Does anybody remember Winston Sharples? He worked at Paramount's Famous Studios animation division, where he scored the Popeye, Casper and Modern Madcaps series (Paramount's answer to Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes series).
I've posed that question several times and never received much response. Let's hope you have better luck.
His son, Win Sharples, Jr., was prominent in film music circles in the late 1970s. He was then an executive with the American Film Institute in Washington, D.C. A lover of film music, he sponsored an affair at the AFI headquarters when Miklos Rozsa visited for a concert in October 1976. He was particularly keen on Young Bess and had in fact included a description of that score in A Primer for Film-making (1971), the influential textbook he had written with Kenneth Roberts. (I have to smile at the future "movie brats" of the 1970s learning their craft via an example of MGM's rather staid and totally forgotten period romance.) Sharples wrote the sleeve notes for the Bernstein recording of Young Bess, and some of his comments are incorporated into the online notes for FSM box set of Miklos Rozsa at M-G-M.
Soon afterward Sharples dropped from sight. I've never heard from him since.
Sharples did some interesting scores for Van Beuren in the 30's. But I think his Famous Studios scores, particularly after he transformed the orchestra from the Timberg sound to the Sharples sound, were among the most annoying of any studio. Not that the cartoons themselves were anything to write home about. I just found the scores obvious and unappealing. One of the few exceptions was WE'RE ON OUR WAY TO RIO, in which Sharples trademark brass was somewhat toned down and the lower register of the orchestra was augmented a bit. This is also one of the best of the Famous Popeyes.
The "Modern Madcaps" cartoon series has one of the most distinctive main titles in film music history, played by trombones before calming in woodwinds and vibraphone as the cartoon's title flashes across the screen.
I know Win Sharples. He can be reached at winsharples@gmail.com if it's regarding film history/music or related topics. He is retired and working on a book (not related to film music).
