Best Music, 1948

Awards presented March 24, 1949

And the nominees were ... 
(Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture) 

• Brian Easdale, The Red Shoes  
• Hugo Friedhofer, Joan of Arc 
• Alfred Newman, The Snake Pit 
• Max Steiner, Johnny Belinda 
• William Walton, Hamlet 

(Scoring of a Musical Picture) 

• Johnny Green, Roger Edens, Easter Parade 
• Lennie Hayton, The Pirate 
• Ray Heindorf, Romance on the High Seas  
• Alfred Newman, When My Baby Smiles at Me 
• Victor Young, The Emperor Waltz 

(Song) 

• "Buttons and Bows," from The Paleface. Music and lyrics by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans
• "For Every Man There's a Woman," from Casbah. Music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Leo Robin 
• "It's Magic," from Romance on the High Seas. Music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn 
• "This Is the Moment," from That Lady in Ermine. Music by Frederick Hollander, lyrics by Leo Robin 
• "The Woody Woodpecker Song," from Wet Blanket Policy. Music and lyrics by Ramey Idriss and George Tibbles 

... when they should have been ... 

(Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture) 

• Brian Easdale, The Red Shoes  
• Hugo Friedhofer, Joan of Arc 
• Max Steiner, Johnny Belinda 
• Dimitri Tiomkin, Red River 
• William Walton, Hamlet 

(Song) 

• "Buttons and Bows," from The Paleface. Music and lyrics by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans
• "For Every Man There's a Woman," from Casbah. Music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Leo Robin 
• "It's a Most Unusual Day," from A Date With Judy. Music and lyrics by Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson 
• "It's Magic," from Romance on the High Seas. Music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn 
• "Steppin' Out With My Baby," from Easter Parade. Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin

And the Oscar went to ... 

(Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture)

Brian Easdale, The Red Shoes.  

Brian Easdale

This was Easdale's second film score for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The previous year he had composed the score for Black Narcissus. On The Red Shoes, he was a replacement for Allan Gray, who had worked on many of Powell and Pressburger's films, but was unable to deliver a ballet score that satisfied them. Easdale had studied at the Royal College of Music, and began his film composition career on scores for propaganda and training films while serving in World War II. He scored several more films for Powell and Pressburger, as well as for Powell's notorious 1960 horror movie Peeping Tom, which was widely censored. He also composed many concert works. Although this was his only Oscar nomination, he was the first British composer to receive an Academy Award for film scoring.    

(Scoring of a Musical Picture) 

Johnny Green, Roger Edens, Easter Parade. 

Fred Astaire and Ann Miller play a successful vaudeville dance team, but when Miller decides to go solo in a new show, Astaire bets that he can take the next chorus girl he sees and turn her into Miller's replacement. That dancer happens to be Judy Garland. After some initial friction, they become a successful team, provoking Miller's jealous attempt to win him back. The plot is only a mild annoyance in this lovely trifle of a musical, which not only provides the only film teaming of Astaire and Garland but also showcases sixteen songs by Irving Berlin. (The seven songs written especially for the film were eligible for the Oscar, but none of them were nominated -- in a slate that included "The Woody Woodpecker Song.") Astaire had announced his retirement, but was persuaded out of it by producer Arthur Freed after Gene Kelly, originally set to star, broke his ankle in a volleyball game. Vincente Minnelli, then married to Garland, was going to direct, but her psychiatrist advised against their working together. Charles Walters replaced him. This was the first of five Oscars for Green, and the first of three for Edens. 

(Song) 

"Buttons and Bows," from The Paleface. Music and lyrics by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. 

Ray Evans, Jane Russell and Jay Livingston with their Paleface Oscars

Calamity Jane (Jane Russell), an undercover agent trying to find out who's selling firearms to the Indians, marries "Painless" Potter, a tenderfoot dentist (Bob Hope), in order to conceal her identity. She spends much of the movie helping him look like a sharpshooting hero and avoiding consummating the marriage. Silly but endearing, though it drags a bit toward the end. The 1952 sequel, Son of Paleface, is better. Directed by Norman Z. McLeod. Hope sings Livingston and Evans's agreeable hit song, which won them the first of their three Oscars. Livingston and Evans met when they were in business school at Wharton, and began writing songs for the band they played in. They were nominated four more times, and also had hits with the song "To Each His Own" and the Christmas standard "Silver Bells," not to mention the theme songs for the TV shows "Bonanza" and "Mr. Ed."