While studying law, he supported himself by teaching English in the New York school system. He also worked on songwriting concurrently with his studies and published his first song ("Baltimore, Md., You're the Only Doctor for Me", with lyrics by Eli Dawson) by 1923. Acquaintances such as Lorenz Hart and George Gershwin encouraged him to stick with composing. He attempted to convince Howard Dietz, an MGM publicist who had collaborated with Jerome Kern, to work with him, but Dietz initially declined.