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Charles Boyer?! Really?
LOL!
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Over the years a number of you contributing to the FSM message board submitted postings about Page Cook. For years Cook wrote film score and soundtrack album reviews for "The Soundtrack" of Films in Review.
Cook reportedly died on January 15, 1994. Apparently later that year, Films in Review published an obit on Cook in that magazine.
I'm trying to track down that FIR issue with the obit on Page Cook.
If you possibly might have that FIR issue, I'm hopeful that you could email to me (1) a scan of that issue's front cover; (2) a scan of the photo of Cook reportedly included in the obit; and (3) a scan of the obit.
You can contact me offline at: kjbyrnes @ erols DOT com
Many thanks, Kerry
Jack Smith, who took over "The Sound Track" column from Page Cook, wrote about Cook in his column in the December 1993 issue of FIR saying that he had stepped down due to illness. Smith wrote a longer piece about Cook a few years after his death in his column in the March/April 1996 issue of FIR. Unless I've missed it - and I don't think I have - there is no other obituary article (or photograph of Cook) in FIR during 1994 or any other issues of the magazine.
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Hi Doug,
I greatly appreciate the info in your post. Could you please scan Smith's Dec. 93 column about Cook and the longer piece you mentioned Smith wrote about Cook in the March/April 1996 issue of FIR? My email is: kjbyrnes @ erols DOT com
Another person who contacted me about Cook says he recalls seeing a photo of Cook in a 1993 or 1994 issue of FIR. If you possibly have those issues handy and could quickly thumb through them to check if there is a photo of Cook that you can scan and email to me, that would be really great.
Thanks, Kerry
Kerry - I'll email you. Doug
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I did find a photo of Page Cook in FIR after all but I'd previously not noticed it. It was in the March/April 1996 issue. Here it is for anyone else who is interested:
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So that's what the infamous Page looks like. He looks like this murderer I saw in an episode of "Hunter" today.
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Posted: |
Dec 3, 2013 - 4:14 PM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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I did find a photo of Page Cook in FIR after all but I'd previously not noticed it. It was in the March/April 1996 issue. Here it is for anyone else who is interested:
Yup....that's Page/Charles!.....absolutely!
Not a very good photo of him however.
There can't be many photos of Charles around, I'd say.....I was a friend, and that's the only one I've ever seen.
You must always be careful about photos that Charles used. The illustrative photos for his reviews of music scores by mysterious composers that no one else had ever heard of were generally photos of his other friends or acquaintances.
I know that a lot of people today attack Cook for these kinds of "games", but I'd say that we all had fun with film music in those days before the worship of it became so formalized and
academic.
There weren't so many of us around who were actually interested in kissing the hem of
a composer's garment then, or analyzing the work to death---we simply enjoyed what we'd heard at the movies and wanted a souvenir to play as a recording while we looked at the
12x12 inch covers. It was kind of a free-wheeling enjoyment of an unorganized hobby.
Today it's a very serious business as to form and content, sound quality and packaging, liner notes and score research---and, while the vaults have opened up and we've gotten some things we've waited 70+ years for, the overarching seriousness and commerciality of the whole enterprise has resulted in a race for the newest, the latest, the most complete, the most colorful, and the best sounding---and not necessarily the best scores. The whole thing is not really so much fun for me anymore and, I imagine, others of my generation as well.
If he were alive today, Page Cook/Charles Boyer would be astonished at what the years have brought about. But if he were writing today, he'd simply have a blog devoted to classic Golden Age scores. That would probably keep him busy, it wouldn't be a mainstream endeavor, and the slings and arrows of the few detractors who would bother to read it would probably be joined in print by one or more of Cook's other aliases writing a comment to attack "him" too! 
Note......I see that the photo is assigned to the New York photo archive business, Photofest, which was founded in the early 1980s by Howard Mandelbaum (who is also a sometime film book author). I believe that Charles worked at Photofest for a period of time, and it's likely that this photo was taken by Mandelbaum. I also believe that, near the end, Charles chose Mandelbaum to be his executor, and handle the wrap-up of his (meager) estate once he had gone. Virtually everything seems to have gone to BYU upon his death.
