Louis Alter was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 pianist

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

, songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

 and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

. Alter was 13 when he began playing piano in theaters showing silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

s. He studied at the New England Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Stuart Mason.

Alter played in vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 houses as the accompanist for headliners Irène Bordoni

Irène Bordoni

Irène Bordoni was a French singer and a Broadway and film actress.-Early years:Born in Ajaccio, France, from an Italian family, she had been a child actor, performing in Paris on stage and in silent films for a few years, having signed with theatrical agent André Charlot...

 and Nora Bayes

Nora Bayes

Nora Bayes was a popular American singer, comedienne and actress of the early 20th century.-Early life and career:...

. He appeared with Bayes from 1924 until her death in 1928, touring the United States and abroad. Since he had previously written some songs for Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 shows, Alter decided to concentrate on songwriting after Bayes' death. His first hit was "Manhattan Serenade

Manhattan Serenade

"Manhattan Serenade" was composed by Louis Alter in 1928, with lyrics added years later by Harold Adamson. It was a hit record for swing era bandleaders Harry James and Tommy Dorsey .-Films:...

" (1929), originally an instrumental that later became the theme music of the Easy Aces

Easy Aces

Easy Aces, a long-running American serial radio comedy , was trademarked by the low-keyed drollery of creator and writer Goodman Ace and his wife, Jane, as an urbane, put-upon realtor and his malaprop-prone wife...

radio program. There are numerous recordings of "Manhattan Serenade," and it was featured prominently in Nancy Groce's book, New York: Songs of the City (Watson-Guptill, 1999). Alter recalled:

I was a great fan of Whiteman when I first came down here from Boston. He was the first big name I actually followed around and met. I was having a love affair with New York when Whiteman commissioned me to write a tone poem. I walked around this city for six months absorbing the sights and sounds. And then suddenly it came to me. Once I plunged into it I finished it in two hours.

Films and Broadway

In 1929, Alter moved to Hollywood, where he wrote songs for films, beginning with The Hollywood Review of 1929, and he continued to provide piano accompaniment for various singers, including Beatrice Lillie

Beatrice Lillie

Beatrice Gladys "Bea" Lillie was an actress and comedic performer. Following her 1920 marriage to Sir Robert Peel in England, she was known in private life as Lady Peel.-Early career:...

 and Helen Morgan

Helen Morgan

Helen Morgan was an American singer and actress who worked in films and on the stage. A quintessential torch singer, she made a big splash in the Chicago club scene in the 1920s...

. His contributions to Broadway musicals included songs in Sweet and Low (1930) and Ballyhoo (1931).

His first song hit was "Hugs and Kisses" in 1926. Other top tunes by Alter include "My Kinda Love

My Kinda Love

"My Kinda Love" is a popular song with music by Louis Alter and lyrics by Jo Trent, published in 1929.-Recorded versions:*Ernestine Anderson *Nat King Cole *Bing Crosby *Doris Day...

," "You Turned the Tables on Me

You Turned the Tables on Me

"You Turned the Tables on Me" is a popular song with music by Louis Alter and lyrics by Sidney D. Mitchell, published in 1936.The song was introduced in the musical film Sing, Baby, Sing. The most popular recording was by Helen Ward with the Benny Goodman orchestra...

," "Nina Never Knew

Nina Never Knew

"Nina Never Knew" is a popular song with music by Louis Alter and lyrics by Milton Drake, published in 1952.Recordings that charted in 1952 were by the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra on RCA Victor Records and by Johnny Desmond on Coral Records .-Recorded versions:*Jonny Abeles*Kenny Ball*Tony...

," "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans

Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans

"Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans" is a song written by Eddie DeLange and Louis Alter, which was first heard in the movie New Orleans in 1947, where it was performed by Louis Armstrong and sung by Billie Holiday....

" (for the 1947 film New Orleans), "Blue Shadows" and "Rainbow on the River." He wrote "A Melody from the Sky" and "Twilight on the Trail" for The Trail of the Lonesome Pine

The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936 film)

The Trail of the Lonesome Pine is a 1936 romance film based on the novel of the same name. It was directed by Henry Hathaway. It was the second full length feature film to be shot in three-strip Technicolor and the first in color to be shot outdoors, with the approval of the Technicolor Corporation...

