Ted Churchill, 1983

[Charles Papert]

My freshman year of college, I used to show up to visit Ted on set, pretend I was on the crew and basically just start working. This was a concert shoot with Paul Simon, an Cinemax special called "Hearts and Bones" in December 1983. Pulling cable on this was about the most exciting thing I could imagine...certainly more so than my ever-neglected NYU studies.

[Marc Abernathy]

And look how far you've come!

 

You're a heck of a guy, Chas...

[Robin Grant]

I've been looking for a place to tell my Ted Churchill story, this seems as good of a place as any.

 

In 1985 was the Dolly Grip on Jimmy Muro's 'Street Trash'. This was where Jimmy really got his chops, since the camera was either on sticks, or on Jimmy. (I know, it's J. Michael Muro now, but in 1985 he was Jimmy.) As Dolly Grip, my job was to drive Jimmy around in an electric golf cart as he sat on it flying his rig. He even had pipes welded on each end of the golf cart and he'd clamp his rig to that and just sit there operating it.

 

On to Ted:

The next summer, 1986, I was walking around Astor Place and saw a film shoot in progress. I turned a corner and there was Ted! He was done for the day and dismantling his rig. I walked up and introduced myself and told him that I'd worked with Jimmy. He, being Ted, was enthusiastic and friendly, and showed me his rig. He was just taking the camera off the stage. He said that it was the brand new Panavision Platinum, really lightweight. "Here! Feel how light it is!" he said, and handed it to me. Me, a total stranger on the streets of NYC! "That's great, Ted. Take it back..." I was really nervous since the most expensive camera I had held to that date was a 20 year old Arri 16BL.

 

Ted sure was one of our best.

[John Dy]

It's great that you had the chance to work with Ted