George Stoll

George Stoll

  • Birthday: 1905-05-07
  • Deathday: 1985-01-18
  • Place of birth: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
  • Also know as: George Martin Stoll

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Georgie Stoll (7 May 1905 in Minneapolis, MN – 18 January 1985 in Monterey, CA) was a musical director, conductor, composer and jazz violinist, associated with the Golden Age of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals and performers from the 1940s to 1960s. Born George Martin Stoll, he was also later credited as George E. Stoll (sometimes without the middle initial). Stoll made his musical debut as a boy violin prodigy, gaining nationwide fame. He toured North America as a jazz violinist on the Fanchon and Marco Vaudeville circuit and was part of the Jazzmania Quintet, appearing with Edythe Flynn in an early 1927 sound short. In San Diego, he became an orchestra and trio leader (his Rhythm Aces) and started to feature with Jack Oakie on radio programs, such as Camel Cigarette and NBC's Shell Oil Program. In 1934, Bing Crosby selected Stoll as his musical director for the second series of the CBS Woodbury radio programs Bing Crosby Entertains. For Decca, Georgie Stoll and His Orchestra accompanied Crosby and Louis Armstrong in the successful 1936 recordings of Pennies from Heaven. Stoll and his orchestra appeared on screen the same year in MGM's Swing Banditry. In 1937, he joined the MGM music department and was the musical director (frequently conductor too) for titles such as Honolulu, Ice Follies of 1939 and the Rooney-Garland hit Babes in Arms. He conducted the stage band which toured with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney upon the release of The Wizard of Oz. He was given a single "Ruby Slipper" by Judy Garland upon completion of the Wizard of Oz (where he orchestrated the tornado and Wicked Witch's Castle escape scenes with George Bassman). At the studio Stoll worked frequently with the director Edward Buzzell and producers Arthur Freed, Roger Edens and Joe Pasternak. He was also a favorite pinochle-playing buddy of studio head Louis B. Mayer. Stoll kept his connection with the jazz world and visited clubs looking for rising talent. He recruited one of the first black arrangers at MGM, Calvin Jackson with whom he worked on the original music for his 1945 Oscar-winning score for the Kelly-Sinatra Anchors Aweigh. Stoll also encouraged the teenaged André Previn and used him to write many arrangements. In 1943, he conducted Garland through the first two of her Decca original cast albums from her popular movies, such as Girl Crazy and Meet Me in St. Louis, which included the hit single The Trolley Song (#3 on Billboard's Best Selling charts). His other recordings were quite eclectic: spanning the popular (often with harmonica virtuosoes Leo Diamond or Larry Adler), easy listening orchestral (e.g. MGM's Hollywood Melodies album) to the postwar American sessions of the tenor Lauritz Melchior. His career got a final innings boost when Pasternak hired him and his old colleague George Sidney to work with Elvis Presley on some of his later and better pictures (e.g. Viva Las Vegas and Spinout). After 9 Oscar nominations (last in 1962 for Billy Rose's Jumbo), Stoll retired upon completing the original music for the Ann-Margret vehicle Made in Paris. In October 2009, Stoll's Amati violin was sold by Tarisio Auctions for $620,000, the current world record for a Nicolo Amati sold at auction.

Filmography

Swing Banditry

1936

As Orchestra Leader

Production

Ziegfeld Girl

1941

As Additional Music

Meet Me in St. Louis

1944

As Original Music Composer

Viva Las Vegas

1964

As Original Music Composer

Skirts Ahoy!

1952

As Original Music Composer

Babes in Arms

1939

As Original Music Composer

Neptune's Daughter

1949

As Original Music Composer

Girl Happy

1965

As Original Music Composer

Two Weeks with Love

1950

As Music Director

Ship Ahoy

1942

As Original Music Composer

Go West

1940

As Original Music Composer

Where the Boys Are

1960

As Original Music Composer

Spinout

1966

As Original Music Composer

The Courtship of Eddie's Father

1963

As Original Music Composer

Made in Paris

1966

As Original Music Composer

Panama Hattie

1942

As Music Director

Go West Young Man

1936

As Original Music Composer

Swing Fever

1943

As Music Director

The Kissing Bandit

1948

As Music Director

Dangerous When Wet

1953

As Original Music Composer

The Opposite Sex

1956

As Original Music Composer

The Opposite Sex

1956

As Music Supervisor

A Date with Judy

1948

As Music Director

The Ice Follies of 1939

1939

As Music Director

Ziegfeld Girl

1941

As Music Director

Ten Thousand Bedrooms

1957

As Music Supervisor

Anchors Aweigh

1945

As Music Director

Meet Me in St. Louis

1944

As Music Director

Babes in Arms

1939

As Music Director

Love Me or Leave Me

1955

As Music Supervisor

Father's Little Dividend

1951

As Conductor

Lady Be Good

1941

As Music Director

Duchess of Idaho

1950

As Music Director

Skirts Ahoy!

1952

As Music Director

The Big Store

1941

As Music

Easy to Love

1953

As Music Director

Andy Hardy Meets Debutante

1940

As Conductor

I Love Melvin

1953

As Music Director

Hit the Deck

1955

As Original Music Composer

The Horizontal Lieutenant

1962

As Original Music Composer

Road Show

1941

As Original Music Composer

In the Good Old Summertime

1949

As Original Music Composer

Glory Alley

1952

As Music Director

The Opposite Sex

1956

As Songs

Rose Marie

1954

As Songs

Athena

1954

As Original Music Composer

On Such a Night

1937

As Music Director

Outcast

1937

As Music Director

Thrill of a Romance

1945

As Musical

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