Oscar Levant

Life

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, into a musical and Orthodox Russian Jewish family, Levant moved to New York with his mother, Annie, in 1922 after the death of his father, Max. He began studying under Zygmunt Stojowski, a well-established piano pedagogue.

Related Topics:
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Orthodox - Russian - Jew - New York - 1922 - Death - Zygmunt Stojowski - Piano

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In 1928 Levant traveled to Hollywood where his career turned for the better. During his stay, he met and befriended George Gershwin. In just twenty years, 1929-1948, he would go on to compose the music for more than twenty movies.

Related Topics:
Hollywood - George Gershwin

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Around 1932 Levant began composing on a serious note. This led to a request by Aaron Copland to play at the Yaddo Festival of contemporary American music on April 30 of that year. Successful, Levant began on a new orchestral work, Sinfonietta. He was also married and divorced to actress Barbara Woodell in 1932.

Related Topics:
1932 - Aaron Copland - Yaddo - April 30 - Sinfonietta - Barbara Woodell

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In 1939, Levant got married for the second time to singer and actress June Gale (Gilmartin), part of the singing foursome, The Gale Sisters (besides June, there was Jane, Joan, and Jean). They were married for almost 33 years, until his death, and had three children, Marcia, Lorna, and Amanda.

Related Topics:
1939 - The Gale Sisters

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During the years of 1958-1960, Levant hosted a television talk show on KCOP-TV in Los Angeles, The Oscar Levant Show, which later became syndicated. It featured his piano playing along with monologues and interviews with top-name guests such as Fred Astaire. The show was highly controversial, finally being taken from the air after a comment about Marilyn Monroe: "Now that Marilyn Monroe is kosher, Arthur Miller can eat her." He later stated that he "hadn't meant it that way." Several months later, the show began to be broadcast in a slightly revised format; now it was taped in order to provide a buffer for Levant's antics. This, however, failed to prevent Levant from making comments about Mae West's sex life that caused the show to be canceled for good.

Related Topics:
1958 - 1960 - Talk show - KCOP-TV - Los Angeles - The Oscar Levant Show - Syndicated - Fred Astaire - Marilyn Monroe - Arthur Miller - Mae West

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The 1920s and 1930s wit Alexander Woollcott once said about Levant: "There's absolutely nothing wrong with Oscar Levant that a miracle can't fix."

Related Topics:
1920s - 1930s - Alexander Woollcott

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Levant was a member of the Algonquin Round Table, an informal conclave of New York wits and writers; other members were Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley and Woollcott. Much later Levant was also a frequent guest on Jack Paar's talk show.

Related Topics:
Algonquin Round Table - New York - Dorothy Parker - Robert Benchley - Jack Paar

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Open about his neuroses and a notorious hypochondriac, Levant was also in his later life addicted to prescription drugs and was frequently committed to mental hospitals by his wife, June Gale. Despite his afflictions, Levant was considered a genius, by some, in many areas ("There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line."). His playing of the Tchaikovsky and Anton Rubinstein piano concerti, as well as Gershwin, is a testimony to his talents.

Related Topics:
Neuroses - Hypochondriac

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Levant drew increasingly away from the limelight in his later years. Upon his death in Beverly Hills, California, of a heart attack at the age of 65, he was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. In their routines other comics have claimed, apocryphally, that that hypochondriac Levant's epitaph was inscribed, "I told them I was ill."

Related Topics:
Beverly Hills, California - Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery - Los Angeles, California

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