Carl Stanley Cornyn (July 8, 1933 – May 11, 2015) was an American record label executive and the author of ''Exploding: The Highs, Hits, Hype, Heroes, and Hustlers of the Warner Music Group'' (). He also wrote three privately published family genealogy books (all in the Library of Congress).

Career

Cornyn began working for Warner Bros. Records in 1958. He left the

Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and th ...

in 1990 to live an office-free life. During his Warner years, he'd advanced to Executive VP of Warner Bros. Records; then to Senior VP of the

; and finally Founder and CEO of Warner New Media within Time-Warner. He is widely remembered for his years heading up Warner-Reprise's Creative Services department, writing innovative ads, and other marketing approaches, including the storied

Warner/Reprise Loss Leaders The Warner/Reprise Loss Leaders were a series of promotional sampler compilation albums released by Warner Bros. Records throughout the 1970s. Each album (usually a 2-record set) contained a wide variety of tracks by artists under contract to Wa ...

series. He was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Album Notes in 1966 for

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the " Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular entertainers of the 1940s, 1950s, and ...

's ''

Strangers in the Night "Strangers in the Night" is a song composed by Bert Kaempfert with English lyrics by Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder. Kaempfert originally used it under the title "Beddy Bye" as part of the instrumental score for the movie ''A Man Could Get ...

'' and again in 1967 for ''

Sinatra at the Sands ''Sinatra at the Sands'' is a live album by Frank Sinatra accompanied by Count Basie and his orchestra, and conducted and arranged by Quincy Jones, recorded live in the Copa Room of the former Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in 1966. It ...

''. He was nominated again in 1968 and 1969 for his work on Sinatra and

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was bas ...

's '' Francis A. & Edward K.'' and Sinatra and

Antônio Carlos Jobim Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim (25 January 1927 – 8 December 1994), also known as Tom Jobim (), was a Brazilian composer, pianist, guitarist, songwriter, arranger, and singer. Considered one of the great exponents of Brazilian mu ...

's '' Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim'' recordings, beaten both times by

Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his c ...

. His work gained one additional nomination in 1974 for Sinatra's '' Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back''. The literary qualities of his liner notes are discussed in ''A Storied Singer: Frank Sinatra as Literary Conceit'' in a chapter entitled "The Composition of Celebrity: Sinatra as Text in the Liner Notes of Stan Cornyn." He also co-authored the screenplay for Warner Bros.' 1970 film ''

The Phynx ''The Phynx'' is a 1970 American comedy film directed by Lee H. Katzin about a rock and roll band named The Phynx and their mission in foreign affairs. The group is sent to Albania to locate celebrity hostages taken prisoner by Communists. This ...

''. In 1989, while heading Warner New Media, Cornyn introduced a new multimedia format called CD+Graphics, or CD+G. Stan also envisioned “The Whole Megillah.” As a result, Stan's people at Warner New Media (WNM) built a Megillah Project demonstration system, which was widely viewed within

Warner Communications Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

, and resulted in

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

5161034. This patent was later linked to

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

’s DVD work. WNM also published several interactive

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradit ...

Compact Discs The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in October ...

, such as “How Computers Work” and “Desert Storm.” In 1991 he was asked to lead the short-lived computer games division of Media Vision, Inc., and was named executive vice-president and co-head of Media Vision Multimedia Publishing, heading its Westlake Village offices.

Education

Cornyn was a graduate of Monrovia High School,

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became t ...

, attended

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences The Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is the graduate school of Yale University. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest graduate school in North America, and was the first North American graduate school to confer a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D ...

, and received a Masters in Theatre from the

University of California at Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

in 1962.

Family

Cornyn was twice married. First, in 1965, to Gail MacCrystall, by whom he fathered son Christopher Cornyn; then again, in 1971, to Theadora Davitt, by whom he had son Tom Cornyn. Cornyn was nephew to William Cornyn, previously the chair of both the Department of Slavic Languages and Literature and the Russian Area Program at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

; and John Cornyn II, father to U.S. Senator John Cornyn III (R. TX). Cornyn lived in

Carpinteria, California Carpinteria (; es, Carpintería, meaning "Carpentry") is a small seaside city in southeastern Santa Barbara County, California. Located on the Central Coast of California, it had a population of 13,264 at the 2020 census. Carpinteria is a p ...

, with longtime companion Meg Barbour. He died on May 11, 2015 at his home in Carpinteria at the age of 81.

References

External links

* Brad Bigelow, "King of Liner Notes,
Space Age Pop

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cornyn, Stan 1933 births 2015 deaths American male writers American music industry executives People from Oxnard, California People from Carpinteria, California Pomona College alumni