Re: [ARSCLIST] Riverside Race Car Records

[Steven Smolian <smolians@xxxxxxxxx>]

Grauer also owned at least one sports car- I saw it in a Riverside warehouse 
many years ago.

This was one of his enthusiasms.  The records, profitable or not, were 
enough of a potential money-maker to write off the travel and lots of other 
stuff that involved making them.

Cherche le buck.

Steve Smolian

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Ross" <johnross@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2008 3:40 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Riverside Race Car Records


> At  9/7/2008 11:39 AM, Tom Fine wrote:
> > Apparently, Bill Gauer, Keepnews' partner at Riverside, was a racing car 
> > nut and was very into making these "environmental audio" recordings.
>
> This raises a question I've always wondered about: Who bought all those 
> Riverside sports car records? They still show up in secondhand record 
> bins, so SOMEBODY must have bought them new, but did they sell enough to 
> break even, let alone make money, or were they just an excuse for Grauer 
> to talk his way into the pits at races with his microphone?
>
> I suppose they didn't cost much to produce. No studio time, no royalties 
> or performers' fees. Could they have been a profitable sideline like the 
> Elektra sound effects records?
>
> There's a Riverside comedy record by a standup comic whose name I have 
> forgotten in which the comic muses about a phone call:
>         "Riverside Records, can I help you?"
>         "Yes, Bill Grauer please."
>         "I'm sorry, he's under a Porsche, taking a level."
>
> John Ross