Stanley Wilson

Stanley Wilson (November 25, 1915 - July 17, 1970) was an American musical conductor, arranger and film composer.

Career

A native of New York City, Wilson was one of the prolific collaborators in the Hollywood music industry for more than three decades. The creator of original themes and incidental music for several TV series, he also composed, arranged, or orchestrated more than 80 films.

Wilson started his music career as a jazz trumpeter specializing in both Dixieland and Swing style in the 1930s. Following World War II, he joined the MGM music department in 1945, moving a year later to Republic Pictures, where he wrote scores for countless B-movies and serials for the next twelve years. While in Republic, he provided the music support for classic serials as King of the Rocket Men and Zombies of the Stratosphere, as well in exciting adventures featuring western heroes as Rex Allen, Wild Bill Elliott, Allan Lane and Roy Rogers.

In the late 1950s, Wilson became the new television branch of Universal Studios as head of creative activities, taking charge of creating music behind all of the studio's productions, hiring and assigning different composers, arrangers, orchestrators and conductors, which were often rolled into a single job. As an executive, Wilson employed significant composers as Elmer Bernstein, Juan García Esquivel, Dave Grusin, Quincy Jones, Henry Mancini, Oliver Nelson and Lalo Schifrin, among others. Toward the end of his career with Universal, he began to dedicate more of his own time to specific shows, composing themes and much of the background music for It Takes a Thief, Wagon Train and The Bold Ones franchise.

Wilson also was the music director for M Squad, the police series starring Lee Marvin, working in collaboration with Count Basie, Sonny Burke, Pete Carpenter, Benny Carter and John Williams. Wilson composed the theme music for the first season, winning the 1959 Grammy Award for the Best Soundtrack Album and Background Score from Motion Picture or Television. For the second and third seasons, he entrusted Basie to compose a new theme.

Wilson traveled to France in 1963 to record the soundtrack to the television special, Princess Grace's Monaco. After the shooting was finished, he arranged and conducted The World of Sights and Sounds, Stop One: Paris, an album of French standards. This time Wilson was accompanied by a small jazz combo fronted by M Squad colleague and jazz legend, Benny Carter, and included a string section orchestra and a wordless vocal choir led by Michel Legrand's sister, Christiane.

Wilson died of a heart attack in Aspen, Colorado, at the age of 54, moments after addressing the 1970 Aspen Music Festival on the subject of composing for films and television.

Selected collaborations

Films

• The Kid from Cleveland (1949)
• Missile Monsters (1958)
• The Killers (1964)
• Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)

Serials

• Federal Agents vs. Underworld, Inc. (1949)
• King of the Rocket Men (1949)
• The James Brothers of Missouri (1949)
• Radar Patrol vs Spy King (1949)
• Desperadoes of the West (1950)
• Flying Disc Man from Mars (1950)
• Don Daredevil Rides Again (1951)
• Radar Men from the Moon (1952)
• Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952)
• Canadian Mounties vs. Atomic Invaders (1953)
• King of the Carnival (1955)
• Ghost of Zorro (1959)

TV shows

• The Adventures of Kit Carson (1951)
• Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe (1953)
• The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse (1955)
• The Millionaire (1955-1957)
• General Electric Theater (1956-1957)
• Tales of Wells Fargo (1957)
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1957)
• M Squad (1957)
• Schlitz Playhouse of Stars (1957-1959)
• Leave It to Beaver (1957-1963)
• Wagon Train (1957-1961, 1963-1964)
• Cimarron City (1958-1959)
• Broken Arrow (1958)
• Buckskin (1958)
• Shotgun Slade (1959)
• Johnny Staccato (1959-1960)
• Riverboat (1959-1961)
• Overland Trail (1960)
• Bachelor Father (1957-1961)
• Boris Karloff's Thriller (1960-1962)
• Checkmate (1960-1962)
• The Bob Cummings Show (1961)
• Ripcord (1971)
• 87th Precinct (1962)
• The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962-1965)
• The Jack Benny Program (1962-1965)
• McHale's Navy (1962-1966)
• The Virginian (1962-1970)
• Arrest and Trial (1963-1964)
• Kraft Suspense Theatre (1963-1965)
• The Munsters (1964-1966)
• Laredo (1965-1967)
• Run for Your Life (1965-1967)
• Pistols 'n' Petticoats (1966)
• Dragnet 1967 (1967-1969)
• Ironside (1967-1970)
• Adam-12 (1968-1969)
• It Takes a Thief (1968-1970)
• The Bold Ones: The Lawyers (1969-1970)
• The Bold Ones: The New Doctors (1969-1970)
• The Bold Ones: The Protectors (1969-1970)
• Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969-1970)

Discography

• Wilson rarely featured his talent on records, but today some of his albums are classics of Space age pop and Exotica audiences. This list include:
  • Wagon Train [1] (1957)
  • The Music From M Squad [2] (1959)
  • Themes to Remember [3] (1962)
  • The Lost Man (The Original Soundtrack Album) [4] (1960)
  • Pagan Love [5] (1961)
  • The Great Waltz - American Continental [6] (1961)
  • Alfred Hitchcock Presents Music To Be Murdered By [7] (1980)

References

• Karlin, Fred. Listening to Movies (1994). Maxwell Macmillan International ISBN 0028733150.
• McNeil, Alex. Total Television (1996). Penguin Books ISBN 0-140-24916-8
• Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows (1999). Ballantine Books ISBN 0-345-42923-0
• Lentz, Robert J. Lee Marvin: his films and career (2000). McFarland & Company ISBN 0786407239.

External links

• Allmusic entry
• Gemm entry
• iMDB entry
• Space Age Pop