A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Alias:
Leonard George Hayton
The Lennie Hayton Orchestra
Birthplace:
New York City, New York, USA
Born:
February 13, 1908
Died:
April 24, 1971
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Leonard George "Lennie" Hayton (February 14, 1908 – April 24, 1971) was an American musician, composer, conductor and arranger. Hayton's trademark was the wearing of a captain’s hat, which he always wore at a rakish angle. Hayton was born in New York City, New York, to a Jewish family. The son of a Manhattan restaurateur, he developed a penchant for the piano when six years old, showing unusual interest in the early classics from the rolls of the family player piano. Although neither of his parents was a tutored musician, both were keen followers of the concert hall. Hayton attended many concerts with them. His parents disliked "Jazz" and it was not until Hayton was 16 that he really discovered it. He left high school to become pianist with the Broadway Hotel Orchestra of Cass Hagen, a boyhood friend. While playing at the Park Central, Hayton was heard by Paul Whiteman and immediately engaged by him in April 1928 as second pianist, playing piano and celeste as well as acting as a part-time arranger. Whilst with the Paul Whiteman orchestra, he played with musicians such as Frankie Trumbauer, Bix Beiderbecke, Red Nichols and Joe Venuti. He also became friendly with Bing Crosby, then a member of The Rhythm Boys. Hayton's involvement with Bing Crosby continued and he was made musical director for the singer's film Going Hollywood (1933) which was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production. This was to be the start of a major career for Hayton in Hollywood. He continued to work with Crosby on radio (Bing Crosby Entertains) and record for a while but in 1940 he became a musical director for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and guided it through its prime years as forerunner of the movie musical. Up until his retirement from the post in 1953, he racked up four Academy Award nominations: for the Judy Garland musicals The Harvey Girls (1946) and The Pirate (1948). Hayton won the Academy Award for music for On the Town with Roger Edens in 1950. Lennie Hayton's first marriage was to Helen Maude Gifford, also named Bubs Gelderman, who died in 1943. Lennie Hayton met Lena Horne when both were under contract to MGM and married her in December 1947 in Paris. Throughout the marriage, Hayton also acted as Horne’s music director. Facing the stresses and pressures of an interracial relationship, which was still relatively rare in that time period, Hayton and Horne had a tumultuous marriage. She later admitted in a 1980 Ebony interview she had married Hayton primarily to advance her career, and cross the "color-line" in show business, but had learned to love him very much. Horne and Hayton were separated for most of the 1960s. Always a heavy drinker and smoker, Hayton died of heart disease while separated from Horne, in Palm Springs, California in 1971. He was buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.
Additional Music:
1946 The Secret Heart
Conductor:
1946 The Secret Heart
1967 Jack and the Beanstalk
Music:
1941 Ghost Treasure
1941 Strange Testament
1941 The Big Store
1942 Further Prophecies of Nostradamus
1942 Grand Central Murder
1942 Personalities
1942 The Bugle Sounds
1942 This Time for Keeps
1942 We Must Have Music
1942 Whistling in Dixie
1943 Assignment in Brittany
1946 The Secret Heart
1951 Inside Straight
1953 Battle Circus
1967 Jack and the Beanstalk
Music Director:
1941 Ghost Treasure
1941 Strange Testament
1941 The Big Store
1942 Further Prophecies of Nostradamus
1942 Grand Central Murder
1942 Personalities
1942 The Bugle Sounds
1942 The Vanishing Virginian
1942 This Time for Keeps
1942 We Must Have Music
1942 Whistling in Dixie
1943 Assignment in Brittany
1945 Ziegfeld Follies
1946 The Harvey Girls
1946 The Secret Heart
1947 Good News
1948 The Pirate
1949 On the Town
1951 Inside Straight
1952 Love Is Better Than Ever
1952 Singin' in the Rain
1953 Battle Circus
1953 Easy to Love
1967 Jack and the Beanstalk
Music Score Producer:
1941 Ghost Treasure
1941 Strange Testament
1941 The Big Store
1942 Further Prophecies of Nostradamus
1942 Grand Central Murder
1942 Mokey
1942 Personalities
1942 The Bugle Sounds
1942 The Vanishing Virginian
1942 This Time for Keeps
1942 We Must Have Music
1942 Whistling in Dixie
1943 Assignment in Brittany
1945 Ziegfeld Follies
1946 The Harvey Girls
1946 The Secret Heart
1947 Good News
1948 The Pirate
1949 On the Town
1951 Inside Straight
1952 Love Is Better Than Ever
1952 Singin' in the Rain
1953 Battle Circus
1953 Easy to Love
1967 Jack and the Beanstalk
Orchestrator:
1941 Ghost Treasure
1941 Johnny Eager
1941 Strange Testament
1941 The Big Store
1942 Further Prophecies of Nostradamus
1942 Grand Central Murder
1942 Mokey
1942 Personalities
1942 The Bugle Sounds
1942 The Vanishing Virginian
1942 This Time for Keeps
1942 We Must Have Music
1942 Whistling in Dixie
1943 Assignment in Brittany
1945 Ziegfeld Follies
1946 The Harvey Girls
1946 The Secret Heart
1947 Good News
1948 The Pirate
1949 On the Town
1951 Inside Straight
1952 Love Is Better Than Ever
1952 Singin' in the Rain
1953 Battle Circus
1953 Easy to Love
1967 Jack and the Beanstalk
Original Music Composer:
1941 Ghost Treasure
1941 Johnny Eager
1941 Love Crazy
1941 Married Bachelor
1941 Strange Testament
1941 The Big Store
1942 Dr. Kildare's Victory
1942 Eyes in the Night
1942 Further Prophecies of Nostradamus
1942 Grand Central Murder
1942 Maisie Gets Her Man
1942 Mokey
1942 Nazi Agent
1942 Personalities
1942 Pierre of the Plains
1942 The Bugle Sounds
1942 The Greatest Gift
1942 The Vanishing Virginian
1942 The Woman in the House
1942 This Time for Keeps
1942 We Must Have Music
1942 Whistling in Dixie
1943 Assignment in Brittany
1943 Best Foot Forward
1943 Swing Shift Maisie
1944 Maisie Goes to Reno
1945 Yolanda and the Thief
1945 Ziegfeld Follies
1946 The Harvey Girls
1946 The Secret Heart
1947 Good News
1947 Living in a Big Way
1947 The Hucksters
1948 The Pirate
1949 Any Number Can Play
1949 Battleground
1949 On the Town
1949 The Barkleys of Broadway
1950 Side Street
1951 Inside Straight
1952 Love Is Better Than Ever
1952 Singin' in the Rain
1953 Battle Circus
1953 Easy to Love
1967 Jack and the Beanstalk
1968 Star!
1969 Hello, Dolly!
Original Music Composer:
1963 Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.