2008 Universal fire

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2008 Universal fire
A large plume of gray smoke rises from a complex of buildings in a wooded area, seen from slightly above
The Courthouse facade is visible to the left of the smoke plume from the 2008 fire
Date June 1, 2008
Location Universal Studios Hollywood, Los Angeles County, California, U.S.
Cause Heated asphalt shingle
Outcome Destruction of three acres of Universal backlot, King Kong Encounter, original master tapes for popular music, and digital TV and film backups
Deaths 0
Non-fatal injuries 17

The 2008 Universal fire erupted June 1 on the back lot of Universal Studios Hollywood, an American film studio and theme park in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The fire began when a worker used a blowtorch to warm asphalt shingles being applied to a facade.[1][2] They left before checking that all spots had cooled and a three-alarm fire broke out. Nine firefighters and a Los Angeles County sheriffs' deputy sustained minor injuries. The fire was put out after twelve hours.

Universal Pictures claimed at the time that the fire only destroyed a three-acre (1.2 ha) portion of the Universal backlot (including the attraction King Kong Encounter)[3][4] and 40,000 to 50,000 archived digital video and film copies. A June 2019 New York Times Magazine exposé asserted that the fire further destroyed 118,000 to 175,000 audio master tapes belonging to Universal Music Group (UMG). This included original recordings belonging to some of the best-selling artists worldwide, such as Cher, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, the Eagles, Eminem, Guns N' Roses, Janet Jackson, Elton John, Olivia Newton-John, George Strait, Barry White and the Who. UMG initially disputed the story, but CEO Lucian Grainge later confirmed that there had been a significant loss of the musical archives.[5]

Fire

On June 1, 2008, a three-alarm fire broke out on Universal Studios Lot, the backlot of Universal Studios.[6] The fire started when a worker was using a blowtorch to warm asphalt shingles being applied to a facade.[1][2] The Los Angeles County Fire Department reported that Brownstone Street, New York Street, New England Street, the King Kong attraction, some structures that make up Courthouse Square, and the Video Vault, which contains duplicates of Universal's film library, had burned down. Aerial news footage captured the Courthouse building surviving its third fire, with only the west side slightly charred.

Over 516 firefighters responded,[2] as well as two helicopters dropping water. Nine firefighters and a Los Angeles County sheriffs' deputy sustained minor injuries. The fire took at least 12 hours to extinguish,[7] in part because of the low water pressure due to the low capacity of Universal's pipes; firefighters had to tap streams and lakes.[3]

Universal executives initially claimed the fire destroyed 40,000 to 50,000 archived digital video and film copies of Universal movies and TV shows, some almost a century old, including the films Knocked Up and Atonement, the NBC series Law & Order, The Office, and Miami Vice, and the CBS series I Love Lucy.[8][9][10] Universal president Ron Meyer told the media that "nothing irreplaceable was lost" and that they had duplicates of everything destroyed.[11]

Several days after the fire, it was reported that the King Kong attraction would be replaced by a new attraction.[4] However, Universal reverted to its original plan, basing the new attraction, King Kong: 360 3-D, on the 2005 King Kong film.[12]

2019 New York Times report

The New York Times Magazine published an investigative article by music journalist Jody Rosen on June 11, 2019, which disclosed that the damage was far more serious than the studio had claimed. The fire had totally destroyed Building 6197, a warehouse adjoining the King Kong attraction. In addition to more videos, it housed a huge archive of analog audio master tapes belonging to Universal Music Group (UMG).[6] The collection included the master tape catalogues of many labels acquired by UMG, including Chess, Decca, MCA, Geffen, Interscope, A&M, Impulse, and their subsidiary labels.[6] Estimates of the individual items lost range from 118,000 to 175,000 album and 45rpm single master tapes, gramophone master discs, lacquers and acetates, as well as all the documentation contained in the tape boxes.[6] Many tapes contained unreleased recordings such as outtakes, alternative versions of released material, and instrumental "submaster" multitracks created for dubbing and mixdown. Randy Aronson, manager of the vault at the time, estimates that the masters of as many as 500,000 individual songs were lost.[6]

