Hart, Bruce (15 January 1938 – 21 February 2006)

Children’s author, composer and screenwriter who attended Syracuse University and Yale Law School. He started out writing sketches for Carl Ballantine, The Charles Playhouse, and Larry Hankin. In 1960, he worked on the television program, Candid Camera.

He and his wife Carole would frequently collaborate, as they did on the children’s TV show, Sesame Street. Not only did the Harts write sketches for the show: Bruce wrote the lyrics to the famous theme song. In 1970, he took home an Emmy award for the pilot episode.

The Harts wrote for the show for a year and then moved on to work on other film and television projects, many of them geared toward the young. One of these was the 1974 television special, Free to Be… You & Me, which starred Marlo Thomas and featured a wide array of talent, including Alan Alda, Harry Belafonte, Mel Brooks, Rosie Grier and Michael Jackson. Bruce co-penned some of the songs in the show, and Carole wrote and produced.

He also composed a song called “One Way Ticket” that Mama Cass turned into a hit. In 1979, Bruce and Carole produced a children’s variety show for TV entitled Hot Hero Sandwich, which enjoyed a short but successful run on NBC. They also churned out a string of films on the topic of psychology, and wrote adolescent fiction such as the book Sooner or Later, which hit the shelves in 1978. In 1979, they directed, produced and wrote a made-for-TV movie version, which starred Barbara Feldon, Denise Miller and Rex Smith. Rex had a hit with “You Take My Breath Away”, for which Bruce had written the lyrics.

In 1981, they returned to the world of literature, publishing the book Waiting Games. Bruce then executive produced the “Oh, Boy! Babies” episode of NBC Special Treat, which aired in 1983. He also wrote the script for the made-for-TV movie Leap of Faith, which featured Anne Archer and Sam Neill. The Writers Guild nominated the script for Best Long-Form Drama.

In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, Bruce and Carole continued to write books aimed at teens, such as Breaking up is Hard to Do, Cross Your Heart, Now or Never and Strut. In 2002, his song “Badder Badder Schwing” was used in the Michael Myers comedy, Austin Powers in Goldmember.

Bruce passed away from lung cancer on 21^st February 2006. His lyrics to “Sesame Street” have captured the imagination of children worldwide for four decades.

The Oscar Peterson Trio and The Singers Unlimited recordings
Sesame Street (Bruce Hart/Joe Raposo/Jon Stone)

Sources:

Hart, Bruce (15 January 1938 – 21 February 2006)

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