BB mourns the loss of soundtrack composer Elmer Bernstein, the artist behind the classic scores for The Magnificent Seven, The Man With The Golden Arm, The Great Escape, and even modern-day comedies like Airplane! and Stripes. Bernstein studied under Aaron Copland before relocating to Tinseltown in 1950. That same decade, his career was almost ruined during the Hollywood Red Hunt when a congressional subcommittee demanded that Bernstein, a well-known liberal, name names of film industry commies. Blacklisted from the big studios, he composed for B movies including Cat Women of the Moon and Robot Monster. Finally, Cecil B. De Mille gave Bernstein a shot at the score of The Ten Commandments when the original composer became ill. Bernstein earned his first Oscar nomination for that work.
"Film music, properly done, should give the film a kind of emotional rail on which to ride," Bernstein said in 2001. "Without even realizing that you're listening to music that's doing something to your emotions, you will have an emotional experience."
