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 Posted:   Jan 21, 2023 - 11:06 AM   
 By:   HAL 2000   (Member)

Looking for some knowledge on Universal's 50's B-movie music library and how it came about. I'm talking about music heard in their sci fi/horror pics such as Tarantula, This Island Earth, The Incredible Shrinking Man, It Came from Outer Space, Creature from The Black Lagoon, The Giant Mantis, The Monolith Monsters etc.

Often Joseph Gershenson is credited as Music Supervisor but the composer goes uncredited because a lot of the music is reused from other films. For example, music heard in Tarantula can also be heard in It Came from Outer Space. But who wrote the originally pieces for the library?

Hope someone here has some background and can add to the discussion.

 
 
 Posted:   Jan 21, 2023 - 12:02 PM   
 By:   alexp   (Member)

A quick search in this forum came up with these threads on 'Joseph Gershenson'

https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=143458&forumID=1&archive=0
https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=47427&forumID=1&archive=0

 
 
 Posted:   Jan 21, 2023 - 2:40 PM   
 By:   Stefan Schlegel   (Member)

Often Joseph Gershenson is credited as Music Supervisor but the composer goes uncredited because a lot of the music is reused from other films. For example, music heard in Tarantula can also be heard in It Came from Outer Space. But who wrote the originally pieces for the library?


At the end of that interview with Herman Stein made by Randall Larson in 1985 for the CinemaScore magazine you will find a detailed filmography in which for example all the composers are listed who had something to do with films like IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE or TARANTULA. For these two films (and some others) you have an exact listing so that you can see which composer wrote which cue or if some cues had only been tracked in from earlier scores:
https://cnmsarchive.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/herman-stein/

I suppose that this is what you are looking for.

 
 Posted:   Jan 21, 2023 - 3:29 PM   
 By:   Ray Faiola   (Member)

David Schecter is the infomeister on Universal-International's music stable.

 
 
 Posted:   Jan 22, 2023 - 8:54 AM   
 By:   roy phillippe   (Member)

Looking for some knowledge on Universal's 50's B-movie music library and how it came about. I'm talking about music heard in their sci fi/horror pics such as Tarantula, This Island Earth, The Incredible Shrinking Man, It Came from Outer Space, Creature from The Black Lagoon, The Giant Mantis, The Monolith Monsters etc.

Often Joseph Gershenson is credited as Music Supervisor but the composer goes uncredited because a lot of the music is reused from other films. For example, music heard in Tarantula can also be heard in It Came from Outer Space. But who wrote the originally pieces for the library?

Hope someone here has some background and can add to the discussion.


Hans Salter, Frank Skinner, a young Henry Mancini and others.

 
 
 Posted:   Jan 22, 2023 - 9:08 AM   
 By:   MichaelM   (Member)

Looking for some knowledge on Universal's 50's B-movie music library and how it came about. I'm talking about music heard in their sci fi/horror pics such as Tarantula, This Island Earth, The Incredible Shrinking Man, It Came from Outer Space, Creature from The Black Lagoon, The Giant Mantis, The Monolith Monsters etc.

Often Joseph Gershenson is credited as Music Supervisor but the composer goes uncredited because a lot of the music is reused from other films. For example, music heard in Tarantula can also be heard in It Came from Outer Space. But who wrote the originally pieces for the library?

Hope someone here has some background and can add to the discussion.



Have you heard of the Monstrous Movie Music label? They produced several outstanding albums of new recordings including most of the films you mentioned. The thick liner note booklets explain everything you're looking for in great detail.

https://www.mmmrecordings.com/Monstrous/monstrous.html

https://www.mmmrecordings.com/More_Monstrous/more_monstrous.html

https://www.mmmrecordings.com/Creature/creature.html

https://www.mmmrecordings.com/TIE/tie.html

 
 
 Posted:   Jan 22, 2023 - 11:49 AM   
 By:   HAL 2000   (Member)

Thanks for all the help. Its exactly what I have been looking for.

 
 
 Posted:   Jan 22, 2023 - 4:53 PM   
 By:   Jameson281   (Member)

David Schechter has also contributed to a number of audio commentary tracks discussing classic sci-fi and horror scores, and writes extensively about the Universal music department in Tom Weaver's book UNIVERSAL TERRORS.

 
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