Elmer Bernstein

Abstract

Elmer Bernstein, a leading American film and television composer, received fourteen Academy Award nominations and won once, for Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). Born in New York City (4 April 1922) to immigrant parents, Bernstein enjoyed a lively artistic childhood. He studied piano with Henriette Michelson (Juilliard), who introduced him to Aaron Copland, and later composition with Roger Sessions and Stefan Wolpe. Bernstein’s father introduced him to jazz, which Bernstein drew upon when composing his influential score for The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). After graduating from New York University, Bernstein concertized as a pianist before joining the Army Air Force. During World War II, he arranged for the Army Air Force Band and composed for Armed Forces Radio. Bernstein was then invited to Hollywood to score Saturday’s Hero (1951). Other assignments followed, though Bernstein found himself graylisted due to earlier left-leaning activities. He credited Cecil B. DeMille for reviving his career: hired to write dances for The Ten Commandments (1956), Bernstein was selected to compose for the whole film after Victor Young withdrew. Bernstein’s scores for The Ten Commandments and The Man with the Golden Arm placed him among the leaders in American film music. More successes followed, with scores to The Magnificent Seven (1960), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), and The Great Escape (1963). Popular knowledge of The Magnificent Seven’s music was enhanced when it was reused in Marlboro cigarette commercials. In the 1950s and 1960s, Bernstein also composed for television and collaborated with the designers and filmmakers Charles and Ray Eames, activities that have received less scholarly attention. Interviews and biographical accounts often emphasize career cycles during which Bernstein was typecast but subsequently defied industry expectations. Scores for Westerns (e.g., True Grit [1969]) dominated Bernstein’s career in the 1960s and early 1970s, while comedies prevailed in the late 1970s and 1980s (e.g., Animal House [1978], Trading Places [1983], and Ghostbusters [1984]). A final career phase, centered on dramas, began with My Left Foot (1989), included collaborations with Martin Scorsese, and culminated with his Academy Award–nominated score for Far from Heaven (2002). Bernstein worked with important directors, including DeMille, Otto Preminger, John Sturges, John Landis, Jim Sheridan, Scorsese, and Todd Haynes; he often criticized directors with little knowledge of music who questioned composers’ judgments. During the 1970s, Bernstein elevated the art of film music, publishing his Film Music Notebook, producing recordings of important film scores funded by a mail-order club, and championing film composers’ rights to their music.