BIRTH

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Hugo Wilhelm Friedhofer in San Francisco, California, 3 May 1901

 

DEATH

 

In Hollywood, California, 17 May 1981 (aged 80), following complications from an accidental fall, at St. Vincent's Hospital, Los Angeles, CA

 

FAMILY BACKROUND

 

Paternal grandfather Paul Wilhelm Friedhofer (1836-1909) Born Spiegelberg, Rems-Murr-Kries, Baden- Württemberg, Germany

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Paternal grandmother Elizabetha B. Schrödelseckler (1840-1921) Born Mannheim, Germany Died San Francisco

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Father Paul Mathias Friedhofer (1872-1927) Born California; Died Los Angeles in an automobile accident

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Mother Eva Augusta Johanna König (1873-1963) Born Dresden, Germany; Died San Francisco

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Wife Elizabeth H. Barrett (1896-1982) Marriage Napa March 13, 1923; Divorce c1943

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Second Wife Virginia Ann Koechig (1912-1994) Marriage California July 2, 1943; Dissolution L.A. March 1973

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Daughter Erica Friedhofer née Essman (1924-1955) Born Alameda; Died Los Angeles of Leukemia

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Daughter Karyl M. Friedhofer née Gilland-Tonge (1929-2004) Born San Francisco; Died Cupertino

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Half-Sister Louise Charlotte Friedhofer (1917-1997) Born San Francisco; Died Los Angeles

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EDUCATION

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Polytechnic High School San Francisco (dropped out c1917)

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Mark Hopkins Institute San Francisco (attended night school art class)

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Studied privately in San Francisco with Willem Dehé (cello) and Domenico Brescia (harmony, counterpoint and composition). Also mentored during 1920s by poet, playwright, and newspaper editor Roy Harrison Danforth. Attended classes later in life with Arnold Schoenberg, Ernst Toch, Nadia Boulanger, Ernest Kanitz (see below).

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CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

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1919-22 Plays cello in chamber recitals throughout San Francisco, e.g. Sorosis Club Hall.

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c1921-28 Cellist in various theatre orchestras: Royal on Polk Street, Haight Street, Castro, and Granada theatres. Also stage band arranger under Andrea Setaro, Maurice Lawrence, and George Lipshultz.

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1922-24 Cellist in San Francisco People’s Symphony Orchestra founded and conducted by Alexander Saslavsky. Venues include Bohemian Grove summer camp.

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1927 Awarded Cadman Creative Club prize in Los Angeles for violin composition.

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1929 Invited by George Lipschultz to join William Fox Studios in Hollywood during July. First assignment film musical Sunny Side Up.

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1929-34 Produces over 200 incidental pieces of mood music and collaborates on 92 Fox film scores alongside Arthur Kay, Samuel Kaylin, ‘Rex’ Bassett, Peter Brunelli, Louis De Francesco, et. al.

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1934 Released from Fox during August following merger with Twentieth Century studios. Becomes freelance composer.

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1935-46 Invited by Leo Forbstein to join Warner’s music staff. Orchestrates for Erich Wolfgang Korngold (17 scores, first score Captain Blood), and for Max Steiner (63 scores total, starting with The Charge of the Light Brigade).

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1935-37 Studies with Ernst Toch.

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1936 Ghost-writer for Alfred Newman e.g. nocturnal chase in Beloved Enemy. Loaned out to Columbia along with Max Steiner to work on Tiomkin’s Lost Horizon score.

 

1938 First screen credit “Orchestral arrangements” for Korngold’s The Adventures of Robin Hood. Following a recommendation by Alfred Newman, assigned complete score for Sam Goldwyn’s production The Adventures of Marco Polo, first screen credit as composer.

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1944 Pupil of Nadia Boulanger in Santa Monica.

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1946 Academy Award for best score, Sam Goldwyn’s The Best Years of Our Lives.

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1952-54 Takes refresher course in counterpoint with Dr. Ernest Kanitz at USC.

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1953 Debut television movie The Backbone of America (NBC).

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1954-56 Arguably Hugo’ most productive period due to “an upsurge in creative assurance”: Vera Cruz, White Feather, Violent Saturday, Soldier of Fortune, Seven Cities of Gold, The Rains of Ranchipur, The Revolt of Mamie Stover, The Harder They Fall, Between Heaven and Hell.

