Wars works as a copyist and arranger. He can’t find a full-time job, but keeps composing. Between 1947 and 1951, he writes a four-movement Symphony No. 1 for orchestra, the City Sketches orchestral suite, a three-part Sonatina for orchestra and a piano concerto. Some of his sheet music won’t be discovered until 2002.
In Hollywood, he débuts with his score for Harry L. Fraser’s Chained for Life in 1951. He soon realises the film business is all feast or famine. He works for the most prominent film studios, but his name doesn’t always make it to the final credits. After some lean years, success finally comes, however.
In 1955, he writes music for a sports comedy Ski Crazy! by Gordon McLean. The movie becomes a breakthrough for his American career. In the following years, Wars works for the greatest producers: Columbia, Universal, 20th Century Fox, MGM, United Artists and Paramount.
Wars composes film scores for over 30 films and TV series, including Seven Men from Now by Budd Boetticher, China Doll by Frank Borzage and Flipper, a feature film for teenagers by James B. Clark. He works with John Wayne, and his songs are sung by Bing Crosby and Margaret Witting, Doris Day and Jimmy Rogers.
Over time, Henryk Wars’s American home becomes the destination for numerous pilgrimages of the Polish artistic bohemia. Krzysztof Komeda brings his new music there to show it to Henryk, and the Wars household is frequented by such guests as Mrożek, Osiecka, Grynberg or Polański. Wars visits Poland just once, in 1967. He dies in Los Angeles on 1st September 1977, after a long illness.
Translated by Agata Zano