L. Wolfe Gilbert
Louis Wolfe Gilbert (August 31, 1886 – July 12, 1970) was a Russian-born American songwriter of Tin Pan Alley. He is best remembered as the lyricist for "Ramona" (1928), the first movie theme song ever written.
Also recorded as Louis Wolfe Gilbert
L. Wolfe Gilbert

Internet Archive identifier: sim_billboard_1915-06-19_27_25 https: IA contributor: Internet Archive IA digitizi · Public domain
- Name
- L.
- Birth Name
- Louis Wolfe Gilbert
- Born
- 31 August 1886
- Birthplace
- Odessa, Russian Empire
- Died
- 12 July 1970
- Place of death
- Los Angeles, California
- Occupation
- Songwriter
- Nationality
- United States
- Fields
- traditional pop
- Movements
- Tin Pan Alley
- Education
- Hume-Fogg High School
- Known for
- That's What I Like About the South · Ramona
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Documentary summary
Louis Wolfe Gilbert (August 31, 1886 – July 12, 1970) was a Russian-born American songwriter of Tin Pan Alley. He is best remembered as the lyricist for "Ramona" (1928), the first movie theme song ever written.
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Note VALÉORINE
L. Wolfe Gilbert (1886–1970) was an American composer and songwriter. Born in Odesa, the composer died in Los Angeles.
L. Wolfe Gilbert studied at Hume-Fogg High School. The composer was associated with Tin Pan Alley.
Works include Ramona and That's What I Like About the South. Genres include traditional pop. Languages used include English. Works by L. Wolfe Gilbert are held at Australian National Maritime Museum.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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wikidata · Q329358 · wikipedia · L. Wolfe Gilbert
In this article
Biography
Biography
Wolfe Gilbert studied at Hume-Fogg High School. The recorded working language is English. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are traditional pop. Works named in the authority record are That's What I Like About the South and Ramona. Work by L. Wolfe Gilbert is recorded in the collections of Australian National Maritime Museum.

This page from the September 1929 issue of Photoplay highlights the westward migration of songwriters to Hollywood, drawn by the booming film and music industries and the promise of success exemplified by the hit "California, Here I Come!" It explores how the motion picture industry has absorbed music publishing, elevating songwriters to new prominence in entertainment culture. People mentioned in
Photoplay · Internet Archive

