BBC News | MUSIC | Larry Adler: Mouth organ virtuoso Tuesday, 7 August, 2001, 08:45 GMT 09:45 UK Larry Adler: Mouth organ virtuoso Larry Adler made the mouth organ a revered artform Virtuoso musician Larry Adler has died aged 87, having elevated the humble harmonica from being a playground toy to a serious concert hall instrument. Larry Adler was the best-known mouth organist in the world. His music for the classic film Genevieve in 1953 made him a wealthy man - and famous in England, his adopted home. His life was a who's who of celebrity associations. He played with everyone from Fred Astaire to Sir Elton John and counted kings and prime ministers among his friends. Lawrence Cecil Adler was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on 10 February 1914, the son of Louis and Sadie Adler. At the age of five, he was taken to a Rachmaninov concert and developed his own musical skills within the framework of the Adler family's orthodox Judaism.

He was the youngest cantor, singer in a synagogue, in Baltimore and made himself unpopular by chiding his schoolmates for their lack of religious piety. Runaway He was enrolled at the prestigious Peabody School of Music to study the piano. Larry Adler: friend of Chaplin and Ingrid Bergman Shortly afterwards he started playing the harmonica, which he always called a "mouth organ". Still a teenager, he ran away to New York where, with his parents' eventual consent, he became a professional musician. Adler's virtuosity was such that he could pick out a tune simply by hearing it once and he brought to the harmonica the musical richness which was once the reserve of purely classical soloists. The Chicago Herald said Adler was able to produce "a tone reminiscent of many instruments, which tone is as varied as those that emerge from a symphony orchestra". After seeing Adler play in New York in 1934, the English impresario C B Cochrane was so impressed that he immediately offered to sign the young man to star in his London review, Streamline. Before long he was playing for, and being f�ted by, the crowned heads of Europe as well as former monarchs like the Duke of Windsor.

Respectable In the 30s and 40s he worked with everyone from big bands to George Gershwin and the British composer Vaughan Williams, who wrote a work especially for him. To many he was the man who made the mouth organ respectable - though he never meant to. George Gershwin was a major influence He once admitted, "All I wanted to do was to get the hell out of Baltimore, which I hated. I wanted to go on the stage, which I was magnetically drawn to." A friend of the stars, Charlie Chaplin was a personal friend and he romanced such screen goddesses as Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman. The war years saw Larry Adler entertaining Allied troops. It ended with him personally liberating the Hohner harmonica factory in Germany. The company rewarded him with a crateful of the instruments. But Adler's life changed forever in 1949. While on a tour of Britain, he was called to testify to the McCarthyite House Un-American Activities Committee. Refusing to do so, he stayed and made his home in England. Gershwin Branded a communist in his homeland where he was blacklisted, Larry Adler re-built his life.

A friend of The Duke of Edinburgh, he belonged to theThursday Club, whose members, including the actors David Niven and Peter Ustinov, enjoyed long, boozy, lunches at Wheeler's restaurant in London's Soho. Sir Elton John called him "a genius" Like his hero George Gershwin, Larry Adler understood both jazz and classical music. He introduced Gershwin's music to classical stars like the violinist Yitzhak Perlman. Gershwin produced a piano-roll accompaniment for perhaps his most famous work, Rhapsody in Blue, for Larry Adler to play to. Right into his late 80s, he would delight audiences with the haunting spectacle of the playerless piano backing his music, an echo through the ages which never failed to spellbind. Celebrity In recent years, Larry Adler had become known to a younger audience through The Glory of Gershwin, the platinum-selling album of critically-acclaimed duets with modern stars like Sting, Lisa Stansfield and Meatloaf.

Tom Jones, whom he knew but did not perform with, held him in great affection, as did Sir Elton John who once remarked, "Larry Adler is a genius and the greatest player of his instrument ever." Most recently, he recorded a version of Tony Bennett's The Autumn Leaves, with the Catatonia singer, Cerys Matthews. He had a parallel career as a celebrity, a raconteur and funnyman. He wrote endless letters to the satirical magazine Private Eye. But Larry Adler's real achievement was to take the harmonica, until then thought of as a children's toy, onto the concert stages of the world. WATCH/LISTEN 1000+ images about Larry Adler on Pinterest | Jack benny, Toulon and Instruments Forward Larry Adler (1914 - 2001) Musician. He was a legendary harmonica player who played with everyone from George Gershwin to Sting, and was credited with elevating the instrument to a level of respectability. Singer Billie Holiday once told him, "Man you don't play that thing--you sing it." He was known to hear a song only twice before mimicking long passages of a score.

