universal fire

[bruce talbot]

"Anyway, with Steven's help, I took home and transferred the parts for "West

End Blues" by Zach Whyte's Chocolate Beau Brummels; two sides by Pine Top

Smith, including an unissued take of "Now I Ain't Got Nothin' at All" and eight

others. I almost but for some &(^%$( reason DIDN'T take the two Gennett sides

by Carmichael's Collegians, "Walkin' the Dog" and "March of the Hoodlums." I

can still see them leaning against the box where I left them. I had reason to

hope that Steven and I - or Steven alone - could return there on a regular

basis, but for reasons he never made entirely clear, he wouldn't and we didn't"

Bruce: just fyi, as I recall (and I would have to go through my LPs to confirm) at least these particular cuts did come out on Decca LPs, in excellent mono sound - some good news, than -

Allen - that goes some way to putting the water back in the glass. I'm sure that many of us still have LP versions of George Avakian's Chicago Jazz Album, in reasonable shape, but as the recent SONY Ellington 30s 4CD demonstrated, there's no substitute for being able to go back to the primary source as remastering possibilities become more sophisticated and sensitive. A friend in Paris a few years ago played me 'KoKo' on an unprocessed vinyl pressed from a barely used metal. I've never heard anything so marvelous in my life and the sound was a million miles away from the various iterations sold to us by RCA

[RDK]

I just did a bit of Googling and... people on the 78-L are sounding grim.

I found this post on The Fedora Lounge:

More than just Bing, unfortunately -- word on the 78-L list is that pretty much the entire Decca archives have been lost. That includes not just the best-known Decca acts like Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, Judy Garland, and their contemporaries, but also all the other master recording material owned by MCA, including the Brunswick, London, and World Transcriptions holdings. If the damage is half as bad as they say, this could be one of the worst catastrophes ever to hit pre-rock American popular music.

and hope against hope that it's not true....

this was on the 78L list:

Unfortunately, yes. I visited that vault with Steven two years ago, and

with his authority was able to "check out," lending-library style, about ten

metal parts. There was a corner of the building with metal racks that contained

hundreds and hundreds of them in a lot of cardboard boxes marked "Hoffman."

That would be Steve Hoffman, who worked for MCA in the late '70s and early '80s,

producing LP reissues of hot stuff. Steve cherrypicked the vast archive of

Decca metals, pulling every Gennett, Vocalion and even Paramount mother or

stamper he could find. He took these home to transfer, and then KEPT them! MCA

busted him for possession - I don't know his punishment for this "crime" - and

returned it all to the vault. The metals were never re-intergrated into the

files, and in 2006, were in exactly the same state - packed willy-nilly in

their cardboard boxes - as when they were repossessed. This should tell you how

much MCA really cared about them. They would have been a lot better off in

Hoffman's house.

Anyway, with Steven's help, I took home and transferred the parts for "West

End Blues" by Zach Whyte's Chocolate Beau Brummels; two sides by Pine Top

Smith, including an unissued take of "Now I Ain't Got Nothin' at All" and eight

others. I almost but for some &(^%$( reason DIDN'T take the two Gennett sides

by Carmichael's Collegians, "Walkin' the Dog" and "March of the Hoodlums." I

can still see them leaning against the box where I left them. I had reason to

hope that Steven and I - or Steven alone - could return there on a regular

basis, but for reasons he never made entirely clear, he wouldn't and we didn't.

Now, as far as we know, all that metal is SLAG. Along with all the acetates

and tapes that I presume were also still there.

This Lasker story has been repeated all over the net since the fire, but I'm not sure how much stock I'd put into this "rumor" since it's at least two years old and even at the time of the fire the UMG people said that much of the material had already been moved to other locations. Now I don't know which is true - probably a bit of both - but this story keeps making the rounds to "prove" something that may no longer have been the case. Believe me, I work at the studio (Uni Pictures rather than Music, though, a whole different thing now) and can tell you how much they can lie with a straight face, but until I hear more recent, credible reports I'm going to assume the best rather than the worst.

[bruce talbot]

I just did a bit of Googling and... people on the 78-L are sounding grim.

I found this post on The Fedora Lounge:

More than just Bing, unfortunately -- word on the 78-L list is that pretty much the entire Decca archives have been lost. That includes not just the best-known Decca acts like Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, Judy Garland, and their contemporaries, but also all the other master recording material owned by MCA, including the Brunswick, London, and World Transcriptions holdings. If the damage is half as bad as they say, this could be one of the worst catastrophes ever to hit pre-rock American popular music.

and hope against hope that it's not true....

this was on the 78L list:

Unfortunately, yes. I visited that vault with Steven two years ago, and

with his authority was able to "check out," lending-library style, about ten

metal parts. There was a corner of the building with metal racks that contained

hundreds and hundreds of them in a lot of cardboard boxes marked "Hoffman."

That would be Steve Hoffman, who worked for MCA in the late '70s and early '80s,

producing LP reissues of hot stuff. Steve cherrypicked the vast archive of

Decca metals, pulling every Gennett, Vocalion and even Paramount mother or

stamper he could find. He took these home to transfer, and then KEPT them! MCA

busted him for possession - I don't know his punishment for this "crime" - and

returned it all to the vault. The metals were never re-intergrated into the

files, and in 2006, were in exactly the same state - packed willy-nilly in

their cardboard boxes - as when they were repossessed. This should tell you how

much MCA really cared about them. They would have been a lot better off in

Hoffman's house.

Anyway, with Steven's help, I took home and transferred the parts for "West

End Blues" by Zach Whyte's Chocolate Beau Brummels; two sides by Pine Top

Smith, including an unissued take of "Now I Ain't Got Nothin' at All" and eight

others. I almost but for some &(^%$( reason DIDN'T take the two Gennett sides

by Carmichael's Collegians, "Walkin' the Dog" and "March of the Hoodlums." I

can still see them leaning against the box where I left them. I had reason to

hope that Steven and I - or Steven alone - could return there on a regular

basis, but for reasons he never made entirely clear, he wouldn't and we didn't.

Now, as far as we know, all that metal is SLAG. Along with all the acetates

and tapes that I presume were also still there.

This Lasker story has been repeated all over the net since the fire, but I'm not sure how much stock I'd put into this "rumor" since it's at least two years old and even at the time of the fire the UMG people said that much of the material had already been moved to other locations. Now I don't know which is true - probably a bit of both - but this story keeps making the rounds to "prove" something that may no longer have been the case. Believe me, I work at the studio (Uni Pictures rather than Music, though, a whole different thing now) and can tell you how much they can lie with a straight face, but until I hear more recent, credible reports I'm going to assume the best rather than the worst.

somehow it's kind of difficult to imagine a company like Universal (or any other corp) spending money and time to move stuff they don't care about (see their reissue program of the last ten years) somewhere else. The only reason to go to that trouble would have been to better utilize the space. I hope a 'more credible' report might eventuate - I'm also expecting to inherit a vast sum of money from a yet unknown relative.

[AllenLowe]

whn I have a little more time I will pull all my Decca reissue LPs and make some (mildly processed) transfers - stunning sound, as I recall, on the ones where they did not booger them with stereo and reverb -

[seeline]

I saw that 78-l post too, but decided to not repost it here because it's unconfirmed.

Assuming that anything is going to be preserved is (I think) probably a bad call - most objects (not just recordings) seem to survive almost by dumb luck. (As in this case.)