Elmer Bernstein

Elmer Bernstein was hired to create the music for our film Gold starring Roger Moore. I went to Heathrow to pick him up for the music recording sessions due to start the next morning. Because I’d never met him I was holding up a sign with his name on and while I was standing there another gent walked over and said he wished me luck. I asked him why and he said he’d watched as Bernstein had written a few notes on the back of a cigarette pack and had told him that was the score for a film he was working on. Of course I didn’t believe him because we’d paid Elmer a fortune and booked a big orchestra and De Lane Lea studios in Wembley. It turned out to be true! I rushed him over to an all nighter with the brilliantly talented Jack Fishman, plus an arranger he fixed and together they magically produced an entire and bloody good score which was recorded on schedule.