History of CBS Records 30th Street Studio NYC (many pictures)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by DMortensen, Oct 21, 2014.

  1. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Where at Columbia he recorded it, I don't know. I do know this: The Columbia matrix slate had giant reverb on it. That means a big room, right?
     
  2. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    I.I.N.M., 799 Seventh did have a stairwell that provided the reverb . . . but also, in proximity that would have been closer to Gleason's then-digs at the Park Sheraton at 870 Seventh, than 30th Street . . .
     
  3. DMortensen

    DMortensen Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Seattle, WA USA
    Loving the Art Carney/Jackie Gleason discussion. Here's an intricate picture of Ralph Kramden in situ, taken Saturday:

    [​IMG]

    In other news:

    We're going to visit DeeAnne Hunstein on Wednesday for lunch and show her this thread and some pictures.

    If you want to pass along good wishes to her about Don this would be a good time to post it. Also, she mentioned that Rolling Stone has an obit, and here it is:

    Don Hunstein, 'Freewheelin' Bob Dylan' Photographer, Dead at 88
     
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  4. DMortensen

    DMortensen Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Seattle, WA USA
    We had a delightful lunch and afternoon yesterday with DeeAnne Hunstein. She had my full tamarindo beverage with ice dumped on her at the beginning of the meal when the waitress didn't pay attention while serving, but she got dried out out and the rest was uneventful. She filled us in on Don's career and many non-musical photographic projects he had done, which made me want to see them but there wasn't time. He spent quite a bit of time in Europe before working with CBS.

    I showed her the pictures of Don that I had and gave them to her, and she was quite happy to see him at such an early age. It seemed like we all had a nice time.
     
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  5. DMortensen

    DMortensen Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Seattle, WA USA
    While getting pictures ready to show DeeAnne, I went up into an area of the Plaut collection that I haven't yet fully catalogued, and found this picture

    [​IMG]

    and realized I don't really know where it was. Any ideas? There is a double set of what looks like half width doors, and linoleum, and a fire extinguisher, and maybe some other doors?

    I thought at first that was Bernstein doing some exercises, but when I go to the pictures around that one he is not to be seen. But there are some other interesting pics with unusual angles:

    [​IMG]

    This one is a pretty good look at the back of the console and the producer's desk; that fabric panel looks like it would be pretty easy to remove to get into the guts of the console/desk.

    That's Thomas Z. Shepard (Sheppard? I can never remember if he spells it with one Z or two) looking quite young. He and everyone else in the pictures, and there must be 100 overall because there's male and female choruses, orchestra, and an inordinate number of hangers-on, are unidentified except for Franz Allers. I'm posting this before leaving for the Sony Archives for the first time and don't want to take the time to look Mr. Allers up.

    You can see the window on the right (left wall of the new control room as you face the studio) which is often not visible in pictures; why is it there? What is it looking into, or allowing someone in there to look into the control room? You can also see the door in the back of the room, closed.

    [​IMG]

    In this shot we can ALMOST see through that window into that space. It's hard to know if what we're seeing is reflection of the control room or view into that other space. It does look like there's a piece of paper taped on the other side of that window; why is that?

    Here's a shot where we can see a little through that back door

    [​IMG]

    Feel free to tell me what you see, but what I think I see is some "acoustical" tile with the holes in it on a wall that is perpendicular to the door opening, and either the door or the corner of that tile wall opening into a hallway.

    Lastly, here's an intriguing shot looking over the console and through the control room window into the studio, where the orchestra is on the left and male and female choirs are straight ahead. There's a lot of control room reflection in the window, which I think is making it look like there's a low ceiling in the studio space.

    [​IMG]

    Recognize anybody?

    Pictures are from MSS 52, The Frederick and Rose Plaut Papers in the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library of Yale University, gathered with the help of Richard Boursey and Emily Ferrigno, wonderful librarians.
     
  6. lukpac

    lukpac Senior Member

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    Excellent shots, all post mid-1962.

    Same floor that's in the control room, but otherwise, I don't know. Presumably in the vicinity of the control room. Door that opens to the left and a wood frame.

    That's the door, about half open. You can faintly see the metallic half circle plate in the middle of the right side of the door.
     
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  7. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    Is that a piece of paper, or is it yet another window, facing out to, say, a well-let hallway or something?
    [​IMG]
     
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  8. Walter H

    Walter H Santa's Helper

    Location:
    New Hampshire, USA
    No time at the moment to research on the web, but Allers conducted musicals and operetta, and he did a few projects for Columbia. Shepard looks so young! Must be early sixties.
     
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  9. lukpac

    lukpac Senior Member

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    Not to answer your questions, but looking now, that window was removed by the time of Company. At about 7:50, there's a shot of Sondheim standing just about where the person on the right is sitting in the photo, albeit at a slightly different angle. You can see the pegboard on the wall to the left, with acoustic tiles to the right of it, although the tiles had been changed*: in the film they are squares rather than the long rectangles seen in the photo. At 7:58 the camera pans to the right as Sondheim leaves for the studio, and you can see about 6' of the acoustic tiles, about 2' of pegboard, and then the door that leads to the hallway that goes to the studio. No window.

    Some of these details may help date some photos.

