Stories • Bernard Fox

You can’t have as long and varied a career as Bernard Fox, without also having some interesting stories. Here are a few, and there are more to come…

Thursday Before Woodstock: Richie Havens

Our Latin Thing: The Street Concert

Always Inventing Things

“Sophisticated Ladies” Getting into Theatrical Sound Design

Riding in the car with Barry Rogers

Inventing Theater Automation

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin & Phil Ramone

Whistle With The Orchestra

“Get Out Of My Way Shrimpy!”

Fania All-Stars Live at Yankee Stadium

Jack Klugman: The Odd Couple

Kate Smith

My Personal Multi-Track Machine

Barry Rogers and Creating “Barrio del Pilar

3 Carradines

NRBQ: “Riding in My Car”

Norman Vincent Peale

“Yankee Fever”

Martha Raye

Will Rogers Follies: Gregory Peck

Salvadore Dali

“Hells Angels Forever”

Cachao

Ray Barretto “Cocinando”

Riding in the car with Barry Rogers

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Riding in the car with Barry Rogers. I spent a lot of time in the studio and moving to and from the studio, with Barry Rogers. In the studio, Barry would explain to me the convolutions, the nuance, of crafting a recorded or live performance. It was an education for me. I would then demonstrate […]

Working with Barry Rogers Creating “Barrio del Pilar”

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Creating the Barrio del Pilar (Go Play With Traffic). Barry Rogers was producing and album for Harvey Averne’s record Company, “Coco”, called “Pasaporte”. The group was called Orchestra Broadway. This was a Latin music album in a style called “Charanga”. Charanga as a style had existed for a while, but at the time (1976) it […]

My Multi-track Machine

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My first personal Multi-track Machine Around 1976-1977, I had quit Sound Exchange Studio and rented a little space within David Brown’s Photo Studio- 6 West 20th Street. It was not a recording studio, but it did have a silent room within a room, in the middle of the photo studio. There I started my own […]

Whistle With The Orchestra

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WHISTLE WITH THE ORCHESTRA Like you’re ever allowed to. When I was little, every summer my mother and father would rent a little cottage up in South Fallsburg, NY. From Memorial Day to just past Labor Day I would live 97 miles from New York City in the area know as the Catskills. I would […]

“Sophisticated Ladies” – Getting Into Theatrical Sound Design

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Getting into Theatrical Sound Design. “Sophisticated Ladies” I had engineered and compiled a five record set of Duke Ellington’s music for M F Records. The work was done with Mercer Ellington, Duke’s son and very talented Band Leader/Writer in his own right. That 5 record set led to recording a new album with/by Mercer Ellington. […]

“Get Out Of My Way Shrimpy!”

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“GET OUT OF MY WAY SHRIMPY!” Over the years I have been asked to present a number of live presentations for the Audio Engineering Society. The AES is the Society of Audio Engineers, for any kind of sound. Live sound, recorded sound, film, theater, sound design, any kind of sound person would join the AES. […]

Inventing Theater Sound Automation

Live Theater Sound Automation

By 1991 automated lighting boards were common in the theater. A lighting board turned on specific lights out of hundreds, each to a specific amount. Each lighting change took multiple dimmers being manually raised or lowered to a specific amount. Now with lighting automation, the changes to the dimmers were all changed by a computer. […]

Will Rogers Follies : Gregory Peck

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I had the pleasure of meeting some amazing people during my life. Gregory Peck was one of them. During the creation of Will Rogers Follies – the Broadway musical, Gregory Peck was brought to New York to become the voice of Flo Ziegfeld. Mr. Ziegfled was the big Broadway impresario of the time. He would […]

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Charles Durning

I was working in my studio, mixing a new recording for Harvey Averne. The session had run through part of the day and it was Tuesday 6:30PM. I remember the exact time very clearly as that is the time when all the Broadway theaters turn “on”, after the Sunday – Monday off-day. I had set up an A/C […]

The Fania All-Stars at Yankee Stadium

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The Fania All-Stars at Yankee Stadium. August 1973 I think. I’ll look it up. The year or two before, Masucci had put together the All-Star concert at the Cheetah, in NYC. It was a tremendous success. The place held about 2000? people and about 4000? were jammed in. Outside on the street were another 4000? […]

Norman Vincent Peale

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Today is Easter Sunday 2017. I walk into to our bedroom to see my wife tuned into the Marble Collegiate Broadcast on TV. Many thoughts and memories come rushing to mind. When I went to synagogue on the Sabbath or the Holidays, there was always one non-Jewish guy working there. In this religion you are […]

Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Recording with Phil Ramone

Frank Sinatra & Dean Martin [1977.05.25] Live At Westchester! - Front Cover

Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Phil Ramone Aaron Baron was one of the two owners of “Location Recorders, Inc.” Larry Dahlstrum was his partner. Together they had built one of the finest and first recording trucks. They originally called it “Fly by Night Audio”, but nobody would give them a bank loan under that name. […]

“Yankee Fever”

Being a Float in the New York Yankee Parade. Around 1977-1978 It was fall and Ira Hersher came to me with an idea. He, and his girlfriend at the time, Eleanor Radzivillover, wanted to make a Salsa song and release in time for the Yankees to win the World Series. The problem was The Yankees […]

Jack Klugman “The Odd Couple” 1993

Jack Klugman Tony Randall The Odd Couple Together Again reunion 1993

Jack Klugman – Richie Fitzgerald is the older brother, co-owner of Sound Associates, one of the big three theater sound supply companies. Richie and his younger brother Peter, were brought up in the theater business by their father Tom Fitzgerald. Richie and Peter both know everybody in the theater business. When Jack Klugman was recovering […]

Always Inventing Things

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I don’t know what the motivation for inventing/creating is. I don’t even know if there are a number of motivations, or just one. What I do know is, I have always just done it. There was and is always inventing or analyzing creation going on in my head. Often rethinking a piece of music in […]

Ray Barretto “Cocinando”

Ray Barretto

Ray Barretto “Cocinando” Ray Barretto had just recorded “Que Viva La Musica”. Alan Manger, my partner and also a recording engineer, had done a great job with the band recording. Alan was busy working on the movie “Our Latin Thing”, so I jumped in to finish the recording and do the mix. “Cocinando”, was maybe […]

Martha Raye

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MARTHA RAYE My bother Charles and his wife Joan had just moved to California. Charles was writing music for film and that was where the films were made, so they moved. They were living in an apartment on a street called La Cienega. La Cienega intersects Sunset Strip. Their apartment was only a few blocks […]

Our Latin Thing – The Street Concert

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Our Latin Thing The Street Concert Part of the Our Latin Thing movie was a scene shot in front of a church, on its steps. There Larry Harlow and Pacheco decided to do an outdoor street concert for the movie. Larry’s band played great as usual. Pacheco was going to play a flute solo […]

Cachao

Man From San Juan F

I was in Sound On Sound studio recording “Man From San Juan”. The album was produced by Mike Martinez. The particular song was a piece of poetry with a Bass playing a kind of “call and response” with the poetry. It was kind of a Bee-Bop thing. Cachao, a world famous acoustic bass player, was […]

NRBQ “Riding In My Car”

NRBQ

Some time between 1972-1975, I produced some NRBQ recordings that included “Riding In My Car”. There were 6 partners in Good Vibrations Sound Studios. Each was allowed to record one Artist of his own choice and produce an album for no cost. Elliot Sacks was one of the partners. He had no technical or artistic […]

Kate Smith

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KATE SMITH I was a very young audio engineer working at RKO Sound Studios in Manhattan when Kate Smith called the studio. I didn’t take the call. That was done in another part of the company. All I knew was a lady singer and her accompanist were coming into the studio. There was no pre-booking […]

STOP HIM! STOP HIM!

STOP HIM! STOP HIM! I worked on 45th street between 9th and 10th. Leaving work with an attaché briefcase at that time, as I used to do, I walked towards Times Square. Between 9th and 8th . I see a crowd running towards me yelling “STOP HIM! STOP HIM!” At first I don’t know what […]

Salvador Dali

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Around 1972 I was working in 1440 Broadway. At the time it was Good Vibrations Sound Studio. We had already lease purchased it from RKO and renamed it Good Vibes. My brother Manny had done a “Happening” at Lincoln Center where Salvador Dali was to get inside a plastic dome or bubble and from the […]

3 Carradines

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The Three Carradines The first one I met was Keith. He was rehearsing for “Will Rogers Follies” on Broadway. I was there programming the first use of my theatrical sound automation system (Performance Automation). We didn’t have much contact, but he was always cordial. He was busy with his work, I with mine. When the […]

Hells Angels Forever

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THE HELLS ANGELS My wife and I decided to take a European vacation. While on vacation my partners had committed the studio to producing a movie about the Hells Angels. Director and one of the partners Leon Gast, was friendly with Sandy Alexander the Hells Angels New York Chapter President. I wouldn’t have wanted to […]

Thursday Night Before Woodstock

Bernard Fox

I was in the studio with Richie Havens, the Thursday night before Woodstock. We were together in the studio 8-10 hours a day Mon-Thursday, for years. The Weekend of Woodstock was coming up I said to Richie, should I go with you to this Bethel thing, Exposition, Woodstock thing? (it actually wasn’t called Woodstock yet) […]