Mark Warnow (April 10, 1900 – October 17, 1949) was a violinist and orchestra conductor, who performed on the radio in the 1930s and 1940s. He was the older brother of composer and bandleader
Raymond Scott
Raymond Scott (born Harry Warnow; September 10, 1908 – February 8, 1994) was an American composer, band leader, pianist, record producer, and inventor of electronic instruments.
Though Scott never scored cartoon soundtracks, his music is ...
, born Harry Warnow, and is credited with steering his younger brother into a career in music.
Early years
Warnow was born in
Monastyrishche,
Kiev Governorate
Kiev Governorate, r=Kievskaya guberniya; uk, Київська губернія, Kyivska huberniia (, ) was an administrative division of the Russian Empire from 1796 to 1919 and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic from 1919 to 1925. It wa ...
,
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
to Jewish parents; he immigrated with them to the United States in 1907. (according to other sources, age 5).
[ Warnow grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Public School 100 and Eastern District High School, where he was a soloist as a violinist in the school's orchestra.][ ]
Career
When he was 17, Warnow became the Massel Opera's musical director. From that, he became the Ziegfeld Follies' musical director. That was followed by a stint as bandleader for the Music Box Revue.[
]
Radio
Warnow enjoyed a lengthy and versatile career with the CBS Radio
CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broadc ...
network. He was CBS music director in the early 1930s, and hired his younger brother Harry as a keyboardist in 1931.
On July 2, 1935, a CBS program debuted with singer Virginia Verrill starring and Warnow's orchestra accompanying her.
Warnow conducted the orchestra on the CBS radio program ''Your Hit Parade
''Your Hit Parade'' was an American radio and television music program that was broadcast from 1935 to 1953 on radio, and seen from 1950 to 1959 on television. It was sponsored by American Tobacco's Lucky Strike cigarettes. During its 24-year ru ...
'' from 1939 to his death in 1949. A 1941 newspaper article described Warnow as "the busiest man in radio", noting that his conducting duties included not only ''Your Hit Parade'', but ''Helen Hayes Theatre'' and ''We, the People''.
He also conducted his orchestras for '' The Jack Berch Show'',[DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 30.] the "Matinee Theatre" program, and Ed Wynn's "Happy Island" program.
Mark Warnow also conducted the orchestra for the "Sound Off" Radio show, 1946, New York City, sponsored by the U.S. Army to encourage post World War II recruitment. Emcee Arno Tanney, aka "The Chant" would sing/chant army recruiting commercials like a drill seargeant in his signature booming baritone to the rapid fire rhythm of the "Duckworth Chant" - "Join the Army, it's for you, better pay and college too, Sound Off!, 1, 2, Sound Off! 3, 4, - 1, 2, 3, 4, Sound Off...Sound Off!"
Stage
Warnow also produced a Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
musical-comedy, ''What's Up?'' (1943-1944).
Film
Warnow appeared as himself with his band in the Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
release ''Paramount Headliner: The Star Reporter'' (1938).
Recordings
In the 1940s, Warnow conducted and arranged for Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
while the singer was signed to Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
, then owned by the CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
network. He was also a composer and recording artist.
In 1949, Warnow and his orchestra recorded a 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 ...
album, ''Sound Off'', named for the ''Sound Off Chant'', which was featured on the album along with some marches and other patriotic music.[ ]
Personal life
Warnow's first wife was Sylvia Rapaport, with whom he had three children. She died in 1939. His second wife was Helen McGowan and had two children with her. They divorced in August 1948.[
]
Death
Warnow died October 1, 1949, of a heart attack in Polyclinic Hospital in New York City, aged 49.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Warnow, Mark
1900 births
1949 deaths
American male conductors (music)
American male violinists
American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Ukrainian Jews
20th-century American violinists
20th-century American conductors (music)
20th-century American male musicians
Eastern District High School alumni
People from Brooklyn