By Stav Birnbaum
Elisha Birnbaum, a movie Foley artist turned owner of Sound One — the premier East Coast post-production sound studio that produced the audio of hundreds of films such as “Peggy Sue Got Married” and “The Untouchables” — died on December 2 in his longtime apartment on New York’s Upper West Side. He was 92.
Elisha was born on May 18, 1931 in Horodenka, Poland, and moved with his parents to Israel, then known as Palestine, when he was about a year and a half old.
He was days shy of his 17th birthday when Israel’s War of Independence broke out. He was training Boy Scouts and was on a run outside Tel Aviv when his troop witnessed Egyptian airplanes bomb the city. Obsessed with movies even then, Elisha filmed the entire event only to have the film ruined in processing.
Elisha’s passion for filmmaking grew with the budding Israeli film industry in the 1960s. He would do any job and had a knack for being able to fix just about anything – a talent he used throughout his life. Over time, he specialized in sound and did mixing before becoming a Foley artist. It was during this period in his life, that he met his future wife, Zmira Elam, an Israeli actress, while filming “Every Bastard a King’ in 1968. They moved to New York City soon after getting married, where they settled on the Upper West Side and raised their family.
With the founding of Sound One Corp., Elisha created the largest, most comprehensive audio post-production facility on the East Coast, with Foley studios, re-recording studios, ADR studios, and editing suites all in the historic Brill Building in Manhattan. He worked with many producers and directors including Martin Scorsese, Nora Ephron, Spike Lee, Ang Lee and Woody Allen, but one didn’t need to be famous to work in the studio. Elisha was proud to give film students the use of the studio to work on their own movies during the late-night hours.
“To be a good Foley man, you have to transform yourself to the character on the screen,” said Elisha in the documentary “Actors of Sound,” which covered the lives and careers of Foley artists throughout the United States.
His passion for building a sound effect library seeped into his everyday life. If a ride on the subway had a specific squeal when going through a particular area of track, Elisha would get his equipment and return to record that sound. When he needed the sound of a knife cutting through flesh, he bought the largest turkey he could find and proceeded to mutilate it to the extent that his wife refused to cook it for dinner. In the studio, he practiced making sound with various everyday objects to replicate and enhance the sound of various actions; for example, he would strike coconut shells against a carpeted floor to replicate the sound of a horse trot, while watching the same scene from a movie. This passion allowed him to build a world-class sound effects library that helped Sound One to dominate the East Coast market for TV and movie post-production.
Birnbaum also became a vital mentor to many people trying to break into the business.
“Elisha and Jeremy [Koch] hired me as their assistant at Sound One, which started my sound career,” said Local 700 member and ADR and supervising sound editor Bobbi Banks, MPSE. “He was a mentor and a dear friend. Elisha was instrumental in the start of many people’s careers in the sound community. I for one am forever grateful. Whether you worked for Sound One, renting editorial space or a client, you were a part of the Sound One family.”
“As the owner of Sound One, Elisa was fundamental in creating an environment, both professional and deeply communal, of like-minded souls all pursuing a single minded goal – the making of movies,” added Dorian Harris, ACE, a picture editor and Board member of Local 700. ” As a post-production facility, with Elisha as the founder, Sound One was the home to, at one time or another, most of the post production world of not only New York but Los Angeles and international cinema. Often spotted fresh from his Foley stage in shorts and high heels or cowboy boots, Elisha was an artist who fostered all aspects of post-production, but [he] was exceedingly devoted to the intrepid starter bearing a resume and the independent filmmaker.”
As an owner of Sound One, he had the privilege to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and he took the honor seriously. He would watch all the nominated films to make an informed decision (though he may have been slightly biased towards New York-based films).
Elisha retired in 2000 after he sold Sound One to Liberty Media. He continued to watch as many movies as he could and picked up painting and digital art to fill his days. He is survived by his son Elam, daughter Stav and four grandchildren.