See More Larry Adler, Political Exile Who Brought the Harmonica to Concert Stage, Dies at 87 - The New York Times The New York Times Arts |Larry Adler, Political Exile Who Brought the Harmonica to Concert Stage, Dies at 87 Search Larry Adler, Political Exile Who Brought the Harmonica to Concert Stage, Dies at 87 By RICHARD SEVERO Continue reading the main story Correction Appended Larry Adler, a harmonica player of enormous sensitivity whose advocacy and artistry helped elevate the instrument to concert status, died yesterday at a London hospital. He was 87 and had lived in Britain since the early 1950's, when he was blacklisted for his political views and his career in America effectively ended. In performances that spanned seven decades, Mr. Adler brought dignity to the harmonica, which was previously regarded as either a toy or an instrument for amateurs. He not only introduced the ''mouth organ,'' as he called it, into the concert hall, but also persuaded important composers, among them Darius Milhaud, Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton, Malcolm Arnold and JoaquÛn Rodrigo, to create works specifically for him.

He also proved that the unadorned harmonica could provide an eloquent score for an entire motion picture. Mr. Adler and his performing partner, the tap dancer Paul Draper, were denounced as Communist sympathizers in 1948. They sued for libel but were unable to win full vindication. Mr. Adler, a celebrated star who had been earning up to $200,000 a year, suddenly could not find employment. He departed for Britain, where he remained a star of the first rank. He earned household-name status there as much for his lively and humorous public personality as for his musicianship. Although a self-described ''left-minded kid,'' Mr. Adler steadfastly denied he had ever supported the Communist cause but refused to take a loyalty oath or mute his criticism of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Continue reading the main story ''I can't understand Marx,'' he said in 1971. ''Communist literature, brochures and stuff didn't mean anything to me.'' But he continued to insist that imagined or even real Communists should not be deprived of their ability to earn a living, since being a Communist was not against the law.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story Lawrence Cecil Adler was born on Feb. 10, 1914, in Baltimore, the eldest of two sons of Louis Adler, a peripatetic plumber (''Adler's Plumbing Shop on Wheels'' was the name of his business) and the former Sadie Hack. His parents were both born in Russia and were brought to the United States as infants. He was fascinated by music from an early age, and sang in the neighborhood synagogue. His parents had an old piano and arranged for him to take lessons. He loved it. So much so, in fact, that he walked into a music store in downtown Baltimore and talked the proprietor into sending a new $2,500 piano to his home. The modest piano on which he had started was no longer good enough. When his father recoiled at the cost, the proprietor of the music store, a man named Levin, replied, ''Could you afford 50 cents a week?'' And they worked out a time-payment plan. As a youngster, Larry Adler sold newspapers and magazines on the streets of Baltimore to earn enough money to purchase phonograph records and tickets to classical concerts.

He enrolled in the Peabody School of Music in Baltimore for piano training, but stayed only a short time. Instead of playing a Grieg waltz, as the school had expected, he made a face and pounded out, ''Yes, We Have No Bananas.'' He was expelled from Peabody, he said, for being ''incorrigible, untalented and entirely lacking in ear.'' (In 1985 he returned to Peabody and received an honorary degree.) The store owner who sold the Adlers the new piano also had given the young man a harmonica as a sort of commission. He taught himself to play it. Some of his friends did the same thing, practicing on time-tested favorites like ''Home on the Range'' and ''St. Louis Blues.'' The young Adler also taught himself to play classical selections by ear. One day he learned that The Baltimore Sun was sponsoring a harmonica-playing contest and he immediately entered it. All the other contestants played tunes like ''Turkey in the Straw''; Larry Adler surprised the judges with a patrician reading of Beethoven's ''Minuet in G'' and won the prize.

