Fire at Universal

[Foofoogal]

Crud.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080601/ap_on_re_us/studio_fire

 

[freebird]

That's sad, but on the bright side, they had duplicates of the old reels and videos.

 

[Mr. Lucky]

I live less than a mile from Universal. When I woke up this morning, stepped out for a smoke, I was startled as hell! I looked up and thought it was going to rain, the sky was so dark. But then I got a whiff of the air and knew something was wrong. At first I feared that it was a plane crash - we live not far from the Burbank airport and, given the amount of smoke and the distinct odor, I didn't think it was a wild fire. I ran inside, turned on the TV and saw what was happening - the Universal fire!

It's still raining a bit of ash over here and the smell is still strong. Thank goodness the important stuff - the original film prints - are safe. The sets can be rebuilt, but the history can't be replaced.

 

[Rockapin-up]

yes, very sad to hear the King Kong exhibit was lost. Hopefully they will rebuild better and scarier. Glad the original movie negatives are safe. My boyfriend is working there today on the MTV movie awards, I had to drop him off a couple of blocks away from the hill as they were not letting anyone drive up there.

 

[Matt Deckard]

been keeping track of that here. It's terrible.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I live less than a mile from Universal. When I woke up this morning, stepped out for a smoke, I was startled as hell! I looked up and thought it was going to rain, the sky was so dark. But then I got a whiff of the air and knew something was wrong. At first I feared that it was a plane crash - we live not far from the Burbank airport and, given the amount of smoke and the distinct odor, I didn't think it was a wild fire. I ran inside, turned on the TV and saw what was happening - the Universal fire!

It's still raining a bit of ash over here and the smell is still strong. Thank goodness the important stuff - the original film prints - are safe. The sets can be rebuilt, but the history can't be replaced.

There's a very sad irony here -- Universal is the studio with, overall, the worst track record for preservation of its film library. Back in 1948 they burned their entire silent archive -- negatives and prints -- because the films were believed to have no further market value, and it's only a quirk of luck that any Universal silents survive at all. But since those days they've improved tremendously on the preservation front, only to have something like this happen. Very sad.

 

[Spiffy]

It's almost a good thing that the fire's in the exhibit stuff.....reels of film are crazy flammable.

 

[LocktownDog]

Apparently their library also lost quite a few of Bing's one-off recordings in this fire. Why are archival back-ups not made on a regular basis? Even if originals are lost, there should be at least digital recordings for informational purposes.

Richard

 

[LizzieMaine]

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.

 

[DanielJones]

Universal Studios on fire this wekend.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/01/studio.fire/index.html

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/valley/la-et-memories2-2008jun02,0,3571334.story

Cheers!

Dan

 

[Fletch]

The cynic in me says something like that had to happen one day. But I hope you, and I, and 78-L are wrong.

But whatever its undeniable importance to our cultural legacy, this stuff was, at the end of the day, all corporate property. What gets backed up, stored in fireproof vaults, etc., is all determined by the marketplace. Very probably, backups were made first, or only, of stuff that had already been rereleased (and maybe re-rereleased) – because it had proven its value in dollars.

All the more reason to keep buying, burning and trading the 78s, folks. Someone's gotta keep the stuff alive, and the owners can't or won't do it.

 

[Fletch]

more not-so-good news

According to this blog, none of the major news services has reported the damage to the music holdings. I guess it's not nice to draw attention to the consolidation of the media industry.

Universal Music also claims they do have everything backed up, but according to the blogger, they've been waffling so much the truth may never be known.

 

[=ritzy=]

Wow...my sister told me about it..that is really sad..Ive only been to Universal's theme park once..bummer... Well I hope they did salvage as much as possible...

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

The archival things can't be replaced, but movie sets are torn down and built back up all the time. The sets that have burnt down haven't lost their history, even though they are rebuilding them. That's just the way it works. Plus, there are productions using the lot right now that need those sets there to finish their productions.