Studio Talks - Sound Recording (I)

Charles O. "Sam" Slyfield was born 5/11/1898 and died in San Diego 1/15/1974. His earliest screen credit as sound recordist was for Fantasia (1940) and from 1950 he was sound director, until Lady and the Tramp in 1955.

Sam Slyfield at the Iron Pencil in 1953.

Sam Slyfield followed in the footsteps of Bill Garity and passed the torch on to Robert O. Cook (Manitowoc, Wisconsin 9/27/1903 - Pasadena 11/9/1995) whose credits at Disney extend from the 40s well into the 70s.

Slyfield and Cook shared a Scientific/Technical Academy Award Class III for the design and development of an audio finder and track viewer for checking and locating noise in sound tracks, in 1946 (with Artur F. Blinn), and both men had three Academy Award nominations, albeit for different films.

In this, the third lecture in the series "Studio Talks" from the folder that originally was owned by animator Don Patterson, we get a first-hand impression of the state of sound recording back in 1938. [A lot has changed with regards to recording, especially with the sound quality in the digital realm, but we still have ears that work the same way as in 1938/39, thank goodness. In any case, you may at least find this lecture interesting from a historical perspective.]

[Added the image of Sam Slyfield at the Iron Pencil that appeared on the cover of the June 1953 issue of "International Sound Technician." (Thank you, Paul F. Anderson!)]