Archive

August 2022
The Day on Fire: James Ramsey Ullman and Dimitri Tiomkin

Posted on September 10, 2022 by wsherk

To create the biographical novel, The Day on Fire (1958), American writer, adventurer, and mountaineer James Ramsey Ullman at age 50 traveled to Europe and Africa to retrace the steps of the 19th-century French poet Arthur Rimbaud. Upon his return, … Read More…

Tagged adapted screenplays, Dimitri Tiomkin, Eugene Frenke, French poets, Harold Matson, Jack Clayton, James Rmsey Ullman, Leah Wycliffe, Rimbaud (life of), The Day on Fire [novel]

July 2022
Statues in a Garden: Isabel Colegate and Dimitri Tiomkin

Posted on September 5, 2022 by wsherk

The first notice of Dimitri Tiomkin’s interest in making a film version of the Isabel Colegate novel, Statues in a Garden, dates from the fall of 1965. The novel, published in Great Britain the previous year, had made its way … Read More…

Tagged A. D. Peters & Co., adapted screenplays, Anthony Jones, Dimitri Tiomkin, Elizabeth Taylor, Gerry Blattner, Harold Matson, Isabel Colegate, John Heyman, literary agencies, Max Bercutt, Midford Castle, Seven Arts Productions, Statues in a Garden, Warner Bros., World Film Services

June 2022
Dimitri Tiomkin and Madame President, on the road to producing films

Posted on July 4, 2022 by wsherk

Dimitri Tiomkin with Galina Oleinichenko

by Warren M. Sherk In the summer of 1962, Dimitri Tiomkin sent his friend and frequent collaborator, the producer and director Frank Capra, a story titled, “Madame President,” to read. In Capra’s rear-view mirror was Pocketful of Miracles (1961), a … Read More…

Tagged Beverly Lawrence, Dimitri Tiomkin, Ferris Mack, Frank C. Peterson, Frank Capra, Madame President, Peter Gilman, Ted Loeff

May 2022
Editorial Universidad de Sevilla releases book on the music of Dimitri Tiomkin by Lucía Pérez Garcia

Posted on May 30, 2022 by wsherk

Música de cine en femenino: Las mujeres en la filmografía de Dimitri Tiomkin (The Female in Film Music: Women in the Filmography of Dimitri Tiomkin) by Lucía Pérez Garcia is now available from the University of Seville Press. Lucía Pérez Garcia … Read More…

Tagged Ángel Justo Estebaranz, Editorial Universidad de Sevilla, Lucía Pérez Garcia, music and women in cinema

May 2022
Dimitri Tiomkin, Legends of American Music stamp in Washington, D.C.

Posted on May 22, 2022 by wsherk

U.S. postage stamp depicting Dimitri Tiomkin, 1999

The National Postage Museum in Washington, D.C., is one of a vast array of free museums in our nation’s capital that offer archival treasures documenting American history, art and culture. Visitors to the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery can contemplate … Read More…

Tagged Dimitri Tiomkin, Legends of American Music, National Postage Museum, Postage stamps, Wiliam H. Gross Gallery

April 2022
Behind the Photograph: The Tiomkin Sessions

Posted on May 1, 2022 by wsherk

by Warren M. Sherk Peering over music spread out on stands, this musician’s eye view by photographer Derek Elley, captioned “Tiomkin Sessions” on back, perfectly captures the recording of music from Hollywood’s Golden Age in May 1978 at the Olympic … Read More…

Tagged Behind the photograph, Derek Elley, Dimitri Tiomkin, Elmer Bernstein, Film Music Collection, Olympic Studios Barnes

March 2022
High Noon in Belfast

Posted on March 21, 2022 by wsherk

Director Kenneth Branaugh’s introspective film on his childhood, Belfast, includes two scenes from High Noon (1952) and subsequently uses the film’s title song, “Do Not Forsake Me,” sung by Tex Ritter several times. Dimitri Tiomkin received Academy Awards for both … Read More…

Tagged Academy Awards, Belfast, Dimitri Tiomkin, High Noon

February 2022
A to Z Guide to Dimitri Tiomkin music publications and rentals, research, and rights clearance

Posted on March 12, 2022 by wsherk

Compiled by Patrick Russ Dimitri Tiomkin owned his own publishing company, Volta Music; however for most of his early career he composed film music under work-for-hire agreements for a number of film studios and companies, such as Allied Artists, Columbia … Read More…

