Carmen Dragon

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Carmen Dragon (July 28, 1914 – March 28, 1984) was an American conductor, composer, and arranger.

Carmen was born in Antioch, California. He was very active in pops music conducting and composed scores for several films, including At Gunpoint (1955), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Night into Tomorrow (1951), and Kiss Tomorrow Good-bye (1950). He conducted the orchestra for the popular musical Cover Girl (1944 film), starring Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly, which featured songs by Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin.

He received both an Oscar and an Emmy award.

Of the legacies left behind by Carmen Dragon, the most accessible are the many wonderful orchestrations of pops and light classics available for rental through Carmen Dragon Music Library. His arrangement of "America the Beautiful" is played by "The President's Own" United States Marine Band, and by countless school and community bands across the country. Dragon's lush arrangements are appreciated by conductors and musicians for their rich musical content and diversity of style, and every audience enjoys his unique way of expressing emotion through music.

He conducted the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra and they performed on the "Standard Oil Hour" which was broadcast on NBC for elementary schools in the late 1940s. The show was sponsored by the Standard Oil Company of California (now Chevron Corporation), but other than the name there were no commercials. The program featured a high quality introduction to classical music for young people growing up in the 1940s and early 1950s.

His son, Daryl Dragon, is half of the husband-wife group known as The Captain and Tennille. Another of his sons, Dennis, was the founding member of the tongue-in-cheek punk rock group, The Surf Punks.

His daughter, also Carmen Dragon, was a member of "The Leftovers" about 1965. Known members were: Vicki Vollaerts, lead singer, Lynda Wagner, drums, Tina Lenert, base guitar, Wendy Fitz, keyboards, and Scott O'Neal, guitar.

A school named after him opened in his hometown of Antioch in 2004.