Grauer also owned at least one sports car- I saw it in a Riverside warehouse
many years ago.

This was one of his enthusiasms. The records, profitable or not, were
enough of a potential money-maker to write off the travel and lots of other
stuff that involved making them.

Cherche le buck.

Steve Smolian

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Ross" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2008 3:40 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Riverside Race Car Records


> At 9/7/2008 11:39 AM, Tom Fine wrote:
>>Apparently, Bill Gauer, Keepnews' partner at Riverside, was a racing car
>>nut and was very into making these "environmental audio" recordings.
>
> This raises a question I've always wondered about: Who bought all those
> Riverside sports car records? They still show up in secondhand record
> bins, so SOMEBODY must have bought them new, but did they sell enough to
> break even, let alone make money, or were they just an excuse for Grauer
> to talk his way into the pits at races with his microphone?
>
> I suppose they didn't cost much to produce. No studio time, no royalties
> or performers' fees. Could they have been a profitable sideline like the
> Elektra sound effects records?
>
> There's a Riverside comedy record by a standup comic whose name I have
> forgotten in which the comic muses about a phone call:
> "Riverside Records, can I help you?"
> "Yes, Bill Grauer please."
> "I'm sorry, he's under a Porsche, taking a level."
>
> John Ross