[78-L] Subject: Re: MAJOR RECORDS

[Michael Biel]

  On 8/17/2010 7:51 PM, David Lennick wrote:
> I was just collating my Gennett Sound Effects discs and noticed that one has a
> paste-on athe bottom of each label..THOMAS J. VALENTINO Electrical
> Transcriptions, 729 7th Avenue, New York, N.Y.
>
> dl
  This is one of the addresses listed in the 1937 Broadcasting magazine 
Yearbook for Gennett.  Tom J. Valentino is listed as the manager, while 
Harry Genett is the manager of the LA address 1344 So Flower St.  Lee A 
Butt is the manager in Richmond, Ind.  (Pause for laughs and snide 
remarks.)   Masque and Standard are also on the list although they do 
not mention sound effects specifically for Standard.  Major and Speedy Q 
are not listed.

In my 1951 Turnbull book he shows a NYC address for Gennet as 67 W 44th, 
as well as the two Starr Piano Richmond Ind and 1344 So Flower St LA 
addresses it shares with Speedy-Q.  But what is strange that I didn't 
notice yesterday that the NYC address for Speedy-Q is Charles Mickelson 
(sic.)!   25 W 47th.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com

> On 8/16/2010 3:16 PM, Margaret G. Still wrote:
>> Thanks to Royal, David&   Mike for your responses.
>>
>> Thank you, Royal, for the name of Thomas J. Valentino; I was then able to
>> find his NY Times obit at
>> http://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/06/obituaries/thomas-j-valentino-is-dead-earl
>> y-sound-effects-producer.html
>>
>> David, thanks especially for the fact that Paul Bowles' experimental music
>> was on this label; too bad his music was not in the pile I found.
>>
>> Yes, Mike, they ARE awful, and strangely consistent. I am still wondering
>> how they were created or how they were snatched, because they lack any of
>> the "dirtiness" of live sounds. Wouldn't these clean sounds be much more
>> expensive to create than "snatched" sound effects? Their cleanness also
>> makes them less convincing as sound effects because they lack vibrancy.
>> Presumably, consistency was more the point than dramatic thrust.
>>
>> Best,
>> Margaret G. Still
>>