- TitleErnest Gold scrapbooks, 1940 - 1979 (inclusive)
- Collector
- Date(s)1940 - 1979 (inclusive)
- Description
7 item(s) of papers
- Summary
The scrapbooks contain clippings, concert programs, and correspondence.
- BiographyErnest Gold was born Ernst Siegmund Goldner in Vienna, Austria in 1921. His father was a gifted amateur violin and piano player who instructed Gold in both instruments as a child. Gold began composing music at the age of eight and by the time he was 13 he had written a full-length opera. He briefly attended Vienna’s University of Music and Performing Arts until 1938 when his family left Europe following the Nazi annexation of Austria. They settled in New York where Gold, still a teenager, saw his career in music take off almost immediately. He was hired as a staff composer at Broadcast Music, Inc. and wrote several popular songs which became hits in the years during World War II, including “Practice Makes Perfect,” “They Started Something,” and “Boogie Woogie to You.” His income from these songs enabled him to continue his musical education, which included studying under Otto Cesana and Leon Barzin. Although successful with popular music, Gold continued to compose orchestral works, and his "Pan American Symphony” was performed by the NBC Symphony Orchestra and broadcast in 1942, and Barzin conducted a piano concerto composed by Gold at Carnegie Hall in 1945.
Gold moved to Hollywood in 1945 and was hired to compose the score for THE GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST (1945). For the next decade he invariably composed, orchestrated, or conducted for several dozen films, the majority of them B movies. He became closely associated with composer George Antheil, for whom he orchestrated the scores for KNOCK ON ANY DOOR (1949), TOKYO JOE (1949), and IN A LONELY PLACE (1950), among others. In 1955, he orchestrated Anthiel’s score for Stanley Kramer’s NOT AS A STRANGER (1955). The film was Kramer’s directorial debut, and following Antheil’s death in 1959, Gold composed the score for nearly every film directed by Kramer, including THE DEFIANT ONES (1958), INHERIT THE WIND (1960), JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG (1961), and SHIP OF FOOLS (1965). His work for Kramer garnered considerable acclaim. For ON THE BEACH (1959), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture; for IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD (1963) he was nominated for Best Music, Score - Substantially Original and Best Music, Original Song, shared with lyricist Mack David; and for THE SECRET OF SANTA VITTORIA (1969) he was nominated for Best Music, Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical).
Apart from his work for Kramer, Gold is best known for his score for EXODUS (1960), for which he received the Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. His other notable film scores include THE YOUNG PHILADELPHIANS (1959), CROSS OF IRON (1977), and FUN WITH DICK AND JANE (1977), and he also conducted Matt Malneck’s score for WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION (1957). In the 1950s he began composing music for television as well and throughout his career worked on such shows as M SQUAD, WAGON TRAIN, and HAWAII FIVE-O, though he disliked the rushed pace of television productions. Gold’s scoring output slowed substantially in the 1980s, and he retired after scoring and conducting the mini-series LINCOLN (1988). However, throughout his life Gold maintained an active musical career beyond his work in film and television. He served as the fourth conductor of the Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra, conducting the 1957-1958 season. In 1968 he wrote the music for the Broadway musical I’M SOLOMON, though the show ran only a week. He founded and conducted the Senior Citizens Orchestra of Los Angeles in the 1980s. Even at the height of his career in film, he continued to compose concert pieces, including such works as “Boston Pops March,” “Concerto for Viola and Orchestra,” and “Symphony for Five Instruments.” Gold died in 1999. - Subjects
- Acquisitions InformationGift of Ernest Gold, 1980
- Preferred citationErnest Gold scrapbooks, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
- DepartmentLibrary
- 1147
- AvailabilityFor information on the contents and availability of this collection please contact the Reference and Public Services department at ref@oscars.org.
- Moving Image Items
- Library Holdings