Pauline Alpert

Pauline Edeth Alpert Rooff was a pianist who performed, composed, recorded, and produced Duo-Art piano rolls in the United States. Known by her fans as the "Whirlwind Pianist", she performed in several films and made recordings with a few record labels. She did radio shows in New York City and toured.

Career

She made numerous Victor Records recordings. She recorded the album Sparkling Piano Melodies on Sonora Records. She sometimes recorded under the pseudonym Peggy Anderson. She produced more than 500 piano rolls for the Duo-Art. She toured across the United States, Canada, and South America. She played in the White House three times, performing for Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman.
She performed during the intermission of the Broadway show Rufus LeMaire's Affairs in 1927. She featured in two Vitaphone Varieties short film episodes dated March 1927. This included What Price Piano, a collection of popular songs. She later performed in 1935 in the Vitaphone Varieties short film Katz' Pajamas with Fifi D'Orsay, directed by Joseph Henabery.
The collection Pauline Alpert's folio of modern piano songs includes her compositions:

"Night of Romance"
"Perils of Pauline"
"Dream of a Doll"
"March of the Blues"
"Piano Poker"
"The Merry Minnow"
"Ivory Tips"

Her later compositions include A Million Stars Just Can't Be Wrong, Mindin' the Baby, A Happy New Year to Love '', and Tut Tut .''
She performed for NBC and CBS, including in guest solo spots with Paul Whiteman, Rudy Vallée, and Fred Allen. She had her own semi-weekly program for the WOR Radio Network in New York City.
A recording of her playing Doll Dance is on the 1981 album Ragtime Piano Novelties of the 20's.

Discography

Pauline's known discography is listed below.

Year	Title	Composer	Matrix number
1926	Valencia	José Padilla	Victor Trial 12-14-01
1926	When You and I Were Young, Maggie	George W. Johnson, James Austin Butterfield	Victor Trial 12-14-02
1927	Tonight [You Belong to Me]	Lee David	Victor BVE-37525
1927	The Little White House (At the End of Honeymoon Lane)	James F. Hanley	Victor BVE-37526
1927	Night of Romance	Pauline Alpert	Victor BVE-06-03-01
1927	Perils of Pauline	Pauline Alpert	Victor BVE-06-03-02
1927	Hallelujah	Vincent Youmans	Victor BVE-38858
1927	Magnolia	Ray Henderson	Victor BVE-38859
1927	Dancing Tambourine	William Conrad Polla	Victor BVE-40541
1927	Doll Dance	Nacio Herb Brown	Victor BVE-40542
1932	Saint Louis Blues	W. C. Handy	Victor BRC-72210
1932	Song of India	Rimsky-Korsakov	Victor BRC-72211
1944	Where or When	Rodgers and Hart	Sonora SR1516
1944	Dream of a Doll	Pauline Alpert	Sonora SR1517
1944	The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers	Ballard MacDonald, Leon Jessel	Sonora SR1518
1944	Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2	Franz Liszt	Sonora SR1519
1944	Toy Trumpet	Raymond Scott	Sonora SR1520
1944	Chopsticks	Euphemia Allen	Sonora SR1521
1944	Sweet Sue	Victor Young	Sonora SR1522
1944	In a Country Garden	Percy Grainger	Sonora SR1523
1944	The Donkey Serenade, The Very Thought of You, The Piccolino	Allan Jones; Ray Noble; Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire	Muzak 61-081
1946	Minuet	Ignacy Jan Paderewski	Pilotone 5033
1946	Three [Marches Militaires (Schubert)\|March Militaire]	Franz Schubert	Pilotone 5034
1946	Humoresque	Antonín Dvořák	Pilotone 5035
1946	Blue Danube Waltz	Johann Strauss II	Pilotone 5036
1946	La Cinquantaine	Jean Gabriel-Marie	Pilotone 5037
1946	Song of India	Rimsky-Korsakov	Pilotone 5038
1946	Dancing Doll	Ede Poldini	Pilotone 5039
1946	The Minute Waltz	Frédéric Chopin	Pilotone 5040
1955	Piano Moods		Waldorf Music Hall MH 33-115
1955	Piano Moods		Sparton 33-4919

Personal life

Pauline was born in Rochester, New York on December 27, 1905, and spent her childhood there. Her father was Samuel Alpert, a Russian immigrant and painter, and her mother was Anna Rosk, a native New Yorker and skilled musician. To support her family's poor finances, as an 11 year old, she would give piano lessons for 25 cents. She won a four year scholarship to the Eastman School of Music and received training as a classical pianist, where her primary instructor was Selim Palmgren.
Pauline married Dr. Sidney Rooff in 1940. They had no children.
She died at St. Barnabas Hospital in The Bronx on April 6, 1988.

Legacy

Pauline's work is included in the 2014 book by Peter Mintun compiling popular piano roll and novelty song artists from the 1920s and 1930s, Novelty Masterpieces of the Gershwin Era: The Music of Zez Confrey, Pauline Alpert and Rube Bloom.