88 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • NOVEMBER 2021
RALPH NORMAN WILKINSON
GLENN MILLER’S ARRANGER: MY DAD
CAPTION 1: Ralph Norman Wilkinson
conducting in the New York City TV
studio in the 1950s CAPTION 2: Sketch
by unknown artist
BY ANNIE WILKINSON
For many people, November summons
up memories of Thanksgiving preparations
— shopping, organizing, cooking,
and decorating the table — all for the
big reveal: the feast. Others, instead,
cherish thoughts of loved ones who
are no longer here to celebrate.
Ralph Norman wasn’t well known,
because his contributions took place
out of the limelight. As an arranger for
popular bandleader Maj. Glenn Miller,
his stylings of standards by crooners
like Bing Crosby drew praise and lift ed
the spirits of American soldiers defending
Europe against the dictator Adolf
Hitler’s World War II onslaughts — and
brought hope to civilians in America
listening to the radio.
When the war ended, Wilkinson
returned to the States. An in-demand
composer, conductor, and arranger, he
moved his family from their Elmurst,
Queens apartment to a new Levitt
home in the Roslyn Country Club
development.
It was the site of many celebrations,
including his birthday each Nov. 8 — but
Thanksgiving was always his favorite.
He was my father, Ralph Norman
Wilkinson.
LONGHAIR TO LATIN
Born in Brooklyn in 1912, Ralph Norman
Wilkinson was a gift ed pianist from a
young age. He graduated at age 22 with
a Bachelor of Music from Oberlin Conservatory
of Music in Ohio. Although
his training emphasized classical music,
he could seamlessly segue from a Bach
fugue to a Latin jazz number. Because
of his versatility, upon his 1934 college
graduation he became a staff arranger
for CBS Radio in Manhattan, in those
pretelevision years of live broadcasts.
He also freelanced as an arranger for
the 1942 Broadway show, Irving Berlin’s
This is the Army.
In 1943, Maj. Miller draft ed Wilkinson
to be an arranger and assistant conductor
for the 60-piece U.S. Army Air Force
Band in the U.S. and later in England.
Wilkinson, who was then known as
Ralph Norman, was praised, notably
his charts for Summertime and Stormy
Weather. One reviewer called Wilkinson’s
Stardust arrangement “one of the
fi nest interpretations ever by this or
any other orchestra.”
Luxury liners the Queen Mary and
Queen Elizabeth became troop ships
carrying up to 15,000 soldiers. Wilkinson
shipped out with the band, bidding
farewell to his pregnant wife Evelyn
Wilkinson, in June 1944. He was in Paris
when their daughter was born in 1945.
One letter sent to his wife from across
the Atlantic described wartime separation:
“I love you and I miss you like
hell and I want to put my arms around
you and I want to hold your hand in a
movie and I want to toast you with a
Manhattan or two or three and I want to
sit under a tree in Elmhurst on a Sunday
aft ernoon and let you fall asleep in my
lap…”
MIDNIGHT WRITER
Aft er the war, Wilkinson was hired
as a staff conductor for ABC Network
television programs, composer/conductor
for CBS-TVs’ United States Steel
Hour, and chief arranger for NBC-TVs
Bell Telephone Hour. In the 1950s he
also arranged songs for Frank Sinatra
and other major performers including
Benny Goodman, Robert Goulet, Pat
Boone, and many more, working out
of his home studio.
For each U.S. Steel Hour production,
Daddy would compose nonstop for
several days before the live broadcasts.
My room was down the hall from his
studio, which was soundproofed — but
the notes from the Steinway baby grand
would spill out. I would fall asleep
hearing him struggling, experimenting,
searching for the right melodies,
chords, rhythms and tempos to fi t a
carefully timed show. On broadcast day,
Mom would drive him into Manhattan
as he pulled last-minute notes from his
imagination, inventing and revising.
In the 1960s, he retired from network
TV and taught at City College of New
York, Columbia University, and Roslyn
High School, where he also conducted
the chorus and orchestra for 10 years.
His student there, Larry Tarlow, who
went on to become principal librarian
at the New York Philharmonic, told
Sid Cassese of Newsday, “He was an
inspiration to me. This was a man who
had cut his teeth in the commercial
music business, and he knew what he
was doing.”
Wilkinson was Bayside Glee Club’s
music director and conductor for 10
years and choirmaster for the Floral
Park United Methodist Church for 11
years.
A MODEST MUSICIAN
Daddy had an irreverent and childlike
sense of humor and especially loved
limericks. He was the one who always
came running to help. He had the patience
to teach me the nuances of piano,
voice, and performance when I studied
music. He knew how to turn a phrase,
be it musical or literary, and could examine
all sides of an issue, which led
me to gravitate to journalism. And he
cheerfully washed the stacks of pots
and pans his wife would use to make
gourmet meals. He loved starches, gravies,
rich sauces, ice cream, and chocolate;
of course, he loved Thanksgiving.
He was working on an arrangement
for the Philharmonic several months
before his death in 1990 at age 77.
To listen to Ralph Norman Wilkinson
conducting the live orchestra performing
his music from the U.S. Steel Hour’s “The
Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon,” starring
Cliff Robertson in February 1961, visit the
UCLA Film and Television Archive, at
cinema.ucla.edu/collections/ussteel/
clips/two-worlds-charlie-gordon.
REAR VIEW
“He was an
inspiration,” said
Larry Tarlow.
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