GEORGE GROVES QUOTE...UNQUOTE
George Groves' recollections of the actors and directors that he worked with in Warner Bros. Sound Department
George On Working With Director Alfred Hitchcock
I look back on
my association with Alfred Hitchcock as
one of the great privileges of my tenure
of office at Warner Brothers. He’s
an absolute delight. He’s one of the
directors that knew what he wanted, knew
how to get it and got it with the minimum
of fuss and was courteous and gentlemanly
to everybody concerned.
I really loved Alfred Hitchcock. He’s probably the greatest teller of English stories that I’ve ever encountered. I can’t repeat some of them on the tape but they’re funny and if I told them they would not be anywhere near as funny as Alfred Hitchcock told them...he’s a great director.
With Al Jolson On The Set Of The Singing Fool (1928)
Jolson was a
very kindly man, as well as a great
artist. I remember a little incident on
the set. In the hospital scene there were
a number of afflicted children. One little
chap had a diseased bone in his hip.
Jolson turned to the mother and said
quietly “Take him to my doctor. Tell
him to do whatever is necessary and charge
the cost to me”. There was no
staging about it, just a little aside on
the spur of the moment. That was Jolson
...Jolie I thought was a wonderful, wonderful man. He was a greater entertainer off the stage than on, in my observations.
Describing Director Frank Capra's Attitude To Production
He knew just what
he wanted...As far as production crews are
concerned, a director who knows what he wants
and knows how to get it, then everybody enjoys
themselves. They’re wonderful to work
with. The great directors that can do this
don’t abuse the staff unnecessarily.
Some directors pick on the little fella because he can’t fight back. They are not the Frank Capra type.
How Whispering Doris Day Caused Sound Problems
She was very
pretty, very beautiful and sang quite
well…As she matured she became more
difficult somewhat and decided to talk as
everything she was saying had to be kept
secret. She’d talk very, very low
all the time. I don’t know if she
thought it sounded more sexy or what.
She got to talking so low that the man on the end of the boom couldn’t even hear what she was saying. He could see her lips moving but couldn’t hear it. So I had to give the boom man headphones.
George's Thoughts On "man's director" Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh
was a man’s director. He’s a
western man from way back. When he said
action he wants action and gets it...He
had a habit of rolling his own cigarettes
in brown rice paper.
After rehearsing a scene he would invariably walk to the back of the camera and turn away from the scene and roll a cigarette while it was being played and say “Cut, print it”. Now how he could tell whether it was good, bad or indifferent I don’t know, but this was quite a habit...I was very fond of Raoul. He and I were good friends.
George On Judy Garland In A Star Is Born (1954)
It was a wonderful
experience to pre-record her numbers and she
was a love to work with…Our experience
with her was a joy. She seemed to be very, very
happy with what she heard from the recordings
and they were good
…In shooting some of the numbers Mr. Warner would go down on the stage and hug her and thank her because everything was going off great. She was being a very good girl, she really was... She was on time and loved the performance of the crew and everybody.
His Thoughts On Working With Frank Sinatra
As far as Frank
personally is concerned I always found him very
engaging and very charming. Very business-like
on a scoring session. He didn’t like to
over-rehearse to the point where a number got
stale before it was recorded...My personal
experience with him was a very enjoyable
experience
…In the shows that he worked, we had people like Bing Crosby and Sammy Davies Jnr. So they were pretty talented people working with him all the time and it made for fun. There was a lot of fun on the scoring stage actually. Kidding around with each other.
How Getting Errol Flynn To Loop (re-record) A Line Of Dialogue For A Picture Got George In Trouble!
I took it upon
myself to call Errol. After he’d done the
looping job he demanded salary for all the time
he’d been off salary. He was having a big
battle with Jack Warner about the fact that he
was off salary in between pictures. Well Warner
he could have killed me. He said “who
gave you authority to call Flynn in”. I
said “we’ve called guys in before
when we needed them to loop”. He said
“Didn’t you know that he was off
salary and now he’s suing us for 7 months
salary? This looping is costing me $5000 a
word.” He was mad. Mad, mad, mad.
So I called Errol Flynn. I said “Errol, I just got the word from Jack Warner what it's costing him if you go through with this thing. Incidentally, I think it's going to cost me my job.” He said “If that’s the case George. I’ll forget it”. And he cancelled it, cancelled his demand.
How George Felt When Jack Warner Retired in 1967
I’d been
with Colonel Warner for a long, long time
and I felt that he was more like a father
to me than a boss because I always had a
wonderful feeling of support from
him...Mr. Warner had a great deal of faith
in my judgement…he’d back me
up whenever it came to a decision.
One thing I could always rely upon and that was 100% backing from Mr. Warner...My relationships with him were marvellous.
NEXT PAGE - Hilda on George
"QUOTE...UNQUOTE"
