Sam Coslow

Who was Sam Coslow?

Sam Coslow was an American songwriter, singer, film producer, publisher, and market analyst. Coslow was born in New York City. He began writing songs as a teenager. He contributed songs to Broadway revues, formed the music publishing company Spier and Coslow with Larry Spier and made a number of recordings as a performer.

With the explosion of film musicals in the late 1920s, Hollywood attracted a number of ambitious young songwriters and Coslow joined the exodus in 1929. Coslow and his partner Larry Spier sold their publishing business to Paramount Pictures and Coslow became a Paramount songwriter. One of his first assignments for the studio was the score for the 1930 film The Virtuous Sin. He formed a successful partnership with composer Arthur Johnston and together they provided the scores for a number of films including Bing Crosby vehicles.

Coslow became a film producer in the 1940s and won the Academy Award for Best Short Film for his production Heavenly Music in 1943. He was married to actress Esther Muir from 1934 to 1948, and they had a daughter Jacqueline Coslow, who also worked as an actress.