(1936). His collaborators included Oscar Hammerstein II

Oscar Hammerstein II

Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...

, Charlotte Kent, Raymond Klages, Sidney D. Mitchell

Sidney D. Mitchell

Sidney D. Mitchell was a Hollywood film industry lyricist and composer. He is best known for his collaborations with Lew Pollack on movie scores at Twentieth Century Fox in the 1930s and 1940s...

, and Jo Trent.

World War II and later years

In 1941, Alter signed on with the United States Air Force, performing for troops and also coordinating shows and other entertainment at various West Coast air bases. As a piano soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he performed at the Hollywood Bowl. In 1942, "Manhattan Serenade" once again became a hit after Harold Adamson

Harold Adamson

For the Toronto Police Chief see Harold Adamson Harold Adamson was an American lyricist during the 1930s and 1940s.- Biography :...

 added lyrics.

Alter also composed large-scale pieces for piano and orchestra, including American Serenade and Metropolitan Nocturne. In later years, Alter lived in New York and maintained a summer residence on Fire Island.

Awards

Twice nominated for Academy Awards ("Dolores," "A Melody from the Sky"), he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame

Songwriters Hall of Fame

The Songwriters Hall of Fame is an arm of the National Academy of Popular Music. It was founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer and music publishers Abe Olman and Howie Richmond. The goal is to create a museum but as of April, 2008, the means do not yet exist and so instead it is an online...

 in 1975.

At age 78, he died of pneumonia in New York's St. Clare Hospital.

Hurricane Katrina

After Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

, his song "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans" took on a different kind of meaning in 2005–06 and experienced a revival due to its use in various post-Katrina documentary films and TV shows. It was used for strong emotional effect in Spike Lee

Spike Lee

Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983....

's four-hour When the Levees Broke

When the Levees Broke

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts is a 2006 documentary film directed by Spike Lee about the devastation of New Orleans, Louisiana due to the failure of the levees during Hurricane Katrina. It was filmed in late August and early September 2005, and premiered at the New Orleans Arena on...

(2006) and an equally moving dramatic sketch by Billy Crystal

Billy Crystal

William Edward "Billy" Crystal is an American actor, writer, producer, comedian and film director. He gained prominence in the 1970s for playing Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom Soap and became a Hollywood film star during the late 1980s and 1990s, appearing in the critical and box office successes...

 on HBO's Comic Relief 2006.

Orchestral compositions

• American Serenade
• Jewels from Cartier Suite
• Manhattan Masquerade
• Manhattan Moonlight
• Metropolitan Nocturne
• Side Street in Gotham

Songs

• "Blue Shadows"
• "Dolores"
• "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans
  Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans
  "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans" is a song written by Eddie DeLange and Louis Alter, which was first heard in the movie New Orleans in 1947, where it was performed by Louis Armstrong and sung by Billie Holiday....
  
  "
• "Give Trouble the Air" (1927)
• "Hugs and Kisses" (1926)
• "Manhattan Serenade"
• "A Melody from the Sky"
• "My Kinda Love
  My Kinda Love
  "My Kinda Love" is a popular song with music by Louis Alter and lyrics by Jo Trent, published in 1929.-Recorded versions:*Ernestine Anderson *Nat King Cole *Bing Crosby *Doris Day...
  
  "
• "Nina Never Knew
  Nina Never Knew
  "Nina Never Knew" is a popular song with music by Louis Alter and lyrics by Milton Drake, published in 1952.Recordings that charted in 1952 were by the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra on RCA Victor Records and by Johnny Desmond on Coral Records .-Recorded versions:*Jonny Abeles*Kenny Ball*Tony...
  
  "
• "Rainbow on the River"
• "You Turned the Tables on Me
  You Turned the Tables on Me
  "You Turned the Tables on Me" is a popular song with music by Louis Alter and lyrics by Sidney D. Mitchell, published in 1936.The song was introduced in the musical film Sing, Baby, Sing. The most popular recording was by Helen Ward with the Benny Goodman orchestra...
  
  "

Listen to

• Jazz violinist John Frigo playing Louis Alter's "Nina Never Knew"
• Tommy Dorsey: "Manhattan Serenade"

External links