ABSTRACT

Given Max Steiner’s ubiquity in film-music histories, much of his thirty-six year career as a studio musician (1929–1965) remains understudied. With no substantial ‘life and works’ of Steiner yet available, recent research on Steiner tacks between brief biographical surveys and close readings of individual scores, including King Kong (dir. Merian C. Cooper/Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933); The Informer (dir. John Ford, 1935); Gone with the Wind (dir. Victor Fleming, 1939); Now, Voyager (dir. Irving Rapper, 1942); Casablanca (dir. Michael Curtiz, 1942); Mildred Pierce (dir. Michael Curtiz, 1945); and The Searchers (dir. John Ford, 1956) (Buhler and Neumeyer 2014; Daubney 2000; Franklin 2011; Gorbman 1987; Kalinak 1982, 1992, 2007; Marks 2000; Neumeyer 2015; Palmer 1990; Thomas 1996; Wegele 2014). With biographical synopses providing establishing shots and case studies granting closeups of Steiner’s work, what remains largely absent are the medium shots showing the day-to-day circumstances and people that characterized Steiner’s workplace. How does, for example, the studio system in which Steiner labored as a valued and vulnerable employee inform our understanding of his music? From December 1929, when Steiner arrived in Hollywood as an ex-Broadway conductor, to December 1939, when Gone with the Wind premiered and assured Steiner’s status as ‘Dean of Film Music,’ Steiner underwent a drastic career reinvention, enabled in large part by the studio system itself and Steiner’s savvy navigation of it. From late 1929 until early 1936, Steiner worked at RKO on approximately 160 films; for the rest of the decade, he divided time between Selznick International Pictures, where he worked on seven more productions, and Warner Bros., where he polished off another thirty. At each studio, Steiner encountered shifting alliances among collaborators and competitors, bosses and assistants. Exploring these professional circumstances stands to improve our understanding of not only Steiner, but also studio composers more generally, for whom Steiner has served as model par excellence.