Lecture
Ronald E. Bornstein
Wednesday 21.01.2026
Ronald E. Bornstein
The Greater Frank Loesser: Before and Beyond ‘Guys and Dolls’
Wednesday 21.01.2026
How to watch
This lecture starts on 21 January at 7:00pm (UK).
Summary
Frank Loesser (1910–1969) is closely associated with Guys and Dolls, both the innovative Tony-winning 1950 Broadway musical and the more widely known 1955 film version. He was a musical prodigy but his career started as a lyricist, gaining him early fame for songs he wrote with various composers for Hollywood musicals in the 1930s and ’40s. Many of these songs became popular standards of the Great American Songbook. In 1948 he turned in earnest to writing both the music and lyrics for Broadway productions. The Pulitzer Prize–winning How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961) was the last of his great musicals. Please join Ron Bornstein to delight in the life, lyrics and music of the great Frank Loesser.
Ronald E. Bornstein
Ronald E. Bornstein is an international lawyer who has practiced in New York, Paris, San Francisco, and London. He is a member of Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and a Lifetime Member of the Pacific Pension & Investment Institute (PPI). He was a Ford Foundation Fellow at the Academy of International Law at The Hague and a visiting Fulbright Professor at the University of Dakar. Ron grew up in Manhattan and is a lifelong student of the “Great American Songbook” and American music from 1920 to 1970.
Watch video of Ronald E. Bornstein in Conversation with Barry Kester, author of Round in Circles, the Story of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel, at Jewish Book Week, London 2025: JewishLiteraryFoundation.co.uk