Dimitry Tiomkin was born in Russia to a Zionist father and a musical mother, who sent Dimitri to train in St. Petersburg in hopes that he would become a classical pianist. After the Russian Revolution, Tiomkin joined his father in exile in Berlin for a few years, then emigrated New York City in 1925. A severe injury to his arm ended his concert career and pointed him toward composing for the film industry, and sent him to prosperity in Hollywood.
You’ve almost certainly heard his music, even if you don’t quite recognize his name. Ever see Mr. Smith Goes to Washington? You must have seen It’s a Wonderful Life – both his. You’ve heard “Don’t Forsake Me, Oh, My Darling” in High Noon? He won an Oscar for that one. Dial M for Murder … Gunfight at the O.K. Corral … The Unforgiven … Tiomkin scored one hit movie after another through the mid-20th century. TV, too – the theme song from Rawhide was his. And the theme song from The Gunslinger.
He was working with Frank Capra when World War II came, and the two continued a partnership that including Tiomkin providing scores for Capra’s Why We Fight series, commissioned by the War Department to document the progress of the war in terms to win American support. (I’m trying to avoid the word “propaganda” with its negative connotations, but there’s really no other word for it.) These films touted the heroism of the Battle of Britain, the humanitarian disaster of war in the Lowlands and France, and atrocities of the Japanese military.
I cannot tell from reading the descriptions of the seven entries in the Why We Fight series which one may have documented the Italian campaign in 1944, or whether the record of that campaign is considered to be outside of that wartime series. But there was such a film documenting that campaign, and Tiomkin did write its score. He wrote the score, adapting a theme written by Gabriel Faure, a prominent French composer, and he lyrics in Latin, written by John Levinson, an American serviceman, “to represent the feelings of the Italian people as they give thanks for deliverance from the Nazi yoke while returning to their homes, many of them burned to shambles.”
Tiomkin needed extraordinary voices with extraordinary capabilities to sing for him. And where did he find them?
In Salt Lake City. The music was sent to the Tabernacle Choir early in July 1944, and after only four rehearsals, the Choir was ready to record. On Thursday, July 13, with J. Spencer Cornwall conducting and Frank W. Asper at the organ, about 300 Choir voices were raised in that Latin hymn of thanksgiving. Tiomkin was present, as was the lyricist John Levinson, with engineers and symphony arranger and a rehearsal conductor provided by Hollywood studios. One observer noted Spencer Cornwall conducting the choir with earphone held to one ear so that he could respond instantly to directions from the sound booth.
“You are stupendous!” the visitors told the Choir.
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Salt Lake Tribune photograph
The seven Why We Fight films survive and are available, apparently online, although I haven’t yet taken the time to locate and watch them in hopes of finding the sequence on the Italian campaign. If any Keepa’ninny can find the sequence on those films, or anywhere else, and provide a link, your subscription to Keepa will be extended indefinitely and double brownie points awarded. (Really, though, you will have my gratitude and respect, forever and ever.)
The Wikipedia page for the Why We Fight series shows only two films released in 1944 or later. One, “The Battle of China,” is obviously not relevant to the Italian campaign. The other, “War Comes to America,” was released in 1945. The description of that film says that it shows American isolationism in the late 1930s and the outbreak of the war in Europe, and how American attitudes changed, and then it ends with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Which makes me think that the film you write about was not part of the Why We Fight series, but one of a host of other films produced by the War Department to document the progress of the war.
Here’s a list of Allied “propaganda” films produced during the war. I have no idea if it’s complete.
If I had to guess and pick one of the films from that list, I’d choose “Liberation of Rome.” Rome was liberated on June 5, 1944–Gen. Mark Clark was forever angry that events of the next day in Normandy completely overshadowed his feat and robbed him of the glory that he felt he deserved as Rome’s liberator–so a movie about Rome’s liberation would likely to have been rushing to completion six weeks later. There’s no indication that Capra directed that film, though, and I haven’t been able to find a copy of it yet.
Well, I take that back. The release date for “Liberation of Rome” was July 13, 1944–the same date that the choir recorded that hymn of thanksgiving. (The date shows up on the IMDB page for the film, which unfortunately has no further information about who was involved in making the film.)
Thanks for that investigation, Mark — I’ll extend your subscription regardless of definite conclusions.
I think I first noticed his name in the opening credits to High Noon — it’s *such* a Russian name that I was a bit surprised to see it in one of the classic Westerns.
I would really love to know what theme of Faure’s he used. I’ve heard the Requiem borrowed for film scores now and then.
Why We Fight: My impression, from the perspective of seventy-odd years, is that Divide and Conquer was remarkably good history, while the Russia and China installments really had to slather the lipstick on the pig. The others fell somewhere between.