"The Wrecking Crew," a film by Denny Tedesco, will be shown Thursday, Sept. 26, at the Colonial Theater at 7 p.m. The director will answer questions after the screening, which is being presented by the Museum of Idaho, Chesbro Music and the Idaho Falls Arts Council. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for students with ID, and are available online at www.idahofallsarts.org.
You may never have heard of Tommy Tedesco, but it's a safe bet you've heard him.
Tedesco was probably the most prolific session guitarist of the '60s and '70s and a mainstay of a group nicknamed "The Wrecking Crew," the focus of a documentary about an aspect of musical history few people know about.
While the Monkees were pilloried for not playing on their own records, the fact is in Los Angeles no one did. Not the Beach Boys, The Association, Paul Revere and the Raiders, etc.
"The group could have made a good record, but it would have taken a day," said Mark Lindsay, lead singer of Paul Revere and the Raiders. "These guys could do it in an hour, and in those days time was money. A record that was made on Tuesday would be on the radio the following week."
The film is directed by Denny Tedesco, Tommy Tedesco's son, who started showing it at film festivals in 2008. Tedesco started the film in 1996, after his dad was diagnosed with cancer (he died the following year). "My wife calls it the most expensive home movie ever made," he said.
That's because he expanded the project to interview everyone who had been on the scene. Glen Campbell and Leon Russell went on to successful solo careers, but the others' names you probably won't recognize: Hal Blaine and Earl Palmer (drums); Carol Kaye and Joe Osborn (bass); Don Randi and Larry Knechtel (piano); Barney Kessel and Howard Roberts (guitar). Before the '70s, session musicians were seldom credited for their contributions.
Getting the interviews was the easy part, Tedesco said, compared to getting the music. He has paid hundreds of thousands to publishers, record companies and the musicians union for the 120 music cues, almost all of them very familiar. The rights to hit songs like "Be My Baby," "Strangers in the Night" and "A Taste of Honey" don't come cheap.
To get the story told, Tedesco, 52, has taken out loans, refinanced his house and maxed out his credit cards. When he asked one record company for permission to use a certain song, they told him it would cost $2.5 million. He estimates he needs $175,000 before the rights will be squared away and the film can released commercially. Until then, he's limited to showing it at film festivals and for non-profits like the Museum of Idaho.
Most people have no idea how many records the Wrecking Crew made. Hal Blaine guessed that he played on 6,000 sessions. Tedesco said he thinks his father kept the same pace. In addition to hit records, Wrecking Crew members played on movie soundtracks and TV shows. Tedesco's guitar can be heard on "Green Acres," "Batman," "Mission Impossible" and "M*A*S*H."
"It was three or four dates a day for years," he said. "You're the first call, and they know what you can do."
On the festival circuit, nationally and internationally, the film has done has done very well. "I love watching audiences get off on it," Tedesco said. "Even the ones that know about it are still blown away by it. The greatest compliments are from the people who've been dragged to a documentary."
Congratulations to Teri Ehresman of Idaho Falls, who has been elected president of the National Federation of Press Women.
Ehresman was elected to a two-year term to lead the national organization at a recent meeting in Salt Lake City. She has served as first vice president, second vice president and secretary of the organization. She also has served in many leadership roles in the Idaho affiliate, Media Network Idaho.
Ehresman works at the Idaho National Laboratory in the Communications and Governmental Affairs office as the communications lead for nuclear science and technology programs. She previously worked as a reporter and editor for the Idaho Falls Post Register.
On a personal note, I've known Teri since 1981, when she was regional editor and I was the paper's staff writer in Challis.
NFPW is an organization of professional women and men pursuing careers across the communications spectrum. The organization has more than 1,000 members throughout the United States. It is committed to the highest ethical standards in communications, protecting First Amendment rights, professional growth, promoting the next generation of professional communicators and networking with other professionals. Its headquarters is in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.nfpw.org.
The classic brown bag lunch as perfected in the '70s by my mother, Edie Menser. Total cost in today's dollars: $1.86, including tax (yes, I pay Idaho a nickel for the privilege of eating a bologna and cheese sandwich.)
How much are you paying for lunch every day? I bought a meal at McDonald's a few weeks ago (I know, I know ...) and with tax it was more than $6. Do the math. If you eat out every day, you're probably paying $30 to $40 a week, or $120 to $160 a month. That's pretty expensive rent for something as small as your stomach.
I got a substitute teaching job (p.e. at Skyline) today, and in honor of my mom, Edie Menser, I decided to pack her classic sack lunch: bologna and cheese or peanut butter and jelly sandwich (I opted for bologna and cheese); Wheat Thins; an orange; and a Hershey bar.
These were the lunches Mom packed for day hikers when she and my dad ran the out-camping department at Camp Merrowvista in the1970s. She made them by the hundreds. On the trail in the Ossipee Mountains or the White Mountains, nothing ever tasted so good.
Getting back to the economics, on the basis of the receipt from WinCo I have calculated the costs as follows (I have rounded the figures):
Total: $1.75, or $1.86 if you add tax. Assuming you work five days a week, your weekly cost, counting tax, would come to $9.30 or $37.20 a month.
For the sake of variety you can substitute Triscuits for the Wheat Thins, an apple for the orange, and Nestle's Crunch for the Hershey bar. Use your imagination. Buy in bulk and save even more. What a wonderful world! Thanks for teaching me thrift, Mom.
Sunnyside Road, looking east from I-15 to the Snake River.
The section of Sunnyside Road between the Snake River and I-15 is becoming the hottest commercial real estate in town.
On the north side of the road, Teton Toyota has been there since 2008 and is breaking ground on a new Volkswagen dealership any day (opening is planned for 2014). On the south side, the Smith Group is grading land for its Chevrolet and Honda dealerships, both with valuations of $2.5 million, according to the Bonneville County Planning and Zoning Office.
The Bonneville Metropolitan Planning Organization, is holding a public open house on "access issues" in this area today from 4 to 7 p.m. at Sunnyside Elementary School, 155 Cobblestone Lane. BMPO's mission is to provide transportation planning for the cities of Ammon, Idaho Falls, Iona and Ucon, as well as urbanized portions of Bonneville County. Its offices are at 1810 West Broadway, Suite 15. Its Web page is http://www.idahofallsidaho.gov/city/city-departments/bmpo.html.
