Ken Darby

Ken Darby

Profile

Ken Darby

Movies

The Night Before Christmas
Original Music Composer
Fictionalized account of how Clement C. Moore came to write "A Visit from St. Nicholas." His young daughter, stricken with pneumonia, asks for a Santa Claus story for Christmas. No such story had been written, so Moore writes his famous poem, set to Ken Darby's music and sung by The Norman Luboff Choir.
How the West Was Won
Lyricist
The epic tale of the development of the American West from the 1830s through the Civil War to the end of the century, as seen through the eyes of one pioneer family.
Flower Drum Song
Assistant Music Supervisor
A young woman arrives in San Francisco's Chinatown from Hong Kong with the intention of marrying a rakish nightclub owner, unaware he is involved with one of his singers.
Elmer Gantry
Music Supervisor
When hedonistic but charming con man Elmer Gantry meets the beautiful Sister Sharon Falconer, a roadside revivalist, he feigns piousness to join her act as a passionate preacher. The two make a successful onstage pair, and their chemistry extends to romance. Both the show and their relationship are threatened, however, when one of Gantry's ex-lovers decides that she has a score to settle with the charismatic performer.
Porgy and Bess
Original Music Composer
Set in the early 1900s in the fictional Catfish Row section of Charleston, South Carolina, which serves as home to a black fishing community, the story focuses on the titular characters, crippled beggar Porgy, who travels about in a goat-drawn cart, and the drug-addicted Bess, who lives with stevedore Crown, the local bully.
South Pacific
Other
Can a girl from Little Rock find happiness with a mature French planter she got to know one enchanted evening away from the military hospital where she is a nurse? Or should she just wash that man out of her hair? Bloody Mary is the philosopher of the island and it's hard to believe she could be the mother of Liat who has captured the heart of Lt. Joseph Cable USMC. While waiting for action in the war in the South Pacific, sailors and nurses put on a musical comedy show. The war gets closer and the saga of Nellie Forbush and Emile de Becque becomes serious drama.
An Affair to Remember
Vocal Coach
A couple falls in love and agrees to meet in six months at the Empire State Building - but will it happen?
Bus Stop
Vocal Coach
Cowboys Beauregard Decker and Virgil Blessing attend a rodeo in Phoenix, where Decker falls in love with beautiful cafe singer Cherie. He wants to take Cherie back to his native Montana and marry her, but she dreams of traveling to Hollywood and becoming famous. When she resists his advances, Decker forces Cherie onto the bus back to Montana with him, but, when the bus makes an unscheduled stop due to bad weather, the tables are turned.
Bus Stop
Songs
Cowboys Beauregard Decker and Virgil Blessing attend a rodeo in Phoenix, where Decker falls in love with beautiful cafe singer Cherie. He wants to take Cherie back to his native Montana and marry her, but she dreams of traveling to Hollywood and becoming famous. When she resists his advances, Decker forces Cherie onto the bus back to Montana with him, but, when the bus makes an unscheduled stop due to bad weather, the tables are turned.
Carousel
Other
Billy Bigelow has been dead for 15 years. Now outside the pearly gates, he long ago waived his right to go back to Earth for a day. He has heard that there is a problem with his family: namely with his wife Julie Bigelow, née Jordan, and his child he hasn't met. He would now like to head back to Earth to assist in rectifying the problem; but before he may go, he has to get permission from the gatekeeper by telling him his story. Adapted from the Rodgers and Hammerstein hit Broadway musical.
Daddy Long Legs
Vocal Coach
Wealthy American, Jervis Pendleton has a chance encounter at a French orphanage with a cheerful 18-year-old residen, and anonymously pays for her education at a New England college. She writes letters to her mysterious benefactor regularly, but he never writes back. Several years later, he visits her at school, while still concealing his identity, and—despite their large age difference—they soon fall in love.
The Girl Next Door
Vocal Coach
Stage-and-night club star Jeannie Laird buys her first home, and everyone who is anyone comes to her first garden party only to be blinded by smoke from next door. Jeannie charges next door to bawl out her new neighbor and meets comic-strip artist Bill Carter. Bill has devoted himself to his strip, and raising his ten-year-old son Joe since the death of his wife. Joe bases his strip on the everyday happenings of he and his son and is proud of keeping it scrupulously honest. When Jeannie and Bill fall in love, young Joe is hurt, especially when Bill starts using a lot of the father-son time to be with Jeannie. Bill cancels a father-son trip to Canada, and Joe decides to write a letter to Bill's syndicate pointing out that the current plot line of the script being set in Canada isn't honest, since they didn't go.
Call Me Madam
Vocal Coach
Washington hostess Sally Adams becomes a Truman-era US ambassador to a European grand duchy.
Rancho Notorious
Lyricist
