Tom Adair
| Tom Adair | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Thomas Montgomery Adair |
| Born |
June 15, 1913 Newton, Kansas, United States |
| Died | May 24, 1988 (aged 74) Honolulu, Hawaii, United States |
| Occupation(s) | Songwriter, composer, and screenwriter |
Thomas Montgomery Adair (June 15, 1913 – May 24, 1988) was an American songwriter, composer, and screenwriter.
Tom Adair (Thomas Montgomery Adair) was born on 15 June 1913, in Newton, Kansas, the only child of William Adair and Madge Cochran.
His father owned a clothing store in Newton; around 1923 he sold up and moved the family to Los Angeles. Tom Adair attended Los Angeles Junior College (now Los Angeles City College), and then joined the local power company, working as a clerk on the complaints desk, while writing poems and song lyrics in his spare time.
In 1941, Adair met Matt Dennis in a club and the duo began writing songs together. Adair's song-writing career took him to New York during the 1940s where he penned several Broadway hits, and worked with Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra. He later returned to Los Angeles and worked with writer James B. Allardice on songs for sit-coms.
In 1949, Adair married Frances Jeffords; in later life, they worked together on songs and teleplays for Disney. They had four children, Micheal Adair, Richard Adair, Ann Trousdale (Adair), and Robin Brown (Adair); and four grandchildren Tom Adair, Kristi Adair, Jennifer Adair, and Julie Adair.
After meeting Matt Dennis in 1940, Adair started working with him, moving to New York when the duo were hired by Tommy Dorsey. Adair and Dennis wrote numerous songs for Dorsey, Bing Crosby, and Dinah Shore and penned Frank Sinatra's hit "Let's Get Away from It All." In 1942, Matt Dennis joined the Army Air Corps. Adair moved on to work with Dick Uhl and hit song "In the Blue of the Evening" with Alfonso d'Artega. About the collaboration among Adair, Dennis, and Sinatra, Vanity Fair magazine said "Sinatra's first recording away from Dorsey took place at RCA’s Los Angeles studios on the afternoon of Monday, January 19, 1942. He had chosen the song for his attempt as a soloist, a ballad, naturally, all dripping with romance: it was 'The Night We Called It a Day,' by these new kids Matt Dennis and Tom Adair, who’d written 'Let’s Get Away from It All' and 'Violets for Your Furs.' "
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