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singer in the 1950s and 60s.) Mar-
garet had a gigantic candy sucker
and smeared the sticky stuff all
over her dad’s piano keys. As
Richard was wiping it off, he
yelled out the word lollipop and
thus began one of the most popu-
lar children’s songs of all time,
“On the Good Ship Lollipop.”
Richard wrote a song in 1934
for Jack Benny called “Rock and
Roll” for the movie “Transatlantic
Merry-Go-Round.” Richard is
given the credit as one of the first
people to publicly coin the phrase
rock-and-roll.
Bing Crosby, Nancy Carroll,
William Powell, Frederic March,
Ethel Merman, Jack Haley, Lew
Ayres, Spencer Tracy, Billie Hol-
liday, Alice Faye, Will Rogers,
Gracie Allen & George Burns,
Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, Ronald
Reagan and even the Marx Broth-
ers were all fortunate to perform
Richard Whiting’s songs on film.
But Richard’s favorite perform-
er was Ruby Keeler. In 1936 in the
movie “Ready Willing and Able”
for example, Ruby is tap dancing
Busby-Berkley-style on the huge
keys of a monster
typewriter with
dozens upon doz-
ens of swooning
chorus girls typ-
ing out Whiting’s
beautiful song
“Too Marvelous
for Words.”
On Feb. 10,
1938, Richard
Whiting suffered
a massive heart
attack and died.
He was only 46.
He was eulogized as a man
who since he was a boy in Peoria
wanted to write popular songs.
That he was successful and
wealthy from having his dreams
come true made him what his
friends described as the happiest
man in the world. His daughter
Margaret then
sang what she
said was his ab-
solute favorite of
the over 500 songs
he had composed:
“My Ideal.” Listen
to Frank Sinatra’s
version sometime,
and you will un-
derstand why.
11
thePeorian.com
The Past
“I was able to work with the business leadership and with
Mayor Carver – a very strong, innovative, and effective leader
– and a strong city council to accomplish the downtown
Peoria plan and then help implement the plan. It was very
challenging and at times difficult. It was also exhilarating to
work on the Civic Center, the location of the Peoria School of
Medicine, and all the projects that were accomplished in the
70s, which laid a base for what we are doing now.”
State Representative Dave Leitch - recalling his days working for
the Peoria Downtown Development Council before he joined the
Illinois House in 1986. Peoria Metropolitan Magazine April 2001.
Yes, They Said That…
Quotes from Famous Peorians