Lava In 1950s
Overview[]
William Lava, also known as Bill Lava,(March 18 1911 - February 20 1971) is a musician for DFE Films. He began his work with Depatie-Freleng back when the original Warner Brothers Animation studio was still open with David H. Depatie being the uncredited producer. His first job was a very difficult one because he had to take over the music on The Jet Cage when Milt Franklyn died suddenly.
Lave In 1950s
Lava used a very unique style of music that later became the industry standard of music for many decades even into the 1980s after the disco revolt. The music he uses is much less comedic and instead very suspenseful, and can be easily identified by something called "Diminished Seventh Chord" which is present in all of his music, including his version of The Pink Panther theme! Other musicians, such as Henry Mancini himself, also used a new form of Jazz Music during that time period. Other musicians are Carl Brandt, sometimes Eugene Poddany, and always Dean Elliott. Dean Elliott is known for his work at Chuck Jones, Ruby-Spears, and several scores for Depatie-Freleng. Dean Elliott working for Depatie-Freleng was likely unintentional and only happened because of the consolidation of the Metro Goldwyn Mayer Visual Arts studio during the production of The Cat In The Hat and the unfinished Dr. Whoovy Hears A Who.
Animation studios had been closing down for many years before that. It was not long after Bill Lava was hired the studio downsized and Chuck Jones left for a completely vacant Metro Goldwyn Mayer. (Dick Lundy, Tex Avery, William Hanna, and Joseph Barbera) were no longer at Metro Goldwyn Mayer. The music budget at Warner Brothers was cut as well. Almost all of William Lava's cartoons have a smaller orchestra with shorter cues. The majority of the 1960s Road Runner cartoons reused the same cues.
It was not long before David H. DePatie and Friz Freleng worked a second job doing opening credits for some of The Pink Panther films while at the same time they made cartoons distributed by Metro Goldwyn Mayer. However, it was not at the same studio Metro Goldwyn Mayer Visual Arts but instead at Mirish and Geoffrey studios released thru United Artists, which is another part of Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
William Lava also scored music for The Pink Panther. In this case, the episodes had a complete score not necessarily variations on the main theme. Unfortunately he only did 19 episodes.
He also scored music for The Inspector series.
Filmography[]
Pink Panther[]
- The Pink Phink (1964)
- Pink Pajamas (1964)
- We Give Pink Stamps (1965)
- Dial "P" for Pink (1965)
- Sink Pink (1965)
- Pickled Pink (1965)
- The Pink Tail Fly (1965)
- Shocking Pink (1965)
- Pinkfinger (1965)
- Pink Ice (1965)
- Pink Panzer (1965)
- An Ounce of Pink (1965)
- Reel Pink (1965)
- Bully for Pink (1965)
- Pink Punch (1966)
- Pink Pistons (1966)
- Vitamin Pink (1966)
- The Pink Blueprint (1966)
- Smile Pretty, Say Pink (1966)
Despite only working on a very small amount of Pink Panther, he was working on other projects. He also did the first 6 shorts of The Inspector, a few other productions of DFE Films, and even Warner Brothers Seven Arts without Depatie and Freleng.
He did not live that much longer than Milt Franklyn. Lava died in 1971. Similar to Milt Franklyn, Lava was active until his death.