[3][4] He was best known for his work in collaboration with lyricist Edgar Smith[5] on stage shows for the Weber and Fields comedy team.

John "Honey" Stromberg, whose career began formally in Tin Pan Alley, where he worked as an arranger for the Witmark musical publishing house, was already the writer of a popular song hit ("My Girl's a Corker, She's a New Yorker") before becoming the principal composer and orchestra conductor (with Edgar Smith the principal writer) for these shows in 1896 with "The Art of Maryland," with which Weber and Fields opened their Broadway Music Hall.

His most famous composition (the lyrics, however, credited to Robert B. Smith) was "Come Down Ma Evenin' Star" from Twirly Whirly, written for the great diva of the day Lillian Russell and (as the story goes) found in the pocket of Stromberg's coat after he had committed suicide in July 1902, having ingested Paris Green insecticide.

Contributing heavily to his troubles was the failure of his investment in "Stromberg Park," a real-estate development in Freeport, Long Island, with streets named after various Weber and Fields performers.

It should perhaps be mentioned that none of the lyrics are per se derogatory of blacks, and the only reference to race that occurs in them is the single line "But den [then] color's only skin-deep anyway" (in "Come Back Ma Honey Boy to Me").