Jerry Fielding was born Joshua Itzhak Feldman on June 17,
1922 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Feldman, who was born to non-musical
immigrants from Russia. Jerry Fielding was a composer, arranger, and conductor
of music for the big bands, radio, television, and films. With an introduction from his Pittsburgh
mentor Max Adkins, Jerry became the arranger for the Alvino Ray. During the 1940s he arranged for Kay Kaiser,
Tommy Dorsey, Les Brown and other big bands.
In the late 1940’s he was the band leader for several popular radio
programs. In 1951 to 1953 he was the band leader of Groucho Marx’s “You Bet
Your Life” TV show. Blacklisted from
Hollywood by Senator McCarthy in 1953 he worked in Los Vegas, toured with his
band, released three albums on Decca, and arranged and conducted albums for
Kathy Barr, Pat Boone, Debbie Reynolds and Betty Hutton. With the blacklist lifted in 1961 he returned
to Hollywood to write his first film score for Otto Preminger’s “Advise and
Consent”. He worked on several films
scores for Clint Eastwood, Sam Peckinpah and other directors that included the
films, the Demon Seed, the Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs, The Killer Elite, The Getaway,
The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Gauntlet, Escape from Alcatraz, and The Bad News
Bears. In television he wrote the theme
songs McHale's Navy, Hogan's Heroes, Run, Buddy, Run, and The Bionic Woman. Fielding also worked on soundtracks for the
TV shows Star Trek, He & She, The Good Guys, McMillan and Wife, and The
Snoop Sisters. Fielding died on February 17, 1980 at the age of 57 from a heart
attack followed by congestive heart failure while in Toronto, Canada ironically
working on the score of a motion picture titled “Funeral Home”. Fielding scored
two Euro-westerns: “Chato’s Land” and “Lawman” both 1971. Today we remember
Jerry Fielding on what would have been his 90th birthday.
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