Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1436283
It was a great pleasure to read the article "To Boldly Go Where No Sound Editors Have Gone Before" by my former student, Eric Marks MPSE, interviewing another student, Tim Farrell, who is the sound designer on Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard, along with supervising sound editor Matthew Taylor. It was a pleasure not only because I see student success, but also because, as most of my friends know, I am a huge Trekkie. I was the right age to start watching the original series when it went into syndication, and I never stopped. The only thing lacking in Eric's article (co-written by his father Neil) was a shout-out to the man who started it all. Doug Grindstaff: Where It All Began 30 I m ps e . o rg BY DAVID BONDELEVITCH MPSE Douglas Howard Grindstaff was born on April 6, 1931, and grew up in Los Angeles, the youngest of five sons of Forrest and Edna (Hill) Grindstaff. His father was a printer and his mother a switchboard operator. As a child, his brother bought him a radio toy that made sounds. Grindstaff attended the California Institute of the Arts and served in combat as an Army sergeant in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. (His first night on duty, the temperature dropped to -30 degrees Fahrenheit, not including wind chill.) After serving, he found work as a film editor's apprentice through his brother Charles, who was an associate of Howard Hughes, then an owner of RKO Pictures. He worked his way up the ladder from apprentice to sound editor and landed a job at the Goldwyn Studios, the launching pad for his stint with Star Trek. After finishing his work with the series, he completed his degree at the California Institute of the Arts in 1975. Grindstaff went on to serve as President of the MPSE and won a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998. Grindstaff's careers spanned five decades. His credits include work on Mannix and Mission: Impossible, both for Desilu, the studio formed by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and the original producer of Star Trek. Grindstaff also did Foley in high heels for Lucy on her show. He later worked on The Odd Couple, The Brady Bunch, Knots Landing, Falcon Crest, Dallas, and Fantasy Island. Over the course of his career, Grindstaff earned 14 Emmy nominations, including one for his work on Star Trek. The Star Trek nomination was for "Space Seed," the episode which introduced Ricardo Montalbán's character of Khan Noonien Singh, who was later brought back for the feature Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Grindstaff won the Emmy Award five times; in 1970 for his work on The Immortal, in 1976 for Medical Story, in 1978 for Police Story, in 1980 for Power, and in 1987 for Max Headroom.