John Walter Bratton

At 80 years old, John Walter Bratton physical status not available right now. We will update John Walter Bratton's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

John Bratton's career soon moved from performer to composer and producer. He began in the chorus of a show called Ship Ahoy for $18 a week and not before too long was selling songs written with his friend, lyricists Walter H. Ford, for as little as $10 a title. Over the years Bratton would collaborate on over 250 songs with Ford and Paul West. One of their earlier tunes was a tribute to veterans of the Spanish–American War called "Hats off to the Boys Who Made Good", that years later Bratton conceded was "terrible". Today he is remembered for his composition Op103, dating from 1907, "Teddy Bears' Picnic", the only one of his songs to be a lasting hit. Although most of his compositions had lyrics, he left "Teddy Bears' Picnic" as an instrumental. Perhaps because it sold so well as sheet music he felt little need to do anything else with it; during the silent film era it was used as background music for a number of popular movies. Many years later British-based, but Irish-born Jimmy Kennedy wrote the lyrics. This explains why an American composition contains the British term "Mummies and Daddies" rather than "Mommies and Daddies", though the latter does crop up from time to time in copies printed in the former colony.

Tunes Bratton wrote that were popular in their day include "The Sunshine of Paradise Alley" (ca. 1895), "Henrietta, Have You Met Her?" (ca. 1895), "I Love You in the Same Old Way" (ca. 1896), "Isabella" and "In a Cosey Corner" ( ca. 1901). As half of the firm Lefler and Bratton he produced the musical comedies Hodge Podge and Co. (1900), The Star and the Garter (1900), The Man from China (1904), The Pearl and the Pumpkin (1905) and others.

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