Frank Skinner(b Meredosia, IL, 31 Dec 1897; d Beverly Hills, CA, 9 Oct 1968). American composer and arranger. A graduate of the Chicago Musical College,(now known as the Chicago Conservatory of Music). At age 16 Frank found early employment in vaudeville and began playing in local areas with his brother Carl on drums. They were billed as the Skinner Brothers dance band. From there they began playing on the steamboats that went up and down the Ill...
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Frank Skinner(b Meredosia, IL, 31 Dec 1897; d Beverly Hills, CA, 9 Oct 1968). American composer and arranger. A graduate of the Chicago Musical College,(now known as the Chicago Conservatory of Music). At age 16 Frank found early employment in vaudeville and began playing in local areas with his brother Carl on drums. They were billed as the Skinner Brothers dance band. From there they began playing on the steamboats that went up and down the Illinois river. It was during this time that he began writing and arranging music for dance bands. This work brought him to New York, where from 1925 to 1935 he arranged about 2000 popular songs for Robbins Publishing. By the time he left Manhattan for Hollywood, he had written two books on arranging for dance bands.
After a short period at MGM, working on musical settings for The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Skinner was hired by Universal Studios. Over the course of his 30 years there, he composed music for more than 200 films. Although he continued...
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