The harmonica, he said, ''was just a means of getting the hell away from Baltimore.'' In 1928, at age 14, he said, he left home with $7 in his pocket and headed for New York. He lived in cheap rooms and played his harmonica in the streets around Times Square, hoping a talent agent would discover him. He auditioned for Borrah Minevitch and His Harmonica Rascals, which was the biggest harmonica act in show business, but was rejected. Minevitch listened carefully, looked at young Adler, and said, ''Kid, you stink.'' Undeterred, Mr. Adler persuaded the bandleader Rudy Vallee to listen to him play. Vallee heard something that Minevitch hadn't heard and invited him to appear with him at a Manhattan club. That led to other jobs; at one point, Florenz Ziegfeld hired him for ''Smiles,'' a musical revue. Advertisement Continue reading the main story For all his increasing success, Mr. Adler played by ear and from memory after listening to phonograph records; he couldn't even read music until he was in his late 20's and well into his career.

He once said that he agreed to learn only at the behest of Milhaud, who explained that unless he learned to understand what all those little notes meant, he'd never be able to perform the music that was being written for him, music that he'd never be able to hear on a phonograph record or the radio. In 1934, Mr. Adler landed a small role in a movie called ''Many Happy Returns.'' That same year, he was booked at the Paramount in New York, where he was seen by C. B. Cochran, a British producer, and hired to appear in a London production called ''Streamline.'' Audiences liked him in London, so much so that the British built an entire revue around him called ''Tune Inn.'' Soon there was a tremendous increase in harmonica sales and there were Larry Adler fan clubs throughout Britain. By the late 1930's, he realized, he was better known in England than he was in his own country. He returned to the United States and got some jobs playing with the pianist Eddie Duchin. The columnist Leonard Lyons helped him find some spots in New York nightclubs.

He got a few more movie roles, and his credits included ''The Singing Marine'' (1937); ''The Big Broadcast of 1937,'' in which he appeared with Jack Benny; ''St. Martin's Lane'' (1938); ''Sidewalks of London'' (1940); ''Music for Millions'' (1945); and ''The Birds and the Bees'' (1947). Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy He began his association with the dancer Paul Draper before World War II, appearing with him at Carnegie Hall and at City Center in New York, and on a tour of United States Army camps during World War II. During the war he also entertained the troops with Jack Benny and with Ingrid Bergman, with whom he had an affair. Mr. Adler and Mr. Draper began to hear criticism of their political views in the late 1940's, particularly for their support of 19 Hollywood writers, including Alvah Bessie, Ring Lardner Jr.

and Dalton Trumbo, who had been summoned before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. In 1948, a club in Birmingham, Ala., announced that it was ''exceedingly embarrassed'' because Mr. Adler and Mr. Draper had appeared at the club immediately before speaking at a rally for Henry Wallace, who was running for president as the Progressive Party candidate. Mr. Adler and Mr. Draper issued a joint reply: ''We have done our best as artists and do not intend to let anything stop us from doing our best as citizens.'' The contretemps made headlines, and inspired some angry editorials. In December 1948, a Connecticut woman, Hester T. McCullough, sought to prevent Mr. Adler and Mr. Draper from appearing before the Greenwich Concert Association. In a letter to the group, published in Greenwich Time, a daily newspaper, Mrs. McCullough said the two men were ''pro-Communist in sympathy'' and ''exponents of a line of thinking directly opposed to every democratic principle upon which our great country has been founded.'' As a result of her protest, their performance was canceled. Mr. Adler and Mr.

Draper sued for libel, each asking $100,000 in damages. The suit became a cause célèbre, prompting Westbrook Pegler, the columnist, to call for contributions to help pay for Mrs. McCullough's defense. The suit came to trial in Federal District Court in Hartford, and ended in a hung jury on May 27, 1950. The case was dismissed on Sept. 30, 1951. The performers said they lacked the funds for more litigation. Advertisement Continue reading the main story By 1952, Mr. Adler had left the United States to live in London with his wife and family and remained there for the rest of his life, performing regularly and making recordings of classical and popular music. After his first return engagement in 1959, Mr. Adler's visits to his native land grew more frequent. In 1975 he and Mr. Draper reunited for a concert at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Draper died at 86 in 1996. Mr. Adler's marriage to Eileen Walser, an English model, ended in divorce as did his second marriage, to Sally Cline.

