Jeannie Pool's work
in the Film Industry
David Raksin and Jeannie Pool
Shirley Walker and Jeannie Pool
Jeannie Pool has been involved with film and television music in several key ways, since 1990. In 1990, she was hired as Executive Director of the Society for the Preservation of Film Music, later to be re-named the Film Music Society. She held this position from 1990 until 2002. She worked closely with the organization’s president Herschel Burke Gilbert, David Raksin, and Elmer Bernstein.
During her tenure, she Increased the national and international profile of the organization through the presentation of annual conferences on film music in Los Angeles and New York, speaking engagements in Europe and the United States and annual celebrity fundraising dinners honoring outstanding film composers.
She initiated and implemented program and development efforts; was responsible for day-to-day fiscal management, governmental and financial reporting, proposal writing and fundraising strategy; supervised web site development; in charge of all publications, including quarterly scholarly journal, newsletter, and books.
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One of her responsibilities was to work with the estates of film composers to secure long-term preservation and storage of scores, parts, and other career documentation; collaborated principally with the UCLA Music Library in these efforts, but also with other collections. She assisted orchestras in programming and obtaining scores and parts for film music concerts.
While Executive Director, Dr. Pool designed and implemented a process of film music preservation at Paramount Pictures, the largest effort of its kind in the industry achieved by a non-profit group. Her position was funded by the Packard Humanities Institute (formerly The David and Lucille Packard Foundation) and the Skaggs Foundation. [See her articles, “The Story of the Paramount Film Music Preservation Project,” The Cue Sheet 13/2 (April 1997), 11-28; “More Notes on The Society’s Paramount Music Preservation Project,” The Cue Sheet 15/2 (July 1999), 3-17; and “Film Music Preservation in the United States,” The Cue Sheet 11/1 (January 1995), 32-42.]
As Executive Director, she was the producer of the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Annual International Film Music Conferences of the Society for the Preservation of Film Music in Los Angeles, March 1992, March 1993, and March 1994, September 1995, October 1996, May 1998, September 1999, respectively; including panel discussions, paper presentations, concerts, live orchestra with silent film presentation (The Circus, The Covered Wagon, and Ben-Hur), and annual Career Achievement Award Banquet. Among the composers honored with the award were John Williams, Henry Mancini, Toru Takemitsu, Laurence Rosenthal, Ennio Morricone, and Jerry Goldsmith.
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While Executive Director, she gave numerous presentations for the Music Library Association Film Music Roundtable at national conferences beginning in 1991 on film music preservation issues. She moderated, six televised panel discussions live from CineMusicFestival, Gstaad, Switzerland, March 1996.
She was the guest lecturer at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, in 2001 where she spoke on “The Collaborative Nature of Film Scoring Under the Hollywood Studio System during the Golden Age.” She gave the opening address, at the 2001 Conference on Film Music and Musical Theater on Film, at the University of Colorado at Boulder, sponsored by the American Music Center. She was a panelist, San Jose State University, in cooperation with San Jose Film Festival, Spring 1999. Other participants included Elmer Bernstein, David Raksin, Steve Fry, David Packard; The moderator was Robert Emmett McGlynn. In October 1993, and October 1994, she was a guest speaker at Flanders International Film Festival in Ghent conference on film music preservation (full text is published in The Cue Sheet, Vol. 11 No. 1, January 1995.) In November 1993, she was the guest speaker at Biarritz Film Music Conference, France.
From 2001-2007 she worked as an independent consultant for Paramount Pictures Corporation, where she organized and maintained music legal files, including interface with outside contractors doing scanning project and long-term storage of current files; coordinating “Day Forward” scanning of music legal documents to ensure consistency, compliance, and integrity of the paper trail. Training employees on how to gain access and use the on-line imaging system. Extensive on-line editing of the data; reported to Vice President Music Clearance. She researched music contracts, agreements, cue sheets, and other legal documents in connection with “Outside Requests” and inquiries about the music used in Paramount films; research, Paramount music library, and outside sources to assist in resolving copyright and music identification issues.
Dr. Pool assisted the Vice President of Music Clearance in developing promotional “demo” discs of film score cues to market master sync rights to outside users for other products, including trailers. She located, sorted organized, boxing, cataloged and preserved feature film scores and parts She maintained web site of Paramount catalog, used routinely by Paramount staff.
In 2008, she was hired as Manager of the Music Archives and researched music files for digital, home video, and current projects, maintained the music library, archived incoming music scores and parts; restored and preserved deteriorating elements; digitized research materials and key music scores and parts.
Pool did the restoration of the original score for Wings (1927) for DVD/Blu-Ray release for Paramount’s 100th anniversary. The restoration of the score was nominated for an award, Best Archival Re-Recording of an Existing Score by International Film Music Critics Award (IFMCA) [Shared with: J.S. Zamecnik (music); Peter Boyer (conductor); Ira Hearshen (conductor); Dominik Hauser (album producer); Dan Goldwasser (album producer, album art direction); M.V. Gerhard (album producer); and Matt Verboys (album producer)]. Dominik Hauser was the orchestrator. Pool wrote the compact disc booklet on the restoration process for the cd issues on the Lalaland label. She was not credited on the film because at the time of this work, she was an employee. She was “laid off” a few days after the premiere of the restored film.
In 2011, she published her A Research Guide to Film and Television Music in the United States, co-authored with H. Stephen Wright, Scarecrow Press. The groundbreaking book, often used in graduate courses, includes chapters on “What Film and Television Researchers Need to Know about Cue Sheets,” Silent Film Music Resources, and Early Sound Film Scores.
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She continues to lecture on film music history and preservation, and she wrote many of the AmeriGroves articles on women film composers. She has written several scores for short films, including a score for the 1911 Mary Pickford film, The Dream.
Dr. Pool continues her work in film and television music preservation with her independent consulting company, MUSIC LEGACY SERVICES and consults with filmmakers and composers on intellectual property rights issues.
Jeannie Pool and John Williams