Statue of Balto in Central Park (New York City)

Balto (1919 – March 14, 1933) was a Siberian Husky sled dog who led his team on the final leg of the 1925 serum run to Nome, in which diphtheria antitoxin was transported from Anchorage, Alaska, to Nenana, Alaska, by train and then to Nome by dog sled to combat an outbreak of the disease.^[1] The run is commemorated by the annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Balto was named after the Sami explorer Samuel Balto. Balto died at the age of 14.

1925 serum run[link]

In January 1925, doctors realized that a potentially deadly diphtheria epidemic was poised to sweep through Nome's young people. The only serum that could stop the outbreak was in Anchorage, nearly a thousand miles (1,600 km) away. The engine of the only aircraft that could quickly deliver the medicine was frozen and would not start. After considering all of the alternatives, officials decided to move the medicine by sled dog. The serum was transported by train from Anchorage to Nenana, where the first musher embarked as part of a relay aimed at delivering the needed serum to Nome. More than 20 mushers took part, facing a blizzard with −23 °F (-31° C) temperatures and strong winds. Katie Pryor interviewed the musher after he had finished. News coverage of the event was worldwide.

On February 2, 1925, the Norwegian Gunnar Kaasen drove his team, led by Balto, into Nome. The longest and most hazardous stretch of the run was actually covered by another Norwegian, Leonhard Seppala and his dog team, led by Togo. They came from Nome towards the end of the run and picked up the serum from musher Henry Ivanoff. The serum was later passed to Kaasen.

Balto proved himself on the Iditarod trail, saving his team in the Topkok River. Balto was also able to stay on the trail in near whiteout conditions; Kaasen stated he could barely see his hand in front of his face. Balto's team did their leg of the run almost entirely in the dark.^[2] The final team and its sledder was asleep when Balto and Kaasen made it to the final stop, so Kaasen decided to continue on. At Nome, everybody wanted to thank Kaasen at first, but he suggested giving fame to Balto as well.^{[citation needed]}

Togo was the star dog for Leonhard Seppala even before the great 1925 Serum Run. Instead of celebrating the triumph together as one huge team, many became jealous of the publicity Balto received, especially from President Calvin Coolidge and the press. Seppala favored Togo, but the general public loved the story behind Balto, and so they would take a far different path after the celebrations were over. Balto was not welcomed at the ceremony in New York in which Seppala and Togo received awards from the explorer Roald Amundsen.

Aftermath[link]

Balto at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

After the mission's success, Balto and Kaasen became celebrities. A statue of Balto, sculpted by Frederick Roth, was erected in New York City's Central Park on December 17, 1925, just 10 months after Balto's arrival in Nome. Balto himself was present for the monument's unveiling.^[3] The statue is located on the main path leading north from the Tisch Children's Zoo.^[4] In front of the statue a low-relief slate plaque depicts Balto's sled team, and bears the following inscription:

Balto was not destined to be a star in the breeding shed since he was neutered at a young age, hence he was relegated to being neglected on the vaudeville circuit with his team. While visiting Los Angeles, George Kimble, a former prize fighter turned businessman from Cleveland, was shocked to discover the dogs were unhealthy and badly treated.

Mr. Kimble worked together with the newspaper, The Plain Dealer, to bring Balto and his team to Cleveland, Ohio. On March 19, 1927, Balto and six companions were brought to Cleveland and given a hero's welcome in a triumphant parade. The dogs were then taken to the Brookside Zoo (now the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo).

After Balto's death in 1933, his remains were mounted by a taxidermist, and donated to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.^[6] In 1998 the Alaska Legislature passed HJR 62- 'Bring Back Balto' resolution. The Cleveland Museum of Natural History declined to return Balto; however, in October 1998, Balto left for a five-month stay at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art which drew record crowds.

See also[link]

• Iditarod Trail
• Togo (dog)
• Call of the Wild

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Balto

• Listen to the story of Balto online - The American Storyteller Radio Journal
• Balto is recognized as an Alaskan Malamute by American Kennel Club
• Iditarod background from the Iditarod Trail Committee
• Balto in the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
• Balto at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History

v t e Balto Actual story Balto · 1925 serum run to Nome · Togo · Leonhard Seppala · Iditarod Trail · Gunnar Kaasen · Samuel Balto · Nenana · Alaska Railroad · Scott Cordelle Bone · Jason (ship) · Karasjok · Finnmark · Fridtjof Nansen · Balto's statue Film series Balto (1995) · Balto II: Wolf Quest (2002) · Balto III: Wings of Change (2004) Film characters "Balto" · Other characters Related articles Steven Spielberg · Kevin Bacon · Simon Wells · 1995 film soundtrack · Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race · Gavin Hood · The Cruelest Miles (2012) · See also History of Alaska

