Carmen Dragon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Carmen Dragon (July 28, 1914 – March 28, 1984) was an American conductor, composer, and arranger.

Dragon was born in Antioch, California. He was very active in pops music conducting and composed scores for several films, including At Gunpoint (1955), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Night into Tomorrow (1951), and Kiss Tomorrow Good-bye (1950).

With Morris Stoloff, he shared the 1944 Oscar for the popular Gene Kelly/Rita Hayworth musical Cover Girl, which featured songs by Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin.

According to his website, he was also awarded an Emmy in 1964.

He conducted the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra and they performed on the "Standard Oil Hour," which was broadcast on NBC for elementary schools in the late 1940s through the 1950s. The show was sponsored by the Standard Oil Company of California (now Chevron Corporation), but other than the name there were no commercials. The program featured a high quality introduction to classical music for young people growing up in the 1940s and early 1950s.

Dragon made a series of popular light classical albums for Capitol Records during the 1950s with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Some of these recordings have been reissued by EMI on CD.

Carmen Dragon is the father of Daryl Dragon of the 1970s pop music duo Captain & Tennille.