Henry Vars

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Henry Vars, 1944

Henry Vars (born December 29, 1902 in Warsaw , † September 1, 1977 in Los Angeles ; actually Henryk Warszawski , later known as Henryk Wars ) was an American composer of Polish origin.

Vars was born into a music-loving Jewish family in Warsaw. After briefly studying at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts , he switched to the Warsaw Conservatory of Music on a scholarship , which he finished in 1925. He then worked as a soloist and conductor in various Warsaw cabarets and musical theaters.

In 1930 he wrote - already strongly influenced by jazz - his first music for the film Na Sybir (To Siberia), one of the very first Polish sound films . About 50 more film scores followed by 1939 , with which he backed about a third of all Polish films of that decade with music. Many of his songs became hits, performed by such well-known Polish artists as Eugeniusz Bodo or Hanka Ordonówna . In terms of its importance for national music production, it can safely be compared with that of Irving Berlin for the USA.

Vars, who had also received military training, was drafted into the Polish army at the beginning of the Second World War and was briefly captured by the Germans, from which he was able to escape. He then went to Soviet-occupied Lviv , where he founded the jazz band Tea Jazz . At the end of 1941 he and his musicians joined the Second Polish Corps of the Anders Army, with which he then left the USSR in 1943 and headed west. After the end of the war he emigrated to the USA, where he changed his name to Vars. At first, despite a few letters of recommendation, he got by with various auxiliary jobs and lived in poverty. It wasn't until 1951 that he got the opportunity to write film music again. In the following decades melodies and songs were created for numerous westerns, but also for B-movies and horror films. The interpreters of his songs also included Bing Crosby , Doris Day , Brenda Lee and Dinah Shore . However, he had the most success with the theme music for the American television series Flipper from 1963 and Daktari from 1966.

One of his most famous pre-war songs ( Umówiłem Się z Nią na Dziewiątą ) also found its way into Roman Polański's film The Pianist .

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personal data
SURNAME Vars, Henry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Warszawski, Henryk; Wars, Henryk
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film composer of Polish origin
DATE OF BIRTH December 29, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw
DATE OF DEATH September 1, 1977
Place of death los Angeles