William Merrigan Daly
Pianist,composer,songwriter,orchestrator, musical director and conductor. (1887–1936)
William Merrigan Daly Jr. (1 September 1887 – 3 December 1936) was an American pianist, composer, songwriter, orchestrator, musical director and conductor.
Life and career
William Daly was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of a successful song-and-dance man. He attended Harvard University receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1908. By 1911 he was a writer, editor, and eventually general manager for Everybody's Magazine in New York. Daly left the company in 1914 to pursue a show business career. He married in 1915 settling in New York City.
Daly played piano with various Broadway orchestras, and in time established himself as a songwriter, arranger, orchestrator, and music director, conducting more than twenty shows between 1915 and 1934. He met George and Ira Gershwin in the late 1910s. Daly and George Gershwin collaborated on several Broadway scores.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “William Merrigan Daly” as pianist,composer,songwriter,orchestrator, musical director and conductor. (1887–1936). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as pianist,composer,songwriter,orchestrator, musical director and conductor. (1887–1936). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8015577. VIAF identifies the subject as 58875397. The Library of Congress control number is no2007151448. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1887, 1936, 1908 and 1911.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “William Merrigan Daly”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow William Merrigan Daly primary sources, William Merrigan Daly archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William Merrigan Daly”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “William Merrigan Daly” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.