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Posted: |
Dec 3, 2013 - 8:40 PM
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By: |
philiperic
(Member)
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I did find a photo of Page Cook in FIR after all but I'd previously not noticed it. It was in the March/April 1996 issue. Here it is for anyone else who is interested:
Yup....that's Page/Charles!.....absolutely!
Not a very good photo of him however.
There can't be many photos of Charles around, I'd say.....I was a friend, and that's the only one I've ever seen.
You must always be careful about photos that Charles used. The illustrative photos for his reviews of music scores by mysterious composers that no one else had ever heard of were generally photos of his other friends or acquaintances.
I know that a lot of people today attack Cook for these kinds of "games", but I'd say that we all had fun with film music in those days before the worship of it became so formalized and
academic.
There weren't so many of us around who were actually interested in kissing the hem of
a composer's garment then, or analyzing the work to death---we simply enjoyed what we'd heard at the movies and wanted a souvenir to play as a recording while we looked at the
12x12 inch covers. It was kind of a free-wheeling enjoyment of an unorganized hobby.
Today it's a very serious business as to form and content, sound quality and packaging, liner notes and score research---and, while the vaults have opened up and we've gotten some things we've waited 70+ years for, the overarching seriousness and commerciality of the whole enterprise has resulted in a race for the newest, the latest, the most complete, the most colorful, and the best sounding---and not necessarily the best scores. The whole thing is not really so much fun for me anymore and, I imagine, others of my generation as well.
If he were alive today, Page Cook/Charles Boyer would be astonished at what the years have brought about. But if he were writing today, he'd simply have a blog devoted to classic Golden Age scores. That would probably keep him busy, it wouldn't be a mainstream endeavor, and the slings and arrows of the few detractors who would bother to read it would probably be joined in print by one or more of Cook's other aliases writing a comment to attack "him" too!
Note......I see that the photo is assigned to the New York photo archive business, Photofest, which was founded in the early 1980s by Howard Mandelbaum (who is also a sometime film book author). I believe that Charles worked at Photofest for a period of time, and it's likely that this photo was taken by Mandelbaum. I also believe that, near the end, Charles chose Mandelbaum to be his executor, and handle the wrap-up of his (meager) estate once he had gone. Virtually everything seems to have gone to BYU upon his death.
Thanks for your post , Manderley - you express things so well - I have to agree with you- a lot of the joy of "the pursuit" of soundtracks is gone - but there is so much to be grateful for.
I corresponded with Page/Charles a little - he actually wrote me because of a letter I sent to FIR about one of his favorite scores/films(and mine) - THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD. I owe so much to his columns in FIR . I wish I had met him.
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I knew Page back in the sixties and visited him more than once at his New York apartment. He was opinionated, yes. However, what film music fan or, for that matter, any fan of anything is not opinionated to a degree? His friend Richard Bush was often at these small gatherings. I found Page to be a kind, gentle soul and I was proud to consider him a friend. He regarded Alfred Newman as a father figure and worshipped him. He adored Herrmann and Rozsa, but made his contempt for Dimitri Tiomkin abundantly clear to anyone who would listen. It was such a simpler time and, in many ways, a more innocent period of film music discovery. Everything was new. Record albums of film scores were few and far between. Published criticism of motion picture music was nearly non-existent, save for less than a handful of working critics. Page was eloquent and passionate about the subject, as well as a walking encyclopedia of historical information. Reading these discussions brings him back to me, and that's a wonderful feeling. Even though we sometimes disagreed about the quality or importance of a score or composer, he always entertained my newly discovered passion with bemusement and tolerance. I think that he enjoyed meeting kindred spirits, and regarded his own role at times as a teacher attempting to educate the masses. There were few of us at that early stage of recognition and awareness who even understood that classic film music was a definitive art form. Page was a pioneer, and I always found it a personal joy to be with him and share a developing, yet lifetime passion for the music of the movies. I owe much of my own preoccupation these past fifty odd years to his influence and friendship.
Steve
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