MARVIN HAMLISCH AND HIS MUSIC............

The Great American Song Book has provided excellent entertainment and enjoyment to millions of people throughout our history.  Among the luminary composers and conductors of note are Stephen Foster, John Philip Sousa, Irving Berlin, George Cohan, Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Richard Rogers, and Oscar Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Fielder, John Williams, and Marvin Hamlisch.  Marvin Hamlisch, the youngest of these outstanding contributors to American popular music was of Vienese-Jewish ancestry and a native of Manhattan, in New York City, was born on June 2, 1944.  A child prodigy in music, by age five Marvin was playing music on the piano from what he heard on the radio.  He began studying at the Julliard School of Music at seven years old.  As a teen he was a rehearsal pianist for Barbara Streisand in, "Funny Girl".  In 1967, he graduated from Queens College.  The following year, 24 year old Marvin Hamlisch was chosen to compose the music for the Burt Lancaster film, "The Swimmer", for which he composed ten original songs.  In the latter half of the 1960's he also wrote songs recorded by Liza Minnelli and Lesley Gore, including his first bonafided hit song, " Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows".  In the 1970's Hamlisch excelled as a popular composer producing music such as, "The Entertainter", for the Paul Newman / Robert Redford movie, "The Sting", which sold 2 million copies in the USA and was #1 on the Billboard charts; and "The Way We Were", for the Barbara Streisand / Robert Redford film of the same name, for which he won 2 Oscars and 4 Grammys in 1974; he also co-wrote with his then girlfriend, composer Carol Bayer Sager, "Nobody Does It Better", for the James Bond film, "The Spy Who Loved Me".  He also achieved success with the movie scores for, "Ordinary People", and "Sophie's Choice".  On stage, Hamlisch appeared with 81 year old Groucho Marx in Carnegie Hall, three years before his very own first major Broadway show score, the greatly acclaimed, "A Chorus Line", premiered, for which he won both a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize.  Other musical scores on Broadway he composed include, "They Are Playing Our Song";  "The Goodbye Girl", for the Neil Simon play; and the Musical - "Sweet Smell of Success".  As a conductor  Marvin Hamlisch was not only successful as an award winning musical director and arranger for Barbara Streisand and Linda Ronstadt; he also served as a very welcomed, well received, guest conductor to the Buffalo, Dallas, Milwaukee, Pasadena, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Seattle, Symphony Orchestras; as well as the National Symphony Orchestra Pops.  One of just eleven persons honored as an, EGOT, winning all four major American awards and entertainment honors - the Emmy; the Grammy; the Oscar; the Tony; he shares only with Richard Rogers, the distinction of winning those four awards and a Pulitzer.  He also received the Golden Globe award twice.  Following a brief illness, Marvin Hamlisch died om Monday night at age 68.  Survived by his wife of twenty three years, Terre Blair; last night at 8 p.m., Marvin Hamlisch was given the customary tribute afforded to the memory of those who have made an outstanding contribution to American theatrical stage, when the lights of 40 Broadway theaters were dimmed for a minute in recognition and commemoration.  As we remember and enjoy the music Marvin Hamlisch composed, arranged, conducted, and directed, the words of the current leader of the Pasadena Symphony / Pops will always sing true. He said, Marvin Hamlisch has "left a very specific... original mark on American Music and added to the Great American Songbook, with works he himself composed".  I pray he may now and forever join the, "Chorus Line", of musical entertainment greats in the Kingdom of Everlasting Life, for truly being, "One"............Fr.  Troy