Yes, it has, but it is a wonderful picture on many levels and deserves attention. I believe the last time it was posted we used the visible logo on the left speaker's grill to learn what those monitors were (JBL C34, thanks to Lukpac). I'm using a 25 post per page view, and it's referred to on page 73.
This picture from the Plaut Collection was posted quite a few months ago, and I didn't know anyone in it but Franz Allers and Thomas Z. Shepard. Neither did anyone else, IIRC. Nice view of the front of the desk, huh? I've been doing some sleuthing and can now ID all the men in it: From L-R: Seated: Franz Allers (Conductor); Thomas Z. Shepard (Recording Producer); unknown; George Schaefer (Show Producer); Morton Da Costa (Director and Creator). Standing: Peter J. Lang (Orchestrator); unknown; Jerry Bock (Co-composer with Sheldon Harnick). The woman with Bock looks a bit like Dorothy Fields, but I'm not sure it's her and haven't found anything indicating she was associated with this project. No idea who the other woman is. The session was for "To Broadway With Love", a spectacular and spectacularly expensive production presented at the Texas Pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair. I haven't yet found the exact date but I haven't looked, either. An unflinching review of it is at ON THE RECORD: Bock & Harnick's To Broadway With Love, Plus Wildcat and Take Me Along | Playbill
And since we were talking about the Budapest String Quartet, here is a picture from the Plaut collection which is a puzzler: It's a picture of the Quartet, but in the playing pictures there's five people playing. One extra violist, I think. This is the best one of their faces; any idea who the guest is? I think I know it's not Milton Katims, as he's in a different series in Liederkranz, but I could be wrong. He was the Seattle Symphony conductor for many years, and I think I would recognize him even from this era. Speaking of the era, the Ampex 350 in the portable case is in the picture; any ideas when it would have been in use? The best guess now is sometime between 1949 and '56, but it didn't come out in 1949 so that end could be narrowed.
I think the earliest I've seen literature for the Ampex 350 was 1953, unless they were floating it around in 1951 or so?
OK, great! So in this picture we have in front from L-R: Boris Kroyt; Mischa Schneider. Rear: Walter Trampler, Alexander Schneider, Joseph Roisman. Yes? I know we talked before about Walter Trampler but I'd forgotten his name until you said it again. So this is likely 1957? And this is likely the Mozart Quintets? Howard Scott to the right of the Ampex 350 Two Channel Recorder. Thanks!
Another thing I've been working on is finding out who this fellow is (pic from the Plaut collection): That's Dave Brubeck on the left. There are other pics of the unknown man. I decided separately to look for images of Cal Lampley, who produced Miles Davis' "Porgy and Bess" among other things, and sure enough, that's who he is. Calvin Lampley. Frank Laico, who recorded "Porgy and Bess", said that Cal was a nice guy. I did a search of this forum after ID'ing him, and although there were mentions of his work there were no pictures. Now there is at least one here. Thanks to someone named Martin Gladu, we have a wealth of information about him. AfriClassical: Search results for Lampley Who Was Cal Lampley? | Jazz | Musicians Lots more pictures and info there. That is a lot of good research. Looking for Martin, he seems to be a pro. Martin Gladu member page on All About Jazz
Here's another from the Plaut Collection: For a long time I thought it was Andre and Dory Previn, but looking at them again and other pictures of him and them from other sources, I don't think it's them. Any idea who it is? He sure looks familiar.
Dang, he looks familiar because it's Andre Kostelanetz, and that's his either new or future wife Sara Gene Orcutt. She was about 32 when they married in 1960, and although it's not a diamond, other pictures from the series show her with a big ring on the married finger and showing it in the way women do when they are showing off a ring. It lasted about 3 years. Maybe Fred was their wedding photographer? This must have been either in 1960 or just before.
