SH Spotlight Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass Whipped Cream Video 1966: See the old Charlie Chaplin Studios

Of course. Thanks, SH. Again, really a special clip.

 

I love all this stuff, thanks for the great b/g stories and photos. The videos are a kick to watch.

Herb was pretty smooth, reminds me of a calmer Jimmy Fallon.

 

Steve, many thanks for sharing that wonderful clip. I only ever saw the first couple of frames before, where Herb arrives at the gates of the old studio. It's easy to see how Mr Alpert gets to be so highly regarded around here, he gets respect by showing respect.

 

That is a great video. It must have been the inspiration for the Get Smart Episode "The Impossible Mission" (Season 4, Episode 1). Max must play trumpet in a band "Herb Talbot and the Tijuana Tin", and in the episode are many Charlie Chaplins, running around (Agent 99 is one of them) on a film studio set. I wondered where they came up with the idea for this episode, now it all makes sense.

 

Thanks for sharing that Steve. My friend Robin Kirby worked on the Chaplin Lot for many years as a regional product manager for A&M up until the merger between Polygram and Universal happened in January of 1999. I also had a cousin that worked there during the 70's and 80's.

I'm glad to see that the Henson people have done a good job maintaining the site, and respect it for the amazing piece of history that it is.

Another fun fact about the Chaplin Lot that many people here might not know. The main soundstage was where they taped Soul Train for a number of years during the late 70's through the 80's.

 

The A&M lot was also the site of what has become one of, if not THE most missed oportunities in musical history. Sessions had all been scheduled and personnel selected for sessions that were to comprise a 3 LP collaboration of music between Frank Sinatra and Lena Horne! However, just a few days before the 1st session, Don Costa (who was to be the conductor) suddenly passed away due to a heart attack. Needless to say, due to the suddenness and shock of it all, the sessions were cancelled never to be rescheduled.

It is well documented in the book Sinatra Treasures complete with song list. It would have been an incredible collection of music by two giants.

 

Here are clips to the Get Smart Episode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItTxAQbxQIw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDHkOT6_z9k

 

Very nice video... Thanks for the link..

 

Now I feel a bit less "odd."

 

Oh yes, 1983 wasn't it? A period in their careers where it would have been particularly welcome.

 

It was very cool to see this video as it served as a reference point for me. I am currently reading the Karen Carpenter biography "Little Girl Blue" and they keep referring to the A&M lot, so its great to get a visual since my curiosity was piqued by the mentions in the book.

 

I obviously don't know him, but Herb Alpert comes off like a class act.

 

The Very Best of Herb Alpert video comp is definitely worth seeking out and he is a class act deserving the respect he gets

 

Production credit on the VERY BEST OF HERB ALPERT video compilation went to wife "Lani Hall Alpert". As I mentioned, it came out on VHS in the UK and Japan, with the Japanese also putting it on LaserDisc.

You can often find the VHS video from the UK on eBay, but it'll be in the PAL format. Some sellers sometimes offer a conversion video, but it comes out flickery at best.

The Japanese NTSC LaserDisc has some hard-coded Japanese subtitles, but not too obtrusively often.

Harry

 

I just noticed an eBay listing of the LaserDisc THE VERY BEST OF HERB ALPERT:

http://cgi.ebay.com/VERY-BEST-HERB-...ther_Formats&hash=item3cb0fc83a1#ht_631wt_909

It's $89 - well worth it, IMHO.

Harry

 

Here's a question.The only Herb Alpert record I own is Rise (A&M Audiophile half speed).I always thought that wall Herb was standing in front of with the records on it looks cool.Is that on the A&M/Chaplain lot? Is there a better picture of it,or is this the mural we see in the pictures in post #15 here?

 

I didn't know about the third party vault dump.

It's well pretty well known that Chaplin himself had a lot of his old reels and outtakes burned to avoid them being viewed again.

'Control freak' and custodian of his own (finished) films that he was, I would never guess he would leave his unused footage for just anybody to do what for.

Could it be that the picture is Chaplin sanctioned burning? Why all the timber is laying around? Not that the nitrate would have needed it.

 

Not bad for a Russian-Jewish Immigrant who'd came to America,according to SHOUT! Factory's liners in his reissues!! Susanna Hoffs is also of Russian-Jewish heritage,I've been told! Love 'em both,being from a Jewish-ran school back in the '70's and '80's! So,I've been around them long enough to get better knowladge of them!

 

Same here...

 

Same here.
My father got suckered into buying a 1st generation Ampex cassette player back in 1967. He belonged to a taper's club on the military base we lived in Ridgecrest called China Lake. Since there was no record stores around, everybody copied each other's tapes using a patch bay where one taper had the master and everyone would hook their machine up and copy it. The Ampex had no RCAs so they put a speaker up so he could mike it. Soon as the PX started carrying cassettes a year later, we got "Sounds Like", "Beat Of The Brass", and "SRO". I never knew why they kept skipping over "Going Places". My Mom & Dad had this huge Philips record player that they owned since 1956 (I still have the wrought iron stand for it). When my Dad brought home "WCAOD", it played for weeks solid. That album always brings back memories of China Lake and California.

I met both Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss at a label party for "Passion Dance". We were talking about the TV specials from the 60's expecially "The Beat Of The Brass" and the Timex specials. Moss said "he would love to put those back out but he doesn't own the rights to them". Herb Alpert signed my tan label mono "Lonely Bull" which is now framed on my wall.

 

Steve and all,

Thanks for sharing this beautiful thread. A&M to this day is one of my favorite labels of all. I smile every time I play anything with an Ochre label on it. And as a rule, they were all superb records produced and engineered with class and taste and wonderful listening.

 

Wonderful thread about an icnoic LA studio. On a footnote Chaplin used to holiday in a hotel with his family for a number of years thats just about 300 yards away from me. My mother served him breaklfast more than once.