[ Ned Washington ]
b. Aug. 15, 1901, Scranton, PA, USA. d. Dec. 20, 1976, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Overview
Lyricist Ned Washington started out as a vaudeville Master of Ceremonies, where he not only introduced acts, but also acted as agent for some of them. In 1928, Earl Carroll used one of his songs in the Vanities. In 1929, Warner Bros hired him and he had his big hit "Singing in the Bathtub" in the revue 'Show of Shows'. In 1934, Ned signed with MGM. Subsequently, he supplied material for the Republic Studios; Paramount Pictures (With Hoagy Carmichael); and Walt Disney Studios.

Among his best hits for Broadway shows and for films, are:
1931
  "I'm Making Faces At The Man in The Moon", A Kate Smith hit.
  "There's Nothing Too Good For My Baby", Harry Akst melody.
1932
  "I'm Getting Sentimental over You", Tommy Dorsey Theme song; melody by George Bassman.
  "Smoke Rings" Casa Loma Orch. Theme song. Gene Gifford melody.
  "Love Me Tonight", Victor Young melody.
  "Shadows On The Window", Victor Young Melody.
1933
  "A Ghost of a Chance"
  "Love Me", Victor Young melody.
  "Sweet Madness", Victor Young tune. (From Broadway show 'Murder at the Vanities')
1934
  "Give Me A Heart To Sing To"
1935
  "Seeing Is Believing", Milton Ager tune.
1940
  "When You Wish upon a Star", for Disney film, 'Pinocchio'.
1946
  "Stella by Starlight"
1950
  "My Foolish Heart"
1952
  "High Noon". Title song of Gary Cooper film.
1954
  "The High and the Mighty". Title song John Wayne film.

The Songwriters' Hall of Fame has elected Washington to membership.

[ [ Franz Waxman ] ]
b. Dec. 24, 1906 Konigshutte, Ger. (now: Chorzow, Pol.), d. 1967
né: Franz Wachsmann
As a child, Waxman was taught to play the piano, and music was to become his life's work. In 1923, at age 17, he quit his job as a bank clerk to enter Dresden Music Academy, and later continued at the Berlin Music Conservatory, working his way through his schooling by playing piano in nightclubs and cafes.

In 1930, he joined the UFA where he orchestrated and later scored several German films - including 'The Blauen Angel' (Marlene Dietrich's first success), and 'Liliom'. In 1934, he emigrated to Paris, France after he had been badly beaten by some Anti-Semitic Nazi thugs on a Berlin street. In 1935, he emigrated to the U.S.A., and found work in Hollywood, where he was soon recognized as a truly gifted composer.

Waxman was truly effective in scoring for some of Alfred Hitchcock's suspenseful and psychological films. In 1950, he won an Academy Award for the score to 'Sunset Boulevard' and again in 1951, for the score to 'A Place In The Sun'.

Among the films that Franz Waxman scored, are:  

1931 Der Blauen Angel            1948 The Paradine Case
1933 Liliom                           Sorry, Wrong Number
1935 Bride of Frankenstein       1950 Night and the City
1936 Magnificent Obsession            Sunset Boulevard
1937 Captains Courageous         1951 He Ran All The Way
     A Day at the Races               A Place In The Sun
1938 Three Comrades                   The Blue Veil
     A Christmas Carol           1953 My Cousin Rachel
1939 At The Circus                    Come Back Little Sheba
1940 Strange Cargo                    Stalag 51
     Rebecca                     1954 Rear Window
     Boom Town                        Prince Valiant
1941 The Philadelphia Story           The Silver Chalice
     Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde       1955 Mister Roberts
     Suspicion                   1956 Crime In The Streets
1942 Woman of the Year           1957 Love In The Afternoon
     Tortilla Flat                    Sayonara
1943 Airforce                         Peyton Place
     Edge of Darkness            1959 The Nun's Story
     Old Acquaintance            1960 The Story of Ruth
1944 Destination Tokyo                Cimarron
1945 Objective Burma             1961 King of the Roaring 20's
     Pride of the Marines        1962 Taras Bulba
1947 Humoresque                  1966 Last Command
     Nora Prentiss
     The Two Mrs. Carrolls
     Possessed
     Dark Passage
     The Unsuspected

