Winston Sharples

Winston Singleton Sharples (March 1, 1909 – April 3, 1978) was an American composer known for his work with animated short subjects, especially those created by the animation department at Paramount Pictures. In his 35-year career, Sharples scored more than 700 cartoons for Paramount and Famous Studios, and composed music for two Frank Buck films, '' Wild Cargo'' (1934) and ''Fang and Claw'' (1935).

Early years

Sharples was born in Fall River, Massachusetts to William, a machinist, and Mary Sharples, and began singing in vaudeville shows at the Loew's Poli Theatre in Springfield, Massachusetts at the age of eight. He taught himself to play the piano, forming a band that played at Ivy League college dances throughout New England. He graduated from Classical High School in Springfield in 1925.

Performer

After high school, he formed the Burney Boys Orchestra, playing piano and orchestrating music for the group. The band played at locales around the country. Sharples appeared on radio for two years, from 1930 to 1932, playing the piano on a 15-minute morning program at various stations in Connecticut. He relocated to New York City in 1932, where he played piano and occasionally bass with Vincent Lopez's orchestra.

Film music composer

Sharples assisted Gene Rodemich in scoring cartoons for the Van Beuren Studios in 1932 after Walter Winchell praised his work with Lopez in a column, which was read by studio owner Amadee Van Beuren. Sharples stayed at Van Beuren until 1936, during which time he composed music for two Frank Buck films, '' Wild Cargo'' (1934) and ''Fang and Claw'' (1935).

With Van Beuren winding down production, Sharples joined the Max Fleischer studio in New York as musical director. In 1938, Sharples composed " It's A Hap-Hap-Happy Day" for Fleischer's full-length animated musical production of ''Gulliver's Travels''. Paramount Pictures released the film to cinemas in the United States on December 22, 1939''.'' Several of the songs from that production were used throughout subsequent years in Paramount shorts, with the most notable being "It's A Hap-Hap-Happy Day". The song was a hit in the UK in 1940 during the Battle of Britain, having been played heavily on the BBC radio. Sharples worked at Fleischer Studios in Miami, Florida, where he became the leader of a band that played in nightclubs in Miami Beach. In 1942, Paramount moved Fleischer Studios to New York City and renamed it Famous Studios.

In 1946, Sharples replaced Sammy Timberg as the Eastern musical director for Paramount Studios, writing music for their cartoons, newsreels, and short subjects. The studio's productions included three series started by the Fleischers— ''Popeye the Sailor'', ''Superman'', and ''Screen Songs''—as well as ''Little Audrey'', ''Little Lulu'', ''Casper the Friendly Ghost'', ''Honey Halfwitch'', ''Herman and Katnip'', ''Baby Huey'', and the anthology ''Noveltoons'' series.

He joined ASCAP in 1948. In 1958, Sharples teamed with Joe Oriolo for musical production on the Felix the Cat television series. That series made extensive use of stock music composed for the Paramount shorts as well as Sharples' distinctive theme song.

Later works

In the late 1950s, Sharples and animation producer Hal Seeger formed a partnership called Scroll Productions that repackaged Sharples' scores from the Paramount cartoons into a stock music library, much like the Capitol Records Hi-Q library. Most of the cues were from late 50s productions, but some dated as far back as the 1952 Popeye

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