Carl Stalling

 

Carl Stalling was a composer for films. While not an animator or a cartoonist, Carl Stalling is best known for his work composing for cartoons, working for both Disney and Warner Bros.

Carl Stalling was born on November 10th, 1891 in Lexington, Missouri, not too far from Kansas City. Stalling's parents were from Germany, and his father was a carpenter. As a young boy, his father repaired a toy piano, which young Carl began to play. He began taking piano lessons at six, eventually taking classes from Carrie Loomis for six years, who appears to be an esteemed teacher in the area. Even at a young age, Stalling became a very skilled pianist, with one reporter from Lexington remarking that despite him "only being 15 years old, (...) he played entirely from memory a program of the most difficult music". He eventually became a teacher himself, having pupils of his own by 1914.

Carl wasn't just interested in music however, after seeing The Great Train Robbery as a 12 year old (Stalling claimed it was when he was 5, however the movie did not come out until 1903), he became
fascinated by movies. Stalling would start working at local theaters in most likely 1918, working for  the ISIS Theater. Before the advent of sound, a musician would play music and scores to accompany the films. He would do this throughout the 20's, with Walt Disney, who was in the area at the time, noticing his work. The two became friends, and when Walt returned to Kansas City in 1928 looking for new talent, he recruited Stalling to work for him in California. Stalling would first score two already produced Mickey Mouse cartoons to have sound, Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho, following the monumental success of Steamboat Willie. Stalling would score 19 more shorts for the studio, including The Skeleton Dance, an idea he came up with. The Skeleton Dance would be the first cartoon in the Silly Symphonies series, which would be Disney's second most successful series behind Mickey Mouse. He also invented the "tick system", a way to score cartoons. The system worked like a metronome, where the beat would allow the orchestra "to synchronize the music more precisely to the action." This later evolved into the click track, which is still used today. Stalling would leave Disney in 1930 to go to New York to work at Van Buren, which while paid better didn't, in Stalling's words, "have anything for me to do". He would return to California shortly after to work at Iwerks' new studio Animated Pictures Corporation, while still bouncing over to Disney from time to time, working on cartoons like Three Little Pigs. In 1936, after the closure of Iwerks' studio, Stalling would leave to go to where he is perhaps known the most for, Warner Bros.

At the recommendation of Ben "Bugs" Hardaway (who can also be seen on this blog), Stalling was hired by Leon Schlesinger to work at his studio, which was making cartoons for Warner Bros. (Warner Bros. would eventually take over Schlesinger's studio.) At first, Warner Bros. cartoons were mostly promotions for the music Warner Bros. published. In fact, the names Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies come from this original purpose. The contracts Schlesinger signed with Warner meant that every single cartoon had to include Warner Bros. music. While heavily annoying the Schlesinger directors, this would help develop Stalling's signature style at the studio. Eventually, Warner Bros. would relax these rules, allowing the directors to focus on making good cartoons, but Stalling would continue to use Warner music to comedic effect, usually when certain objects were on screen or certain events were happening. For example, when characters would get drunk, Stalling would add "The Near Future" by Irving Berlin. This style was praised by some, but annoyed others, like famed Looney Tunes director Chuck Jones, who sometimes didn't like how Stalling would find obscure pieces of music to attach to scenes, even if they were only vaguely connected. To quote Jones, "I had a bee one time, and my God, if he didn't go and find a piece of music written in 1906 or something called "I'm a Busy Little Bumble Bee"." Stalling would retire from Warner Bros. in 1958, and would die on November 29th, 1972 at the age of 81.

Sources

Paulson, Linda Dailey. “Carl Stalling Biography.” Musician Guide, https://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608004257/Carl-Stalling.html.

“Music Recital.” The Lexington Intelligencer, 31 Dec. 1904. 

“Carl Stalling Gives Recital.” The Lexington Intelligencer, 1 Jun. 1907.  

“Conservatory Pupils in Recital.” The Kansas City Star, 10 Apr. 1914.

Print ad for ISIS Theater. The Kansas City Star, 5 Oct. 1918, p. 6. 

Goldmark, Daniel. “Stalling and Popular Music at Warner Bros.” Tunes for 'Toons: Music and the Hollywood Cartoon, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 2007, pp. 10–44. 

Jones, Chuck, and Maureen Furniss. Chuck Jones: Conversations. University Press of Mississippi, 2005.