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Hoyt Curtin

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Hoyt Curtin
Born
Hoyt Stoddard Curtin

September 9, 1922
Downey, California, U.S.
DiedDecember 3, 2000(2000-12-03) (aged 78)
Thousand Oaks, California, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Southern California
Occupations
Years active1957–1989
EmployerHanna-Barbera

Hoyt Stoddard Curtin (September 9, 1922 – December 3, 2000) was an American composer, music producer and the primary musical director for the Hanna-Barbera animation studio from its beginnings with The Ruff & Reddy Show in 1957 until his retirement in 1989.[1][2]

Curtin composed many of the theme songs for Hanna-Barbera's cartoons, including The Flintstones, The Jetsons, The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Yogi Bear Show, Quick Draw McGraw, Top Cat, Jonny Quest, Super Friends, Josie and the Pussycats, The Smurfs, and The New Scooby-Doo Movies. In 1960, Curtin also started composing the incidental music for many Hanna-Barbera animated series.

During his five decade career, Curtin wrote, conducted and produced thousands of unique theme songs, musical cues and libraries of incidental music used during the production of animated cartoon shows. For instance, there are currently 2,047 of his compositions still registered with BMI[3] and 1,102 of his compositions still registered with ASCAP.

Curtin's experience in advertising jingle writing honed his work in creating animation show theme songs. He said "In a commercial you have one minute, or forty seconds, to sell the product. Therefore every single note has got to mean something, and has got to do something. And that’s exactly how I approached one-minute main titles: it was to sell the show".[4]

Hanna-Barbera's co-founder Joseph Barbera said of Curtin "Few people ever have the chance to work with a genius. All of us at Hanna-Barbera who worked with Hoyt are among those few".[5] Hanna-Barbera creative director Bill Burnett praised Curtin's work, saying "Music is so fundamentally important to cartoons. Hoyt (was) one of the two giants of cartoon music. (Burnett cited Warner Bros.' Carl Stalling as the other.) What Hoyt does is absolutely smokin', the greatest pieces of cartoon pastiches that have ever been created".[6]

In 2002, Jean MacCurdy, then president of Warner Bros. Animation said "Hoyt was the king of jingle-making. His strong suit was coming up with the themes that almost anyone on the street could sing at the drop of a hat. He was really quite remarkable".[1]

Composer John Debney said of Curtin, "Hoyt was a jazzer, he was a keyboard player for one of the big bands and he was in the service. That's why his music sounds the way it does, he always loved those jazz chords, and they're fabulous."[7]

Curtin was also an inventor who was granted six US patents for his novel designs of pipe couplings from 1974 through 1981.[8]

Early life and education

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Curtin was born in Downey, California, the third of Mary "Louise" (née Draper) and Frank Montgomery Curtin's three sons.[9]

Starting to play the piano at the age of 5, Curtin quickly began "writing music". He explained "Mozart, I was not. It was mostly gibberish, but I loved how my older brother would play them (his songs), adding to them, making them sound wonderful".[6]

Curtin graduated San Bernardino High School in 1940. While a student there, Curtin formed his own orchestra - the "Cornfed Sextette" and played in local jazz bands.[1] During his senior year, Curtin wrote and conducted new arrangements of show tunes from the movie Down Argentine Way during the school's annual musical extravaganza. Curtin was elected vice-president of his high school senior class.[10]

Curtin attended the University of Southern California where he earned an accelerated bachelor's degree. While attending USC, he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.[11] Curtin entered the V-7 Navy College Training Program in September 1942.[12]

Military service

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Curtin was 19 when he registered for the draft in 1942. At the time, he listed his employer as the Ken Baker Band at the Windsor Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona.[13]

Curtin joined the Navy, was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve with the rank of LTJG and served aboard a destroyer in the Pacific during World War II.[12][14]

Later education

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After WWII ended, he returned to the University of Southern California, earning a master's degree in music.[6] Curtin explained his decision to return to USC, saying "I studied piano all my life, of course, and went to USC’s school of music and studied composition... I was supposed to go to Juilliard after the war, on the G.I. Bill, and the man who enters you asked me why I was going to Juilliard when USC had people like Ernst Toch and the biggies at the time. Why go to Juilliard? ...So I called up my friend who let me enroll late at USC and drove back there at about a hundred miles an hour and went to lake my masters degree. It was great! We had some marvelous teachers. I studied with Miklós Rózsa and I just kept writing all I could, trying to get a job and that's not easy.[15]

Career

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Film scoring

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Curtin originally planned to become a film composer. "I knocked on every door". His first film composition was the score for Mesa of Lost Women (1952). Curtis said "It’s the world's worst film, I think. It was really bad when I wrote it but now it’s worse. As I remember, it was about ladies on an alien planet who turned into tarantulas... I didn’t have any budget so I had to do it with two pianos. A friend of mine, Ray Rasch — one of the real great jazz guys — played the other piano. We really had fun doing that". Curtin's score music was later reused in the Ed Wood film Jail Bait (1954, credited as "Hoyt Kurtain").[16]

In 1956 Curtin was musical director for Thrillarama Productions in Houston, Texas.[17][18] He conducted a 38-piece orchestra while recording the score we composed for the company's film Thrillarama Adventure, a Cinerama style travelog which used two cameras and two projectors.[19] Curtin also composed two of the tunes heard in the background in Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959), although he was embarrassed by the film's poor quality.

