CBS COLLECTION 072 UCLA - Film Score Rundowns

Indifference perhaps or probably more the case of not knowing what they are talking
about. Let me explain.
In that letter dated October 20, 1997, I was told that the transcription discs are
labeled so there had not been any problem identifying the material on these discs. In
actual fact, while the discs may be labeled, only the cue titles and timings and CBS
Library reel designations (such as “66” for fantasy/outer space music) were given. In
most cases the names of the composers were not identified. So when I received a ninepage
list of Herrmann-only cues from a SPFM preservation official a year earlier of those
discs transferred to Dats, a large percentage of the cues were not actually composed by
Herrmann. I knew that right away based on my extensive research of the CBS Collection,
and that is why I offered my help. Examples of mis-identifications by SPFM included:
cue # 190 “Trouble No. 1” (actually composed by Rene Garriguenc, not Herrmann); cue
# 192 “Suspense Mysterioso” (Garriguenc again); cues # 224 thru 236 (L. Rosenthal, not
Herrmann); cue # 293 “Ambush # 2” (Fred Steiner, not Herrmann); cue # 1006
“Brouillard” (M. Constant, not Herrmann); cue # 1005 “Light Rain” (Constant again);
#1090 series of cues (Garriguenc, not Herrmann), and so forth. So helping out with my
expertise would’ve made sense—except for certain members of then SPFM management
who said my original proposal to help “did not make a whole lot of sense to us.”
The same applied to the reel-to-reel tapes that the October 20 letter stated were
clearly marked. Well, sometimes yes, many times no—especially in the lack of naming of
composers. It depended on who was doing the labeling. Also in the letter from SPFM was
the statement that it held the transcription discs all these years (nearly nine) was because
UCLA did not have the space nor the staff to take care of the materials and that until
recently they have the state-of-the–art SRLF. Actually SRLF was available even back
then in late 1988 when the Deed of Gift # 1 and then Deed of Gift # 2 in 1991 materials
were stored right there at the SRLF storage facilities. Obviously there had to be a SRLF
to hold the many collections already available at UCLA for many years. There was plenty
of room to put those transcriptions discs there, and plenty of time to return the discs to
UCLA since many of the discs were already converted to Dats several years earlier. The
conversion work was done long ago, so why keep the discs? So it is logical to contend
that SPFM actually felt the discs were part of their own collection and, as given earlier,
even donated excess copies to the Gene Autry Museum. UCLA (the owners of the discs
and all other CBS materials) did not donate them to that Museum. And SPFM did not
mention in their press release that UCLA gave them special permission to give away
those discs. If UCLA had stored the transcription discs in my large garage instead of at
SPFM, I would think more than twice about giving many of them away to someone else!
I would have no legal right to donate property that I held in storage possession only. But
SPFM at the time believed it had the power and right to do exactly that (again, logically,
because management felt it owned the materials).
At any rate, I later submitted my research papers to Film Score Monthly (more on
this later) for proposed publication. I corrected the Bernard Herrmann nine-page audio
list mentioned above that I received by a Trustee on the Preservation Committee who
initially wanted to help me (but given the thumbs down on me by a higher official and
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