October 20, 1901 – Composer and Disney Legend Frank Churchill is Born
“I began writing musical scores for these animated cartoons to get away from the cost of using stock music. Being a reader of fables, they furnish most of the ideas which I put to music.” – Frank Churchill
On October 20, 1901, film composer and Disney Legend Frank Churchill was born in Rumford, Maine. A gifted musician from an early age, he had his first professional job at 15, accompanying silent films at a theater in California. Although enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles in pre-med, he dropped out to pursue his passion for music. Churchill joined the Walt Disney Studios in 1930, and eventually scored nearly 65 short films. He is most known for the song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” from the Silly Symphony The Three Little Pigs. The song sold more than three quarters of a million copies.
Churchill was asked to develop the songs for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; he earned an Academy Award nomination for the film’s score, and created the classic songs “Whistle While You Work,” “Heigh-Ho,” and “Someday My Prince Will Come.” He received another two nominations for his work on Dumbo, one for the score, and one for Best Song for “Baby Mine,” co-written with Ned Washington. He would also receive nominations for Bambi, one for score, and one for the song “Love is a Song,” co-written with Larry Morey. Churchill passed away on May 14, 1942 of a self-inflicted gun shot; he was inducted as a Disney Legend in 2001.
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