More Than Movie Memories Lost in Universal Fire
It's been widely reported that the recent blaze at Universal Studios Hollywood destroyed several well-known movie sets, including the town square from Back to the Future. The cause of the fire has been traced to an accidental spark from a blowtorch used on construction of a nearby set.
What hasn't been reported in the mainstream press is the loss of a veritable treasure trove of original music recordings. From Deadline Hollywood Daily:
...inside the video vault that was billowing thick black smoke were 1000's of original Decca, MCA, ABC recording masters from the last century including a wide range of music from Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters to Judy Garland and The Carpenters. "This is a tremendous loss in music history. A very sad day indeed. It's too bad they saved the videos that they have backups on instead of the master recordings in which they do not, although they may not have had a choice since the fire had already engulfed much of the music side of the vault," a source just told me. Universal Studios can't confirm what has been damaged or destroyed music-wise at this point because it doesn't yet know what exactly was housed in the storage rented to Universal Music.
It's a real tragedy, even in the digital age, that these master recordings weren't better protected.
