George Fairman Races Stable Only as Hobby: Ohioan is Musician and Writer of Songs for About 50 Years, Daily Racing Form, 1951-05-11

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George Fairman Races Stable Only as Hobby Ohioan Is Musician and Writer Of Songs for About 50 Years By TOMMY MULLIGAN Staff Correspondent BEULAH PARK, Grove City, Ohio, May 10. — George Fairman, who has a modest stable of horses quartered at the Grove City course, has been racing thoroughbreds for 27 years but only as a hobby, he claims. The past half century Fairman has been playing piano whenever and wherever he can locate one. He states that his occupation is that of a musician and that he has been writing songs for about 50 years. Fairman also played in vaudeville and worked with several of the well known names in the entertainment field. He still collects royalty checks from the American Society of Composers and Publishers. George wrote several hit tunes of a decade or more ago. His most recent was "Everybody Tells It to Sweeney," which the famed team of Van and Schenk sang in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1920. Prior to this piece he also wrote "I Dont Know Where Im Going, But Fm On My Way," and "Kiss Mama, Kiss Papa," a Greenwich Village Follies hit as some old-timers will recall. Fairman began writing songs when he was about 18 years old and one year later turned out his first hit entitled "The Preacher and the Bear," and also toured the nation as an accompanist and musical director for the famed Eva Tanguay and Irene Franklin. Georges brother had a draft of horses and among them was Fair Play, sire of the immortal Man o War. In later years Fair-man campaigned such useful racers as Downcast, Cuba Encanto, All Forgiven and Black Agate. George is a native of Columbus, Ohio, but now makes his home in Miami, Florida.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1950s/drf1951051101/drf1951051101_8_5
Local Identifier: drf1951051101_8_5
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800