His holiday tune I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas (1953) was a popular family entertainment song, originally sung by 10-year old Gayla Peevey.
[5] The show had opened at the Majestic Theater on Broadway and featured Imogene Coco as a cast member.
[9] That same year, he was one of several songwriters and lyricists for the Broadway show John Murray Anderson's Almanac (1953).
[10] The following year, he and fellow songwriter and lyricist from the show, Michael Grace, wrote the song Let a Little Time Go By (1954).
[11] In 1956, he and Dean Fuller wrote the music for New Faces of 1956, which premiered at the Ethel Barrymore Theater on Broadway with Maggie Smith and Jane Connell as a cast members.