CBS COLLECTION 072 UCLA - Film Score Rundowns

who in turn made copies to friends and perhaps even to collectors for trades or additions
in personal collections. I don’t know. All I know is that a third party collector who
contacted me (because he knew I was involved with CBS Music Library research for
many years) was able to get a copy of the unreleased CBS audio that directly came from
the Dat conversion of the transcription discs. Apparently "insiders" shared goodies for
themselves but "outsiders" (such as legitimate researchers as myself) were excluded.
Personally my feeling was that if they wanted to enjoy the fruits of their efforts, fine; but
then don’t turn around and be prejudicial by denying access of the material to serious
researchers (especially if you publicly advertise that you want to make the music
available to serious researchers and Members). I had no axe to grind, but I wanted fair
and equal treatment not only for myself but also for other legitimate researchers.
So now I was really fed up. I obviously could not trust the Society and what they
“said” officially. So on February 16, 1998 I made a big stink about this to UCLA Music
Library Special Collections and to Elmer Bernstein, then President of SPFM. I sent
Bernstein an express package that had to be signed for. In it were a no-nonsense letter
and a 60-minute Maxell audiocassette sample of the improper dissemination of CBS
music to collectors as proof of my accusations. The source of this music was the transfer
work done by SPFM 4-5 years earlier according to the May-June 1993 SPFM Newsletter.
The first example I sent Bernstein was the complete transcription disc transfer of Fred
Steiner’s “Box o’ Rocks” episode of Gunsmoke. It is an exact match with the same
voiced timings and preludes as later duplicated (transferred) in Dat # 12 at UCLA. The
next sample in that tape was Waxman’s music to “The Raid” episode of Gunsmoke. It
starts with the voiced Log 1461, September 16, 1965 of cue # 187.
According to the Deed of Gift that I read, all CBS music materials were donated
to the Regents of UCLA. No exception was mentioned that SPFM would be given a piece
of the pie (such as the transcription discs and 15 cartons of “mag masters”). If so, why
did not SPFM show its own separate Deed of Gift from CBS? Simple, because there was
no such separate Deed of Gift. UCLA did not need “permission” from SPFM to make
copies of those 30 or 40 Dats. It was unbecoming for an educational charity (given such
tax-exempt status by the IRS) to keep the fruits of these CBS materials to themselves.
SPFM was not a private foundation (like the Gene Autry Museum) since it was a not-forprofit
educational charity chartered by the State of California for tax-exempt purposes.
Therefore SPFM was a public charitable entity in which the general public must be the
final beneficiary (not just “in-house” Members of the Society), and collections must be
open, accountable and made accessible to members and others who are serious
researchers of film and TV music. My argument was that I was being given prejudicial
treatment since those recipients of the CBS Dats were given tapes because they were
personal friends and/or fellow members of certain Society trustees or members who had
access to the collection (unlike the vast majority of SPFM members)—but I, as a bonafide
researcher and then Member of the Society, was denied such tapes. Indeed, as given
earlier, SPFM had stated in writing, “We would like to make available the DAT tapes of
the CBS discs to researchers…”. I’d much rather focus on what is right and constructive
and helpful than on what-is-wrong issues, but, under the circumstances, I had to now
force the issue. Yet I explicitly added at the end of my pointed letter that “All’s well that
160