v t e Features of Central Park Features The Arsenal • Belvedere Castle • Bethesda Terrace • The Blockhouse • Bridges • Central Park Mall • Cleopatra's Needle • Conservatory Garden • Conservatory Water • Delacorte Theater • Diana Ross Playground  • Dipway Arch  • Gapstow Bridge  • Great Lawn • Harlem Meer • Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir • King Jagiello Monument  • The Lake • Lasker Rink • Marionette Theatre • Medical Unit  • The Pond and Hallett Nature Sanctuary  • The Ramble • Rat Rock • Sculptures • Seneca Village • Strawberry Fields • SummerStage • Tavern on the Green • Wollman Rink • Zoo • Zoo York Wall Events Be-In • The Concert • The Gates • New York Shakespeare Festival  • UAE Healthy Kidney 10K  • New York Mini 10K  • Concerto: One Night in Central Park Streets Borders: Fifth Avenue • Central Park North • Central Park South • Central Park West Transverses: 79th Street • 85th Street/86th Street • 96th Street People and animals Balto • Central Park Jogger • Hal the Coyote • Frederick Law Olmsted • Pale Male • Regina Peruggi • Elizabeth Barlow Rogers • Arthur Ross • Calvert Vaux • Urban Park Rangers

James Roy Horner (born August 14, 1953)^[1] is an American composer, orchestrator, and conductor of orchestral and film music. He is noted for the integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of Celtic musical elements. His score to the 1997 film Titanic remains the best selling orchestral film soundtrack of all time.^[2][3]

In addition, Horner has scored over 100 films, frequently collaborating with acclaimed directors such as James Cameron and Ron Howard. Some of his most noteworthy works include Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Cocoon (1985), An American Tail (1986), Aliens (1986), The Land Before Time (1988), Willow (1988), Glory (1989), Field of Dreams (1989), The Rocketeer (1991), Legends of the Fall (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Braveheart (1995), The Mask of Zorro (1998), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Troy (2004), and Avatar (2009).

Horner has won two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, three Satellite Awards, three Saturn Awards, and has been nominated for three BAFTA Awards. His body of work is also notable for including the scores to the two highest-grossing films of all time; Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009), both of which were directed by James Cameron.

Early life[link]

Horner was born in Los Angeles, the son of Austrian immigrants Joan (née Frankel) and Harry Horner, who was a production designer, set designer and occasional film director.^[4]

Horner started playing piano at the age of five. His early years were spent in London, where he attended the Royal College of Music. He subsequently attended Verde Valley High School in Sedona, Arizona. He received his bachelor's degree in music from the University of Southern California, and eventually earned a master's and started working on his doctorate at the University of California, Los Angeles where he studied with Paul Chihara, among others. After several scoring assignments with the American Film Institute in the 1970s, he finished his teaching of music theory at UCLA and turned to film scoring.^[5]

Film and television scoring[link]

Horner's first major film score was for the 1979 film, The Lady in Red. He began his film scoring career by working for B film director and producer Roger Corman, with his first composer credit for Corman's big-budget Battle Beyond the Stars. His works steadily gained notice in Hollywood, which led him to take on larger projects. Horner made a breakthrough in 1982, when he had the chance to score for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, establishing himself as a mainstream composer.

Horner continued composing music for high-profile releases during the 1980s, including 48 Hrs. (1982), Krull (1983), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Commando (1985), Cocoon (1985), Aliens (1986), *batteries not included, Willow (1988), Glory and Field of Dreams (both 1989).

Aliens earned Horner his first Academy Award nomination. He has been nominated an additional nine times since. Horner's scores have been sampled in film trailers for other films. The climax of the track Bishop's Countdown from his score for Aliens ranks fifth in the most commonly-used soundtrack cues for film trailers.^[6] Also, an unused fragment from Aliens was featured in a scene from Die Hard. Several films whose scores were composed by Michael Kamen have had trailers featuring Horner's music; most notably, the music from Willow is substituted for the theme Kamen wrote for the 1993 remake of The Three Musketeers. Horner also added his nominated Braveheart "For the Love of a Princess" single for Robert Zemeckis's Theatrical Trailer of Cast Away.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Horner also wrote orchestral scores for children's films (particularly those produced by Amblin Entertainment), with credits for An American Tail (1986), The Land Before Time (1988), An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991), We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993), and Casper, Jumanji, and Balto (all from 1995).

1995 saw Horner produce no fewer than six scores, including his commercially successful and critically acclaimed works for Braveheart and Apollo 13, both of which earned him Academy Award nominations. Horner's greatest financial and critical success would come in 1997, with the score to the motion picture, Titanic. The album became the best-selling primarily orchestral soundtrack in history, selling over 27 million copies worldwide.^[7]

At the 70th Academy Awards, Horner won Oscars for Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Song for "My Heart Will Go On" (which he co-wrote with Will Jennings). In addition, Horner and Jennings won three Grammy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for the soundtrack and My Heart Will Go On.^[8][9] Titanic also marked the first time in ten years that Horner worked with director James Cameron (following the highly stressful scoring sessions for Aliens, Horner declared that he would never work with Cameron again and described the experience of scoring the film Aliens as "a nightmare").^{[citation needed]}

Since Titanic, Horner has continued to score for major productions (including The Perfect Storm, A Beautiful Mind, Enemy At The Gates, The Mask of Zorro, The Legend of Zorro, House of Sand and Fog and Bicentennial Man).^[1]

Aside from scoring major productions, Horner periodically works on smaller projects such as Iris, Radio and Bobby Jones: A Stroke of Genius. He received his eighth and ninth Academy Award nominations for A Beautiful Mind (2001) and House of Sand and Fog (2003), but lost on both occasions to Howard Shore. He frequently collaborates with film director Ron Howard, a partnership that began with Cocoon in 1985. Coincidentally, Horner's end title music from Glory can be heard in the trailer for Howard's Backdraft.

