The Wally Heider Orchestra
Wally had a dance band in the 40′s and Biff Dawes found an acetate (one-off-disk recording) of the band live:
check out THE WALLY HEIDER ORCHESTRA
My sister was Ginger Mews….
Ginger Mews
Ginger passed away May 19, 2000 at the young age of 59. (She came to be with us on Christmas Day 1999 with the hope treatment for her cancer would buy some time.) We later flew to SF and had a wonderful celebration of her life. There is a memorial bench in Golden Gate Park with her name that reads “for the city she loved, etc.” I would love to hear any and all stories you might have about Ginger. We visited every year and spent many hours with her at the Fillmore, Heider Studio (Christmas party), and enjoyed all the stories–Airplane/Starship, Doobie Brothers, Grateful Dead–hope to return again this year–what a wonderful time! Thank you in advance! Vicki
In: Firsthand Stories
RUSS GARY’S Recollections Part One
Hollywood
When Wally Heider was an assistant engineer at United/Western Studios on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, he was the biggest big band enthusiast on the planet and would take his portable tape recorder to gigs and record the show so the guys in the band could hear their performance. He kept the recordings for his own enjoyment. He made friends in all the big bands of the day, and when bands came to United/Western to record, they would ask for Wally as their engineer. Thus, Wally’s career took off.
Wally opened his first studio, Studio One – an overdub/mixing room, at the corner of Cahuenga and Selma in Hollywood. Remote recording came first, however, and other stories will be told about the company’s remote recording adventures.
In: Firsthand Stories, Russ Gary
RUSS GARY’S Recollections Part Two
This is part two of this article. To see part one, go to http://wallyheider.com/wordpress/archives/rebel/39/
San Francisco
Russ Gary in Studio C in San Francisco, 1970
Between late 1968 and early 1969 I made several trips to San Francisco to help prepare the studios for opening day.
The original staff members included studio manager Mel Tanner, formerly an engineer at Coast Recorders in San Francisco. Ginger Mews ran the traffic office and Harry Sitam was the tech engineer. George Fernandez joined the group a short time prior to opening day. Although based in Hollywood, Frank DeMedio remained the chief tech engineer.
Wally put me up in the Lafayette Hotel (now the Midori) on Hyde Street, directly across from the studio. Well, the Lafayette was not exactly deluxe accommodations. I only slept in the Lafayette, however, and spent all my time working in the studios. Most weekends I went home to Southern California.
In: Firsthand Stories, Russ Gary
Anyone work on Aretha’s “Amazing Grace” album?
Amazing Grace is a classic Grammy winning 1972 album by Aretha Franklin.
Aaron Cohen to wallyheider2
show details 18 Jan 2010
message…
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Hi Stephen,
I’m writing a book about Aretha Franklin’s “Amazing Grace” album, which Ray Thompson engineered for Wally Heider. If you could help me get in touch with anyone from Wally Heider\’s company who participated in this live recording, and would be able to speak about it for the book, I would be most appreciative and overwhelmingly grateful.
Thanks!
—Aaron Cohen
aaronc [at] downbeat.com
In: Announcements · Tagged with: aretha franklin, bill thompson, heider remote, remote