Michael Elder Rourke (14 July 1867 – 26 August 1933), who assumed the pen name Herbert Reynolds in 1913, was an Irish-American
lyricist.[1][2]
Reynolds wrote the lyrics to
Jerome Kern's first big hit, "
They Didn't Believe Me", interpolated into the 1914 American version of The Girl from Utah, produced by
Charles Frohman.[3][4][5] The show had a successful run of 140 performances at the
Knickerbocker Theatre, opening on August 14, 1914. Frohman had hired the young Kern to write five new songs for the score together with Reynolds to strengthen what he felt was a weak first act.
Julia Sanderson and
Donald Brian starred in the production.
^Suskin, Steven (2000). Show tunes: the songs, shows, and careers of Broadway's major composers (Revised and expanded third ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 5.
ISBN0-19-512599-1.
^Kenrick, John.
"Jerome Kern: 'They Didn't Believe Me'", History of The Musical Stage, 1910-1919: Part I, The Cyber Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre, TV and Film (2008)
^"The Girl from Utah", American Theater Guide, The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Oxford University Press (2004)