Mack David (July 5, 1912 – December 30, 1993) was an Academy Award-nominated American lyricist and songwriter, best known for his work in film and television, with a career spanning from the early 1940s through the early 1970s. Mack was credited with writing lyrics and/or music for over one thousand songs.[1] He was particularly well known for his work on the Disney films Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland, as well as the original English lyrics for "La Vie en rose", which was translated into French by Édith Piaf and became the signature song of her career. Mack David is the elder brother of American lyricist and songwriter, Hal David. Mack David died in 1993 in his Rancho Mirage, California home and his remains are buried at the Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.
Mack David was born to a Jewish family in New York City, New York on July 5, 1912. Mack originally planned to become an attorney and attended Cornell University and St. John's University Law School. Despite these original goals, in the mid-1940s, Mack began writing songs for New York's Tin Pan Alley. These initial successes prompted Mack to move to Hollywood, California to work in the film and television industries. Mack enjoyed considerable success, including eight Academy Award nominations for "Bibbidy-Bobbidy-Boo", which he, Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston wrote for Disney's Cinderella (1950), followed by the title-songs from The Hanging Tree (1959), Bachelor in Paradise (1961), Walk on the Wild Side (1962), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), The Ballad of Cat Ballou (1965) and "My Wishing Doll" from Hawaii (1966). Mack was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1975. It is also interesting to note that David's "most remunerative"[2] song "Sunflower", published in 1948 and turned into a hit by Frank Sinatra and eventually into the state song of the state of Kansas, used the same melody line as Jerry Herman's hit theme song for Hello, Dolly!, composed over a decade later. When David sued Herman for copyright infringement, Herman settled out of court with Mack (for a reputed $250,000[3]), claiming he had never heard David's "Sunflower" prior to working on "Hello, Dolly!"[4]
