Earle Hagen: Difference between revisions

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| caption = Earle Hagen in the 1960s

'''Earle Harry Hagen''' (July 9, 1919 – May 26, 2008) was an [[Americans|American]] [[composer]] who created music for [[film|movies]]films and [[television]]. His best-known TV themes include those for ''Make Room for Daddy'', ''[[The Dick Van Dyke Show]]'', ''[[I Spy (1965 TV series)|I Spy]]'', ''[[That Girl]]'' and ''[[The Mod Squad]]''. He is also remembered for co-writingcomposing and whistling "[[The Fishin'Andy Hole",Griffith the melody ofShow Theme|the main theme to ''[[The Andy Griffith Show'']]''; writing the instrumental song "[[Harlem Nocturne]]" used as the theme tofor television's ''[[Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer (1984 TV series)|Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer]]''; and co-writing the theme song to [[Tim Conway]]'s [[Western (genre)|Western]] comedy ''[[Rango (TV series)|Rango]]''.<ref name=WeberB-NYT-EH-Obit>Weber, Bruce. –(May Television:28, 2008). [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/arts/television/28hagen.html "Earle Hagen, Who Composed Noted TV Tunes, Dies at 88"]. – Television: ''[[The New York Times]]''. – May 28, 2008. – Retrieved: May 28, 2008.</ref><ref name=ZoglinR-TIMETime>[[Richard Zoglin|Zoglin, Richard]]. –(March 3, 1986). [https://web.archive.org/web/20080531115254/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,960794,00.html "Back to the Time Warp"]. – ''[[Time (magazine)|TIMETime]]''. – March 3, 1986. – Retrieved: May 28, 2008.</ref>

Born in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], as a boy he moved with his family to [[Los Angeles]], [[California]], where he learned to play the [[trombone]] in junior high school, and graduated from [[Hollywood High School]]. At age 16, he left home to join traveling big bands, playing with [[Tommy Dorsey]], [[Benny Goodman]] and [[Ray Noble (musician)|Ray Noble]]. While on the roadworking with Noble in 1939, he wrote "[[Harlem Nocturne]]"{{Citation needed|date=April 2009}} as a tribute to [[Duke Ellington]] and [[Johnny Hodges]].<ref name=WeberB-NYT-EH-Obit /><ref name=JablonR-AP-2008-05-27>Jablon, Robert. – [http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_9394015?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com "Earle Hagen, 'Andy Griffith' composer, dies at 88"]. – [[Associated Press]]. – (c/o ''[[San Jose Mercury News]]''). – May 27, 2008. – Retrieved: May 28, 2008</ref> The piece was recorded by many artists, including [[Johnny Otis]], [[Randy Brooks (big band leader)|Randy Brooks]], [[Herbie Fields]], [[Sam Taylor (jazz)|Sam "The Man" Taylor]], [[Earl Bostic]], [[Charlie Barnet]], [[The Viscounts (US)|The Viscounts]], [[King Curtis]], [[Quincy Jones]], [[Les Elgart]], [[Larry Elgart]], [[Illinois Jacquet]], and [[David Sanborn]]. Later, in a version with [[Bud Shank]] on alto sax,<ref>[{{Cite web|url=https://thescl.com/articles/memoirs-of-a-famous-composer/|title=Memoirs Bruceof Babcocka (2009)Famous Composer|first=David|last=Das|date=October 29, Interview2009|website=The withSociety Earleof Hagen]Composers and Lyricists}}</ref> it was used as the theme for television's ''[[Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer (1984 TV series)|Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer]]'', and ''The New Mike Hammer''.

He began teaching trombone in the 1930s in order to make extra money. In 1940, he went to work for [[CBS]] as a staff musician, then enlisted in the military in 1941. Hagen was an orchestrator and arranger for motion picture studio [[20th Century Studios|20th Century Fox]] in the 1940s and early 1950s, and worked on films like ''[[Call Me Madam (film)|Call Me Madam]]'', ''[[Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953 film)|Gentlemen Prefer Blondes]]'' and ''[[Carousel (film)|Carousel]]''. He began writing for television when he left Fox in 1952 with partner [[Herbert W. Spencer]]. The two did the musical score for [[Janis Paige]]'s short-lived [[sitcom]], ''[[It's Always Jan]],'' which aired in the 1955–1956 season on CBS. Hagen met television show producer [[Sheldon Leonard]] when he scored the Danny Thomas series ''[[Make Room for Daddy]]''.<ref name=WeberB-NYT-EH-Obit /><ref name=JablonR-AP-2008-05-27 />

Hagen's most ambitious body of work, however, came from his work on ''[[I Spy (1965 TV series)|I Spy]]'', for which he won an [[Emmy Awards|Emmy]] in 1968. [[Sheldon Leonard]], the producer and creator of ''I Spy'', bucked the trend of using canned music for television shows and instead decided to create original soundtracks for every episode. Since every episode of ''I Spy'' was set in a different location, Hagen made liberal use of world music in his soundtracks which were mostly written and performed within the [[West coast jazz]] genre. (Hagen did not claim the West coast jazz affiliation for himself, instead inventing the term "semi-jazz,", which he defined as a union of global themes with American jazz.)

At the end of his life he continued teaching and wrote books on music arranging and scoring. Sometimes his only fee was a box of golf balls because of his passion for golfing.<ref name=WeberB-NYT-EH-Obit /> He wrote one of the first [[textbook]]s on scoring, ''Scoring for Films: A Complete Text''. In ''2000, ''he'' ''published his autobiography, ''Memoirs of a Famous Composer Nobody Ever Heard Of''.<ref name=JablonR-AP-2008-05-27 /> Two of his students were fellow Emmy-winning composers and orchestrators [[Bruce Babcock]] and [[Harvey Cohen]]<ref name=AP-HC-Obit>{{cite webnews |agency=Associated Press |title=Harvey Cohen |department=Obituary | websitenewspaper=WaybackThe MachineSan |Diego Union-Tribune |date=2008-05-31February 3, 2007 |url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070203/news_1m3cohen.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080531131941/http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070203/news_1m3cohen.html | accessarchive-date=20182008-1105-31 |access-date=November 12, 2018}}</ref><ref name="Welcome to The Film Music Society 1999">{{cite web | title=FMS: Feature &#91;Composer/Arranger Harvey Cohen Dead at 55&#93; | website=Welcome to The Film Music Society | date=1999-12-December 24, 1999 | url=http://www.filmmusicsociety.org/news_events/features/2007/011607.html | access-date=2018-11-November 12, 2018}}</ref>

Hagen had a Golden Palm Star on the [[Palm Springs Walk of Stars]] dedicated to him in 2003.<ref>[http{{Cite web|url=https://www.palmspringswalkofstars.com/web-storage/Stars%20by%20date/Stars%20dedicated%20by%20date.pdf Palm Springs Walk of Stars: By Date Dedicated] {{webarchive|urlarchiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121208224143/http://www.palmspringswalkofstars.com/web-storage/Stars%20by%20date/Stars%20dedicated%20by%20date.pdf|url-status=dead|title=The Brightest Stars from New-York to Los Angeles|archive-date=2012-12-08December 8, 2012|website=Palmspringswalkofstars.com}}</ref> He was inducted into the [[Television Academy Hall of Fame]] in 2011.

*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20020805060445/http://www.earlehagen.net/ ''The Best of All Worlds'']}} Fan Site with career reflections & highlights.