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HOW THE WEST WAS WON – Alfred Newman, Ken Darby
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
MGM Studios, in an effort to regain its former glory, embarked on a sweeping multi-generational tale, an epic story so grand in its storytelling that three directors would be needed to shoot its five vignettes. The film drew inspiration from a Life magazine photo essay titled “How the West Was Won”. Producer Bernard Smith hired James R. Webb to write a screenplay with a massive canvass and Henry Hathaway was tasked with directing three of the vignettes; The Rivers (1839), The Plains (1851) and The Outlaws (1889). John Ford would direct The Civil War (1861–1865) segment, and George Marshall would direct The Railroad (1868). A massive stellar cast was hired, which many consider to be the greatest assembly of stars ever hired for a single project; Carroll Baker as Eve Prescott, Agnes Moorhead as Rebecca Prescott, Karl Malden as Zebulon Prescott, Debbie Reynolds as Lilith Prescott, Lee Cobb as Lou Ramsey, Henry Fonda as Jethro Stewart, Carolyn Jones as Julie Rawlings, Gregory Peck as Cleve Van Valen, George Peppard as Zeb Rawlings, Robert Preston as Roger Morgan, John Wayne as General William Tecumseh Sherman, Richard Widmark as Mike King, Walter Brennan as Colonel Jeb Hawkins, Raymond Massey as President Abraham Lincoln, and Harry Morgan as General Ulysses S. Grant. Read more…
Remembering Ken Darby, 1909-1992
Composer, arranger, conductor and choral director Ken Darby died at his home in Sherman Oaks, California, ten years ago today, on January 24, 1992, at the age of 82, following a history of heart problems.
One of Hollywood’s most accomplished specialists in vocal and musical arranging, Darby won three Academy Awards for The King and I, Porgy and Bess and Camelot, and contributed to such classics as The Wizard of Oz, Pinocchio, South Pacific and How the West Was Won.
Kenneth Lorin Darby was born in Hebron, Nebraska, on May 13, 1909, and moved with his family to California as a child. He began studying piano at five and trumpet at nine, later receiving private instruction in harmony, counterpoint and composition. While attending college he earned money playing piano and organ in cinemas showing silent films, giving him an early practical understanding of the relationship between music and images.
In 1929 Darby formed the male vocal quartet The King’s Men, which became enormously successful on radio, records and in films. The group was a longtime fixture on Fibber McGee and Molly and appeared in numerous Hollywood productions, including several Hopalong Cassidy westerns. Darby later expanded his vocal arranging activities through the Ken Darby Singers, one of the most respected studio choral ensembles of the period. Read more…
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