# Muriel Pollock

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**Muriel Pollock** (January 21, 1895 – May 25, 1971) was an American songwriter, composer, pianist, and organist. She wrote and performed music for Broadway shows, radio programs, children's plays, and piano rolls.

## Early life

Mary Pollock was born in [Kingsbridge, New York](/source/Kingsbridge,_Bronx), the daughter of Joseph Pollock and Rose Graff. Both parents were immigrants from Russia. Her father ran a news stand. She studied at the New York Institute of Musical Art, a precursor of the [Juilliard School](/source/Juilliard_School).[1]

## Career

As a young woman, Pollock played the organ in silent movie theatres,[2] and worked at her father's news stand. She wrote a musical, *Mme. Pom Pom*, in 1914, with Marie Wardall.[3] Another 1914 work, "Carnival", was written for a fundraising event for the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children in Rockaway Park. Pollock's Broadway credits included *Jack and Jill* (1923), for which she supplied "additional music"; *[Rio Rita](/source/Rio_Rita_(musical))* (1927–1928) and *Ups-a Daisy* (1928), in which she appeared playing piano duets with Constance Mering;[4] *Pleasure Bound* (1929), for which she wrote the music;[5] and the musical revue *Shoot the Works* (1931), for which she wrote both music and lyrics.

Pollock worked at Mel-o-Dee Music Company and [Rhythmodik Music Corporation](/source/Ampico), composing, arranging, and playing works for [piano roll](/source/Piano_roll).[6] She later performed duets with Vee Lawnhurst, as The Lady Bugs[7] or The Lady Fingers, and played one piano roll duet with [George Gershwin](/source/George_Gershwin).[1] In 1922 she sang and played piano in Bermuda, in a grand concert at the Colonial Opera House.[8] She made many recordings between 1927 and 1934, most of them on the [Edison](/source/Edison_Records) label.[9][10] She was a frequent pianist on radio programs,[11] sometimes playing her own "compositions especially for radio", and sometimes playing other works or accompanying other performers.[12][13] She became an [ASCAP](/source/American_Society_of_Composers,_Authors_and_Publishers) member in 1933. After her second marriage, she wrote music for children's shows using the pseudonym Molly Donaldson,[14] based on fairy tales or historical figures' lives, but her family's move to California took her away from the hub of radio work.[1]

## Personal life

Muriel Pollock married twice. Her first husband was Leon Leroy Groll; they married in 1925, and divorced by 1930. She became the stepmother of child actor [Ted Donaldson](/source/Ted_Donaldson) when she married his widowed father, songwriter Will Donaldson, in 1933. Will Donaldson died in 1954; she died in 1971, aged 76 years, in Hollywood. She left support for a liberal arts scholarship at [Los Angeles City College](/source/Los_Angeles_City_College).[1] Remastered recordings by Pollock are available in updated formats, including a 1998 CD, titled *Keyboards of the Gershwin Era, Volume VI*.

## References

1. Bill Edwards, "[Mary Muriel "Molly" Pollock Groll Donaldson"](http://www.ragpiano.com/comps/mpollock.shtml) at RagPiano.com.

1. ["Big Future is Seen for Jazz by Virtuoso"](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33977371/muriel_pollock_1929/). *The Pittsburgh Press*. August 25, 1929. p. 60. Retrieved July 17, 2019. – via Newspapers.com.

1. ["Gifted Girls Who Write Songs"](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33952344/amy_ashmore_clark_1929/) (January 18, 1929) *The News-Palladium* p. 24, via Newspapers.com.

1. ["Girls Play Piano in 'Rio Rita' Pit"](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33977680/muriel_pollock_1927/). *Daily News*. April 10, 1927. p. 160. Retrieved July 17, 2019. – via Newspapers.com.

1. Allen, Kelcey (February 19, 1929). "Amusements: Comedians Put Over "Pleasure Bound" Revue: Jack Pearl, Phil Baker, And Shaw And Lee Fill New Shubert Show At Majestic With Many Laughs". *Women's Wear Daily*. p. 14.

1. Corporation, American Piano (1922). [*A Catalogue of Music for The Ampico: A List of the Recordings of Pianists Whose Art is Thus Preserved for Present Day Music Lovers and for Posterity : Together with Short Biographies of Many of the Composers and Artists and Notes on the Music*](https://books.google.com/books?id=WEA5AQAAIAAJ&dq=Muriel+Pollock&pg=PA127). American Piano Company. p. 127.

1. ["Over the Radio, They're 'The Lady Bugs'; at Home, it's 'Muriel' and 'Vee'"](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33977503/muriel_pollock_1930/). *The Decatur Herald*. October 12, 1930. p. 12. Retrieved July 17, 2019. – via Newspapers.com.

1. ["Success of Miss Muriel Pollock in Bermuda"](https://books.google.com/books?id=4nQxXwhE8hsC&dq=Muriel+Pollock&pg=RA2-PA19). *Musical Observer*. **21**: 19. March 1922.

1. ["Muriel Pollock (instrumentalist : piano) – Discography of American Historical Recordings"](https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/talent/detail/124531/Pollock_Muriel_instrumentalist_piano). *UC Santa Barbara Library*. Retrieved 2019-07-18.

1. ["Muriel Pollock"](https://www.discogs.com/artist/2556482-Muriel-Pollock). *[Discogs](/source/Discogs)*. Retrieved 2019-07-17.

1. ["Muriel Pollock Will Play Own Pieces over NBC"](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33977021/muriel_pollock_1929/). *The Courier-News*. August 12, 1929. p. 13. Retrieved July 17, 2019. – via Newspapers.com.

1. ["Through the Microphone"](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33976792/muriel_pollock_1930/). *Hartford Courant*. January 25, 1930. p. 16. Retrieved July 17, 2019. – via Newspapers.com.

1. ["Let's Join the Ladies"](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33976944/muriel_pollock_1929/). *The Pittsburgh Press*. August 5, 1929. p. 18. Retrieved July 17, 2019. – via Newspapers.com.

1. ["Give Children their Own Records for Christmas (advertisement)"](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33986282/sherman_clay_records_1944/). *The Fresno Bee*. December 19, 1944. p. 5. Retrieved July 18, 2019. – via Newspapers.com.

## External links

- Muriel Pollock and Darl MacBoyle, ["When A "Rambling Rose" Goes Rambling Home Again"](https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/4614/) (1921). *Vocal Popular Sheet Music Collection.* Score 4614, University of Maine.
- ["Just Keep on Skating"](https://ragtimedorianhenry.com/downloads/just-keep-on-skating-piano-solo-pdf-midi/) (1917), composed by Muriel Pollock; a MIDI file and PDF of the sheet music, at the Ragtime Dorian Henry blog.
- Ted Tjaden, ["Women Composers of Ragtime"](http://www.ragtimepiano.ca/rags/women3.htm), website includes several pieces of sheet music by Muriel Pollock.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Muriel Pollock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muriel_Pollock) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muriel_Pollock?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.