Paul Pratt

Paul Pratt (b. New Salem, November 1, 1890 - d. Indianapolis, July 7, 1948) -- Pianist and composer. Pratt lived a few of his early years in Colorado, but his family moved back to Indiana, settling in Indianapolis by 1900. As a teenager, he learned the basics of music theory, which would help him later compose and arrange music. He became part of the Ragtime scene in Indy, when his friend Cecil Duane Crabb asked him to arrange "Dusty Rag" (1908), which he was publishing for May Auferheide. When May's father soon thereafter started his own publishing company, Pratt became its manager and arranger. Meanwhile, he contributed three of his own rags to the company in 1909 and 1910 (see Walhalla Rag below). In 1911, he moved to Chicago to begin a new branch of the Aufherdeide company, but the whole business soon collapsed forcing him to publish his next three rags with the Stark Music Company in St. Louis (see "On the Rural Route" below). By 1917, he had also written several songs, some with Hoosier J. Will Callahan; their topical song "Gasoline" was particularly successful. A few of his rags like "Prattles" were never published, but he made piano rolls of them while working for the United States Music Company in Chicago. Next, he worked in New York, where he was a Vaudeville pianist using the name Paul Parnell. He also conducted groups for Broadway productions (including 1926 Ziegfeld Follies) and toured Europe with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, which he sometimes conducted. During the Great Depression, he returned to Indianapolis, where he led Paul Parnell and the Sycamores.