Record label RCA Records | Role Film Score Composer Name Leroy Shield Ex-spouse Katherine Williams | |
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Also known as Roy Shield, Roy Shields, Leroy Shields Born October 2, 1893Waseca, Minnesota ( 1893-10-02 ) Labels RCA Victor, National Broadcasting Company Music director Pups Is Pups, Our Relations, Beau Hunks, The Music Box, Pardon Us Similar People Marvin Hatley, H M Walker, Hal Roach, James Parrott, Matthew Beard | ||
October 2, 1893 Leroy Shield, Beautiful Lady
Leroy Shield (October 2, 1893 - January 9, 1962) was an American film score and radio composer.
Contents
- October 2 1893 Leroy Shield Beautiful Lady
- Leroy shield we re out for fun 1936
- Career
- Later career and death
- Legacy
- Listen to
- References
Leroy shield we re out for fun 1936
Career
A native of Waseca, Minnesota, Shield was an employee of RCA Victor's National Broadcasting Company, for which he composed and conducted on-air musical pieces. Starting approximately 1922 (seven years before the Victor Talking Machine was bought by RCA and became RCA Victor), Shield was a Victor house musician, conducting and providing piano accompaniment on many hundreds of popular and USF (foreign language and ethnic recordings for issue in the United States) Victor recordings. He also worked as a part-time employee for the Hal Roach film studio, composing countless background themes that became associated with such Roach comedy series as Laurel and Hardy, Our Gang, ZaSu Pitts and Thelma Todd, and Charley Chase. One of his compositions for the 1930 Our Gang 1930 short Teacher's Pet, "Good Old Days," became the theme song of the series. His 1930 song "Beautiful Lady" was used as the theme song for the Pitts and Todd films.
On September 25, 1930, Shield recorded their only commercial recording: "Sing Song Girl" (vocal by James Blackstone) and "Song Of The Big Trail" (vocal by Bud Jamieson). they were issued as Victor 22548.
Later career and death
Due to a series of miscommunications, Shield's requests for scoring assignments from the Roach organization were repeatedly declined after 1936, going instead to Marvin Hatley. Shield continued to work for NBC in various musical capacities, including composition and conducting. He also authored two tone poems (Gloucester and The Great Bell) and the classical Union Pacific Suite.
After touring with Toscanini during the early 1950s, Shield retired in 1955. He died on January 9, 1962 in Vero Beach, Florida.
Legacy
In 1992, the Dutch musical group The Beau Hunks (named after the Laurel and Hardy film) transcribed and recorded compositions by Shield. These recordings drew praise from cartoonist R. Crumb (who rendered a portrait of Shield for the CD cover). These recordings led to a renewed appreciation of the composer's work. In late 2016 producer and pianist Alessandro Simonetto published a CD (AEVEA/OnClassical AE16024 Leroy Shield: The Laurel & Hardy Piano Music) with music from the original manuscripts and publications, and some piano transcriptions of Leroy Shield's music.