Carmen Dragon (July 28, 1914 – March 28, 1984) was an American conductor,

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

, and arranger who in addition to live performances and recording, worked in radio, film, and television.

Early years

Dragon was born in

Antioch, California Antioch is the third-largest city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area along the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta. The city's population was 115,291 at the 2020 Unite ...

, the son of Rose and Frank Dragon, who were Italian immigrants. He attended

Antioch High School Antioch High School is a public high school located in Antioch, California, United States. It is located at 700 West 18th Street between G and L streets. It is a comprehensive high school for grades 9-12. There are about 120 teachers, and 20 mai ...

and, while a student there, composed a song for the school. ''Forward, Antioch!'' was performed between acts of a school play on February 28, 1930. (A newspaper article erroneously identified the composer as "a high school girl, Carmen Dragon".)

Film

He was very active in pop music conducting and composed scores for several films, including ''At Gunpoint'' (1955), ''

Invasion of the Body Snatchers ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers'' is a 1956 American science fiction horror film produced by Walter Wanger, directed by Don Siegel, and starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. The black-and-white film was shot in Superscope and in the film ...

'' (1956), ''

Night into Morning ''Night Into Morning'' is a 1951 American drama film starring Ray Milland, John Hodiak and Nancy Davis. Plot Everything is going very well for college professor Phillip Ainley (Ray Milland), who has a loving wife and son and an offer to teach a ...

'' (1951), and '' Kiss Tomorrow Good-bye'' (1950). With

Morris Stoloff Morris W. Stoloff (August 1, 1898 – April 16, 1980) was a musical composer. Stoloff worked with Sammy Davis Jr., Dinah Shore, Al Jolson and Frank Sinatra. Life and career Stoloff worked as music director at Columbia Pictures from 1936 to 1962. ...

, he shared the 1944

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology), ...

for the popular

Gene Kelly Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996) was an American actor, dancer, singer, filmmaker, and choreographer. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style and sought to create a new form of American dance accessibl ...

Rita Hayworth Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino; October 17, 1918May 14, 1987) was an American actress, dancer and producer. She achieved fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars, appearing in 61 films over 37 years. The press coined th ...

musical ''

Cover Girl A cover girl is a woman whose photograph features on the front cover of a magazine. She may be a model, celebrity or entertainer. The term would generally not be used to describe a casual, once-off appearance by a person on the cover of a magaz ...

'', which featured songs by

Jerome Kern Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over ...

and

Ira Gershwin Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershovitz; December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the 2 ...

. He made a popular orchestral arrangement of "America the Beautiful" and also re-arranged it for symphonic band. In his obituary published March 29, 1984, the New York Times noted: "In 1964 he won an

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for producing the Glendale Symphony Orchestra Christmas Special on NBC." He played himself in the 1979 film '' The In-Laws'' as the conductor of the fictitious Paramus Philharmonic Orchestra.

Radio

Dragon conducted the

Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in America by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018. The Hollywood Bowl is known for its distin ...

Symphony Orchestra, and they performed on ''

The Standard School Broadcast ''The Standard School Broadcast'' is a weekly educational radio program that went on the air in 1928 and promoted music appreciation for students in the western United States. It was the oldest educational radio program in America. Based in San Fra ...

,'' broadcast on NBC radio in the western U.S. for elementary schools from 1928 through the 1970s. The show was sponsored by the

Standard Oil Company of California Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened to Socal or CalSo), it is headquartered in S ...

(now the

Chevron Corporation Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened to Socal or CalSo), it is headquartered in S ...

), but other than the name there were no commercials. The program featured a high quality introduction to classical music for young people growing up in the 1940s and early 1950s. In the summer of 1947, Dragon and

Frances Langford Julia Frances Newbern-Langford (April 4, 1913 – July 11, 2005) was an American singer and actress who was popular during the Golden Age of Radio and made film and television appearances for over two decades. She was known as the "GI Nighting ...

had a program on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

. Langford sang, accompanied by Dragon and his 25-piece orchestra. The show began June 5 and ran for 13 weeks as a summer replacement for George Burns and Gracie Allen's program. Dragon also hosted a regular classical music radio show broadcast on the

Armed Forces Radio Network The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the U.S. military provides to those stationed or assigned overseas. Headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, AFN's broadcast operations, which i ...

well into the 1980s. Dragon's concert band arrangement of America the Beautiful is played by bands across the country in concerts of patriotic music.

Personal appearances

By May 1935, Dragon had his own orchestra. A Santa Cruz, California, newspaper reported about the San Jose State freshman dance, "The dancers will travel over the world with the orchestra of Carmen Dragon furnishing the appropriate music of each locality." A couple of months later, a Fresno, California, newspaper contained an advertisement promoting "Carmen Dragon, Ace Stanford Band, The Sensation of the Coast".

Recording

Dragon made a series of popular light classical albums for

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

during the 1950s with the

Hollywood Bowl Orchestra The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra (HBO) is a symphony orchestra which is managed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and plays the vast majority of its performances at the Hollywood Bowl. John Mauceri led the orchestra from its founding in 1990 ...

. Some of these recordings have been reissued on

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...

Recognition

Dragon has a star in the Radio section of the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Californ ...

. Located at 6104 Hollywood Boulevard, it was dedicated September 7, 1989. An elementary school is named after the composer in Antioch, California.

Personal life

Dragon's wife, Eloise (Rawitzer), sang on his Maxwell House series and ''Starlight Concert''.

Death

Carmen Dragon died of cancer, aged 69, in a

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

hospital, on March 28, 1984.

Children

* Son,

Daryl Dragon Daryl Frank Dragon (August 27, 1942 – January 2, 2019) was an American musician, known as Captain from the pop musical duo Captain & Tennille with his then-wife, Toni Tennille. Career Born into a musical family, Dragon was the son of El ...

(August 27, 1942 - January 2, 2019) of the 1970s

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

duo

Captain & Tennille Captain & Tennille were American recording artists whose primary success occurred in the 1970s. The husband-and-wife team were "Captain" Daryl Dragon (1942–2019) and Toni Tennille (born 1940). They have five albums certified gold or platinu ...

* Daughter, Carmen E. Dragon (January 17, 1948 - July 11, 2010), classical harpist * Son, Dennis Dragon (1947-2017), drummer for the surf band

Surf Punks The Surf Punks were a pop punk band formed in 1976 by Malibu residents Dennis Dragon (1947-2017) and Drew Steele. (Dragon was the son of symphony conductor Carmen Dragon, the brother of Captain & Tennille's Daryl Dragon, and he was previously ...

; also appeared in some live concerts with the

Byrds The Byrds () were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining th ...

shortly before they disbanded in 1973, also produced much of Captain & Tennille's music. * Daughter, Kathryn Dragon Henn (November 8, 1951 - April, 2012), was the manager of her father's Orchestral Pops Rental Library * Son, Douglas - a musician and singer

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dragon, Carmen 1914 births 1984 deaths 20th-century American composers 20th-century American conductors (music) 20th-century American male musicians American classical musicians American film score composers American male conductors (music) American music arrangers American people of Italian descent Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners Burials at San Fernando Mission Cemetery Classical musicians from California Deaths from cancer in California American male film score composers People from Antioch, California