Commercial jingle writer

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Disillusioned with film work, Curtin next found work at an Cascade Pictures, Inc. in Hollywood, which was one of the pioneer commercial production houses in the early stages of television. Curtin said "It was marvelous, with a big orchestra".

Soundtrack Music, Inc.

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By the 1950s Curtin had become an in-demand composer for TV commercials. He created his own production company, Soundtrack Music, Inc., based in Los Angeles. His company employed eight composers.[20]

UPA Studios

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Curtin's experience writing musical jingles for advertising eventually led to his scoring cartoon music at United Productions of America, better known as UPA Studios. His first musical score was for the 1954 cartoon When Magoo Flew which helped the work win an Academy Award for Best Animated Short. Curtin said he greatly enjoyed scoring cartoons. "I viewed the cartoon, wrote the music to fit and scored those at Columbia Pictures, with the Columbia orchestra. You scored to (the) picture and you played along so the producers could see how the music fit".[6]

Hanna-Barbera

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Curtin first met William Hanna and Joseph Barbera in 1957 when the Leo Burnett advertising agency hired him to write the musical score for a Schlitz beer commercial Hanna and Barbera were producing at the MGM Studios.[4]

Curtin recalled the beginning of his career scoring Hanna-Barbera cartoons: "They were just forming their company. It was 1957 and they remembered a jingle I'd done and phoned me with lyrics they'd written to Ruff and Reddy..."[6] Hanna and Barbera read the theme song lyrics over the phone to Curtin and asked "Could I write a tune for it? I called back in 5 minutes and sang it to them ... silence ... uh oh, I bombed out ... the next thing I heard was a deal to record it - Ruff & Reddy!. Hanna and Barbera were starting their own cartoon studio and were offering Curtin and his company, Soundtrack Music Inc., an exclusive contract to compose music for them.[21]

Barbera said "All of our first main titles were done in that fashion. Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, etc.".[22] "We'd go back and forth like that. We'd all have a good time, and I think the music shows it".[20]

Curtin became Hanna-Barbera’s music director, enjoying a long lasting, close relationship with the pair. While composing his musical cues, Curtin would refer to pre-production storyboards or watch film and videotape previews to make sure his scores enhanced the Hanna-Barbara cartoons' action and mood.

He composed the music for nearly 250 of Hanna-Barbera's cartoon series, as well as many of the cartoon series' theme songs, including The Flintstones, Top Cat, The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, Super Friends, Josie and the Pussycats, The Smurfs, and The New Scooby-Doo Movies and all its spinoffs until 1989.

In 1960, Curtin was the composer for the animated series Q.T. Hush, one of the first television cartoons broadcast in color.

The Flintstones

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Curtin said of his Flintstones theme "It’s a catchy little tune, just a simple thing arranged for jazz and singers. I like it, not because it’s popular, but it’s jammed on in clubs in every country because the chord changes are fun to play".[1] Curtin recalled "When The Flintstones was originally recorded, we didn't have synthesizers at that time. We just had a room full of timpanists, a whole studio full of them, like Swiss bell players! It was wonderful".[6]

Jonny Quest

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Curtin composed the music for the 1964 Jonny Quest television series. In a 1999 interview Curtin said, "My pianist, Jack Cookerly,[23] invented the synthesizer as we know it for Jonny Quest. It was made of orange crates with a keyboard and thousands of vacuum tubes!"

Curtin recalled the Jonny Quest recording sessions took place at the Hollywood RCA studios using "...a regular jazz band of 4 trumpets, 6 trombones, 5 woodwind doublers, 5-man rhythm section including percussion. Alvin Stoller or Frankie Capp usually played drums. I always tried to get the same guys where possible. They were the ones who could swing and read like demons".[24]

Curtin said his Jonny Quest theme was a real test of the trombonists. "I wrote it in a killer key because I know how to play trombone and I know the hardest place to play is all of the unknown, odd positions. There wasn't anything open. Just murder, E-flat minor". He said during the session the trombonists "Killed themselves because nobody wanted to make a mistake. Nobody wanted to get carved."[25]

Matty's Funnies with Beany and Cecil

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Animator Bob Clampett had left MGM to create his own cartoons. He contracted with Mattel Toys to produce toys designed around Clampett's new characters Beany and Cecil which would be promoted in the new animated show. Clampett hired Curtin in 1962 to write and produce the show's theme song.[26]

Battle of the Planets

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In 1977 producer Sandy Frank negotiated the rights to the Japanese anime series Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (1972).[27][28] While adapting the series, Frank renamed it Battle of the Planets and planned to expand the existing usable 85 episodes for international markets.[29] Original composer Bobu "Bob" Sakuma's existing Science Ninja Team Gatchaman score didn't have enough content to cover the planned expansion of episodes.[30]

The production team requested Curtin create themes and a full music library for the production. Since Curtin was contractually bound to Hanna-Barbera, he requested and was given permission to work on the project. Curtin recorded his compositions during four sessions in August, September and October 1978.[31]

Later film work

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Curtin's later film score credits include Timber Tramps (1975) and C.H.O.M.P.S. (1979).

