I read on-line today that its Peter Thomas’ birthday. Peter passed away in 2016. For those who don’t know whom I talking about. Peter Thomas, in my opinion is the best voice-over artist there was then, and maybe the best there ever was.
I met Peter in the late 70’s when I worked for Reeves Communications’ Sound Shop, located in New York City. This was my second position in film and television post production. I would record voice-overs for a variety of different projects. My recording and mixing studio, was dedicated to television projects. Television commercials, hour-long specials, sports specials, such as “Shark Tagging,” for CBS, and “Wide World of Sports,” for ABC. We also dubbed, and mixed hour-long American language specials into Portuguese, for the Silvio Santos Television Network in Brazil.
Peter was always being booked in our studio for some kind of project. I had the pleasure to recorded his voice at least a dozen times. He was a real gentleman, no ego, although if he wanted, he would have deserved it. Peter was tall and thin, a tennis players physique. He always wore a suit and tie, straw hat, especially during those hot and humid New York summers.
There are three stories I would like to tell you about Peter. I was scheduled to record his voice for I think, a television commercial. We usually recorded voice-overs in one of three studios. They were large sound-proof rooms, with a smaller section as the control room. One was a voice-over studio, one was the looping stage for feature films, and the last was for a half-hour daily American language television show, dubbed and mixed for Brazil. But on this occasion, everything was booked, so I had to record him in a small recording booth, in a mixing studio. As we were getting ready to record, I heard that the air-conditioning system was making a lot of noise, which would ruin the recording. Before I could call maintenance, Peter said, just turn off the system and let’s record the script. It must have been over a hundred degrees in that booth, especially with Peter still in his suit and tie.
The second story involves Peter recording a twenty-five-minute script for a pharmaceutical product. Peter always had the scripts sent to him several days before the recording, so he could make sure he knew the correct pronunciations. On this occasion, when he came in for the recording, he had a list of half a dozen alternate pronunciations, and he asked the producer for his choice. I not sure the producer even knew there were alternate pronunciations. Anyway, Peter recorded the twenty-five-minute script in the thirty-minutes the studio was booked for, giving him the reputation of “One take Thomas.”
The third story is personal for me. I was sitting in a studio, not booked, just working on a documentary script I was hoping to produce. Peter came in to go over a script he was going to record. He asked me what I was writing, and I told him about the idea for my video. All he said was, when you’re ready, send me the script. I said “Peter, thank you, but I can’t afford your services,” knowing full well that at that time, Peter was commanding one-thousand dollars per half hour. He just said, before walking out of the studio, “You just book the studio when you’re ready, and send me the script.” Unfortunately, I couldn’t sell the idea, and never got it done, but I will always remember his generosity.
When I moved from Miami to Naples, Florida, in 2014, I attended an evening function. To my surprise it was honoring Peter. He was in his nineties, and had been retired by then. I hadn’t seen since 1980. We chatted a while, and I remember reminding him of his nick-name, “One take Thomas,” he just smiled.