A man in search of revenge infiltrates a ranch, hidden in an inhospitable region, where its owner, Altar Keane, gives shelter to outlaws fleeing from the law in exchange for a price.
Rancho Notorious
Songs
A man in search of revenge infiltrates a ranch, hidden in an inhospitable region, where its owner, Altar Keane, gives shelter to outlaws fleeing from the law in exchange for a price.
The Brave Engineer
Himself
Casey Jones is one of the best engineers there is and it is his duty to get his cargo to its destination on time via train. He sets off but is set back by a number of unfortunate circumstances such as a rain storm, a cow on the tracks, a mad bomber, and finally, when his train starts falling apart. Worst of all, he is on a collision course with another train coming in the opposite direction. After a terrific crash, the man at the train station assumes the worst when Casey doesn't show up but, to his delight, Casey finally makes it to his destination a total wreck but on time (almost).
The Brave Engineer
Original Music Composer
Casey Jones is one of the best engineers there is and it is his duty to get his cargo to its destination on time via train. He sets off but is set back by a number of unfortunate circumstances such as a rain storm, a cow on the tracks, a mad bomber, and finally, when his train starts falling apart. Worst of all, he is on a collision course with another train coming in the opposite direction. After a terrific crash, the man at the train station assumes the worst when Casey doesn't show up but, to his delight, Casey finally makes it to his destination a total wreck but on time (almost).
Song of the South
Songs
Uncle Remus draws upon his tales of Br'er Rabbit to help little Johnny deal with his confusion over his parents' separation as well as his new life on the plantation.
Song of the South
Music Director
Uncle Remus draws upon his tales of Br'er Rabbit to help little Johnny deal with his confusion over his parents' separation as well as his new life on the plantation.
Margie
Off-Screen Singer (voice) (uncredited)
A woman reminisces about her teenage years in the 1920s, when she fell in love with her teacher.
Make Mine Music
The King's Men / Choral Director (Ken Darby Chorus) (singing voice) (uncredited)
In the tradition of Fantasia, Make Mine Music is a glorious collection of nine musically charged animated shorts featuring such fun-filled favorites as "Peter And The Wolf", narrated by the beloved voice behind Winnie The Pooh. In addition, you'll enjoy such classic cartoon hits as "Casey At The Bat," "The Whale Who Wanted To Sing At The Met" and "Johnnie Fedora And Alice Bluebonnet."
The Kansan
Member - The King's Men
Wounded while stopping the James gang from robbing the local bank, a cowboy wakes up in the hospital to find that he's been elected town marshal. He soon comes into conflict with the town banker, who controls everything in town and is squeezing the townspeople for every penny he can get out of them.
For Me and My Gal
Member - The King's Men (uncredited)
Two vaudeville performers fall in love, but find their relationship tested by the arrival of WWI.
Stagecoach War
Outlaw
Hoppy is busy chasing stagecoach bandits who sing as they rob.
The Showdown
Rider
European bad guy Baron Bendor leads some local townsmen in a plot to obtain horses through theft. Hoppy and his sidekicks Lucky and Speedy must find and expose the horse thieves.
Law of the Pampas
The King's Men Member
Hoppy and Lucky are headed to South America to deliver a heard of cattle. Bay guy Ralph Merritt gets in their way. For a while.
Renegade Trail
Rider
Hoppy goes to town to help Marshal Windy with some rustlers and winds up helping the widow Joyce when confidence men try to take her herd. King's Men songs include: "Hi Thar Stranger" and "Lazy Rolls the Rio Grande."
Broadway Serenade
Singers - 'High Flyin' Number (uncredited)
A married singer, pianist/composer team are struggling to hit it big in New York. Finally, they audition before a Broadway producer, but the producer only wants the singer, leaving the husband without a job and feeling a failure.
Honolulu
Groucho 1
Movie star Brooks Mason tries to avoid his fans and spend some weeks on vacation. When Hawaiian plantage-owner George Smith is mistaken by Mason's fans for Mason and brought to Mason's home. They decide to change their identities for a few weeks. But George Smith is mobbed by Mason's fans again on a personal appearance tour in New York, Mason falls in love to dancer Dorothy March, who also is on her way to Hawaii. Problems for Mason arise due to the fact that Smith is engaged with Cecilia Grayson, and her wealthy father believes, that Smith has double-crossed him. Mason isn't able to establish a connection with Smith in New York due to his agent's orders.
Going Hollywood
Member - The King's Men
The film tells the story of Sylvia, a French teacher at an all-girl school, who wants to find love. When she hears Bill Williams on the radio, she decides to go visit and thank him. However, difficult problems lay ahead when Lili gets in the way.
Let's Go Native
Quartet Singer (as The King's Men) (uncredited)
The company of a musical comedy gets shipwrecked on a tropical island inhabited by a "king" from Brooklyn and his coterie of wild native girls.