Earl Hawley Robinson played a pivotal role in fostering the early appreciation and growth of American folk music. Born on July 2, 1910, in Seattle, Washington, he benefited from his mother’s insistence that he and his two siblings pursue rigorous musical training, which encompassed piano, guitar, flute, viola, violin, saxophone, and clarinet across the three children. Already improvising at the piano by age six, Robinson chose to major in music upon entering the University of Seattle in 1928. Following his 1933 graduation, he journeyed to China and financed his return passage to the United States by serving as pianist aboard an ocean liner. He reached New York City in 1934 and promptly immersed himself in left-wing circles, joining the Young Communist League and the Workers Laboratory Theater, which later became the Theater of Action. Serving as musical director at Camp Unity during the summer of 1936, he created the song “Joe Hill” there. While maintaining involvement with summer camps, he also began writing material for the Federal Theater Project in the late 1930s and directed the People’s Chorus for the International Workers Order. Robinson attained an early professional summit in 1939 by collaborating with John Latouche on “Ballad for Americans,” written for the finale of the production Sing for Your Supper. After the Works Progress Administration ceased operations, CBS incorporated the piece into its Pursuit of Happiness radio broadcast in the closing months of 1939. The expansive composition offered a mythic depiction of the American populace across centuries. Actor-singer Paul Robeson’s performance generated widespread acclaim, prompting a commercial recording accompanied by Robinson’s American Peoples Chorus; even the conservative Reader’s Digest commended it as worthy propaganda. The triumph of “Ballad for Americans” further secured Robinson a Guggenheim fellowship for a musical adaptation of Carl Sandburg’s The People, Yes. His songwriting prowess likewise caught the attention of Eleanor Roosevelt, who engaged him to perform at her political gatherings. Relocating to Hollywood in the 1940s, Robinson supplied material for television, film, theater, and radio, including songs for Romance of Rosie Ridge and California as well as the documentary score for The Roosevelt Story. During the 1950s he produced the folk opera Sandhog and provided the soundtrack for the General Motors production Giants in the Land. From 1957 to 1966 he served as musical director at New York City’s Elisabeth Irwin High School, then conducted the Extension Chorus at the University of California from 1967 to 1969. After 1969 he furnished scores for several television programs, among them The Great Man’s Whiskers and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In 1989 Robinson returned to Seattle, where he continued writing abstract compositions until his death in an automobile accident in 1991.
