John Rox

{{Infobox person

| name = John Rox

| birth_name = John Arthur Barber

| alias = John Jefferson Herring

| birth_date = {{birth date|1902|7|21}}

| birth_place = Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1957|8|5|1902|7|21}}

| death_place = Davis Park, New York, U.S.

| occupation = Composer and lyricist

| spouse = Alice Pearce

}}

John Jefferson Rox (July 21, 1902 – August 5, 1957){{Citation needed|date=December 2024}} was an American composer and lyricist.

He wrote music for Broadway shows and the recording industry. His song "It's a Big Wide Wonderful World" (1939) was used in the soundtrack of multiple films. His holiday tune "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" (1953) was a popular family-entertainment song, originally sung by ten-year-old Gayla Peevey. Many other artists also covered it.

Early life

John Arthur Barber was born on July 21, 1902, in Des Moines, Iowa, the only child of Arthur Grant Barber (1881-1948) and Ina Maureen (Dollie) Brown (1876-1942). His parents were married on September 7, 1901, but eventually divorced. His mother then remarried on April 3, 1907, to Earl Granville Herring, and bore two more sons, Donald Granville Herring and Robert Eugene Herring. Upon her remarriage, her eldest son John Arthur Barber was renamed John Jefferson Herring. Years later, upon entering the music business, John adopted the stage name "John Jefferson Rox".

Career

The first song that he wrote and copyrighted was "Weep No More, Willow" in 1938.{{Cite web |title=U.S. Copyright Office Public Records System |url=https://publicrecords.copyright.gov/application-card/CC19381945EU_160000-161699.1251 |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=publicrecords.copyright.gov}} The following year, he wrote and copyrighted "It's a Big Wide Wonderful World" (1939).{{Cite web |title=U.S. Copyright Office Public Records System |url=https://publicrecords.copyright.gov/application-card/CC19381945EU_209000-210999.1134 |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=publicrecords.copyright.gov}} It has been used in the soundtrack of several different films over the span of over fifty years.{{Cite web |title=John Rox {{!}} Writer, Soundtrack |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0746880/ |access-date=2023-08-22 | publisher = IMDb |language=en-US}}

The song premiered in All in Fun (1940) on Broadway, of which he was the lyricist for the show. Walter Cassel and Wynn Murray introduced the song.{{Cite web |title=It's a Big Wide Wonderful World |url=https://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/i/itsabigwidewonderfulworld.html |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=lyricsplayground.com}} The show had opened at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway and featured Imogene Coca as a cast member.{{Cite web |title=All in Fun | work = Playbill |url=https://playbill.com/production/all-in-fun-majestic-theatre-vault-0000007876}}

=Major films with "It's a Big Wide Wonderful World" in the soundtrack=

class="wikitable"

!Film Title

!Year

An Angel Comes to Brooklyn

|1945

Rhythm Inn

|1951

3 Ring Circus

|1954

Sweet Bird of Youth

|1962

A Safe Place

|1971

Rancho Deluxe

|1975

Avalon

|1990

Rover Dangerfield

|1991

In 1946, he wrote the song "Ridin' Double" for the soundtrack of the 1946 Western film Sioux City Sue starring Gene Autry.{{Cite web |title=Sioux City Sue |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.m1508.53407/ |work=It's Showtime! Sheet Music from Stage and Screen |access-date=2023-08-29}}{{Cite web |title=Sioux City Sue (1946) – Soundtracks |publisher = IMDb |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038946/soundtrack/ |access-date=2023-08-29 |language=en-US}}

He later wrote "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" (1953) with Peevey singing the original version. It was a popular song with thirty-nine artists singing the cover for it.{{Cite web |title= John Rox |url=https://secondhandsongs.com/artist/101950/all |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=secondhandsongs.com}}

That same year, he was one of several songwriters and lyricists for the Broadway show John Murray Anderson's Almanac (1953).{{Cite web |title=John Rox |url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/John-Rox/ |access-date=2023-08-22 | publisher =

BroadwayWorld |language=en}}

The following year, he and fellow songwriter and lyricist from the show, Michael Grace, wrote the song "Let a Little Time Go By" (1954).{{Cite web |title=WebVoyage Record View 1 |url=https://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=10&ti=1,10&Search_Arg=Rox%20john&Search_Code=NALL&CNT=25&PID=AeLpHBImCiQjGnm5DNZIpgoRSm5&SEQ=20230822004514&SID=1 |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=cocatalog.loc.gov}}

In 1956, he and Dean Fuller wrote the music for New Faces of 1956, which premiered at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway with Maggie Smith and Jane Connell as cast members.{{Cite web |title=New Faces of 1956 |url=https://playbill.com/personlistpage/person-list?production=00000150-aea3-d936-a7fd-eef7414c0001&type=cp#cc |work = Playbill}}{{Cite web |title=New Faces of '56 – Original Cast |url=https://www.masterworksbroadway.com/music/new-faces-of-56-original-cast/ |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=The Official Masterworks Broadway Site |language=en-US}}

=Theatre work=

class="wikitable"

|+Broadway shows

!Title

!Year

!Role

All in Fun

|1940

|composer and lyricist

John Murray Anderson's Almanac

|1953

|composer and lyricist

New Faces of 1956

|1956

|composer

Personal life

In 1948, he married actress Alice Pearce. They had no children. Pearce was Gladys Kravitz in the 1960s television situation comedy Bewitched.{{Cite web |title=Reading Eagle - Google News Archive Search |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19641011&id=PhkrAAAAIBAJ&pg=3156,5192532 |access-date=2023-12-10 |website=news.google.com}}