Friedrich Hollaender

Friedrich Hollaender was the son of the composer Victor Hollaender, who composed shows in Berlin in the 1890s to 1910s.

In 1899 Hollaender's family returned from London to Berlin, his father began teaching at the Stern Conservatory, where his son became a student in Engelbert Humperdinck's master class. In the evening he played the piano at silent film performances in local cinemas, developing the art of musical improvisation.

When the family made a visit to New York in 1912, where father Victor had been hired to write some shows, Friedrich would spend his afternoons playing at the nearby movie theater, whose proprietors were so charmed that they called his parents and begged them to let the boy stay a while longer, for his music was so delightful.

Frederick received early musical training, since 1913 he was student of opera composer Engelbert Humperdinck (who composed Hänsel und Gretel).

In 1919 he married the actress Blandine Ebinger, the couple divorced in 1926. Their daughter Philine later became the wife of the cabarettist Georg Kreisler.

He started as repetitor at a theater in Prague, and became - despite his classical training which likely would otherwise have led to a career as classical composer - an important composer of shows and cabaret songs in Berlin in the 1920s.

His biggest hit of the early '20s, the 1923 novelty song "Liliput," went around the world and came to America as "Tiny Town.".

He started working for the UFA movie Der blaue Engel (1930). By chance, an actress wanted him as pianist for her audition for that movie - but he got the job as composer, while the role went to Marlene Dietrich.

In 1931, he opened his own satirical cabaret, the Tingel Tangel Theater in Berlin, where he spoofed fashions and foibles of the day, including politics.

In 1932, he married the dancer and actress Hedi Schoop and in the same year, his revue "Es war einmal" had its premiere. But after several performances were disturbed by Nazi thugs, the show was closed. Hollaender made his debut as a film director with "Ich und die Kaiserin". One week after the film's premiere, the board of the Ufa was already eliminating contracts with Jewish artists and staff. Hollaender, whose apartment was demolished by the Nazis, emigrated to Paris with his wife. He later wrote about the experiences of the emigrants in his novel "Those Torn From Earth", which was published in 1941 with a preface by Thomas Mann.

He directed the Lilian Harvey movie Ich und die Kaiserin (1933) in all three versions (German/French/English).

After the Nazis came to power on January 30, 1933 he immigrated via France and England to Hollywood, where he got a three months contract. There, he wrote songs and scores for various movies. RKO signed him as director for the western film "Bullets and Ballots".

As "Frederick Hollander", he also wrote the semi-autobiographical novel Those Torn From Earth, which was released in 1941.

In 1944, Hollaender married actress Leza Hay, followed by his fourth marriage, to Berthe Jeanne Kreder, in 1946.

Hollander's greatest opportunity for a full-blown musical came with fellow Berliner Ernst Lubitsch's 1948 operetta That Lady In Ermine, starring Betty Grable. Unfortunately, Lubitsch died after filming the musical numbers and Otto Preminger finished the work.

After the decline of musicals in the mid-1950s he returned in 1956 to Germany, where he continued working for shows and cabaret, this time in Munich.

In the fall of 1955, he packed up his bags and returned to Germany with an ambitious new musical named Scherzo in his suitcase.

In 1956 he returned to Germany and again worked for several years as a revue composer at the Theater Die Kleine Freiheit in Munich.

He made a cameo appearance in Billy Wilder's film comedy One, Two, Three (1960) as a Kapellmeister.

After his film career Friedrich Hollaender wrote several books, among them his biography "Von Kopf bis Fuss" (1965).

For the movie The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. Frederick Hollander wrote an enormous score: 15 songs, two ballets and a parodic concert based on "Ten Happy Fingers." (A 16th song, "Count Me Out," was eliminated early on.) The composing job was an attractive challenge for Hollander: rather than just using incidental songs, here music would be integral to the plot and conception of the film. There would be huge amounts of scoring, running almost from beginning to end, with two ballets. Initial publicity reported that Hollander had composed an unheard-of 24 songs. It verged on "an unusual children's opera for adults," as Hollander called it.