Bronislaw Kaper
b. 5 February 1902, Warsaw, Poland, d. 26 April 1983, Beverly Hills, California, USA. A composer, arranger and conductor for films, from the mid-'30s through to the late '60s. Kaper studied at the Warsaw Conservatory of Music and in Berlin before working as a composer in several European countries, including London and Paris. In 1935, after moving to the USA, he began a collaboration with Walter Jurmann, and sometimes with Gus Kahn and Ned Washington, on songs for movies such as A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (Cosi Cosa), MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (Love Song Of Tahiti), ESCAPADE (You're All I Need), SAN FRANCISCO(the title song and Happy New Year), A DAY AT THE RACES (‘All God's Chillun Got Rhythm), A Message From The Man In The Moon, Tomorrow Is Another Day, THREE SMART GIRLS(Someone To Care For Me and My Heart Is Singing), and EVERYBODY SING(The One I Love and Swing, Mr. Mendelssohn). With Kahn, Kaper also wrote Blue Lovebird for the bio-pic, LILLIAN RUSSELL (1940). During the '40s, Kaper composed complete scores for films such as JOHNNY EAGER, THE CHOCOLATE SOLDIER, TWO FACED WOMAN, KEEPER OF THE FLAME, SOMEWHERE I'LL FIND YOU, GASLIGHT, MRS. PARKINSON, WITHOUT LOVE, GREEN DOLPHIN STREET (the song, One Green Dolphin Street, became a jazz standard), and contributed I Know, I Know I Know, to Mario Lanza's debut movie, THAT MIDNIGHT KISS. In 1953, Kaper won an Academy Award for his score to LILI, which also contained the song Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo (lyric by Helen Deutsch). Sung by Leslie Caron and Mel Ferrer in the movie, the song later became a hit for both Richard Chamberlain and Alan Price. In the following year, Kaper, Caron and Deutsch were together again for the film musical THE GLASS SLIPPER, which included Take My Love. Kaper's other movie music in the '50s and '60s included A LIFE OF HER OWN, THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, THE WILD NORTH, THE NAKED SPUR, THEM, SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME, THE SWAN, DON'T GO NEAR THE WATER, AUNTIE MAME, THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV, BUTTERFIELD 8, GREEN MANSIONS, THE ANGEL WORE RED, TWO LOVES, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (the 1962 version, containing Follow Me, with a lyric by Paul Francis Webster, which was nominated for an Oscar), KISSES FOR MY PRESIDENT, LORD JIM, THE WAY WEST, TOBRUK, COUNTERPOINT and A FLEA IN HER EAR (1968). Kaper also composed for television programmes such as THE F.B.I., and, in 1945, adapted music by Chopin for the score of the Broadway show, POLONAISE. His collaborators included Herbert Stothart, Bob Russell and Hector Villa-Lobos.