Paul, Charles, 1902-1990

Charles Paul (August 23, 1902 in New York City – September 18, 1990 in Milford, Connecticut) was an American composer and organist, most known for his musical accompaniment on radio and television.

Originally providing musical accompaniment to such old-time radio programs[1] as The Adventures of Ellery Queen and Young Doctor Malone, he transitioned to television in the 1950s. His music accentuated the TV version of Martin Kane, Private Eye[2] with an organ and horn combo. His first known soap opera was Love of Life which he began accompanying in 1953. In 1954 he added The Secret Storm and the short-lived The Road of Life to his duties. By this time Paul had perfected a style that favored the organ, but was often coupled with piano for more intense scenes.

On The Secret Storm Paul began his practice of using "leitmotif" themes to underscore specific characters, such as his tune for matriarch Grace Tyrell (Marjorie Gateson) and his lament for her daughter Pauline Harris (Haila Stoddard). Paul continued this practice on Love of Life and his successive soaps.

It was in 1956 that Charles Paul began a stint as the organist for television's first thirty-minute soap opera, As the World Turns. Paul created character themes for Nancy Hughes (Helen Wagner), Pa Hughes (Santos Ortega) and Lisa (Eileen Fulton). He wrote motifs for opening scene shots that identified settings, such as Memorial Hospital and the Lowell, Barnes, Lowell & Hughes law firm. Paul also wrote the first theme song for NBC's Another World which was handled by other organists. Though he was not named in the credits, Paul provided the original scores to headwriter Agnes Nixon's ABC hits One Life to Live and All My Children under the auspices of Aeolus Productions.

In the summer of 1969, many behind-the-scenes shifts occurred at CBS soaps. As a result, Paul lost The Secret Storm, maintained his positions at Love of Life and As the World Turns, and assumed the keyboard duties at longtime favorite Guiding Light.

By the early 1970s, however, times were changing. Paul soon lost Love of Life but transitioned both As the World Turns and Guiding Light to orchestral arrangements. He would later do likewise for NBC's relatively short-lived Somerset, ABC's successful General Hospital, and the last year of CBS's Love of Life after ten years' absence from that series.

In 2009, Soapluvva established a YouTube tribute channel to both Charles Paul and Eddie Layton, who were colleagues of each other at the CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan.

FOR A SUPER "whodunnit" series like the NBC-Blue Network's marrow-melting "Inner Sanctum Mystery", heard Tuesdays at 9:35 P.M., EST, the choice of Charles Paul as music director was not only logical but
inevitable.
A concert organist of high standing in his soberer moments, Paul can make an organ do the darndest things when he's of a mind to. He can make it purr like a kitten, bark like a seal, hum like a vacuum
cleaner or wail like a banshee - as his mood inclines.
When a program is deliberately designed to make gibbering insomniacs of 130,000,000 radio listeners, however, as the "Inner Sanctum" series is, all the stops are off and Paul gets downright demoniacal. Then the organ becomes haunted. It groans, howls like the worst nor'wester you've ever heard, or whimpers like a sick puppy.
It wasn't always like that, though. Paul, a native of the Yorkville sector of New York Ciy [sic] is a graduate of the New York College
of Music.
He developed his whimsical touch when he was engaged by Max Fleischer to furnish the accompaniment for animated cartoons.
His fertile imagination was given the widest latitude. He worked out various effects at the keyboard that drew as many laughs from theater-goers as the cartoon characters did.
Since becoming the organist and music director of the "Inner Sanctum Mystery ", Paul has added many fiendish sounds to his unusual repertoire. He receives a copy of each script several days before they are broadcast and spends hours working them out.
"It's just a knack of having imagination ", he modestly asserts, adding, "and being able to work out an effect that is descriptive without sounding musical."

... A pupil of Artur Nikisch in Leipzig and Karl Goldmark in New York, Paul was a guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic when he was only 17 years old and has conducted many concerts in Europe and America since then....

There is a growing group of composers and conductors operating in the Radio City environs that seldom comes to the end of a hectic day without pausing to breathe a prayer of thanks for a math genius from Kharkov named Joseph Schillinger...

...Perhaps his best-known students were the late George Gershwin and Glenn Miller, but left to carry on the cause are such alumni as Benny Goodman, Paul Lavalle, Nathan Van Cleave, Charles Paul, Oscar Levant and Lyn Murray...

Name: Karl F Paul
Gender : Male
Race : White
Birth Date: 23 Aug 1902
Birth Place: Manhattan, New York City, New York, New York, USA
Residence Address: E 75 Str 410
Certificate Number: 34277
Father: Otto Paul
Mother: Philipine Paul
Mother Maiden Name: Hoffmann

Charles Paul
Biography
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Overview (2)
Born August 23, 1902 in New York City, New York, USA
Died September 18, 1990 in New Milford, Connecticut, USA
Spouse (1)
Elsa Hedwig (? - ?)
Trivia (2)
Organist for the syndicated radio show "Murder at Midnight" (1946-1947).
He was educated at the Royal Conservatory at Leipzig, Germany.

Name: Charles Frederick Paul
Race: White
Age: 39
Birth Date: 23 Aug 1902
Birth Place: Nyc, New York
Registration Date: 15 Feb 1942
Registration Place: New York, New York
Employer: Freelance
Weight: 145
Complexion: Ruddy
Eye Color: Brown
Hair Color: Brown
Height: 5 9 1/2
Next of Kin: Elsa H Paul

Charles Paul started to conduct orchestras in New York City when he
was seventeen years old. Abroad he studied musical composition and the
techniques of conducting orchestras at the Conservatory of Leipzig, where he graduated with the highest honors. Back in the United States he conducted at the Gallo Opera Company in New York and the Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia.