From Jazz Singer to Jazz Singer

This paper examines the life and career of Paul Lamkoff (1888–1953), a Russian Poland-born songwriter, composer, conductor, vocal coach, and synagogue cantor who arrived in Hollywood in 1924 and made pioneering contributions to early sound films, including The Jazz Singer (1927) and The Mysterious Island (1929). Lamkoff’s film music career was sporadic and shrouded in obscurity, and reconstructing his biography before, during, and outside the motion picture industry is complicated by shifting and inconsistent self-narratives he told to the press. Acknowledging these deficiencies, this paper is the first attempt to present a cogent and chronological portrait of Lamkoff’s life and contributions as revealed through the available sources.