Best Music, 1938

Awards presented February 23, 1939

Some significant changes this year: First, the Oscar no longer went to the head of the studio music department, but to the composer or arranger. And the scoring Oscar was divided into "Original Score," meaning music composed specifically for a film, and "Scoring," meaning arrangement and orchestration of music from other sources -- but usually meaning the arrangement and coordination of the songs in a musical. This division will be renamed and revised for years to come. And then there was the song category, which remained much the same, except that, like the original score and scoring categories, nominations were submitted by the studios and the larger producing companies (e.g., Hal Roach, Selznick, Goldwyn). In each case, the studios were allowed only one nominee per category, which meant that, even if a studio produced several films with half a dozen great songs, it could nominate only one of them. That's why so many memorable songs of the 1940s received no Oscar nominations. The Goldwyn Follies, for example, included two classics by George and Ira Gershwin, "Love Walked In" and "Our Love Is Here to Stay," but the studio chose to nominate the forgettable (and forgotten) title song from The Cowboy and the Lady.   

The nominees were ... 
(Original Score) 

• Russell Bennett, Pacific Liner 
• Richard Hageman, If I Were King 
• Marvin Hatley, Block-Heads 
• Werner Janssen, Blockade  
• Erich Wolfgang Korngold, The Adventures of Robin Hood 
• Alfred Newman, The Cowboy and the Lady 
• Louis Silvers, Suez  
• Herbert Stothart, Marie Antoinette 
• Franz Waxman, The Young in Heart 
• Victor Young, Army Girl  
• Victor Young, Breaking the Ice 

(Scoring) 

• Victor Baravelle, Carefree 
• Cy Feuer, Storm Over Bengal 
• Marvin Hatley, There Goes My Heart  
• Boris Morros, Tropic Holiday 
• Alfred Newman, Alexander's Ragtime Band 
• Alfred Newman, The Goldwyn Follies 
• Charles Previn, Frank Skinner, Mad About Music 
• Max Steiner, Jezebel 
• Morris Stoloff, Gregory Stone, Girls' School 
• Herbert Stothart, Sweethearts 
• Franz Waxman, The Young in Heart 

(Song) 

• "Always and Always," from Mannequin; music by Edward Ward, lyrics by Chet Forrest and Bob Wright 
• "Change Partners," from Carefree; music and lyrics by Irving Berlin  
• "The Cowboy and the Lady," from The Cowboy and the Lady; music by Lionel Newman, lyrics by Arthur Quenzer 
• "Dust," from Under Western Stars; music and lyrics by Johnny Marvin 
• "Jeepers Creepers," from Going Places; music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Johnny Mercer 
• "Merrily We Live," from Merrily We Live; music by Phil Charig, lyrics by Arthur Quenzer  
• "A Mist Over the Moon," from The Lady Objects; music by Ben Oakland, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
• "My Own," from That Certain Age; music by Jimmy McHugh, lyrics by Harold Adamson
• "Now It Can Be Told," from Alexander's Ragtime Band; music and lyrics by Irving Berlin 
• "Thanks for the Memory," from The Big Broadcast of 1938; music by Ralph Rainger, lyrics by Leo Robin 

... when they should have been ... 

(Song) 

• "Always and Always," from Mannequin; music by Edward Ward, lyrics by Chet Forrest and Bob Wright 
• "Change Partners," from Carefree; music and lyrics by Irving Berlin  
• "Dust," from Under Western Stars; music and lyrics by Johnny Marvin 
• "Jeepers Creepers," from Going Places; music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Johnny Mercer 
• "Merrily We Live," from Merrily We Live; music by Phil Charig, lyrics by Arthur Quenzer  
• "A Mist Over the Moon," from The Lady Objects; music by Ben Oakland, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
• "My Own," from That Certain Age; music by Jimmy McHugh, lyrics by Harold Adamson
• "Now It Can Be Told," from Alexander's Ragtime Band; music and lyrics by Irving Berlin 
• "Our Love Is Here to Stay," from The Goldwyn Follies; music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin  
• "Thanks for the Memory," from The Big Broadcast of 1938; music by Ralph Rainger, lyrics by Leo Robin 

And the Oscar went to ... 

Erich Wolfgang Korngold, The Adventures of Robin Hood. 

This was Korngold's first win in his own right, the studio music department having carried off the Oscar for his score for Anthony Adverse. He would go on to be nominated two more times, for The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex and The Sea Hawk. 

(Scoring)
Alfred Newman, Alexander's Ragtime Band.

Alfred Newman

Newman received forty-five nominations and won nine Oscars, the most for a composer (though John Williams has him beat on nominations, with forty-eight). Newman was also the most-nominated member of the family with the most Oscar nominations: His brother Emil received one nomination, and his brother Lionel received eleven; his son David has one nomination and his son Thomas has eleven, and his nephew Randy has twenty. It's appropriate that Alfred's first Oscar was for a movie based on the music of Irving Berlin -- it has more than twenty of his songs in the score -- because Newman, who had been a Broadway conductor starting at seventeen, was brought to Hollywood by Berlin in 1930 to be musical director for the film Reaching for the Moon, for which Berlin had written the title song. Newman was snapped up by Sam Goldwyn, his primary employer until 1939, when he became music director for 20th Century-Fox. Among Newman's many compositions is one of the most familiar: the fanfare that accompanies the searchlights and art deco rooftops of the 20th Century-Fox logo.

Irving Berlin with the stars of Alexander's Ragtime Band: Alice Faye, Tyrone Power, and Don Ameche

(Song)
"Thanks for the Memory," from The Big Broadcast of 1938; music by Ralph Rainger, lyrics by Leo Robin.

Bob Hope makes his feature film debut in this musical revue, set on an ocean liner, and, with Shirley Ross, sings the song that would become his theme song. Rainger was a staff composer at Paramount from 1930 until his death in a plane crash in 1942. Robin, also under contract to Paramount, often worked with Rainger, but also supplied the lyrics for other composers, including Jule Styne, with whom he wrote the songs for the Broadway hit Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, including "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend." 

... when it should have gone to ... 
(Song) 
"Our Love Is Here to Stay," from The Goldwyn Follies; music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin. 

It was George Gershwin's last song, and the lyrics were added posthumously by Ira Gershwin, which would seem to make it a natural as a best-song nominee, especially after the controversy the previous year over the snubbing of Gershwin's "They Can't Take That Away From Me" in favor of "Sweet Leilani." In the film, Kenny Baker sings it on the radio as Adolphe Menjou puts the moves on Andrea Leeds. But for some reason the Goldwyn studio decided to nominate the title song from The Cowboy and the Lady, which nobody remembers.