Conductor, Composer. Real name Mikhail Bakaleinikoff. He was born in Moscow and trained at the Conservatory there. In 1917 he fled the Russian Revolution with his younger brother, Constantin Bakaleinikoff, settling in the United States in 1926. In 1931 he joined Columbia Pictures as a composer-doublebass player and for the rest of his life was that scrappy studio's most dependable (and unsung) musical workhorse. As music director from 1941, Bakaleinikoff conducted the soundtracks of over 400 films and contributed music for many others, typically B programmers. He rarely scored an entire picture (and when he did he received no credit); instead he provided linking material for existing music or churned out stock library themes that found their way into everything from Three Stooges shorts to the Oscar-winning "All the King's Men" (1949). As a consequence he received little recognition in Hollywood during his lifetime. Yet through seeming piecemeal hackwork he managed to impose his rather distinctive brass-heavy sound on most of a major studio's entire output for three decades, no mean feat.
Conductor, Composer. Real name Mikhail Bakaleinikoff. He was born in Moscow and trained at the Conservatory there. In 1917 he fled the Russian Revolution with his younger brother, Constantin Bakaleinikoff, settling in the United States in 1926. In 1931 he joined Columbia Pictures as a composer-doublebass player and for the rest of his life was that scrappy studio's most dependable (and unsung) musical workhorse. As music director from 1941, Bakaleinikoff conducted the soundtracks of over 400 films and contributed music for many others, typically B programmers. He rarely scored an entire picture (and when he did he received no credit); instead he provided linking material for existing music or churned out stock library themes that found their way into everything from Three Stooges shorts to the Oscar-winning "All the King's Men" (1949). As a consequence he received little recognition in Hollywood during his lifetime. Yet through seeming piecemeal hackwork he managed to impose his rather distinctive brass-heavy sound on most of a major studio's entire output for three decades, no mean feat.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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