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70 CINEMONTAGE / Q1 2016 PASSAGES including To Be a Lady (1934), the first film Dad edited; When Knights Were Bold (1936) and Victoria the Great (1937). In 1940, my dad returned to Hollywood and began working as a features editor at RKO Studios on films produced by Herbert Wilcox, including Irene (1940) and Sunny (1941). When the US entered World War II, he was commissioned as a civilian producer and Director in the Signal Corps and US Air Corps in New Jersey and Ohio, and was later transferred back to Hollywood to work on propaganda films for Colonel Frank Capra, including the Why We Fight series (1943-45). From 1947 to 1949, my father resumed his career as an editor at RKO Studios. But by 1950, he became fascinated with the new medium of television and soon began producing and directing projects, including early series, variety shows and commercials — one of which, for Regal Pale Beer, earned him an Emmy Award nomination. After winning the Oscar for High Noon in 1953, Dad, along with his wife Lorraine (my mother), produced, directed, photographed and edited the Academy Award- nominated documentary The Cowboy (1954). That film so impressed Walt Disney, that he invited my father to edit and direct the underwater sequences for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Editing. In 1960, my dad joined Darryl F. Zanuck Productions as a second unit director and then became associate producer and coordinator of the battle sequences on The Longest Day (1962). He was next appointed managing director of European production for 20th Century-Fox, where his first assignment was the completion and re-editing of Cleopatra (1963). In that position, he also served as executive producer of such films as Zorba the Greek (1964), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) and The Blue Max (1966). In the late 1960s, he returned to 20th Century-Fox in Hollywood to produce the Oscar-nominated Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), and then was appointed worldwide head of production for 20th Century-Fox, overseeing production of such films as Patton (1970), Panic in Needle Park (1971) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972). When he finally decided to retire, he moved to Brookings, Oregon, but he did not stop creating or making films, or in this case, videos. He filmed and edited the services from his church and convinced the local TV station to air them later the same day for those who could not attend. He also restored an entire local park, built a kids playground, established walkways for the handicapped in the park, and finally built a memorial chapel for my mother that is being used for weddings, concerts and meditation groups. During all these projects, he kept filming the progress and then he edited it into films complete with narration and music. These are being kept by the city as a historical record of the projects and the town's involvement. This was when he was in his 90s! I had the privilege to assist Dad on a few of the films we did together when he was re-editing sections of some of the films. He was a very messy editor. Sound and picture trims were all over the bins. He would lose his grease pencil all the time. He used paper clips to join the cuts together until I could splice them for him. But his complete focus and utter sense of rhythm was hypnotic. It was almost like a dance was being performed between the film, the Moviola and my dad to capture the exact rhythm of the scene he was trying to cut. I loved watching this process and felt privileged to be able to experience this. But all of you can do that by watching his films, especially High Noon! He is still with you. He loved your craft and considered it the ultimate form of movie art. Stacy Williams Editor's Note: Elmo Williams wrote a brief memoir in CineMontage May-June 2012, the issue commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Editors Guild, when he was 99 years old. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 68 Elmo Williams in 1953 with his Oscar for editing High Noon.