Ted Duncan
| Ted Duncan | |
|---|---|
| Born | Theodore Roosevelt "Ted" Duncan 27 September, 1902 in Fresno, California |
| 09 March, 1976 (aged 74) in Burbank, California09 March, 1976 (aged 74) in Burbank, California | |
| 🏳️ Nationality | American |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| 👩 Spouse(s) | Golda Alice NewKirk |
Ted Duncan (born September 27, 1902 in Fresno, California; died March 9, 1976, aged 73, in Burbank, California) was a prolific composer, arranger and orchestrator, and an inventor of high quality mass-produced musical and talking devices used in millions of toys. He was granted some 21 United States Patents for his inventions. He was one of the first inductees into the Grammy Hall of Fame for his arrangement of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas recorded by Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra.
Early life and career
Duncan was born in Fresno, California. He attended Stanford University where he wrote, performed and conducted music for the university’s Ramshead Society and the Opera Club. Duncan married Golda Alice Newkirk in 1929, and the couple moved to San Francisco where he began his professional career playing and arranging music for the Griff Williams Orchestra at the Mark Hopkins Hotel.
Duncan arranged music for Fred Astaire, Eddie Cantor, Bing Crosby, Tommy Dorsey, Katharine Grayson, Johnny Green, Marie Green, Horace Heidt, Harry James, Gene Kelly, Mickey Rooney, Griff Williams and Meredith Willson.[1] He was an arranger and orchestrator for more than fifty films including The Postman Always Rings Twice. He and his fellow arrangers and orchestrators working under Georgie Stoll, Music Director, were awarded an Oscar for Best Musical Score by the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences for their work on Anchors Aweigh (1945), Georgie Stoll, Music Director starring Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson and Gene Kelly. Duncan scored the film’s famous live and animated dance sequence: “The King Who Couldn’t Dance” (The Worry Song) (YouTube) with Gene Kelly and Jerry the Mouse.[2][3]
He was a founding member of the American Society of Music Arrangers (ASMA) and a featured writer in its newsletters, The Score, on the subjects of Absolute Pitch and Harmony.
His arrangement for the 1942 and 1947 Decca recordings of Irving Berlin's White Christmas performed by Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and produced by Jack Kapp is the largest selling recording of all time.[4][5] In 1974, White Christmas and its artistic team was selected as one of the first five recordings inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.[6]
Inventions
Duncan was granted his first U.S. Patent in 1939 while still working full time in radio, film and recordings. He continued designing and patenting devices including a mechanical toy, a whistling toy, a moisture proof salt shaker, a game toy. Duncan thought musical toys should be something that every family should be able to afford. Up to that time, music in toys was confined to Swiss music boxes that were handmade and expensive. His solution was to design a musical device that could be cheaply mass-produced to high quality standards and was small enough to fit into a child's toy. This resulted in a hand cranked rubber belt that plucked a music comb to produce its sound. He patented this device in 1947.[7][8][9]
With his new invention in hand he approached a small Los Angeles company which had developed a toy piano that had been a sensation at the New York Toy Fair. The owners of the company, Ruth and Elliot Handler, licensed the Duncan Patent and so began what would become the world’s largest toy company: Mattel Incorporated. He worked with the Handlers and their staff to design and develop the machinery and materials to mass produce the Mattel Music Box. Duncan arranged music so that it could be transferred to the rubber belt device. Duncan and his wife, Golda, wrote supplemental words for the traditional Nursery Rhymes which were a part of the successful Mattel Musical Books.[10][11][8][12]
Subsequent to his collaboration with Mattel, Duncan was granted patents for the Duncan Voice Box, a small hand cranked record player for use in toys and another musical device of which millions were sold by his own company, Ted Duncan, Inc.[13]
After selling his company, Duncan continued in the research and development of new and useful devices for children's toys. His last patent was granted in 1968. His last musical work was a march commissioned for the University of Southern California Symphonic Band: They Called It USA!.[14]
U. S. Patents
1939 Patent No. 2,169,682 Mechanical Toy; 1948 Patent No. 2,439,799 salt shaker; 1949 Patent No. 2,439,799 Whistling Toy; 1949, Patent No. 2,485,143 Game Piece; 1950, Patent No. 2,493,119 Musical Instrument; 1950, Patent No. 2,504,666 Melody Comb; 1951 Patent No. 2,562,896 Music Comb; 1953 Patent No. 2,630,655 Musical Toy Vehicle; 1953 Patent No. 2,647,427 Music Box Comb; 1953 Patent No. 2,649,652 Method for Making Melody Combs; 1956 Patent No. 2,759,387 Toy Piano; 1958 Patent No. 2,837,340 Mechanical Sound Recording Device; 1959 Patent No. 2,876,670 Music Comb with Cast Base; 1959 Patent No. 2,886,328 Toy phonograph mechanism; 1959 Patent No. 2,916,959 Music Comb Mounting; 1960 Patent No. 2,942,888 Toy Phonograph; 1960 Patent No. 2,942,889 Phonograph device; 1960 Patent No. 2,961,911 Drive Mechanism for Music Boxes; 1961 Patent No. 2,975,664 Music Comb with cantilever; 1968 Patent No. 3,410,564 Miniature Phonograph.
