Herbert W. Spencer | |
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Born |
Herbert Winfield Spencer April 7, 1905 Santiago, Chile |
Died | September 18, 1992 Culver City, California |
(aged 87)
Herbert Winfield Spencer (April 7, 1905 – September 18, 1992) was a Chilean-born American film and television composer and orchestrator.
Spencer gained industry fame when he teamed up with fellow 20th Century Fox orchestrator Earle Hagen in 1953 to create the Spencer-Hagen Orchestra. They recorded albums for an offshoot of the RCA label "X", and Liberty, and also formed a film scoring service called Music Scoring, Inc. (MSI). Spencer and Earle scored many early sitcoms and other television shows, including Where's Raymond?, renamed The Ray Bolger Show, It's Always Jan starring Janis Paige, My Sister Eileen and The Danny Thomas Show. Earle wrote the underscore, while Herb wrote the arrangements. Occasionally, these chores overlapped, when time permitted. MSI was dissolved about 1960, and Herb went on to score The Joey Bishop Show. Spencer is also remembered for co-writing "The Fishin' Hole", The Andy Griffith Show theme.
Spencer also helped orchestrate such noted film musicals as Holiday Inn (1942), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Call Me Madam (1953), Carousel (1956), Funny Girl (1968), and Hello, Dolly! (1969), and received the credit "musical associate" for his work on the film Man of La Mancha (1972), also a musical. He also composed the music for Sol y nieve (1962, a Chilean documentary).