Lou Halmy (June 23, 1911 – March 14, 2005) was a jazz musician and music arranger. In the 1930s he played trumpet with Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra and appeared with the orchestra in the film The Big Broadcast of 1938. For most of his career he worked as an arranger and transcriber of musical compositions including such notable songs as "Thanks for the Memory" (1938), "Louie Louie" (1955), "Tequila" (1958), and "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" (1969). In all, the United States Copyright Office records 274 entries for Halmy between 1951 and 2003. Halmy was also a virtuosic whistler, which was a talent he employed as a transcriber and as a performer.[1][2][3][4]
Louis Halmy | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 23, 1911 |
| Died | March 14, 2005 (aged 93) |
| Occupation(s) | musician, arranger/transcriber |
| Known for | The Big Broadcast of 1938 |
References edit
- ^ "Great Depression a gold mine for musicians". The Register-Guard. February 15, 2002. Retrieved 2010-05-16.
When trumpet star and jazz arranger Lou Halmy looks back on the Great Depression of the 1930s, it doesn't seem depressing at all. 'I was lucky,' the 91-year-old Eugene musician says. 'I was playing with a band and working all the time. We had a steady job, which was the rarest thing in music.' While many people were standing in bread lines and living in shanty camps, Halmy was inside New York's posh Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, cheering people up by playing his horn in one of the most popular dance bands of the era: Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm ...
- ^ "Musician, arranger Lou Halmy dies at 93". The Register-Guard. March 22, 2005. Retrieved 2010-05-16.
Halmy was born in Budapest, Hungary, and his family immigrated to the United States when he was 2. He made his mark as a trumpet player with East Coast outfits including Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra, a society band that played on 'The Woodbury Hour With Bob Hope' and in 'The Big Broadcast of 1938,' a film starring Hope, W.C. Fields and Dorothy Lamour.
- ^ McLucas, Anne Dhu (2010). "Lou Halmy: Professional Transcriber/Arranger of Popular Music". The Musical Ear: Oral Tradition in the USA. Ashgate Publishing. pp. 50–52. ISBN 9781409432906. OCLC 1137244241. McLucas notes that Halmy received royalty checks for his whistling performance in the film Mary Poppins (1964).
- ^ "Copyright Catalog (1978 to present) - Search Request: Halmy, Lou". United States Copyright Office. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
External links edit
- Louis Halmy at IMDb.
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