b. 1904, New York City, New York, USA, d. 24 February 1950, New York City, New York, USA. Singing in a clear tenor, as a teenager Baur was a soloist at New York’s Park Avenue Baptist Church. He began making records as a solo artist in 1923 becoming very popular during the remaining years of the decade. He was also heard as a member of groups such as the Shannon Quartet, who from 1925 were also known as the Revelers and with whom he visited Europe. He also recorded duets with Elliott Shaw, Marcia Freer and others. He sang, too, with recording bands such as the Troubadours, the International Novelty Orchestra and that led by Nat Shilkret. Among Baur’s recordings are ‘Watchin’ The Moon Rise’, ‘Twilight Rose’, ‘Let Me Call You Sweetheart’, ‘Beautiful Heaven’, ‘I’m Forever Falling In Love With Someone’, ‘The Lonesomest Girl In Town’, ‘I Wonder (If She Wonders Too)’, ‘Just Around The Corner’, ‘Until You’re Mine’, ‘Meet Me To-Night In Dreamland’, ‘Charmaine’, ‘My Heart Stood Still’ and ‘I’m Waiting For Ships That Never Come In’. Baur was very prolific and recorded for several companies, usually under his own name but sometimes also using pseudonyms, including George Bronson, Joseph Elliott, Ben Litchfield, Sidney Mitchell, and Irving Post. In addition to his recording career, Baur also appeared live in concerts and was on Broadway in Ziegfeld Follies Of 1927, singing ‘The Rainbow Of Girls’ and ‘Ooh! Maybe It’s You’, the latter a duet with Irene Delroy. He is believed to be the first artist to record music from Jerome Kern’s Show Boat (1927), including ‘Why Do I Love You?’. He also appeared on radio, being featured weekly from December 1928 for some 18 months on The Firestone Hour, whereon he often sang with Vaughn De Leath. His last recordings of popular music came late in 1929 when he recorded ‘With A Song In My Heart’ and ‘Through’. He then studied in Paris, switching his career from popular songs to French art songs. He returned to New York for a recital at Town Hall in December 1933, but his performance was poorly received and soon thereafter, although still in his twenties, he retired.