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

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

  1. Jerry7242

    Jerry7242 New Member


    The way I understand it...at CBS the radio and TV studios used numbers, CRI used letters to designate studios.
     
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  2. Chris C

    Chris C Music was my first love and it will be my last!

    Location:
    Ohio
    I honestly don't know much about the RCA Victor studios, but would love to learn more, maybe you should start a thread about that one, as I know that you are very well schooled in pressings and such!
     
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  3. DMortensen

    DMortensen Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Seattle, WA USA
    Hi Everyone,

    This is probably as good a time as any to tell you of my upcoming travel plans, which includes a bunch of stuff relevant to this thread.

    I've been invited to be on a panel at the AES' NYC Convention at the end of October concerning an unrelated subject, but am going to use that excuse to go back to Yale to go through the Plaut Collection more thoroughly in hopes that we can get more pictures showing the studio and people who worked there. I'll be there for five days and am looking forward to adding considerably to our collection of pics.

    Following that I'll be in NYC for the two weeks around the convention and am planning trips to the Department of Buildings to look through permit and other information in their files (to the extent that it exists and I can find it) to get more details about what happened to the building and when. I intend to try to find higher resolution versions of the aerial surveys that Luke found online, and try to get a better understanding of the front half of the studio property.

    If you have suggestions of things to look for and where they might be I'm all ears.
     
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  4. lukpac

    lukpac Senior Member

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    Not a ton directly related to 30th Street, but Al Quaglieri posted a few bits about Columbia's studios on Facebook. First off, the last session at Studio A, from the October 29th, 1966 issue of Billboard:

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    "BARBRA STREISAND and CBS/Columbia Group president Goddard Lieberson bid farewell to Columbia's Recording Studios at 799 Seventh Avenue, New York. Miss Streisand's recording session on Oct. 14 marked the studio's last use. In the future, Columbia artists will use the new facilities located at 49 East 52nd Street. Miss Streisand's latest Columbia album, "Je M'Appelle Barbra," is being shipped this week."

    Second, Columbia ads for their studio facilities, from the May 11, 1963 and May 18, 1963 issues of Billboard:

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    [​IMG]

    There's a similar ad, with different photos, that was in a few issues, including April 20, 1963.

    What's interesting is that all of the ads list the LA, Chicago, and Nashville studios, along with 799 Seventh Ave, but *not* 30th Street. I seem to recall some discussion, possibly from Frank Laico, that indicated the studios could only be used by Columbia artists, which conflicted knowledge about outside artists using Columbia's studios. Perhaps it was official policy (at least for a period of time) to actively rent out all of the studios *except* 30th Street?

    There's also "A Guide to New York City Studios" from the December 14, 1974 issue of Billboard:

    [​IMG]

    "COLUMBIA RECORDING STUDIOS
    49 East 52 St. 10022. (765-4321)
    Studio C: 55 x 97, height 50, accommodates 100.
    Studio B: 43 x 58, height 19; accommodates 40.
    Studio E: 25 x 31, height 19, accommodates 12."

    Besides the fact that the address of 30th Street isn't given (oversight/typo?), interesting that Studio D isn't listed.

    Also worth noting that A&R is listed; I believe the former Columbia Studio A was Studio A-1. I'm not sure what A-2 was, if the original Columbia Studio B was merged into A in 1960.
     
  5. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    On a tangent, I noticed that the Nashville operation in those 1963 ads was still referred to as "Bradley Studios," from whence the various custom matrix prefices with 'B' in it (XTBV, XSBV, ZTSB, ZTEB etc.) originated; at what point did they ditch Bradley's name and rebrand as the other Columbia studios? But yeah, I find it interesting 30th Street (or as Billboard would have listed it, 207 East 30 St. 10016) was mentioned neither there nor in that 1974 directory in Billboard.
     
  6. lukpac

    lukpac Senior Member

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    I know I've seen other references to "Bradley Studios" after Columbia purchased the Quonset Hut, but I'm not sure how long that practice continued. I want to say the things I saw dated from shortly after ownership changed.

    And just to be clear, the main room at 30th Street *is* listed in that 1974 directory (Studio C), they just give the wrong address.
     
  7. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Thought that to be the case. However, B and E were at 49 E. 52 St., so where BB goofed was on C. And they didn't mention the 30th Street address, though they did mention C. Go figure.
     
  8. DMortensen

    DMortensen Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Seattle, WA USA
    Hi Everyone,

    Today was a very exciting day; I am at Yale University in New Haven CT and tomorrow will begin this year's installment of the Plaut photo collection research. My intention is to go completely through it and some other notable photo collections here as well and find out all there is to be found here about the 30th St Studio. In a few minutes I'll review what we have already and see what should be looked at more closely and what is yet to be found in the (very partial) index to the collection. I'll do my best to keep you somewhat informed, although there will certainly not be much that is immediately postable, I think. There is a certain amount of processing needing to be done to make it ready for sharing, and my main goal while here is to go through as much as I can and post it later.

