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Leo Monosson

das lila lied

Leo Monosson was born 7th December 1897 in Moscow, to a family of wealthy jewellers.

He completed his schooling in Russia before travelling through Warsaw, Paris and Vienna studying music and singing. He settled in Berlin in 1923.

In Warsaw, he married for the first time, to Charlotte Frank, and they had two children by the time they arrived in Paris. During a visit to Warsaw in 1928, Charlotte died suddenly and Leo returned to Berlin with the children. He married for a second time in 1932, to Stephanie Arnsdorff , an up and coming photographer, and they moved into a seven-room apartment in Helmstedt Straße, near Berlin’s Bayerischer Viertel.

Extraordinarliy for the time, he was fluent in eleven languages, including Chinese and Japanese, and had an almost perfect memory for songs and lyrics.

He was a hugely successful and popular singer, credited with over 1400 recordings for all the major record labels of the time. He recorded under numerous pseudonyms including Leo Minor, Leo Emm, Leo Frey, Leo Moll, Leo Moon, and Leo Frank. He is thought to be the uncredited vocalist on the first recording of Das Lila Lied, by the Marek Weber Orchestra, which became an anthem for gay men and lesbians in the late 1920s.

His was the voice for many screen actors who were not considered proficient enough singers before eventually forging a film career for himself.

His first major role was in the 1930 film Die Drei von der Tankstelle (now known as The Three Good Friends) with music by Werner Richard Heymann and lyrics by Robert Gilbert.

He went on to star in eleven films between 1930 and 1932.

When the Nazis came to power, Jewish Leo was forbidden to perform or record and so emigrated back to Paris. However in 1940, Germany invaded France and they were forced to emigrate again, this time via Spain to the United States.

They settled in the Ardsley area of New York State and Leo started a new career as a postage stamp dealer.

In 1952, he submitted an application for compensation to the Berlin State Office, in view of his forced emigration. He stated:

“I managed, after 1933, never again to earn money by singing. My playing has been developed by German culture and elsewhere is strange and unpopular.”

On a trip to Jamaica in April 1967, Leo suffered a fatal heart attack in a hotel elevator, he was 69-years-old.

He is buried in Westchester Hills, New York State.