The Other Joseph McCarthy

Have no fear! The title of this post doesn’t refer to some imagined “good side” of the Red-Baiting Senator from Wisconsin. That man was all bad. But as it happens there was another guy with the same handle, almost, Thomas Joseph McCarthy (1885-1943), known professionally as Joseph or Joe McCarthy. This one was a Tin Pan Alley lyricist.

McCarthy started out as a singer in Boston vaudeville and cafes before moving to New York, where he worked at Feist & Co. music publishers, located right on Tin Pan Alley. His best known song is one of his earliest. “You Made Me Love You”, written with James V. Monaco was introduced by Al Jolson in the Broadway show The Honeymoon Express (1913) and recorded that same year, becoming both an international hit and an enduring standard. His second best known song, “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” came from the show Oh, Look! (1918) starring The Dolly Sisters. Both songs have been covered by America’s top pop singers dozens of times, and appear in countless movies. The title of the 1930 Charles King movie Chasing Rainbows would appear to have been inspired by the latter song as well.

McCarthy was a frequent collaborator of composers like Harry Tierney and Fred Fisher, and contributed songs to several editions of the Ziegfeld Follies, as well as the shows Irene (1919), The Broadway Whirl (1921), Kid Boots (1923), Rio Rita (1927), and several others.

Mercifully he was in his grave a few years before his namesake got elected to the Senate to bring permanent discredit and shame to the otherwise dandy Irish moniker Joseph McCarthy.

McCarthy’s son, also Joseph McCarthy, also became a songwriter.

For more about vaudeville,please read No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous.