Lou Handman in Hollywood

Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies

Lou Handman's music is featured in dozens of Warner Bros. animated films and shorts.

Here's a sample clip of "The Miller's Daughter," a 1934 animated short that introduces the Three Stooges:

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WB's Merrie Melodies: "The Miller's Daughter" (1934)

 

THE STOWAWAYS: A Musical Love Story

The Stowaways, based on a true story from the letters and archives of Lou Handman, is currently under development. Contact us for information on the screenplay.

Synopsis:

Times were hard on Broadway in 1916. "The Combine" controlled all the vaudeville theatres, and performers were organizing unions. The "Movies" were taking more and more stage time away from live acts. Two young song-and- dance boys (Jack Cook and Lou Handman) decided they'd have better luck finding work elsewhere.

In the pre-dawn hours of February 12, 1916, they impulsively hid on a British freighter, the SS Dongarra, docked in Brooklyn. The ship was bound for Australia, where they hoped to find work on the stage.

Ten days out, they were caught and confined onboard as German spies.

After sixty-three days at sea, they landed in Auckland, New Zealand, and were taken off the ship in handcuffs, drawing attention from the crowds celebrating the first ANZAC Day in April, 1916. The local newspapers put the story on the front page, describing Lou and Jack quite accurately as "Stowaways."

The local Jewish community found lawyers for them, and a sympathetic judge released them to perform in the city's premier vaudeville showcase. They took their billing from the news, calling themselves "THE STOWAWAYS."

The Stowaways gave numerous benefit performances for clubs and charities. Lou wrote a popular song of the time, titled "Smithy," about Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith, MC, the aviator and war hero who pioneered commercial aviation service throughout Australia (the Sydney International Airport is named for him).

The boys were signed by an American boxer, "Hop Harry" Stone, who had offices at The Stadium in Rushcutters Bay, Sydney, where he was also a theatrical manager and publisher.

Margaret Jewell was a singer also working on the Fuller circuit. She played on the same bill and frequently traveled with The Stowaways.

They played and sang together on the steamer from Australia to South Africa.

Lou fell in love...

Everywhere Jack and Lou went, the war was never far away. They were always asked when was America coming into the war, and would they go home to enlist and fight.

In the British Empire, which had been sending its sons to fight and die since 1914, this was not a matter to be taken lightly.

When America entered the war, The Stowaways went home with a scrapbook of their overseas success, in time for Lou to enlist in the army (in the same outfit as Irving Berlin). The scrapbook and his letters home survived, saved by his sister Edythe, who lived to be a hundred (1906-2007).