Louis Silvers

Louis Silvers was born Louis Silberstein in New York City in 1889. He began as a vaudeville pianist and became musical director for shows produced by the impresario Gus Edwards. In 1921 he composed the music for "April Showers," with lyrics by Buddy DeSylva. Introduced by Al Jolson, it became one of Jolson's signature songs and an enduring standard.

Silvers came to Hollywood in 1927 to work at Warner Bros., where he conducted and arranged the music for The Jazz Singer, the Jolson film that launched the era of talking pictures. Over the following years he worked at Warner, MGM and Columbia, and in all he contributed music to more than 250 films, including Frank Capra's It Happened One Night and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.

At Columbia he headed the music department for One Night of Love (1934), the surprise hit starring opera soprano Grace Moore as an aspiring diva. The film blended operatic arias with a romantic title song by director Victor Schertzinger and lyricist Gus Kahn, and its success sparked a vogue for opera films. That year the Academy introduced its first award for film scoring, and One Night of Love won, with Silvers receiving it as head of Columbia's music department.

Silvers later did some of his finest work at 20th Century-Fox, earning Oscar nominations for In Old Chicago, Suez and Swanee River. He was also musical director of radio's Lux Radio Theatre for several years. He died in Hollywood in 1954.