MRH: One can get a sense of a composer's personality from his / her music, and if there's any dominant emotion that permeates his music, it's excitement, as well as maybe a sense of amusement in seeing how aggressive or outrageous he could be with the orchestra. Is his energetic style perhaps a key reason he scored so many of writer / director / producer Bert I. Gordon's films?

I think they were two of a kind.  Both loved what they did - Bert was like a little kid in a candy shop and so was Glasser.  Bert and I have become friends and I always prod him to talk about those days - he tends to not like to look back, but I keep telling him that that's his legacy and he should be very proud of it.  I only wish I'd met Glasser.  I know his niece very well and have for years, but I didn't know Al was her uncle until a few years ago.

MRH: What I loved about Earth vs. the Spider is the total sincerity that bleeds from every cue. The love theme is gorgeous, the furtive suspense cues are surprisingly modernistic, and the monster cues are appropriately BIG. Was this approach mandated by Gordon, or was it Glasser's own sensibilities to treat every film, no matter how ridiculous, as sincere drama?

BK: It's hard to know what Bert's input was with the scores.  I do know that Glasser's scores were usually cut up by the music editor - cues repeated, truncated - really weird.  And the thing to remember is these people didn't think they were making campy movies or movies that would tickle people years later.  They were making movies - to them these were movies, while always having a sense of fun, were serious business. 

MRH: Most of Glasser's work was recorded in mono, often because he was working within a tight budget. Why was the decision made to record Boy and the Pirates in stereo when the film was going to be exhibited in mono?

BK: I don't really have an answer and it's the only one of his scores recorded that way, at least of the ones I have.  Certainly the film was never shown in stereo, so it's a little peculiar, but it's great to have it in stereo. 

MRH: You mentioned in the Pirates liner notes that little survives of Attack of the Puppet People, hence the brief suite. As with your 1995 CD release for Varese Sarabande of Not of This Earth! The Film Music of Ronald Stein (1995), have you found the music composed by these giants of B-movie music has survived well, or have many source materials been lost or were not retained by the composers because the films were regarded as disposable, or as ephemeral drive-in fodder?

BK: It's really hit and miss.  I actually have all of Puppet People but the quality is not releasable - I put out exactly what was passable; everything else had so much distortion, it was terrible.  A pity.  Ron Stein's stuff was in pretty good shape as I recall, and some of Glasser's tapes were very nice. 

MRH: Years ago (like circa 1989) when Lorimar bought the rights to the old Allied Artists catalogue, a number of rare films were transferred from crisp 35mm prints for TV distribution, and that's one way I managed to catch a few great little B flicks that have since disappeared from distribution. Among my favorites are Glasser's Tormented (1960) and the sleazy Confessions of an Opium Eater (1962). Is there a chance the scores to these gems still exist as acetate or tape recordings, and may get a crack at a CD release?

BK: I have Tormented complete - not great quality but we're probably going to do it as a coupling with Invasion USA (1952).  I have Opium Eater, too, but actually haven't had time to listen to it.

MRH: Opium Eater was one of Glasser's last efforts, and it marked the end to a non-stop scoring run, going back to 1941. Do you think he had become tired of the grind, or were the royalties (perhaps from the scores making their way to stock music libraries) helpful in allowing him to retire?

BK: I think the movie business changed.  The kinds of films Glasser did simply stopped being made (until Bert came back in 1976 with Food of the Gods) - but by then he'd stopped - I don't know if that's because he wanted to or he simply could not get work anymore.