Alma M. Sanders

Alma M. Sanders (1882 – December 15, 1956) was an American composer, songwriter, and book writer born in Chicago, Illinois, where she studied music and performed as a concert singer and church soloist. She went on to collaborate extensively with her second husband, Danish composer Hans von Holstein, who worked under the name Monte Carlo, producing a body of work that spanned Broadway musicals, popular songs, and other theatrical projects.

Sanders's Broadway career extended across nearly three decades. Her compositions were heard in The Voice of McConnell (1918–1919), Tangerine (1921–1922), Elsie (1923), The Chiffon Girl (1924), Princess April (1924), Oh! Oh! Nurse (1925–1926), Mystery Moon (1930), and Louisiana Lady (1947). In addition to composing, she contributed as a book writer on several productions. She and Monte Carlo also co-wrote the score for the film Ireland Today.

Her catalog of individual compositions was extensive. Among the works attributed to Sanders, with and without Monte Carlo as co-composer, were "Two Lips are Roses," "Honeymoon Home," "Sweet Lady," "Goodbye Broadway, Hello France!," "That Tumble-down Shack in Athlone" (1918, lyrics by Richard Pascoe), "Every Tear is a Smile in an Irishman's Heart" (1919, lyrics by Dan Sullivan), "Little Town in the Ould County Down" (1920, lyrics by Richard Pascoe), "Ten Baby Fingers" (1920, lyrics by Harry Edelheit), "In Old Madeira" (1920, lyrics by George Wehner), "Too Many Kisses Mean Too Many Tears" (1924), and "My Heaven" (1928, lyrics by Monte Carlo), among many others. Her piece "Some Pepp" (1915) was later included on the 1999 CD Cake Walks, Two Steps and Rags by Women Composers, performed by Nora Hulse. Many of her works were recorded by various ensembles and performers before 1926.

Sanders became a member of ASCAP in 1923. In 1920, she and Monte Carlo signed an exclusive contract with music publisher Jerome H. Remick. Her final project was a musical adaptation of the children's book Heaven is a Circus by John Bernard Kelly, undertaken for the Catholic Writers Guild.

In her personal life, Sanders was first married to Ernest Benjamin, with whom she had two children, Edward C. Benjamin and Arlene Benjamin, before the couple divorced in 1921. Her daughter Arlene died in the 1936 fire at Lum's Chinese Restaurant in New York. Sanders subsequently married Monte Carlo, her longtime creative collaborator. She died in New York in 1956 at the age of 74.