Edouard Hesselberg

Russian-American concert pianist, composer & music director for several universities. Born May 3, 1870 in Riga, Latvia, then part of the Russian Empire. Died June 12, 1935 (age of 65) in Hollywood, California, USA. Husband of songwriter Lena Hesselberg. Father of actor Melvyn Douglas. Besides composing for singers, he also had a mail order business in which he composed the music to lyrics others sent to him. For example, he had 99 copyrights in the year 1920. He sometimes went by "D'Essenelli", including in copyrights.