Marvin Ginsburg (February 20, 1924 – March 25, 2005), known professionally as Greg Garrison, was an American

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

and director in television.

Career

While he was a 17-year-old student at Northwestern University, Garrison worked as a copy boy in a Chicago radio station's news department. His education and that job were interrupted by World War II. After the war, he became a director in Philadelphia. A career move took him from there to Chicago, where he created series, including ''

Stand By for Crime ''Stand By for Crime'' is an American television police drama that aired on ABC on Saturday nights from January 11 to August 27, 1949. The series stars veteran newsman Mike Wallace under his real name, Myron Wallace. The series is notable for bei ...

.'' Garrison started his television career by accident at the age of 22. Among his first productions were '' The Kate Smith Show'' ( CBS, 1950) and '' Your Show of Shows''. He went on to produce and direct many television specials with

Gene Kelly Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996) was an American actor, dancer, singer, filmmaker, and choreographer. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style and sought to create a new form of American dance accessibl ...

, Fred Astaire, Donald O'Connor and many others. Garrison directed the feature films Hey, Let's Twist! (1961), and

Two Tickets to Paris ''Two Tickets to Paris'' is a 1962 film directed by Greg Garrison and starring Joey Dee and the Starliters. Plot An engaged couple, Joey and Piper, travel to Paris where Joey has a gig performing. Cast *Joey Dee as Joey Dee *Gary Crosby (actor), ...

(1962). He was probably best known for producing and directing '' The Dean Martin Show'', The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts, hour-long comedy specials with Dom DeLuise, and summer shows with Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, Jonathan Winters, The Golddiggers, and Marty Feldman. He also directed one of television's landmark 1960 presidential debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Garrison also produced the highly successful The first Fifty Years, a celebration of NBC Television being on the air for fifty years. Garrison directed nearly 4,000 shows in his career. He received more than a dozen

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

nominations, although he never won.

Later years

In his later years, Garrison supervised for Guthy-Renker the digital remastering of ''The Dean Martin Show'' and celebrity roasts for release on DVD. The marketing of these included an entertaining infomercial with clips of an interview of Garrison by host Regis Philbin about his memories of producing/directing the Martin show. A close friend of Orson Welles, he was the executor of his estate following Welles' death in 1985.

Death

Garrison died from pneumonia at his home in Thousand Oaks, California, on March 25, 2005, at the age of 81.

References

External links

*
Obituary
by Mark Evanier with anecdotes about Garrison's technique to produce The Dean Martin Show
Further Dean Martin Show and Garrison anecdotes by Evanier
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garrison, Greg 1924 births 2005 deaths American television directors American television producers Deaths from pneumonia in California