Albert Glasser
Encyclopedia
Albert Glasser was a prolific composer of musical scores for B-movie
s during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. He scored approximately 200 films during his career, many for American International Pictures
and director Bert I. Gordon
.
Glasser was educated at University of Southern California
through an Alchin Chair Foundation scholarship. In 1937 he won the California Composers Contest and in 1945 he won the Southern California Contest. Albert Glasser began his career as a copyist in the music department at Warner Brothers in the late 1930s, learning the art of film scoring while working under Max Steiner
and Erich Wolfgang Korngold
. He later worked on orchestration, and by the mid-1940s was composing and directing his own scores. A hard and fast worker, Glasser found his musical skills put to the test in the frantic, down-to-the-wire world of B-picture making. He scored 135 movies between 1944 and 1962, not counting at least 35 features for which he received no credit.
In addition to scoring 300 television shows and 450 radio programs, he arranged and conducted for the noted American operetta composer Rudolf Friml
and orchestrated for Ferde Grofe
(with whom he first collaborated on the sci-fi classic Rocketship X-M
). For the US War Department, Glasser composed for Frank Capra
's Special Services Unit and for Office of War Information radio shows for overseas broadcasts. For television, he composed the score for the early and much admired western series, The Cisco Kid
. For radio, he composed scores for Hopalong Cassidy
, Clyde Beatty
, and Tarzan. Glasser joined ASCAP in 1950, and his popular song compositions include "Urubu", "The Cisco Kid", "Someday" and "I Remember Your Love". In addition to his composition work, Glasser was an amateur radio operator (K6RFU).
B-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
s during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. He scored approximately 200 films during his career, many for American International Pictures
American International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
and director Bert I. Gordon
Bert I. Gordon
Bert I. Gordon is an American film director most famous for such science fiction and horror B-movies as The Amazing Colossal Man and Village of the Giants....
.
Glasser was educated at University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
through an Alchin Chair Foundation scholarship. In 1937 he won the California Composers Contest and in 1945 he won the Southern California Contest. Albert Glasser began his career as a copyist in the music department at Warner Brothers in the late 1930s, learning the art of film scoring while working under Max Steiner
Max Steiner
Max Steiner was an Austrian composer of music for theatre productions and films. He later became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Trained by the great classical music composers Brahms and Mahler, he was one of the first composers who primarily wrote music for motion pictures, and as...
and Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Erich Wolfgang Korngold was an Austro-Hungarian film and romantic music composer. While his compositional style was considered well out of vogue at the time he died, his music has more recently undergone a reevaluation and a gradual reawakening of interest...
. He later worked on orchestration, and by the mid-1940s was composing and directing his own scores. A hard and fast worker, Glasser found his musical skills put to the test in the frantic, down-to-the-wire world of B-picture making. He scored 135 movies between 1944 and 1962, not counting at least 35 features for which he received no credit.
In addition to scoring 300 television shows and 450 radio programs, he arranged and conducted for the noted American operetta composer Rudolf Friml
Rudolf Friml
Rudolf Friml was a composer of operettas, musicals, songs and piano pieces, as well as a pianist. After musical training and a brief performing career in his native Prague, Friml moved to the United States, where he became a composer...
and orchestrated for Ferde Grofe
Ferde Grofé
Ferde Grofé was a prominent American composer, arranger and pianist. During the 1920s and 1930s, he went by the name Ferdie Grofé.-Early life:...
(with whom he first collaborated on the sci-fi classic Rocketship X-M
Rocketship X-M
Rocketship X-M was the second of the American science fiction feature films of the space adventure genre begun in the post-war era, in 1950...
). For the US War Department, Glasser composed for Frank Capra
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
's Special Services Unit and for Office of War Information radio shows for overseas broadcasts. For television, he composed the score for the early and much admired western series, The Cisco Kid
The Cisco Kid
The Cisco Kid refers to a character found in numerous film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his 1907 short story "The Caballero's Way", published in the collection Heart of the West...
. For radio, he composed scores for Hopalong Cassidy
Hopalong Cassidy
Hopalong Cassidy is a fictional cowboy hero created in 1904 by the author Clarence E. Mulford, who wrote a series of popular short stories and twenty-eight novels based on the character....
, Clyde Beatty
Clyde Beatty
Clyde Beatty joined the circus as a cage cleaner as a teen and became famous as a lion tamer and animal trainer. He also became a circus impresario who owned his own show that later merged with the Cole Bros. Circus to form the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros...
, and Tarzan. Glasser joined ASCAP in 1950, and his popular song compositions include "Urubu", "The Cisco Kid", "Someday" and "I Remember Your Love". In addition to his composition work, Glasser was an amateur radio operator (K6RFU).
Quote
- "Albert Glasser: the man who holds you down and pummels you with music." —Dr. Forrester, Mystery Science Theater 3000Mystery Science Theater 3000Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
(Episode 611: Last of the Wild HorsesLast of the Wild HorsesLast of the Wild Horses is a 1948 American Western film starring Jane Frazee. It was featured in episode 611 of Mystery Science Theatre 3000....
).