Yep. Looks more like 1974 or thereabouts. @DMortensen Certainly not André Previn. But I'm pretty sure it isn't Kostelanetz, either. My analogue facial recognition says it's not. Here's Kostelanetz: And here's him with Sara Gene Orcutt. Definitely not her, either:
My take on that video, which I did watch, is that it is a bit later and she's had a chance to get perked up. Agreed that his hairstyle and muttonchops do look later than 1960, though. I thought this picture with longer hair and from a different year might have been right. The eye, nose, and mouth spacing look similar to the photo to me, but I do agree that the mystery guy's styling is not from 1960. Shoot, I thought a mystery was solved. I do think that the mystery woman, Sara Gene Orcutt, and Dory Previn (from that time, as shown in the "So Long Big Time" segment of the Harold Arlen documentary tribute) look remarkably similar. Sadly for us, the link on the first page of this thread to that video doesn't work anymore, and the Dory Previn segment was edited out of it, anyway, but it's in the wonderful video which is still available from Amazon at a comparatively reasonable price. The Company DVD was around $200 used, now it's $35 plus and a little under $100 new, all from third party sellers. If I can find a capture from the movie of Dory I'll post it. It's great to have such a crack team of fact checkers!
As penance for that misidentification, here are three relevant pictures from the Plaut Collection: That's Sara? Here is Dory, with Andre P, from the Arlen movie: Could be sisters AFAIC. That's Teo in the top picture talking with Sara. Who's that on the left? There's not a better pic in that sequence, alas.
There's the two of them together. Here's another shot of the happy couple, and I agree he doesn't look like Kostelanetz in this picture at all. Plus the sweet ring.
Re: FRED PLAUT My name is Alan John Ainsworth. I am a photographer and writer based in London. I am currently researching a book on American jazz photography in the twentieth century and I've become interested in Fred Plaut's work. I would be really pleased to hear from anyone who might have known Fred and could share a few thoughts about his photography. I know that Fred's work was much wider than simply jazz musicians and I'm interested in his approach to photography in general. I am also keen to know more about his early life in Germany and France before he moved to the United States. If you might have any memories or suggestions, please do get in touch at [email protected]. Thanks! Alan
A little background: Alan and I talked on the phone yesterday and I suggested he post in this thread, as the likelihood seems greater to me that someone familiar with and possibly having known Fred would be reading this thread than getting a result from simply posting a new thread. Does that seem reasonable? He found me through the Yale Librarians, which I thought was pretty cool. Offhand I can only think of a couple people currently alive who knew Fred, and don't know of anyone who knew him solely or even predominantly for his photography. Alan, we here will be very interested to hear any progress reports you feel like sharing with us. I've pointed out in this thread that Fred was super-aware of the presence of photographers wherever he was, and that there are many more pictures of photographers in his collection than those of audio engineers. Anybody aware of album jackets that have Fred's pictures? Other than The Goldberg Variations...