He is survived by a son, Peter, and two daughters, Carole and Wendy, from his first marriage; a daughter, Katelyn, from his second; two granddaughters; and two great-grandchildren. During his years in Britain, Mr. Adler wrote articles for American newspapers and restaurant reviews and articles about food for several British publications. In the mid-1960's, he wrote a book called ''Jokes and How to Tell Them.'' Despite his efforts to bring the harmonica to the concert stage, Mr. Adler said he thought the instrument would always be grounded in cowboy songs and blues. ''I can play it for the next hundred years and it won't change that,'' he said in 1984. He said he wasn't bitter about his political experiences and suggested more than once that if he had to do it over again, he would have chosen the same course. ''Resist the pressure to conform,'' he would tell young people.

''Better be a lonely individualist than a contented conformist.'' Correction: August 13, 2001, Monday An obituary of the harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler on Wednesday referred incorrectly to ''Smiles,'' a Florenz Ziegfeld stage production in which he appeared. It was a musical play, not a revue. The obituary also referred incorrectly to his film role credits for ''St. Martin's Lane'' and ''Sidewalks of London.'' The titles represent a single film -- the first as released in Britain, in 1938, the second in the United States, in 1940. Correction: August 20, 2001, Monday An obituary of the harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler on Aug. 8 misstated the name and release date of a film in which he appeared. It is ''Three Daring Daughters'' (1948, not 1947); ''The Birds and the Bees'' was a working title before its release.

Enjoy Music - Play Hohner - Larry Adler 64 C Larry Adler 64 C Dedicated to the most famous harmonica solist in the world, responsible for bringing the instrument to a mass audience for the first time HOME » Instruments » Harmonicas » Diatonic Harmonicas » Larry Adler 64 C Larry Adler 64 C Larry Adler 64 Larry Adler is the most famous chromatic harmonica player in the world, responsible for bringing the instrument to a mass audience for the first time through his ground-breaking work in films, musicals and on the concert stage. The models bearing his name enjoy continued popularity with both professional and amateur harmonicists. Features Larry Adler on Apple Music To preview a song, mouse over the title and click Play. Open iTunes to buy and download music. Biography Larry Adler was an internationally renowned harmonica virtuoso whose jazz and European classical interpretations brought unprecedented amount of attention and acclaim to the humble mouth organ. The son of Russian Jewish immigrants (the family name was changed from Zelakovitch), Lawrence Cecil Adler was born on February 10, 1914 in Baltimore.

His first performing idol was Al Jolson; he also admired comedian George Jessel and worked as a sidekick for Eddie Cantor, whom he resembled. Adler's career as a professional mouth organist began when, at the age of 14, he won a statewide harmonica competition with an abbreviated rendition of Beethoven's Minuet in G. He then surprised his family by moving to New York City without parental permission. After briefly serving as an intermission performer for Rudy Vallée, he convinced bandleader Paul Ash to help him secure a $100 per week contract with a traveling variety show that entertained audiences between films in Paramount theaters. Adler's direct involvement with cinema began when he synchronized a harmonica solo with the soundtrack of a newly developed animated "sound cartoon." He recorded with vocalist Ruth Etting and appeared with her, Gus Edwards, and tap dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson at Broadway's Palace Theater in 1929, and in Flo Ziegfeld's Smiles with Fred and Adele Astaire in 1931.

The catalyst for a turning point in Adler's career was Maurice Ravel's Bolero, which he initially presented at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, using a dance band arrangement by Hal Kemp. As a part of a "prologue" to Eddie Cantor's film Roman Scandals, Adler performed Bolero at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Unfamiliar with the time signature of the work as written and convinced that the orchestra was lagging, he improvised wildly while waving his free arm as if "chopping an invisible tree." This extroverted display, which he would later describe as "corny Sturm und Drang," brought down the house and earned him immediate renown. Adler became a high-profile participant in Hollywood social life. In 1934 he appeared in the film Many Happy Returns with Ray Milland, Burns & Allen, and Duke Ellington, and was filmed in heavy "Chinese" makeup for a sequence in Busby Berkeley's The Singing Marine. Adler performed duets with George Gershwin, whose "Rhapsody in Blue" would become one of the staples in his repertoire, which also included mouth organ adaptations of violin concerti by Antonio Vivaldi and J.S.

