Birth name Louis Wolfe Gilbert Genres Traditional pop music Role Songwriter | Name L. Gilbert Occupation(s) Songwriter Books Without Rhyme Or Reason | |
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Born August 31, 1886 ( 1886-08-31 ) Origin Odessa, Ukraine, Russian Empire Died July 12, 1970, Los Angeles, California, United States Music director Ramona, Nix on Dames, Romance of the Rio Grande, The Big Idea Similar People Mabel Wayne, Marion Sunshine, Moises Simons, Eliseo Grenet, Nacio Herb Brown | ||
Dolores del Rio - RAMONA - Mabel Wayne - L. Wolfe Gilbert
Louis Wolfe Gilbert (August 31, 1886 – July 12, 1970) was a Russian-born American songwriter of Tin Pan Alley.
Contents
- Dolores del Rio RAMONA Mabel Wayne L Wolfe Gilbert
- Biography
- Songs
- Lyrics for Broadway productions
- References
Biography
Born in Odessa, Russian Empire, Gilbert moved to the United States as a young man.
Gilbert began his career touring with John L. Sullivan and singing in a quartet at small Coney Island café called "College Inn", where he was discovered by English producer Albert Decourville. Decourville brought him to London as part of The Ragtime Octet.
Gilbert's first songwriting success came in 1912 when F. A. Mills Music Publishers published his song Waiting For the Robert E. Lee (melody by composer Lewis F. Muir).
He joined ASCAP in 1924.
Gilbert moved to Hollywood in 1929, and began writing for film, television, and radio (including the Eddie Cantor show).
During the 1930s, Gilbert worked on Cuban songs that helped to popularize the rumba in America. Some of these hits for which he wrote English lyrics include The Peanut Vendor, Mama Inez, and Maria My Own.
Gilbert wrote the theme lyrics for the popular children's Television Western Hopalong Cassidy, which first aired in 1949 on NBC. He was an innovator in his field, having been one of the first songwriters to begin publishing and promoting a catalog of his own works. He served as the director of ASCAP from 1941 to 1944, and again in 1953. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
Known as "Wolfie," Gilbert and his wife Rose lived in Beverly Hills and he and his family were members of Temple Israel of Hollywood.
He died in Los Angeles, California on July 12, 1970. His original gravesite was at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City (Mausoleum, Court of Sages, Crypt 223) but he was later reinterred at Forest Lawn Cemetery (Cathedral City) near Palm Springs, California.