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MURIEL POLLOCK used to deliver newspapers on her bike
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AT the age of fourteen diminutive Molly Pollock, con¬ sidered the finest woman jazz pianist in America, was playing the piano in a movie theatre. When the vaudeville performers on the bill saw the little girl in the pit, they complained to the management. They didn’t want that little kid entrusted with their accompaniments ! But Molly stuck to the job. It was in Far Rockaway, Long Island. She soon learned that she had an unusual gift for improvisation. And thus it was that her passion for composing was born. At that time she managed to hold down another job as well. With her brother Bob she used to deliver newspapers on a bicycle !
At sixteen she wrote an operetta, “Madam Pom Pom.” The work entailed in composing this complete score caused her to “flunk” geometry and so she went to an Art School to study textile designing. Later she studied at the Insti¬ tute of Musical Art in New York under Anna Lockwood.
Encouraged by a number of sincere friends whose ap¬ proval she trusted, she decided to devote herself for a time to serious composition. She joined the artists’ colony at Woodstock, New York, and wrote music.
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When she returned to New York she made up her mind to innovate a girl piano duet for the stage. When she and her partner, Constance Mering, were granted an audition before Ziegfeld, Molly noticed that the impre¬ sario wras shaking his head. Discouraged, she stopped in the middle of the performance. Later she learned that she had misinterpreted the gesture. He had approved highly and forthwith hired the duet. For a year and a half Molly and Constance played “Rio Rita.”
Next Molly wrote a musical show, “Pleasure Bound,” which was produced by the Shuberts. After that she went into radio work with the first female piano duet.
Molly has never stopped studying. Under the tutelage of William M. Daly, she has perfected herself in the com¬ plicated art of orchestration — and still works with Mr. Daly today. A number of her serious compositions have been played by the biggest orchestras on the air : “Remin¬ iscences,” “Mood in Blue,” and “A Spanish Suite.” Several of Molly’s lighter pieces have achieved popularity — “Eatin’ My Heart Out For You,” “Give Me Your Love,” “On the Boulevard.”