Oscar Levant

Oscar Levant (December 27, 1906 – August 14, 1972) was an American concert pianist, composer, conductor, actor, and radio and television personality. Born in Pittsburgh to Russian-emigrant parents, he came of age in the years when classical music, Broadway, Hollywood musicals, radio quiz shows, and early television could all shape one public career. Levant moved easily, if not always calmly, among those worlds. For a period in the 1940s, he was the highest paid concert pianist in the United States, yet many Americans also knew him as the dry, fast-talking wit on their radio sets.

Levant was born in 1906 to Max, an Orthodox Jewish watchmaker, and Annie, whose father was a rabbi and had married the couple. In 1922 he moved to New York, where he studied piano under Zygmunt Stojowski. By 1925 he had appeared with Ben Bernie in the short sound film Ben Bernie and All the Lads, made with the De Forest Phonofilm system, and in the 1920s he recorded with the Ben Bernie Orchestra. In 1928 he went to Hollywood, a move that changed the direction of his career. There he met George Gershwin, who became his friend.

As a musician, Levant had both range and discipline. He studied under Arnold Schoenberg, who was impressed enough to offer him an assistantship, though Levant turned it down because he considered himself unqualified. Aaron Copland asked him to play at the Yaddo Festival of contemporary American music on April 30, 1932, and after that success Levant began work on a sinfonietta. He recorded works by numerous classical composers and made 33 albums as a pianist. He was especially well known for his recorded performances of Gershwin. In 1938 he made his Broadway conducting debut when he filled in for his brother Harry in 65 performances of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s The Fabulous Invalid.

Levant also built a large career in popular entertainment. He composed for over 75 Hollywood movies and Broadway plays, and from 1929 to 1948 wrote music for more than twenty movies. He wrote or co-wrote popular songs, including “Blame It on My Youth” in 1934, later considered a standard. On screen, he often played a pianist or composer. His film appearances included Rhapsody in Blue (1945), where he played himself, The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), An American in Paris (1951), and The Band Wagon (1953). In 1960 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recordings featuring his piano performances.

His wit made him a fixture beyond the concert hall. On the radio quiz show Information Please, Levant moved from guest panelist to regular in the late 1930s and 1940s, admired for musical knowledge and sharp replies. He appeared often on NBC radio’s Kraft Music Hall with Al Jolson, mixing piano accompaniment, jokes, ad-libs, and comedy sketches. In the early 1950s he was an occasional panelist on Who Said That?, and from 1958 to 1960 he hosted The Oscar Levant Show on KCOP-TV in Los Angeles, with piano playing, monologues, and interviews.

Levant was also unusually open about his mental health. He spoke publicly about neuroses and hypochondria, was addicted to prescription drugs, and was committed to psychiatric hospitals by his wife, June Gale, whom he married in 1939 and with whom he had three daughters. He died of a heart attack at his Beverly Hills home on August 14, 1972, at 65. What keeps his words of interest is the same mix that made audiences listen: musical authority, comic timing, self-exposure, and a willingness to say uneasy things out loud.