Samuel Pokrass

Samuel Yakovlevich Pokrass was a Soviet and American composer of Russian-Jewish origin, born in 1893 in Kyiv, in the Russian Empire. His father, Yakov Pokrass, broke a violin over his head as a child, an incident that redirected him toward the piano. At age ten, Pokrass was accepted to the Kyiv college of music and wrote his first composition, going on to study music across Europe, including under Maurice Ravel in France. He graduated from the Petrograd Conservatory in 1917 and returned to Kyiv, where he built a reputation as a virtuoso accompanist and composer of romance arrangements.

During the Russian Civil War in 1920, Pokrass collaborated with poet Pavel Grigoryev to produce fighting songs for the Red Army, the most notable being "The Red Army Is the Strongest." The melody of that composition was later adapted as "Die Arbeiter von Wien" in Red Vienna. His music was performed by prominent singers in Moscow and played a significant role in Soviet musical propaganda. He also wrote gypsy songs, which were made popular largely through performances by Natalia Tamara, and composed music for artists including Maurice Chevalier and the Dolly Sisters.

Pokrass left the Soviet Union in 1924 under political and artistic pressure, spending time in Berlin and Paris before arriving in the United States that same year. While performing at a club, he was heard by American theatrical producer Jake Shubert, who was initially unimpressed by Pokrass's original compositions but took notice after hearing him perform Irving Berlin's "All Alone." Shubert offered Pokrass a contract, which led to the creation of the operetta Cyrano de Bergerac in 1932. Between 1925 and 1927, Pokrass worked as a musician in the court of the Sultan of Morocco before circumstances forced him to flee to France.

After initially working as a writer for vaudeville acts in America, Pokrass established himself as a film composer, joining Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation and working in Hollywood from 1934 to 1939. His film credits during this period included The Farmer in the Dell (1936), Tovarich (1937), A Gypsy Told Me (1938), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938), The Little Princess (1939), and The Three Musketeers (1939). He also contributed to the Ziegfeld Follies in 1934. Among his individual compositions, "My Best Wishes" was used in the opening of the 2000 film The Legend of Bagger Vance.

Pokrass made his Broadway appearance in 1935 with the production Satellite. He had three brothers — Dmitry, Daniil, and Arkady — who were also composers and musicians and remained in the Soviet Union. Pokrass arrived in New York City on June 5, 1939, to work on a new Broadway musical and died there ten days later, on June 15, 1939, at the age of 45.