Found this nugget online. Though not of 30th street, there are people featured who worked there like Percy Faith, Frankie Laine, and Harold Chapman. It's from the Hollywood studio at KNX after it's conversion from being a radio theatre which looks huge! Couple of things that amazed me are people smoking in the studio and control room. Speaking of control room, if this was from 1958, the 30th street control room remodel in 1962 may have been influenced by the design here.
I don't have time to search now, but upthread I posted a few things about the Hollywood studio. I believe it opened in 1962 or so. 1958 definitely seems too early.
Ok, found it. Still under construction in the spring of 1960. I want to say it was at least 1961 before the Hollywood studio actually opened.
If this was 1958, then the bulk of Hollywood recordings for Columbia were still made at the Radio Recorders Annex (later Annex Studios), though at least one of Laine's albums from that year were cut at the Capitol Tower (!) according to what I'd researched in his sessionography for a book thereof by an individual "across the pond." It is because of this factor that West Coast master numbers had an 'RHCO' prefix, with those selected for 45 release designated by 'RZSP'. However, Faith continued to record out of New York as late as 1959 ("The Theme From 'A Summer Place' " being a prime example).
P.S. I saw that clip, and it looks like the Faith footage was shot after 1961 - the year Columbia set up their Hollywood studios at 6121 Sunset - it wasn't until after then that their building displayed "KNX Radio - Columbia Records" on one of their sides. I wonder if the Laine footage was shot at the Radio Recorders Annex, though.
I bought the book and only got through the first two chapters. From what I read, it is immediately obvious why Goddard fired that ******* pretty much as soon as the book came out. His unrelentingly critical assessments of the two people covered in those two chapters (Grace Moore and Lily Pons) and his very negative depictions of what should be private and sensitive moments in the creative process (as well as his smug, condescending manner of speaking about them) should make anyone working with him again live in fear that they would be depicted the same way. How could he (or especially his publisher) have thought that it could be read any other way? I can only imagine Goddard's reaction while reading that crap, and have to appreciate him more for dealing with it quickly and completely by firing the guy. In the book "The Label", I thought it was kind of harsh for Gary Marmorstein to say "But now O'Connell began to miss recording sessions due to a fondness for the bottle" (p. 167), but now I see that he was actually being kind by saying that and not much more. While reading those two chapters over two days, I remember feeling kind of down and angry and critical of everything and finally figuring out why it seemed like I was under a cloud. Putting that book aside really brightened my days, and I recommend to everyone putting it aside before even picking it up. Even if there are elements of truth in what he wrote, it is such a complete betrayal of privacy and so shatters the trust between artist and producer that it was horrible to read, even as an outsider nearly 70 years later. YMMV, I guess.
In other news: A) My neighbor has been diligently working on the database and has a working model of the back end. Apparently postgres has some little twists compared to Oracle that he is finding vexatious but interesting and fun to solve. After that is done, my son will hopefully start working on the front end so we can start putting things into it. B) I've found that Lightroom 2 (which I have had but not used for quite a few years) gives a much larger viewing window for the title verbiage and am planning to transfer the many iPhoto pictures and titles/captions over to that for further work in coupling names, dates and locations to the pictures while waiting for the database data entry to be usable. C) When going through "The Label", I wrote down names of people who were likely to be one photo or another so that I can find pictures of them to compare to the pictures we have of unknown people (similar to what we did with John McClure above, although those pictures we found have him at different ages and angles and look very different from each other, so we'll see how useful that is). D) I find it amusing that no one wants to go through those lists of names, shows, and projects I posted earlier to write down who and what they are. I guess that part of this project will take longer. E) I've been super busy for the last month or so and that will continue for another week or thereabouts as I try to do a year's worth of bookkeeping to get ready for taxes. Once that's done I'm going to start editing videos, some of which are of people related to 30th St. F) While going through Plaut pictures sometime in the last month I found one that clearly showed that mirror breakage that we identified earlier. I'll post it when I find it again. The next rambling will have its own post.
