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Skinner
COLLECTION: Frank Skinner collection of film scores and recordings
LOCATION AS OF 2001: Music Library Special Collections area (Frank Skinner
scrapbook, as well as bound scores designated with "MO— - — " accession
numbers); Music Library open collections (selected commercial recordings, books,
and scores not by Skinner); University Press building storage area (commercial
LP and 78-rpm recordings); box against inside wall of Special Collections office
on Music Library upper level (privately-produced 78-rpm records of Skinner's
works); upper shelf. Special Collections Coordinator's office (selected scores
requiring binding and/or conservation, as well as
file folder of miscellaneous clippings).
PROVENANCE: Donated by Wilbur Albert (Al) Skinner, brother of composer Frank
Skinner (1897-1968), Universal Studios film composer, 1937-1966.
ACQUIRED: Summer, 1969.
DESCRIPTION: Donation included several hundred scores, recordings, and books.
Published materials and commercial recordings (many of which were unrelated to
Skinner) have been cataloged and integrated into existing Music Library
collections, or dispersed among uncataloged holdings in storage. Of the total of
83 film scores (typically condensed conductor scores in black-line or diazo
reproduction, with cue sheets affixed inside front covers), all but five have
been bound and provided with accession ("MO——") numbers. The group of five
unbound scores awaiting conservation treatment and processing includes White
Savage, Mad About Music, Flame of New Orleans, Top of the
Town, and Son of Frankenstein. A file folder (labeled "Son of
Frankenstein", but including mostly miscellaneous items unrelated to that motion
picture) contains approximately one-half inch of clippings, as well as two
sheets of music manuscript, in pencil, entitled "Old Timer". A personal
scrapbook compiled by Skinner includes programs and clippings from the period of
1937-1941 [46 leaves, q.780.923 Sk3451]. A group of privately-produced 78-rpm
records of Skinner's works (43 10-inch discs, presently grouped within 10
albums) includes performances of significant portions of Saboteur,
Spring Parade, House of the Seven Gables, Arabian Nights, and
Back Street, as well as individual selections from numerous other motion
pictures.
ARRANGEMENT: Bound scores are presently grouped in random order in Special
Collections in the accession number sequence M041439 - M041516.
ACCESS/FINDING AIDS/BIBLIOGRAPHY: Cataloged items and scores designated with
accession numbers may be located via the online catalog. LP and 78-rpm
recordings In storage may be retrieved via accession number or via alphabetic
arrangement by manufacturer/serial number. A list of donated materials (dated
November 1969) is filed in a Collections File folder ("Skinner, Al"). This
folder also contains David Spangler's 1995 inventory of privately-produced
recordings, along with a selective discography of Skinner's commercial releases;
copies of the Feigenblatt and Wright articles cited below;
obituary of Al Skinner; a legal document and correspondence relating to the
donation; and correspondence with several individuals who have utilized these
materials since their deposit at the University of Illinois.
INDEX TERMS: Motion picture music; Recordings: 78 rpm; Recordings: LP Skinner.
Frank
SEE ALSO: Feigenblatt, Bob. "Frank Skinner: an unsung film composer." In
Movie Music, Autumn 1991, p. 11-12.
Wright, H. Stephen. "The Frank Skinner collection at the University of
Illinois." In Cue Sheet 5:2, May 1988, p. 54-56.
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