Monday, June 21, 2010

Warner Bros. cartoon scores

Raymond Scott's melodies permeate countless scores of Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons from the 1940s, '50s, and '60s. Scott never worked for WB; a dozen of his compositions were adapted dozens of times by WB music director Carl Stalling (at right), who also composed the majority of the original music heard in the classic cartoons. Over the years, we're often asked about the availability of original WB cartoon scores, and we've never had a satisfactory answer to provide. However, we recently received the following news from a visitor to RaymondScott.com:
I'm writing from Laramie, Wyoming, USA - not sure if you'd be interested, but the American Heritage Center in Laramie is home to a large volume of lost/disorganized Warner Brother/Looney Tunes original arrangements and drafts. The history of the music is that it was given to the Heritage Center in unlabeled, mixed-up boxes. Dr. Anne Guzzo has been sorting and cataloging the music - sorta like a gigantic puzzle. Hardly anyone other than Dr. Guzzo has really utilized the collection (other than an occasional piece by the local University).
We're passing along this info and a link to the Carl W. Stalling Papers at AHC/Laramie. If you have any additional information or discoveries to share, please drop us a note.

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