Horner composed the 2006-2011 theme music for the CBS Evening News. The theme was introduced as part of the debut of Katie Couric as anchor on September 5, 2006. It has since been adopted by most other CBS News programs as well.^{[citation needed]}

Horner recollaborated with James Cameron on the 2009 film Avatar, which was released in December 2009 and has since become the highest grossing film of all time, surpassing Titanic (also directed by Cameron and scored by Horner).

Horner spent over two years working on the score for Avatar, and did not take on any other projects during that time. Horner's work on Avatar earned him numerous award nominations, including his tenth Oscar nomination, a Golden Globe nomination, a BAFTA nomination, and a Grammy Award nomination, all of which he lost to Michael Giacchino for Up.^[10]

Regarding the experience of scoring Avatar, Horner said, "Avatar has been the most difficult film I have worked on and the biggest job I have undertaken... I work from four in the morning to about ten at night and that’s been my way of life since March. That's the world I'm in now and it makes you feel estranged from everything. I'll have to recover from that and get my head out of Avatar."^[11] It is currently unknown whether or not Horner will return as composer for the sequel(s) to Avatar.

Horner recently composed the score for the film The Karate Kid replacing Atli Örvarsson. This is the first film Horner has worked on since Avatar.^[12] The film was released in 2010.

Horner has recently scored The Song of Names (2011)^[13], as well as The Amazing Spider-Man, which stars Andrew Garfield and is set for release in July 2012.

Critical debate[link]

Horner has been criticised for transposing hooks, orchestral motifs, or larger passages from other scores of his own or of other composers.^[14][15] These contentions are points of fierce debates between supporters of Horner and his detractors.^[16]

List of scores[link]

Film[link]

1970s[link]

• 1978 The Drought (for the American Film Institute)
• 1978 Fantasies (for the American Film Institute)
• 1978 Gist and Evans (for the American Film Institute)
• 1978 Landscapes (for the American Film Institute)
• 1978 Just for a Laugh (for the American Film Institute)
• 1978 The Watcher (for the American Film Institute)
• 1979 The Lady in Red
• 1979 Up from the Depths

1980s[link]

1990s[link]

2000s[link]

2010s[link]

• 2010 The Karate Kid
• 2011 Black Gold^[17]
• 2012 Cristiada (aka For Greater Glory)
• 2012 The Amazing Spider-Man
• 2013 The Song of Names^[13]

Television[link]

• 1981 A Few Days in Weasel Creek
• 1982 A Piano for Mrs. Cimino
• 1983 Between Friends
• 1985 Amazing Stories (Episode: "Alamo Jobe")
• 1985 Faerie Tale Theatre (Episode: "The Pied Piper of Hamelin")
• 1985 Surviving
• 1990 Tales from the Crypt (Episode: "Cutting Cards")
• 1990 Extreme Close-Up
• 1992 Crossroads (theme)
• 1992 Fish Police (theme and pilot episode)
• 2000 Freedom Song
• 2006 CBS Evening News

Short films[link]

• 1985 Let's Go
• 1986 Captain EO (shown at Walt Disney theme parks worldwide)
• 1989 Tummy Trouble
• 1991 Norman and the Killer

Concert works[link]

• 1976: "Conversations"
• 1977: "Spectral Shimmers"
• 1998: "Titanic Suite"
• 2000: "A Forest Passage"

Miscellaneous works[link]

• Logo music for Universal Pictures (1990–1997), Lionsgate, Icon Productions and CBS Films.
• THX trailer "Cimarron"
• Music for the P-51 aerobatic flight team "The Horsemen"^[18][19]

Awards and nominations[link]

Horner has won two Academy Awards for Best Original Score (Titanic) and Best Original Song ("My Heart Will Go On") in 1998, and has been nominated for Oscars an additional eight times. He has also won two Golden Globe Awards, three Satellite Awards, three Saturn Awards, and has been nominated for three BAFTA Awards.

AFI[link]

In 2005, the American Film Institute unveiled their list of America's top twenty-five film scores. Five of Horner's scores were among 250 nominees, making him the most nominated composer to not make the top twenty-five:^[20]

• Apollo 13 (1995)
• Braveheart (1995)
• Field of Dreams (1989)
• Glory (1989)
• Titanic (1997)

List of accolades[link]

Grammy

• 1988: An American Tail
• 1988: "Somewhere Out There" (from: An American Tail, Winner)
• 1990: Field of Dreams
• 1991: Glory (Winner)
• 1996: "Whatever You Imagine" (from: The Pagemaster)
• 1999: "My Heart Will Go On" (from: Titanic, Winner)
• 2003: A Beautiful Mind

References[link]

External links[link]

• James Horner at the Internet Movie Database
• James Horner interview (1983) from CinemaScore magazine