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Does anyone know the story behind this photo?


curlytoot

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Oddly enough, I was searching to see if there were any pics of JW with Leonard Bernstein, when I stumbled upon this photo. Anyone know anything about it? Were they all actually there at the same time or was the photo basically cobbled together? Forgive my ignorance.

 

0a3ba5a86f500c39eff9174c015e9a24.jpg

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It's a fake!  See, you can tell by the cross section.

 

Pretty sure it's partially a collage, and partially some of them together.  I don't remember who was pasted in though.

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Apparently from Vanity Fair 1997. FSM messageboard had a thread about in 2006.

 

There is a suggestion that they usually photograph such a big group of people in smaller groups and then put it together editorially, mostly because of schedules of the busy composers who might not be able to attend at the same time.

 

The text at the bottom of the picture says:

The Composers
Photographed by Art Streiber in Los Angeles
on January 7 and 20, 1997.
"No one knows why films need music,
but no film is complete without it."
—The late Bernard Herrmann, composer for Citizen Kane, Psycho and Taxi Driver.

 

The two dates lend credence to the idea that there were two different photo sessions with different composers present.

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3 minutes ago, Muad'Dib said:

Hansu and Johnny exchanging that loving look....

 

If this board had ships....

Actually Johnny is looking into the space behind Danny Elfman pretending to be interested in what the younger composer is saying. I bet he grinned and nodded furiously.

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3 hours ago, Incanus said:

Apparently from Vanity Fair 1997. FSM messageboard had a thread about in 2006.

 

There is a suggestion that they usually photograph such a big group of people in smaller groups and then put it together editorially, mostly because of schedules of the busy composers who might not be able to attend at the same time.

 

The text at the bottom of the picture says:

The Composers
Photographed by Art Streiber in Los Angeles
on January 7 and 20, 1997.
"No one knows why films need music,
but no film is complete without it."
—The late Bernard Herrmann, composer for Citizen Kane, Psycho and Taxi Driver.

 

The two dates lend credence to the idea that there were two different photo sessions with different composers present.

 

That is correct. Two different sessions. I remember when this Vanity Fair pic did all the rounds in the early days of the internet. I even ran a story on it in my early incarnation of Celluloid Tunes. A bit sad to see all the composers who have passed since.

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1 hour ago, Thor said:

Well, I'm not quite sure who were in what sessions (it wasn't merely as easy as the left side in one session, and the right side in the other).

 

By the way, I just noticed there's some guy who's photoshopped himself into the picture (the guy in the back with a purple suit). He was obviously not part of the original photo, which can be seen here:

 

http://www.c3iopscenter.com/currentops/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/7January1997ComposersVanityFair.jpg

Thanks for sharing the original image Thor!

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Composers I didn't know by sight:

Schifrin

Isham

Barry

Hamlisch

Jarre

Shaiman

Menken

 

Composers I knew by sight:

JNH

Goldsmith

Williams

Elfman

Zimmer

Bernstein

Horner

Goldenthal

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Here's the original non-shopped version

 

 

 

 

 

7January1997ComposersVanityFair.jpg

 

And here's the original JWFan thread on all this

 

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/11492-vanity-fair-hollywood-1997-composers-pic/

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9 hours ago, Incanus said:

Actually Johnny is looking into the space behind Danny Elfman pretending to be interested in what the younger composer is saying. I bet he grinned and nodded furiously.

 

The space between spaces!

 

original.jpg

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8 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

Composers I didn't know by sight:

Schifrin

Isham

Barry

Hamlisch

Jarre

Shaiman

Menken

 

Composers I knew by sight:

JNH

Goldsmith

Williams

Elfman

Zimmer

Bernstein

Horner

Goldenthal

 

You didn't list Kamen, but I hope you did recognise him!

 

I didn't recognise JNH in that pic, but that's mostly due to the perspective. Otherwise, my list is pretty much like yours, except that I also knew Schifrin, Barry and Shaiman. Curious to see that soon I'll have seen five of them live (would have been six, had Barry been well enough to personally receive his Max Steiner award in 2009).

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As looks go, Kamen was one of the most iconic ones. I still remember watching a David Gilmour DVD at my father's (probably David Gilmour in Concert) and being surprised when I spotted Kamen on the keyboard. (That was before I found out that he did arrangements on The Wall and some other Pink Floyd stuff)

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Oh, I don't know much, and I never got the huge fascination with Robin Hood (which doesn't mean I won't give it another try when a complete release comes out). But he's done some nice stuff, and he certainly was recognisable. Plus I like what he did for Pink Floyd. ;)

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3 hours ago, Evil-Lyn said:

The actual magazine spread erroneously credits Williams with all 4 Superman films.

Vanity Fair. Shows what they know. Mere dilettantes!

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7 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

Never been a big Kamen guy.  I like his Bond score, Brazil, and X-Men.  Robin Hood I've just never connected with.  That's about the limit of my familiarity.

 

BRAZIL is fantastic. LICENCE TO KILL is such an underrated score. It's crying out for a complete release.

 

 

 

7 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Oh, I don't know much, and I never got the huge fascination with Robin Hood (which doesn't mean I won't give it another try when a complete release comes out). But he's done some nice stuff, and he certainly was recognisable. Plus I like what he did for Pink Floyd. ;)

 

I thought the same thing, when I discovered that JNH was all over a bunch of 70s Elton John records.

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It's when I read some of these posts ("I didn't know what some of these guys looked like", "I'm not familiar with Kamen" etc.), that I realize how old I am. :(

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3 minutes ago, BloodBoal said:

 

That's not the conclusion you should come to. Rather that youngsters these days don't know a damn thing about film music and film music composers, apart from Gihackino and Zimmer.

 

For some reason, I've assumed that I'm older than you but I don't know on what I've based that assumption since you don't let any biographical details slip ever.

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On 8/29/2017 at 6:12 PM, Disco Stu said:

Never been a big Kamen guy.  I like his Bond score, Brazil, and X-Men.  Robin Hood I've just never connected with.  That's about the limit of my familiarity.

I find his music to be a bit twee to be honest, a bit like the 80's/90's equivalent of Giacchino.  

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