Biography
An obituary photograph published in The New York Times would appeal strongly to monster enthusiasts, showing the aged film composer Herman Stein in a lab coat while holding the head of the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Stein smiles broadly in the image, perhaps without reflecting on good old "Blacky Lagoony" when he remarked about a retrospective of the monster films he scored during the 1950s and 1960s: "There are pictures here you've never heard of, because you're lucky."
Once a staff composer at Universal Studios, formerly a sanctuary for every well-known monster in cinema, Stein felt greater pride in his serious classical compositions than in any of his film work. He would likely have appreciated a composition student's mistake that confused his trumpet riff—the official theme for the Creature from the Black Lagoon—with an Igor Stravinsky brass fanfare. His most recognized melody came from the television series Lost in Space, forming part of a tradition of attractive oboe settings in television scores that later included Six Feet Under. Stein, whose surname appeared in cheap sequels featuring mad doctors such as Frank N. Stein, also composed all or portions of the scores for This Island Earth, The Mole People, Tarantula, and The Incredible Shrinking Man.
He worked alongside the principal figures who produced low-budget horror and science fiction films throughout the 1950s and 1960s, including Jack Arnold, Roger Corman, and William Castle. Castle's 1966 film Let's Kill Uncle marked Stein's final screen credit. His name sometimes failed to appear in the credits at all because several composers contributed anonymously to the same picture while the studio music supervisor received the on-screen acknowledgment. Collaborating without credit alongside figures such as Henry Mancini posed little difficulty for Stein, who possessed enough instrumental skill to have been regarded as a child prodigy. He gave his first piano concerts in Philadelphia at the age of six. During part of his teenage years he studied orchestration by examining the library's collection of scores, an activity more beneficial than many adolescent pursuits.
His earliest notable professional efforts involved arranging for big bands such as Count Basie and Fred Waring. Toward the close of the 1940s he moved to the West Coast and took composition lessons with the modern classical composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Universal hired Stein in 1951, and he scored films there until the end of the decade. Television work occupied most of his time during the 1960s until his retirement. Continued public fascination with the films he scored has created a lasting archive of his monster music in its original settings. Themes from these productions have appeared separately and in collections such as the Coral label's Themes from Horror Movies, which features substantial Stein material. The composer's concert work Sour Suite, performed by the Westwood Wind Quintet, is available on CD from the Crystal label. Stein died of congestive heart failure.
Once a staff composer at Universal Studios, formerly a sanctuary for every well-known monster in cinema, Stein felt greater pride in his serious classical compositions than in any of his film work. He would likely have appreciated a composition student's mistake that confused his trumpet riff—the official theme for the Creature from the Black Lagoon—with an Igor Stravinsky brass fanfare. His most recognized melody came from the television series Lost in Space, forming part of a tradition of attractive oboe settings in television scores that later included Six Feet Under. Stein, whose surname appeared in cheap sequels featuring mad doctors such as Frank N. Stein, also composed all or portions of the scores for This Island Earth, The Mole People, Tarantula, and The Incredible Shrinking Man.
He worked alongside the principal figures who produced low-budget horror and science fiction films throughout the 1950s and 1960s, including Jack Arnold, Roger Corman, and William Castle. Castle's 1966 film Let's Kill Uncle marked Stein's final screen credit. His name sometimes failed to appear in the credits at all because several composers contributed anonymously to the same picture while the studio music supervisor received the on-screen acknowledgment. Collaborating without credit alongside figures such as Henry Mancini posed little difficulty for Stein, who possessed enough instrumental skill to have been regarded as a child prodigy. He gave his first piano concerts in Philadelphia at the age of six. During part of his teenage years he studied orchestration by examining the library's collection of scores, an activity more beneficial than many adolescent pursuits.
His earliest notable professional efforts involved arranging for big bands such as Count Basie and Fred Waring. Toward the close of the 1940s he moved to the West Coast and took composition lessons with the modern classical composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Universal hired Stein in 1951, and he scored films there until the end of the decade. Television work occupied most of his time during the 1960s until his retirement. Continued public fascination with the films he scored has created a lasting archive of his monster music in its original settings. Themes from these productions have appeared separately and in collections such as the Coral label's Themes from Horror Movies, which features substantial Stein material. The composer's concert work Sour Suite, performed by the Westwood Wind Quintet, is available on CD from the Crystal label. Stein died of congestive heart failure.