Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1985 - 11

Harold Burris- Meyer
1902-1984
Harold Burris-Meyer is best known
today as co-author of four classic
books on design and acoustics: Scenery
for the Theatre and Theatres and Auditoriums with Edward Cole; Acoustics
for the Architect with Lewis S. Goodfriend; and Sound in the Theatre with
Vincent Mallory.
Many of the younger members of
USITT may have known him only as
the frail, barely audible man who, as
Professor Snodgrass, was called upon
to adjourn the annual conferences, and
as the recipient in 1973 of USITT's first
Founder's Award. But he had a career
as a theatre practitioner that dated to
1931 when he served as sound consultant for the Broadway production of
Hamlet starring Raymond Massey.
Over the next 25 years Burris-Meyer
served as a consultant on 13 Broadway
productions, 7 Metropolitan Opera
productions (1940-42), and 3 Federal
Theatre Project Living Newspapers including One-Third of a Nation for
which he produced the special effects
for the tenement fire sequence.
From 1930 to 1954 Burris-Meyer
was head of theatre at Stevens Institute
of Technology at Hoboken, N.J., where
he experimented with various mechanical and electronic devices for use in the

theatre. Since 1965 he was associated
with Florida Atlantic University. As a
theatre consultant he worked on the
Lynchburg Fine Arts Center and theatres at the University of Connecticut,
Howard University, Sweet Briar College, Temple University, the Paper Mill
Playhouse, and the Atlanta Cultural
Center.
But his activities and contributions
ranged beyond theatre. In 1941, BurrisMeyer directed the first stereophonic
recordings-dramatic readings from
The Emperor Jones and Cyrano de Bergerac- for Bell Telephone Laboratories. From 1938 through 1947 he was
a consultant, and later vice-president,
of the Muzak Corporation. He was
also vice-president and director of
Magnetic Programs, Inc., and director
of Encabulator Corp. In 1943 he was
a member of the U.S. War Department
Planning Board, and under grants from
various military and government agencies did research on unconventional
weapons and systems for which he received a U.S. Navy Commendation
"for development of new and unconventional military techniques." Ann
Falke, who represented USITT at the
memorial service, reports that when pilots began to be licensed, Burris-Meyer
received license number 3!
The program for the memorial service held in Boca Raton on October 2 included the following note:
MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE reads the
greeting that for years one has encountered on entering Harold BurrisMeyer's office. It personifies his attitude, perspective and outlook on his
professional and personal life. Since
he was primarily concerned with
SOUND, in its myriad forms and applications, it is most fitting that a memorial service for him should reflect
this major aspect of his life. This
service is intended as a tribute to that
spirit.
He is survived by his wife Anita, a
former actress, and a son, a daughter,
and a sister.

-A.A.

Comments by John Bracewell
One can never be prepared for some
things in life, no matter how much
those things may be recognized as imminent possibilities. "Harold BurrisMeyer passed away." The words were
clear enough, but my jaw still went
slack and I stared back at the person
who told me. A whole flood of memories washed through my mind, and a
good many feelings of guilt. Some
debts are never repaid.
My first meeting with Burris-Meyer
occurred when I was a doctoral student
trying to put together a dissertation on
theatre sound. I was at Florida State
University, and at the time I was the
resident expert in the field. Any direction or guidance would have to come
from somewhere else. Burris-Meyer,
some four hundred miles distant at
Florida Atlantic University, was certainly an obvious choice; but would he
be willing to do more than say, "Read
my book"? Oh, I'd read his bookmany times over. Sound for the Theatre-a thin text, illustrated with old
pictures and quaint line drawings of
what seemed to be overly simplistic systems; I understood it and yet I didn't.
Somewhere, beneath all of the simplified language and the lessons-byexample, the book made a point I could
not comprehend. I needed some explanation. In fact, I needed a lot of it.
A gaunt, giant met me outside the
theatre building at Florida Atlantic. In
his office I started talking about audio
consoles and tape recorders. He stopped
me short. "What do you know about
the ear?" he asked. I think I was somewhat impatient at this obviously irrelevant intrusion. His answer to my reply
was another question: "How can you
design for what you don't understand?"
A short time afterward, he left me to
browse through some of his original
papers. I didn't see much of what was
there, however. I had too much rethinking to do to concentrate on the
very information I thought I had come
to get. That one question had turned
my entire frame of reference upside
down and inside out.
... continued on page 13

USITT / Wimer 1985/Theatre Design & Technology

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