My Brush With Greatness (long)

[Surfer Joe]

Part 1:

It was August, 1994, and I was rushing down a hallway in the main building  on the first floor at Hanna Barbera (I usually worked in the annex).  I'd been working there off and on as a storyboard artist, etc. for over a year, but I was due to sign a contract, and running late.  My path to the legal department took me through sound, and as I hurried through my eye caught a nameplate on the left- Chuck Britz.  I did a double take, put the brakes on, and walked back.  The office was full of sound equipment, but unoccupied.  I looked in the office just before that one, and saw more sound equipment and the back of a fifty-ish guy's head. 

I asked, "Are you Chuck Britz?" and he said  "yes", without turning around.  But I thought I recognized the voice just from that one word. 

Finally, I nervously asked "Are you the Chuck Britz?"

He turned around and said "Yes, and you're a Beach Boys fan", (exact quote) and we shook hands laughing.  I asked him how long he'd been there (H-B) and I believe he said something like ten years- inexcusably, I've gotten fuzzy on this.  Now I was onstage with no preparation- what do you ask him?

I thought of the "Rhonda" sessions with Murry that had been widely booted for the first time the previous year on a Silver Shadow disc called Time To Get Alone, and asked him about that without getting into too much detail.  He hadn't heard it, and kind of brushed it aside.  Then I asked about Murry.  I said (approximately) "I've heard lots and lots of sessions, and when Murry is there it seems to take you out of the equation a little bit".  It was badly worded, and he seemed a little put off by it as he disagreed.  I clarified by saying something like this: "Normally, I hear a lot of good interaction between you and Brian, but when Murry comes in the room with all that bluster it seems to cost them your effectiveness as a collaborator, like you're sidelined by all the personal stuff.  I don't hear your voice when Murry's there."  He understood me now, and the slight tension eased as he went into what seemed to be a conditioned response to a version of a question he'd gotten hundreds of times.  Here's what he said, pretty accurately:

"You have to remember that the Beach Boys were a family, and sometimes they acted like a family at work. When all that stuff was going on, I just sat back and waited for it to be over.  I figured it was part of my job.  Besides [smile] I had my own way of dealing with Murry."

I smiled and said "I think I know what you mean" (the fake console).

Then I told him I was late for a meeting, but it had been a real thrill meeting him, and said (pretty exact quote) "Do you mind if I start hanging around here all the time and driving you nuts?"  He smiled and  said "You come on by any time" and we shook hands again and I took off running, fifteen minutes late now.  I never saw him again.

[Surfer Joe]

Note on Part 1: I'm no longer sure exactly what was in my mind, referring to sessions with Murry present, but it seems to me that I had formed that impression at the time from more than one session with Murry evident.  Is that possible?  Is Murry heard much on any session other than "Rhonda"?

At any rate, I was just searching in vain for an intelligent conversation-starter in an unexpected once-in-a-life opportunity...

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

Great story.

"And you're a Beach Boys fan".

I love that bit.

Weird how you never saw him again.

[Surfer Joe]

Part 2: Here's the funny side story.

I got to the lawyer's office and she was a young, attractive woman.  I said "Sorry I'm late; I just met one of my heroes".  She said "Bill or Joe?"  [Hanna and Barbera, creators of Tom and Jerry, the Flintstones, Yogi Bear, and countless others.]  I said, "No, Chuck Britz."

She looked confused and said "Chuck from Sound?"  I said yes, and explained who he was.  I expected the geek-appraisal look and an "hmmm-mmm."  Instead, I got a look that must have been like my own when I saw that nameplate.  She said "do you mind if I call my husband?" and dialed the phone.  She told him that there was someone working there with her that he would be very interested in- did he know who Chuck Britz was?  There was a loud squawk on the other end and she said to me "he knows!"  After a lot of confirmation ("yes, it's definitely the same one!") She covered the phone and told me he wanted to know if I thought Chuck would mind being asked to lunch, and I said that I certainly hadn't gotten the impression that he would.  She  gave him the extension and hung up.  She told me he was freaking out.

