Here, by popular demand, are highlights on a couple of the composers we featured at the March 7, 2010 Salon97 Academy Awards Extravaganza:

Max Steiner, 1888 – 1971

Max Steiner was a Vienna-born American composer. He followed two generations of theater producers and managers–his grandfather ran a theater that performed works by Johann Strauss and Jacques Offenbach.

Steiner moved to New York at the beginning of WWI and worked as a copyist, arranger, orchestrator, and conductor. Upon joining the Warner Bros. team in 1936 he wrote at least 10 scores per year. Notable film scores by Max Steiner include “King Kong” (1933), “Since You Went Away” (1944), “The Fountainhead” (1949), and “A Summer Place” (1959).

King Kong, 1933

Steiner was a film score-writing trailblazer. His score for the 1933 release of “King Kong” was the first to contribute strongly to the drama of a film. Kong’s roar was created by speeding and slowing recordings of several different animal roars. Additionally, many of the screams in the film were post-recorded in a studio to keep voices from being strained during filming.

Go here to listen to the main title from “King Kong.”

Henry Mancini, 1924 – 1994

Henry Mancini was born Enrico Nicola Mancini in Cleveland, Ohio. He grew up playing the piano and flute and became interested in jazz as a teenager.  Mancini worked as a pianist and arranger with the Glenn Miller/Tex Beneke Band early in his career and later moved on to join Universal Studios, where he wrote film scores for comedies, mysteries, westerns, and monster movies.

He is best known for “Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the theme to “Peter Gunn,” “The Pink Panther,” “The Glass Menagerie” and “Victor/Victoria.”

Mancini won 20 GRAMMY awards and 4 Academy Awards. He contributed greatly to the classical crossover genre.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s, 1961

“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” won an Oscar for best song for “Moon River” and also won an Oscar for best score.

The film was later redone as a 1966 musical. And of course, we can’t forget the song “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by Deep Blue Something.

The Salon97 audience noted duly that the soundtrack to “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” sounds very much like that to “The Pink Panther.”

Go here to listen to part of the jazzy awesomeness that is “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”