Phil Moore (1917-1987) was a composer, performer, arranger, and talent coach best known for the role he played in reshaping the performances of film and musical stars beginning in the early 1940s. His client roster included Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Bing Crosby, Tommy Dorsey, Hazel Scott, Pearl Bailey, Ava Gardner, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Quincy Jones, Jerry Butler, Marilyn Monroe, Diahann Carroll, and many, many others. He contributed to the music of at least three dozen films and cartoons (many uncredited) including those produced by companies such as Million Dollar Productions, MGM, Paramount, and UPA Pictures. He also served in a number of capacities for various record labels, as well as radio and television programs. His contributions to the sound of pop culture throughout his life are so varied and wide-ranging, that it is almost impossible to gather them in one place, and yet a monograph-length biography on Moore's life has yet to be published.

According to Moore's official adoption record, he was born in Portland, Oregon, on 20 February 1917, and adopted by George Philip and Iris Irene Moore on 7 March 1917. George Moore was himself an orphan. After running away from an orphanage in Leavenworth, Kansas, he had worked his way across Texas and the American West and built his fortune running fighting and gambling rings. He eventually settled in Portland and took up a partnership with W. D. Allen at the Golden West Hotel where he ran the "George Moore's Golden West Athletic Club" located in the hotel's basement. The club included a boxing ring and a hidden card room. George Moore also worked as a fight promoter in Milwaukie, Oregon, from 1919-1922 and as a promoter of mixed-race fights in New York City from 1922-1946. Additionally, he served as a manager to a number of African-American boxers, including former World Champion Henry Armstrong beginning in 1942.

George Moore's income and his and his wife's light coloring allowed them to purchase a home in a white, middle-class neighborhood at 494 E. 47th St. North (note that Portland underwent a renumbering project, but the house, which is no longer standing, was located near the intersections of NE Thompson St. and NE 47th Ave.). Their neighbors appear to have been unaware that they were African American until they adopted Phil, who had a darker complexion. Although the family did receive threats from the local KKK, including a burning cross and graffiti tarred across the side of their home, George Moore's underground connections provided them with the protection necessary for them remain in the neighborhood.

Aside from this and a few other harsh memories, Phil Moore described his childhood as like that of any other "All-American Boy." He attended the Rose City Park Grammar School and took piano lessons from highly sought after piano instructor and Portland Symphony orchestra conductor Professor Edgar Coursen. One weekends he attended church services and social events with his mother at the Bethel AME Methodist Church. A series of audiocassettes that Moore recorded in preparation for writing his autobiography paint an idyllic life of Sunday drives, weekends golfing with his mother, summer camps, and grade school boy hijinks like taking apart the family's Maytag washer to motorize his go-cart. These stories are peppered with off-hand references to learning to tune and repair pianos by the age of eight and memories of having celebrities such as Duke Ellington, Bill Robinson Bojangles, and the family of Sammy Davis Jr. over for dinner after their performances at the local Orpheum and Heilig Theatres.

When the stock market crashed in 1929, W. D. Allen lost ownership of the Golden West Hotel and the Moore Family lost both their home and life savings when the Ladd and Tilden Bank went bust. Phil Moore remained in town with a friend of the family's while he finished out his first term at Grand High School. Around this time he performed a piano concerto with the Portland Junior Symphony Orchestra. Following this experience, he decided that classical music was too confining and enrolled in a few jazz lessons with composer and actor Harry Fields.

At some point in 1930, Phil Moore moved in with his parents at the Governor Apartments on 311 6th Ave S. in the International District of Seattle—a building in a rough neighborhood located a short walk away from the city's red light district. The entrance exam for the Seattle school system placed Moore in his senior year, and he graduated after just two years of secondary school at the age of 13. Since the family was in desperate need of income, Moore began playing piano with Frank Waldron's band at the Chinese Gardens. He quickly found that his background in classical music, experience with jazz, and his ability to sight read made him a valuable asset in Seattle's speakeasies and burlesque houses, while his father's social connections with the men and women who operated them kept him out of serious trouble. Moore continued to hone his skills as a jazz pianist in these environments. While in Seattle, Phil also attended the Cornish School and the University of Washington.

Around 1935, Phil Moore moved with his parents to Los Angeles and lived at 1263 W 36th St. He began to play at local nightclubs such as Club Alabam, the Lincoln, and the Plantation Club, often working with the Bronze Recording Orchestra, which was owned by George Moore's friend John Levy. By 1937, Phil also began to arrange and rehearse jazz numbers for Hollywood films such as the Marx Brother's A Day at the Races (MGM, 1937) and The Duke Is Tops (Million Dollar Productions/Norman Distributing, 1938). Through these early films he met future stars such as Dorothy Dandridge and Lena Horne. He also appeared as a performer in a few of the films. For instance, he can be seen playing piano on the jazz number "Harlem Yodel" with the Cats and the Fiddle and the Dandridge Sisters for Snow Gets in Your Eyes (MGM, 1938). During this time Moore also married his first wife, Neva Mary Peoples (22 November 1937); their son George Philip Moore III was born on 8 June 1939.