One thing I've been thinking about is how these two studios (Liederkranz & 30th St), who everyone felt were great-sounding studios, were each actually three or four distinctly different acoustic spaces. Liederkranz with mirrors and curtains as well as after CBS did a modernization which seems to have removed that stuff; 30th St with no polycylindrical diffusors, with polycylindrical diffusors, without polycylindrical diffusers, with the old control room, with the new control room and the old control room, with the new control room but not the old control room, modernized and color-coordinated, etc. All of those different acoustic spaces and (almost) everyone thought they all sounded great. It kind of reminds me of this but backwards: I provide and operate portable PA systems for concerts and other live events for a living. I can't count how many times I've set up a PA system for a concert in any particular room, and everyone raves about how great the room is and how great it sounds. I set up the exact same PA system in a different room the next night for a similar kind of music, and everyone complains about what a crappy PA it is. In fact, it's the different room that is unsuited for the kind of music (in many cases, ANY kind of music) being presented in it. It occurs to me that with the acoustics of the recording studios changing but still resulting in superior product, could it have been the integrity of the recording process, from control men to carefully engineered signal path (microphones, electronics, recording media) which drove the high quality of the results? So that they had good sounding records regardless of windows/mirrors/bricks/curtains/fluctuations in room volume/etc./etc.? Along with performers who took advantage of the qualities of the spaces and the essentially live recording (no or minimal overdubs) to give us the great recordings we appreciate today. That's what I've been thinking about in my off hours recently. Back to work, thanks for reading.
Yes sorry I meant to respond earlier but I could make out roughly 1 out of every 10 words at best and have roughly zero experience with the names of the music and musicians involved so I think I would be more of a liability. Good luck though.
Agreed, but on the other hand your guess is as good as mine, and sometimes people see different things in the same thing. You might get the first half and I might get the second half, for example. Not trying to coerce you or anything.....
Found some 30th Street: Capt. Kangaroo Recording Session - Peter Stackpole - Google Cultural Institute » Capt. Kangaroo Recording Session - Peter Stackpole - Google Cultural Institute » Capt. Kangaroo Recording Session - Peter Stackpole - Google Cultural Institute » Capt. Kangaroo Recording Session - Peter Stackpole - Google Cultural Institute » Capt. Kangaroo Recording Session - Peter Stackpole - Google Cultural Institute » Capt. Kangaroo Recording Session - Peter Stackpole - Google Cultural Institute » Capt. Kangaroo Recording Session - Peter Stackpole - Google Cultural Institute » Capt. Kangaroo Recording Session - Peter Stackpole - Google Cultural Institute » Capt. Kangaroo Recording Session - Peter Stackpole - Google Cultural Institute » Capt. Kangaroo Recording Session - Peter Stackpole - Google Cultural Institute » Capt. Kangaroo Recording Session - Peter Stackpole - Google Cultural Institute » Capt. Kangaroo Recording Session - Peter Stackpole - Google Cultural Institute » Capt. Kangaroo Recording Session - Peter Stackpole - Google Cultural Institute » Capt. Kangaroo Recording Session - Peter Stackpole - Google Cultural Institute » Capt. Kangaroo Recording Session - Peter Stackpole - Google Cultural Institute » Capt. Kangaroo Recording Session - Peter Stackpole - Google Cultural Institute » https://www.google.com/culturalinst...ngaroo-recording-session/WQEFYELPyLOyxg?hl=en https://www.google.com/culturalinst...ngaroo-recording-session/WQFrAAXxTKUfLA?hl=en https://www.google.com/culturalinst...ngaroo-recording-session/KgG2pnqbSc-L_Q?hl=en https://www.google.com/culturalinst...ngaroo-recording-session/5wFzbb3woZmrXg?hl=en https://www.google.com/culturalinst...ngaroo-recording-session/2QELgwSWuFSNEA?hl=en https://www.google.com/culturalinst...ngaroo-recording-session/0gFZPA4ubsOXeA?hl=en https://www.google.com/culturalinst...ngaroo-recording-session/7AGhB_hHXoqivw?hl=en https://www.google.com/culturalinst...ngaroo-recording-session/cwFlvnf7KhYXHQ?hl=en https://www.google.com/culturalinst...ngaroo-recording-session/QAGIKeQR3LrHoQ?hl=en https://www.google.com/culturalinst...ngaroo-recording-session/6gHo09sPekB0bA?hl=en https://www.google.com/culturalinst...ngaroo-recording-session/HgHdShm7Hmv9mw?hl=en https://www.google.com/culturalinst...ngaroo-recording-session/dAFL9ZnkWkWLhA?hl=en https://www.google.com/culturalinst...ngaroo-recording-session/mwGFVkl6zRAsow?hl=en https://www.google.com/culturalinst...ngaroo-recording-session/5gHA0ueFlE7SZQ?hl=en https://www.google.com/culturalinst...ngaroo-recording-session/aAHWt1iZ3IABew?hl=en https://www.google.com/culturalinst...ngaroo-recording-session/7gEn2YCwNXnVCA?hl=en https://www.google.com/culturalinst...ngaroo-recording-session/HgF6rv6GQnn9dQ?hl=en https://www.google.com/culturalinst...ngaroo-recording-session/JgEtJsJwwSjzyQ?hl=en https://www.google.com/culturalinst...ngaroo-recording-session/9wH1ykX4hblb7A?hl=en Fred engineering. Lots of close-ups, but also some very nice wider shots that show a bit of the studio. https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/u/0/asset-viewer/igor-stravinsky-essay/aQF_jDxRhQGVHA?hl=en https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/u/0/asset-viewer/igor-stravinsky-essay/MwFRnZAmwENjXg?hl=en Sadly, the Life archive doesn't seem to be indexed that well.
