Unbelievable, but apparently true...
Daily Vareity
Mon., Apr. 1, 2013, 6:00am PT
In one of the most shocking, even scandalous revelations in Hollywood history, it has been discovered today that Jerry Goldsmith, an Oscar and multiple-Emmy award-winning composer, never composed any of the scores for which he was acclaimed. It turns out Goldsmith was actually a front man for other composers who needed work, initially owing to political blacklisting, but later because of typecasting or simply because they had become unfashionable.
The idea for using Goldsmith as a front originated with composer Alex North, who, after having been blacklisted for leftist affiliations in the 50s was desperate for work. North had been receiving fan letters -- as well as musical samples -- from a young musician named Jerry Goldsmith (who idolized the elder composer), but alas North saw no talent in his young admirer. Stuck in a boring clerical job at CBS and unable to find work as a composer, Goldsmith appealed to North for advice, and North thus offered Goldsmith the chance to “front” for him.
Goldsmith often cited Alex North as his favorite composer. Indeed, many of Goldsmith’s early scores like The Blue Max and The Sand Pebbles bear the heavy influence of North’s style. The reasons have now been revealed -- because North actually wrote them.
Although North eventually escaped the stigma of his political views, he realized it would be prudent to retain Goldsmith as a front, owing to the fickle nature of Hollywood. Goldsmith happily went along, and soon began to get requests from other composers to front for them. As “his” credits amassed, Goldsmith also started to get scoring offers himself, which he began farming out to other composers in Hollywood who needed work.
“Goldsmith averaged four-to-five movies a year throughout his career -- an impossible workload when you think about it” says a source close to the late composer, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Jerry never cared for doing interviews and always seemed awkward answering questions about his profession. Well now you know why.”
John Williams also took advantage of the opportunity to use Goldsmith as a front. For much of the 60s, Williams was typecast in comedy and bad television (like Lost In Space and Gilligan’s Island). But thanks to Jerry Goldsmith, Williams got to tackle more challenging assignments, such as Planet of the Apes and Patton. Having become a celebrity in his own right after Star Wars, John Williams didn’t want his name on another disaster turkey like The Swarm, and used Goldsmith’s name.
Williams would also use Goldsmith’s name to “moonlight” while working for Steven Spielberg (since Williams did not want Spielberg to know he was scoring other projects when he was supposed to be working on the director’s). “John Williams scored Alien and Star Trek: The Motion Picture” says the unnamed source, “and yes even Poltergeist! Goldsmith conducted the session but Williams actually wrote the score. Spielberg never knew!”
One of the reasons Jerry Goldsmith’s name was on so many bad pictures is because his name sort of became the unofficial “Alan Smithee” for film composers. Elmer Bernstein used Goldsmith’s name because he didn’t want his own on Inchon, while Alex North, fearful of being typecast in epics, used Goldsmith’s name when scoring Masada. (Morton Stevens, who finished the score for Masada, didn’t care about typecasting which is why he used his own name.).
As time went on, Goldsmith was hiring out his name to young up-and-coming composers who hadn’t yet established the reputations to secure them work on bigger films. When MGM refused to allow John Milius to hire Basil Poledouris for The Wind And The Lion, Poledouris made a call to Jerry Goldsmith. The Wind And The Lion went on to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Score - a fact which left Poledouris both pleased and frustrated. Nevertheless Poledouris continued to rely on Goldsmith's name in order to get the Rambo films, and later Total Recall (though he never had the heart to reveal the truth to director Paul Verhoeven).
Hans Zimmer too would use Goldsmith’s name, which secured him work writing the score for his first big assignment, Ridley Scott’s Legend. Remarkably Zimmer also ghosted the replacement score for Legend (credited to Tangerine Dream, who were too busy to do the job at the time). The conscientious Zimmer, unable to live with a lie, eventually came clean to director Ridley Scott, who, far from being upset with Zimmer, began a long collaboration with him. Goldsmith also attempted to get James Horner to use his name, insisting ‘If you want Star Trek II, you’re only gonna get it through me!’” Horner scoffed at Goldsmith, securing the job of Star Trek II on hs own.
Much of “Jerry Goldsmith’s” work in the 90s was actually composed by John Barry, who despite winning an Oscar for Dances With Wolves, was still having trouble getting employment. Observers noted a change in “Goldsmith’s” style during that decade, which became more streamlined and melodic. The reason is John Barry actually wrote the scores for The Russia House, Medicine Man, Basic Instinct and LA Confidential. Barry first became associated with Jerry Goldsmith when Goldsmith called and begged Barry to write the music for Chinatown -- a score which was due in ten days. Other 90s Goldsmith scores, like those in Fred Schepisi's Mr. Baseball, Fierce Creatures and IQ were written by TV composer Johnny Harris (who was eager for more feature film experience).
Name recognition (and the hubris that invariably comes with it) eventually prompted Goldsmith to try writing his own scores. Goldsmith actually did score Alien Nation, Rent-A-Cop and Warlock himself -- with less-than-stellar results. Fortunately these scores convinced Goldsmith that he’d best remain a front.
Inevitably, there are people who refuse to believe any of this, particularly in the UK, which is home to “The Goldsmith Society” who have admired and celebrated “Goldsmith’s” work for over a quarter-century. “I know there are people who won’t believe it” admits our unnamed source, “but let’s face it, how else do you explain how one composer wrote all that music, with that much stylistic eclecticism - and yet worked on so many bad films?”
Courtesy Paul McLean.
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