Tagged Alfred Publishing, Bourne Music, British Film Institute, concert suites, Dimitri Tiomkin, Dimitri Tiomkin Collection, Faber Music, Greenberg Traurig, Hal Leonard, IMG Artists, Movies in Concert, Paramount Pictures, Sony Music, Universal Music Publishing, USC Cinematic Arts Library, Volta Music, Warner Bros. Archive, Wise Music, Zinfonia

January 2022
Wise Music rents Tiomkin concert suites for Warner Bros. films through Zinfonia

Posted on February 20, 2022 by wsherk

Dimitri Tiomkin publicity portrait by Bert Six

Wise Music now rents Dimitri Tiomkin concert suites for Warner Bros. films administered by Warner/Chappell. The Wise Music Classical Rental Libraries is a leading commercial music library and performance materials are shipped all over the world. Wise recommends you use … Read More…

Tagged concert suites, Dimitri Tiomkin, film music in concert, Newzik, Warner Bros., Wise Music, Zinfonia

December 2021
It’s a Wonderful Life issued by La-La Land Records

Posted on January 10, 2022 by wsherk

La-La Land Records and Paramount Pictures have teamed up to release a remastered CD of music by Dimitri Tiomkin from It’s a Wonderful Life in honor of the film’s 75th anniversary. The 75th anniversary edition is produced by Dan Goldwasser and restored and mastered by … Read More…

Tagged Dimitri Tiomkin, It’s a Wonderful Life, La-La Land Records

November 2021
Gottlieb Wallisch records Dimitri Tiomkin’s Créoles Blues

Posted on December 1, 2021 by wsherk

Pianist Gottlieb Wallisch includes a delightful rendition of the original piano version of Dimitri Tiomkin’s Créoles Blues on the Grand Piano label release, 20th Century Foxtrots, volume 3: Central and Eastern Europe. To show the influence of American jazz on … Read More…

Tagged American jazz, Créoles Blues, Dimitri Tiomkin, Gottlieb Wallisch

October 2021
Dimitri Tiomkin options Jorge Amado’s novel Home is the Sailor

Posted on November 3, 2021 by wsherk

by Warren M. Sherk During the summer of 1965 Dimitri Tiomkin plops down a $2,000 advance, based on a $10,000 option, for the right to film Jorge Amado’s novel Home is the Sailor. At the time, Jorge Amado (1921–2001), a … Read More…

Tagged adapted screenplays, Alfred A. Knopf, Anthony Quinn, Brazilian writers, David Gorton, Dimitri Tiomkin, Elliott Silverstein, Frank Pierson, Harriet de Onis, Home Is the Sailor, Inc., Irwin Margulies, Jorge Amado, Max Bercutt, Tiomkin Musical Enterprises, Warner Bros.

September 2021
Dimitri Tiomkin options Will Henry’s novel and co-produces Mackenna’s Gold, part two

Posted on October 9, 2021 by wsherk

READ Part one: August 2021 Dimitri Tiomkin options Will Henry’s novel and co-produces Mackenna’s Gold A new approach to scoring A composer “who scores a film should be involved in everything about it from the very beginning,” maintains Dimitri Tiomkin to a … Read More…

Tagged A.R. Rahman, Ballad of Jim West, Carl Foreman, CBS television music, Columbia Pictures, Dimitri Tiomkin, Highroad Productions, José Feliciano, Julie Newmar, Larry Stanto, Mackenna's Gold, Old Turkey Buzzard, Ole Turkey Buzzard, Paul Francis Webster, Pupi Hurtado, Quincy Jones, RCA soundtracks, Rick Jarrard, Robert S. Ferguson, Sidney E. Cohn, The Wild, Tiomkin Musical Enterprises, Wild West

August 2021
Dimitri Tiomkin options Will Henry’s novel and co-produces Mackenna’s Gold

Posted on August 28, 2021 by wsherk

by Warren M. Sherk As 1964 draws to a close, Dimitri Tiomkin secures an option from American novelist Will Henry for the motion picture rights to his Western novel, Mackenna’s Gold, published by Random House the year before. With a penchant … Read More…

