Louis Gilrod (1879-1930), was an actor and

lyricist A lyricist is a songwriter who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's income ...

for the

Yiddish theater Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Central European Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satiric or nostalgic revu ...

. Louis Gilrod was born in the village of Ruizana, near Ulanov, Podolia/Poltava region of the Ukraine. At 12 his father brought him to the United States and left him with an uncle in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.hairdressing A hairdresser is a person whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. This is achieved using a combination of hair coloring, haircutting, and hair texturing techniques. A Hairdresser may also be refe ...

business. He was, however, drawn to the stage; at 17 he founded a drama club and began to write lyrics. Actors started to notice him and brought him to New York where he became a professional lyricist. The Yehudah Katzenelenbogen Company (later absorbed into the Hebrew Publishing Company) and other music publishers paid him to write Yiddish parodies of currently popular American songs of

Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley was a collection of music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street ...

. Two of his early successes were and . He wrote the libretto to the operetta ''(The essential Jew)'' (New York, 1909), and for '' The Golden Bride'' in 1923. He also played small roles at the

Thalia Thalia, Thalía, Thaleia or Thalian may refer to: People * Thalia (given name), including a list of people with the name * Thalía (born 1971), Mexican singer and actress Mythological and fictional characters * Thalia (Grace), one of the three ...

and Windsor Theatres and in

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

, for which he wrote one-acters. He worked regularly at the National, the

Irving Place Theatre The Irving Place Theatre was located at the southwest corner of Irving Place and East 15th Street in the Union Square neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1888, it served as a German language theatre, a Yiddish theatre, a burlesq ...

, the Lyric Theater in

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and in 1926 at the public theater. After that ill health forced him to retire from the stage. The last show for which he wrote lyrics was ''Dos freylekhe yesoymele'' of 1930. His wife, Paula Weiss, played in Yiddish vaudeville. He died in New York March 12, 1930.

References

* Zalmen Zylberzweig: ''Der farshtorbener Gilrod hot tsendlike yorn geshribn kupletn,'' Forverts, 14 March 1930. * Yozef Rumshinski: ''Yozef Rumshinsky shraybt vegn ersht farshtorbenem kupletn-shrayber un aktyor Louis Gilrod,'' Forverts March 21, 1930 * Leksikon fun yidishn teater, Band 1:478

External links

Louis Gilrod recordings
at the

Discography of American Historical Recordings The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The DAHR provides some of these original recordings, free of charge, via audio streaming, along with ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilrod, Louis Yiddish theatre performers American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent American musical theatre lyricists Vaudeville performers 1879 births 1930 deaths