Biography
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, on December 28, 1908—with certain references citing 1906 instead—Ann Ronell emerged among the earliest women to achieve notable success as a composer across both Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley. While enrolled at Radcliffe College she pursued composition studies under Walter Piston and simultaneously edited the campus newspaper, an assignment that led to an interview with George Gershwin. The encounter resulted in Gershwin hiring her as his rehearsal pianist, thereby opening doors to Broadway production work. She further supported herself through teaching and vocal coaching while refining her craft, distinguishing herself as one of the period’s rare songwriters equally adept at both words and music.
Her professional breakthrough arrived with the 1930 number “Baby’s Birthday Party.” Two years afterward she created “Willow Weep for Me,” the jazz and pop standard that would stand as her signature achievement and receive countless vocal and instrumental interpretations. In 1933 she joined Disney staff composer Frank Churchill on the enduring hit “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?,” Disney’s first commercially successful song; although her precise role remains contested, the published sheet music lists her credit simply as “additional lyrics.” She also supplied incidental scoring for additional Disney animated shorts and wrote further material directed at younger listeners.
Ronell placed songs in motion pictures such as Champagne Waltz (1937) and Blockade (1938) before progressing to complete film scores. For the 1945 production The Story of G.I. Joe—whose producer was her husband, Lester Cowan—she earned a pair of Academy Award nominations, one for Best Score shared with co-composer Louis Applebaum and another for Best Song with “Linda.” In 1948 she assisted in transferring the Kurt Weill/Ogden Nash stage success One Touch of Venus to the screen, contributing extra lyrics and new material. The next year she composed the score for Love Happy, the final Marx Brothers feature. Her last substantial screen assignment came in 1953 as musical director of the song-laden Main Street to Broadway.
Beyond motion pictures, Ronell supplied both music and lyrics for the 1942 Broadway musical Count Me In and created original scores for ballet as well as texts for opera. She died on December 25, 1993. Six years later she appeared, alongside Dorothy Fields, Dana Suesse, and Kay Swift, in the PBS documentary Yours for a Song: The Women of Tin Pan Alley.
Her professional breakthrough arrived with the 1930 number “Baby’s Birthday Party.” Two years afterward she created “Willow Weep for Me,” the jazz and pop standard that would stand as her signature achievement and receive countless vocal and instrumental interpretations. In 1933 she joined Disney staff composer Frank Churchill on the enduring hit “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?,” Disney’s first commercially successful song; although her precise role remains contested, the published sheet music lists her credit simply as “additional lyrics.” She also supplied incidental scoring for additional Disney animated shorts and wrote further material directed at younger listeners.
Ronell placed songs in motion pictures such as Champagne Waltz (1937) and Blockade (1938) before progressing to complete film scores. For the 1945 production The Story of G.I. Joe—whose producer was her husband, Lester Cowan—she earned a pair of Academy Award nominations, one for Best Score shared with co-composer Louis Applebaum and another for Best Song with “Linda.” In 1948 she assisted in transferring the Kurt Weill/Ogden Nash stage success One Touch of Venus to the screen, contributing extra lyrics and new material. The next year she composed the score for Love Happy, the final Marx Brothers feature. Her last substantial screen assignment came in 1953 as musical director of the song-laden Main Street to Broadway.
Beyond motion pictures, Ronell supplied both music and lyrics for the 1942 Broadway musical Count Me In and created original scores for ballet as well as texts for opera. She died on December 25, 1993. Six years later she appeared, alongside Dorothy Fields, Dana Suesse, and Kay Swift, in the PBS documentary Yours for a Song: The Women of Tin Pan Alley.