1966-1967 BW/BB Studio Photos - Can Anyone ID These People? (+bonus photo)

[guitarfool2002]

I've posted these before, scattered in various threads, but I'm asking for some help in ID'ing a few of the people seen in these still frames from several film reels, and one photo as well. Maybe some new sets of eyes or some new perspectives can see these and make some positive ID's. I recently had to search for my original folder of these still frames, which I screen-captured from several 1966-67 silent reels of film which have shown up in several BB's documentaries, and when I found them I realized I never followed up on identifying them, so here it goes:

These two are from the Western #3 mix session, where the full band and Van Dyke were there and some were sporting the plastic fire helmets. First, there is a younger guy sitting along the back wall of the control room wearing a gray windbreaker jacket, can anyone ID him? Is he one of the family members-slash-assistants to the band or Brian at the time, or could he have been one of the studio staff, like a runner or assistant or something?

Second is the man wearing the white shirt and necktie, also wearing one of the fire hats, and he is shown at the 2-track mixdown machine, looks like he's either changing reels or doing something with the tape so I'm guessing he would be part of the UA staff. I can't place him with any of the staff whose photos I have from that time, any guesses? Lanky Linstrott?





A Pet Sounds era photo from one of the online photo services, this from the same series shot at Columbia where Tony Asher, Bruce, and Terry are with Brian at Columbia's board. Anyone know who the engineer might be in this photo?



These are from the August 1967 Hawaii concerts, and are what I think perhaps some of the only visuals showing engineer Jim Lockert actually working at the board with the band. This was the equipment rented from Wally Heider, and was at the time a brand new and top-of-the-line recording setup which the band rented through Heider and which they had shipped to Hawaii, along with two of Heider's staff to assist Lockert, one of them being Bill Halverson, and I believe the other was Dale Manquen who wrote pretty extensively about his Hawaii trip with the BB's from the technical side.

So there is the guy wearing the white shirt leaning up against the board as Jim and Brian are listening...could this be Halverson? Or someone else, perhaps?

The man with the suit and tie is, I believe, one of the local Hawaii disc jockeys who MC'ed and introduced the band on stage at the shows. Confirmation?

I included a shot of the board during the show to have the perspective of what and where the film was shot. Notice as they're recording the show, they had closed-circuit TV monitors above the board showing the stage during the performance. Again, the entire setup was at that time one of the most sophisticated and expensive mobile recording rigs as was available in LA, through Heider's rental business which was actually funding his studio at that time.












And the bonus frame: Here is Dennis climbing off the fire truck from the GV film shoot, Fall 1966, in a rare and all-too-brief outtake from that shoot. I wish there were more outtakes from *that* day.



Any help/comments appreciated! 

[Mr. Verlander]

Imagine how much stuff is out there-the majority of it personal, home made movies-that people have forgotten about. Kind of like the footage that Paul Williams talks about in HDITO, where Brian had just received a video recorder from a company, and he filmed some stuff of VDP talking about how to roll a joint. There are probably reels and reels of stuff like that, that have been packed away, or tossed out. It blows the mind.

[guitarfool2002]

Imagine how much stuff is out there-the majority of it personal, home made movies-that people have forgotten about. Kind of like the footage that Paul Williams talks about in HDITO, where Brian had just received a video recorder from a company, and he filmed some stuff of VDP talking about how to roll a joint. There are probably reels and reels of stuff like that, that have been packed away, or tossed out. It blows the mind.

Mr. Verlander, right on! What you describe is part of what I'd consider one of the "Holy Grails" of archiving and collecting, specifically the Smile era. I've written many times on this board and others about what is known to have existed, what is known to perhaps exist and what has been described, but alas nothing has seemingly been discovered.

That video footage specifically was from a Sony Porta-Pak system that Brian received as a gift from Capitol for Christmas, 1966. That was the first portable video recorder available on the consumer market, which unlike Super 8, 16mm, and other home movie setups, you could take this thing anywhere and record video and audio direct to videotape. It was a real breakthrough, and very expensive. Video shot on Porta Pak has a very distinct look, from this era and years immediately after it was black and white and when you see it, you'll recognize it immediately.

In Peter Carlin's book, he had Michael Vosse describing what he remembered as a Tonight Show/Johnny Carson interview where Brian had Van Dyke and Durrie Parks being interviewed by Brian in the Carson role going over how to roll joints. Van Dyke apparently didn't remember or maybe didn't know it would exist...If it's just in Vosse's memory that's one thing, if it does actually exist but hasn't been aired publicly, that's another. 

If I remember, David Anderle in an interview also described Brian and that video camera filming various goings-on during this era, I think suggesting there was more filmed of Brian and the Smile gang and their antics beyond talk-show parodies as Vosse described.

And not to go into the details, but if you believe the rumors as told by a known liar, Dennis Wilson also had provided one of these Porta-Pak systems to this guy, and what was eventually videotaped wasn't quite as innocent as Carson parodies on that camera gifted by Dennis. But that's neither here nor there at this point.

Factor Inside Pop, Dennis' home movies (which have appeared in the documentaries, including the Western studio film clipped above), and various other reels and sources, it's a treasure trove of documentation from that era alone (1966-67).

[guitarfool2002]

Totally random and unrelated...that car parked behind Dennis looks like either a 63 or 64 Chevy Bel Air (I'm leaning toward 1963), judging from the dual taillights (versus 3 for the Impala) and the chrome trim. I mention that because one of the options on those models was the 409 V8 engine...but there's no way to tell if that car in the frame had that or one of the lesser-hp engines like the 283/327 or even a V6. But it would be kind of cool in a weird connection sort of way if that happened to be a 409 Chevy!