MOVIE MUSIC UK

Composer, arranger, orchestrator and conductor Jay Blackton died at Granada Hills Community Hospital in Los Angeles ten years ago today, on January 8, 1994, at the age of 84, from heart failure.

One of the great behind-the-scenes figures of the American musical theatre, Blackton served as musical director, conductor or arranger on more than 25 Broadway productions, including Oklahoma!, Annie Get Your Gun, Call Me Madam, Guys and Dolls and Hello, Dolly!. His comparatively small film career nevertheless brought him an Academy Award for the screen version of Oklahoma!.

Blackton was born Jacob Schwartzdorf in New York City on March 25, 1909. He studied piano and conducting at the Juilliard School and initially intended to pursue a career in opera. In 1927 he became assistant conductor of the New York Opera Comique, and from 1937 until 1942 served as conductor at the St. Louis Municipal Opera, one of America’s most important summer musical-theatre companies.

It was in St. Louis that Blackton attracted the attention of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, who brought him back to New York for their revolutionary first collaboration, Oklahoma! in 1943. Blackton conducted the original Broadway production and served as its musical director, helping shape the orchestral and vocal sound of a show that transformed American musical theatre by integrating songs, dance and drama more completely than had previously been customary.

Its success established Blackton as one of Broadway’s leading musical directors. He conducted Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun in 1946 and subsequently worked on The Chocolate Soldier, Inside U.S.A., Miss Liberty, Call Me Madam and Guys and Dolls. His responsibilities frequently extended far beyond conducting: he supervised singers, prepared vocal arrangements and orchestrations, rehearsed ensembles and helped composers and performers translate music from the page into theatrical performance.

Hollywood inevitably followed. Blackton worked on MGM’s The Merry Widow (1952), but his most important film year was 1955, when he received two Academy Award nominations in the same category. For Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Guys and Dolls, starring Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra and Jean Simmons, Blackton shared a nomination with Cyril J. Mockridge. Blackton also coached Brando, who had little formal singing experience, through his demanding musical role.

His other nomination that year was for Fred Zinnemann’s lavish screen version of Oklahoma!. Sharing credit with orchestrator Robert Russell Bennett and composer-conductor Adolph Deutsch, Blackton won the Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture. The film’s groundbreaking Todd-AO presentation and hugely successful soundtrack helped introduce Rodgers and Hammerstein’s score to an even larger international audience.

Blackton nevertheless remained fundamentally a man of the theatre. His later Broadway credits included Irving Berlin’s Mr. President, for which he received a Tony nomination, Hello, Dolly!, George M!, a revival of Oliver! and I Remember Mama. He received another Tony nomination for Redhead and continued working as a musical director well into the 1980s, including on Woman of the Year. Over the years he collaborated with figures including Rodgers and Hammerstein, Irving Berlin, Frederick Loewe and Noël Coward.

He also toured with Bob Hope, including Hope’s first Christmas tour entertaining American servicemen in 1948. In later years Blackton occasionally conducted the San Fernando Valley Civic Light Opera and the Beverly Hills Symphony, making his final public appearance in 1991.

Blackton is survived by his wife Louise, son Bill, daughter Jennie Philhower and a grandson.