Background

Alfred Newman was born on March 17, 1900 in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. He was the son of Russian immigrants Michael Newman , an unprosperous produce dealer, and Luba Koskoff, the daughter of a cantor, and a devoted but untutored music lover who soon recognized her son's talent and was an active force in promulgating his musical career.

Education

Newman began as a piano prodigy, making his first public appearance (in New Haven, where he attended public schools) at the age of eight. His first teachers were Guido Hocke Caselotti and Edward A. Parsons. One of his most enthusiastic supporters was the well-known poet and society leader Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Through her connections in the New Haven musical and social worlds, Newman won a scholarship with the eminent pianist and composer Sigismond Stojowski, who was teaching at the Von Ende School of Music in New York City. Despite the hardship of commuting twice a week to New York for his lessons, Newman progressed quickly under Stojowski's tutelage. He won the school's silver medal for piano in 1915 and the gold medal in 1916.

Career

Newman's talent was praised by Stojowski, Ferruccio Busoni, Frank Damrosch, and Ignace Paderewski (whom he met in 1916 but who never sponsored any of his concerts, contrary to the assertion in some Newman biographies).

His debut recital took place on November 5, 1916. Family financial and domestic troubles forced Newman to abandon the concert world for that of show business. His first commercial jobs were in vaudeville and as accompanist to the popular comedienne Grace La Rue in the 1917 and 1918 runs of the revue Hitchy-Koo. He was befriended by the show's music director, William M. Daly, who later became influential in the career of George Gershwin. Daly encouraged the young pianist to take up conducting and taught him the fundamentals of baton technique.

In 1919, Newman began conducting musical comedy on his own, receiving attention as "the youngest musical director in the country, " but none of his shows made it to Broadway. His breakthrough to success occurred when George Gershwin recommended him to the producer George White for the Scandals of 1920. That show was a substantial hit, and Newman became one of the theater's most sought-after music directors. His Broadway credits include The Greenwich Village Follies and musical comedies by the Gershwins, Otto Harbach, Jerome Kern, and Rodgers and Hart. He made his first appearance as a symphony conductor in 1926, when he was invited by Fritz Reiner to conduct a concert with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Newman's Broadway work ended in February 1930, when, at the request of Irving Berlin, he was invited to Hollywood by United Artists (UA) to take over as music director for Berlin's forthcoming film, Reaching for the Moon. Upon his arrival, Newman was told that production had been delayed; he was then assigned to UA member Samuel Goldwyn, who was producing his first musical film, Whoopee, starring Eddie Cantor. The film was a success, and he was appointed music director of UA, a post he held for almost nine years. Of the many producers with whom he was involved at UA, the two who were most significant in shaping Newman's Hollywood career were Samuel Goldwyn and Darryl F. Zanuck. Newman composed the music for all of Goldwyn's prestige pictures, including Street Scene (1931), Beloved Enemy (1936), Stella Dallas (1937), Dead End (1937), The Hurricane (1937), and Wuthering Heights (1939), in addition to serving as music director for the rest of the Eddie Cantor musicals and for The Goldwyn Follies, the film that Gershwin was working on at the time of his death. He scored all of Zanuck's pictures at UA (1933 - 1935), three of which are classics of the first decade of talking pictures: The House of Rothschild (1934), Clive of India (1935), and Les Miserables (1935).

In 1936 he sponsored and produced the first complete recordings of Arnold Schoenberg's string quartets, with the Kolisch Quartet. He left UA in December 1938, and the following year he scored on a free-lance basis the enduring classics Gunga Din, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Wuthering Heights, Beau Geste, and Drums Along the Mohawk. In 1940, Newman signed with Zanuck as general music director of Twentieth Century-Fox (TCF). He wrote music for most of the large-scale pictures produced during his tenure at TCF, notably Brigham Young (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), The Song of Bernadette (1943), The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), The Razor's Edge (1946), Captain from Castile (1947), The Snake Pit (1948), All About Eve (1950), and The Robe (1953). His name appears on TCF's most lavish musicals, including those starring Alice Faye and Betty Grable and the adaptations of Call Me Madam (1953), Carousel (1956), The King and I (1956), and South Pacific (1958). As head of the music department, he was obligated to oversee the work of other composers assigned to TCF films, to confer with them, and often to conduct the recordings of their scores.

In 1943 he recorded the first commercial multiside album of a film score, his score for The Song of Bernadette. In the programs he conducted at the Hollywood Bowl and elsewhere, he habitually included film music by himself and others. As the power of the major studios began to decline in the mid-1950's, TCF's output gradually decreased, studio expenses were cut back, and staffs were greatly reduced. Zanuck resigned in 1956, the musicians' strike in 1958 signaled the end of studio staff orchestras, and Newman's music department soon was decimated. He left TCF in 1960 to become a free-lancer once more. His film work during his remaining years included more big pictures, such as The Counterfeit Traitor (1962), How the West Was Won (1962), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), and the musicals Flower Drum Song (1961) and Camelot (1967).

His last film score was Airport (1970), for which he was posthumously nominated for an Academy Award.

He died in Los Angeles.

Achievements

• With the UA music editor Charles Dunworth, Newman devised the "Newman System" for film music synchronization, still much in use today. Under Newman's direction, the Twentieth Century-Fox staff orchestra gained a reputation as the finest in Hollywood. Newman scored and conducted more than 230 films and was the most honored of all screen composers; he received forty-five Academy nominations and won nine Academy Awards: for Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), Tin Pan Alley (1940), The Song of Bernadette (1943), Mother Wore Tights (1947), With a Song in My Heart (1952), Call Me Madam (1953), Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), The King and I (1956), and Camelot (1967).

Works

More photos

• book

  • Legendary Hollywood: Alfred Newman Conducts His Classic Motion Picture Scores

    (Citadel Records proudly presents another fine release in ...)

  • Newman: How Green Was My Valley Original Soundtrack IMPORT SOUNDTRACK By Alfred Newman (Composer),,Original Soundtrack (Orchestra) (1993-11-09)

    (Brand new)

  • Alfred Newman: Captain from Castile

    (CD)

  • Wuthering Heights: A Tribute to Alred Newman
  • 'Pinky' Music from the film

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• "Newman was one of those rare Hollywood souls who generously nurtured the talents and careers of many other men who became legends in the field of film composition—including Bernard Herrmann, David Raksin and John Williams. " (Classic Themes)
  
  "The legacy of Alfred Newman and his influence on the language of music for the cinema is practically unmatched by anyone in Hollywood history. As an executive, he was hard but fair. As a mentor to his staff he was revered. The orchestras under his baton delighted in his abilities as a conductor. The music he himself composed, often under extreme emotional duress, is among the most gorgeous ever written. Not big in physical stature, he was a giant in character, a titan in the world he loved and dominated. He was a true musical force, and one that cannot in any sense be replaced. " (Nick Redman)

Connections

Newman was married three times, and all of his wives were showgirls. His first wife was Beth Meakins, whom he married on February 14, 1931, and divorced in 1940; they had one child. His second wife was Mary Lou Dix, whom he married on December 13, 1940; they, too, had one child, and were divorced in 1943. He married Martha Montgomery on November 6, 1947; they had five children.

Father:

Michael Newman

Mother:

Luba Koskoff

Spouse:

Beth Meakins

Spouse:

Martha Montgomery

Spouse:

Mary Lou Dix

References

• To Alfred Newman
• Alfred Newman Hollywood Composer Music -Framed Postage Stamp Art 16630