Our customer service agents are also available at 1-80 to provide you with assistance with and information about our hotels and programs.Īpple and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. However, if you encounter any difficulty in using our site, please contact us at We will work with you to ensure that you have full access to the information available to the public on our site. We strive to have a website that is accessible to individuals with disabilities. The narration and film footage were reminiscent of wartime newsreels, but shocking scenes of combat at sea and on land and the soaring music elicited an entirely new and powerfully emotional dimension of the war experience.This website uses cookies so that we can remember you and understand how you and other visitors use this website, and in order improve the user experience.īy using this website, you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with the terms of our Privacy Notice. In an era when television was beginning to dominate American households, which now included millions of veterans just starting to raise families but harboring powerful memories of their military service, the series was a smash hit. "Victory at Sea" aired on Sunday afternoons beginning on October 26, 1952, with actor Leonard Graves, who had also worked on The King and I, providing the narration. He also conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra recording. Bennett then timed the music to match the documentary film, even incorporating sounds of gunfire and airplane engines, as well as jungle sounds. He orchestrated the music for Broadway shows like Show Boat, Annie Get Your Gun, and Kiss Me Kate, and then joined Rodgers and Hammerstein to orchestrate Oklahoma!, South Pacific, and The King and I. He was a natural collaborator with Rodgers on "Victory at Sea," and in fact he composed the vast majority of the 13-hour score. After that war he moved to Broadway, where he collaborated with great American songwriters and composers like Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and George Gershwin. A lifelong musician and composer from Kansas City, Missouri, Bennett had cut his teeth on military music during World War I, when he had directed an army band. That distinction belonged to American composer Robert Russell Bennett (1894-1981). Robert Russell Bennett courtesy of Chappell Music Company. Yet although Rodgers was the “big name” and creative inspiration behind the magnificent music, he was not really responsible for writing it in the form that millions of Americans would hear over the coming years. Although Rodgers was fresh from his work on The King and I, and used to writing music set to lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein, he delved into the new project right away and greatly enjoyed it. Courtesy Library of Congress.Īs Salomon began devising the themes and writing the narration for each half-hour episode, NBC executive Pat Weaver approached Broadway composer Richard Rodgers (1902-1979), already famous for his award-winning work on Carousel, South Pacific, and The King and I. “If you were approached to do some work for the United States Navy,” Weaver said, “we’d like your assurance that you wouldn’t refuse to consider it.” A little taken aback, Rodgers replied, “Well, of course I wouldn’t refuse to consider an offer from the United States Navy.”Īs it turned out, Rodgers only agreed to compose the musical themes for "Victory at Sea" on condition that neither he nor NBC earned any money from the series’ initial run-a condition to which the network, rightly anticipating massive later profits on future runs-agreed.
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