R.I.P. Dann Cahn

[Reza]

Dann Cahn dies at 89; editor on 'I Love Lucy'



Dann Cahn used a newly created editing machine on
the classic sitcom. He also worked on movies and other TV shows.

By Valerie J. Nelson, Los Angeles Times - November 25, 2012

Using a newly developed editing machine that he
dubbed the "three-headed monster," Dann Cahn
pioneered multi-camera editing on sitcoms in the
1950s while helping to craft a classic, "I Love Lucy."

"Lucy" broke ground in television by employing
three cameras instead of one for filming, a
then-novel system that allowed an episode to be
filmed as though it were a stage play continuously and in sequence.

But the abundance of footage overwhelmed editors,
who quickly sought out a cutting-edge contraption
that was being created for the game show "Truth
or Consequences," Cahn later recalled.

"It was a Moviola with four heads three for
picture and one for sound," Cahn told Editors
Guild Magazine in 2006. "When they wheeled it in,
I said, 'Boy, that's some monster!' And the name stuck."

Cahn, 89, the last surviving member of the
original creative team behind "I Love Lucy," died
Wednesday of natural causes at his West Los
Angeles home, said his son, Daniel Cahn.

A second-generation film editor, he was the son
of Philip Cahn, who in 1937 co-founded what is
now the Motion Picture Editors Guild. Dann Cahn's
son, who is also a film editor, is president of the guild.

"The amazing thing about 'I Love Lucy' is that
they were making up things as they were going
along, and Dann was a big part of that," said
Gregg Oppenheimer. His father, Jess Oppenheimer,
was the creator-producer behind the wildly
successful comedy that starred Desi Arnaz as a
bandleader and Lucille Ball as his wife.

Earlier this year, Dann Cahn told CineMontage
magazine that when "Lucy" started out "television
was a live medium related to radio" so they
learned to apply "the rhythms and tempos of filmmaking" to TV.

But when the demands of production soon caused
Cahn to hire more editors, he said that Arnaz
remarked: "Danny, you want a crew bigger than my band?"

Eventually that was exactly what happened,
according to Editors Guild Magazine, as Desilu
Productions expanded along with Cahn's role in
the company owned by Arnaz and Ball. Cahn rose to
supervising editor of all productions, staying
until Arnaz left Desilu in the early 1960s.

Cahn's contribution to "I Love Lucy" was
"immeasurable and his generosity of energy and
spirit to the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center and
museum has been unmatched," said Journey
Gunderson, executive director of the center in Jamestown, N.Y.

"Fans would literally come from around the
world," she said, "to listen to Dann Cahn regale
them with stories about what it was like to be
part of the creative team on one of the most
successful television shows of all time."

Daniel Richard Cahn was born April 9, 1923, in
Los Angeles. His mother ran a dress shop on
Hollywood Boulevard that catered to silent movie
stars, according to a biography by the American
Cinematography Editors, which gave Cahn a career achievement award.

After raising chickens on property near Universal
Studios, his father joined the studio in the
1930s after a power outage put an end to his
ranching. With two associates, he later founded the editors guild.

The younger Cahn started out as a child actor,
appearing in the 1938 Jackie Cooper movie
"Newsboys' Home" and other films before working
as an assistant editor on the 1942 movie "Pittsburgh."

While in the Army Air Forces, he honed his
editing skills at "Fort Roach," the nickname
given the old Hal Roach Studios in Culver City
when it housed the First Motion Picture Unit
during World War II. He worked on training films
and spent a year at the Pentagon editing combat footage into newsreels.

"Most of us got a world of experience," Cahn told
The Times in 2005, the year he hosted a gathering
at Warner Bros. for 19 surviving members of the
unit and screened a short film he made about Fort Roach.

He served as an assistant editor on the 1948
Orson Welles film "Macbeth" and the next year was
given his first chance at full-fledged editing
when a fellow soldier, producer Stanley Rubin,
hired him for the NBC dramatic anthology "Your Show Time."

While editing the 1951 movie "The Lady Says No,"
Cahn was interrupted by his friend, director
William Asher, who told him that he had declined
an offer to edit "I Love Lucy" and had suggested Cahn for the job.

Talented and a quick study, according to the
reference work "Lucy From A to Z," Cahn edited "I
Love Lucy" until it left the air in 1957.

Often called "Danny," he wanted a more
distinctive name for the "Lucy" credits and
decided to drop the "y" from his first name, Oppenheimer said.

At Desilu, Cahn oversaw a slate of TV shows that
included the 1950s sitcom "Our Miss Brooks" and
the crime drama "The Untouchables," which debuted in 1959.

His nearly 100 television and film projects also
included such shows as "The Beverly Hillbillies"
and "Police Woman," and the 1970 film "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls."

After he married Judy Baker, a former
professional golfer, in 1953, the couple had two
children. His daughter, Dana, died in 1973 and
his wife died two years ago. Diagnosed with
dementia, he had moved in with his son, Daniel, who is his only survivor.

"He was a raconteur who just had an overwhelming
personality," his son said. "He was a Type A who
mentored a lot of people. He had an incredible life."