Television composer and arranger, Kahn was born on October 14, 1910, in Duluth, Minnesota, and passed away on July 3, 2008, in Woodland Hills, California.
Kahn's journey in music began with his performance on the saxophone, clarinet, and violin, in addition to singing with orchestras led by Glenn Lee, Pinky Tomlin, the Dorsey Brothers, and Clyde McCoy, among others. He later pursued music composition studies in California. After serving in the Air Force during World War II, Kahn transitioned to orchestrating, working at Republic Studios and Filmways Television. He carved out a niche as a composer and arranger, creating background music for both film and television.
Upon his arrival in Hollywood, Kahn started his career by scoring B-films such as "The Long Night" and "The Golden Mistress" for independent studios. He also ghostwrote for Raoul Kraushaar's Omar Music Service, which supplied incidental music for numerous early television series. Much of Kahn's work went uncredited; he often ghostwrote for other composers and shared credit with non-writing partners involved in music publishing agreements. Despite the challenges, Kahn developed a reputation as a versatile and innovative writer, with many of his compositions credited to Kraushaar or the pseudonym "Melvyn Leonard."
Among Kahn's notable works is the cheerful theme for "Leave It to Beaver" (1957-63). He also composed the musical signatures for "The Restless Gun" (1957-59), "Suspicion" (1957-58), Mickey Spillane's "Mike Hammer" (the half-hour version with Darren McGavin, 1958-60), "21 Beacon Street" (1959-60), and "Overland Trail" (1960). Additionally, he created the first of three themes for the sitcom "Bachelor Father" (1957-62), contributed music to "Hopalong Cassidy" (1952-54), and arranged Charles Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" for "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (1955-62). Much of this work stemmed from Kahn's collaboration with David M. Gordon, a Southern California music publisher who worked with MCA-owned Revue Studios (later Universal) to provide music for its television shows. Kahn noted in 1993, "When [Gordon] needed something done, he came to me to do it." He recalled that during that era, there was a heavy reliance on pre-existing music, which required him to produce a significant amount of background music for Hitchcock and other series. Notably, all his recordings for Gordon were done in Munich, Germany, utilizing musicians from the Munich Symphony, with the music sent back and forth across the Atlantic.
For publishing purposes, Kahn's themes were often co-credited to "Melvyn Leonard," which was the first and middle names of Gordon's son. Although the son did not compose music, the arrangement allowed the Gordon family to collect half the royalties from any Kahn composition used, a common practice in the early days of television music.
The music commissioned by Gordon from Kahn found its way into a multitude of popular shows during the late 1950s and early 1960s, many produced by Revue. These included titles such as "Bringing Up Buddy," "Buckskin," "Cimarron City," "Coronado 9," "Death Valley Days," "M Squad," "The Millionaire," "Northwest Passage," "The Real McCoys," "State Trooper," "The Texan," "The Thin Man," "Wagon Train," and "Tales of Wells Fargo." While "Leave It to Beaver" remains Kahn's most recognized theme, his folk-inspired theme for "The Restless Gun" was the most recorded, gaining popularity with renditions by the Sons of the Pioneers, Lawrence Welk, Mitch Miller, and others.
Kahn later returned to feature films, serving as music editor for notable projects such as the 1978 hit "National Lampoon's Animal House." After experiencing renewed success with the 1983 reunion movie "Still the Beaver," Kahn entered retirement.
