Songwriters Hall of Fame

Composer and renowned pianist Alfred Newman was born in New Haven, Connecticut on March 17, 1901.

Under scholarship, Newman studied composition and piano with instructors Sigismond Stojowski, Reuben Goldmark, George Wedge and Arnold Schoenberg. At the age of 13, he was the piano soloist at the famed Strand Theatre in New York. He then moved on to accompanying vaudeville singers and eventually conducting his own shows.

Newman moved to Hollywood in 1930 under contract and wrote the background scores to some of the most successful movie musicals including Street Scene, Hunchback for Notre Dame, Gunga Din, The Hurricane, The Prisoner of Zenda, Wuthering Heights, The Bluebird, How Green Was My Valley, The Razor’s Edge, Gentleman’s Agreement, Pinky, Come to the Stable, All About Eve, Broken Arrow, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, The Robe, The Egyptian, The Seven Year Itch, A Certain Smile, The Diray of Anne Frank, How the West Was Won The Greatest Story Ever Told.

Newman was nominated for 44 Academy Awards, winning 6 for scoring and 2 for best background score (The Song of Bernadette (1943), and Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955).

Among his chief collaborators were with lyricists Otto Harbach, Frank Loesser, Mack Gordon, Paul Francis Webster and Sammy Cahn.

Newman also found success on the Billboard charts with “The Moon of Manakoora”, “Anastasia”, “The Best of Everything”, “The Pleasure of His Company”, “Adventures in Paradise” and “How Green Was My Valley.”

Al Newman died on February 17, 1970 in Hollywood, CA.