- Ray Heindorf
Ray Heindorf (
August 25 1908 -February 2 1980 ) was anAcademy Award -winning Americansongwriter ,composer , conductor, andarranger .Born in
Haverstraw, New York , Heindorf worked as apianist in the movie house in Mechanicville in his early teens. In 1928, he moved toNew York City , where he worked as a musical arranger before heading to Hollywood. He landed his first orchestration job atMGM , where he worked on "Hollywood Revue of 1929 ", then went on the road playing piano forLupe Velez [ [http://www.mechanicville.com/history/articles/heindorf.htm Ray Heindorf at Mechanicville.com] ] . After completing this engagement, he joinedWarner Bros. , composing and/or arranging and conducting music exclusively for the studio for nearly forty years.Heindorf's screen credits include "
Gold Diggers of 1935 ", "The Great Lie ", "Knute Rockne All American ", "Kings Row ", "Night and Day", "Tea for Two", "A Streetcar Named Desire", "The Jazz Singer", "A Star is Born", "No Time for Sergeants ", "The Helen Morgan Story ", "Marjorie Morningstar", "Auntie Mame ", "Finian's Rainbow", and "1776". Between 1943 and 1969 he was nominated for eighteen Academy Awards and won three, for "Yankee Doodle Dandy ", "This is the Army ", and "The Music Man".Heindorf was a friend and admirer of legendary
jazz pianistArt Tatum . He hosted two Tatum piano performances at his Hollywood home in 1950 and 1955 for their mutual friends. Heindorf taped the private concerts, complete with background conversations of Tatum and the group, with some of the pianist's very best playing. These performances are now available on the Verve label.Heindorf died in
Tarzana, California .References
External links
*imdb name|id=0006127|name=Ray Heindorf
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