Moore received a contract to work with MGM as a rehearsal pianist in 1941, but as of the 1940 census he already was listing his occupation in 1939 as "musical director" for the motion picture industry. He earned an annual wage of $1200 for 35 weeks of work during that year. He also did freelance work scoring work for Paramount, Columbia, and RKO. His films from 1939-1944 included the list below (As his work was often uncredited, this is likely to be incomplete):

Around 1943, Phil Moore worked for fifteen months as an Expert Consultant Music Director for the US Army on the Armed Forces Radio Service's Jubilee program and also performed in several episodes. His contributions to the war effort also included serving as an arranger for the film The Negro Soldier (1944). Although the date of his divorce from Neva Peoples is unclear, he was briefly married to actress Jeni Legon beginning in 1943.

In 1944 or 1945, Moore headed to New York to become the first black talent director for CBS radio and an associate and score arranger for its Mildred Bailey Show. He also worked as a chief arranger for NBC. Additional accomplishments listed in an 8 September 1945 advertisement in Billboard and a 1956 issue of The Negro History Bulletin include a seven-month run at the Café Society Uptown and Café Society Downtown with the Phil Moore Four; a twelve-week run at the Copacabana (New York); a four-week run at Ciro's (Philadelphia); appearances at Loew's State Theater (New York), the Brown Derby (Washington, DC), State Theatre (Hartford), the Capitol (New York), and Mocambo (Hollywood); his own variety program on WNEW; and guest appearances on NBC's Chesterfield Supper Club, Kraft Music Hall, and Music Loves America Best, as well as WHN's Gloom Dodgers Program.

Following the end of a recording contract with Victor Records in 1946 (start date undetermined), Phil Moore was contracted to record sixteen sides for Black & White Records including sessions with Lena Horne and Annette Warren. This was followed by recording sessions with Musicraft around 1947 and Discovery Records around 1948. He worked on several releases by Columbia in 1949 that featured Frank Sinatra backed by the Phil Moore Four including "Bop Goes My Heart" and "Why Can't You Behave." Moore also toured with the Phil Moore Four (Milt Hinton, Marty Wilson, Johnny Letman, and Jimmy Lyons) and served as the executive VP of A&R for Discovery Records during this time.

In 1950, Moore was called upon to work with Marilyn Monroe as a vocal and talent coach and helped launch her singing career. A year later, Moore took Dorothy Dandridge under his wing. He had first worked with Dandridge in 1937 and 1938 for MGM's A Day at the Races and Snow Gets in Your Eyes and had made musical arrangements for the Dandridge Sisters and the Jimmie Lunceford band in 1940. Dandridge worked regularly in film until 1944, at which point her on-screen career seems to have temporarily faltered. In his autobiography, Bobby Short commented that Dandridge's decision to take on Moore as her coach and their act at the Mocambo in 1951 marked a turning point in her career. Although a decent nightclub performer, Moore felt that Dandridge couldn't compete with Horne's act and decided to further hone her film persona. This proved successful and Dandridge went on to act in a number of pictures including her highly acclaimed starring roles in Carmen Jones (1953) and Porgy and Bess (1959). Moore served as Dandridge's manager until they severed both her contract and a romantic relationship in March of 1952. While her manager, he had considerable control over every nuance of Dandridge's performances ranging from where and what she performed to her choice of makeup and gowns.

Not content to simply serve as Monroe and Dandridge's manager, from 1950-1952 Moore also composed music for UPA Pictures musical animation based on the story of Frankie and Johnny, Rooty-Toot-Toot (1951); composed over 150 3- to 4-minute musical films for Snader Telescriptions in Los Angeles in addition to serving as a musical director, talent coordinator, bandleader, and pianist for the company. He also opened a studio at Carnegie Hall and worked as an arranger for The Big Show hosted by Tallulah Bighead on NBC, New York.

In 1953 he released two beat era Christmas songs for RCA Victor: "Blink before Christmas" and "Chinchy Old Scrooge." The record was banned by Cleveland radio stations after the city's Board of Education charged that it was a "harmful influence" for children and in Pensacola, Florida because radio officials felt the jive lyrics were naughty (Jet, 24 December 1953, p. 62). In early 1954, Moore became a manager for Bobby Short. Although it is unclear when Moore formed his For Singers Only School in New York, by this year it had attracted the attention of the Pittsburgh Courier, which ran a March 13th piece describing how no fewer than six national magazines had taken to photographing Moore's students, who included:

"the nation's top model, Nancy Berg; Tina Louise, from 'Almanac'; Helen Gallagher, star of 'Hazel Flagg' and 'Pal Joey'; model Vivian Cervantes and others. Meanwhile his latest hit thrush, Helene Dixon, has been touring the uptown deejays with him to plug their combined efforts on 'My Reward Is Loving You.'"