    In other news, we will be having a gathering of the Friends of the 30th St. Studio group on the afternoon of the last day of the AES Convention in New York City on Sunday, November 1, from 3pm to 6pm in Hell's Kitchen.

    Many of you have been gratifyingly helpful in our quest to learn more about the studio, and I'm going to guarantee that as many as six people from this group can come to the gathering. There's no cost to it, although if you want to bring some munchies or beverages to the no-host meeting, that would be fine.

    It is going to be strictly RSVP because of both limited space and wanting to know who will be coming, so if you can be in New York City on that day at that time it would be great to meet you and have you meet what I think will be a pretty stellar group of people who either worked at 30th St or are very interested in it or both.

    Send me an email at fo30st at geemail dot com (the part after fo30st isnot spelled like that of course) along with your screen name here so I know who is who, since in our group we use our real names, and I'll hold you a spot and tell you exactly where it will be.

    Our gathering will consist of each person telling a bit about themselves and their connection to 30th St, with extra time for those who were actually there, and some excerpts of what I will have found here and also when I get to the NYC Dept. of Buildings after I leave here.

    Last year four of us went out to dinner after the gathering and had a blast there, too, and so some of us will be doing that again and you are invited to that, too.

    I'll be posting in the evenings as possible. Wish me luck!
     
  9. DMortensen

    DMortensen Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Seattle, WA USA
    Day 1: Today was really incredible and rewarding. I was there for a little over 6 hours and got through 3 boxes and about 125 folders, with each folder having 10-30 or so pictures. I came home with 1405 pictures, but some of those are orientational (folder name) or redos for blurry or whatever. Undoubtedly over 1200.

    They are still processing, but I've looked at a few and the detail is night and day ahead of those I got last year, which were pictures of the pictures on the proof sheets. These are pictures of the negatives on a light table, and I'm shooting 6000 x 4000 pixel resolution (not that these will have that level, but still).

    It's all handheld with a macro lens very close up, so the slightest move and there's blur. I'm doing the best I can and hope to do better tomorrow.

    The staff at Yale are super friendly and helpful and it was an awesome day.

    As I was leaving at 4:15 there was a familiar looking fountain right straight across the plaza from the doorway. As I got closer it looked more and more familiar and I thought maybe it was something by Maya Lin (designer of the incredibly powerful Vietnam memorial when she was like a sophomore at Yale), and sure enough, walking around to the other side it had a quote from Maya Lin. If you've never seen the movie "Maya Lin: A Clear and Present Vision" (I think that's the title) you should. She blows me completely away and I think she is one of the coolest people to have ever lived.

    Back on topic: A few things jumped out today in a group of extraordinary things:

    1) I'm pretty sure there were pictures of an early remote that Fred did, and I think it was at Carnegie Hall, with at least one showing him at the recorder in a road case. Couldn't tell from the negative what it was and didn't spend time on it.

    2) There seemed to be remotes at other locations, too, and maybe one was at the Pythian Temple based on a pillar visible in one picture.

    3) There are many pictures in a space that looks a lot like 30th St. but which we have previously agreed was Liederkranz Hall. I am confused and am looking forward to examining those pictures closely. Most seem to have been 1947 or earlier, and part of that is because I am only as far as about 1947 as near as I can tell.

    4) There are a number of pictures of those funny racks with rotary pots and switches, and I'm hopeful that at least one is more legible than what we've been able to see so far.

    5) There was a series of a guy named Albert Schweitzer playing a very complex looking organ, and I wasn't aware that the famous doctor did that although there is much in the world that I am ignorant of.

    6) There are VERY young pictures of Fred, Goddard, Isaac Stern, and I'm sure other people, too. That is fun.

    7) There were a number of pictures of Dwight D. Eisenhower, although I couldn't tell the situation or location. It was him hanging around with people; wasn't he president of Columbia U before being President and after the war?

    That's enough for now; I'm having a really really good time.
     
  10. DMortensen

    DMortensen Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Seattle, WA USA
    Pre-Day 2:

    Here are a few photos to help you see what I'm seeing, centered around audio tech stuff:

    [​IMG]

    I assume that's a lathe; what kind?

    Here's the operator

    [​IMG]

    This may not be the right forum to try to get an ID but who knows?

    Lastly, I'm not sure what we're looking at here

    [​IMG]

    except that it apparently needs to be monitored via headphones.

    I think I posted a picture of this same fellow from my trip last September, and I don't have time now to look through and see who it is.

    Regardless, I think you can see the increase in picture quality from last time (these are lower resolution than the originals) so the pics should be really interesting in their detail.

    One thing you could do for me is to look through the pictures posted earlier in the thread and tell me if there are particular ones that could benefit from higher resolution, and I can redo them. Tell me page number and post number, please.

    Off to Yale!

    Dan
     
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  11. lukpac

    lukpac Senior Member

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    Not sure who, but that's a tape operator/recordist manning 2 Ampex 300 mono machines in the old control room at 30th Street. I believe the large box to the right is a speaker. Control room glass with iconic lights in the studio on the far right.
     
