Greg Garrison

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Greg Garrison (born February 20, 1924 as Harvin Ginsburg in Brooklyn , New York City , † March 25, 2005 in Thousand Oaks , California ) was an American producer and director . Garrison worked almost exclusively for television and is considered a pioneer of television shows . Garrison has directed or produced more than 4,000 shows in his 40-year career. He worked with stars like Lucille Ball , Milton Berle and Dean Martin . Especially theThe Dean Martin Show , which heproduced and directedfor NBC for ten years under unusual circumstances, made his work known worldwide.

Personal

Garrison grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He attended "various colleges "; however, a degree is not proven. During World War II Garrison served in the US Air Force and was involved in air raids in Europe. At times he was imprisoned in a German prisoner of war camp . After the end of the war, Garrison began his television career, which lasted into the 1980s.

Garrison was married twice. From his first marriage he had two children. In 1999 he married the assistant director Judy Friesen. The connection lasted until Garrison's death. Garrison was close friends with the actor Orson Welles . After his death in 1985, he acted as Welles' executor .

Garrison died in March 2005 in his California home town of complications from pneumonia .

Director and producer

Garrison's television career began with a local Philadelphia television station after the end of World War II . He started as an assistant to the manager (so-called Gofer ), shortly afterwards became a cameraman and received the order for his first directorial work a week later. From 1946 Garrison worked almost exclusively in the entertainment sector as a director and producer. One of the few exceptions was his directorial work in a television duel between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in the run-up to the 1960 presidential election in the United States and in two feature films (1961 and 1962).

Television shows

Milton Berle

Garrison directed several episodes of Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows in the early 1950s . In 1951 and 1952 he was the director of the Kate Smith Evening Our , a 30-minute show about the singer and entertainer Kate Smith , which was broadcast live . His directorial work at the Milton Berle Show from 1952 to 1955, at times under the names Texaco Star Theater and Buick Circus Hour, was a career boostran. He relieved Milton Berle, who until then had been solely responsible for production, direction and the script. During this phase, Garrison learned to work under time pressure and to close any gaps in production with pre-made records. Individual specials or small series with entertainers such as Fred Astaire , Pat Boone , Imogene Coca , Connie Francis , Danny Kaye and Donald O'Connor followed .

In the late 1960s, Garrison was one of the busiest organizers on American entertainment television. From 1965 he worked regularly as a producer and director of the Dean Martin Show , through which he became known worldwide. There were also shows with Marty Feldman , Jonathan Winters and the Golddiggers, as well as some special programs that he produced. In a 1998 interview, Garrison claimed he worked on a total of 130 shows in one year. The last show Garrison directed was the fourth and final episode of the Dom DeLuise and Friends miniseries , which was shown on American television in 1986.

Greg Garrison and Dean Martin

Garrison had a special relationship with the entertainer Dean Martin . Garrison developed special work techniques and content for his television show, which aimed to relieve Martin as much as possible. He continued this concept from 1975 on the television show Dean Martin Celebrity Roast , for which Martin and Garrison received a lot of criticism. In retrospect, Garrison was very emotional about Dean Martin. He described the collaboration as harmonious and in a television interview in 1998 expressed the opinion that he “knew Martin as well as his own hand and loved him at least as much”. Biographers believe that Garrison and Martin blindly trusted each other.

The Dean Martin Show

Dean Martin

NBC broadcast the Dean Martin Show weekly from 1965 to 1974 . Martin was one of the most successful entertainers in the world at the time. He released up to four records a year, played in movies and performed live in Las Vegas for several weeks each yearon. At first he was reluctant to accept the offer of a television show and - in addition to demanding an extraordinarily high fee - only agreed on the condition that each show would not spend more than an eight-hour working day per week. Director and producer Garrison accepted Dean Martin's limited availability and managed to deal with it in practice. He designed the production process according to the stipulation that all recordings with Martin were completed by 10 p.m. on the respective day of shooting. His solution was to produce the shows in strictly separated sequences. All scenes in which Martin was not seen were spread over the week without him - with a double if necessary. Martin's scenes were created independently of this; even dialogues were recorded separately. As a result, some guests never saw Dean Martin at all. The individual fragments were in thePost-production cut together so that they gave a coherent overall impression. The guests usually found this way of working unprofessional; the country singer Loretta Lynn as described the work on the Dean Martin Show as "mess" (chaos). In all scenes in which Martin was personally involved, there were no rehearsals and no repetitions due to lack of time. Martin had Garrison explain his operations to him and implemented his instructions in short sequences, often without understanding the context. He improvised the details with the help of cue cardsthat were positioned next to the cameras. Since Martin's lack of preparation could not be concealed, Garrison was open about it. The cue cards repeatedly appeared in the picture. Martin included them in his jokes, for example by pretending to have reading difficulties, and thus openly relativized the seriousness of the show. This contributed to the legend about Martin as King of Cool . The multi-layered nature of Martin’s role became a part of the program that was valued by the audience.

