He was born Salvatore Guaragna on Christmas Eve 1893 in Brooklyn, one of eleven children of Italian immigrants. If you pronounced the family name in proper Italian – “gwa-RAAN-ya” – and said it quickly, it could pass for “Warren” to the uneducated ear. Harry was only a child when Papa changed the family name to Warren in the interest of assimilating into American life.
Although his parents couldn’t afford music lessons, Harry showed an early interest in music and taught himself to play his father’s accordion. He sang in the local Catholic church choir and learned to play the drums. He began drumming professionally at 14 and dropped out of high school at 16 to play with his godfather’s band in a traveling carnival. This wasn’t unusual in an era where even George Gershwin dropped out of school at 15 to make his way on Tin Pan Alley.
Harry learned piano, and by 1915 he was working at the Vitagraph Motion Picture Studios in Brooklyn where he performed a variety of administrative jobs and played mood music on the piano for the actors during the filming of silent movies. He acted in a few bit parts and eventually was promoted to assistant director. He also played piano in cafés and silent movie theaters. In 1918, with World War I in full swing, he joined the Navy at age 24, where he began writing songs.
Harry had come of age with ragtime, and after the war he watched it fade as jazz swept in. Teaming with lyricist Edgar Leslie, Harry had his first hit song in 1922 at age 29.