John Chancellor (Chauncey) Olcott was born in Buffalo, New York, and became one of the most famous American stage performers and songwriters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He began singing with minstrel shows in 1880 but his songwriting propelled him to stardom as the country's leading Irish stage tenor. His most famous composition was "My Wild Irish Rose" and he also wrote the lyrics to "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling." He died in Monte Carlo in 1932. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Walter Browne, Frederick Arnold Austin (eds.), Who's Who On The Stage .... (New York: B.W. Dodge & Company, 1900), 333.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Education/Culture