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  12. Steve Conti

    Steve Conti New Member

    Location:
    Providence RI
    Look forward to seeing your pics Dan! Is the guy in the pic, the same gent leaning against the tape machine in post #587? Glad you guys are keeping this post alive!
     
  13. bmoregnr

    bmoregnr Forum Rezident

    Location:
    1060 W. Addison
    That looks like an RCA LC-1A down to the badge on the center bar. I was learning more about it recently here

    [​IMG]
     
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  14. lukpac

    lukpac Senior Member

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    I was thinking it looked like an RCA speaker, but was surprised that CBS would be using RCA equipment.
     
  15. bmoregnr

    bmoregnr Forum Rezident

    Location:
    1060 W. Addison
    I thought the same thing but perhaps good was good and the engineers wanted good; maybe they covered up the badge for the suits! Harry Olson designed it. I have to dig into this thread more as it is the uber-academic studio thread for sure; much kudos to everyone, most notably @DMortensen of course.
     
  16. DMortensen

    DMortensen Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Seattle, WA USA
    Hi Steve,

    Not sure about that guy in the middle of the group pic in #587; I was thinking maybe it was the same guy who is reading the paper in post #484, this guy:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Edit: seeing them side by side it could very well be the same guy. Newer pic is a lot clearer, huh?

    Just got back, uploading from camera now then need to process them which was a 4 hour process last night, probably the same tonight. Not sure yet how many pics I got today, but found some cool stuff, like the first "Rest rooms <--- " sign that I've seen in the studio, along with some more gear and people pics.
     
  17. lukpac

    lukpac Senior Member

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    Of course, the 44-BX was a staple for many years, so I guess I shouldn't be completely surprised.
     
  18. DMortensen

    DMortensen Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Seattle, WA USA
    Cool! Thank you! I knew someone here would know what it was.

    I'll be giving you more to ID as we go on. And thanks for the nice comment!
     
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  19. DMortensen

    DMortensen Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Seattle, WA USA
    Just getting ready for bed and realized that I've been remiss in not correctly citing the source of these recent pictures.

    All are from MSS 52, The Frederick and Rose Plaut Papers in the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library of Yale University, the library with the super helpful and friendly staff led by Richard Boursey and Emily Ferrigno.

    The last part is mine, not the official line.
     
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  20. Top picture looks like Phil Collins about 30 years ago!
     
  21. ex_mixer

    ex_mixer Senior Member

    Location:
    New Jersey
    This is one of the TOP 5 Threads on this Site..IMHO. Can't get enough, thank you all for your posts!
    :goodie:

    Keep 'em coming.
     
  22. DMortensen

    DMortensen Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Seattle, WA USA
    Pre-Day 3:

    OK, here's what I'm talking about when I say that these photos are confusing. I'm going through the photos rotating many so they can be right side up but not doing any other editing, and I see these.

    This is Paul Robeson at a session in the mid 1940's.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    That's Fred Plaut's dog he's petting.

    The lights, wall diffusers, and flooring look like 30th St., but there is glass in the arched windows and a sea of hanging ceiling lights visible THROUGH arched openings in walls.

    Any idea where this is if it's not 30th St.?

    Off to Yale.
     
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  23. lukpac

    lukpac Senior Member

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    Definitely not 30th Street: CBS didn't own the building yet, the diffusers weren't up yet, and that layout simply doesn't look like 30th Street.

    It's Liederkranz:

    [​IMG]
    Frank Sinatra with arranger Axel Stordahl and musicians in a recording session at Liederkranz Hall, NY, circa 1947. (Photograph by Bill Gottlieb. Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts)

    Note how the doors and arches match the last of the Plaut photos.
     
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  24. Walter H

    Walter H Santa's Helper

    Location:
    New Hampshire, USA
    DMortensen, you are doing some great work here! I don't want to distract you at all, but as you are looking through these photos would you keep a look out for this gentleman?

    [​IMG]

    That's Francis Poulenc, who made recordings in the US for Columbia ca. late 40s to early 50s. There were some piano solos (Poulenc's own music) and accompaniments for the baritone Pierre Bernac (songs by Poulenc and by other composers).

    One record I've always been curious about is an LP of songs by Poulenc sung by Rose Dercourt (Plaut) and accompanied by the composer. It's a mono recording but doesn't seem to have been released before 1972 when it came out on Turnabout. I have no idea when and where the recording was made, but maybe it was at 30th Street and the singer's husband was the engineer?

    By the way, the organist Albert Schweitzer is indeed the famous doctor, medical missionary, and theologian. He made 78s in Europe in the 1930s, and resumed his recording career ca. 1950 on American Columbia.

    Looking forward to more fascinating photos and history, and thanks again for your research!
     
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  25. lukpac

    lukpac Senior Member

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    Also, regarding Liederkranz, it would appear the arches contain mirrors, not openings or windows. Note the apparent reflections of the curtains in the Plaut photos, as well as an apparent reflection of the flash in the Sinatra photo.
     
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