We went over my contract and had just gotten it settled when he called back to say that he and Chuck were on for Tuesday.  I'll always kick myself for not horning in on that lunch , as I easily could have, but I thought there would be plenty of opportunity.  She told me to look out for an album by their best friend's band Velvet Crush, called Teenage Symphony.  I hadn't heard of it yet, but she was surprised when I told her that the title was a Brian reference.

When I came back with the signed contract a few weeks later I went by Chuck's office and he was gone- he had just retired. (Not to get away from me and his blown cover, I hope).  The lawyer told me the lunch date had gone extremely well...

[Surfer Joe]

Final note: among my lost opportunities: I wanted to ask him about the Manson sessions at Brian's house, which I've always been curious about (though not really on a musical basis), and I wanted to stick my head into his office- after we'd broken the ice just a little bit more- and say "Chuck, do you think I could bring a horse in here?"

[b.dfzo]

..."I beg your pardon???"

[Sheriff John Stone]

Surfer Joe,
        Thanks for sharing your story; that's one of the neatest "brush with a Beach Boys-related celebrity" story I've ever read.

If you don't mind, I have two questions for you.

You mentioned in your story that Chuck quickly warmed up to you, and even said "you come on by any time". After you found out Chuck retired, did you ever contemplate (maybe just once), somehow talking to that female attorney again, or her Beach Boy fan husband, and trying to make contact with Chuck. Not to sound stalker-ish, but maybe he lived close to the office, and maybe he really wouldn't have minded talking to you further at a lunch or something.

Question two, and I don't mean to appear disrespectful in any way toward Chuck Britz, or the place you worked (I'd take a job there in a second). But I always assumed that after Chuck stopped working with The Beach Boys, that he simply moved on to engineering other artists/sessions - or simply retired. I have no idea how much an engineer made in the 60's-70's (probably not much), and I think it's great that anyone prefers working over retirement, but were you a little surprised to see somebody as "legendary" (at least to us) as Chuck Britz, working in an office job like that. And I have to repeat that I mean absolutely no disrespect. I'm sure Hanna Barbera was a great place to work and I'm sure Chuck had a great job, something he enjoyed doing and was brilliant at. But were/are you a little surprised, seeing him outside a recording studio environment?

[Surfer Joe]

Sherriff, the answers to your questions are yes and yes.  I sure did consider trying to get back in touch, and I told other Beach Boys guys in the business that he had been there all along, hidden in plain sight, and they were stunned.  I did strike up a lot of friendships with older artists over the years; legenrdary animators who were used to getting fan mail and having articles written about them, as I'm sure Chuck did.  If I'd had more than just those few minutes to lay the ground work I'd have had more nerve.  And then, you always think you'll have another chance, that tomorrow is another day...and that approach doesn't always work.

As to H-B, well, a lot of us loved that place (and an old friend just fought successfully to preserve the building through the L.A. Conservancy), but we had no illusions.  I'm very, very sorry to tell you that when I saw him that day in 1994 Chuck was probably editing canned scores or sound effects onto an episode of "Captain Planet" or "Swat Kats" or some Scooby Doo crap.  Was I surprised to see him there?  Yes, knocked for a loop, and really, not entirely happy about it in a way.  Like Frodo, returned to the Shire, he had too little honor among his own people.  When I said "How long have you been here?" and he told me how many years (with a smile on his face) there was a subtext- like I'd found him in prison- but he answered in a deliberately cheerful way to let me know it was cool.

On the other hand, it was nice to see how easily he shifted into his fan-greeting mode.  He may have been slumming a bit in those last years, but he was obviously not unused to being gushed over.  Full-time, in-front-of-the-camera celebrities live their lives in siege-mode and get worn down by it.  The guys behind the curtain, like Chuck, are more like leprachauns who get caught once in a while and are happy to hand over the gold.

