Jack sent me the following news yesterday.
ron
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jack Woker" <stereoj@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;>
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2008 3:39 PM
Subject: Fw: Earle Hagen, Emmy-winning TV music composer, 88
>
>
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hagen28-2008may28,0,2077488.story?page=2
>
> From the Los Angeles Times
> Earle Hagen, 88; Emmy- winning TV music composer
> He wrote the memorable theme music for the "Andy Griffith" and "Dick Van
> Dyke" shows, "I Spy" and other classics.
> By Dennis McLellan
> Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
>
> 10:11 AM PDT, May 27, 2008
>
> Earle H. Hagen, the Emmy Award-winning television composer who wrote the
> memorable theme music for "The Andy Griffith Show," "The Dick Van Dyke
> Show," "I Spy" and other classic TV programs, has died. He was 88.
>
> Hagen, who composed the jazz standard "Harlem Nocturne" and was a former
> big-band trombonist for Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Ray Noble, died
> Monday night at his home in Rancho Mirage, said his wife, Laura. He had
> been
> ill for several months.
>
> After spending seven years at 20th Century Fox as an arranger and
> orchestrator, Hagen moved into television in 1953 after the studio cut
> back
> on its music department.
>
> Over the next 33 years, he composed music for some 3,000 TV-series
> episodes,
> pilots and TV movies -- as well as composing the themes for popular
shows,
> including "That Girl," "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.," "The Mod Squad" and
"Mickey
> Spillane's Mike Hammer."
>
> Hagen also wrote a jazz arrangement of the traditional Irish tune
> "Londonderry Air," which served as the theme for Danny Thomas' popular
> situation comedy, "Make Room for Daddy." The Thomas show, which debuted
in
> 1953, launched Hagen's longtime professional relation****p with
> director-producer Sheldon Leonard.
>
> "There is no question in my mind that Earle Hagen is one of the most
> im****tant composers in the history of television, if not the most
> im****tant," said Jon Burlingame, author of the 1996 book "TV's Biggest
> Hits," a chronicle of American television scoring.
>
> When Hagen started his television career, Burlingame said, "there was
very
> little original music being composed for television. He was one of the
> very
> few people who took the leap and saw the potential of music for
television
> in terms of what could be accomplished dramatically and comedically."
>
> The themes that Hagen wrote, Burlingame said, "are among the most iconic
> in
> television history.
>
> "Just think about the sort of country, folksy feel of 'The Andy Griffith
> Show' theme, and think about the big-band theme of 'The Dick Van Dyke
> Show.'
> Who doesn't know those things?
>
> "Even themes for shows like 'That Girl' and 'I Spy' and 'The Mod Squad,'
> which perhaps don't re-run today as much as they should but at the time
> were
> huge television hits, were memorable. Hagen had an ability to capture
the
> tone of any show he worked on."
>
> The happy-go-lucky theme for "The Andy Griffith Show" may be Hagen's
most
> recognizable tune. It's certainly the most beloved.
>
> In his autobiography, "Memoirs of a Famous Composer -- Nobody Ever Heard
> Of," Hagen wrote that while sitting at home "wracking my brain for an
idea
> for a theme for the Griffith show, it finally occurred to me that it
> should
> be something simple, something you could whistle. With that in mind, it
> took
> me about an hour to write the Andy Griffith theme."
>
> That night, he and several musicians recorded a demo of the theme for
the
> opening of the show, with Hagen doing the whistling and his 11-year-old
> son
> Deane doing the finger-snapping. The next morning, Hagen took a copy of
> the
> demo to executive producer Leonard's home.
>
> As Hagen recalled: "He listened and said, 'Great! I'll do [the show's
> opening] at Franklin Canyon Lake with Andy and Ronny [Howard] walking
> along
> the bank with a couple of fi****ng poles over their shoulders."
>
> During his TV heyday, Hagen wrote music for as many as five weekly shows
> simultaneously, putting in "16-hour workdays, seven days a week, for 40
> weeks a year," he told the online magazine Film Score Monthly in 2001.
>
> "In the 12 weeks off between seasons, if anyone mentioned music to me, I
> would kill," he said.
>
> Hagen considered "I Spy," the 1965-`68 adventure-espionage series
starring
> Robert Culp and Bill Cosby and shot in exotic locales around the world,
as
> his "first real challenge."
>
> "The changing panoramas of countries and plot lines were extremely
> daunting," he told Film Score Monthly. Nevertheless, he said, "It was a
> fun
> show for music and adventure." Executive producer Leonard "gave me full
> rein, and we never looked back. I tried to write a self-contained score
> for
> each episode. It was like scoring an hour movie a week."
>
> Before the series began filming, he and Leonard and their wives went on
an
> around-the-world tour looking for locations, during which Hagen
> tape-recorded the indigenous music.
>
> Most Eastern cultures, he said, "have their own scales. . . . Once you
are
> familiar with what makes a particular country tick, it's not so hard to
> write in that style. I always chose to Westernize the music for the
> audience."
>
> For his work on "I Spy," Hagen received three Emmy Award nominations for
> outstanding achievement in musical composition, and he won the award in
> 1968.
>
> Hagen was born July 9, 1919, in Chicago, and his family moved to Los
> Angeles
> when he was about 6. He began playing a baritone horn in his junior high
> school band and turned to the trombone at Hollywood High.
>
> After graduating at age 15, he began playing professionally on the road.
> Over the next several years, he had stints with the California
Collegians
> and the Ben Pollack, Isham Jones, Goodman and Dorsey bands.
>
> He was playing trombone and writing arrangements for the Ray Noble
> Orchestra
> in 1939 when he wrote "Harlem Nocturne."
>
> The sultry tune was frequently recorded, including recordings by the
> Charlie
> Barnet, Glenn Miller and Stan Kenton bands. It also was used as the
theme
> for "Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer," starring Stacy Keach as the
> fedora-wearing, retro private eye.
>
> During World War II, Hagen served in the Army Air Forces: He played
> trombone
> and wrote arrangements for the radio production unit's 65-piece
orchestra,
> which operated out of a broadcasting studio in Santa Ana.
>
> After the war, he joined 20th Century Fox as an arranger and
orchestrator
> and worked on movies such as "Monkey Business," "Call Me Madam," "The
> Farmer
> Takes a Wife" and "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."
>
> In the late 1940s, Hagen also did arrangements for a number of singers
on
> various recording labels, including Frank Sinatra, Tony Martin, Dick
> Haymes
> and Frances Langford.
>
> From 1953 to 1960, Hagen was partnered with former Fox arranger and
> orchestrator Herbert W. Spencer in writing music for television and
> recording albums under the name Spencer-Hagen Orchestra.
>
> Even after he began working in television, Hagen returned to 20th
Century
> Fox as an orchestrator for more than a dozen movies, including "Daddy
Long
> Legs" and "Carousel."
>
> In 1961, he and Lionel Newman shared an Oscar nomination for best music,
> scoring of a musical picture for "Let's Make Love."
>
> Hagen, who retired from television in 1986, taught the BMI workshop for
> film
> and TV composers for many years. He also wrote the 1971 book "Scoring
for
> Films" and the 1990 book "Advanced Techniques for Films," which are
> considered definitive textbooks in the subject.
>
> Hagen's wife of 59 years, former big-band singer Elouise "Lou" Sidwell,
> died
> in 2002.
>
> In addition to his wife Laura, a singer whom he married in 2005; Hagen
is
> survived by his two sons, Deane and James; three step-children, Rebecca
> Roberts, Richard Roberts and Rachael Roberts; and four grandchildren.
>
> A memorial service is pending.
>
> dennis.mclellan@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
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