Most of the I Spy tape boxes contain a sheet with information like the location, date, recorder, microphones, audio staff and notes on the takes. All the sheets list the recorder as a Nagra. I have another pile of tapes dated from 1967 to 1969 from several other shows which I got from the same woman. These are shows like: That Girl, Mod Squad, My Friend Tony, My World And Welcome To It and Wake Me Up When the War Is Over. All these shows I think come out of the same Sheldon Leonard, Danny Thomas, Ron Jacobs, Fouad Said, Earle Hagen axis ‘o evil. I have hardly dipped into these—only to verify that I can hear the voices of Marlo Thomas, Ted Bessell and Clarence Williams III. I Spy definitely took precedence for me. All these list a Nagra as well.
I have a non-professional interest in the history of technology, particularly as it relates to radio and recorded sound. I haven’t heard of the Stancil-Hoffman company before. I guess that isn’t surprising since they made specialized recording equipment for professional applications, not units for home use. How was your grandfather connected with Stancil-Hoffman? I found a link on the Web which had a nice history of the company:
http://www.stancilcorp.com/history.html
What’s interesting to me is it says that Bill Stancil was involved with tape recording at the movie studios in the thirties. I’m guessing that this used an optical process like on old movie film. I think magnetic tape was developed in Germany and only came here after World War II. But clearly Stancil-Hoffman was on the cutting edge of that as well. Interestingly, another guy who was important to the development of magnetic tape recording in the United States after the war was Bing Crosby. He helped bankroll the Ampex Corporation. He wanted a high quality recording medium so he could pre-record his radio shows, and magnetic tape seemed the way to go
All this got me wondering about the Nagra recorder which was used on location for I Spy, and I found this link:
http://www.fsfl.se/backspegel/kudelski.html
This is an article from the June 1966 issue of American Cinematographer. The article begins:
To the fashionable crowd that packed the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on the evening of April 18 to witness the 38th Annual Academy Awards Presentation, and to the millions of viewers watching the colorcast of the affair throughout the nation, the big news centered on the ”Oscars” awarded for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Picture, etc.
But to filmmakers everywhere, especially those who are frequently required to record sync-sound under difficult location conditions, the significant award was the Class II plaque presented to Swiss electronics engineer Stefan Kudelski for the design and development of the Nagra portable 1/4-inch tape recording system for motion picture sound recording.
As in every other facet of filmmaking, I Spy was on the cutting edge in the audio world too with their use of the Nagra. This article answers a question I had. I wondered how these tapes were synchronized with the film. I came to the conclusion that they weren’t, and that synchronizing was done later with equipment in the lab back home. The article says that Kudelski came up with a system in which a signal generated by the tape recorder controlled a motor on the camera. That also explains why the sound engineer on the tapes sometimes says “no sync” before a take. That’s usually when they are recording so called “wild tracks” like church bells, baby chicks (in the marketplace in Guadalajara), passing boats, etc. to be dubbed into the soundtrack as background later. I’m going to see if I can find out more about this sync process, just for my own edification.
This is a picture of the Nagra tape recorder that was probably used on location for I Spy (the unit under the tape recorder is a mixer):
One of these units is currently up for auction on eBay, just in case you want to start your own production company. Of course, it is a bit of an antique now.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Kudelski-Nagra-III-tape-recorder_W0QQitemZ290125831582QQihZ019QQcategoryZ15000QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
And this is a picture of an Akai 4000DS reel-to-reel tape recorder, just like the one I’ve been using to play the tapes.
It’s a decent quality home tape recorder, but not designed for the rigors of location film production. Also, I’m not sure where you would plug it in if you happened to be on Delos Island.
I’m sorry Cate, that I have no knowledge of a connection between Stancil-Hoffman recording equipment and I Spy. But thanks for getting me started on this interesting (at least to me) train of thought.
Jimmy