   [ Bernie Wayne ]
b. 1919 d. April 18, 1993, Marina del Rey, CA, USA.
Bernie is best remembered today for some of his instrumental hits. In 1952, Hugo Winterhalter and His Orchestra had a hit record with Wayne's "Vanessa". An interesting musical note on "Vanessa" is that the 'B' release drops to a 3/4 meter tempo returning the a 4/4 in the 'A' chorus, - a not unheard of yet somewhat rare technique. (Listen to Robert Farnon's "Portrait of a Flirt", to hear another example.) In 1956, Nelson Riddle and his Orchestra had a hit record with "Port-Au-Prince".

But, not all of Wayne's work was instrumental. At every Miss America Pageant, at the moment of crowning, emcee Bert Park's would sing another of Wayne's little ditties, - "(There She Is) Miss America". Singer Bobby Vinton's version of "(She Wore) Blue Velvet" made it all the way to the top of the hit charts.

   [ Mabel Wayne ]
b. 1904, Brooklyn, New York, d.
Overview
Brooklyn born, Mabel studied singing and the piano in Switzerland as well as attending the New York School of Music. Early on, she was performing as a pianist and also as a concert singer. In the 1920's, Mabel became the first woman composer to produce a hit song. (Dorothy Fields, the second woman, was a lyricist.)

1925  "Don't Wake Me Up and Let Me Dream", she collaborated on the music for this moderate success with words by L. Wolfe Gilbert and Abel Baer music.
1926  "In A Little Spanish Town ('Twas On A Night Like This)", was her first really big hit.(Paul Whiteman recorded it.)

1928   "Chiquita", with words by L. Wolfe Gilbert.
1928  "Ramona". Another huge hit.

For the Hollywood film 'King of Jazz', a Paul Whiteman Bio-pic, she continued writing songs with a latin flavor:
1930  "It Happened in Monterey", with a Billy Rose lyric.
1934  "Little Man, You've Had a Busy Day"
1940  "I Understand"
1949  "A Dreamer's Holiday"

Mabel is remembered today as America's first female composer, who was most active from the middle 1920's into the 1950's.

   [ Paul Francis Webster ]
b. December 20, 1907, New York, NY, USA, d, 1984, Beverly Hills, CA. USA
Here's a Paul Francis Webster, photograph. Paul attended both Cornell University and New York University. After graduation, he first found work as a sailor, and a little later, as a dancing teacher. In 1931, he was just 24 years old, his first song, "Masquerade" started his career as a lyricist.

In 1934, he was signed by Fox Studios. In 1935, he was under contract to 20th Century Fox Films, primarily to write for Shirley Temple films. In 1936, he moved to RKO Pictures. His songs of the 1930's include:
  1932 "Masquerade"
  1933 "My Moonlight Madonna"
  1934 "Two Cigarettes in the Dark"

After the team of Gordon and Revel split up, Paul contributed some song lyrics to Revel tunes, as well as for other composers.
In 1941, his song "I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good" was a big hit (for Duke Ellington's orchestra). in 1942, he worked on Twentieth Century-Fox's 'Tales of Manhattan', a film that starred Charles Boyer among others. In 1943, he wrote for MGM's 'As Thousands Cheer'. In 1944, for the Producer's Releasing Corporation, (a Hollywood Studio that usually released 'B' grade pictures) he wrote, "Minstrel Man (Remember Me To Carolina.)" In 1945, he worked for the Paramount film 'The Stork Club', where Betty Hutton sang "Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief."

In 1950's, he worked mostly for MGM. He began collaborating with composer Sammy Fain. As a team, they both received their greatest Hollywood successes. In 1953, the team was working for the Warner Brothers.

Some of their 1950 and 1960 hits are:
  1950 "Secret Love" (won his first Academy Award ex film: 'Calamity Jane')
  1951 "The Loveliest Night of the Year"
  1955 "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" (second Academy Award ex film: Title theme song)
  1956 "Friendly Persuasion"
  1957 "April Love"
  1960 "Green Leaves of Summer"
  1965 "So Little Time"
  1965 "The Shadow of Your Smile", (1965 film 'The Sandpiper': music: Johnny Mandel. His third Academy Award) and he also added the words to Maurice Jarre's "Lara's Theme," - "Somewhere My Love"; Theme song of the film 'Dr. Zhivago'.

