The Soundtracker Of Our Lives

The Steiner Story Here At Last 

I attacked Music By Max Steiner: The Epic Life Of Hollywood's Most Influential Composer soon as it came through the door. White on rice. How long have we waited for Max Steiner’s life to be truly told? Over most of my lifetime, at least. I was moved, always and intensely, by Max’s music. He was the first composer known to me by name and recognizable sound. Anyone else cry at the end of Two On A Guillotine? I did, at the Liberty, in early 1965, sensing it was music that wrung my tears rather than plight shared by Caesar Romero and Connie Stevens. This was Max Steiner’s final score, though one done previous, Those Calloways for Disney, was released later in ’65, says author Steven C. Smith. He also wrote the definitive Bernard Herrmann bio a few years back. Smith looks behind batons to how scores for King Kong, Gone With The Wind, Now, Voyager, and Casablanca emerged. Much stuff here I never knew. Steiner loved his work and it showed. He wasn’t paid a fraction of what he was worth, and a rapacious industry took advantage of him. Why are the truly gifted so often the least rewarded? Maybe they care too much, exploited as are so many laborers of love. Steiner got satisfaction in greatness he achieved. Steven Smith tells how the Maestro stood sleepless days and nights toward completion of score jobs due now … as in right now … we open in a week … that sort of pressure. Max lost chunks of health along the way, beginning with sight failing thanks to stress. There were family problems, myriad of that, plus never enough money, part due to bad habits of Steiner’s own, but how does a man who sleeps eighteen hours over six days keep proper stewardship over finances? Everyone from Selznick to Wallis to infamous Jack L. leaned on Max. Did they realize he was the reason their pictures turned out so well? I suspect so. Did they resent Steiner a little for so consistently saving their bacon? My guess is yes.

Smith got interviews and archival material that no one else has seen or accessed. You wouldn’t think a film composer’s life would be stuff of high drama, but here it is, in bushels, and what a read --- all I needed was one of my old Steiner cassettes, Saratoga Trunk perhaps, playing for background (remember when super-fan Albert K. Bender sold these via his Max Steiner Society?). Hard times admittedly for Max, but wait, there’s a big lift for third act triumph of his Summer Place theme, so Max got to finish in the money, with accolades a-plenty from fans who searched him out as teens (ace conductor/arranger John Morgan, responsible for so many Steiner CD releases). Others have kept lamps lit … James D’Arc of BYU preservation fame, curating Max’s archive and acetate recordings, the endlessly creative Ray Faiola, releasing numerous and carefully remastered Steiner scores. Dedicated work of these is ideal accompany to Music By Max Steiner, a must-read for anyone fascinated by this greatest of film-music creators.