jimac51
New Member
Elmer Bernstein,music composer for such films as "The Magnificent Seven","To Kill A Mockingbird","The Great Escape" and "The Ten Commandments",died yesterday.A brief bio and detailed listing of films,TV and other music work is contained at www.elmerbernstein.com. Though I have been reading many obits on the web,no one wants to say why almost every American over the age of 40 has heard Mr. Bernstein's work even if they never saw a movie that he had scored. For years, Marlboro cigarettes used the main theme from "The Magnificent Seven" for its TV commercials,which were banned(as all cigarette TV ads were) in 1971. I have an interesting LP offered by Marlboro which featured some of the original work from the first movie and its sequel,"Return of the Seven". The album also contains versions of the main theme done by a pretty good jingle orchestra,possibly some of which was used in the commercials. Of interest to TJB fans is a TJWannabe track stealing quotes from Herb's "Taste of Honey" and "Spanish Flea",along with a pretty good marimba in the mix. The fact that Bernstein's music was so popular was certainly known by Phillip Morris,manufactuer of Marlboros-Marlboros were easily THE # 1 brand of cigarettes sold in the US during this period and those commercials had a lot to do with that fact(Marlboro was previously marketed as a "ladies" smoke in its early days,later to become the most macho brand of its day). Mac
