As I mentioned in my own blog, Steve left the New York area a couple of years after we founded Eventide, and left the East entirely for California by 1975. We kept in touch, but only loosely. His son, whom I met in the '80s, has filled me in on his projects and exploits since then from a much closer and far more personal perspective.
I met my dad in 1986. By the time I met him he was out of professional sound, although sound would always be a part of his life. At this point he was working for my uncle helping to put together rental packages for filming productions. This is a career he would have until about the mid 90's when "run away" production decimated the filming in California. He spent several years freelancing, writing reports (such as about the economic impact of foreign countries providing incentives for filming outside the United States) and in various entrepreneurial activities until his retirement when he moved to Beaumont California in 2018.
My dad was a legend in sound, he volunteered his time to sit on a panel for the SCI-FI club at UCLA for me, and story after story, you realized that no matter how much he shared it was truly the tip of the iceberg. The sound effect for the "evil" robot in Black Hole? that was the phrase "Fuck You" run through his Minimoog. The sound effects in Altered States? Most of those were recorded using microphones in his pool. His resume tagline read, in part, "I blew up the Death Star. I landed the mothership in Close Encounters" -- The rumor has it that he actually won the Oscar for best sound for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, however, because he was "just the Dolby Sound Consultant" the credit was not eligible for the award.
I think the two points where I realized just how "big a deal" he was: When Star Trek IV came out Leonard Nimoy wanted a phenomenal opening, so the studios contracted my dad. After the last showing Wednesday night, we went into the Village Theater in Westwood and I spent the entire evening watching him retune the theatre. Rewiring the sound gear, pulling and tuning all the Dolby cards, even resoldering some speakers that were bad.
Two things really set the tone of that event: Initially it was how he started—first he walked around the empty theater and just snapped his fingers. Then he started playing some pink noise and walked the theater again. After that he had a punch list that took him almost 4 hours to complete.... only THEN did he start playing the reels and tuning the experience for Star Trek specifically. The other, of course, was me, his fan-boy Star Trek son getting a chance to then watch Star Trek IV at 10am in a theater with five other people: my dad, Leonard Nimoy and other people part of the creation of the film. Not much happened there; the sound was of course spot on. But how many Star Trek fans get to experience THAT?
The other "big deal" moment—also in Westwood—they were doing a rescreening of Altered States. He had done such a good job on the sound there that the studio actually marketed it as a "new" audio experience. Before the screening, we had dinner with four friends of his that were active sound engineers in Hollywood, and it was so clear that they were so in awe of my dad and everything he had done. Altered States was legendary in that community...
Actually, as Dad told the story, Altered States was why he got out of sound. He expected the phone to ring off the hook.... and it did not. The truth is, we live in a world where for most audience members, "loud" is synonymous with "good." My dad was a genius in a space that simply did not matter to most people and I think that crushed him a bit.
At this time, Dolby was somewhat established as a technology and so some of the work he was doing was becoming more rote. He always said he could "mix" if he needed money, but, he loathed "mixing for hire," be it audio for music (one quote of his: "hell is mixing live music") or audio for movies. When I moved out, he turned my bedroom into a sound studio, mostly to explore novel ways of mixing and creating sound. Even though he hated mixing, I am fortunate that he was willing to do a recording for my girlfriend at the time, here is a link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dF8vELHc_XpeS08L0xzh_E7U6z_IOa0p/view?usp=sharing
He did some really amazing and large scale sound projects that should have had much more life than they did. On the smallest end, I remember he spent about a year making a music box that would play recordings with a richness that was simply unworldly coming from the little container that it did..
What he was working on in Beaumont might have ultimately taken the crown, but that title is currently held by his "Bed of Sound." I found some pictures and renderings the other day. Dad liked to spend time in bed as other people might spend time on a couch. So, he spent years creating the most amazing "bed theater" and the phrase does not do it justice. Picture that this was in the era before flat screen monitors.
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| Steve's Surround-Sound Audio Bed |
It had a suspended Sony Trinitron TV! I believe the sound spec was 7.2. subwoofers were below the bed, and then a combination of suspended and embedded speakers That alone would have been spectacular. But, then you needed media to play. It had laserdisc (since they had the best audio quality), VHS and Betamax—this was WELL before the era of DVD
In case you wanted to read instead of watch a movie, it had embedded reading lights. You might ask the question: What if your spouse wanted to sleep while you read? No problem! The tight beam MR16 lamps were on articulated heads that could direct to either the "dad" or "mom" side of the bed.
Since mom loved 90210 and dad loved CNN there had to be a solution there. On each side of the bed was an articulating arm with a monitor so they could each watch different shows at the same time.
Everything was controlled via touch screens—video and audio routing, controlling the arms, controlling the lighting. Equalization presets—my dads presets were simply magic. Oh! And when I say lighting, I include beyond the bed itself—the entire house lighting was driven by X10 which was interfaced into the bed—including a relay that would turn on the air conditioner. "Nest" well before actual Nest existed. Driving the intelligence were three Amiga computers. I actually got two quarters of independent study credit at UCLA for the help that I provided in getting the automation aspects of the bed online.
And of course, everything was encased in a beautiful lacquered white wood.
His last project before retirement was also in sound and again on the entrepreneurial side. He designed sound abatement solutions for a firing range to protect the hearing of our police and military; as with everything he did with sound, it was revolutionary. I think he just was getting to the point in life where he wanted to do sound projects for himself rather than others. His living room in Beaumont would have ultimately become "Bed 2.0."
I am realizing this email is meandering and I know you are wanting a bio... :/ The only other big note would be Murry and Maxie, the two Bichons that were my parents' "grandchildren." Murry was even a showdog (about 1994-2004 where his active showdog years)! My parents personality at that time, no joke—if you saw the movie "best in show" then you knew my parents.