Paul Stanley (né Sonnenberg) (February 8, 1848 – March 14, 1909) was a German-born American composer and vaudeville comedian who some credit (but most do not) with writing the music for the ditty Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay for Henry F. Sayers' 1891 musical entertainment, Tuxedo.Short, Ernest Henry and Arthur Compton-Rickett. Ring Up the Curtain, London: Herbert Jenkins, 1938, p. 200; and Cazden, Norman, Herbert Haufrecht and Norman Studer (eds). Folk Songs of the Catskills, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1982, p. 539
Life and career Paul Sonnenberg was born in Hamburg, Germany, and came to America at the age of 16, where he eventually began entertaining as a vaudeville and club comedian under a stage name, Paul Stanley. He became an American citizen in 1869 and resided in New York City for most of his life before relocating to San Francisco after the turn of the 20th century. He was married to Franziska, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, who was some six years his junior.Paul Sonnenberg, US Passport Application, October 22, 1900, Ancestry.com
Stanley's vaudeville career included a stint with Wright's Comedians in a two-man act with Jay Brennan;McGuire, William Anthony. "Writing a Play to Make People Think and Smile", The New York Times, February 21, 1926; p. X6 an act billed as "Paul Stanley and his Mother-in-Law" at the Milwaukee Theatre;"The Amusement World", Milwaukee Daily Journal, November 8, 1884; p. ? solo performances called "character changes" with the London Theatre Specialty Company at Boston's Lyceum Theatre;Advertisement, Boston Daily News, September 24, 1893, p. 18 and performances billed as "Paul Stanley, the international comedian" at the Atlantic Garden in Brooklyn, New York."Atlantic Garden", The Evening World, Brooklyn, New York, May 15, 1894, p. ? Stanley's claims to be the writer of the music for Henry F. Sayer's production of Tuxedo are discussed and rejected in several sources that conclude that he was not the writer.Short, Ernest Henry and Arthur Compton-Rickett. Ring Up the Curtain, London: Herbert Jenkins, 1938, p. 200; Cazden, Norman, Herbert Haufrecht and Norman Studer (eds). Folk Songs of the Catskills, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1982, p. 539 ; and Macqueen-Pope, Walter James. Gaiety: Theatre of Enchantment, 1949, p. 301
Stanley's health began to fail after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake left him near destitute. He and his wife later moved to Denver, where he died in 1909 at the age of sixty-one."Paul Stanley", The New York Times, March 17, 1909, p. 9 News of his death was carried in newspapers nationwide, including The New York Times, Chicago Daily Tribune and Los Angeles Times. In a column printed some two months after his death, a musician friend recalled Stanley's disappointment at failing to succeed as a composer of grand opera.
Stanley and his wife Franziska, who died in 1919, are interred at Denver's Fairmount Cemetery.
References