Hugh Martin

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Edward Hugh Martin (born August 11, 1914 in Birmingham , Alabama , † March 11, 2011 in Encinitas , California ) was an American theater and film composer and musician. In his decades-long partnership with Ralph Blane , well-known songs such as Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas were created .

life and career

Born in Alabama, Hugh Martin studied music at Birmingham-Southern College and took George Gershwin as a role model. He began his career as an arranger on Broadway in the 1930s . Martin also emerged as a singer and actor in a few early plays, as well as a small role in the Hollywood film Manhattan Merry-Go-Round (1937). In the early 1940s he formed a very successful songwriting duo with the composer Ralph Blane , and in the course of his long career he also worked with other artists. Martin wrote songs for the Broadway plays Best Foot Forward (1941), Look Ma, I'm Dancin '! (1948) Make a Wish (1951); High Spirits (1964) and the Broadway version of the classic film Meet Me in St. Louis (1989). In total, he received four Tony Award nominations on Broadway .

Martin and Blane had already written songs for the original film Meet Me in St. Louis from 1944: Their songs The Boy Next Door , The Trolley Song and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas were all known beyond the film. These songs in the film were all interpreted by Judy Garland , with whom Martin became friends. He accompanied her as a musician and arranger on many of her tours during the 1950s. In addition to Garland, he has also worked with other stars such as Noël Coward , Lucille Ball , Mickey Rooney , Gene Kelly , Lena Horne , Rosalind Russell , Debbie Reynolds and Jerome Robbins . Martin and Blane received two Oscar nominations for Best Movie Song: For The Trolley Song from Meet Me in St. Louis from 1944, and for Pass That Peace Pipe from the film Good News from 1947. The duo also wrote songs for the Jane- Powell films Athena (1954) and The Girl Most Likely (1958). Hugh Martin remained active into old age and brought out the CD Michael Feinstein Sings The Hugh Martin Songbook in 1995 together with Michael Feinstein . The religious Martin devoted himself to spiritual music in later years and among other things accompanied gospel choirs on the piano.

Hugh Martin published his autobiography Hugh Martin - The Boy Next Door in the fall of 2010 . In it he wrote that he would have written most of the Martin and Blane songs without the help of his partner Blane. He was mainly concerned with the finances and contracts, in which he was helpless. Just months after the autobiography was published, Hugh Martin died at the age of 96. In 1983 he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary for Hugh Martin in the New York Times
  2. ^ Hugh Martin website
  3. ↑ Martin, Hugh (2010). The Boy Next Door . Trolley press. Pp. 390-392. ISBN 978-0-615-36507-7 .
  4. ^ Obituary for Hugh Martin in the New York Times
personal data
SURNAME Martin, Hugh
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Martin, Edward Hugh (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American musical and film composer
DATE OF BIRTH August 11, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Birmingham , Alabama
DATE OF DEATH March 11, 2011
Place of death Encinitas , California