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| From | "Stephen Thorn" <youngthorn@earthlink.net> |
| Subject | " Harlem Nocturne" composer dies |
| Date | Tue, 27 May 2008 19:28:06 -0700 |
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Mink De Ville used to open with "Harlem Nocturne." Earle was amazing!
Steve
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Earle H. Hagen, who co-wrote the jazz
classic "Harlem Nocturne" and composed memorable themes for "The Andy
Griffith Show," "I Spy," "The Mod Squad" and other TV shows, died Monday. He
was 88.
"The music just flowed from him," wife Laura said of composer Earle Hagen.
Hagen, who is heard whistling the folksy tune for "The Andy Griffith Show,"
died at his home in Rancho Mirage, his wife, Laura, said Tuesday. He had
been in ill health for several months. During his long musical career, Hagen
performed with the top bands of the swing era, composed for movies and
television, and wrote one of the first textbooks on movie composing.
He and Dick Rogers were nominated for an Academy Award for best music
scoring for the 1960 Marilyn Monroe movie "Let's Make Love."
For television, he composed original music for more than 3,000 episodes,
pilots and TV movies, including theme songs for "That Girl," "The Dick Van
Dyke Show" and "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C."
"He loved it," his wife said. "The music just flowed from him, and he would
take off one hat and put on another and go on to the next show." Hagen
enjoyed the immediacy of the small screen, he told the American Society of
Musicians Arrangers & Composers in 2000. "It was hard work, with long hours
and endless deadlines, but being able to write something one day and hear it
a few days later appealed to me," he said. "Besides, I was addicted to the
ultimate narcosis in music, which is the rush you get when you give a
downbeat and wonderful players breathe life into the notes you have put on
paper."
Born July 9, 1919, in Chicago, Hagen moved to Los Angeles as a youngster. He
began playing the trombone while in junior high school. "The school actually
furnished him with a tuba, and his mother made him take it back," his wife
said.
He became so proficient that he graduated early from Hollywood High School
and at 16 was touring with big bands. He played trombone with Benny Goodman
and Tommy Dorsey and arranged for and played with Ray Noble's orchestra.
He and Rogers wrote "Harlem Nocturne" for Noble in 1939. It has been covered
many times since and served as the theme music for "Mickey Spillane's Mike
Hammer" television series in 1984.
In 1941, Hagen became a staff musician for CBS, but the next year, he
enlisted in the military. After the war, he worked as a composer and
orchestrator for 20th Century Fox studios on dozens of movies, including
another Monroe classic, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."
In the 1950s, he and Herbert Spencer formed an orchestra partnership that
also wrote music for television, including scoring the Danny Thomas hit
"Make Room for Daddy."
Later, he worked as musical director for producer Sheldon Leonard, sometimes
working on as many of five shows a week. One of his more notable TV scoring
efforts was for the 1960s adventure series "I Spy," starring Bill Cosby and
Robert Culp. Because the show used exotic locations worldwide, Hagen often
included ethnic touches in the incidental music, among them hiring Greek
musicians to play for some episodes that took place in Greece. On other
locations, he collected ethnic music to mix with Western music back in
Hollywood.
After retiring from TV work in 1986, Hagen taught a workshop in film and
television scoring.He also wrote three books on scoring, including 1971's
"Scoring for Films," one of the earliest textbooks on the subject. His 2002
autobiography was titled "Memoirs of a Famous Composer -- Nobody Ever Heard
Of."
Besides his wife, Hagen is survived by his sons, Deane and James, both of
Palm Desert; stepchildren Rebecca Roberts of Irvine, Richard Roberts of Los
Angeles and Rachael Roberts of Irvine; and four grandchildren. His first
wife, Elouise Hagen, died in 2002 after 59 years of marriage.
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