Herschel Burke Gilbert

In his two-and-a-half-hour interview, Hershel Burke Gilbert (1918-2003) talks about his early interest in music and his studies in college (including eventually studying conducting and composing at Julliard), and his part in a local dance band. He talks about becoming an arranger for Harry James during the big band era of the 1940s, which led to his move to Los Angeles and Columbia Pictures. He talks about working with composer Heinz Roemheld on films including The Fuller Brush Man and Dimitri Tiomkin on films including Duel in the Sun. He also talks about other features he scored, including Otto Preminger's Carmen Jones. Gilbert talks about his association with the American Society of Music Arrangers and describes American Federation of Music president James C. Petrillo, the legendary union head. Gilbert then talks about the Mutell (music for television) music service, which supplied music for low-budget television series such as The Adventures of Superman and dozens of others throughout the 1950s. He speaks in great detail about working with the creative team of Jules Levy, Arthur Gardner, and Arnold Laven (of Levy-Gardner-Laven Productions) on the series The Rifleman, for which he wrote the theme and incidental music. He talks about becoming the executive music director at Dick Powell's Four Star Productions and the outsourcing of the music recording internationally. He talks about working on series including The Detectives, starring Robert Taylor, The Westerner, and Burke's Law. Finally, he talks about his work as the executive music supervisor at CBS in the 1960s, including his contributions to such series as Rawhide. Jon Burlingame conducted the interview on April 30, 2001 in Los Angeles, CA.