Lew Pollack

{{Short description|American song composer & musician (1895-1946)}}

{{infobox musical artist

| name = Lew Pollack

| birth_place = New York City, New York, US

| birth_date = July 16, 1895

| death_place = Hollywood, Los Angeles, US

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1946|1|18|1895|7|16}}

}}

Lew Pollack (June 16, 1895 – January 18, 1946) was an American song composer and musician active during the 1920s and the 1930s.

Career

Pollack was born in New York City,{{Cite book |last=Jasen |first=David |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1199124657 |title=TIN PAN ALLEY;AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN SONG |date=2003 |publisher=ROUTLEDGE |isbn=1-135-94901-8 |location=ABINGDON |pages=312 |oclc=1199124657}} where he went to DeWitt Clinton High School and was active as a boy soprano in a choral group headed by Walter Damrosch.

Starting out as a singer and pianist in vaudeville acts, he began writing theme music for silent films before collaborating with others on popular songs.{{cite web |title=Songwriters Hall of Fame |url=https://www.songhall.org/profile/Lew_Pollack |website=songhall.org |access-date=June 25, 2020}} In 1914, he wrote "That's a Plenty", a rag that became an enduring Dixieland standard.

Pollack composed the music for several Broadway musicals, including The Whirl of New York and The Mimic World, among others.

Among his best-known songs are "Charmaine" and "Diane" with Ernö Rapée; "Miss Annabelle Lee";{{cite web |title=allmusic.com |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/lew-pollack-mn0000925844 |website=allmusic.com |access-date=June 25, 2020}} "My Yiddishe Momme" with Jack Yellen, made famous by Sophie Tucker; "Two Cigarettes in the Dark"; "Alone with You" (from Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm); and "At the Codfish Ball"{{cite web |title=ASCAP |url=https://www.ascap.com/repertory#ace/writer/39878623/POLLACK%20LEW |website=Ascap.com |access-date=June 25, 2020}} (featured in the Shirley Temple movie Captain January with Buddy Ebsen, and later the title of a Mad Men television episode). He also collaborated with Paul Francis Webster, Sidney Clare, Sidney Mitchell, and Ned Washington, among others. He died of a heart attack in Hollywood at age 50.{{cite news|title=Lew pollack, 50, Noted for Songs| work=The New York Times |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/01/19/93013565.html?pageNumber=13|access-date=February 27, 2023}}

Recognition

Lew Pollack was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

References