Robert Stolz

Robert Stolz - the first German/Austrian Film Composer

Robert Stolz composed many operettas, film scores, and popular songs, including 'Two Heats Beat in Three-Quarter Time", which he wrote on the back of a menu while at lunch with the producer of the show.

There is a wealth of information about him on the Austrian Government website. However, these interesting facts appear not to be mentioned elsewhere on the web.

LESSER KNOWN FACTS ABOUT ROBERT STOLZ

Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, Robert Stolz fled from Vienna to Paris. At the time he was nearly sixty years old. As he arrived in Paris, his (fourth) wife, left him for a younger French lover. Robert Stolz had neither money nor identification papers.

The nineteen-year-old daughter of a French banker, Yvonne Louise Ulrich, was studying in Paris for her law degree, and became known as 'Die Einzige', ( The Only One) or 'Einze', for her financial aid to destitute artists and emigrants.

Shortly after a chance encounter with Robert Stolz in a Paris coffee house, she learned that he had been interned, together with 70,000 others, in a soccer stadium, on a cold and wet November day.

Einzi gathered several thousand francs, bribed Robert Stolz'z freedom, nursed him back to health, arranged a Hollywood contract for him, and married him.

They were married for thirty-five years.

This is a Christmas card she sent me.

In Hollywood, Robert Stolz scored films for Spring Parade starring Deanna Durbin and Orsen Welles' The Third Man and received two Oscar nominations.

The pictures show Einzi and Robert, a recent Christmas card from Einzi, and a monument to Robert (near the Strauss monument in Vienna).

And lastly, a .jpg list of his recordings and compositions. The ones I've heard are all excellent. Sorry, this has not been retyped.. Please wait for the graphic to down-load.