The Five Pennies

Leith Stevens was an American composer for radio and film scores. Born in Mount Moriah, Missouri, he was a child prodigy who was an accompanist for... Madame Schumann-Heink. During World War II, he was radio director for the Southwest Pacific Area with the Office of War Information. He was musical director of the War Production Board series Three Thirds of a Nation, presented Wednesdays over the Blue Network. Leith Stevens was born in Mount Moriah, Missouri on September 13, 1909 and died in Los Angeles, California on July 23, 1970 at age 60 from a heart attack he suffered after learning that his wife had died in a car crash. The music accompanying the film The James Dean Story was composed and conducted by Leith Stevens. An eponymous album containing this music was released by Capitol Records in 1957, the anonymous sleeve notes of which are worth quoting verbatim: The sleeve notes then go on to describe the music thus: ‘The film’s music is as unusual and exciting as the motion picture itself. Leith Stevens, the composer, captures a haunting reflection of the violent yet strangely understandable uncertainties of modern youth.
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