Quick Facts
Biography
Louis Wolfe Gilbert (August 31, 1886 – July 12, 1970) was a Russian-born American songwriter of Tin Pan Alley.
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.
Songs
- 1912 Waiting For The Robert E. Lee (music Lewis F. Muir)
- 1912 Hitchy-Koo (m. Lewis F. Muir and Maurice Abrahams recorded by Collins & Harlan)
- 1912 Ragging The Baby To Sleep (music Lewis F. Muir)
- 1912 Take Me To That Swanee Shore (m. Lewis F. Muir)
- 1913 Mammy Jinny's Mubilee (m. Lewis F. Muir)
- 1914 By Heck (m. S. R. Henry)
- 1914 She's Dancing Her Heart Away (m. Kerry Mills)
- 1915 My Sweet Adair (m. Anatole Friedland)
- 1916 My Hawaiian Sunrise (m. Carey Morgan r. Henry Burr and Albert C. Campbell)
- 1917 Are You From Heaven? (m. Anatole Friedland)
- 1917 Lily Of The Valley (m. Anatole Friedland)
- 1917 Set Aside Your Tears (Till the Boys Come Marching Home) (with Malvin Franklin and Anatole Friedland )
- 1921 Down Yonder
- 1924 O, Katharina (m. Richard Fall)
- 1925 Don't Wake Me Up, Let Me Dream (m. Mabel Wayne)
- 1925 I Miss My Swiss (m. Abel Baer)
- 1926 Hello, Aloha, How Are You? (m. Abel Baer)
- 1928 Are You Thinking Of Me Tonight? (m. Harry Akst & Benny Davis r. Al Bowlly with John Abriani's Six)
- 1928 Ramona (m. Mabel Wayne r. Whispering Jack Smith, Paul Whiteman Orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke, and Gene Austin)
- 1928 Jeannine, I Dream of Lilac Time (m. Nathaniel Shilkret), recorded by over a hundred artists
- 1928 Zindele Meins (Zindele mayns) the Yiddish version of "Sonny Boy" sung by Pesach Burstein
- 1931 Marta (m. Moises Simons) r. (Arthur Tracy, The Street Singer)
- 1931 Mama Inez (music Eliseo Grenet)
Lyrics for Broadway productions
- 1912 The Girl from Brighton
- 1912-1913 (From) Broadway to Paris
- 1916-1917 The Century Girl
- 1917 Doing Our Bit
- 1919 Oh, What A Girl!
- 1931 The Singing Rabbi