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^[1] 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.^[2] In 1914, he wrote "That's a Plenty", a rag that became an enduring Dixieland standard.

Among his best-known songs are "Charmaine" and "Diane" with Ernö Rapée, "Miss Annabelle Lee",^[3] "My Yiddishe Momme" with Jack Yellen, made famous by Sophie Tucker, "Two Cigarettes in the Dark", "Alone with You" (from Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm), "At the Codfish Ball"^[4] (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 amongst others. He died of a heart attack in Hollywood at age 50.^[5]

Recognition

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