CineMontage

July/August 2014

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53 JUL-AUG 14 / CINEMONTAGE GARBY LEON STORY ANALYST MAY 14, 1947 – APRIL 21, 2014 Garby Leon passed away on April 21, 2014, after a long battle with cancer. To label him a story analyst would be reductive. He was also a musician, composer, teacher, studio executive, union organizer, indefatigable political activist, proud father, loving husband and loyal friend. Garby was born in New York City, but grew up in Bay City, Michigan, where his passions for music, sailing, and Detroit muscle cars were nurtured. He trained as a classical pianist, but his musical interests took a detour when he joined a college blues band in Ann Arbor that featured drummer James Newell Osterberg, soon to be known to the rest of the world as Iggy Pop. After receiving his BA at arts- oriented Marlboro College in Vermont, he moved on to Harvard, where he earned a PhD in music composition. His mentor was composer Leon Kirchner, but he spent almost as much time hanging out with poets Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. Garby came to Los Angeles as a UCLA music professor, but quickly developed friendships with Dennis and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. He wrote music with them and occasionally played club dates backing blues guitarist Jesse Ed Davis. After making the transition to the movie business in the 1980s, he segued freely between story analyst and executive positions. He worked as a story analyst at Lorimar, Columbia and, finally, 20th Century Fox. His executive jobs included Dan Curtis Productions, Silver Pictures, Mosaic Media and Fox Family Films, where he developed The Matrix (1999), The Manchurian Candidate (2004) and Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998), among many others. Nonetheless, of all the accomplishments in his life, he often said he was most proud of the role he played in the merger of Story Analysts Local 854 with the Editors Guild because the Guild materially improved the lives of so many of his friends. After the merger, he spent a year organizing production companies that were employing non-union story analysts. Garby settled into a richly rewarding family life in his last decade. He was devoted to his daughter Paloma — now 12 and a gifted musician herself — and to his brilliant wife Shannon Mow, his grad school sweetheart. He is also survived by his mother Eleanor, five siblings and hundreds of friends around the world. - Calvin Yocum MARGUERITE "MARGIE" SOKOLOW NEGATIVE FILM CUTTER APRIL 25, 1920 – APRIL 8, 2014 At 93 years young, after a valiant battle, Margie Sokolow "flew away" on April 8, 2014. She was an amazing role model for her family with her zest for life and her enjoyment of many varied interests. One of my mother's earliest jobs in her career was rewinding original negative for Charlie Chaplin's films at Pathé Labs. Eventually, she became a negative film cutter. She worked for Desilu, Don Fedderson and MTM, cutting negative for shows such as My Three Sons (1960-72), The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-66) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-77). When she retired in 1984, she was Head of the Negative Cutting Department for Aaron Spelling Productions, working on shows such as Fantasy Island (1977-84), The Love Boat (1977-87) and Hart to Hart (1979-84). She loved being a negative film cutter and she always made sure that "her" cutting room was an enjoyable place to work. After I left teaching, my Mom taught me to be a negative cutter, and I had the pleasure of working with her for several years. Margie stayed very active in retirement. She started yoga and golf, and participated in several charities. She also volunteered at the Screen Smart Set Thrift Shop and was a member of the Motion Picture Mothers. Both organizations raise funds for the Motion Picture & Television Fund. She was thrilled to be interviewed by writer Edward Landler in 2012 for inclusion in the "Post Production Pioneers — The Guild's Earliest Members" article in the SEP-OCT 12 issue of CineMontage. Margie Sokolow was elegant and charming. She will be greatly missed by her family and many friends. - Marlen Sokolow Hill PASSAGES OBITUARY NOTICE If family members or friends would like to write an obituary for their loved ones in the "Passages" section of Editors Guild Magazine, please contact Tomm Carroll at tcarroll@editors guild.com for guidelines and due dates. All deceased members will be listed in "In Memoriam" after the Guild is notified of their passing. CineMontage_Jul-Aug_14-4.indd 53 6/18/14 5:56 PM

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