As the San Francisco Symphony prepares to screen the Oscar-winning film, I reminisce...
Amadeus first
entered my consciousness back in the early ‘80s, when I worked in the promotion
dept. of Fantasy Records (Dave
Brubeck, Vince Guaraldi, Creedence Clearwater Revival) in Berkeley, which was owned by Saul
Zaentz and his partners, along with several jazz and R&B record labels. A
few years earlier, before my time with the company, in the 1970s, Saul had
begun producing movies under Fantasy Films, the film division of the
parent company. His second feature, One Flew
Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), had gone on to win five Academy Awards,
including Best Picture and the first of Jack Nicholson’s three Oscars. Saul
would continue to make films, and the film division would soon change its name
to the Saul Zaentz Company.
