Leigh Harline is probably the most modest and gentlemanly of Hollywood's composers. In his early forties, he is good-looking, blond, blue-eyed , and slightly paunchy. Not the least of his virtues is his excellemce as a host, He extends hospitality with a gracious bow from the waist and makes each guest feel like the one person without whom the party could not be a success, On Christmas Harline usually invites his close friends in to share a bowl of Jul Gloegg. This festive holiday drink is his sole cultural tie with his Swedish ancenters, Otherwise his tastes in food and drink are international, leaning toward the unusual, even the exotic.
Harline was born, raised, educated,and given his first professional job in Salt Lake City, But he is now, by temperament as well as by profession, a confirmed Southern Californian. He has no nostalgic sentiments about his home town. Yet he helped the observance of the Utah centennary a few years ago by composing for the Utah Symphony Orchestra, then under the direction of Werner Janssen, a three~movement orchestral suite based on the story of the Mormon migrations, The performance of this suite enabled Salt Lake City to celebrate the hometown boy who made good. But after several days of celebration, Harline was glad to return to the comparative anonymity of a film composer who writes for, but never has to face his audience,
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