WESTREX OR WHATS IN A NAME : The sound of Motion Pictures and Television
Now can you imagine the scene above from North by Northwest with no sound or inferior sound? Try playing the following clips without sound.
Well thank Westrex Corporation (sounds like shades of Looker -the Westin Corp…don’t worry no one is going to zap you with light ray gun, no Digital Matrix here).
HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU WATCHED THE CREDITS FOR A MOVIE AND SEEN THIS NAME ?
One thing we need to remember is that if it had not been for technological advances there would not be the very sound, sound we have taken for granted in Film (TV and the Music industry). Well, thanks to these hard working and out of the box thinkers we can. Westrex, a brand name of Western Electric appears in numerous movie credits and can be seen attached posters.…. various publicity material and also used on several iconic TV series including Bewitched, Petticoat Junction and especially Route 66. But where I have run across Westrex the most as of late are within my favorite genres .. Spaghetti Westerns, Peplum (Sword and Scandal ) and Sci-Fi (think international not just US Films) or how about soundtracks ..and the Cinerama releases…
**** Western Electric (WE) as far back as of 1922 began a serious venture to be the first to develop sound for Hollywood, that adventure came to an end in 1993.
Here’s just a few examples:
First off check the credits -
&
Kung Fu and Samurai Films without crisp and clear sounds…imagine not being able to hear that bone crushing mayhem or lightening swords of doom …whew what a loss to the ears that would be…
Selected soundtrack music from Sword of Villainy
Below:The Sleepy Eyes of Death spanned 12 films in the series…
Even Monsters need some way of expressing themselves……and Universal used Westrex to the fullest when it came to their classic horror and sci-fi flicks .
How bout Mel Brook’s Young Frankenstein-an homage to Universal’s Great Horror films of the 30’s and 40's-again using Westrex sound-paying homage in every step of the way -yet leaving Mel room for his unique touch of humor.
Below: here’s a page out of the press book for the flick . again using Westrex sound-which Universal used on all their classic monster flicks.
Above : hilarious TV spots with Mel as the voice over
LATITUDE ZERO(Toho)
Tarzan Films had so much going in the way of sounds and what better way than using Westrex
BOND,JAMES BOND — Goldfinger
The James Bond Trailers(link)
Horror Films- Mario Bavas’ Blood and Black Lace
Spaghetti Westerns
The Big Gundown
Flame Over India aka Northwest Frontier(my favorite Train film)
SOUNDTRACKS:
Above: Orchestra recording for Cinerama
Elvis on screen
Above: one of the best Elvis posters and motor cycle jumping right off the poster.
Hanna and Barbera loved Westrex sound and was put to great use in most very Tom and Jerry along with Droopy cartoon produced …Comedy
(again check those credits) or action.
Television also relied on Westrex for superior sound.
Gerry Anderson’s many productions including Stingray(one of the characters is voiced by none other then miss Moneypenny herself-Lois Maxwell) and Thunderbirds
The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Peter Gunn and Route 66 what did they have in common? Ans. superb soundtracks
The Man From Uncle : each episode was scored as if it was a feature film .. and offering up some of the best Film/TV composers in the business..the likes of Hugo Montenegro, Jerry Goldsmith
Above: Peter Gunn starring Graig Stevens and featuring the music of Henry Mancini
Above: system used for making masters and dubs
How about those key scenes from some of the most cinematic moments on screen like the when Roy Scheider takes care of Jaws.
Just prior to “Smile you….. ….”
The Time Machine-George Pal version starring Rod Taylor.
Above: Rod Taylor is contemplating do I pull that lever again- should I go back to the future?
Below: Castle of Frankenstein one of the best “Monster Mags” featuring article and a wraparound cover The Time Machine-always awesome art.
Janet Leighs’ scream in Psycho — in fact most of Hitchcock's’ films used Westrex Sound
Westrex wasn’t just about sound in a Motion Picture/Television but also produced theater equipment from speakers to projectors that featured sound equipment with their brand to recording studio mics and processors and beyond for the music industry…and not just confined to ... with offices in London, Germany and India/Asia…
Western Electric: the people, technicians, scientists worked, created and developed all these innovations in sound for the Motion Picture Industry: the Vitaphone system which brought sound to the movies; the electrical recording technology adopted by record companies in the late 1920's (despite the popular electrical system used by Autograph Records and its manager, Orlando R. Marsh); the Ortho phonic phonograph, an acoustical phonograph with a flat frequency response tailored for reproduction of electrically recorded disks; the Westrex (variable density) optical sound that succeeded it for motion picture film production and release prints; the Westrex magnetic sound (mono and stereo) that succeeded it for motion picture film production (until the Swiss made Kudelski monaural Nagra III was adopted by Hollywood) and a few production’s release prints; the Westrex stereo variable-area optical sound that succeeded it for low-cost stereo release prints; the Westrex cutter and system for recording stereophonic sound in a single-groove gramophone record that was compatible with monophonic equipment. Above (Starting from vitaphone entry to monophonic equipment sourced from wikipedia.org)
Their equipment remained extremely versatile and adapt for moving into stereo sound including to be timed synched with 70 mm film and this is what gave them the ability to out survive RCA Photophone because it was not capable of producing time synched stereo sound.
I would like to refresh or stimulate your memory banks and maybe we can all take a walk down memory lane together… with these following pieces of what I call eye candy (not that kind of candy…sorry)
Hammer Films used Westrex equipment when recording the soundtracks for their films-result impeccable sound, superior audio tracks.
Below a scene from Hammer Films, She- starring Ursula Andress and featured one of motion pictures most haunting film scores …
Below: 100 Rifles trailer-starring Jim Brown. Burt Reynolds and Raquel Welch.
Above: My Electrical Home ad from Westrex parent company Western Electric
Below: remember cartoons benefit from crystal clear sound for the unique sound effects ... crashes and booms, splashes ...etc.
And when Hercules needed to flex those muscles to move big boulders and stop a careening chariot it took Steve Reeves and some spectacular sound …
All said, I have barely scratched the surface in terms of the contributions that this one company made during their active years in the world of Motion Pictures and Television and the recording business.
So how about trying this yourself and in this case instead of “watching the skies” like they do at the end of all those Science Fiction movies. Keep your eyes on the screen and those tiny little letters called credits and see if you don’t notice a company called Westrex. And for that matter Vitaphone and if you do go searching, you’ll notice that once the 70’s were upon us Westrex seen less and less in the credits-a helpful hint.
This is Doc saying “Goodnight Mrs. Callabash, wherever you are…”
Below are links to Western Electric history:
link to the Wide Screen Museum
http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/
So as we depart from each other take another listen to one of my favorite films in Westrex sound….