Sometime before 1957, he composed a series of children's educational pieces including "Ben Franklin and the Little Conductor" and "Robert Fulton and the Steam Boat" and made 80 transcriptions for Standard Radio's Flight with Music and Larry Finley. In 1956 Moore was hired to co-write the music for two episodes of UPA Pictures' Gerald McBoing-Boing Show: "Meet the Inventor: Samuel F. B. Morse" and "Meet the Inventor: Eli Whitney." In 1958, he composed music for a Tang commercial animated in connection with UPA Pictures; he also composed music for General Electric refrigerator commercials in 1960.

Moore continued to make on-screen appearances in Hollywood films throughout the 1940s and into the mid-1960s: Stars on Parade (1946), This Joint Is Jumpin' (1947), A Song Is Born (1947), Double Dynamite (1951), and In Harm's Way (1965). His miniature music production, Phil Moore Flock, was featured on season 5, episode 12 of Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town (1952 November 30) and enjoyed an extended run at La Vie en Rose in New York.

In 1961, Phil Moore released his For Singers Only training kit (VeeJay Records)—a four-volume set, each of which included the booklet "Your Career Singing," orchestrations, and an LP that the purchaser could use to refine his or her skills and record demo tapes. The kit sparked a resurgence in Moore's popularity. Swank magazine hailed him as the "Swinging Svengali" in its March 1961 issue (the article was reprinted in Swank Annual) and discussed his role in shaping stars such as Monroe and Dandridge. Golden Age comic strip artist Leonard Starr featured Phil Moore as a character in his cartoon "On Stage" from May-June 1961, a decision that stirred up some minor controversy due to Moore's race and his presentation as the central character. In January of 1961, Moore also revealed he had been married to white model and actress Rita Colton for two years (at a time when interracial marriages were still prohibited in 24 states). Colton was also the mother of Moore's daughter Joanna Irene Moore.

Moore's career seems to slow down for a while at this point. He became the president of Artists and Music Concepts, Inc. (AJAX) in 1964, coached actress and singer Diahann Carroll, and wrote charts for Jerry Butler's performances of "Brand New Me" and "Where Are You Going" for his appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1969. Little else seems to be publicly available about his activities up until 1974. In that year he moved back to Los Angeles where he worked with Pam Grier's nightclub act and served as a musical director for the Duke Ellington: We Love You Madly and Cotton Club '75 television specials. According to the 21 November 1974 issue of the Gallup Independent (New Mexico), Moore had to step away from the latter position to undergo open-heart surgery.

In the latter half of the 1970s, Moore assisted the final incarnation of the Supremes with their act. In 1977 he worked on the Miss Black America Pageant and composed music for Freeman, a made-for-TV movie. In 1980 he served as a composer for Uptown: A Tribute to the Apollo Theatre. He also began serving as the musical director for the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame's annual Oscar Micheaux Award Ceremony (into which he was inducted in 1981). He was the host and producer of the Ad Lib jazz television program in 1981, as well.

For the most part, however, Moore seems to have turned an increasing amount of attention to live performances in smaller venues, teaching singing workshops, and arranging performances for his students during the final decade of his life. He may have also started a California school for singers with his wife Jeanne called Get Your Act Together during this time. A few of the more notable names among his later students are Dianne Reeves, Marni Nixon, and Georgia Holt (mother of Cher).

Throughout his life, Moore recorded and released a number of his own compositions including "Fantasy for Girl and Orchestra," "Fugue for Barroom Piano," "Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra," "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra," "Portrait of Leda," "Shoo Shoo Baby," "Blow Out the Candle" and many, many others. A number of the larger works clearly go back to his rootss in Western Art music and range from baroque-style fugues for baroom piano to space exotica for orchestra and soprano voice without lyrics. During an interview on the Pacesetters talk show, Moore responded to host Larry McCormick's repeated praise of his skills as a pianist by stating that his preferred musical instrument was the orchestra. He also compared finding and developing stars to selecting and nurturing flowers.

Moore began working on his autobiography in 1978 with jazz producer and journalist Jack Tracy, but the project seems to have stalled. Following the loss of his 45-year-old son, Phil Moore III, to heart disease on 21 August 1984, Moore's generally existential view of life grew noticeably darker and he turned back to his book project. This time he gave it the working title Things I Forgot to Tell You. With the help of his third wife, Jeanne Moore, he was able to record several dozen cassettes containing interviews and reminiscences and to complete several drafts of the manuscript (the final one is dated 8 August 1986). Jack Tracy furnished a synopsis to circulate to publishers in 1987. Moore passed away at the age of 70 from heart complications on 13 May 1987.