Alfred Baldwin Sloane

Alfred Baldwin Sloane (28 August 1872, Baltimore – 21 February 1925, Red Bank, New Jersey) was an American composer, considered the most prolific songwriter for Broadway musical comedies at the beginning of the 20th century.[1][2][3]

His scores were first heard in amateur productions in Baltimore, where he grew up. When Sloane first moved to New York in 1890, he began interpolating melodies into others' scores and soon was invited to create his own. His biggest hit was "Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl," which Marie Dressler introduced in Tillie's Nightmare (1910), but none of his songs found enduring popularity.

He composed only rarely after 1912, but he did provide much of the music for the 1919 and 1920 Greenwich Village Follies. He wrote one of his musicals, Lady Teazle, for Lillian Russell when she was at the height of her national popularity. His last score, for the 1925 Broadway production China Rose, was in production at his death.[4][5][6] China Rose had been produced in Boston, by Christmas Eve, 1924.[7]

  1. ^ Oxford Companion to American Theatre The Oxford Companion to American Theatre, Oxford University Press (2004)
  2. ^ Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, Oxford University Press (2000, 2002, 2005)
  3. ^ Who's who in New York (city and State), Seventh Edition: 1917–1918, by Lewis Randolph Hamersly, p. 986 (1918)
  4. ^ Who's Who On The Stage – The Dramatic Reference Book and Biographical Dictionary of the Theatre, 1906 Edition, edited by Walter Browne & F.A. Austin, Walter Browne & F.A. Austin (publisher), New York (1906)
  5. ^ Who's Who On The Stage – The Dramatic Reference Book and Biographical Dictionary of the Theatre, 1908 Edition, edited by Walter Browne & E. De Roy Koch, B.W. Dodge & Co., New York (1908)
  6. ^ Who Was Who in America – A Component Volume of Who's Who in American History; Volume 1: 1897–1942, A.N. Marquis Co., Chicago (1943)
  7. ^ Christmas Eve, Boston Herald, December 23, 1924, p. 6, col. 5