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Touring in cabaret in London from 1926, Levant heard about New York composers and musicians going west to Hollywood, where music was coming into big demand. He had a taste of "the movies" in 1923 when he appeared with popular orchestra leader Ben Bernie and his band, All the Lads, in a little-known experimental sound effort by DeForest Phonofilm in New York City. It would seem natural that Levant would eventually be attracted to the glitter of Hollywood.
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Later Levant became a member of the Algonquin Round Table, the exclusive circle of New York wits and writers that met regularly at the Algonquin Hotel and included such luminaries as Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker and Alexander Woollcott. His mobility in social circles was, to say the least, surprising. Though he gave a private recital in early December 1922 for Paderewski and kept up a schedule of attending mainstream classical musical events, he was also becoming something of a bon vivant in popular music circles, and became attracted to the seamier side of New York society, developing acquaintanceships with a variety of the city's mobsters. He was in the musical play "Burlesque" (1927) and had his first stint at Broadway composing as co-composer for "Ripples" (1930). One great influence on him was the glamor and allure of Broadway, which he saw firsthand while hiring out as a pianist for the stage pit and the many nightclubs in the area. By early adulthood, Levant had evolved an engaging and opinionated personality that was attracted to the social life of the city. There he studied with Zygmunt Stojowski, a compatriot and disciple of Paderewski and a student trained by Wladyslaw Zelenski, Louis-Joseph Diemer and Clement Philibert Léo Delibes. Levant dropped out of high school (Fifth Avenue) in 1922 when his mother decided to take him to New York to continue music instruction. Demmler invited Levant to accompany him in violin and piano repertoire, which was Levant's first public playing - he was only twelve. This included going to recitals of the great Polish pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski and concerts conducted by Leopold Stokowski. He attended music lessons at the Fifth Avenue High School, where he was exposed to classical performance by his instructor, Oscar Demmler. Levant was giving public recitals within a year. At seven he continued piano under Martin Miessler, originally of the Leipzig Conservatory. Like his siblings, he started music lessons at an early age and on various instruments, first taking piano lessons from his older brother Benjamin. He was from an Orthodox Jewish Russian family, growing up in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. It is unfortunately forgotten that he was first and foremost, a brilliant musician and very competent composer. Oscar Levant's own versatility may have helped to cloud his memory as a sort of Hollywood utility man, perhaps in the worst sense people tended to see him as one among many personalities, but he was so much more.