Alexander Laszlo

Who was Alexander Laszlo?

Alexander Laszlo was a Hungarian-American pianist, musical composer, arranger and inventor. He was born Sandor Totis, but used the professional name of Alexander Laszlo as a composer and music publisher.

Lazlo studied piano at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, and started as a pianist at the Blüthner Orchestra in Berlin in 1915. He gave piano recitals in Germany and Europe in the 1920s, and was a music director and professor of film music in Berlin. In 1925 Laszlo wrote a text called Color-Light-Music, and toured Europe with a color organ. He also participated in many Jewish lead charities.

In the late 1930s he came to the United States, starting in Chicago as music professor at the IIT Institute of Design. In the 1940s he was music director at NBC Radio.

In the late 1940s and the 1950s he wrote the music for several movies and television series, among them Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, The Amazing Mr. X, The Great Flamarion, My Little Margie and The Atomic Submarine. He established a publishing company to collect ASCAP royalties under the name "Alexander Publications."