Category Archives: Music

Bernard Herrman, Composer…Hero…

Concert Monday night, March 5, 2007

The Disney Concert Hall
John Williams & The Los Angeles Philharmonic @ The Walt Disney Concert Hall tribute to Bernard Herrmann, hosted by Martin Scorsese

Bernard Herman was a composer, one of the best and most respected of composers for film. You know his work, Google his name for list of credits. My step-father was in the movie business, my parents knew nearly every prominent composer, of an era, and Bernard Herman was a family friend and, when he was in town, a dinner guest. Mr. Herman knew, up-close, what the nazies (I don’t capitalize that word) had done and vowed he would never go to germany (ditto).

Mr. Herman had been in town, one time, working on a picture. When he finished, he and my parents spent a day together and then they drove him to the airport, for his flight home.

During the flight something happened to the plane and it had to make an emergency landing –in germany. All the passengers disembarked, except Bernard Herman. He informed the crew: his feet would never touch german soil. They said not a word, bowed and left. Two security guards boarded the plane. They lifted him up, formed a human “chair” and carried him off the plane, without a word. They placed him in a seat in the nearby terminal. The plane was repaired. After all the passengers boarded the plane, the security guards lifted Mr. Herman and carried him back on board.

The germans –flight crew, security guards, terminal personnel, did not question, argue, debate or even discuss. No publicity, no trouble, no hassle. They knew why. They accepted it.

When Mr. Herman arrived in England he called my step-father and told him what happened.  My step-father told us the story.  I was amazed…I admired Bernard Herman, even before I heard the story….  He never returned to Los Angeles, he died in 1975.  I still admire him….he was daVine

tag: composer Bernard Herman, film music, movie composer Bernard Herman


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