Leroy Shield

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Leroy Shield (October 2, 1893 - January 9, 1962) was an American film score and radio composer. Shield, a native of Waseca, Minnesota, was an employee of RCA Victor's National Broadcasting Company, for which he composed and conducted a number of on-air musical pieces. He also worked as a part-time employee for the Hal Roach studio, composing a great majority of the background music that later became associated with Roach series such as Laurel and Hardy, Our Gang, and Charley Chase. Most notably, one of the tunes he composed for Our Gang's 1930 short Teacher's Pet, became Our Gang's theme song: "Good Old Days".

Later in his career, he continued as sound engineer for the National Broadcasting Company.^{[citation needed]}

In 1992, a Dutch musical group, calling themselves the Beau Hunks after the Laurel and Hardy film of that name, carefully transcribed and re-recorded some of Shield's music. These recordings drew encomia from cartoonist R. Crumb (who drew a portrait of Shield for the CD cover), and have led to a re-appreciation of Shield's music.