Recordings
Brunswick Label: Waltz in Swing Time, Johnny Green & Orch; A Fine Romance, Fred Astaire, Johnny Green & Orch.; They All Laughed, Fred Astaire, Johnny Green & Orch.; Slap That Bass, Fred Astaire, Johnny Green & Orch.; I Had the Craziest Dream, Helen Forrest, Harry James & Orch; Intermezzo, Marie Green; White Christmas, Bing Crosby, John Scott Trotter & Orch.; God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Bing Crosby, John Scott Trotter & Orch; Amapola, Connie Boswell, written by Duncan; Carnations. Marie Green, Perry Botkin & Orch. Written by Duncan.
Composition: They Called It USA March TRN Music Publisher.
Filmography
For God and Country, Pilot #5, Girl Crazy, This is Tomorrow, My Tomato, Shoe Shine Boy (1943); Somewhere, U.S.A., Broadway Rhythm, Groovie Movie, Sportsman’s Memories, Two Girls and a Sailor, Important Business, Dancing Romeo, Bathing Beauty, Barbary Coast Gent, Mrs. Parkington, Lot in a Harem, Music for Millions, Centerville Ghost, (1944); Harvey Girls, Her Highness and the Bellboy, No Leave, No Love, Till the Clouds Roll By, The Clock, Fall Guy, The Last Installment: A Crime Does Not Pay Subject, Thrill of a Romance, Anchors Aweigh, Ziegfeld Follies, Our Vines Have Tender Grapes, Week-End at the Waldorf, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood, (1945); Up Goes Maisie, Two Sisters from Boston, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Bad Bascomb, Two Smart People, Easy to Wed, Holiday in Mexico, Faithful in My Fashion, No Leave, No Love,(1946) It Happened in Brooklyn, Little Mister Jim, Fiesta, Something in the Wind, The Romance of Rosy Ridge, This Time for Keeps, (1947); Up in Central Park (1948).[15]
References
- ↑ JimQ (2018-07-26). "Hollywood Golden Age Film Music Orchestration (2)". Symphōniacus. Retrieved 2020-12-28.
- ↑ "Sammy Fain - The Worry Song (1945) - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-12-28.
- ↑ "Search results from The Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine Collection, Available Online, PDF". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2021-03-03.
- ↑ Giddins, Gary (2018-10-30). Bing Crosby: Swinging on a Star: The War Years, 1940-1946. Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-41235-3. Search this book on
- ↑ Inc, Nielsen Business Media (1954-09-11). Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. Search this book on
- ↑ British hit singles & albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records. 2006. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. OCLC 64098209. Search this book on
- ↑ Lefer, David; Buckland, Gail; Evans, Harold (2009-03-03). They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators. Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-07034-8. Search this book on
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 McClintock, Inez Bertail; McClintock, Marshall (1961). Toys in America. Public Affairs Press. Search this book on
- ↑ The Reader's Digest. Reader's Digest Association. 1957. Search this book on
- ↑ Inc, Kiplinger Washington Editors (1951). Kiplinger's Personal Finance. Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc.CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link) Search this book on
- ↑ Westward. Kaiser Steel Corporation. 1953. Search this book on
- ↑ Congress, Library of (1953). Library of Congress Catalog: Music and phonorecords. Library of Congress. Search this book on
- ↑ Modern Plastics. Breskin & Charleton Publishing Corporation. 1956. Search this book on
- ↑ "They Called it U.S.A. (March)". TRN Music Publisher. Retrieved 2020-11-04.
- ↑ "Ted Duncan". IMDb. Retrieved 2021-03-03.
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