| Nacio Herb Brown | |
| Background: | non_performing_personnel |
| Birth Name: | Ignacio Herbert Brown |
| Birth Date: | 22 February 1896 |
| Birth Place: | Deming, New Mexico, U.S. |
| Death Place: | San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Composer, songwriter |
Ignacio Herbert "Nacio Herb" Brown (February 22, 1896 - September 28, 1964)[1] was an American composer of popular songs, movie scores and Broadway theatre music in the 1920s through the early 1950s. Amongst his most enduring work is the score for the 1952 musical film Singin' in the Rain.
Ignacio Herbert Brown was born in Deming, New Mexico, United States,[1] to Ignacio and Cora Brown.[2] [3] [4] He had an older sister, Charlotte. In 1901, his family moved to Los Angeles, where he attended Manual Arts High School.[1] His music education started with instruction from his mother, Cora Alice (Hopkins) Brown. Brown first operated a tailoring business (1916), and then became a financially successful realtor, but he always wrote and played music.[1] [5] After his first hit "Coral Sea" (1920)[1] and a first big hit, "When Buddha Smiles" (1921), he eventually became a full-time composer. He joined The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1927, the same year writing the piano instrumental "The Doll Dance". This was followed by two more popular Doll-based tunes, "Rag Doll" (1928) and "The Wedding of the Painted Doll", released in 1929.
In 1928, he was hired to work in Hollywood by MGM and write film scores for the new medium of sound film. For his film work, he often collaborated with lyricist Arthur Freed.[1] Their music is collected for the most part in Singin' in the Rain. He appeared in the MGM variety film The Hollywood Revue of 1929.[1] Brown also worked with Richard A. Whiting and Buddy De Sylva on Broadway Musicals such as Take a Chance.[1]
Along with L. Wolfe Gilbert, Brown wrote the music for the children's television western, Hopalong Cassidy, which first aired in 1949.
After an 18-month illness and a brief hospitalization at UCSF Medical Center, Brown died of cancer on September 28, 1964, in San Francisco, California, at the home of his children, Nacio Jan Brown and Candace Nacio Brown.[6]
Brown was married at least five times.
He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, and into the New Mexico Entertainment Hall of Fame in 2012.