Sharples, Winston, 1909-1978

Biographical Note

Winston Singleton Sharples was a composer best known for his work with animated short subjects, especially those created by the animation departments at Van Beuren Studios (1932-1936) and later at Paramount Pictures animation studios (circa 1939-1967).

Sharples was born on March 1, 1909, in Fall River, Massachusetts to William, a machinist, and Mary Sharples. He began playing piano in vaudeville at the age of eight. He earned a B.A. from Harvard University, an M.F.A. in drama from the Carnegie Institute of Technology and continued studies at the Yale University Graduate School of Drama.

Sharples appeared on radio from 1930 to 1932, playing the piano on a 15-minute morning program at various stations in Connecticut. He moved to New York City in 1932, where he played piano and occasionally bass with Vincent Lopez's orchestra.

Sharples joined Gene Rodemich in scoring cartoons for the Van Beuren Corporation (primarily an animation studio) in 1932 after Walter Winchell had praised his work with Lopez in a newspaper column, which was read by studio owner Amadee J. Van Beuren. During the next couple of years, Sharples and Rodemich composed new synchronized musical soundtracks for previously produced silent film shorts acquired by Van Bueren, including twelve Charlie Chaplin short films (1916-1918 Lone Star comedies originally produced by the Mutual Film Corporation), such as The Pawnshop and The Rink . Rodemich died in February 1934, just as the Van Beuren Studio was beginning to expand its capacity to include live action film documentaries. Sharples stayed at Van Beuren until 1936, during which time he assumed a larger musical role, composing the music for two Frank Buck documentary film vehicles, Wild Cargo (1934) and Fang and Claw (1935) and another documentary film titled Joan Lowell, Adventure Girl (1934). In the late 1930s, Sharples was associate composer for another film documentary Dark Rapture (1938), produced by Armand Denis Productions/Universal Pictures.

Sharples contributed music for the 1939 full-length animated Paramount Pictures/Max Fleischer Studio production Gulliver’s Travels . The well-known song "It’s a Hap Hap Happy Day," with music and lyrics by Sammy Timburg, Al Neiburg and Sharples, first appeared in this feature. This song, as well as many additional songs and other incidental music subsequently composed, were later compiled into a stock musical cue library that was repeatedly drawn upon for Paramount cartoons created during the next twenty-eight years.

Sharples composed music scores for the Max Fleischer Studio, the theatrical animation studio of Paramount, through 1942, first contributing music for the Superman series (1942-1943). In mid-1942, Paramount reorganized its animation studio, renaming it Famous Studios and relocating all production to New York City from the former Florida location. During the next twenty-five years, Sharples composed hundreds of music scores for Famous Studios’ various theatrical cartoon series, which included: The Cat, Comic Kings (King Features Syndicate) featuring Beetle Bailey, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, and Krazy Kat in separate series, Fractured Fables, GoGo Toons, Harveytoons (featuring characters from Harvey Comics such as Little Audrey, Baby Huey, etc.), Herman and Katnip, Honey Halfwitch, Jeepers and Creepers, Merry Makers, Modern Madcaps, Noveltoons, Popeye the Sailor, Swifty and Shorty, and dozens of audience sing-a-long cartoons in the Screen Songs and Kartune series. In the 1960s, Sharples successfully adapted his style to smaller instrumental ensembles and even incorporated jazz and rock and roll styles for the edgier works of Ralph Bakshi, until Paramount finally closed production of theatrical cartoons in late 1967.

In addition to his animated cartoon work, Sharples composed music for several Paramount live action short films and documentaries produced during the 1940s and early 1950s. During the late 1940s, Sharples gradually assumed the position of music director for several live action short films found in Paramount's Pacemaker series, also contributing music for the Headliner, Musical Parade and Paramount News film series. Sharples composed music for at least two Paramount documentaries made in the late 1940s: The Grass is Greener (with a possible working title: Freedom’s Firepower ) (date unknown), and Cassino to Korea (1950). He also composed music for another documentary film titled Men of the Forest, made for the United States Information Service. Other documentaries represented by full scores include a film simply titled Westinghouse (a possible working title), dated Jan. 17, 1952, and another documentary score that lacks any title/production details.

Sharples composed music for several episodes of the 1955 syndicated television program His Honor, Homer Bell . The program featured Gene Lockhart as Judge Homer Bell and was produced by Galahad Productions, for NBC Films.

Sharples joined ASCAP in 1948. In 1958, Sharples teamed with Joe Oriolo (best known as the creator of the Casper, the Friendly Ghost cartoon series) to produce music for 260 cartoons in the new Felix the Cat television cartoon series. That series made extensive use of stock music formerly composed for the Paramount cartoon shorts as well as newly created music such as the Felix the Cat theme song, composed by Sharples.

In the late 1950s, Sharples and animation producer Hal Seeger formed a partnership called Scroll Productions that repackaged Sharples' scores from the Paramount cartoons into a stock music library, much like the Capitol Records Hi-Q library. Most of the cues were from late 1950s productions, but some dated as far back as the 1952 Popeye cartoon Big Bad Sinbad . Other television animated productions that used this stock music included the King Features Syndicate television cartoons Popeye the Sailor, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, Beetle Bailey, as well as King Leonardo, The Mighty Hercules, Rocket Robin Hood, Tennessee Tuxedo and the Underdog cartoon series. Later, Sharples’ music cues (along with additional cues and incidental music composed by his associate George Steiner) were recycled into episodes of Seeger's Batfink series. Sharples also composed the theme song for Seeger's Milton the Monster television cartoon show in 1965, in addition to using the stock music package for part of the underscore. During 1965-1968, Sharples contributed music to the Milton the Monster Show which featured several cartoon characters - each having its own cartoon series: Fearless Fly, Flukey Luke, Milton the Monster, Muggy Doo, Boy Cat, Muggy Doo, Boy Fox, Penny Penguin, Stuffy Durma and an unissued cartoon character series titled Wilbur the Wanted .

Winston Sharples died on April 3, 1978, at age 69, in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

From the guide to the Winston Sharples Music Manuscripts, 1943-1968, (Music Division Library of Congress)