Leonard George Hayton (1908 - 1971)

Born 13 Feb 1908 in New York City, New York, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Helen Maude Gifford — married 1935 in New Jersey, United States

Husband of Lena Mary Calhoun Horne — married 1947 in Paris, France

Died 24 Apr 1971 at age 63 in Palm Springs, Riverside, California, United States

Lennie Hayton is Notable.

Biography

Lennie Hayton was an American musician, Academy-Award-winning composer, conductor and arranger. He was best known for his song "Singin' in the Rain". He began his career in the 1920s, as a pianist in the jazz groups of Frankie Trumbauer, Red Nichols, Joe Venuti and was MGM music director from 1940 to 1953. In 1947, he married actress-singer Lena Horne and also was her music director until his death.

Lennie was born in New York City, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrant parents Moses Heyton and Sarah Weiss.

He was initially a pianist in jazz groups led by Frankie Trumbauer, Bix Beiderbecke, Red Nichols, Joe Venuti and others. He also played with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. Hayton composed "Apple Blossoms" with Joe Venuti, Frankie Trumbauer, and Eddie Lang. His other compositions included "Flying Fingers", "The Stage is Set", "Mood Hollywood" with Jimmy Dorsey, and "Midnight Mood". Hayton also co-arranged the Hoagy Carmichael composition "Stardust" with Artie Shaw, for Shaw's recording of it in 1940, for Bluebird records.

He became a musical director for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1940 and guided it through its prime years as forerunner of the movie musical. Up until his retirement from the post in 1953, he racked up four Academy Award nominations: for the Judy Garland musicals The Harvey Girls (1946) and The Pirate (1948). Hayton won the Academy Award for music for On the Town in 1950. Lennie Hayton also arranged the music for Singin' in the Rain in 1952. Hayton notched up two more nominations—one in 1968 for the unsuccessful Julie Andrews musical Star! and his last the following year for the Barbra Streisand vehicle Hello, Dolly!, which brought him his second and final Oscar. In 1970, Hayton arranged Frank Sinatra's first attempt at the George Harrison composition Something. However, Sinatra later began using a Nelson Riddle arrangement of the song in concert performances and in 1979 he put the Riddle version on record.[citation needed]

Lennie Hayton's first marriage was to Helen Maude Gifford,^[1] also named Bubs Gelderman, who died in 1943. Lennie Hayton met Lena Horne when both were under contract to MGM and married her in December 1947 in Paris.^[2] Throughout the marriage, Hayton also acted as Horne’s music director. Facing the stresses and pressures of an interracial relationship, which was still relatively rare in that time period, their marriage lasted until his death at 63 from a heart attack in 1971. Hayton and Horne had a tumultuous marriage. She later admitted in a 1980 Ebony interview she had married Hayton to advance her career, and cross the "color-line" in show business, but had learned to love him very much. Unfortunately Horne and Hayton were separated for most of the sixties. Always a heavy drinker and smoker, Hayton died of heart problems while separated from Horne, in Palm Springs, California in 1971^[3][4]

Sources

1. ↑ Ancestry Record 61253 #992597253 Ancestry.com. New Jersey, U.S., Marriage Index, 1901-2016 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.
2. ↑ https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78763976/lena-horne-and-lennie-hayton-wedding-195/
3. ↑ https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78764381/obituary-for-lennie-hayton-aged-63/
4. ↑ "California Death Index, 1940-1997," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VPZ2-BGV : 26 November 2014), Leonard G Hayton, 24 Apr 1971; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento.

• "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M5Z3-F6L : accessed 1 June 2021), Leonard Hayton in household of Moses Hayton, Bronx Assembly District 34, New York, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 1561, sheet 10B, family 197, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1001; FHL microfilm 1,375,014.
• "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MJYG-Y88 : 2 February 2021), Leonard Hayton in entry for Moses Hayton, 1920.
• "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X429-TVK : accessed 1 June 2021), Leonard Hayton in household of Moses Hayton, Manhattan (Districts 0251-0500), New York, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 463, sheet 32A, line 24, family 599, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 1557; FHL microfilm 2,341,292.
• "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K3YJ-G5T : 7 January 2021), Leonard G Hayton, New York City, New York County, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 31-1377, sheet 85A, line 7, family , Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 2656.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lennie_Hayton