Alexander (Sándor) Lászlò (November 22, 1895

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

(Hungary) - November 17, 1970

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

) was a Hungarian-American pianist, musical composer, arranger and inventor. He was born Sándor ("San") Totis, but used the professional name of Alexander Lászlò as a composer and music publisher. After training at the

Franz Liszt Academy of Music The Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music ( hu, Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Egyetem, often abbreviated as ''Zeneakadémia'', "Liszt Academy") is a music university and a concert hall in Budapest, Hungary, founded on November 14, 1875. It is home to the ...

, Lászlò studied piano with Szendy and composition with Herzfeld and started as a pianist at the Blüthner Orchestra in Berlin in 1915. As pianist Sándor Lászlò, in Freiburg, about 1920, he recorded 31 reproducing piano rolls for Welte Mignon, of the piano music of mostly 19th Century Classical composers. He gave piano recitals in Germany and Europe in the 1920s, and was a music director and professor of film music in Berlin. According to the studies of the psychologist Georg Anschütz, the mentor of the synaesthesia research of this time, Lászlò developed an apparatus for the combination of colored light, slides, moving amorphous and geometrical forms. The first demonstration of it took place under the name "Sonchromatoskop" in 1924. Although this sonicism was developed by music, it should neither serve the intensification of the musical life, nor should individual keys be illustrated by clearly related colors. Rather, it was a new art genre in which abstract images and sound do not behave supplementarily, but enter into an original and inviolable unity. Lászlò built a professional Sonchromatoskop and it was controlled by the pianist. In 1925 Laszlo wrote a text called Color-Light-Music, and toured Europe with a

color organ The term color organ refers to a tradition of mechanical devices built to represent sound and accompany music in a visual medium. The earliest created color organs were manual instruments based on the harpsichord design. By the 1900s they were ele ...

. Smith & Howe refer to him constructing a 'Fablichtklavier' (Color pianoforté) and publishing a book , 'Fablichtmusic', in 1925 which describes the genre. He also participated in many Jewish lead charities. In 1938 he came to the United States, starting in Chicago as music professor at the

IIT Institute of Design Institute of Design (ID) at the Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech), founded as the New Bauhaus, is a graduate school teaching systemic, human-centered design. History The Institute of Design at Illinois Tech is a school of design ...

. In the 1940s he was music director at NBC Radio. In Hollywood from about 1944, he wrote the music for several films such as ''

One Body Too Many ''One Body Too Many'' is a 1944 American comedy-mystery film directed by Frank McDonald, starring Bela Lugosi, Jack Haley and Lyle Talbot. Plot A timid insurance salesman Albert L. Tuttle (Jack Haley) visits eccentric millionaire Cyrus J. Ruth ...

'' (1944), ''Charlie Chan and the Chinese Cat'' (1944), ''Scared Stiff'' (1945) and ''Yankee Kafir'' (1947). Also, '' The Great Flamarion'' (1945), ''

The Amazing Mr. X ''The Amazing Mr. X'', also known as ''The Spiritualist'', is a 1948 American horror thriller film noir directed by Bernard Vorhaus with cinematography by John Alton. The film tells the story of a phony spiritualist racket. The film is prominen ...

'' (1949), ''

Tarzan's Magic Fountain ''Tarzan's Magic Fountain'' is a 1949 Tarzan film directed by Lee Sholem and starring Lex Barker as Tarzan and Brenda Joyce as his companion Jane. The film also features Albert Dekker and Evelyn Ankers. It was co-written by Curt Siodmak. This ...

'' (1948), '' Night of the Blood Beast'' (1958), ''

Attack of the Giant Leeches ''Attack of the Giant Leeches'' (originally to be called ''The Giant Leeches'') is an independently made, 1959 black-and-white science fiction film, science fiction-horror film, produced by Gene Corman and directed by Bernard L. Kowalski. It sta ...

'' (1959), '' Beast from Haunted Cave'' (1959) and ''

The Atomic Submarine ''The Atomic Submarine'' is a 1959 independently made, American black-and-white science-fiction film directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet and starring Arthur Franz, Dick Foran, Brett Halsey, Joi Lansing and Jean Moorhead, with John Hilliard as ...

'' (1959), and television series including ''

Rocky Jones, Space Ranger ''Rocky Jones, Space Ranger'' is an American science fiction television serial originally broadcast in syndication from February to November 1954. The show lasted for only two seasons and, though syndicated sporadically, dropped into obscurity. ...

'' and ''

My Little Margie ''My Little Margie'' is an American television situation comedy starring Gale Storm and Charles Farrell that alternated between CBS and NBC from 1952 to 1955. The series was created by Frank Fox and produced in Los Angeles, California, at Hal Ro ...

''. He established a publishing company to collect ASCAP royalties under the name "Alexander Publications."

References

External links

* Th
Alexander Laszlo papers
at th
American Heritage Center
* The reproducing piano rolls may be heard a

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laszlo, Alexander 1895 births 1970 deaths American film score composers American music arrangers Hungarian emigrants to the United States Musicians from Budapest Franz Liszt Academy of Music alumni Hungarian classical pianists Hungarian male musicians Male classical pianists Illinois Institute of Technology faculty 20th-century composers American male film score composers 20th-century American male musicians