Louis Ferdinand Gottschalk (7 October 1864 – 15 July 1934) was an American composer who was associated with L. Frank Baum in several capacities.
Gottschalk, born in St. Louis, was the son of a Missouri governor (another Louis Gottschalk), and great-nephew of the better-known composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk. L. F. Gottschalk's first musical milestone was conducting the American premiere of Franz Lehar's The Merry Widow.
Gottschalk was a member in The Uplifters with Baum, and composed music for three of Baum's amateur theatrical pieces for the group. More substantively, Gottschalk wrote the music for Baum's 1913 stage show The Tik-Tok Man of Oz. Baum responded by dedicating the novelization of the show, the eighth Oz book, Tik-Tok of Oz, to the composer.
Gottschalk was a pioneer of film music, and created the earliest Hollywood film scores. The composer served as vice-president of the the Oz Film Manufacturing Company, and wrote music for the company's productions:
- The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914)
- The Magic Cloak of Oz (1914)
- The Last Egyptian (1914)
- His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1915).
After the Oz company dissolved, Gottschalk continued writing film music, for D. W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin among others.