 He was one of the true geniuses of the theater. It was generally agreed by other writers of words or music that no one wrote wittier or more beautiful songs than Cole. He was one of the very few songwriters who wrote both the music and the words to his songs. Most other songwriters worked as a team with lyricists.
Cole was born in 1891 into a high society family of means in Indiana. He received a first class education as a child in French, violin, piano and horseback riding. Then his family sent him to Yale and Harvard Universities. Cole's favorite past time as a young man was writing songs. He wrote many musicals while he was at Yale. He even wrote a cheer leading song for the Yale football team that is still used today. He dreamed about being a Broadway composer and finally got his chance in 1916. He wrote the music to a musical called “ See America First”. It was a dismal flop.Young Cole was devastated by it. So much so that he left the country for France and joined the French Foreign Legion during World War I.
When the war ended Cole stayed on in Europe and lived there till he was 37 years old. He met and married a beautiful American divorcee in Paris. She was also a high society figure . They bought beautiful palatial homes in Venice and Paris. They did what they enjoyed doing most, they hosted lavish parties constantly inviting the likes of Counts and Princesses, movie stars and entertainers. Their parties were always the talk of the town and were widely known internationally.
All along Cole kept writing songs and kept submitting to Broadway and kept getting rejected. He said he would write 4 or 5 songs a day just to keep in practice. He was an unusual songwriter by the fact he was already financially successful. His daily writing routing would begin with his personal valet sharpening his pencils for him and when the pencils would get dull he would put them by the side of his desk and his valet would pick them up and keep them constantly sharp for him. | 
