Ethel Smith

Actor · born 22 November 1902 · Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Ethel Smith (November 22, 1902 – May 10, 1996) was an American organist who played primarily in a pop style on the Hammond organ.

Born Ethel Goldsmith, she performed from a fairly young age and traveled widely, after studying both music and several languages at Carnegie Tech. She became proficient in Latin music while staying in South America, and it is the style of music with which she is now most associated. She was a guitarist as well as an organist, and in her later years occasionally played the guitar live for audiences, but all her recordings were on the organ. She ultimately recorded dozens of albums, mostly for Decca Records.

Where to start: Melody Time (1948).