A launch party for www.dimitritiomkin.com took place at the offices of Greenberg Traurig, LLP at The Water Garden in Santa Monica, California, on October 19, 2005. Olivia Tiomkin Douglas hosted the reception to celebrate the official web site of the renowned composer.
The gathering drew a varied group of archivists, composers, orchestrators, recording artists, and soundtrack specialists, many with a unique connection to the composer’s music. The legal representatives of Volta Music Corp. and the Tiomkin music catalog, Jay L. Cooper, Chairman of Greenberg Traurig’s Entertainment Department, and Suzie Weston, paralegal, were on hand. Weston introduced designer Gabriel Nordyke, President of www.insightdesigns.com, the creative force behind the site’s distinctive and classy look. Nordyke, a designer for the ABC-CLIO web site, says he was “pleased to have the opportunity to work on another project rooted in history, because I believe that our history is what defines us. Coming from a publisher of historical web sites and books, it seemed a perfect opportunity for me to deploy my specific design skills. And it has been a pleasure to collaborate with such a knowledgeable and amicable group to produce this web site dedicated to the life and music of Dimitri Tiomkin.” Nordyke collaborated with Patrick Russ and Warren Sherk to ensure that the design could handle the content that includes news, photographs, and a database. Orchestrator Patrick Russ conceived of the site and brought it to fruition thanks to the financial backing of Olivia Tiomkin, with composer/archivist Warren Sherk writing much of the content. David Panzarella, David Brown, John Brockman, and Paul Henning also offered their skills.
Patrick Russ, who orchestrated for Elmer Bernstein, explains, “After the launch of www.elmerbernstein.com I sensed a growing need for official composer sites on the Internet. Olivia was receptive to the idea for Dimitri and we moved ahead. Gabe was looking to branch out on his own and he has done a wonderful job bringing a classic look to the site.”
The web site includes news, awards, biography, filmography, photo gallery, and links to soundtrack vendors and archives. A substantial portion of the site can be accessed through the “Archive Search” function. This is a database finding aid for archival material in the Dimitri Tiomkin Collection and the Warner Bros. Archives at the University of Southern California. Among the material to be found are manuscripts, music sketches and scores, orchestra parts, and disc recordings. In addition, information from cue sheets is being entered to aid researchers. A large collection of poster art amassed by Olivia for films scored by her husband will be digitally photographed and added to the site. In addition to posters, the collection contains lobby cards, inserts, and press books.
The reception area and conference room, looking like they were lifted from a hit television series, were well suited to soirée. Several laptop computers connected to the Internet were available for perusing as a large format television projected photographs from the site’s photo gallery and the room’s built-in audio system played a wide assortment of Tiomkin’s music.
Among the guests were James D’Arc, curator of Special Collections Motion Picture Archives, Brigham Young University; record producer Lance Bowling, Cambria Records; composers Peter Boyer and John Brockman; Sol Duran, executor for the Ned Washington estate; Steve Hanson, Cinema-Television Library Director, University of Southern California; concertmaster Paul Henning; Christopher Husted; Volta Music accountants Barry Kelman and Orville Kelman; publisher Lukas Kendall, Film Score Monthly; orchestrators Jon Kull and John Morgan; guitarist Gregg Nestor; composer Jeannie Pool; Dr. Shirley Russ; composer-conductor Bill Stromberg, and his wife, Anna; record producer Robert Townson, Varese Sarabande; singer Jubilant Sykes, and his wife, Cece; composer Christopher Tin, composer and Film Music Society President Christopher Young; and Leslie Zador.
Lisa Edmondson, personal assistant to Henry Mancini and Elmer Bernstein, coordinated the gathering and oversaw the distribution of gift bags at evening’s end. Among the goodies offered to departing guests were Christopher Palmer’s Dimitri Tiomkin: A Portrait signed by Olivia; recent CDs provided by James Fitzpatrick of Tadlow Music, including The Guns of Navarone and The Alamo: The Essential Dimitri Tiomkin Film Music Collection, and Russian candy.