Re: Bebe Barron Passes

[info at zoekeating <info@zoekeating.com>]

Oh, I LOVE that movie!! I was just reading on Wikipedia and didn't  
know about Barron's story with the AFM.

Incredible that the AFM has been up to the same protectionist  
strategies for over 50 years. I'm a former member and after reading  
this I despise them even more, which is a lot.

ACK!



 From Wikipedia....

"The soundtrack for Forbidden Planet (1956) is today recognized as  
the first entirely electronic score for a film. Eerie and sinister,  
the soundtrack was unlike anything that audiences had heard before.  
Music historians have often noted how groundbreaking the soundtrack  
was in the development of electronic music.

...Not everyone was happy with the score. Louis and Bebe did not  
belong to the Musicians' Union. The original screen credit for the  
film, which was supposed to read "Electronic Music by Louis and Bebe  
Barron", was changed at the last moment by a contract lawyer from the  
American Federation of Musicians. In order to not upset the union,  
the association with the word music had to be removed. The Barrons  
were credited with "Electronic Tonalities". Because of their non- 
membership in the union, the film was not considered for an Oscar in  
the soundtrack, or special effects category.

...The Musicians Union forced MGM to title the Forbidden Planet score  
"electronic tonalities", not "music". And seeing the handwriting on  
the wall, used that excuse to deny them membership in the 1950s; the  
union's primary concern was losing jobs for performers rather than  
the medium itself. As a result, the Barrons never scored another film  
for Hollywood."





On Apr 30, 2008, at 10:33 PM, Rick Williamson wrote:

> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/movies/25barron.html
>
> "Bebe Barron, who with her husband Louis composed the first  
> electronic score for a feature film - the eerie gulps and burbles,  
> echoes and weeeoooos that accentuated invisible monsters and  
> robotic creatures in the 1956 science-fiction classic "Forbidden  
> Planet" - died Sunday in Los Angeles. She was 82."