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IFMCA members Clark Douglas and Yavar Moradi offer their memories about legendary film music producer Douglass Fake of Intrada Records, who sadly died on August 13, 2024, at the age of 72. Doug was a 27-time IFMCA Award nominee and a 15-time IFMCA Award winner, receiving accolades for his work on albums such as Alien, The Boys from Brazil, Back to the Future, On the Waterfront, The Ten Commandments, and The Man Who Knew Too Much.
Clark Douglas writes: It’s hard to think of many people who have done more for the film music community than Intrada Records founder Douglass Fake. Doug was a guest on our podcast, The Goldsmith Odyssey, quite a few times, and his joy, playful sense of humor, and passion for his work always shone through. Every time, he had no shortage of marvelous stories to tell and musical insights to offer… to share his company was a treat for all of us.
Many years ago, before my radio career had fully solidified, I was so enthusiastic about the work Doug’s soundtrack label Intrada Records was doing that I decided to write him an e-mail and ask if they had any job openings. Doing anything, sweeping the floors, packing orders, whatever. I just wanted to be a part of it. I had no real desire to move, but working for Intrada, that would be something worth moving for. I told him about the little film music radio show I was doing in rural Georgia, and expressed my admiration for all of the work Intrada was doing.
Doug told me no, that Intrada had all the help they needed. And he could have left at it that, but instead, he offered me encouragement about the work I was doing in radio, and expressed enthusiasm that I was making a little space for film music on our local station. He told me a story about how much it had delighted him when he had called in to a local radio station as a kid, and the host had played the “Love Theme from Ben-Hur” on his behalf.
It was a small thing, turning an e-mail that could have easily dampened my spirits into one that lifted them, but it meant a lot. We exchanged a few other emails over the years, usually about something he had written in his “Doug’s Corner” column on Intrada’s website. And years later, getting to have some conversations about Jerry Goldsmith with him on the podcast was never less than a delight. Our last chat was just a few months ago, talking about Inchon, a score particularly close to Doug’s heart. It’s still hard to believe we’ll never get to do that again. He was a singular presence in the film music world, and I suspect everyone who knew him even a little will miss him greatly.
Rest in peace, Doug.
Yavar Moradi writes: I only met Douglass Fake briefly once in person, but over the past 6+ years, Doug somehow became a good friend of mine from afar. Our friendship especially grew during the first year of the Goldsmith Odyssey podcast in 2018, even though the Soundtrack Spotlight sub-series on which he became a regular presence wouldn’t begin until late 2020.
Speaking with Doug, one got a sense that the conversation he was having with you was a real highlight of his day, or even week. It was a great conversation every single time, and hours would fly by in what felt like moments. I remember sometimes I would call Doug and he’d say, “I only have five minutes to chat.” And then fifteen minutes later I’d say, “Doug, don’t you have to go and work on something?” And he always, ALWAYS said, “No, I’ve got a little more time.” And then he’d talk at least another hour.
But Doug wasn’t only generous with his time. As Joe Sikoryak wrote about in his lovely obituary for Intrada, he was always ready to help on something film music related, even for a competitor. It’s well known that he saved the tapes for both City of Fear and Studs Lonigan for many years. I suspect he would have liked to put the latter out on his own label as he eventually did the former, but when the Varese Sarabande label (and later, Quartet Record) got the license to do Studs, it was Doug who provided the music-only source because he was the only one who possessed a copy.
I witnessed a similar situation first hand: a few years ago, Cary Mansfield of Varese Sarabande reached out to me to see whether I knew of a source for any additional music which could be added to their upcoming Deluxe Edition of Lionheart. Thanks to the sketches held at the Margaret Herrick Library, I knew for sure that Jerry had written more music than ended up on the two old Varese volumes for the score, but I didn’t know if more music was recorded or where it might survive. So I began a search, reaching out to contacts of mine like Mike Ross-Trevor (who recorded the score with Jerry in Hungary) without any success. It was at least a week into the search before I had an “aha!” moment and reached out to Doug. I should have remembered sooner than I did that he had actually been at the Lionheart sessions, because the final day tacked onto the end of those was Intrada’s very first re-recording, Islands in the Stream.
So of course, Doug had saved a personal tape of the complete recording sessions from decades before — he saved everything. He was very apologetic that it was only a backup, and warned me that it probably wouldn’t be up to the audio quality of the rest of the album. But he was willing to transfer it for Varese to use anyway. It was so last minute, just in time for the extra cues to be added to the album, but Doug made it happen in only a matter of days. I don’t know if he even had Varese cover the cost of transferring; I wouldn’t be surprised if he even covered it himself. I’m 100% certain he didn’t seek any profit off of it; he just liked the idea of more of Jerry’s music being released for the world to enjoy.
And here’s the real kicker, which I don’t think has been public knowledge but now that Doug has left us I feel compelled to share it: Intrada was originally going to release Lionheart, back in the 80s. Doug had begun building up a relationship with Jerry starting with Poltergeist II. Doug strongly implied that when he attended those Lionheart sessions, it was in part because things were falling into place for Intrada to release the soundtrack album. The copy he had made of the sessions was a reference copy for the planned album. I’m not sure why exactly Robert Townson/Masters Film Music/Varese ended up doing it instead, but from conversations with Doug it was very clear that Lionheart was “the one that got away” and he had been really disappointed at the time to lose it. But Doug didn’t let ego or resentment get the better of him. I’m sure that he must have had some thoughts he kept to himself, but when I asked him if he was willing and able to help on this release for another label… he didn’t hesitate. He just gave what he had, asking for nothing in return, receiving a simple thanks in the booklet.
Later that year after the Deluxe Edition of Lionheart came out, I saw that he had done almost the same thing for Music Box Records in France, so that they could add a few extra previously unreleased minutes to their new edition of Legend. This was music that James Fitzpatrick, producer of the previous Silva Screen expansion of the score, thought did not exist any more, that he had put every single note he had available from tapes on that earlier expansion. But somehow Doug had a little more material in his possession, and he provided it to Music Box instead of withholding it for some future release on his own label, which he easily could have done. From all of my interactions with Doug, I’d consider him to be in contention for the title of least selfish and most generous person I’ve ever had the honor to know personally.
He did appreciate recognition from his fellow film music enthusiasts, though. One of my exchanges with him earlier this year was to share the news of his IFMCA win for the new Intrada recording of Herrmann’s On Dangerous Ground and The Man Who Knew Too Much. He replied to my congratulations writing back, “Thank you for some really cool news! I’m home sick in bed so it did lift my spirits.”
Rest in Peace, Doug. I wish you could have stuck around with us for another couple of decades, but I’m so grateful for how you used the time you had on this earth, to make dream film music releases a reality and bring so much joy to your fellow film music fans.