George Groves and Burbank Studios (1972 - 76)
Creation of the Burbank Studios, retirement from Warners, the Samuel L. Warner Memorial Award and George Groves' death
I virtually spent a lifetime with the company so it was a source of great pride to me to be awarded this medal - [George Groves Oral History]
The scoring
console with stage and orchestra set up in
front of a projection screen
within the Groves-Rice music complex at the
Burbank Studios in 1972
George Groves retired from
Warners on August 31st 1972, after a career
with the company which lasted a remarkable 46
years. A farewell party was thrown for him in
which he was presented with a gold watch and a
combination hi-fi. In a letter to his sister
Hilda dated November 14th 1972, George
expressed some disolutionment with the changes
that were taking place at the studio. He felt
that under new owners Kinney National, the
company run by
Ted Ashley and now known
as
Warner Communications, had become
"a huge factory".
The Burbank Studios were created as a rental operation, available for any production company to hire. Even Warners and Columbia had to rent the facilities and George's sound department was split into two. One department was responsible for sound production and another for post-production. George's assistant and chief engineer, Al Green, became head of the latter.
The complex was named after George Groves and Charles Rice who had been the head of Columbia's sound department, although Rice played no part in its design. A plaque on the wall credits Groves for supervising the designing, engineering and construction of the facility.
George also ensured that quadraphonic facilities were incorporated in the new studio. This was as a result of Stanley Kubrick originally wanting A Clockwork Orange to be exhibited with quad sound. In 1971 George had to write to Kubrick in England to inform him that he couldn't oblige him as the studios weren't equipped to perform quadraphonic dubbing and theatres didn't possess the necessary playback facilities.
On October 23rd 1972 George was awarded the prestigious Samuel L. Warner Memorial Award by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers:
"...for outstanding contributions in the design and development of new and improved methods and / or apparatus for sound-on-film motion pictures"
Sam Warner, with whom George had worked in New York and Hollywood, had devoted all his energies to developing motion picture sound but died just 24 hours before the Jazz Singer's premiere. Appropriately it was Sam's brother Jack, for whom George had worked for over four decades, who presented him with the award.
It came as a wonderfully pleasant surprise to me when I was notified by the secretary of the SMPTE that I was to be the 1972 recipient. It was particularly wonderful because I had worked with Sam Warner in the early days and, of course, worked for 46 years with his brother Jack. I virtually spent a lifetime with the company so it was a source of great pride to me to be awarded this medal.

Letter
that George received from his ex-boss Jack
Warner
However, on September 4th, 1976 he suffered a severe heart attack and died. George's funeral was held at the Forest Lawn cemetary in Hollywood Hills with his coffin draped with both the British Union flag and the American Stars and Stripes.
During his tenure as Head of Sound he won for his department two Oscars for Best Sound for the 1957 film Sayonara and for his work on My Fair Lady in 1964. He was also part of the team that won the Academy Award for Best Sound in 1943 for the musical Yankee Doodle Dandy starring James Cagney.
George’s Oscar wins and nominations plus the prestigious Samuel L. Warner memorial award demonstrated that his peers in the United States had recognised his achievements, but in the land of his birth he was largely unknown. Although local newspapers in England had occasionally reported his achievements and some reported his passing, his contribution to the development and employment of sound recording in films had essentially been overlooked.
However, his proud sister Hilda Barrow in Liverpool, England was determined to put that right!
NEXT PAGE - Hilda's
Campaign For Official
Recognition For Her Brother
George
