Speaker 1: Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan and this
Speaker 1: is Womanica. This month we're talking about women of sound.
Speaker 1: These women dominated the airwaves, innovating, documenting and creating the
Speaker 1: audio landscape we live in today. Today we're talking about
Speaker 1: one of the most venerated sound artists in British cinema,
Speaker 1: known as Beryl the Boot. This woman left a legacy
Speaker 1: that's remembered by the sound of her footsteps. Please welcome
Speaker 1: the Mother of Foley, Beryl Mortimer. Beryl entered the world
Speaker 1: of Foley in the mid nineteen fifties. She lived in
Speaker 1: Langley in the southeast of England, but for Beryl, the
Speaker 1: Foley Studio was her second home. Much of her life
Speaker 1: revolved around her work. Beryl would continue to hang out
Speaker 1: and socialize with her colleagues after finishing a studio session,
Speaker 1: and it was through their anecdotes of her that Beryl's
Speaker 1: life and artistry was best captured. As a Folly artist,
Speaker 1: Barrel created the sound effects that would be layered onto
Speaker 1: films in post production, whatever sound that needed to be
Speaker 1: added in, whether it was a fly buzzing across the frame,
Speaker 1: a cacophony of car horns off screen, or peeling a banana.
Speaker 1: Beryl and other folly artists found a way to manufacture
Speaker 1: the sound in a recording studio. Baryl was particularly famous
Speaker 1: for her work recording footsteps, and she brought her own props.
Speaker 1: She'd go from set to set dragging around her famous boots,
Speaker 1: ready to step into any scene on set. Barrel was
Speaker 1: said to be glamorous and flirtatious, a superstar in her field.
Speaker 1: According to some stories, Beryl hired a car service to
Speaker 1: drive her anytime she needed to go into the studio.
Speaker 1: The woman might have stepped on many things, but the
Speaker 1: gas pedal was not one of them. But beyond the studio,
Speaker 1: Beryl's talent went mostly unnamed until the nineteen eighties, when
Speaker 1: film started regularly including folly artists in their credits. It's
Speaker 1: difficult to say the total number of films Beryl had
Speaker 1: a foot in, but in the industry she was widely
Speaker 1: acclaimed as the best footstepper or folly artist of the day.
Speaker 1: A handful of her techniques became the blueprint for sound
Speaker 1: work in cinema. One of these works was the nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty two film Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence of Arabia, the
Speaker 1: Lamb torn between two civilizations. The film's director, David Lean,
Speaker 1: knew the film sound would be a crucial companion to
Speaker 1: its visuals. In one scene, a camel emerged from the
Speaker 1: dunes of the desert. The image was momentous on screen,
Speaker 1: but it was missing tension. The desert was deadly quiet.
Speaker 1: They needed something, some sound to cut through that quiet.
Speaker 1: They'd have to engineer it. So Beryl got down on
Speaker 1: all fours in a sandbox in the recording studio and
Speaker 1: made the Campbell's hoof beats herself. Later, David Lean recalled
Speaker 1: the pad pad pad of the camel's feet wasn't a
Speaker 1: real sound, but it added immeasurably to the silence of
Speaker 1: the desert. The size of it all. The soundtrack is
Speaker 1: almost as important as the pictures. Lawrence of Arabia went
Speaker 1: on to win the Academy Award for Best Sound along
Speaker 1: with Best Picture, but Beryl's contribution was uncredited. The nineteen
Speaker 1: eighties and nineteen nineties marked the last decades of Beryl's career.
Speaker 1: By then, the Folly icon ruled the studio and she
Speaker 1: was far from done innovating. Another of her projects was
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighty three art house production The Gold Diggers.
Speaker 1: In the movie, a large group of men come running
Speaker 1: out from the bank of England to recreate the sound
Speaker 1: of so many footsteps. Barrel and another female folly artist
Speaker 1: had one foot each in a small box filled with stones.
Speaker 1: As they looked at the film in front of them,
Speaker 1: The duo coordinated their taps to the pace of the
Speaker 1: men running on screen. The film director, Sally Potter recalled
Speaker 1: that moment as an image to look at. It was
Speaker 1: like an astonishing piece of performance, but of course it
Speaker 1: was the kind of visual you'll never suppose to see.
Speaker 1: Much of Beryl's work was heard and never seen. Her improvisation,
Speaker 1: creativity and timing was one of a kind, admired by
Speaker 1: the film industry and folly artists who followed in her footsteps. Horses, hoofs,
Speaker 1: footsteps in an alley, the fuse of a bomb and
Speaker 1: boots and snow. Barrel the boot did it all. She
Speaker 1: died in two thousand and one in England. All month
Speaker 1: We're talking about Women of Sound. For more information, find
Speaker 1: us on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast special thanks
Speaker 1: to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co creator. As always,
Speaker 1: we're taking a break for the weekend. Talk to you
Speaker 1: on Monday.