Douglas Graham Shearer (1899-1971) was working in MGM’s camera department when talking pictures were the latest thing and it has been suggested that he became one of the pioneers of the practical use of sound largely because no one else expressed an interest. He said “Overnight I became the one-man sound department”.
Shearer started out adding music and sound effects to White Shadows in the South Seas (1928) and went on to win five Academy Awards, four of them for musicals. While supervising the still rudimentary sound recording on The Broadway Melody, it was Shearer who suggested playing back the pre-recorded music when Thalberg ordered the big production number be redone. He was also the impetus behind the establishment of MGM’s famed music department.
As a department head, Shearer received a credit on almost a thousand pictures during his forty-year tenure, running Cedric Gibbons a close second. But he does appear to have been very hands-on in his approach, personally developing many innovations and technical improvements in screen sound.
Shearer received Academy Awards for Naughty Marietta, San Francisco, Strike Up the Band and The Great Caruso, and nominations for Maytime, Sweethearts, Balalaika and The Chocolate Soldier. He also won an Oscar nomination for his contribution to the special effects in The Wizard of Oz.
In addition, Shearer won seven awards for scientific and technical innovations.
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