Harold Arlen Autographs
Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz (lyrics by Yip Harburg), including "Over the Rainbow", which won him the Oscar for Best Original Song, he was nominated as composer for 8 other Oscar awards. Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the Great American Songbook. "Over the Rainbow" was voted the 20th century's No. 1 song by the RIAA and the NEA.
Arlen was born in Buffalo, New York, the child of a Jewish cantor. His twin brother died the next day. He learned to play the piano as a youth, and formed a band, Hyman Arluck's Snappy Trio, at age 15. He left home at 16 against his parents' wishes; within two years, he was performing on the Crystal Beach lake boat "Canadiana" with his new band, The Southbound Shufflers. In 1924, he performed at the Lake Shore manor and co-wrote his first song, "My Gal, My Pal", with his friend Hyman Cheiffetz. They copyrighted it as "My Gal, Won't You Please Come Back to Me?" and attribute the lyrics to Cheiffetz and music to Harold Arluck. He achieved some local success as a pianist and singer before moving to New York City in his early twenties, where he worked as an accompanist in vaudeville and changed his name to Harold Arlen. Between 1926 and about 1934, Arlen appeared occasionally as a band vocalist on records by The Buffalodians, Red Nichols, Joe Venuti, Leo Reisman, and Eddie Duchin, usually singing his own compositions. He also played piano with The Buffalodians. In 1926, he and Dick George wrote "Minor Gaff (Blues Fantasy)", which became his first published song.
In 1929, Arlen composed his first well-known song: "Get Happy" (with lyrics by Ted Koehler) and subsequently signed a yearlong song-writing contract with the George and Arthur Piantadosi firm. The same year, he held a singing and acting gig as Cokey Joe in the musical The Great Day. Throughout the early and mid-1930s, Arlen and Koehler wrote shows for the Cotton Club, a popular Harlem night club, as well as for Broadway musicals and Hollywood films. Arlen and Koehler's partnership resulted in a number of hit songs, including the familiar standards "Let's Fall in Love" and "Stormy Weather". For their last show at the Cotton Club Parade in 1934, he and Ted Koehler wrote "Ill Wind (You're Blowin' Me No Good)", with lyrics by Koehler and sung by Adelaide Hall Arlen continued to perform as a pianist and vocalist with some success, most notably on records with Leo Reisman's society dance orchestra.
Read more about Harold Arlen on Wikipedia
Affiliate disclosure: When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Traded items with a signature of Harold Arlen
The most expensive item with a signature of Harold Arlen (Harold Arlen / Inscribed leatherbound Bloomer Girl 1944 with sheet music Signed) was sold in September 2025 for $1,128.99 while the cheapest item (Composer Collections: The Harold Arlen Songbook (1985, Trade Paperback)Signed Co) found a new owner for $8.40 in September 2021. The month with the most items sold (3) was April 2025 with an average selling price of $234.00 for an autographed item of Harold Arlen. Sold items reached their highest average selling price in April 2025 with $234.00 and the month that saw the lowest prices with $9.94 was November 2025. In average, an autographed item from Harold Arlen is worth $62.00.
Most recently, these items with a signature of Harold Arlen were sold on eBay - click here for more items.
| Picture | Item Title | Price | Store |
![]() | ARNOLD JOHNSON Composer & Pianist autographed photo to Composer HAROLD ARLEN | $262.00 | ![]() |
![]() | BILLY GASTON Composer & Singer jumbo autographed photo to Composer HAROLD ARLEN | $234.00 | ![]() |
![]() | BUFFALODIANS 2 early jazz group autographed photos to Composer HAROLD ARLEN | $137.00 | ![]() |
![]() | CD Signed by Tom Wopat Sings Harold Arlen: Dissertation On The State Of Bliss | $14.95 | ![]() |
![]() | CD Signed by Tom Wopat Sings Harold Arlen: Dissertation ON THE STATE OF BLISS | $15.00 | ![]() |
![]() | HAROLD ARLEN AUTOGRAPHED "THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC" 1952 SPANGLED RHYTHM SHEET MUSIC | $40.54 | ![]() |
![]() | HAROLD ARLEN signed photo page THE WIZARD OF OZ | $81.70 | ![]() |
![]() | Harold Arlen signed sheet Music | $64.00 | ![]() |
![]() | Harold Arlen signed sheet music | $80.00 | ![]() |
![]() | Harold Arlen signed sheet music | $55.00 | ![]() |
![]() | Harold Arlen signed sheet music | $69.00 | ![]() |
![]() | Harold Arlen signed sheet music book | $85.00 | ![]() |
![]() | Reverend Johnson's Dream - - 78 RPM 3 Record Set 1940 SIGNED by Harold Arlen | $32.72 | ![]() |
![]() | Tom Wopat Music CD - Tom Wopat Sings Harold Arlen [VERY GOOD CD / SIGNED] Jazz | $9.94 | ![]() |
![]() | Tom Wopat Sings Harold Arlen: Dissertation on the State of Bliss (CD)AUTOGRAPHED | $12.95 | ![]() |






