Eddie Kilfeather

Who is Eddie Kilfeather?

Edward Vincent Kilfeather was a musical composer and arranger who worked on the Columbia Pictures' animated cartoons.

Kilfeather was born in 1900 to Edward and Hannah Kilfeather and grew up in Portland, Oregon. His father was a well-known Democrat found guilty of jury bribing in 1898. The young Kilfeather hooked up with another Portlander, George Olsen, who had formed a band and was its pianist, conductor and arranger. The band headed south and in San Francisco when it was hired by Flo Ziegfeld in 1923 to come to New Year to play music for the show Kid Boots. Kilfeather co-wrote the song Goin' Home Blues for the show. Ziegfeld became enraged with the band after the opening of Whoopee! in 1928. While on the road in Pittsburgh, he fired Kilfeather and replaced him with a personal favorite. Olsen protested by having his musicians refuse to play for the replacement. Ziegfeld relented and gave Kilfeather his job back. The Olsen band quit when the week was over.

Kilfeather wrote a number of songs that Olsen recorded on RCA Records, including She's a Corn Fed Indiana Girl. He was so taken with the cornet playing of Bix Beiderbecke on a recording of Jazz Me Blues that he transcribed the notes and used it in Olsen's RCA Victor recording You'll Never Get to Heaven With Those Eyes.