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About Me:
I worked in the CBS Engineering & Development Department while still in college, and then worked on the office staffs of "Magazine" at CBS News and "All My Children" at ABC Daytime upon graduation.
I had the privilege of knowing several of the soap opera musical directors. In fact, I took organ lessons with Eddie Layton, who was the musical director and organist of several CBS soap operas, namely, "The Secret Storm," "Where the Heart Is," "Love is a Many Splendored Thing," and, for several months, "Love of Life." Eddie is most well-known, though, for being the organist at Yankee Stadium from 1967 to 2003.
About two years prior to having met Eddie Layton at the CBS Broadcast Center, I met Charles Frederick Paul ("Charlie" Paul) there. Charlie was the musical director and organist of "As the World Turns," "The Guiding Light," "Love of Life," and "The Secret Storm" for many years, and had previously played the organ for a few of the radio soaps. In addition, Charlie had written theme songs and background music for other soap operas such as "All My Children" and "One Life to Live."
Back in 1971, I wrote a letter to him at CBS, telling him how much I loved his theme songs and background organ music. I suggested that I visit him at the studio, play the songs by ear for him, and perhaps get copies of the sheet music. He wrote back and invited me to the CBS Broadcast Center at 524 West 57 Street in Manhattan (between 10th and 11th Avenues). I was very excited about my impending visit which took place in June 1971.
As I approached the second floor rehearsal hall where we were to meet, I heard the closing theme song for "Love of Life" louder than I had ever heard it before. I waited outside the rehearsal hall for the music to finish. When it did, I knocked on the door. Mr. Paul opened the door, and I introduced myself. He welcomed me into a large room where there were a bunch of tables and chairs, a Conn Artist organ, and a Steinway piano. I thanked him for having answered my letter, and for having invited me to the CBS Broadcast Center.
We spoke a bit, and then he demonstrated his technique of playing the piano and organ simultaneously. He let me try to play his theme songs by ear. He complimented me on my arrangements. I asked him if he would be able to provide me with copies of the sheet music. He said that they had never been published in printed form, but that, when he had time, he would write them out by hand for me.
In separate mailings later that year, he sent me copies of the handwritten scores of the theme songs for "As the World Turns" and "The Guiding Light," and then, on a later visit in June 1972, his daughter, Pamela, let me borrow the score for the "Love of Life" theme which he had prepared for her who was substituting for him while he was on vacation, and make a photocopy of it.
Backtracking a little bit, it was on December 20, 1971, that I visited Mr. Paul again in the rehearsal hall to demonstrate how my playing of "As the World Turns" and "The Guiding Light" had vastly improved based on his having provided me with the handwritten scores. He invited me to stay for the entire taping of "Love of Life." I believe the episode was #5264. I know I have the script (which he gave me) somewhere around the house, as well as an audio cassette tape which I made off the television a few days later when the show aired. While the show was being performed several blocks away at a different CBS studio (the one which later was converted into the famous discotheque, Studio 54), Mr. Paul was watching the action closed-circuit over a black-and-white monitor, listening to the dialog and cues through a headset, turning through the script, and playing the theme and background music at the appropriate times. For me, it was practically a religious experience to sit there, and hear some of my favorite soap opera music being performed live in the very room where I was personally present.
After he finished with "Love of Life," he said he now had to go into Studio 42 (one of the second-floor studios at 524 West 57 Street) to play the music for "As the World Turns," and invited me to see what the setup was like over there. At "As the World Turns," he played the music right from the soundstage, in back of the sets. He had a Steinway piano, a Hammond B-3 organ, a Simone celeste, a black-and-white monitor, microphones pointed at each of the musical instruments, and a headset. (The celeste was used for the bell-like sounds during the middle break music and the long closing theme.)
For the rest of this story, see:
www.myspace.com/446642108
This channel will be my tribute to Eddie Layton and Charlie Paul. I will be playing some of their soap opera theme songs on any of the Yamaha DX-7 synthesizer, the Yamaha Tyros2 workstation, and the Lowrey Prestige organ.
Hometown:
New York City
Country:
United States
Schools:
MIT (Courses XV, XVIII) 1975
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