Songwriters Hall of Fame

Composer Louis Achille Hirsch was born in New York City on November 28, 1887. He studied piano at the Stern Academy in Berlin with Rafael Joseffy before becoming a staff pianist for music publishers Gus Edwards and Shapiro Bernstein.

Before his death in 1924 at the age of 37, Lou Hirsch was one of the most prolific composers and publishers on Tin Pan Alley. He wrote songs for the Lew Dockstader Minstrels and was the staff composer for the Shubert Brothers from 1912-1914. In 1914, Hirsch was one of nine founding members of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and served as one of its directors from 1917-1924.

Hirsch’s chief collaborators included Harold Atteridge, Otto Harbah, Edward Madden and Irving Caesar. He wrote the scores for the successful Broadway productions He Came From Milwaukee, Revue of Revues, Vera Violetta, Passing Show of 1912, Ziegfeld Follies (4 editions), Going Up, The Rainbow Girl, Oh, My Dear!, See Saw, Mary, The O’Brien Girl, Greenwich Fillies (1922 and 1923, and Betty Lee.

The Hirsch catalog includes the songs “The Gaby Glide”, “Always Together”, “My Sumurum Girl”, “Hold Me in Your Loving Arms”, “Love is Like a Red Red Rose”, “Hello, Frisco, Hello”, “When I Found You”, “Beautiful Island of Girls”, “Garden of Your Dreams”, “My Rambler Rose”, “‘Neath the South Sea Moon”, “Going Up”, “The Love Nest”, “I Am Thinking of You” and “Annabel Lee.”

Louis Hirsch died in New York City on May 13, 1924.