Salter, Hans J(ulius)

(b Vienna, 14 Jan 1896; d Studio City, CA, 23 July 1994). American composer and conductor of Austrian birth. He studied at the University of Vienna with Guido Adler, Egon Wellesz and Hans Gal, and at the Vienna Music Academy with Schreker. Later, while working as an assistant conductor in Viennese theatres, he studied conducting with Weingartner and composition with Berg. From 1930 to 1933 he composed musicals and drama scores for UFA Studios in Neubabelsberg. He emigrated to Hollywood in 1937.

Originally hired as an orchestrator for Universal Studios, Salter was soon promoted to the rank of composer. With Frank Skinner he wrote music for serials, westerns, dramas, Deanna Durbin musicals and Abbott and Costello comedies. Although he received six Academy Award nominations for his musical comedy and drama scores, he is remembered today chiefly for his contribution to horror films such as The Wolf Man (1941), Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) and House of Frankenstein (1944). When he retired in 1967, he had completed scores for over 200 films. He was honoured with lifetime achievement awards from the Society of Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films, and the Society for the Preservation of Film Music. He received an additional tribute at the Viennale Film Festival in 1993.

WORKS
(selective list)
Film scores: It Started with Eve, 1941; The Wolf Man, 1941, collab. F. Skinner, C. Previn; The Amazing Mrs Holliday, 1943, collab. Skinner; Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, 1943; Can't Help Singing, 1944; Christmas Holiday, 1944; House of Frankenstein, 1944, collab. P. Dessau; The Merry Monahans, 1944; Scarlet Street, 1945; This Love of Ours, 1945; Magnificent Doll, 1946; Bend of the River, 1952

BIBLIOGRAPHY
P.N. Jones: 'The Ghost of Hans J. Salter', Cinefantastique, vii/2 (1978)
J. Marcello: 'The Music of the Wolf Man', The Wolf Man, ed. P. Riley (Absecon, NY, 1993)
 

PRESTON NEAL JONES