Firsthand Stories

I must have been to 245 earlier, only Russ and Ginger would remember. I do know in 1969, I worked on Quicksilver Messenger service “Shady Grove” with Dan Healey, and “Baby’s House” with Steve Miller band with the great Glyn Johns. I did some work with Russ; he taught me the basics, and it helped me become a real engineer. I’d known about “slap back” echo and “re-injection”, but Russ made it a signature with Creedence Clearwater.

Now that I’m logged in, I’ll start gathering my thoughts, It was quite some time ago: I was one of the first employees at 245 Hyde, a young rookie from Seattle. I knew about Wally from his LA operation, but 245 as new to me. I applied at every studio in SF, turned down at all of them. Wally’s studio had a stack of applications a mile high, I pretty much gave up on my career change and was getting ready to head back to Seattle, tail between my legs.

The next day the phone where I was staying rang, it was Mel Tanner; a engineer (I think his name was George Hernandiz (sp?) had hurt his back at a Jefferson Airplane date the night before, Wally took my application from the top of the stack and I was hired, knowing nothing about the big time, but my foot was in the door! More later, M

I’m thinking I joined around November of 1969, Al Schmidt was doing the Airplane, with Pat Ieraci as second.

Studio “C” was the only one open, the rest were being completed. What a exciting time! The staff was me,

Russ Gary, George Herdandiz, Ginger Mews, Mel Tanner.

Stephen:

I’m his nephew.  Otto W. Heider Sr. had two sons: Wally Heider and Otto W. Heider Jr.  Otto Jr. is my father.  I was born in 1951; I remember seeing Wally as a kid.

1. Wally was born May 20, 1922.  His father, Otto W. Heider Sr, was the town lawyer in Sheridan, Oregon.  Otto came from a poor first generation German family (his father was a shoemaker from Bavaria with about nine children from two marriages) and put himself through law school at the University of Oregon as a starving student.  Otto worshiped financial success, and wanted Wally to join his Sheridan law practice.  My father, Otto W. Heider Jr, was born in 1925.  Wally and Otto Jr. did not like each other much, particularly in their later years.

2. Wally graduated from Sheridan High School just prior to World War II, probably 1940.  He attended U of O for a couple of years prior to the War.  I’ve seen pictures of Wally in an army uniform; I suspect he enlisted.  I don’t think he saw combat.

3. Wally graduated from U of O in 1946 or 1947.

4. He passed the Oregon Bar in 1955, and joined Otto Sr. in the Sheridan law practice.  Sheridan is a small town, probably 1400 people at the time, and Wally hated the practice of law, probably also working with his father, who was a bit of the teutonic German father.

5. In a huge family mess, Wally left the Sheridan law practice and moved to LA in late summer of 1959.  Otto W. Heider Sr. owned the building that housed the law firm; last I checked, the windows were still painted “Otto W. Heider & Son”. Otto Sr. wouldn’t speak of Wally for years.

6. Once Wally was successful and written up in Esquire magazine, Otto Sr. was proud of him and happy to speak about him.

7. After Wally left the recording business, he started a “Hindsight Records” company, with, I believe, the goal of releasing previously unreleased recordings.  He had huge rows of vinyl records stored at Otto Sr’s house in Sheridan.  Wally had moved to Portland by then.

7. Wally died in March 1989 of brain cancer.  He is buried in the Heider family plot in Sheridan, Oregon.

Hope that helps fill in the cracks!

Cheers, George

I knew who it was in seconds after I was awakened by Wally’s 2:00 AM phone call. Wally had heard that I had a rara avis series of recordings of the Stan Kenton orchestra, and wanted to come to Rhode Island with his equipment to make copies. He told me that he wanted to record them and make LPs of the material. I resisted. He persisted. We went back and forth. I told him that I did not want to run afoul of both the Kenton family and the copyright laws. He said that he did it all the time. Besides, it would be himself who would have to deal with the Estate and the law, not me. I told him that I did not think that it would be ethical to have him access what I had, given to me in the belief that I would not produce recordings of what I had. I don’t believe we parted friends — only once more after that, had I heard from another friend of Wally’s, that he spoke of the incident and thought that I was being naive, since so many others did not mind assailing the copyright laws. We never had a chance to talk about our differences again…he passed away. Some one, some day, should do more than these sort of recollections…a full blown biography. He forever changed that ways in which “live” and studio recordings were made.

Tony Agostinelli