[Surfer Joe]

The other thing I should add is that H-B was sort of a perfect place for hiding a legendary guy, because the halls were full of them.  Bill (Hanna) and Joe (Barbera) were walking around as the winners of (I think) seven straight Oscars in he forties and fifties, and a part of everyone's childhood.  Legendary animator Tex Avery ended his career there.  The top-notch voice talent and old character-actor traffic was constant.  If you were an artist, there were a lot of guys of that kind of stature around there all the time for nearly forty years.  The only odd thing was to find someone of such stature from such an unexpected place as the world of Brian Wilson.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

I think that Chuck left studio recording on purpose, I'm sure he could have worked doing sessions for much longer than he did.  It's been said he quit because he thought there was too much overdubbing, and he didn't agree with or like recording music that way.  I believe he was quoted as saying something of that nature.

Anyway, really neat story, I had no idea where Chuck ended up after he left the "music biz."  I'm sure looking back, you wish you had asked him what microphones he typically used to record Al Jardine's Fender Bass...

It really is a shame that the recording process itself made the guy quit, if that's true.  I've pretty much quit before I started for the same reasons as Chuck.  I would have loved to have talked to him about that subject.

Thanks for sharing that, Joe.

[Surfer Joe]

aeijtzsche, as much as I treasure that experience I'd trade it to you in a heartbeat- you should have been the guy standing in that office, asking real questions, and he'd have enjoyed answering.  Of course, you'd have probably been twelve years old.

Just think, though- he worked down a hall from me, every day- about 75 feet beyond the nearest men's room, and I probably walked past him 70-100 times before they put up the name plates outside everyone's doors.  I wouldn't be too surprised if I walked past him at least once while listening to his work on a walkman or something.

Incidentally, my chosen field has also been under attack in recent years by technology that wants to remove the human touch, but I'm standing and fighting.

[Glenn Greenberg]

Keep up the good fight, Surfer Joe!

Incidentally, I used to work in the comic book industry, so you and I are sort of kindred spirits.

[Jonas]

Animation will never die. Although 3d animation is great...I think there will always be room for great animated cartoons.

if thats what youre talkin about

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

Nickelodean have a commercial making fun of those anime cartoon things.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

Of course, you'd have probably been twelve years old.

Thirteen, actually.  Not bad.  I tend to lose my ability to string coherant words together when confronted with heros of mine, so it was probably better that I didn't run into him...

Incidentally, my chosen field has also been under attack in recent years by technology that wants to remove the human touch, but I'm standing and fighting.

I think everything remotely artistic is under attack.  I don't know.  I'm sure people think I'm backwards thinking, but I honestly think something is not quite right.

[Surfer Joe]

And I want to start a new thread pretty soon on that topic.  We're in an age that's absolutely obsessed with technology and that's hard on pure art, since the warm, human elements become secondary.

To respond as briefly as possible to the animation comments above, without getting too far off topic, the industry has been under strain for fifty years because animation is a golden goose that can never lay the eggs fast enough or cheap enough to satisfy executive greed.  Another metaphor: they want to grow the orchids in quantity, overnight, without the hassles of the hothouse.  So they've been searcing for ways to produce animation without animators (by going to cheap foreign labor, etc. but machines have been the dream since 1970 or so), and finally animation without animation.  Now you have stuff like "the Family Guy" and "The Simpsons" in which the visual art is less than secondary.  CGI is a very legitimate form, but it's a different form and should not replace traditional.  They should coexist and inform each other.  But CGI is trendy because Pixar has done it so well, so despite the fact that it can be as as expensive and time-consuming as the old stuff it has been deemed the replacement.  Jeffrey Katzenberg said that traditional animation is dead, and Disney closed their department after eighty years.  Now it may be coming back.  We'll see...

The only reason I mention it is that I see a strong parallel to the closing of the old recording studios.  The situations are not identical, but similar.