Garrison was also responsible for the content of the show. He selected the authors and provided the content. In agreement with Martin, he steered the show at the beginning of the 1970s in a vulgar direction and increasingly brought "drinking jokes, girl jokes and ambiguities". The show was increasingly perceived by critics as being out of date, sexist and degrading. The press gave Martin the title "King Leer" (about: King of the Zote). Christian press organs recently advised against following the broadcast.

The Dean Martin Show was extremely successful until 1972. Martin received higher fees every year from NBC and became the highest paid entertainer in the world through the show. Garrison also got wealthy from the Dean Martin Show . On the basis of a handshake agreement, Garrison received 50 percent of all income that the show made in various forms of exploitation after Martin's death.

Dean Martin Celebrity Roast

After the Dean Martin Show was discontinued in 1974, Garrison and Martin continued their collaboration on NBC's Dean Martin Celebrity Roast . Actors of the show were around a dozen mostly older entertainers such as Milton Berle, George Burns , Dom DeLuise , Phyllis Diller , Bob Hope , Ronald Reagan , Don Rickles or Nipsey Russell- one critic called them "undead of the dreamland" - who together for an hour under the chairmanship of Dean Martins "toasted" a star guest, that is, made humorous, often shoddy speeches about them. Allegedly there were meetings in the Ziegfeld Room of the MGM Grandrecorded in front of an audience in Las Vegas. In fact, none of the meetings took place in this form. Rather, Garrison had the contributions of the individual speakers recorded independently of one another in terms of time and space, as well as their reactions to other jokes. In addition, Garrison had each guest perform various forms of laughter in front of the uniform backdrop in an otherwise empty studio. The recordings were then cut into the speeches of others. “Thousands of copying and cutting processes” were intended to create the impression that all guests were present at the same time during the recording. To support the illusion, Garrison largely avoided total settings .

From 1998 Garrison re-edited compilations of the Dean Martin Show and Dean Martin Celebrity Roast on video and later on DVD.

Awards and assessments

Garrison has been nominated for an Emmy a dozen times . In 1969 he won the award for directing the Dean Martin Show .

Some authors consider Greg Garrison for a pioneer or forerunner (Trailblazer) in television entertainment. His work with Dean Martin in particular, however, is assessed ambiguously. The critic Cecil Smith wrote in 1969 that it was thanks to Garrison alone that the Dean Martin Show worked so well - or worked at all. Others criticize Garrison, however, because he subordinated the quality of production to Dean Martin's leisure needs. The American comedian Tom Dreesen complained that the scenes that Garrison edited were often not sensibly coordinated, and for Kelly Monteith Garrison was "the worst film editor in the world". Especially with a view to theDean Martin Celebrity Roast , Garrison was criticized for producing "hollow artificiality" and "merciless monotony".

Automobile collectors

Temporarily owned by Garrison: Ferrari 410 Superfast I.

Greg Garrison was an automobile enthusiast. He was friends with Enzo Ferrari and invested part of his income from the Dean Martin Show in classic sports cars. Over the years he came to a collection of high quality European classics. Among other things, Garrison owned several dozen classic Ferrari sports cars, including a number of unique pieces from the 1950s that were of historical significance. His collection included, for example, several Ferrari 410 Superamerica with special bodies. In some cases, he initiated extensive restorations. Garrison repeatedly showed some of his vehicles at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, one of the most important classic exhibitions in the USA. For decades, none of the exhibits left his collection; the cars were considered not for sale. Since Garrison's death, some of his cars have been sold gradually. So far, they have often brought millions in revenue. For example, a 410 Superamerica S2 with a unique Scaglietti body from the Garrison collection was auctioned for US $ 1.8 million in 2012.

