Robert E. Dolan
Robert Emmett Dolan ( born August 3, 1906 in Hartford, Connecticut, † September 26, 1972 in Westwood, Los Angeles, California ) was an American film composer, conductor and film producer.
Life
Dolan was born as the oldest of twelve children, and was educated at Loyola College, now Concordia University in Montreal. Later he studied with the composer Mortimer Wilson and Ernst Toch. A first of his compositions was used in the 1929 film comedy The Sophomore. He contributed several more titles for three more films, then moved to Broadway, however, where in 1931 he worked as a pianist. He was from the mid 1930s until 1940 as conductor ( Musical Director ) worked on Broadway. He then returned in same function to Hollywood, where he was first taken at Metro -Goldwyn -Mayer under contract, but soon moved to Paramount Pictures. In 1942, he was the first time (a total of eight times ) nominated for an Oscar, he never received the award. At Paramount, he oversaw addition a total of 16 music films with Bing Crosby as a conductor and was active as a composer and arranger for around 60 Paramount productions. Mid-1950s, he was entrusted with the Crosby movie musicals White Christmas, The Girl Rush and Broadway magic with film production. From the late 1950s he was increasingly active again on Broadway, and in the 1960s he also wrote occasionally for television, including the theme music for the TV series OK Crackerby! with Burl Ives in one of the lead roles. He also served as a lecturer at New York's Columbia University.
Dolan was divorced twice. In his first marriage he was married 1933-1948 with the sister of Buddy Ebsen, the same year he married actress Nan Martin. From two marriages one child emerged.