Neil Washington
BORN: Aug 15, 1901 in Scranton Pennsylvania
American pop lyricist Ned Washington wrote many hits for Broadway and film
from the 1930s through the 1960s. He began his career in music as a vaudeville
MC and served as an agent for some of the vaudeville performers. Eventually,
Washington began writing material for the vaudeville acts, and so started
songwriting. One of his tunes was used in Earl Carroll's Vanities of 1928
and the following year, Washington was hired by Warner Bros. While working
for them, Washington had a big hit with "Singing in the Bathtub," which was
used in the revue Show of Shows. For the cinema, Washington went on to write
music for MGM, Republic Studios, Paramount Pictures, and Walt Disney Studios.
He also worked on successful Broadway musicals, including Murder at the Vanities
(1933).
His chief collaborator was composer Victor Young, but he worked with a
variety of composers, including Lester Lee, Sam H. Stept, Hoagy Carmichael,
Jimmy McHugh, and many more. Washington won a number of Academy Awards for
Best Song, from 1940 for Pinocchio's "When You Wish Upon a Star" through
1961's Town Without Pity title song. Other hits by Washington can be heard
in the films The Hit Parade (1937), Dumbo (1941), For Whom the Bell Tolls
(1943), Green Dolphin Street (1947), High Noon (1952), The Unforgiven (1960),
Ship of Fools (1965), and many more. Some of the best-known songs by this
member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame include "I'm Gettin' Sentimental Over
You," "Smoke Rings" (1932), "A Ghost of a Chance" (1933), "My Foolish Heart,"
and "The High and the Mighty" (1954). — Joslyn Layne
From a Scranton Pennsylvania newspaper article:
He wrote the songs
Scranton native penned popular lyrics for films, TV and stage
His lyrics are timeless.
They've been sung by legends Bing Crosby, Mario Lanza and Frank Sinatra as
well as modern-day performers such as k.d. lang, Barry Manilow and George
Michael.
Even Gene Simmons from KISS covered one of his tunes.
What isn't well known is that those words put to the music of some of the
top composers came from Scranton native Ned Washington.
Washington began his career as a youthful poet, moved to Vaudeville and eventually
to movies and television. By the time his 40-plus-year career had ended,
he had won two Academy Awards for best song - including one for the lyrics
to "When You Wish Upon a Star" from "Pinocchio" - and nominated on nine other
occasions.
He was enshrined in the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972, four years before
his death at age 75 in Los Angeles.
Washington wasted little time embarking on a musical career. He attended
Scranton Tech High School and the Charles Summer School, where he had some
of his early poetry published. But showbiz beckoned Washington, and he left
for New York City shortly after finishing school.
Vaudeville was in full swing when Washington arrived and he blended in as
a master of ceremonies and agent. He soon began writing for Vaudeville and
shortly thereafter moved to Broadway, where he penned the lyrics to several
hit songs.
Hollywood took notice. Movies were moving into sound productions, and Washington
was one of many Broadway songwriters lured to the West Coast. Warner Bros.
hired him in 1929 and his first lyrics appeared in the movie "The Forward
Pass," although he received no credit for them. Later that year, he had a
hit with "Singing in the Bathtub."
However, Washington's most interesting collaboration in his early days came
in the 1935 Marx Brothers movie "A Night at the Opera." He wrote the words
for "Cosi Cosa," which was sung in the picture by Old Forge native Allan
Jones. A budding singer, Jones would later go on to an outstanding career
and "Cosi Cosa" would be his trademark song.
Washington would later write another song for a Pennsylvanian, Shenandoah
native Tommy Dorsey. The famed bandleader used Washington's "I'm Getting
Sentimental Over You" as his staple.
Disney's "Pinocchio," though, was Washington's breakthrough. He won his first
Oscar in 1940 for "When You Wish Upon a Star." He also wrote "Jiminy Cricket,"
which was part of the Oscar-winning best score for the movie.
Washington was nominated for an Academy Award four more times in the 1940s
before striking gold again in 1952. He brought home an Oscar for the song
"Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin' " from the classic Gary Cooper film "High
Noon." His popularity rising, his hometown named him Scranton's Ambassador-At-Large.
Five more Oscar nominations would come, the final one in 1961 for the theme
song for "Town Without Pity." Washington would win a Golden Globe Award for
the song and pick up another three years later for the theme to "Circus World."
Both Golden Globe Awards came from collaborations with Russian composer Dimitri
Tiomkin, with whom Washington would have great success throughout his career.
Washington also dabbled in television. His best-known work was the theme
to "Rawhide." Motion pictures, though, were his forte, especially Westerns.
His soundtrack credits include "War Wagon" starring John Wayne and his final
score, "The Good Guys and the Bad Guys," in 1969.
Throughout his career, Washington wrote songs for more than 100 motion pictures
for studios including Disney, Warner Bros., MGM and Paramount.
And considering his versatility - from children's lyrics to jazz to ballads
- there's a good chance everyone has heard the words of Ned Washington.