Sidney Torch

To look at Sidney Torch in photos -- a slightly gaunt yet dignified visage, slicked hair, evening dress, and a cigarette in a holder held elegantly -- he would be taken for an actor in a 1930s (or even 1920s) movie. But he was actually a star thrice-over in English popular music, as a conductor/composer of light music, as one of the nation's legendary cinema organists, and as a top recording artist in that field as well. From the 1930s through the 1960s, he was a top record-seller and a renowned pop-culture figure in England. Sidney Torch was the son of Morris Torchinsky, a ...