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1958 Hollywood Foreign Press Golden Globe Award for “Bettering the standard of motion picture music by consistently fine scores over the past twenty-five years.” Academy Award Cues compilation: The Lights of Paris, The Young Lions, The Sun Also Rises, The Rains of Ranchipur, Boy on a Dolphin.

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1960 Television series debut: scores two one hour pilots for NBC series The Blue and the Gray (retitled The Americans) and Outlaws (34 episodes before bowing out). [Marlon Brandos’ One-Eyed Jacks was planned and originally shot for TV at this time. Seven hours footage was cut to two for the film’s general release in 1961.]

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1973 Wind quintet premiered during January. [Other chamber works composed include: Trio for bass clarinet, alto sax and flute; Sonata-fantasia for unaccompanied cello; and a song cycle to words by James Joyce.] Gives lessons in composition and orchestration to a “handful of pupils”.

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1974 American Film Institute / Louis B. Mayer Foundation Oral History interview March 13 – April 29 by Irene Kahn Atkins (transcript 510 pages). Penultimate score A Walk in the Forest (documentary for Macmillan Lumber Company filmed in British Columbia).

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1976 Final film score The Companion (aka Die Sister, Die! ) completed 30 June (film released in 1978). During August writes LP liner notes for re-issue of Paul Hindemith early chamber music by Herschel Burke Gilbert’s recording company.

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AWARDS

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1945 Nominated to Academy Award for Best Original Music Score - The Woman in the Window

 

1945 National Film Music Council Award - Bandit of Sherwood Forest

 

1946 Academy Award for Best Original Music Score - The Best Years of Our Lives

 

1947 Nominated to Academy Award for Best Original Music Score - The Bishop's Wife

 

1948 Nominated to Academy Award for Best Original Music Score - Joan of Arc

 

1951 Venice Film Festival Award for Ace in the Hole

 

1953 Nominated to Academy Award for Best Original Music Score - Above and Beyond

 

1956 Nominated to Academy Award for Best Original Music Score - Between Heaven and Hell

 

1957 Nominated to Golden Globe Special Achievement Award

 

1957 Nominated to Academy Award for Best Original Music Score - An Affair to Remember

 

1957 Nominated to Academy Award for Best Original Music Score - Boy on a Dolphin

 

1957 Exhibitor’s “Top Five Award” - An Affair to Remember

 

1958 Nominated to Academy Award for Best Original Music Score - The Young Lions

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MEMORIAL SERVICE

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Composer David Raksin delivered Friedhofer's eulogy. The memorial service was attended by, among others, Fred Steiner, Miklos Rozsa, Elmer Bernstein, Bronislau Kaper, Frank Comstock, Arthur Morton, Herbert Spencer, Leonard Rosenman, Ernest Gold, Albert Sendry, Jack Elliot and Al Woodbury.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

1947 Frederick W. Sternfeld - Music and the Feature Films - The Musical Quarterly, vol. 33, no. 4

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1954 Louis Applebaum - The Best Years of Our Lives • Film Music Notes, vol. 8, no. 3

 

1965 Tony Thomas - The Kind of Composer to Whom Other Composers Turn • Films in Review, vol. 16, no. 8

 

1975 Gene Lees - Hugo Friedhofer Scores as Dean of Movie Composers • Los Angeles Times

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1985 Leslie Zador, Greg Rose - Hugo Friedhofer Interview • The Cue Sheet, vol. 2, no.3

 

1992 Tony Thomas - Film Score: The Art and Craft of Movie Music • Riverwood Press ISBN 1880756013
 

1999 William Darby, Jack DuBois - American Film Music • McFarland Publishing ISBN 0786407530
 

2002 Linda Danly - Hugo Friedhofer: The Best Years of His Life • Scarecrow Press ISBN 0-8108-4478-8

 

HUGO FRIEDHOFER PAPERS

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Music manuscripts for motion picture and television scores that Friedhofer orchestrated or composed during his career in Hollywood. Also includes his correspondence with family and friends, photographs, and manuscripts of his compositions for orchestra • L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University.

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