Born Leo Schmelowsky in
Posen, Germany, Leo Edwards was the brother of composer and vaudeville musician
Gus Edwards, music publisher and talent agent
Ben Edwards, and vaudeville songstress Dorothea Edwards. The family settled in the
Williamsburg neighborhood of
Brooklyn. Leo Edwards worked for music publishing firms as a staff composer; writing music for T. B. Harms, M. Witmark & Sons, the Gus Edwards Music Company,
Leo Feist Inc., and the
DeSylva Publishing Company. His Broadway credits as a composer include
The Wizard of Oz (1902),
The Blue Paradise,
The Merry Whirl (1911), and the
Ziegfeld Follies of 1912, 1913, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1921 and 1923. His second wife, Gertrude Edwards, died in 1965. Edwards lived at the
Olcott Hotel in New York City. He died there at the age of 92 in 1978. ==References==