My Own Iona (Moi oné Ionae) L Wolfe Gilbert Anatol Friedland Carey Morgan D Onivas 1916 Jos W Stern Gustavo Sandoval López library
Correogsk
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — L. Wolfe Gilbert • Children — Doris Gilbert • Birth Name — Louis Wolfe Gilbert • Born — 31 August 1886 • Birthplace — Odessa, Russian Empire • Died — 12 July 1970 • Place of death — Los Angeles, California • Other Names — Wolfie Gilbert • Occupation — Songwriter • Years Active — 1912–1945
Biography
Biography
• Illustration — "Ramona" (1928), by Gilbert and Mabel Wayne, was the first theme song ever written for the movies. • Illustration — William Grant Still, Gilbert, W. C. Handy, Frank Drye and Andy Razaf in Los Angeles in 1954 • Illustration — Gilbert (far right) in 1966 Born in Odessa, Ukraine, then in the Russian Empire, Gilbert moved to the United States as a young man. Gilbert began his career touring with John L. Sullivan and singing in a quartet at small Coney Island café called College Inn, where he was discovered by English producer Albert Decourville. Decourville brought him to London as part of The Ragtime Octet. Gilbert's first songwriting success came in 1912, when F. A. Mills Music Publishers published his song "Waiting For the Robert E. Lee" (melody by composer Lewis F. Muir). Gilbert later wrote both the words and music to "Down Yonder", a sequel to "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee". "Down Yonder" has become something of a standard as an instrumental, though the lyrics are rarely performed. He joined ASCAP in 1924. Gilbert moved to Hollywood in 1929, and began writing for film, television, and radio (including the Eddie Cantor show). During the 1930s, Gilbert worked on Cuban songs that helped to popularize the rumba in America. Some of these hits for which he wrote English lyrics include "The Peanut Vendor", "Mama Inez", and "Maria My Own". Gilbert wrote the theme lyrics for the popular children's Television Western Hopalong Cassidy, which first aired in 1949 on NBC. He was an innovator in his field, having been one of the first songwriters to begin publishing and promoting a catalog of his own works. He served as the director of ASCAP from 1941 to 1944, and again in 1953. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. Known as "Wolfie", Gilbert and his wife Kate (nee Oestreicher) lived in Beverly Hills, and he and his family were members of Temple Israel of Hollywood. After Kate's passing he married Rose Hirschfield. He died in Los Angeles, California on July 12, 1970. His original gravesite was at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City (Mausoleum, Court of Sages, Crypt 223) but he was later reinterred at Forest Lawn Cemetery (Cathedral City) near Palm Springs, California.
Songs
Songs
• 1906 "My Own Iona" (music by Anatol Friedland and Carey Morgan, arr. by D. Onivas/Domenico Savino) • 1912 "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee" (music by Lewis F. Muir) • 1912 "Hitchy-Koo" (music by Lewis F. Muir and Maurice Abrahams, recorded by Collins & Harlan) • 1912 "Ragging the Baby to Sleep" (music by Lewis F. Muir) • 1912 "Take Me to that Swanee Shore" (music by Lewis F. Muir) • 1913 "Mammy Jinny's Mubilee" (music by Lewis F. Muir) • 1914 "By Heck" (music by S. R. Henry) • 1914 "She's Dancing Her Heart Away" (music by Kerry Mills) • 1915 "My Sweet Adair" (music by Anatole Friedland) • 1916 "I Miss You Miss America" (music by Lee S. Roberts) • 1916 "I've Got the Army Blues" (with Carey Morgan) • 1916 "My Hawaiian Sunrise" (music by Carey Morgan, recorded by Henry Burr and Albert C. Campbell) • 1917 "Are You From Heaven?" (music by Anatole Friedland) • 1917 "Camouflage" (with Anatole Friedland) • 1917 "Lily of the Valley" (music by Anatole Friedland) • 1917 "Set Aside Your Tears (Till the Boys Come Marching Home)" (with Malvin Franklin and Anatole Friedland) • 1921 "Down Yonder" • 1924 "O, Katharina" (music by Richard Fall) • 1925 "Don't Wake Me Up, Let Me Dream" (music by Mabel Wayne) • 1925 "I Miss My Swiss" (music by Abel Baer) • 1926 "Hello, Aloha, How Are You?" (music by Abel Baer) • 1927 "Lucky Lindy!" (music by Abel Baer) • 1928 "Are You Thinking of Me Tonight?" (music by Harry Akst and Benny Davis, recorded by Al Bowlly with John Abriani's Six) • 1928 "Ramona" (music by Mabel Wayne, recorded by Whispering Jack Smith, Paul Whiteman Orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke, and Gene Austin) • 1928 "Jeannine, I Dream of Lilac Time" (music by Nathaniel Shilkret, recorded by over a hundred artists) • 1928 "Zindele Meins" ("Zindele mayns"), the Yiddish version of "Sonny Boy" sung by Pesach Burstein • 1929 "My Mother's Eyes" (music by Abel Baer) • 1931 "Marta" (music by Moises Simons, recorded by (Arthur Tracy, The Street Singer) • 1931 "Mama Inez" (music Eliseo Grenet)
Lyrics for Broadway productions
Lyrics for Broadway productions
• 1912 The Girl from Brighton • 1912–1913 (From) Broadway to Paris • 1916–1917 The Century Girl • 1917 Doing Our Bit • 1919 Oh, What A Girl! • 1931 The Singing Rabbi
Gilbert & Friedland
Gilbert & Friedland
Gilbert & Friedland was a music publishing partnership between composer, performer, and songwriter Anatole Friedland (also sometimes spelled Anatol Friedland and Anato Friedland) and lyricist L. Wolfe Gilbert. • "Are You from Heaven?" • "Then You Can Come Back to Me" (1918) • "While You're Away" (1918) • "That Beloved Cheater of Mine", from film The Beloved Cheater • "Singapore (1918), Rector Novelty Orchestra, a ragtime song • "Shades of Gray" • "Love is a Wonderful Thing"
Identity
Identity
What the record establishes about L. Wolfe Gilbert is recorded with the occupation songwriter. Wolfe Gilbert is recorded as a citizen of United States. Wolfe Gilbert is classed in the genre traditional pop.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1886
L. Wolfe Gilbert was born on 31 August 1886.
1970
L. Wolfe Gilbert died on 13 July 1970.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Odesa.
Birth place
Los Angeles.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “L. Wolfe Gilbert”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q329358: L. Wolfe Gilbert
General reference · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Songwriters Hall of Fame - Member Update Exhibit Home. www.songwritershalloffame.org.
- 2.Wolfie Gilbert in Chicago. Billboard. 29. 14. June 16, 1917.
- 3.L. Wolfe Gilbert. Daily News. 91. July 13, 1970.
- 4.Shaw, Arnold. The Jazz Age: Popular Music in the 1920s. Oxford University Press. 114. 1987. 0195038916.
- 5.Firmat, Gustavo Pérez. The Havana Habit. Yale University Press. 81. 2010. 9780300168761.
- 6.L. Wolfe Gilbert, Composer, Dead. Wrote 'Ramona' and Many Other Successful Songs. New York Times. July 13, 1970.
- 7.Parker, Bernard S. World War I Sheet Music - Volume 1. McFarland & Company, Inc. 70, 255, 321. 2007. 978-0-7864-2798-7.
- 8.League, The Broadway. L. Wolfe Gilbert – Broadway Cast & Staff - IBDB.
- 9.Music Trades Corporation. Music Trades. December 9, 1918.
- 10.Billboard Publications. Billboard. December 9, 1917.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 4
- Bierley, Paul E.; Rehrig, William H. The heritage encyclopedia of band music. Composers and their music, Integrity Press 1991.
- Bloom, Ken. American song. The complete musical theater companion: 1877-1995. Volume 2: T-Z. Second edition. Schirmer Books 1996.
- Gilbert, L. Wolfe. Without Rhyme or Reason, Vantage Press 1956.
- Larkin, Colin. The encyclopedia of popular music, third edition. Macmillan 1998.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
The identifiers under which L. Wolfe Gilbert may be traced in institutional catalogues. Work and production. Works recorded as notable number 2: That's What I Like About the South and Ramona. His recorded genre is traditional pop.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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