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", the first movie theme song ever written.

Biography "Ramona" (1928), by Gilbert and Mabel Wayne, was the first theme song ever written for the movies. William Grant Still, Gilbert, W. C. Handy, Frank Drye and Andy Razaf in Los Angeles in 1954

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 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, 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) 1912–1913 (From) Broadway to Paris "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"