The people in the foreground seem to be in some kind of alcove. Regarding the Captain Kangaroo pictures, it's interesting that he's wearing his jacket in the studio; for the camera? Regardless, those are a good find. The Gordon Parks Glenn Gould LIFE pictures are in there somewhere. In fact, entering Glenn's name in the search box brings up those March 1956 pics, as well as some others.
Dan & Co: Do you have a copy of Fred Plaut's book of photographs? The Unguarded Moment:A Photographic Interpretation: Frederick Plaut: Amazon.com: Books » If not, I've got a copy buried around here somewhere and can check for any detail-revealing photos from 30th Street. Nothing comes immediately to memory, but I also was not looking for little detail things the last time I thumbed through it.
Is there any indication when/where that is? Definitely looks like Frank Laico engineering, but that console is not like one I've ever seen from Columbia.
Dig the upside down(?) KLH Six monitors! I scanned that photo from the inside gatefold of this album:
I don't have the book, but Frank L let me borrow his copy for a while. There are nice pics, but IIRC not a lot in the recording studio, or certainly not as many as I had hoped. Don Hunstein's book of a couple years ago has many more.
Does indeed look like him, and definitely looks like Frank. That console must be one that they used for remotes. Thanks for the pic and the source! Does it have picture credit?
Cool! Now in the picture with Tony, Frank, and Adjutor, who's the man between Frank and Adjutor? And didn't we (this larger group, maybe not you) have this same conversation about this or another remote session somewhere in this thread? I def remember hearing about KLH speakers and being corrected when expressing ignorant skepticism.
WOW!! While looking up Henry Parker and seeing what he did Billboard March 21, 1960: "Columbia Records also appointed a studio photographer for the firm. He is Henry Parker, and he is under the jurisdiction of Bob Cato, Columbia's new art and advertising director." Billboard » Reading that made me wonder where Don Hunstein's place in the company was at that time (I thought he was THE staff photographer), so barney googling him took me to a relatively recent interview with Don's wife DeeAnne: It's Nice That | Columbia Calling: The incredible story of Don Hunstein, Columbia Records' in-house photographer » Check out the fifth paragraph after the Aretha Franklin picture. Heck, I'll copy and paste here: "Alongside those who tried to make a few bucks out of Don’s life’s work were others who felt that the importance of his photographs deserved recognition – particularly his colleagues at Columbia. DeeAnne remembers them fondly. “There was a very nice event a couple of years ago when the people from Columbia presented him with an award. 30th Street Studio was a very famous location where many great recordings were done because it was in an old church and had wonderful acoustics. Everyone adored that place. These people started something called the Friends of 30th Street which is an association of all the people who were behind the scenes of the famous albums. They presented their first award to Don because he had made 30th Street what it was. It’s the location of many of these great pictures – pictures he took of artists not while they were recording but between takes and whatever. They gave him a beautiful award engraved in crystal and said that he had made 30th Street ‘live in memory’ because of his pictures. That was nice. A lot of people gathered for that. They came from all over to see him and it made me realise how much he was appreciated by all those people, how loyal they were to him. He had that knack with people, he’s just a nice, funny, smart guy.” How cool is that? I don't think you can fault her for thinking it was the people from Columbia; I'm happy it made such a nice impression and memory. They were both very sweet. And there were a few people from this forum there, too! And, technically, she is right: I am VERY, VERY behind the scenes of the famous albums. She just left out those two words. That event is really the gift that keeps on giving.
In thinking about this more, what would be helpful even for someone who can't read the text would be to use more skills/computer programs than I have to label both the columns and each item in the columns with some kind of letter/number system so that when/if there is discussion about an item, we can be sure we are talking about the same thing. That being done on a high resolution version of the pictures so someone can look at them and say "I think B17 is A Little Night Music", or whatever. So, let's see if I can create something here that indicates what I'm trying to say A _________B_________C__________D 1 AKJEROE 1 QWERNE 1 ;LAKJDFE 1 ;LKWREPEN 2 POKJQ4E 2 JKNFQWE 2 KJFERLK 2 ;LKNAFGEW etc. Those two pages that have almost the same stuff on them would be numbered so that a person knows which is the top and which is the bottom and which is duplicated. Does that make sense? (edit: had to use the underscore to make things line up.) (edit 2: and they still don't line up. But you get the idea.)
