Hoyt Curtin

Biography

Hoyt Curtin was born in Downey, California, but grew up in San Bernadino. He began playing the piano when he was 5, and by ninth grade, he had his own orchestra. He graduated from the San Bernadino High School in 1940 and the University of Southern California in 1943. While at USC, he enrolled in the Navy V-7 program, and after graduation, was assigned to Northwestern University for advanced training. He received his commission as an ensign in 1944 and was assigned to the destroyer base in San Diego. He saw duty in the Pacific during World War II and was slightly injured with a shrapnel wound in his leg. After the war, he completed his Master's Degree in music from USC. While there, he took a course in composition for motion pictures, taught by Miklos Rozsa. His intention was to be a film composer. However, his big break came in the late 1950s when he scored a Schlitz beer commercial that was being produced at MGM. The producers of the commercial were William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, who asked Curtin if he would write the music for a cartoon series they were going to produce, called "Ruff and Ready." The producers called him on the phone with the lyrics, and five minutes later Curtin called them back with a song. When Hanna and Barbera left MGM to form their own company in 1957, they took Curtin along. Curtin would write the songs for "The Flintstones" and "The Jetsons," the same way he wrote his earlier songs; back and forth on the telephone. He eventually became the musical director for the company. Curtin died on December 3, 2000, at a hospital in Thousand Oaks, California.