Webster had many hits while working outside of the Hollywood studios. Among them are:
  1950 "Black Coffee", A hit for vocalist Peggy Lee.
  1962 "Tender Is the Night, A hit for vocalist Tony Bennett.
  1966 "A Time For Love", A hit for vocalist Tony Bennett.
  1967 "Days of Love", A hit for vocalist Tony Bennett.

Other composers who collaborated with Webster include:
[ Bronislaw Kaper, [ Dmitri Tiomkin, [ Lew Pollack , [ Hoagy Carmichael, [ John Jacob Loeb, [ Alfred Newman, [ Max Steiner, [ Frank Churchill, [ Franz Waxman, [ Harry Revel, and [ Rudolf Friml.

   [ Harold Weeks
b. 1893, d. 19??
Currently no information on this native of Washington state (Snoqualmie Valley area). He composed alone, and sometimes with others. His best known song is "Hindustan", with words by [ Oliver G. Wallace. It is known that he married a local girl, William H. Taylor's daughter Haidee Taylor.

Among the songs he wrote are:
"Hindustan" (co-composer, Oliver G. Wallace composed 1917; recorded 1918)
  "Chong (He Came from Hong Kong)" (published by Leo Feist, NY) (1919)
  "Kentucky Home" (co-composer Abe Brashen 1921)
  "The Fuzzy Wuzzy Bird" (1922)
  "By the Side of the Road" (1925)
  "Little Cabin in the Cascade Mountains" (1929)
  "Along a Moonlight Way" (192?)
  "Snoqualmie Jo Jo" (19??)
  "Seattle Had a Tin Pan Alley, Too" (19??)
  "Sirene Of The Southern Sea" (Recorded by Tim Brymn and His Black Devils Orch., in March 1921, New York, NY, for Okeh Records
  "Night Time Love and You", co-composed - Marie Savage & Harold Weeks, 1927.

   [ Frederic Edward Weatherly ]
b. 1848, England. d. 1929 England
This British Lawyer and Lyricist is best known for his song [ "Roses of Picardy", which was a huge hit with the British troops during World War 1. (This version is sung by John McCormick in 1919.) Another of his songs was entitled "The Old Brigade".

Weatherly authored some books on logic, poetry, and his autobiography entitled Piano and Gown, published by Putnam in 1926, though his greatest hobby was music. While he also did some composing, he was basically a lyricist/poet. Few today recall that it was Weatherly who re-arranged the music to the old tune "Londonderry Air" and brought it out with new lyrics as "Danny Boy", now thought of as a 'standard' Irish tune.

From the 1880's onwards, his name appeared on literally hundreds of music covers, yet he is mainly remembered today for his words to the [ Haydn Wood song, [ " of Picardy", a big hit of World War 1. Curiously, the haunting and lovely verse was first penned for a totally different tune that had already been composed by Herbert Brewer (later Organist of Gloucester Cathedral). That song was summarily rejected by a publisher. Subsequently, Weatherly sent his lyric to another composer, Haydn Wood, who then wrote the music that we now know so well. This second tune was submitted to another publisher who did accept it. Hearing the song today, it is difficult to believe that the words and music were actually conceived independently of each other.

   [ Deek Watson ]
b. July 18, 1909, USA. d. November 4, 1969, Washington, District of Columbia, USA. (stroke)
Watson was part of the original "The Inkspots" vocal group, also appeared with them in the films (1941) 'The Great American Broadcast', and in (1942) 'Pardon My Sarong'. Watson has been credited with helping to compose for the 1947 film 'Boy, What A Girl', and is uncredited with writing for the 1947 film 'Sepia Cinderella'.

He was 'often' listed on various record labels as the lyricist for the song "(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons", - composer [ William Best. But, later research indicates that he never wrote the lyric. The music and lyric being written by the then 14 year old William Best. Both Best and Watson later had career as part of singing groups, and as actors in various Hollywood films.

