Overview
Scores, subject files, photographs, and other papers of American conductor, arranger, and composer Johnny Green.
Dates
- Creation: 1880-1989
Language of Materials
Collection materials are predominantly in English; some materials in French, German, and Italian.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
Extent
200 linear feet (295 boxes, 18 volumes)Consists of original musical scores composed by Green; musical scores written by others, arranged or conducted by Green for film, theatre, and concert productions; subject files (including correspondence); photographs and artwork relating to Green's life and career; personal effects; scrapbooks and clippings; and commercial sound recordings.
Biographical / Historical
Conductor, arranger, and composer Johnny Green, Harvard AB 1928, achieved early fame as a songwriter and orchestra leader in the 1920s and 1930s. Among his most well known original compositions are such songs as "Body and soul", "Out of nowhere", and "I cover the waterfront". Beginning in 1942, he served for the next three decades as music director for several Hollywood motion picture studios, chiefly Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In the course of his career, he won Academy Awards for his work orchestrating, arranging, and conducting music for the following films: Easter parade; An American in Paris; West side story; and Oliver!. He also won an Academy Award for The merry wives of Windsor overture, a subject in MGM's Concert hall series. In addition to his work in films, Green composed and conducted for radio and television; he was a board member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and guest conductor for a number of symphony orchestras, including the Hollywood Bowl.
Arrangement
Organized into the following series:
- I. Scores
- II. Subject files
- III. Photographs and artwork
- IV. Realia
- V. Clippings and scrapbooks
- VI. Commercial sound recordings
- VII. Inscribed monographs
- VIII. Unsorted scores
- IX. Miscellaneous
- X. Unsorted programs
- XI. Unsorted artwork
Physical Location
b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2004MT-49. Gift of Bonnie W. Green; received 1991 April 25.
2004MT-119. Purchased with the Rose fund from Ward Harrison; received: 2005 March 12.
2005MT-23. Purchased with the Rose fund from Ward Harrison ; received: 2005 October 7.
Processing Information
Processed by: Michael W. Austin
- Title
- Green, Johnny, 1908-1989. Johnny Green additional papers, 1880-1989: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02371
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440
Houghton_Library@harvard.edu