A while back in Recordman post #2 (http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=23161&forumID=1&archive=1) I featured a rare soundtrack “industrial” LP titled “The Mouse on the Mayflower”, produced by “the Gas industry.” I noted that non-commercial recordings such as these were usually adjuncts to film or TV specials or promotions about a specific industry. Many had been produced and released for school “educational” classes as well for future customers. In the soundtrack collecting community these records became known as “industrial” soundtracks, though I note in passing that they do NOT feature the mechanical based “industrial music” as that term became known in the Seventies and beyond. Here’s some more of them.
The industrial films were scored at times by well known Hollywood composers such as Alex North (See Recordman post #36 - (http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=28213&forumID=1&archive=1 for Ford’s “The American Road” ) and the most recognizable one, “Rhapsody of Steel”, scored by Dimitri Tiomkin for United States Steel in 1958 (US Steel JB 502/3 – See Photo #1 going left to right below - later on CD as well). Other lesser-known soundtrack “industrials” include the following:
Photo #2 – “Cinema ’76 – Songs of the Continental Soldier” (Continental CILP 500) produced by the Continental Insurance Company for the 1964 World’s Fair. Scored by Ray Charles [not the R ‘n B artist] and conducted by Tony Mottola.
Photo #3 – “The New World of Stainless Steel” (1961) (Republic Steel/RCA L8-OP-5735/36) Catchy title, huh? Composer unknown.
Photoi #4 – “Race for the Wire” Composer is Marion Evans, a jazz and big band arranger. Produced for the Anaconda Wire and Cable Company – Anaconda XB-491 (1980) – The product for this is aluminum.
Photo #5 –“What a Way to Dye” Caprolan/Alled Chemical DWC666/667 (1966)– Composer/Conductor is Gershon Kingsley, a German born American who specialized in early electronic/Moog music (remember “Popcorn”?) The history of colored dye. Sounds like Modern Marvels on The History Channel.
Eugene. I went back to this gatefold LP to check artwork credit and the cover design, art and photography is credited to the Mazin-Wyckoff Company, a multi-media production company in New York. The Bassy-like cartoon soldier represents Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Augustus von Steuben, a Prussian-German officer who helped train the Continental Army during the US Revolution. The matchsticks represent soldiers in this cartoon sequence (one of five) from the film. The gatefold booklet has cartoon picture storyboards of other war personalities from the film as well. Mike
[startquote from Eugene Iemola ]Could the cover of the Cinema 76 album be by SaulBass?
Eugene. I went back to this gatefold LP to check artwork credit and the cover design, art and photography is credited to the Mazin-Wyckoff Company, a multi-media production company in New York. The Bassy-like cartoon soldier represents Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Augustus von Steuben, a Prussian-German officer who helped train the Continental Army during the US Revolution. The matchsticks represent soldiers in this cartoon sequence (one of five) from the film. The gatefold booklet has cartoon picture storyboards of other war personalities from the film as well. Mike.....
This drawn character reminds me a great deal of the artwork Dave Melendez and his team at Playhouse Pictures produced and animated for Bass for the main title of IT'S A MAD (4) WORLD. Perhaps that's where you're getting this idea, Eugene, since Bass wasn't really a cartoonist.
