Lee Zahler | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | February 21, 1947 53) | (aged
Nationality | American |
Spouse | Rose Rosenberg Zahler |
Children | 1 |
Lee Zahler (born Leo Zahler, August 14, 1893 – February 21, 1947) was an American composer and musical director of films, starting in the 1920s and well into the 1940s.
Songwriter and orchestrator Zahler provided both the musical score and an original theme song for the first talking serial, King of the Kongo , produced by Mascot Pictures in 1929. [1] Zahler was then hired by independent producer Larry Darmour as musical director for the Darmour studio. [2] Beginning in 1936 Darmour began releasing his productions through Columbia Pictures, and Zahler remained with Darmour until Darmour's death in 1942.
Columbia retained Lee Zahler's services, and he continued to compose music for Columbia serials. Zahler's agitato scores for Holt of the Secret Service (1941) and Batman (1943) are perhaps most familiar to serial fans. The only Columbia serial of the 1940s that didn't involve Lee Zahler was Brenda Starr, Reporter (1945); it was produced by Sam Katzman at the Monogram Pictures plant, with the music conducted by Monogram's musical director Edward J. Kay.
In 1944 Lee Zahler became a musical director for the PRC studio, where he furnished the music for 26 feature films through 1946. [3] Then he became head of the music department for independent producer Edward Finney; [4] Zahler scored Finney's feature Queen of the Amazons (1946). Lee Zahler died on February 21, 1947; his last film was the Columbia serial Jack Armstrong (1947).
Lee Zahler's life took a devastating turn in 1940 when his 14-year-old son Gordon was seriously injured in a high-school-gymnastics accident. Gordon broke his neck and became paralyzed from the neck down, and his father was determined to pay any and all medical expenses. This forced the Zahler family into debt and ultimately cost the elder Zahler his marriage.
After Lee Zahler's death, Gordon Zahler turned the family finances around by repurposing his father's music for the new field of television. Over many years, Lee Zahler had accumulated a library of hundreds of musical themes, with appropriate music for any occasion. This library passed to Gordon, whose Zahler Music Library profitably sold stock music for TV productions including The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok , Cavalcade of America , Private Secretary , Your Funny, Funny Films, The New 3 Stooges , and Underdog . As late as 1975 Lee Zahler was still getting screen credit (for the Al Adamson western tribute Blazing Stewardesses ).
Kenneth Olin Maynard was an American actor and producer. He was mostly active from the 1920s to the 1940s and considered one of the biggest Western stars in Hollywood.
Sam Katzman was an American film producer and director. Katzman's specialty was producing low-budget genre films, including serials, which had disproportionately high returns for the studios and his financial backers.
Frankie Darro was an American actor and later in his career a stuntman. He began his career as a child actor in silent films, progressed to lead roles and co-starring roles in adventure, western, dramatic, and comedy films, and later became a character actor and voice-over artist. He is perhaps best known for his role as Lampwick, the unlucky boy who turns into a donkey in Walt Disney's second animated feature, Pinocchio (1940). In early credits, his last name was spelled Darrow.
Heinz Roemheld was an American composer.
Charles Brown Middleton was an American stage and film actor. During a film career that began at age 46 and lasted almost 30 years, he appeared in nearly 200 films as well as numerous plays. Sometimes credited as Charles B. Middleton, he is perhaps best remembered for his role as the villainous emperor Ming the Merciless in the three Flash Gordon serials made between 1936 and 1940.
Poverty Row is a slang term used to refer to Hollywood films produced from the 1920s to the 1950s by small B movie studios. Although many of them were based on today's Gower Street in Hollywood, the term did not necessarily refer to any specific physical location, but was rather a figurative catch-all for low-budget films produced by these lower-tier studios.
Edmund Sherbourne Lowe was an American actor. His formative experience began in vaudeville and silent film.
Mascot Pictures Corporation was an American film company of the 1920s and 1930s, best known for producing and distributing film serials and B-westerns. Mascot was formed in 1927 by film producer Nat Levine. In 1935, it merged with several other companies to form Republic Pictures.
Wheeler Oakman was an American film actor.
Edgar Warren Hymer was an American theatre and film actor.
Raymond Edgar Taylor was an American film director. He directed 159 films between 1926 and 1949. His debut was the 1926 film serial Fighting with Buffalo Bill.
Nat Levine, was an American film producer. He produced 105 films between 1921 and 1946. Born in New York City, he entered the film industry as an accountant for Metro Pictures and became personal secretary to Metro head Marcus Loew.
Harry S. Webb was an American film producer, director and screenwriter. He produced 100 films between 1924 and 1940. He also directed 55 films between 1924 and 1940. He was the brother of "B"-film producer and director Ira S. Webb and the husband of screenwriter Rose Gordon, who wrote many of his films.
Craig Reynolds was an American film actor of the 1930s and 1940s.
Majestic Pictures was an American film production and distribution company active during the 1930s. Under the control of Larry Darmour, the company specialized in low-budget productions and was one of the more stable Poverty Row outfits during the period. It also gained a reputation for producing higher quality films than was common amongst similar studios, possibly due to a business arrangement the company had with the major studio MGM.
Lawrence J. Darmour (1895–1942) was an American film producer, operator of Larry Darmour Productions from 1927, and a significant figure in Hollywood's low-budget production community.
Tremlet C. Carr was an American film producer, closely associated with the low-budget filmmaking of Poverty Row. In 1931 he co-founded Monogram Pictures, which developed into one of the leading specialist producers of B pictures in Hollywood.
Howard J. Green was an American screenwriter who worked in film and television. He was the first president of the Screen Writers Guild and a founder of the subsequent Writers Guild of America, West.
James S. Brown Jr. was an American cinematographer. He was a prolific worker with around 150 credits during his career spent generally with lower-budget outfits such as Columbia Pictures, Mayfair Pictures and Monogram Pictures.