Bach as well as works composed expressly for him and his instrument by Malcolm Arnold, Arthur Benjamin, Jean Berger, Darius Milhaud, Cyril Scott, Graham Whettam, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Adler's adventures as a jazz musician included making records with Gypsy swing guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1938. He later wrote: "If I work with an Ellington, a Django, a Bill Evans, a Dizzy Gillespie, I play at the top of my form or even beyond it. I know that I could not duplicate the solos I recorded with Django Reinhardt, because there is no longer a Django to inspire me." During World War II, Adler performed worldwide, often appearing with comedian Jack Benny and at one point obtaining an emergency ration of mouth organs from the newly liberated Hohner factory at Trossingen in the Black Forest. An outspoken opponent of "any dogma that puts the mind in blinkers and forbids the free discussion of ideas," Adler was blacklisted during Senator Joseph McCarthy's witch hunts, and his Academy Award-nominated score for the film Genevieve was credited to studio orchestra conductor Muir Mathieson.

In dramatic contrast to this indignity, Adler was the first person from the U.S.A. to receive the coveted Grand Prix du Disque for his recording of "Le Grisbi," a melody used in the French gangster film Touchez-pas au Grisbi, starring Jean Gabin. He performed and recorded with some of the world's top conductors, and claimed that the "musical high point" of his life occurred at the Royal Albert Hall in 1952 when he played before the London Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of Sir Malcolm Sargent. Adler spent most of the second half of his life in the U.K.; was featured with violinist Itzhak Perlman in a telecast duet performance of "Summertime" in 1981; collaborated with Sting on Ten Summoner's Tales; accompanied vocalist Kate Bush in a version of "The Man I Love" in 1994 on his last great project, the all-star tribute album The Glory of Gershwin; and passed away in London on August 7, 2001, at the age of 87.

Larry Adler's autobiography, It Ain't Necessarily So, is filled with historic insights and the sort of humorous gut-level honesty that characterized his personality. ~ arwulf arwulf Top Albums Larry Adler - Harmonica Virtuoso - Amazon.com Music Harmonica Virtuoso Audio CD, November 11, 2009 "Please retry" Garth Brooks Streaming Exclusively on Amazon Music With Amazon Music Unlimited you can listen to every album by Garth Brooks. Learn more Add to Cart Harmonica Virtuoso $5.48 Free Shipping for Prime Members | Fast, FREE Shipping with Amazon Prime Only 1 left in stock. Sold by seamistenchantedtreasures and Fulfilled by Amazon . Gift-wrap available. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and . If you're a seller, Fulfillment by Amazon can help you increase your sales. We invite you to learn more about Fulfillment by Amazon .

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Next Special Offers and Product Promotions Editorial Reviews Harmonica Virtuoso by Larry Adler This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply. Stream Harmonica Virtuoso by Larry Adler and tens of millions of other songs on all your devices with Amazon Music Unlimited . Exclusive discount for Prime members. Sample this album Artist (Sample) 1 Listen Now $0.89 Sold by Amazon Digital Services LLC. Additional taxes may apply. By placing your order, you agree to our Terms of Use . Product Details Audio CD (November 11, 2009) Number of Discs: 1 By peter krampert on January 5, 2002 Format: Audio CD Larry Adler was the first and perhaps the greatest classical harmonica soloist. This album is definitely my favorite. Originally recorded around the early sixties, this album captures Adler when he was still at his peak without the time constraints imposed by earlier recording technologies. It is truly a must-have album. This CD contains seven selections, including several Adler signature tune; "Rhapsody In Blue", Ravel's "Bolero" and Enesco's "Roumanian Rhapsody".

Also included are Chagrin's "Roumanian Rhapsody", Granados "Spanish Dance", Benjamin's "Jamaician Rhumba" and Bizet's "Carmen Suites". Adler depth of feeling and technical wizardy showcase the harmonica as an instrument not to be sneered at. In his hands, the lowly harmonica became the equal of the finest Stradivarius. I often used selections from this CD to introduce newcomers to the instrument, it is easily capable of destroying any preconceptions a person might have as to the limitations of the harmonica. No collection of harmonica recordings would be complete without having this included. Amazon.com: Hohner Larry Adler Professional 16, Key of C: Musical Instruments Hohner Larry Adler Professional 16, Key of C Get it as soon as Jan. 23 - 26 when you choose Standard Shipping at checkout. Ships from and sold by OJCommerce . Plays 4 full chromatic octaves 64 Brass reeds Fitted with wind saving valves for greater tone and volume Comes with carrying case $318.59 & FREE Shipping In stock. Ships from and sold by OJCommerce .

