- Born
- Died
- Birth nameLeopold Anthony Stokowski
- Flamboyant, latterly white-maned, U.S. conductor known best for his popularization of classical music. (He is also known for teaching 'Mickey Mouse' a few things about music in Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940), in which Stokowski was featured with the Philadelphia Orchestra). He was a pioneer in the use of hi-fi sound and bringing great music to the screen.
- IMDb mini biography by: Bill Takacs < kinephile@aol.com> - Leopold Stokowski, the most flamboyant conductor of the 20th century, was as famous for his flashy effects as for his music-making. Although always acclaimed as technically a great conductor, he was, until recently, looked down on by intellectuals and ultraserious critics as a conductor who often cheapened the music for popular acceptance, as opposed to conductors like Toscanini. He would re-orchestrate great masterpieces often, making Bach sound as if he had written his works in the style of Tchaikovsky, and he would often cut even short works and rewrite their endings. But he was also a pioneer in the use of hi-fi-sound and in bringing great music to the screen, and today there is a new respect for his orchestrations and the rich sound he got from his orchestras.
- IMDb mini biography by: Albert Sanchez Moreno <a.moreno@mindspring.com>
- SpousesGloria Vanderbilt(April 21, 1945 - October 29, 1955) (divorced, 2 children)Evangeline Johnson(January 11, 1926 - December 2, 1937) (divorced, 2 children)Olga Samaroff(April 24, 1911 - July 30, 1923) (divorced, 1 child)
- He never conducted with a baton
- He would ensure that, at his concerts, his face was lit so that its shadow appeared onthe wall.
- Massive mane of white hair
- Faux-Eastern European accent
- The richest, most voluptuous sound from an orchestra that a conductor could possibly get.
- A chance meeting with Walt Disney at Chasen's resulted in the two men agreeing to have dinner together. Disney outlined his plans to do "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and other projects combining classical music with animation. Disney was surprised when he responded with "I would like to conduct that for you". To have the prominent conductor volunteer for the project was an opportunity that Disney couldn't pass up. The project expanded into a number of shorts that would be combined into the "Concert Feature". While considering a number of better titles for the project, it was Stokowski himself who suggested the musical term "fantasia", which means "a musical composition without a strict form" - a perfect title for a film with music and no plot.
- He was memorably satirized in the Bugs Bunny cartoon "Long-Haired Hare", when Bugs, wearing a white hairpiece, enters a concert auditorium through the orchestra pit and the players exclaim, one by one, "Leopold! Leopold! Leopold!" He is given a baton, which he promptly breaks (deliberately), and begins to conduct using Stokowski-like gestures.
- He was responsible for making the Philadelphia Orchestra into one of the great orchestras of the world. It was completely unknown before he began conducting it, and by the 1920s, he had already made it world famous. It was Stokowski who first gave the orchestra the rich, lush sound for which it was known.
- Is generally regarded as being the first conductor to seat the first and second violins together, which has become part of the standard seating plan used by most orchestras today.
- Made his long past due debut with the Metropolitan Opera conducting Puccini's "Turandot" in 1961, and he made that debut with a cast on his foot. He had suffered a broken foot two weeks earlier playing a vigorous game of touch football with his sons by third wife 'Gloria Vanderbilt'. The boys, at the time, were 9 and 11 years old. Stokowski was 78.
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