Baby It’s Loesser Inside

David Lewis: Frank’s interest was in pop music, which his father (a distinguished German-born teacher of classical piano) disdained. So he taught himself, first the harmonica, then the piano in his early teens.

The Songwriters Hall of Fame : Loesser’s first published song was “In Love With the Memory of You”, with music by William Schuman (later Schuman would become a serious composer and the President of Julliard School of Music).

BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL : In 1935, Loesser performed in a club with a singer called Lynn Garland (born Mary Alice Blankenbaker). They were married on Oct. 19, 1936; they had two children.

IMDB : Frank Henry Loesser appeared as an actor in one film, the slapstick Red, Hot and Blue (1949), in which, opposite Betty Hutton and Victor Mature, he delivered a most colorful portrayal of a piano-dabbling hoodlum chieftain.

The New York Times : Largely unknown by name until the 1942 hit “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition,” Loesser became increasingly famous during his years at Paramount Pictures on the strength of such songs as “I Don’t Want to Walk Without You, Baby,” and “Jingle Jangle Jingle.”

Amazon.com : Frank Loesser was that rare bird: a skillful stage composer and brilliant writer of song lyrics. Riis”s deeply researched and musically astute study shows us what makes a great show such as Guys and Dolls tick.-Ralph P. Locke, Professor of Musicology, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester (Ralph P. Locke )

PBS : Loesser may have been the only person to arrive in Hollywood as a lyricist and to leave as a composer. Originally, he only wrote the words to songs such as “Dolores,” and “They’re Either Too Young or Too Old.” Later on however, he wrote both words and music to such songs as “I Wish I Didn’t Love You So Much,” and “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”

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