[bomp] 'Andy Griffith' composer dies at 88

["mykel larson" <satchmykels@xxxxxxxxx>]

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Earle H. Hagen, who co-wrote the jazz classic
"Harlem Nocturne" and composed memorable themes for "The Andy Griffith Show,"
"I Spy," "The Mod Squad" and other TV shows, died Monday. He was 88.


"The music just flowed from him," wife Laura said of composer Earle Hagen.


Hagen, who is heard whistling the folksy tune for "The Andy Griffith Show,"
died at his home in Rancho Mirage, his wife, Laura, said Tuesday. He had been
in ill health for several months.

During his long musical career, Hagen performed with the top bands of the
swing era, composed for movies and television, and wrote one of the first
textbooks on movie composing.

He and Dick Rogers were nominated for an Academy Award for best music scoring
for the 1960 Marilyn Monroe movie "Let's Make Love."

For television, he composed original music for more than 3,000 episodes,
pilots and TV movies, including theme songs for "That Girl," "The Dick Van
Dyke Show" and "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C."

"He loved it," his wife said. "The music just flowed from him, and he would
take off one hat and put on another and go on to the next show."

Hagen enjoyed the immediacy of the small screen, he told the American Society
of Musicians Arrangers & Composers in 2000.

"It was hard work, with long hours and endless deadlines, but being able to
write something one day and hear it a few days later appealed to me," he said.
"Besides, I was addicted to the ultimate narcosis in music, which is the rush
you get when you give a downbeat and wonderful players breathe life into the
notes you have put on paper."

Born July 9, 1919, in Chicago, Hagen moved to Los Angeles as a youngster. He
began playing the trombone while in junior high school.

"The school actually furnished him with a tuba, and his mother made him take
it back," his wife said.

He became so proficient that he graduated early from Hollywood High School and
at 16 was touring with big bands. He played trombone with Benny Goodman and
Tommy Dorsey and arranged for and played with Ray Noble's orchestra.

He and Rogers wrote "Harlem Nocturne" for Noble in 1939. It has been covered
many times since and served as the theme music for "Mickey Spillane's Mike
Hammer" television series in 1984.

In 1941, Hagen became a staff musician for CBS, but the next year, he enlisted
in the military.

After the war, he worked as a composer and orchestrator for 20th Century Fox
studios on dozens of movies, including another Monroe classic, "Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes."

In the 1950s, he and Herbert Spencer formed an orchestra partnership that also
wrote music for television, including scoring the Danny Thomas hit "Make Room
for Daddy."

Later, he worked as musical director for producer Sheldon Leonard, sometimes
working on as many of five shows a week.

One of his more notable TV scoring efforts was for the 1960s adventure series
"I Spy," starring Bill Cosby and Robert Culp.

Because the show used exotic locations worldwide, Hagen often included ethnic
touches in the incidental music, among them hiring Greek musicians to play for
some episodes that took place in Greece. On other locations, he collected
ethnic music to mix with Western music back in Hollywood.

After retiring from TV work in 1986, Hagen taught a workshop in film and
television scoring.

He also wrote three books on scoring, including 1971's "Scoring for Films,"
one of the earliest textbooks on the subject. His 2002 autobiography was
titled "Memoirs of a Famous Composer -- Nobody Ever Heard Of."

Besides his wife, Hagen is survived by his sons, Deane and James, both of Palm
Desert; stepchildren Rebecca Roberts of Irvine, Richard Roberts of Los Angeles
and Rachael Roberts of Irvine; and four grandchildren. His first wife, Elouise
Hagen, died in 2002 after 59 years of marriage.


 http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/TV/05/27/earle.hagen.ap/index.html

===> To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe bomp" to majordomo@xnet2.com <===