Remembering Gary Smith
We are sad to learn that producer Gary Smith has passed away at the age of 90. Smith started out as a set designer and art director before moving into producer on shows including The Judy Garland Show and Hullabaloo. Along with producing partner Dwight Hemion, he produced dozens of television specials for stars such as Ann-Margret, Barbra Streisand, and Neil Diamond.
Below are some excerpts from his 2001 interview:
On working with Barbra Streisand:
“We worked with Barbra a lot. Dwight worked with her in the early days… and we all worked together later on, on many, many specials. Barbra is the most extraordinary artist to work with in the world. Not only is she the most talented person you’ll ever see on the face of the earth, the voice is a gift from god. It’s just one of those things, but she is also the most demanding and I say that in the nicest way. You don’t get away with anything, if a producer has some tricks up his sleeve, to tell performers what they’re doing, and to talk them into doing something, or not talk them into doing something. It doesn’t work with Barbra, she knows more than you do about everything, from lighting, to cameras… she’s an extraordinary director, artist, writer and she questions everything, over and over again, and you just have to be on your toes. And I say this all in the most complimentary way … she’s just that demanding, and I say not meaning demanding as in angry, I mean demanding is a good thing, if, quality is important to you.… To work with Barbra, there’s nobody like her. There’s nobody like her.”
On his producing partner, Dwight Hemion:
“You gotta realize that Dwight is somebody that when I was in college … I had a friend of mine…who would call me every once and a while and say, ‘Did you see Steve Allen’s show the other night?’ I said, ‘Well no I didn’t see it.’ He said, ‘There was this number that they did where, where, the director was a guy named Dwight, I mean he did some things and oh god, its incredible.’ So, I was hearing about Dwight actually in my former years. …Dwight of course therefore was to me, was somebody that I had known about and probably was -- and continues to be, the most respected television director of live television and variety specials in the world. ...when ah I heard that we would be working together I was really, I thought, that would be impressive … and as I said earlier, when we were on that plane ride together and we had those conversations, I had been training in theater, and I was used to always being that proscenium style, and then Dwight was the one that kind of forced me to realize actually [television’s] depth. In other words, it starts back there, it’s the opposite of what you do in theater in a funny way, cause the cameras are there, they can move.”
On advice to aspiring producers:
“The advice I would probably want to give to an inspiring to producer is to start by forgetting that you want to be an aspiring producer, and I mean that in a silly kind of way. But start by learning about life, learning about business, learning about art, learning about music and just absorb as much material that will then be able to be used for the things that you decide that you want to produce -- that’s a creative producer. Now, if you want to be a business producer … then the only advice I’ll give you … is to get your hands on as much money as you can, and go out and find people creatively to do what I just said I think you oughta do. … You can’t learn to be a producer, you can only get into the business and start working in areas where experience will give you the knowledge. I can’t tell you what to do, I can only really tell you to just- to try to get smart, and it just sounds so ordinary and so cliché but it’s really true. … Somehow you’ll find somebody that will get you that job, but once you get it boy just be smart enough to know how to deal with it, and to go from step one to step two. Don’t jump from one to three."
Watch Gary Smith's full interview and read his obituary in The Hollywood Reporter.