John Treville Latouche was born in
Baltimore,
Maryland. His family moved to
Richmond,
Virginia, when he was four months old. There he attended
John Marshall High School before going north to
Columbia University. He became involved in music and theater, writing for the
Varsity Show and joining the
Philolexian Society. He did not graduate. In 1937, Latouche contributed two songs in the revue
Pins and Needles. For the show
Sing for Your Supper (1939), he wrote the lyrics for "Ballad for Uncle Sam", later retitled "
Ballad for Americans", with music by
Earl Robinson. It was featured at both the 1940
Republican Convention and the convention of the
American Communist Party and was extremely popular in 1940s America. This 13-minute
cantata to American democracy was written for a soloist and as well a full orchestra. When performed on the CBS Radio network by singer
Paul Robeson, it became a national success. Subsequently, both Robeson and
Bing Crosby regularly performed it. Actor and singer
Brock Peters also made a notable recording of the cantata. Latouche provided the lyrics for
Vernon Duke's songs (including, with
Ted Fetter, "
Taking a Chance on Love") for the musical
Cabin in the Sky (1940). He also wrote lyrics for Duke's musical
Banjo Eyes (1941), which starred
Eddie Cantor. He appeared as The Gangster in the
experimental film Dreams That Money Can Buy (1947). He returned to music, writing the lyrics for the song "The Girl with the Pre-Fabricated Heart" (music by
Louis Applebaum), which accompanies a sequence conceived by French artist
Fernand Léger. Latouche wrote the book and lyrics for
The Golden Apple (1954) with music by
Jerome Moross; it won the
New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical. In 1955 he provided additional lyrics for
Leonard Bernstein's
Candide. Latouche also wrote the libretto to
Douglas Moore's opera
The Ballad of Baby Doe, one of the few American operas to join the standard repertoire. In 1955, he collaborated with co-writer Sam Locke and composer James Mundy on the
Carol Channing vehicle
The Vamp, which closed after a run of only 60 performances. He had been working with
David Merrick on setting the
Eugene O'Neill play
Ah, Wilderness to music, but died during working on the adaptation. It was later developed as
Take Me Along. Latouche was a protégé of
James Branch Cabell and friends with writers
Gore Vidal and
Jack Woodford. Latouche dated
Louella Woodford when they were both teenagers. He also was friends with the architect
William Alexander Levy (who designed and built
Hangover House for travel writer
Richard Halliburton), and writer
Paul Mooney, who assisted Halliburton in several of his classic travel works. Latouche died of a sudden
heart attack at his home in
Calais, Vermont, aged 41. == Legacy ==