Sponsored Products Related To This Item (What's this?) Page 1 of 1 Start over Sponsored Products are advertisements for products sold by merchants on Amazon.com. When you click on a Sponsored Product ad, you will be taken to an Amazon detail page where you can learn more about the product and purchase it. To learn more about Amazon Sponsored Products, click here . Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1 This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading. Next Special Offers and Product Promotions 0 out of 5 stars (0) 4 out of 5 stars (17) 4 out of 5 stars (29) 3 out of 5 stars (24) Price Compare with similar items Product Description Chromatic harmonicas are designed to play every complete scale in any key. Each single hole contains four reeds: two natural notes and two chromatic notes. The reeds for chromatic notes are enabled by pushing the slide button on the side of the harmonica. This design offers a wealth of new musical options to the player.

Most often, chromatic harmonicas are heard within the classical and jazz scenes, but...chromatics are frequently found in blues, folk, rock and pop music. A very classical chromonica series, played - amongst others - by Larry Adler, one of the greatest harmonica virtuosos of all time. Excellent response and full sound. Product Information Obituary: Larry Adler | News | The Guardian The Guardian browse all sections close Larry Adler Mouth-organ virtuoso who earned the respect of serious composers and witnessed the golden years of Hollywood and Broadway Larry Adler Mouth-organ virtuoso who earned the respect of serious composers and witnessed the golden years of Hollywood and Broadway Share on Messenger Close Larry Adler, who has died in hospital after a short illness, aged 87, wasn't just the world's best-known player of the mouth organ (he did not like the word "harmonica"; even his pure silver instruments were simply mouth organs, and he was proud of the fact), he was the man who gave it dignity - and earned the respect of serious composers who queued to have him play their work. He was also the best-known raconteur about the great days of Broadway and Hollywood.

It would have been nice to say that the little man with the big eyes and incredibly long fingers was the media's "favourite" raconteur about the great days of Broadway and Hollywood. But he was used so often as a witness to those times that, to their shame, broadcasters in particular began to tire of him. As he said when he wrote his autobiography: "I thought of calling it Name-Drops Keep Falling on My Head after someone said, 'Damn it Adler, can't you even tell me the time without dragging in Sammy Davis Jr?' " In the end he called the book It Ain't Necessarily So - because "I don't know what the hell I'm talking about and when I play It Ain't Necessarily So, I'll be plugging my book." The truth was that he did know what he was talking about. Ignoring that fact was the broadcasters' big mistake - because not only did Adler have first-hand knowledge of the glory years of American showbusiness, but well into his mid-80s he told the stories better than anyone else.

He was, after all, probably the last living link with George Gershwin, with whom he played so often that the composer said he wished he had written Rhapsody In Blue especially for the mouth organ. Adler was an intimate of Fred Astaire. He played with him on Broadway and there are few, if any, other veterans of that show still surviving. The man who gave him that part was the impresario Florenz Ziegfeld. Apart from a very few, very aged "Ziegfeld Girls", he is probably the last in that line, too. Eddie Cantor was one of his early patrons. He played for years with Jack Benny. In the 1930s he made a film with Vivien Leigh. He was at parties with all the Hollywood moguls. Were these just the boastings of an old-time performer? That was probably what the more ignorant media producers thought - except that so much of it was documented. Records, theatre bills, correspondence and a thousand photographs give witness to the fact. Anyone wanting an explanation for all that only has to think about the dates involved. Adler was a child star who, unlike most juvenile performers, went on being a star until the end of his life.

