Gershon Kingsley was born Goetz Gustav Ksinski in Bochum, Westfalia, Germany on October 28th, 1922 (died on December 10th, 2019 in NYC). He grew up in Berlin, but fled to Palestine in 1938 because of the rise of Nazism. Separated from his family at age 15, Kingsley lived and worked on a kibbutz (a cooperative farm) in a land that would become Israel. Here, he became a self-taught pianist and later performed with local jazz bands around Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. He is probably most famous for his "Popcorn" tune, popularized by Hot Butter.
He served as a gaffir (mounted patrolman) and studied at the Jerusalem Conservatory, then came to America in 1946 with hopes of attending the Julliard School of Music. The school, however, would not accept him because he had no high school degree. So, at the age of twenty-four, he left for Los Angeles, finished high school at night and attended the LA Conservatory of Music (now known as Cal Arts). For work, he would play the organ at several synagogues in the area.
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