DAMN! High times for music heads...all the vinyl ($3.55, real!y?...not cheap for a struggling kid... how many do you recognize)...my god all sealed, under four bucks! I can still smell the sweet new vinyl!!
I see Janis's "newest" in the stack she's flipping through!
TOWER RECORDS
[Sunset Tower Records, Los Angeles] (1971)
FULL 10 minute film here....
https://archive.org/details/casacsh_000018
Description: This color film captures one of Tower Records flagship stores, located on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. Tower Records was founded in 1960 in Sacramento and became an international business before closing in 2006. The record store helped revolutionize the music industry. The film was made by Sacramento City College professor Darrell Forney and shows customers shopping in the store in the evening.
Notes on original container: "Leo Diner Films, Inc., MTS "Tower Records", 16mm, colr, opt.sound, Peerless-Treated"
Call Number: 2009/038
Source: 1 Reel of 1: Film: 16mm
Rights: Copyright status unknown. This work may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). In addition, its reproduction may be restricted by terms of gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing or trademarks. This work is accessible for the purposes of education and research. Transmission or reproduction of works protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright holder. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. The Center for Sacramento History attempted to find rights owners without success but is eager to hear from them so that we may obtain permission, if needed. Upon request to csh@cityofsacramento.org digitized works can be removed from public view if there are rights issues that need to be resolved.
Digitized by the California Audiovisual Preservation Project (CAVPP).
This movie is part of the collection: Center for Sacramento History
Producer: Forney, Darrell
Audio/Visual: Sound, Color
Language: English
Keywords: californialightandsound
Contact Information: Center for Sacramento History, 551 Sequoia Pacific Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95811, Telephone: (916) 808-7072, Email: csh@cityofsacramento.org, www.centerforsacramentohistory.org
................
1986?
from Dangerous Minds.com
This utterly enthralling footage of the Tower Records on 8801 Sunset Boulevard was shot by Sacramento City College professor Darrell Forney in 1971. It’s available on archive.org. It’s ten solid minutes of pretty much random footage on a typical day, scored to Sly and the Family Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again)” and Janis Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee.” Anyone who’s old enough to remember those days—or simply anyone who’s into record collecting—set aside ten minutes to take this wonderful footage in. Then set aside another ten minutes to watch it all over again.
Tower Records was based in Sacramento and had existed since 1960—when this footage was shot (1971), the Sunset Blvd. location had been open for only a year. It would be a mainstay for Los Angeles music lovers for more than three decades, until it finally closed in 2006.
I love how they just stack the records in the middle of everything. New albums appeared to cost $3.55 for the most part—not all that cheap, that translates to about $20 today (a good number of those albums in reissued LP format would run about $20, no?). We can see staff members unpacking many, many boxes of George Harrison’s 1970 triple LP All Things Must Pass. Does anyone see an album that definitely dates this at 1971? I thought I saw Elton John’s 11-17-70 but it was actually his self-titled album. Fascinating to see 8-track cassettes being sold in large quantities and also, not ironically.
Hey, that clerk is smoking!! Surely he was risking a fine?? Oh, what am I talking about, this is 1971, nobody gave a hoot about stuff like that. (There’s even an ashtray on the checkout counter.) At least two handsome pooches are also depicted, I can’t imagine they were letting dogs in by the time 2005 rolled around.
There’s a lingering shot of someone thumbing through a new copy of the Schwann Stereo Record Guide. I’m going to assume that this was an essential bit of stereophile literature, but it’s before my time. I was a little surprised to see that the familiar red-on-yellow typeface was already in place this early.
I’ve been a CD/mp3 person for most of my life, but last autumn I finally gave in to the LP impulse—this is the most mouth-watering thing I’m likely to see all week. Luckily Amoeba Records has already done the bloggers of 2056 a big favor by thoroughly documenting the scene there, including live performances and inviting fun people to spend a hundred bucks in the store during their “What’s In My Bag?” web series.
Here’s a promo for Tower Records that John Lennon taped during an in-studio radio appearance on KHJ in 1974. The album he was promoting was Walls and Bridges. This cute montage uses a whole lot of Professor Forney’s footage. (You can actually see Paul McCartney’s first album, which is a little odd.)
Lennon promo for tower records-1974
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAVez5B0vo8
via Wax Poetics & Vintage Los Angeles
Thank you Blue Arrow Records of Cleveland, Ohio!