In 1994, he became the oldest artist ever to be awarded a gold disc for a million-selling album - appropriately of Gershwin melodies, accompanying entertainers from a different generation such as Elton John, Sting and Kate Bush. In the same year, he released an album in which he accompanied Gershwin himself - actually, piano rolls made by the composer which are supposed to sound identical to the original. More praise was heaped on him then, although now he was used to getting the plaudits of his public. But when the then 80-year-old entertainer stood to take a bow at one of his numerous birthday celebrations, it was not the music industry he was thanking, but the British people. To the end of his days, he sounded American and his memories were practically all transatlantic. But it was Britain that had given him a home 45 years earlier when he became a victim of McCarthyism. Lawrence Cecil Adler was born in Baltimore. As he said: "The first world war and I began at about the same time, a fact that somebody in the future will, I hope, find to be of significance." It probably wasn't.

As for Baltimore, "I spent my first 14 years plotting my escape." His Jewish parents were both born in Russia. In middle age he discovered that the family wasn't called Adler at all. His grandfather, who ran the family dairy, came to America with the name Zelakovitch. "He got tired of waiting in immigration queues, always last to be called because his name began with a 'z'. Thus he became Adler." He was thought to have musical talent early on, which was why he studied piano at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. That was where he first began to exhibit the kind of bolshevism that was to so upset Senator Joseph McCarthy. When it came to the end-of-term concert, he decided he was being patronised by one of the teachers who asked "What are we going to play, little man?" That was the point at which he decided to play Yes We Have No Bananas, instead of a Grieg waltz. He was expelled at just about the time he discovered he could make better music with a mouth organ. Adler entered a competition and came third. But it was a good enough place to act as a springboard that started his career.

At 14, he ran away to New York. His parents didn't know either that he went or that he had $35 to take with him - the proceeds of selling subscriptions to Liberty magazine and of a couple of amateur contests. He wanted to play with Borrah Minevitch and His Harmonica Rascals, but failed the audition. "Kid, you stink," said the band leader. It was a big favour, he later reasoned. Looking for work, he landed a 40-week contract playing on a country-wide tour in the intervals for film performances. They were important bookings - he earned $100 a week, huge money for those days and almost unknown for a 14-year-old. His next break was working with Eddie Cantor, then next to Al Jolson - Adler's idol - as one of America's most popular entertainers. Cantor didn't employ him as a mouth organ player, but to dress up as a pageboy. The point was that Larry looked very much like Cantor, and the older man thought it was a fact on which it was worth cashing in. "How old are you?" Cantor asked.

"Fifteen, sir." Larry Adler - IMDb IMDb Composer | Music Department | Soundtrack Larry Adler was born on February 10, 1914 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA as Lawrence Cecil Adler. He is known for his work on Genevieve (1953), King & Country (1964) and Three Daring Daughters (1948). He was married to Sally Cline and Eileen Walser. He died on August 6, 2001 in London, England. See full bio » Born: a list of 231 people created 21 Sep 2012 a list of 134 people created 16 Apr 2015 a list of 5865 people created 11 months ago a list of 286 people created 11 months ago a list of 2520 people created 10 months ago Do you have a demo reel? Add it to your IMDbPage How much of Larry Adler's work have you seen? User Polls Nominated for 1 Oscar.

See more awards » Known For Three Daring Daughters Himself (Harmonica Player) (1948) 1976 ITV Sunday Night Drama (TV Series) (1 episode) - Enemy (1976) ...

(music composed by) 1972 The Mad Trapper (TV Movie documentary) 1972 Review (TV Series documentary) (1 episode) 1964 King & Country (musician: harmonica) 1964 The Midnight Men (TV Series) (music played by - 6 episodes) 1961 The Hellions (music played by) 1960 Music for You (TV Series) (harmonica player - 1 episode) 1953 Genevieve (music played by) Hide 2009 Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel (Documentary) (performer: "Touchez Pas Au Grisbi") / (writer: "Touchez Pas Au Grisbi") 2007 BBC Proms (TV Series) (1 episode) 2001 This Way Up (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode) - Episode #1.3 (2001) ...

(performer: "Young at Heart") 1961 The Hellions (lyrics: "The Hellions") / (music: "The Hellions") 1948 Three Daring Daughters (performer: "RUMANIAN RHAPSODY IN A, OPUS 11, NO. 1" - uncredited) 1944 Music for Millions (performer: "Clair de Lune" (1890) - uncredited) 1937 The Singing Marine (performer: "Night and Day" (1932), "Tiger Rag" (1918), "Night Over Shanghai" (1937) - uncredited) Hide

Question: Larry Adler played what instrument?
Answer: Harmonica