Abe Olman

Abe Olman (b. Cincinnati, December 20, 1888 – d. Rancho, Mirage, California, January 4, 1984) – Songwriter, composer, and ASCAP director. In 1908 (around age twenty), the Cincinnati-born Abe Olman moved to Indianapolis, where he managed the sheet music department at L.S. Ayres. While living in Indianapolis for four years, he composed several short pieces, especially piano rags; perhaps his best known work in that genre is “Red Onion Rag” (1912). Around the time that “Red Onion Rag” was published, he moved to New York to work in the publishing business and shortly thereafter wrote two of his best-known songs: “Down Among the Sheltering Palms” (1914) and “Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny Oh!” (1917). Over the course of his career, he was a prolific songwriter. From 1946 to 1956, he was the director of ASCAP, and, along with Johnny Mercer, he co-founded the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1969. Furthermore, the Songwriters Hall of Fame gives a scholarship for “Excellence in Songwriting” in Olman’s honor.