Victor Schertzinger, the Man Who Gave Film Its Own Voice

In the small borough of Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, a violin prodigy grew up in a house on West Centre Street. Victor Schertzinger performed alongside John Philip Sousa before most people had ever heard of Hollywood, and then he helped invent what Hollywood sounds like.

Schertzinger was among the first directors to commission original scores written specifically for films rather than repurposing existing music. His nineteen thirty-four picture One Night of Love won Academy Awards for best musical score and best sound recording, a double honor that validated the idea of film as a fully musical art form.

He also wrote the pop standard Tangerine, and he directed two of the celebrated Hope and Crosby Road pictures. He earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a long way from the coal-country streets of Mahanoy City where he first learned to draw a bow across strings. He died in nineteen forty-one, just as his career reached its peak.