Collection search - Cable, Howard - Interview

Record information – Brief

1

Cable, Howard - Interview

Item number (ISN):

378437

Series title:

Live to Air

Hierarchical level:

Item (Accession level)

Date:

2002-05-14

Item number (ISN):

378437

Type of material:

Moving images

Found in:

Archives / Film, Video and Sound

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Record information – Details

Fonds/collection:

MCKENNA, Jim

Accession:

2006-0176

Media:

Video

Part:

1 of 1

Production date:

2002-05-14

Production company:

Jim McKenna (Interviewer)

Production credit:

interviewer, Jim McKenna

Description:

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Unedited interview of music conductor and arranger Howard Cable about his experiences working in live television for the CBC. The interview is for a two-hour documentary entitled LIVE TO AIR, broadcast on CBC television on 16 September 2002. Among the subjects discussed are: how he started working in television; having been in radio; the CANADIAN GENERAL ELECTRIC show on radio from 1948 to 1955 with the Howard Cable orchestra and the Leslie Bell Singers; singer Charles Jordan; Cable’s work conducting part of the band on the television show OPENING NIGHT and doing some of the arrangements for that show; the sense in the early days of television that no one knew what they were doing; the CBC sending Drew Crossan, Sydney Newman and others to New York to learn about television; doing a radio-TV simulcast of the CANADIAN GENERAL ELECTRIC show that first season of 1952-1953; the size of studios and the size of orchestras; being paid $150 for conducting and $250 for arranging the whole show; orchestra rehearsals; working on the score; copyists making copies of the score for the musicians; the hectic pace of preparing for the shows; problems caused by having the musicians playing in a different studio from the other performers during the live broadcasts; an incident in which Robert Goulet had to try to sing with a rain machine and a wind machine blowing air and water at him; singer Joyce Sullivan; her work with the Leslie Bell Singers; examples of performers having trouble with a song; an anecdote about singers Shirley Harmer and Robert Goulet forgetting the lyrics of a song and dancing to fill the time; the lack of rehearsal time; Jack Arthur; Jackie Rae; working with dancers Alan and Blanche Lund; other people Cable worked with, such as Norman Campbell, Drew Crossan, Harvey Hart and Don Hudson; SHOWTIME sponsor Canadian General Electric getting rid of Norman Jewison because of a difference of opinion; a light grid falling down during a performance of Orpheus in the Underworld; tenor George Murray forgetting lyrics; Robert Goulet and Murray Matheson in THE PIRATE BALLET, on SHOWTIME, Gene Kelly’s brother choreographing that show; Goulet ad-libbing some lyrics; Goulet and Joyce Sullivan; the tension in live television; the early days of television as a period of great creativity; the need for improvisation in live television; last-minute changes in shows; difficulties when doing his radio show and a television show at the same time, needing to adjust parts of the shows that did not fit because there were different commercials on the radio and TV versions; doing the radio and television show during the 1953 and 1954 seasons, 1 hour apart; not rehearsing the radio show; praise for the pool of Toronto musicians; strings and brass players with an American sound; the apprenticeship the musicians served in big bands and symphonies; how stars such as Ella Fitzgerald were impressed by the talent of Toronto musicians; the SHOWTIME series; camaraderie among the performers and crew; Frank Peppiatt; Dodi Robb and John Aylesworth from MacLaren Advertising; the golden age of television coinciding with the golden age of music and the Broadway musical; the disappearance of variety as a television genre, his first network radio show, in 1942 and his first network TV show in 1952. <51mn 46s>

Language:

English

Notes:

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1. This is a Betacam SX dub of originals shot on Betacam SP tapes 16 and 17.~2. The Canadian Broadcast Museum holds the Betacam SP originals.~3. Production date of the Betacam originals (date interview conducted) is 2002-05-14.~4. Betacam SX tape dubbed at CBC on 2002-05-15.~5. Some replies are rephrased at the request of the interviewer in order to create complete replies since the interviewer’s questions are edited out for the documentary.~6. Videotape and transcript available for consultation on LAC premises.~7. Colour bars at approximately 30 minutes into the tape.

Detailed holdings information:

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Vault ISN:

435698

Format:

VIDEO

Location number:

V7 2007-01-0036

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

SOF

Duration:

51:46

Made from:

DEPOSIT

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

435954

Format:

VIDEO

Location number:

V1 2007-02-0002

Number of items:

1

Duration:

121:30

Status:

REF

Vault ISN:

794028

Format:

VIDEO

Location number:

378437.MXF

Number of items:

1

Made from:

V7 2007-01-0036

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

794029

Format:

VIDEO

Location number:

378437.MP4

Number of items:

1

Made from:

V7 2007-01-0036

Status:

REF

Vault ISN:

981185

Format:

VIDEO

Location number:

V4 2007-02-0002

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

SOF

Made from:

V7 2007-01-0034
V7 2007-01-0035
V7 2007-01-0036

Status:

MASTER
Ordering and viewing options

Conditions of access:

Open

Consultation copy number:

V1 2007-02-0002

Restrictions on consultation:

Open for consultation.

Reproduction access:

With written permission of Copyright Owner / Avec la permission écrite du détenteur des droits d'auteur

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