Turner Layton is best remembered for the songs that he wrote with lyricist Henry Creamer: “After You’ve Gone” (1918), “Dear Old Southland” (1921), “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans” (1922), which was one of the dance numbers in the Astaire/Rogers filmThe Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), and ”Whoa, Tillie” (1923) which was popularized by Bessie Smith.

Layton was a composer, vocalist, music publisher, and an accomplished pianist. The pair’s vaudeville act, for which they wrote all of the material, toured the U.S. and Europe. They also wrote a couple of short-lived Broadway shows before their success with Strut Miss Lizzie in 1922.

In 1924 the elegant and urbane, as he is generally described, Layton moved to England where ...