Part 11 - George Groves and the Burbank Studios (1972 - 76)

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}

Groves-rice music complex at Warners
The scoring console with stage, orchestra and projection screen at the Groves-Rice complex at 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 disillusionment 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".

burbank studios sign
Columbia Pictures had that year closed down their own studios and moved onto the Warner lot. They joined forces with the new Warner regime in creating a single production facility called The Burbank Studios which was like a small city. It had its own fire department, police and security department, mail service, plumbers, bank, parks and lake, restaurant and bicycle shop.

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.

Entrance to Eurbank Studios
Before George retired his dream of a modern scoring and dubbing complex came true (see pic at top of page). He had produced detailed plans a decade earlier but Jack Warner was not interested. Promises by Kenny Hyman of Seven Arts and even Frank Sinatra had also not been realised. The Groves-Rice Sound Complex was implemented by Albert P. Green and boasted five dubbing stages, two scoring stages, an ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) stage and a Foley (sound-effects) stage. Along with 34 sound stages - which were available for single or multi-camera film or video tape production - plus 21 screening theatres, the studios were finally state of the art and fully capable of meeting the modern-day needs of the production community in Hollywood and beyond.

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 the sound studios weren't equipped to perform quadraphonic dubbing and theatres didn't possess the necessary playback facilities.

Pasted Graphic 4
The idea was dropped but as a result of Stanley Kubrick's request, quadraphonic recording was made possible within the new Groves-Rice Sound complex at Burbank.

On October 23rd 1972 George Groves was awarded the prestigious Samuel L. Warner Memorial Award by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. This was:
"...for outstanding contributions in the design and development of new and improved methods and / or apparatus for sound-on-film motion pictures"
letter from SMPTE to George Groves
The presentation was made at the SMPTE annual luncheon, which was held at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. Several hundred motion picture engineers from all over the world had travelled to the event. As part of the award, George was given an inscribed medal made of solid gold that was so valuable it was immediately placed in a bank vault and a bronze replica was made for display purposes.

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 from Jack Warner to George Groves
Letter that George received from his ex-boss Jack Warner congratulating him on his award

Movie maker from St.Helens dies
George had suffered from heart problems for some time and had had a pacemaker fitted. His sister Hilda Barrow said that he used to amuse his friends by inviting them to feel it! However, on September 4th 1976, he suffered a severe heart attack from which he was unable to recover. George's funeral was held at the Forest Lawn cemetery in Hollywood Hills with his coffin draped with both the British Union flag and the American Stars and Stripes.

During his career George worked on a total of 32 films in either an operational or supervisory capacity that received Academy Award nominations. During his tenure as Head of Sound, George 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!

George Groves Oral History