Walter Gustave Haenschen (November 3, 1889 – March 27, 1980) was a pianist, arranger and composer of music and an orchestra conductor, primarily on U.S. network radio programs.

While he was in elementary school, he carried newspapers to earn money, and as a high-school student he and some friends formed the Eclipse Novelty Company to make pennants to sell at baseball games.

[6] As a teenager, he played piano to accompany silent films in St. Louis theaters while refining his technique under the guidance of ragtime composer Scott Joplin, with whom he studied briefly.

That initial use of the song on Broadway caused Haenschen to travel to New York City, where his dealings with Max Dreyfus, a composer, arranger, and head of the T. B. Harms publishing company, resulted not only in the publication of the song as "The Maurice Glide" but also an offer to join the Harms company as a part-time arranger.

[8] The group's engagements, many of which were acquired from a music-booking agency created by Gene (Eugene Frederick) Rodemich, a self-taught pianist who paid Haenschen to write arrangements for his St. Louis band.

[3] Haenschen also became manager of the Vandervoort Music Salon's "talking machine department",[8] a position that he left when he enlisted in the Navy, where he served as an ensign until his June 1918 discharge.

[7] He was the orchestra director for Songs Our Mothers Used to Sing, a 13-week series of electrically transcribed radio programs broadcast on WLWL[9] in New York City[10] in 1931–32.

With the popular orchestra leader Ben Selvin as a silent partner, Deutsch, Haenschen, and Black built their own recording facility, called "Sound Studios," for recording high-quality discs of popular and light-classical music for lease to radio stations which could not afford to have their own orchestras.

Through their World Broadcasting Company, Haenschen and Frank Black also developed radio programs for large stations in major metropolitan areas.

[14] Songs composed by Haenschen included "Easy Melody", "Silver Star",[2] "Lullaby of Love", "Manhattan Merry-Go-Round", and "Rosita".