Stanley Wilson (composer)
| Stanley Wilson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 25, 1917 New York City, United States |
| Died | July 12, 1970 (aged 52) Aspen, Colorado, United States |
| Genres | Film and television music scoring |
| Occupation(s) | Arranger, composer, conductor, director |
| Years active | 1947–1970 |
| Associated acts |
Count Basie Elmer Bernstein Benny Carter Juan García Esquivel Percy Faith Dave Grusin Quincy Jones Henry Mancini Oliver Nelson Lalo Schifrin John Williams |
Stanley Wilson (November 25, 1917 – July 12, 1970) was an American musical conductor, arranger and film composer.
Stanley James Wilson was born in New York City. His father, Philip Wilson emigrated from Russia and his mother, Regina Reiman Wilson from Austria. His parents had a brief career in the Yiddish Shakespeare Theatre. The youngest of 4 children (Nancy, Ruth, Mitchell, a physicist, author and husband of Stella Adler). Wilson had his first trumpet recital at the age of 5. Wilson graduated from Townsend-Harris high school at the age of 14. He attended City College of New York in pre-med. By the age of 16 he was playing trumpet on 52nd Street with Bobby Hackett and Nick's in Greenwich Village with Spud Murphy. During the latter part of his third year at City College, at the age of 17, Wilson decided he was going to make music, not medicine, his career, and he dropped out in 1937. Wilson was influenced by Edwin Franko Goldman of the Goldman band, Walter Damrosch, then conductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra and studied orchestration with Nathan Van Cleave. Wilson was playing and arranging for Art Paulsen's band at the New Yorker Hotel when he met his future wife Gertrud who was from New Jersey and had been working at the World's Fair as a hostess. A month after their marriage in 1941 he auditioned for Glenn Miller. He received a call to join the Miller orchestra. By that time Wilson had joined the Eddie Brandt band. Wilson joined Herbie Holmes' orchestra in 1941, making his first trip to the West Coast with that group. He joined two uncles who had left New York for the film business in Hollywood. One of the uncles and his Godfather, Joseph Ruttenberg was an Oscar-winning MGM cinematographer (The Great Waltz, Mrs. Miniver, Somebody Up There Likes Me, Gigi). Wilson was with the Freddie Martin Orchestra for three years, playing trumpet and arranging at the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles.
Wilson was one of the most prolific collaborators in the Hollywood music industry for more than three decades. The creator of original themes and incidental music for several TV series, he also composed, arranged, or orchestrated more than 100 films.
Following World War II, he joined the MGM music department in 1945, moving a year later to Republic Pictures, where he wrote scores for countless B-movies and serials for the next twelve years. While at Republic, he provided the music support for classic serials as King of the Rocket Men and Zombies of the Stratosphere, as well in exciting adventures featuring western heroes as Rex Allen, Wild Bill Elliott, Allan Lane and Roy Rogers.
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