Filmography: feature films

literature

  • Kliph Nesteroff: The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels, and the History of American Comedy , Open Road + Grove / Atlantic, 2015, ISBN 9780802190864 .
  • Nick Tosches: Dino. Rat-Pack, the Mafia and the big dream of happiness . Heyne Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-453-40367-3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Dennis McLellan: Greg Garrison, 81; TV Pioneer With a Flair for Comedy, Variety Shows. www.latimes.com, April 2, 2005, accessed November 26, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b N.N .: Greg Garrison, 81, TV Director Known for 'Dean Martin Show,' Dies. www.nytimes.com, April 5, 2005, accessed November 13, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b c Juliana J. Bolden: Trailblazing Director-Producer Greg Garrison Passes at 81. www.emmys.com, April 6, 2005, accessed November 13, 2020 .
  4. ^ NN: Dean Martin & Greg Garrison ... A Match Made In Showbiz Heaven. www.eyesofageneration.com, July 26, 2014, accessed November 16, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Nick Tosches: Dino. Rat-Pack, the Mafia and the big dream of happiness . Heyne Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-453-40367-3 , p. 555.
  6. ^ A b Ricci Martin, Christopher Smith: That's Amore. A Son Remembers Dean Martin , Taylor Trade Publications, 2004, ISBN 978-1-58979-140-4 , p. 104.
  7. ↑ a b c d e Mark Evanier: Greg Garrison, RIP . Obituary for Greg Garrison. www.newsfromme.com, April 1, 2005, accessed February 15, 2016 .
  8. ↑ a b Michael Althen: Dean Martin. His films - his life . Wilhelm Heyne Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Munich, 1997, ISBN 3-453-13676-4 , p. 76.
  9. ^ A b David M. Inman: Television Variety Shows: Histories and Episode Guides to 57 Programs , McFarland, 2005, ISBN 978-0-7864-2198-5 , p. 242.
  10. Jump up ↑ Loretta Lynn: Coal Miner's Daughter , Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2010, ISBN 978-0-307-74268-1 , p. 177.
  11. ↑ Bruce Williamson: Dino's breezy way to easy Money . Life Magazine, May 26, 1967, p. 18.
  12. ↑ Nick Tosches: Dino. Rat-Pack, the Mafia and the big dream of happiness . Heyne Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-453-40367-3 , p. 517.
  13. ^ David M. Inman: Television Variety Shows: Histories and Episode Guides to 57 Programs , McFarland, 2005, ISBN 978-0-7864-2198-5 , p. 249.
  14. ^ Martin Chilton: Dean Martin: the man whose voice captured Christmas. In: The Telegraph. December 24, 2015.
  15. ↑ Nick Tosches: Dino . Rat-Pack, the Mafia and the big dream of happiness . Heyne Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-453-40367-3 , p. 562.
  16. ↑ Cyclops: The witless rein of King Leer . TV Review in: Life Magazine, April 7, 1972, p. 14.
  17. ↑ To empty means, among other things, a stupid grin; the noun empty describes u. a. a suggestion.
  18. ↑ Guinness Book of Records . German edition. 1982, ISBN 3-550-07705-X , p. 273.
  19. ↑ a b c Nick Tosches: Dino. Rat-Pack, the Mafia and the big dream of happiness . Heyne Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-453-40367-3 , p. 573.
  20. ↑ a b Kliph Nesteroff: The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels, and the History of American Comedy , Open Road + Grove / Atlantic, 2015, ISBN 9780802190864 .
  21. ^ List of Greg Garrison's awards on the website www.imdb.com (accessed November 13, 2020).
  22. ^ Greg Garrison's collection on the website www.barchetta.cc (accessed November 12, 2020).
  23. ↑ Auction news from February 1, 2012 on the website www.theglobeandmail.com (accessed on November 13, 2020).
personal data
SURNAME Garrison, Greg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ginsburg, Harvin (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American television director and producer
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn , New York
DATE OF DEATH March 25, 2005
Place of death Thousand Oaks , California