om May-aka " hain aw" Tommy May-i a third generation Hollywood fi lmmaker. on and grand on of grip , Tommy tarred working in film during college ummer . Hi fir t picture were 20,000 Leagues Under The ea and Auntie Mame. ucce ive ummer found him working on The FBI tory The Music Man, and West ide tory. After college he tarred working on the con truction crew at Warner Bro , where he learned to u e the Bay City crane moving large et piece . Technique for rigging and hoi ring the e enormou objects would later become invaluable in rigging camera and per onnel. In 1962, Key Grip, John Live ay took Tommy out of hi tudio erring to work on George teven' inerama epic The Greatest tory Ever Told. For a year they worked on that picture in the Arizona heat. His fonde t memory i that "Mr teven let u play football at lunch. The crew ver u the University of Arizona football team, who were till in Apo tie wardrobe. Boy that wa fun. John and Tommy went to work on The Untouchables and The Greatest how on Earth with Jack Palance, televi ion' fir t color erie . Hi fir t how a Key Grip wa Get Smart, with Don Adam from 1964 to 1967. That led him to keying feature . Friend Art Brooker wa double booked and recommended Tommy to Bill Fraker for Paint Your MAY continued on page 53
Nephew Bradford May, right, presented Tom's Cammy.
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hil Lathrop' mother worked a a negative cutter at a film lab at Univer al tudio . He had vivid memorie of weekend vi it to the tudio to watch movie being made. "I remember thinking that making movie mu t be a great way to pend your life,' he aid. "But I never thought that wa po ible for me." After high hool Lathrop wa hired a a film loader at Univer al tudio . He loaded magazine at night and watched crew hoot during the day. Lathrop worked a an a i rant cameraman and operator for orne 20 year with many of Hollywood' legendary cinematographer , including A member Joe Valentine, Lucien Ballard and Ru ell Metty. Touch of Evil, directed by Or on Welle wa one of Lathrop Ia t film a amera Operator. The filmmaking, the camera angle the famou 3 1/2 minute opening hot the cri p, hadowy black-and-white cinematography, and o on have be orne the hallmark of film hi tory for pulp/ detective thriller ever ince. The Perfect Furlough wa Lathrop's fir t feature as cinematographer. It wa a inema cope film, directed by Blake Edward and tarring Tony urri and Janet Leigh. In 1959, Lathrop collab rated with Edward again, thi time on Peter Gunn an innovative black & white televi ion how that combined high production value with LATHROP continued on page 51
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Janet Leigh, left, presented the Cammy posthumously to Phil Lathrop. His widow Betty accepted it for him.
THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
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