   [ Roy Webb ]
composer/arranger/conductor, b. Oct. 3, 1888, New York, New York, USA, d. Dec. 10, 1982, Santa Monica, California, USA. Age: 94. (heart attack).
How fleeting is fame. Webb composed music, orchestrated, and arranged for some 365 films (mostly for the RKO studio), yet he is little recalled today. Educated at Columbia University, Webb first composed music for the stage. During his long career from the 1920s through the 1950s, he was nominated for seven Academy Awards

Early on, Webb was influenced by his older (3 years) brother, Kenneth, who also enjoyed a long show business career. Both boys would lead them to careers in the theater, radio, film and television. For 5 years, Webb studied drawing and painting at the Art Student’s League in New Yori (Manhattan), and then continued his music studies at Columbia University before graduating in 1910.

In 1914, Kenneth and Roy signed the original charter that formed ASCAP, before enlisting in the U. S. Navy during World War I. Both young men were still attending the Officer's Candidates School when the Armistice was signed in 1918. After their Service discharge, Kenneth found work in Hollywood, and hired his brother Roy as an assistant director.

The brothers retained active alumni ties with their alma mater, and returning to the university in the early 1920s to help stage the annual undergraduate 'Varsity Show', they became acquainted with then undergraduate Richard Rodgers. In 1925, Roy composed Columbia University's official football fight song.

During 1925-'28, Webb was a member of producer Herbert Fields’ theatrical "family", which included, among others, Richard Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart, choreographer Busby Berkeley and director Alexander Leftwich. In 1926, beginning with the second edition of the Garrick Gaieties, Webb consecutively orchestrated and conducted the Rodgers and Hart musicals 'Peggy-Ann', 'A Connecticut Yankee', 'Present Arms', and 'Chee-Chee'.

In 1927, Max Steiner arrived on Broadway, and was soon a part of Fields' producing group. By 1929, both Steiner and Webb were working in Hollywood where they help compose for two silent film foreign versions of 'Side Street' and 'The Delightful Rogue'. Both films were produced by William LeBaron and both films starred Rod La Rocque, and Rita La Roy Both films had original Music by Oscar Levant, Max Steiner, and Roy Webb Lyricist Sidney Clare also contributed to 'The Delightful Rogue'. One of the songs from that film, "Gay Love", was later recorded by Bing Crosby.

Later (1930), something of a backlash against film musicals began, and RKO management closed the music department. Though still on RKO’s payroll, Webb was sent back to New York," to oversee unit shows. At first, RKO offered to buy out Steiner’s contract, but had a change of heart at the last minute, and instead gave him a month-to month deal to head the music department. One of the first things Steiner did was to recall Webb from New York as his assistant. By 1931, RKO realized the value of musical underscoring for films, and Steiner and Webb worked closely together during the next five years.

In 1933, Webb became a charter member and treasurer of the Screen Composers Association. He was also awarded his first screen credit as musical director for Professional Sweetheart. In 1935, Webb composed music for the epic "The Last Days of Pompeii" (both Steiner and producer Merian C. Cooper had to fight to get full screen credit for Webb). In 1936, Steiner defected to Selznick International, leaving Webb as head of RKO's music department, -a position he held for the next 20 years.

In the 1940s, Webb's scores greatly enhanced RKO's then popular film noir and psychological thrillers such as Murder My Sweet (a huge hit for Dick Powell and Claire Trevor), The Spiral Staircase, Out of the Past, Stranger on the Third Floor, Notorious, The Window, and The Locket.

From 1937 to 1945, although nominated seven times for an Academy Award, Webb never won an Oscar. In 1955, RKO dissolved, and Webb, at age 67, "retired", and thereafter did only occasional freelance work such as 'Track of the Cat' and 'Marty', and TV assignments including 'Wagon Train' and '77 Sunset Strip'.

In 1961, tragedy struck when his home burned to the ground. Though Webb and his wife, Jean, escaped, they lost all of Webb’s film scores and unpublished concert music. Greatly disheartened by the destruction of his life’s work, Webb completely ceased composing, Webb and Jean (they had no children), entered into a quiet retirement. In 1966, his brother Kenneth Webb died. In the 1970s, Roy Webb began to suffer some ill health and a failing memory. He departed this world in December 1982, at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California.