Biography
Composer Frank Churchill earned his greatest renown through contributions to Walt Disney’s earliest feature-length and short-form animated films, penning some of the most enduring melodies in the studio’s history. Born in Rumford, ME, on October 20, 1901, he completed his college studies in California. Working simultaneously as a pianist and composer, he first earned his living playing in cinemas and on radio broadcasts and also spent time living in Mexico. Walt Disney brought him onto the staff in the early 1930s after staff composer Carl Stalling departed, assigning him to create music for the Silly Symphonies series of animated shorts. In 1933 Churchill supplied the music for “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” in the Three Little Pigs short, with Ann Ronell adding further lyrics. Amid the Great Depression the number resonated widely, becoming the Disney company’s first hit single; it moved substantial quantities of sheet music and prompted many cover recordings. That breakthrough prompted the studio to rethink its approach to music in animation, placing popular songs at the center of its commercial strategy. During the ensuing years Churchill supplied additional songs and instrumental cues for further Silly Symphonies installments; although none matched the earlier success, several were covered by outside orchestras. He was subsequently teamed with lyricist Larry Morey on the score for Disney’s first full-length animated feature, 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Disney required that, like the Silly Symphonies material, every song emerge organically from character or advance the narrative. Churchill and Morey produced the classics “Heigh Ho,” “Whistle While You Work,” “Someday My Prince Will Come,” and “I’m Wishing,” four of the eight numbers retained in the finished picture out of the twenty-five composed overall. Churchill also shared duties on the instrumental underscore with Leigh Harline and Paul J. Smith, earning an Oscar nomination. He next labored on the long-delayed Peter Pan before shifting to Dumbo, released in 1941. With lyricist Ned Washington he wrote the majority of the songs, among them the Oscar-nominated “Baby Mine” and the surreal “Pink Elephants on Parade”; his instrumental score, composed jointly with Oliver Wallace, received the Oscar for Best Score. Rejoining Larry Morey for 1942’s Bambi, he contributed “Little April Shower,” the Oscar-nominated “Love Is a Song,” and additional numbers, while his underscore with Edward Plumb garnered another Oscar nomination. After finishing work on Bambi, Churchill took his own life in Castaic, CA, on May 14, 1942; he was interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery near Hollywood.