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The 20th Century Fox Studio Orchestra credit on the front cover is missing a hyphen (Century-Fox). They didn't drop the hyphen till 1985.
I'm hoping that's a joke, but sadly I know it's not.
There's a sort of interesting story about including the orchestra on the front at all, but it no longer feels worth telling.
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I’m interested, for whatever that’s worth…
Yavar
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The 20th Century Fox Studio Orchestra credit on the front cover is missing a hyphen (Century-Fox). They didn't drop the hyphen till 1985.
I'm hoping that's a joke, but sadly I know it's not.
There's a sort of interesting story about including the orchestra on the front at all, but it no longer feels worth telling.
Yavar is interested.
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Well, okay.
Basically it has to do with this recent mandate from AFM that we have to say "Performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony" on the cover (either front or back). This has caused a lot of controversy because AFM maintains that this is a proper performing entity and always has been, but others disagree completely. But anyway it's now something we have to do.
This is supposed to apply to recordings from 1960 onward. For this project, done in 1959, AFM did not have session reports, but did find a 1959 studio orchestra roster, which we are running in the booklet. Now, the original album for DIARY said "Recording from the Studios of 20th Century-Fox" on the jacket and "With Symphonic Orchestra" on the platter. We were working on GLORY at the same time, so I had a conversation with the union basically saying it feels strange to put "Hollywood Studio Symphony" on the front cover of GLORY -- basically a non-existent entity appended to the now defunct Boys Choir of Harlem -- and say nothing on the front cover of ANNE FRANK. I explained what I wanted to do, which was very much motivated by the fact that the film is now controlled by Disney, whom I want to be aware that there is a legacy of music for which they are now responsible. Then, knowing from previous package reviews that they do not want the hyphen in "20th Century Fox" and minimal mention of the studio at all, I didn't want to draw anything to their attention and be asked to remove it, so we went for the "20th Century Fox Studio Orchestra" right there in the front cover.... And nothing was said.
So it really was a double agenda to both delineate the studio orchestra period from the "pick-up" so-called "Hollywood Studio Symphony" era that AFM wants to date to 1960, while at the same time plastering the name of a beloved studio right on the front of a Disney-licensed release.
A tiny little victory.
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Thank you, Mike. That story was worth the telling. (Least of all because in the future I'll know why I'll see the hyphen missing from future references to the studio name.)
I rank DIARY OF ANNE FRANK highly among Newman's fabulous canon, and this new package promises its ultimate edition. If only Jim Doherty of this forum and Dennis Petersen (our mutual friend and Golden Age mentor), formerly of Chicago's Rose Records and Tower Records, could have survived to relish it.
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Thanks for sharing Mike! I do find that kind of thing interesting and I’m glad you are both involved enough to make a difference and care enough about this sort of thing to actually fight for it! Any drive to erase the incredible history of 20th Century Fox is just bizarre…
Yavar
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Posted: |
Nov 28, 2021 - 11:35 AM
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By: |
.
(Member)
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Now, the original album for DIARY said "Recording from the Studios of 20th Century-Fox" on the jacket and "With Symphonic Orchestra" on the platter... I explained what I wanted to do, which was very much motivated by the fact that the film is now controlled by Disney, whom I want to be aware that there is a legacy of music for which they are now responsible. Then, knowing from previous package reviews that they do not want the hyphen in "20th Century Fox" and minimal mention of the studio at all, I didn't want to draw anything to their attention and be asked to remove it, so we went for the "20th Century Fox Studio Orchestra" right there in the front cover.... And nothing was said.
When I brought up the subject of the missing hyphen, I received the response "I'm hoping that's a joke, but sadly I know it's not", suggesting it was an insignificant or irrelevant observation.
Yet now we read that this was actually a subject of some consideration and policy for both the studio and the label, for both past and present releases. Interesting to know.
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Thanks for sharing Mike! I do find that kind of thing interesting and I’m glad you are both involved enough to make a difference and care enough about this sort of thing to actually fight for it! Any drive to erase the incredible history of 20th Century Fox is just bizarre…
Yavar
Definitely agree with that last statement, Yavar. It always bugs me when MGM tries to eliminate any mention of United Artists even though the UA films comprise most, if not all of their catalogue. Glad to hear that story, Mike, and thank you for all your efforts.
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Absolutely, which is why I had the conversation about the stipulation to have covers say Hollywood Studio Symphony starting in 1960. It felt absolutely wrong to say that for Diary of Anne Frank, and we didn't technically have to because it was 1959. Yet we did have a studio musicians roster for that year. See the dilemma? Given what the original LP said and my desire to keep the name of the studio alive on a Newman release with Nick's name on it, I opted for doing what we did, totally with the AFM's blessing.
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Posted: |
Nov 28, 2021 - 4:28 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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It always bugs me when MGM tries to eliminate any mention of United Artists even though the UA films comprise most, if not all of their catalogue.
I don't know. My experience is that MGM keeps the original studio logos on their releases of UA films (as well as AIP films and the myriad other distributors that they have swallowed up). They just add the MGM logo in front of them all.
I will admit that the practice fools some people, even some who should know better. I noticed that the American Film Institute Catalog had MGM down as the distributor on a 1976 AIP film, years before AIP had been acquired by MGM. The cataloger got the credits from a late 1990s video, and apparently not knowing the history (AIP to Filmways to Orion to MGM) just put it down as it appeared on-screen, even though the AIP logo came right after the one from MGM.
Soundtracks, however, are a whole other thing. There, MGM wants exclusive mention on the cover. But that seems to make sense from a branding standpoint, particularly for music that has never been released before. Otherwise they'd end up with nearly as many record labels as distributors they've acquired.
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