Lip Sinc International, Incorporated evidentiary binder, 1980-1982, 1989
Table of Contents
Overview of the Collection
- Cre
- Lip Sinc International, Incorporated
- Title
- Lip Sinc International, Incorporated evidentiary binder
- Dates
- 1980-1982, 1989 (inclusive)19801989
Bulk 1981-1982 (bulk)19811982 - Quantity
- 0.5 linear feet, (1 box 1 binder)
- Collection Number
- 2019-003
- Summary
- The collection is a binder of photographs, news clippings, correspondence and promotional materials about Lip Sinc International, Incorporated, a lip-synching competition hosted in Seattle and Houston in the 1980s. Participants dressed up as famous celebrities, sometimes in drag, and impersonated their songs. Lip Sinc International, Incorporated was a plaintiff against Dick Clark Productions and used the material in the binder as evidence in the case.
- Repository
-
Seattle Public Library, Special Collections
1000 Fourth Ave.
Seattle, WA 98104-1109
Telephone: 206-386-4636
specialcollections@spl.org - Access Restrictions
-
Collection is open and available for use.
- Languages
- English
Historical Note
The founder of Lip Sinc International, Incorporated was William Randy Wood, who went by Wm. Randy Wood, or Randy Wood. According to Wood's Twitter and LinkedIn pages, he graduated from Washington State University in Pullman, Washington with a degree in marketing. Starting in 1981, Wood began to host "Lip Sync" competitions in Seattle night clubs. Participants would dress up as famous musicians and lip-sync their songs to judges who would score their performance. The competitions began in the Seattle nightclub, The Underground Restaurant and Lounge in Pioneer Square, but soon spread into large venues in the Seattle area and in Houston, Texas. By the end of 1982 the competition grew sufficiently that he incorporated Lip Sinc International and continued to refine the program.
Wood was an Executive Producer of Lip Sinc International from 1982- 1990. In 1984, Wood joined Dick Clark Productions and created the television series "Puttin' on the Hits" which was a lip-synch competition. The series aired from September 1984 to 1988 in 26 countries and was nominated twice for Daytime Emmy Awards.
A court case was filed in 1989 in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, with Judge Dickran M. Tevrizian Jr. presiding. After Dick Clark Productions terminated its professional relationship with Lip Sinc International, Lip Sinc International alleged that Dick Clark Productions had infringed upon the "lip symbols" and "star" slogans used in Clark's logos. The court ruled in favor of the defendant, Dick Clark Productions, because of the difference of lip-synch competitions in nightclubs versus on television and concluding that the logos were not similar enough to warrant trademark infringement. It was later appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth District, in 1990, and the decision was upheld in 1991. The materials in this collection were collocated into an evidentiary binder for a case between Lip Sinc International, Incorporated and Dick Clark Productions. The binder was compiled by the plaintiff, Lip Sinc International, and submitted to the United States Court of Appeals. The collection also contains metadata from the court filings, including the case number, the plaintiff and defendant in the case, and labels for each piece of evidence within the binder.
Although the company is listed as "Lip Sinc International, Incorporated" in court filings, it was also known as "Lip Synch Incorporated", "Lip Sync International Incorporated", "Lip-Sync Inc.", "Lip-Sync Inc. Competition", "Lip Sinc Inc.", and "Lip Sinc International".
After the court case, Wood was president of the Creative Marketing Group in the Greater San Diego Area from 1991 until 2003. Since March 2004, Wood has served as the Executive Producer of Ranwood Productions, Inc., which is based in San Diego, California.
Content Description
The collection documents the promotional material, images and descriptions of the competitions put on by Lip Sinc International, Incorporated. The collection includes material concerning competitions in Seattle and Houston. Lip Sinc International partnered with nightclubs, hotels and travel agencies around Seattle and Houston. Notable venues in the Seattle Area include "Sunday's", Doubletree Plaza Hotel (on Southcenter Parkway) and Fandango's at the Sirloin Inn. This collection contains promotional materials created by the nightclubs that hosted the competitions. It also holds fifty photographs of participants in the lip sync competitions. Competitors impersonated popular musicians and lip-synched their songs to a crowd of spectators and were judged on the quality of their performance. There are also a number of flyers listing the prizes available at the competitions. The prizes ranged from cash to vacations in Hawaii and Victoria, British Columbia.
There is also correspondence between Wood and a number of organizations including KOMO Radio and Television, a local media outlet, and Sunday's, a venue where the competition was regularly held. The collection holds a number of news clippings with annotations, potentially made by Wood himself, that highlight or profile Lip Sinc International competitions. Publications that covered the competitions include The Seattle Times, The Northshore Citizen, and the Issaquah Press.
These materials illustrate the history of the competitive lip-synching industry and its beginnings in Seattle. Moreover, since the collection was created as an evidentiary binder in a contentious court case, it also demonstrates the competitive environment in the lip sync and entertainment scene at the time.
Use of the Collection
Restrictions on Use
Copyright restrictions apply.
Preferred Citation
[ITEM DESCRIPTION], Lip Sinc International, Incorporated evidentiary binder. Seattle Public Library, Seattle, WA.
Administrative Information
Arrangement
The collection was processed at the collection-level. The materials and court labels in the original leatherette binder were transferred to an archival binder due to preservation concerns. Original order was maintained. The court tags, which numbered each piece of evidence were originally placed on plastic sleeves, but were removed due to preservation concerns. In order to preserve the tags, they were cut from the original sleeves and placed in new polyester sleeves.
Related Materials
United States District Court for the Central District of California, Case No. CV 87-8627-DT, Dickran M. Tevizian, Jr., District Judge, Presiding.
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, before Wallace and Poole, Circuit Judges, and Brewster, District Judge Case No. 89-55674.
The materials can be accessed through Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) https://pacer.uscourts.gov/find-case/search-specific-court
Acquisition Information
Collection purchased in 2019.
Processing Note
Acknowledgement of Harmful Content
The Seattle Public Library Special Collections Department is committed to creating an inclusive archive that documents the history of our diverse communities in a respectful manner. Our collections include historic materials that may contain images and outdated language which can be harmful due to issues such as racism, colonialism, sexism and homophobia. This content can provide important insight into the creator and context of the historic materials but can also reveal hurtful biases and prejudices.
We may decide to use or retain harmful language in our description when the terms have been used by the creator(s) of the materials to describe themselves or their community; when we have reused description created by the donor; when we have transcribed information directly from the materials; and when using national standards such as Library of Congress Subject Headings, which allow for standardized searching and retrieval of records. When including language from the original material in our finding aids or descriptions, we will indicate that this material comes directly from the original item by putting the language in quotes or prefacing it with a note that says the description is transcribed from the item or provided by the creator.
We will continually review our finding aids to identify harmful language and encourage you to contact us at specialcollections@spl.org if you find language that causes concern.
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Personal Names
- Wood, Wm. Randy (William Randy)
Corporate Names
- Dick Clark Productions (Firm)
- Lip Sinc International, Incorporated
Form or Genre Terms
- Lipsynching--Competitions--Texas--Houston
- Lipsynching--Competitions--Washington (State)--Seattle
- Music--Performance--Texas--Houston
- Music--Performance--Washington (State)--Seattle
- Nightclubs--Texas--Houston
- Nightclubs--Washington (State)--Seattle
