Charles Bates

Jazz age songwriter, arranger and pianist from Iowa

Circa 1920, Bates moved to Chicago to study music. By 1923 he was an accompanist in vaudeville and on the radio. He wrote "Hard Hearted Hannah" in 1924, as a collaboration with [a=Robert Wilcox Bigelow]. Song publishers [a=Milton Ager] and [a=Jack Yellen] also received a songwriting credit. His other songwriting credits include "Sob Sister Sadie," "Let Me Be the One," and "On the Nodaway Road".

He was married to Gertrude McDonald Bates, a member of Paul Whiteman's Rhythm Girls, from 1923 until his death in 1937.

Born: 17 September 1896 near Villisca, Iowa, USA

Died: 5 April 1937 in New York, New York, USA