W. Franke Harling was a composer of film score

Film score

A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...

s, opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

s, and popular music

Popular music

Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...

.

Born William Franke Harling in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, he was educated at the Grace Choir Church School in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. After working as an organist and choir director at the Church of the Resurrection in Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, he spent two years at the United States Military Academy at West Point

United States Military Academy

The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...

, and composed both its hymn, called "The Corps," and its official march, "West Point Forever."

In 1918, Harling contributed incidental music to the Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 production of the 1898 play Pan and the Young Shepherd by Maurice Hewlett

Maurice Hewlett

Maurice Henry Hewlett , was an English historical novelist, poet and essayist. He was born at Weybridge, the eldest son of Henry Gay Hewlett, of Shaw Hall, Addington, Kent. He was educated at the London International College, Spring Grove, Isleworth, and was called to the bar in 1891. He gave up...

. In 1926, he collaborated with Laurence Stallings

Laurence Stallings

Laurence Tucker Stallings was an American playwright, screenwriter, lyricist, literary critic, journalist, novelist, and photographer...

 on Deep River, a voodoo

Louisiana Voodoo

Louisiana Voodoo, also known as New Orleans Voodoo, describes a set of underground religious practices which originated from the traditions of the African diaspora. It is a cultural form of the Afro-American religions which developed within the French, Spanish, and Creole speaking African American...

-themed opera set in New Orleans in 1835. It opened on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre on October 4 and ran for 32 performances.

Harling began his Hollywood career in 1928. His film credits include The Vagabond King

The Vagabond King (1930 film)

The Vagabond King is a 1930 American musical operetta film photographed entirely in two-color Technicolor. The plot of the film was based on the 1925 operetta of the same name, which was based on the 1901 play If I Were King by Justin Huntly McCarthy. The play told the story of a renegade French...

, This Is the Night

This Is the Night (film)

This Is the Night is a 1932 comedy film made by Paramount Pictures, and directed by Frank Tuttle.The film stars Lili Damita, Charles Ruggles, Roland Young, Thelma Todd, and Cary Grant....

, So Big!

So Big! (1932 film)

So Big! is a 1932 American drama film directed by William A. Wellman. The screenplay by J. Grubb Alexander and Robert Lord is based on the 1924 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by Edna Ferber....

, A Bill of Divorcement

A Bill of Divorcement

A Bill of Divorcement is a 1932 American drama film, directed by George Cukor and starring John Barrymore and Katharine Hepburn in her movie debut. It is based on the British play of the same name, written by Clemence Dane as a reaction to a law passed in Britain in the early 1920s that allowed...

, Blonde Venus

Blonde Venus

Blonde Venus is a 1932 is a Pre-Code drama film starring Marlene Dietrich and Cary Grant. The movie was produced and directed for Paramount Pictures by Josef von Sternberg with a screenplay by Jules Furthman and S. K. Lauren adapted from a story by Furthman and von Sternberg. The music score was by W...

, A Farewell to Arms

A Farewell to Arms (1932 film)

A Farewell to Arms is a 1932 American romantic drama film directed by Frank Borzage, and starring Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes. The screenplay by Oliver H.P...

, The Bitter Tea of General Yen

The Bitter Tea of General Yen

The Bitter Tea of General Yen is a pre-Code 1933 film, directed by Frank Capra based on the novel by Grace Zaring Stone and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Nils Asther....

, Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo (1930 film)

Monte Carlo is a 1930 American musical comedy film directed by Ernst Lubitsch. It stars Jeanette MacDonald as Countess Helene Mara. The film is also notable for the song "Beyond the Blue Horizon", which was written for the film and was performed by Jeanette MacDonald. The film was also hailed by...

, and Penny Serenade

Penny Serenade

Penny Serenade is a 1941 film melodrama starring Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Beulah Bondi, and Edgar Buchanan. It was directed by George Stevens and written by Martha Cheavens and Morrie Ryskind. It depicts the story of a loving couple who must overcome adversity to keep their marriage and raise a child...

.

Harling won the 1939 Academy Award for Best Music Scoring for Stagecoach and was nominated for Souls at Sea

Souls at Sea

Souls at Sea is a 1937 seafaring film starring Gary Cooper and George Raft. The movie features Frances Dee, Harry Carey, Robert Cummings, George Zucco, Joseph Schildkraut, Paul Fix, and Tully Marshall, and was directed by Henry Hathaway. The title of this film was spoofed in the Laurel and Hardy...

in 1937 and Three Russian Girls

Three Russian Girls

Three Russian Girls is a 1943 American World War II pro-Soviet propaganda film produced by R-F Productions and distributed by United Artists. It followed in the footsteps of Mission to Moscow . It was nominated for an Oscar in 1945 for best musical score. It starred Anna Sten.-External links:*...

in 1944.

Harling's popular songs include "Beyond the Blue Horizon," popularized by Jeanette MacDonald

Jeanette MacDonald

Jeanette MacDonald was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy...

 in 1940 and Lou Christie

Lou Christie

Luigi Alfredo Giovanni Sacco , known professionally as Lou Christie, is an American singer-songwriter best known for three separate strings of pop hits in the 1960s , including his 1966 smash, "Lightnin' Strikes" and his incredible 3 octave vocal range.-Biography:Sacco was born in Glenwillard,...

 thirty years later, and "Sing, You Sinners", originally performed by Lillian Roth

Lillian Roth

Lillian Roth was an American singer and actress.-Early life:Roth was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She was only 6 years old when her mother took her to Educational Pictures, where she became the company's trademark, symbolized by a living statue holding a lamp of knowledge...

 in 1930 and a hit for Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....

 in 1950.

Harling won the Bispham Memorial Medal Award

Bispham Memorial Medal Award

The Bispham Memorial Medal Award was an award for operas written in English which was presented annually by the American Opera Society of Chicago from 1921-1932. The award was named for baritone David Bispham, who was a great proponent of performing opera in English in the United States. It was...

 for his jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

-oriented opera A Light from St. Agnes.

Harling died in Sierra Madre, California

Sierra Madre, California

The city of Sierra Madre is a municipality in Los Angeles County, California whose population was 10,917 at the 2010 census, up from 10,580 at the time of the 2000 census. The city is located in the Foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains below the southern edge of the Angeles National Forest. ...

 and is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park

Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)

Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery is part of the Forest Lawn chain of Southern California cemeteries. It is at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, on the lower north slope at the far east end of the Santa Monica...

 in Hollywood Hills

Hollywood Hills

The Hollywood Hills is an affluent and exclusive neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the southeastern Santa Monica Mountains. It is bound by Laurel Canyon Boulevard to the west, Vermont Avenue to the east, Mulholland Drive to the north, and Sunset Boulevard to the south.-Hollywood Hills...

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