Catherine Gotthoffer Donation
Catherine first learned the violin when she was a child, but when she was about 10 or 12 she had her eyes set on a beautiful harp she saw in an antique shop. Throughout high school she played both instruments, but in the end Catherine decided to focus soley on the harp. Catherine made her first cinematic debut with the Meremblum Orchestra: Paramount’s The Hardboiled Canary. Afterward, Catherine decided to go to Music school and enrolled at the Juilliard Institute of Musical Arts and was taught there by Mr. Grandjany. Catherine met her husband Bob, a trumpeter, while at Juilliard. After World War II, Catherine and her husband moved to New York and played together in the Symphony Orchestra among other ensembles. Eventually Catherine was hired at MGM studios and found her home in Hollywood. Some films that she performed for include: Singing the Rain; An American in Paris; West Side Story; Gigi; Kiss Me Kate; High Society; Dr. Zhivago; The Godfather and Godfather II; Bad Day at Blackrock; My Fair Lady; Barefoot in the Park; and Beetlejuice.
Adapted from: Eric Smith. “The Hollywood Studio Trio: Ann Mason Stockton, Catherine Gotthoffer and Dorothy Remsen on the Harp in Film.” American Harp Journal 17 (Winter 1999): 7.