University of Wyoming
William Axt was an American composer and conductor. He was born in New York City, New York on April 19, 1888. He earned his Doctor of Music from the University of Chicago in 1922 and served as a conductor for the Hammerstein Grand Opera Company and Capitol Theatre. In 1929 he joined the music department of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), composing hundreds of film scores during his career, including Grand Hotel, The Thin Man, and Ben-Hur. He lived the remainder of his life in California before his death in 1959.
Collection contains music arrangements, music scores, personal compositions of William Axt, articles, photographs, a conductor’s baton, and video recordings of the films that Axt wrote the music scores for. The collection also contains motion picture scores notated by Edward Axt, his son.
There are no access restrictions on the materials for research purposes, and the collection is open to the public.
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Item Description, Box Number, Folder Number, Collection Name, Collection Number, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
This material was received from Edward S. Axt from 1969-1971 and Barbara Axt from 2021-2023.
There are no known other archival collections created by William Axt at the date of processing.
The American Heritage Center is in the process of converting its older container lists to a more accessible format. These links are to older versions of container lists for boxes 1-7.