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Re: [ARSCLIST] The future of analog (fwd)
What Tom says is sad but true.
I witnessed dub stage B at the same Warner-Hollywood lot (as shown in
the photo) get gutted in the late 70's. Out the door went dozens of
beautiful Western Electric 1251B reproducers, a custom tube console,
selsyn interlock system, monitors, and everything else. The only thing
they kept were the projection VI's, which are probably still in use to
this day.
I pleaded for two days with the head of the sound department at the time
to keep a few of the Western Electric dubbers, but he insisted that they
be scrapped, as he didn't want them to fall into the hands of the
competition (although I can't imagine that anyone would have put them
back into service as dubbers on a mix stage, given the fact that they
weren't equipped for reverse operation. This goes back to the days when
pictures were mixed one 1000' reel at a time, all the way through. You
blow a cue at 900', and it's back to the beginning!).
To clarify what you see in the photo, the lease that Warner Sound
operations had at the Goldwyn lot at 1041 N. Formosa was up recently,
and they had to consolidate all of their audio post to the Burbank lot
(with the exception, I believe, of some of their archival operations).
It must have been a sad day, as the Sam Goldwyn sound operations had
been there for many years, and had some beautiful dub stages. At least 5
pictures I worked on over the years were mixed there, by some truly
talented re-recording mixers.
RIP.
--Scott D. Smith
Chicago Audio Works, Inc.
Tom Fine wrote:
I heard worse stories than this about Hollywood. There was a time --
50's and 60's, when there was a rapid upgrade period and much
fantastic/built-like-tanks audio gear was cast off. But, the rule at
some studios was SMASH IT TO BITS so competitors couldn't get it from
the scrap heap and "use it against you." I heard one story of taking a
whole afternoon and smashing hundreds of pieces of Western Electric
and Langevin gear. Today's ebay value on that stuff even beats
inflation since it was built. Plus it was damn good-sounding stuff
that's not made anymore.
-- Tom Fine