Tagged adapted screenplays, books into film, Carl Foreman, Chuck [Charles] Braverman, Columbia Pictures, David MacDougall, Dimitri Tiomkin, George Lucas, Gregory Peck, Guy Endore, Harry E. Sokolov, Henry Wilson Allen, Highroad Productions, J. David Wyles, Mackenna's Gold, Old Turkey Buzzard, Ole Turkey Buzzard, Open Road Films Limited, runaway production, Sidney E. Cohn, Super Panavision, Technicolor, Will Henry

July 2021
More letters from Leonid Kinskey to Dimitri and Olivia Tiomkin

Posted on August 15, 2021 by wsherk

Leonid Kinskey, best known for portraying the character Sascha the bartender in the film Casablanca, sent three letters to Dimitri (“Dimochka”) and Olivia Tiomkin in March and April 1977. Similar to the letters previously profiled from 1978, these letters are filled … Read More…

Tagged Academy Awards acceptance speech, Anna Sten, Boris Ingster, Dimitri Tiomkin, Eugene Franke, George Korngold, Gloria Korngold, Leonid Kinskey, Olivia Douglas, The High and the Mighty

June 2021
A musical version of The Trials of Oscar Wilde by Dimitri Tiomkin

Posted on July 1, 2021 by wsherk

by Warren M. Sherk After producing the film and adapting the music for Tchaikovsky, Dimitri Tiomkin is ready for his next project and considers a musical version of the film, The Trials of Oscar Wilde. The Trials of Oscar Wilde … Read More…

Tagged Alan J. Lerner, Dimitri Tiomkin, films adapted to stage musicals, homosexuality, Ken Hughes, LGBTQ, Oscar Wilde, Tchaikovsky, The Trials of Oscar Wilde

May 2021
The Hermitage: Tiomkin’s proposed television spectacular

Posted on June 9, 2021 by wsherk

Dimitri Tiomkin, Red Square, Moscow, Russia, 1966

by Warren Sherk During Dimitri Tiomkin’s decades long friendship with broadcaster Lowell Thomas, one of the more unusual projects he pitched was a television spectacular on the Hermitage Museum in Russia. READ MORE: The Lively Letters of Dimitri Tiomkin and Lowell … Read More…

Tagged B. Yakoviev, Dimitri Tiomkin, filming in the Soviet Union, Gregori Ivanovich Britikoff, Hermitage Museum, Heroes and Hermitage, Jack Gordean, Leonard “Buzz” Blair, Lowell Thomas, Michael Burke, Milton Fruchtman, Norman Felton, Odyssey Productions, State Hermitage Museum, Tchaikovsky, The Hermitage, V. Sofinsky

April 2021
The extra-musical fame of films scored by Dimitri Tiomkin

Posted on April 26, 2021 by wsherk

by Warren M. Sherk When faced with the COVID pandemic and working from home, I decided to attempt to read in its entirety the ten-volume series, “History of the American Cinema.” Nearing the end of that journey it struck me … Read More…

Tagged Dimitri Tiomkin, History of the American Cinema

March 2021
Behind the Photograph: Robert Russell Bennett presents a special award to composer Dimitri Tiomkin

Posted on March 28, 2021 by wsherk

Dimitri Tiomkin with Robert Russell Bennett, 1949

In its heyday from the 1930s through 1960s, the National Association for American Composers and Conductors (NAACC) was devoted to the promotion and performance of American concert hall music. In the mid-1970s—some years after the deaths of both its founder, … Read More…

Tagged Academy Award acceptance speeches, Behind the photograph, Dimitri Tiomkin, NAACC, NACUSA, National Association for American Composers and Conductors, National Association of Composers, President's Favorite Music, Robert Russell Bennett, Sigmund Spaeth, USA

February 2021
Dimitri Tiomkin underscores race conflict, mob violence, and redemption in the 1951 film The Well

Posted on March 1, 2021 by wsherk

By Warren M. Sherk “An exciting movie, filled with drama and tension…” Eleanor Roosevelt “An honest effort and, at times, a powerful result.” Newsweek Dimitri Tiomkin’s music score for The Well, at times tender and lyrical, builds tension and drama … Read More…

Tagged Black History Month, Cardinal Pictures, Clarence Greene, Dimitri Tiomkin, Gwendolyn Laster, Harry M. Popkin, Kathy Fiscus, Leo M. Popkin, Motion Picture Center Studios, Russell Rouse, The Alamo: The Essential Dimitri Tiomkin Film Music Collection, The Well