VOLUME XXXII NUMBER TWO SUMMER 2017
I N P E R S P E C T I V E
James DiPasquale: SCL Past, Present And Future
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ver the last 34 years, the SCL has evolved into a virtual family of music activists. At this moment of industry turbulence, looking back at what the SCL has been, and what it could become in the future might not only be productive, but encouraging as well. Score: This story is about the SCL past, present and future, and nobody knows more about it than you! Jim: Unfortunately, yes. Score: First of all, how did they find you, how did you get involved, and what was it like when you first came in? Jim: In 1979, for a Hawaii Five-0 at CBS, I had to write 20 minutes of music in six days, and we recorded on a Saturday. I didn’t know it then, but the fee for CBS episodic was a $2,000 “composer’s package” — that is to say, it covered three services: composition, and AFM scale for orchestration and conducting. So after I deducted $1,848 in scale payments from the $2,000 package, what was left was $152 for composing! I called my agent, Al Bart, and said, “What’s the deal? How come I made so little for writing all this music?” He said, “That’s the standard CBS deal, $2,000.” That barely even covered the orchestration and conducting. My music was actually generating the employment for everybody—the musicians, music editors, engineers, dubbing mixers—everybody involved in the show, and I got only 152 bucks for creating that music. When I was doing commercials in New York and Chicago, I got $10,000 for a 60-second national spot. I said to Al, “What should I do?” and he said, “Welcome to Hollywood.” I thought, “That’s not right.” So I went down to the AFM and spoke to the vice president, Vince DiBari. I told him to pull the
contract on the CBS session. It showed that out of 26 musicians and five copyists, I was the lowest paid of everybody. And if I had hired an orchestrator and conductor, they would have gotten the $1,848 scale payment and I would have received only the $152. Max Herman, the union president, came in to DiBari’s office and lectured me. “Listen, young fellow, your predecessors didn’t want to be members of the AFM, so this is what you got now. It’s not your fault, but it’s because your Mancinis and all those guys were short-sighted.” So, I asked for a meeting with the full union Board and the attorneys and I explained my experience at CBS. Some people around the table were sympathetic, but most said it was our own fault because composers in the 1950s didn’t want to be represented by the AFM. That led to my getting involved with the Composers & Lyricists Guild of America, which had been certified as a union in 1955. I never joined it when I came to town in 1973 because my agent, Peter Faith, said, “The CLGA is in a lawsuit against the studios, so why don’t you just wait to see where the dust settles. They’ll take 3% of your gross pay in work dues, so why pay that if you’re just starting out.” So that’s how I became politicized. I joined the CLGA, which became fully active again after the lawsuit against the studios was settled in September 1979, the same month I did the Hawaii Five-0. John Cacavas, the CLGA president, and the Board decided that, after being locked in a lawsuit for seven years, it would be a good idea if the CLGA changed officers so the studios were not dealing with the same faces they’d been fighting with. So everyone resigned and we held an election. Richard Warren was elected president, I was elected vice president, Bruce Broughton was Treasurer, and Elliott Kaplan Secretary. We tried to re-activate the union Continued on Page 16
There’s a saying that “Change is the essence of life.” Well, there’s no more proof of that than the music industry right now.
C O N T E N T S
Speaking The Language Of The Orchestra 5 Tech Talk 7 Sound And Music In The New Virtual Reality Frontier 9 Inside George S. Clinton 12 Musical Shares 23