Among the losses were the entire AVI Records catalog, all of Decca's masters from the 1930s to the 1950s, most of the original Chess masters which included artists such as Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, as well as most of John Coltrane's master tapes from his later career on Impulse! Records. On Twitter, Rosen stated that the Coltrane masters were among the most checked-out Impulse items in the vault, and a source had told him that the masters for A Love Supreme were likely elsewhere during the fire.[13]

On June 25, Rosen wrote a follow-up article, listing at least 700 additional artists named in internal UMG documents as possibly affected. Rosen wrote that it was impossible to determine which recordings had been destroyed, or how much of an artist's discography had been affected.[14] For example, Rosen said it was difficult to confirm whether the Neil Young recordings listed in the documents were the original master tapes of the albums he recorded for Geffen Records in the 1980s or session outtakes from those records.[14] Rosen tweeted that the documents also listed several Broadway cast recordings among the tapes destroyed.[15]

Artist responses

Bryan Adams, Semisonic drummer Jacob Slichter, and Counting Crows singer Adam Duritz said they had been told that UMG had mislaid their tapes.[14] Richard Carpenter told the Times he had been informed about the destruction of his tapes by a UMG employee while he was working on a reissue, and only after he had made multiple, persistent inquiries.[14] Following the publication of Rosen's articles, several affected musicians posted reactions on social media, with some noting specific tapes that may have been lost.[16][17] For instance, singer-songwriter Jill Sobule said she had lost two masters in the fire, including tapes for an unreleased album produced by Joe Jackson.[18]

On June 21, five plaintiffs—singer-songwriter Steve Earle, the estates of the late Tupac Shakur and Tom Petty, and the bands Hole and Soundgarden—filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Central District of California against UMG.[19] In the legal complaint, the plaintiffs claim UMG never told artists about the effects of the fire and had breached its contracts with its artists by failing to properly secure its master tape collection.[19] The complaint also claims UMG did not share insurance or legal payouts received from the fire, and states: "UMG concealed its massive recovery from plaintiffs, apparently hoping it could keep it all to itself by burying the truth in sealed court filings and a confidential settlement agreement."[19] The lawsuit also alleges that Universal had compiled a master inventory list of master tapes that had been destroyed.[20] The plaintiffs seek to recover half of any insurance payments UMG received from the fire, and half of any losses that were not covered by those settlements.[21] An uninvolved industry attorney told Billboard that the case concerned property rights, as in whether UMG or the artists owned the master tapes.[22] On July 17, Universal filed a motion to dismiss the class action lawsuit.[23]

UMG response

In a June 11 statement, UMG disputed The New York Times article, saying it contained "numerous inaccuracies" and "fundamental misunderstandings of the scope of the incident and affected assets", but was unable to disclose details due to "constraints".[24]

In a Billboard interview, UMG archivist Patrick Kraus assured that several Impulse! Records, John Coltrane, Muddy Waters, Ahmad Jamal, Nashboro Records, and Chess Records masters survived the fire and were still in Universal's archive.[25] Rosen responded in his June 25 piece, noting that some of the masters that Kraus had mentioned may have survived the fire because they were being used for remastering projects at the time, or were not the primary source master.[14] Aronson confirmed to Rosen that the vast majority of items in the vault at the time of the fire were original, primary source master recordings.[14]

In an email to staff following the publication of Rosen's story, CEO Lucian Grainge confirmed that UMG had suffered a serious loss of archival material.[5] Grainge wrote, "While I've been somewhat relieved by early reports from our team that many of the assertions and subsequent speculation are not accurate, one thing is clear: the loss of even a single piece of archived material is heartbreaking."[5] He wrote that it was "completely unacceptable" that their artists did not know the details and pledged to deliver "answers."[5] On June 26, Kraus issued a memo to staff which detailed UMG's plan to determine which assets had been affected.[26]

On July 17, Kraus issued an internal note to Universal staff, which claimed that only 22 original master recordings by five artists were lost in the fire, and backup copies had been found for each lost master. He added that UMG has been fielding requests from over 200 artists and their representatives.[27] Kraus said his team had reviewed over 26,000 assets by thirty artists. From that sample, 424 assets (including 349 audio recordings) might have been lost due to the fire.[28]

List of artists affected

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According to The New York Times Magazine, artists whose original master recordings were destroyed in whole or part in the 2008 fire include:[14]

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See also

References

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  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 14.6 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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