    *The tiles on the west wall changed, but the tiles on the south (rear) wall appear to be the same in the film.
     
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  10. lukpac

    lukpac Senior Member

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    The window was there for Anyone Can Whistle, apparently recorded April 5, 1964 (it opened on April 4, a Saturday):

    [​IMG]

    More control room shots from that session:

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
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  11. lukpac

    lukpac Senior Member

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    I very quickly scanned through photo galleries from the Masterworks Broadway site for shows between 1964 and 1970.

    The King And I, June 1, 5, and 11, 1964. Window present:

    [​IMG]

    Unfortunately, while there are a lot of great control room shots, that's the only one I can find of that particular area.
     
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  12. lukpac

    lukpac Senior Member

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    Dan, might I suggest some more research the next time you get to Yale:

    Yale Finding Aid Database : Guide to the Thomas Z. Shepard Papers

    "Thomas Z. Shepard is a 12-time Grammy Award winner, producing both Classical and Broadway projects. The collection contains a wide variety of material relating to Shepard's work at Columbia and RCA Victor from approximately 1960-1990, along with some personal materials dating from the early 2000s. The largest part of the collection comprises production materials, such as text, music, and correspondence related to specific projects, and photographs taken during recording sessions."
     
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  13. DMortensen

    DMortensen Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Seattle, WA USA
    Sure, you can suggest it, not sure when that will be. Definitely not this trip.

    Wife and I spent the afternoon in the CBS archives at Sony today. We got into the studio appointment books, she on one and me on another. I brought two laptops so we could each enter in session data, which is vastly less than that in the A.F.M. Reports. I wanted to get a sense of what doing that will be like.

    First, it was a tremendous shock and disappointment to discover that there is NO studio reservation information for the entire years 1946-50, and from the way the books are numbered sequentially 1-30 or whatever there has never been reservation information for those years. The books skip from Jan-Dec 1945 to Jan-Dec 1951.

    When I pointed it out, Tom the archivist was also surprised. He said he would ask someone who was around during those years if they might know what happened to that information.

    My wife did 1951 and I did 1952. She got 52 new entries in 2.5 or so hours, which got her to about February 9, and I got 79 new entries or confirmed locations for sessions I already had and 13 locations confirmed as NOT being in 30th St for sessions I already had, and I completed March 19.

    This is pretty slow going on the one hand, on the other hand it was pretty cool seeing all the new sessions that I had no idea about as well as learning the definitive locations of sessions instead of having the ambiguity.

    The last thing I'll comment on now is that it was fascinating to see that the Steinway pianos were scheduled regularly for what were listed as "Overhaul"s once every month and a half or so (not sure about precise frequency, since there were exactly two during the time period). One has to assume that tunings were done both more often and whenever the tuner could get in.

    That's it for now, I go back next Monday.
     
  14. DMortensen

    DMortensen Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Seattle, WA USA
    Viewing my original as large as I can, I see an opaque rectangle inside a translucent rectangle, with a man's reflection both inside the opaque rectangle and outside the boundaries of the translucent rectangle, passing through both, as well as reflections of the paintings or posters which are in the machine room on the opposite side of the control room from this window.

    I also see a frame with rivets or screws framing this side (control room side) of the window, with what appears to be a thickness of wall behind the frame/edge of the window, and then another frame with rivets or screws in the plane of the opaque and translucent squares. I can't tell if there is anything visible beyond the opaque rectangle which is not a reflection.

    Can you see anything else, or do you see that window differently?
     
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  15. DMortensen

    DMortensen Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Seattle, WA USA
    These and the others are good finds. Luke!
     
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  16. DMortensen

    DMortensen Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Seattle, WA USA
    Wow, looking more closely at this picture: The horn section is to the left rear, the male and female choirs are straight ahead, and the whole rest of the visible studio is covered with orchestra! That's a big session!
     
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  17. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    R-4526145-1367383159-3229.jpeg.jpg
    When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd (Hindemith) - Wikipedia
    ??
     
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  18. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    Hmmm...the Odyssey CD reissue says it was recorded in Philharmonic Hall, so probably not. Sorry about the false alarm.
     
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  19. GLouie

    GLouie Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    Hi folks, finally joining, a Friend of Dan as mentioned a few times. Not an expert on 30th st, though.
    -Gary
     
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  20. vanhooserd

    vanhooserd Senior Member

    Location:
    Nashville,TN
    I believe the lovely young woman is Lee Remick. And of course that's Angela Lansbury. And Goddard Lieberson. Apparently the cast album did OK even thought the musical was a flop.
     
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  21. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    Gary! Welcome!
    --Matt Lutthans
     
  22. DMortensen

    DMortensen Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Seattle, WA USA
    Definitely Lee Remick. There's lots of pictures of her with Goddard hanging around her, which I would have done, too. She seems pretty cool.
     
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  23. DMortensen

    DMortensen Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Seattle, WA USA
    Yes, same here!

    Finally!! You can now speak for yourself!
     
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  24. lukpac

    lukpac Senior Member

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    Yes, I didn't copy them over, but most people are identified on the Masterworks page I linked to with the photos. Credits too (Don Hunstein in this case).
     
  25. vanhooserd

    vanhooserd Senior Member

    Location:
    Nashville,TN
    I've always had a crush on her.
     
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