perf. 46th Street Theatre
Composer/Lyricist: Adler & Ross
Director: George Abbott
Book: George Abbott; Douglass Wallop
Choreographer: Bob Fosse
Producers: Brisson; Griffith; Prince
With: Gwen Verdon; Ray Walston
Songs: Heart; Shoeless Joe from Hannibal Mo.; Whatever Lola Wants; Two Lost
Souls; Those Were the Good Old Days; Whos Got the Pain?

Richard Adler and Jerry Ross were both born in New York. Adlers came from a
musical background; his father was a concert pianist and music teacher. His ambition,

however, did not lie in music but in writing. Adler graduated from the University of North
Carolina where he studied playwriting under Paul Green. After three years in the Navy, he
got a job with a in advertising for a large company. He would continually write songs in his
spare time, and even on the job, which eventually got him fired. He did not find any success
writing songs until he met Jerry Ross.
Ross was born in the East Bronx to a poor family. He grew up singing in the choir at
his synagogue. Ross also performed with the Bronx Art Theatre, a Yiddish acting company.
He joined with other companies as he got older, performing mostly on the lower East Side of
Manhattan. This was quite a commute for him, resulting in long hours causing him to
develop chronic bronchitis. That ailment would eventually cause his death. He took music
classes at New York University. He too did not have much success as a song writer until he
met Adler.
Frank Loesser signed the duo in 1951. They wrote their first hit Rags to Riches in
1953, the some year they were signed to write for John Murray Andersons Almanac. Before
that show even opened, they were signed to do the Pajama Game. The next year they did
Damn Yankees with almost the some production staff as in The Pajama Game. The bright
and promising partnership of Adler and Ross ended on November 11, 1955, when Ross died
of a lung ailment at only 29 years of age.