Louis Levy

In 1921, he became Music Chief at the Shepherd’s Bush Pavilion and is credited with being the first to develop the theme song in movies, and one of the first musicians to tackle difficulties that were holding back the progress of sound recording in films.

He worked in particular on Alfred Hitchcock and Will Hay films, directing the music for The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes.

[6] He later had a long running BBC radio series Music From the Movies, which started in 1936 and lasted until the 1950s,[7] and also toured the provincial theatres with his orchestra.

[4] The Music From the Movies March, reputedly composed by Levy, was the theme tune for the radio show, and opened all of the Gaumont newsreels of the time.

Among the talented arrangers he employed were Peter Yorke (who adapted the Levy sound for his own successful post-war concert orchestra) and Bretton Byrd, who was his chief music editor at Gaumont British.