Pauline Alpert
 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Pauline Edeth Alpert Rooff (December 27, 1905 - April 11, 1988) was a pianist who performed, composed, recorded, and produced Duo-Art piano rolls in the United States. Known by her fans as the 'Whirlwind Pianist',[1] she performed in several films and made recordings with a few record labels. She did radio shows in New York City and toured.[2]
Career[edit]
She made numerous Victor Records recordings.[3][4] She recorded the album Sparkling Piano Melodies on Sonora Records. She sometimes recorded under the pseudonym Peggy Anderson.[2] She toured across the United States, Canada, and South America. She played in the White House three times, performing for Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman.[5][6]
She performed during the intermission of the Broadway show Rufus LeMaire's Affairs in 1927.[7] She featured in two Vitaphone Varieties short film episodes dated March 1927.
Pauline Alpert's folio of modern piano songs includes her compositions:
- Dream of a Doll
- March of the Blues
- Night of Romance
- Ivory Tips
- Piano Poker
- The Merry Minnow
- Perils of Pauline[8]
Her later compositions include Mindin' the Baby, A Happy New Year to Love, and Tut Tut.[2]
She performed for NBC and CBS, including in guest solo spots with Paul Whiteman, Rudy Vallée, and Fred Allen.[1] She had her own semi-weekly program for the WOR Radio Network in New York City.[1]
A recording of her playing Doll Dance is on the 1981 album Ragtime Piano Novelties of the 20's.[9]
Discography[edit]
Filmography[edit]
Personal Life[edit]
Pauline was born in New York and spent her childhood in Rochester.[5] Her father was Samuel Alpert, a Russian immigrant and painter, and her mother was Anna Rosk, a native New Yorker and skilled musician.[2][5] To support her family's poor finances, as an 11 year old, she would give piano lessons for 25 cents.[5] She won a four year scholarship to the Eastman School of Music and received a classical training.[5][12]
Pauline married Dr. Sidney Rooff in 1940, they had no children.[5]
Legacy[edit]
Pauline's work is included in the 2014 book by Peter Mintun compiling popular piano roll and novelty song artists from the 1920s and 1930s, Novelty Masterpieces of the Gershwin Era: The Music of Zez Confrey, Pauline Alpert and Rube Bloom.[13]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c "Pauline Alpert Collection – Sibley Music Library". Retrieved 2024-06-11.
- ^ a b c d e "Pauline Edeth Alpert Rooff". RagPiano.com.
- ^ "Alpert, Pauline - Discography of American Historical Recordings". adp.library.ucsb.edu.
- ^ "| RSA". rsa.fau.edu.
- ^ a b c d e f Wilkes, Galen (May 1988). "Pauline Alpert Remembered" (PDF). The AMICA News Bulletin. pp. 139–141. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 11, 2024. Retrieved June 11, 2024.
- ^ "Now At State". The Centralia Enterprise and Tribune. 1897-10-16. p. 10. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
- ^ "Pauline Alpert – Broadway Cast & Staff | IBDB". www.ibdb.com.
- ^ Pauline Alpert's folio of modern piano songs. November 15, 2021. OCLC 39792230 – via Open WorldCat.
- ^ "Doll Dance | Smithsonian Folkways Recordings".
- ^ "Pt's Historic Recordings". NPR.org.
- ^ What Price Piano (1927) at the Wayback Machine (archived 2021-11-15)
- ^ "Article clipped from Detroit Free Press". Detroit Free Press. 1927-11-27. p. 56. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
- ^ Mintun, Peter (2014). Novelty Masterpieces of the Gershwin Era: The Music of Zez Confrey, Pauline Alpert and Rube Bloom. Dover Publications (published November 19, 2014). ISBN 978-0486490922.