The following is somewhat related to this thread; should I start a separate thread and link it? There is a photo archive in Wilmington, Delaware at the Hagley Library, which is the abandoned RCA corporate archives which was curated by Frederick Barnum and is now titled for him. Hagley Museum and Library: Frederick O. Barnum III collection of RCA Victor Company negatives (1995.220) -- Audiovisual Collections and Digital Initiatives Department He and his staff apparently did this extensive curating of it, with that linked index as a result. There will be pictures of LOTS of stuff there that was used not only in 30th St but also all over the world. I'm thinking of going there from NYC in October for a day to look around and see what we can find; anyone interested in going with me? You don't have to commit now. To make the time there more efficient, it may make sense to go through the index and identify locations of possible material of interest. I've also posted this at historyofconcertsound.org forum at Pro Sound Web, and here is that info along with the one response. Later in the index are lots of mic pictures, but I didn't get that far when writing the summary below. =============From a concert sound history forum=========: Was sent this link today to the Index to RCA Photo Archive the introduction to which says in part: "This collection consists of negatives, a majority of which feature sound and television equipment manufactured by RCA. These images include phonographs, radios, radio-phonograph combinations, records, speakers, amplifiers, microphones, facsimile machines, televisions, equipment involved in the transmission and reception of television and radio waves, radio equipment created for use by government agencies and motion picture equipment. "Company historian Frederick O. Barnum III salvaged this collection from the abandoned photo lab on the 4th floor of Building 10 of the RCA Camden Plant, after the plant had been vacated and abandoned by successor company Martin Marietta Corporation in April 1993." So it's presumably professional photos of their equipment for a variety of reasons, some of which is various kinds of P.A. gear. The index is really thorough. There's over 120,000 images altogether, but a lot of it is not something most of us would be interested in, probably. I don't completely trust myself to recognize the relevant parts to our interests; anybody want to go through and contribute to a list of what to look for when there? I'll start the list in the next post. And I'm going to be in NYC for a month in October, and a field trip to go through this and take pictures if possible or gather prints of the cool stuff would be enjoyable and possible. If anyone wanted to join me that would only make it more fun. We can talk about that part. =======================Followup post: 01-01 (Box 1 Folder 1): Portable Public Address 01-02: School Sound, Kansas State Stadium 1934 01-06: Commercial sound rack P.D. 32, 1935 June 6 01-25: High Powered Bathing Beach Loudspeakers installation, 1937 01-37: Horn, horizontal, 1938 02-02: Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, Indiana, 1938 02-10: Union Terminal Los Angeles installation, 1939 02-16: MI-12754 Mobile Sound System, 1939 November 29 02-29: Ohio State Stadium Sound Installation, 1940 February 12 02-33: Churchill Downs Sound Installation, 1940 March 11 02-39: Battleship Arizona installation, 1940 May 9 03-03: Sound Installation Inauguration installation, 1941 February 20 There's a dozen to start it off. This will be helpful when going there to focus the searching to items of interest. And I maybe left off some interesting things without knowing what they are ("02-42: Sound Installations, 1940 July 23", for example). Altogether, there's 298 boxes and 30+ folders in each. ======================= Reply from Art Welter: Almost an overwhelming amount of photographs, a good portion of which could be thought of as "relevant"! Box #8 seems to hold a lot of the foundational horn designs. Though some of these designs may be found on the web, photos in folders 3, 5, 6, 8, 13, 14, 15, 29, & 40 may be hard to find, and certainly informative. Other boxes also look interesting: Box 147 Folder 17: 20 Watt Power Amplifier M-14236, 1935 July 12 Folder 18: P.A. Amplifier, 1935 July 17 Box 150 Folder 27: MI-12188 70 Watt Amp. "-- 4288 40 ," 1950 February 8 Box 150 Folder 28, 29: 70 Watt Amp. MI-12188, 1950 March 14 Box 151, Folder 13: 70 Watt PA Amplifier, 1957 Box 289, Folder 5: Lapel microphone, 1935 April 29 Happy hunting! ======================The end of quoted material. If you find something interesting, please post it here in that format (Box #, Folder #). There must be good pictures of those RCA compressors that CBS staff loved. BK-1 or something?
Not certain about 30th Street, but Hollywood and 49 East 52nd Street had CBS customized RCA BA-6As. RCA BA-6A Limiting Amplifier Gearslutz Pro Audio Community - View Single Post - Columbia studios in the 1960s
The image isn't showing up. Here's a link to the article: Patrick Williams, 79, Composer as Heard on TV (and Beyond), Is Dead The caption on the NY Times site says "Patrick Williams conducting the trumpeter Clark Terry and other musicians at A&R Studios in Manhattan in 1962, shortly after Mr. Williams moved to New York." It does look like 30th to me.
Caption says: Patrick Williams conducting the trumpeter Clark Terry and other musicians at A&R Studios in Manhattan in 1962, shortly after Mr. Williams moved to New York. But that's obviously the Church, no? Or am I missing something?
