From 1943–47 he worked in Hollywood as an assistant director of music for MGM on productions including Meet Me in St. Louis and Anchors Aweigh.
In Summer 1948, he played with a singer Mildred Bailey and a dancer Avon Long at Café Society in New York City.
In 1957 he returned to Los Angeles, where he resumed work as a composer and orchestrator for television and hit musicals like Where the Boys Are and The Unsinkable Molly Brown, which was Oscar-nominated for best adapted score.
By the early 1980s, he had moved to San Diego County, where he lived in semiretirement in the Point Loma neighborhood, giving music lessons on a piano in his apartment.
In 1984 he sat in as a guest at the Sunday night jam sessions Jeannie and Jimmy Cheatham hosted at the Bahia resort on Mission Bay, playing piano and harmonica between sets and occasionally with the band.