Inventor

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Curtin was granted six US utility patents for his inventions of water-tight pipe couplings for irrigation and sprinkler system plumbing. The couplings were designed for use in in-ground sprinkler systems and included coupling designs for both primary installation and system repair. Among them: US-3857588 "Pipe Coupling", December 31, 1974,[8] US-4035002 "Pipe Coupling", July 12, 1977[32] and US-4260181 "Pipe Coupling", April 7, 1981.[33]

Accolades

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Death

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Curtin died on December 3, 2000, in Thousand Oaks, California, at age 78.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Woo, Elaine (December 11, 2000). "Hoyt Curtin; Composer of Cartoon Music". LA Times. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
  2. ^ Doll, Pancho (June 2, 1994). "REEL LIFE / FILM & VIDEO FILE : Music Helped 'Flintstones' on Way to Fame". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-11-10.
  3. ^ "Writer / Composer Curtin Hoyt S". Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  4. ^ a b Mallory, Michael (March 15, 2012). "Hoyt Curtin's Jug Band Session". Retrieved January 24, 2025.
  5. ^ "Hoyt Curtin". Variety. December 14, 2000. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Mendoza, N.F. (July 23, 1995). "SHOWS FOR YOUNGSTERS AND THEIR PARENTS TOO: Hoyt Curtin has a modern Toon Age melody". Los Angeles, California: Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 21, 2025.
  7. ^ "YOWP Stuff About Early Hanna-Barbara Cartoons". Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  8. ^ a b "Pipe Coupling, December 31, 1974" (PDF). Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  9. ^ "Hoyt S Curtin in the 1940 United States Federal Census". Ancestry.com. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  10. ^ "Hoyt Curtin in the U.S. School Yearbooks, 1900-2016". ancestry.com. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  11. ^ "U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-2016, California, Los Angeles, University of Southern California, 1943". ancestry.com. p. 357. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  12. ^ a b "Hoyt Curtin at Destroyer Base". San Bernardino Sun. June 6, 1944. p. 11. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  13. ^ "Hoyt Stoddard Curtin in the U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947". ancestry.com. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  14. ^ "Hoyt Stoddard Curtin in the U.S., Select Military Registers, 1862-1985". ancestry.com. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  15. ^ "An Interview With Hoyt Curtin". Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  16. ^ Dennis Grisbeck (July 2006). "Mesa of Lost Women (1953)". The Monster Shack. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
  17. ^ "7th Annual Production Review". Turner Classic Movies, Inc. p. 141. Retrieved January 23, 2025.
  18. ^ "Thrillarama Adventure 1956". Turner Classic Movies, Inc. Retrieved January 23, 2025.
  19. ^ "Thrillarama Well Liked At Houston Premiere". The American WideScreen Museum. Retrieved January 23, 2025.
  20. ^ a b Wharton, David (August 28, 1986). "Revival Brings Limelight to Composer". Los Angeles, California: Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 24, 2025.
  21. ^ Myrick, Jane Elizabeth (April 30, 2019). Imagining the Future into Reality: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of The Jetsons (Honors Baccalaureate of Arts in English; Honors Baccalaureate of Arts in Education thesis). Corvallis, Oregon: Oregon State University. Retrieved January 25, 2025.
  22. ^ Gary Karpinski - email interview with Hoyt Curtin, 1999
  23. ^ "Jack Cookerly".
  24. ^ "A Conversation with Hoyt Curtin".
  25. ^ "Hoyt Curtain".
  26. ^ Evanier, Mark (August 8, 2024). "ASK me: Funday Funnies". Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  27. ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 122–124. ISBN 978-1476665993.
  28. ^ "From 'Speed' to outer space". Japan Times. Retrieved July 28, 2010.
  29. ^ "From 'Speed' to outer space". Japan Times. Retrieved July 28, 2010.
  30. ^ "Music". Battle Of The Planets Info. Tatsunoko Production Co., Ltd. August 8, 2024. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  31. ^ "Battle of the Planets [2 Disc Silva] Original Soundtrack". allmusic.com. Retrieved January 25, 2025.
  32. ^ "Pipe Coupling, July 12, 1977" (PDF). Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  33. ^ "Pipe Coupling, April 7, 1981" (PDF). Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  34. ^ "Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award – 1954 -". cartoonresearch.com.
  35. ^ "Hall Of Fame". thescl.com.
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