Al Lerner (composer)

Al Lerner was an American pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor from the big band era. He was a member of the Harry James band for many years, playing piano. He wrote music for several artists, including Allan Sherman and Liza Minnelli. He also wrote the music for So Until I See You, the closing theme for The Tonight Show with Jack Paar in the early 1960s, and was the pianist for A Tribute to Eddie Duchin, which was a soundtrack for the 1956 biographical film pic The Eddy Duchin Story.

Lerner was born on April 7, 1919 in Cleveland, the youngest of three children. Their father Abraham had died on November 11, 1918 before Als birth, a victim of the 1918 flu pandemic. Lerners mother Jennie Takiff then married a sheet metal worker named Abe Lerner, who became Als adopted father. During the American Prohibition banning the sale of alcohol, Abe Lerner used his metalworking abilities on the side to make stills for Cleveland gangsters and bootleggers, and used his sevenyearold son Al as a courier for payments. It was a rough neighborhood with regular mob wars between rival gangsters, multiple killings on Lerners street, and payoffs to the local police. Abe Lerner was eventually arrested and the still business was shut down, after which the family went broke.

Source: Wikipedia