Pbs Pioneer Celebrates a Half Century of Ground-Breaking Television
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24 | Lexington’s Colonial Times Magazine JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2009 The Well-Built Life of Russ Morash PBS PIONEER CELEBRATES A HALF CENTURY OF GROUND-BREAKING TELEVISION He and his twin brother both attended Junior and playground—the door prize was a brand new television! It was In the early hours of 1961 a fire swept through Senior High School at Muzzey on Mass. Avenue. “We A the first TV I think I had ever seen and that was about 1949, 1950. the old WGBH studios in Cambridge and completely graduated in 1953 having been involved in glee club, So, I was in on the dawn of television!” destroyed the facility. “You could say we had burned drama club, football, cross-country—anything but Little did he know that just thirteen years later he would be down our station,” Morash says. “We all smoked in academics. In those days they cared more about the directing one of the most popular shows for WGBH—The French those days and the top floor of that building was an non-academics than they did about the academics,” Chef, hosted by cookbook author Julia Child. old oak-floored roller skating rink. It was good for he says. He spent a year at Tufts and then transferred Julia, Julia rolling cameras around, but it burned.” over to Boston University where he settled into the With the studios destroyed, the station theater program and studied hard for what he thought relocated to the Catholic Television Center and would be a career on Broadway. B other locations scattered around the city. Morash At BU, Morash was mentored by noted Broadway became a specialist in setting up at remote locations theater director Alan Schneider. “I graduated with a and working out of their huge remote unit which major in directing and acting,” Morash says. “Alan was a 1958 Trailways bus that had been outfitted as was a presence on Broadway and he’d offered me a job a control center and had “seven million miles on it as an assistant stage manager on a Beckett production when we got it,” Morash says wryly. that he was working on. The pay was $35.00 per “At the time someone was working on a show week.” called I’ve Been Reading,” Morash explains. The Serendipity show was a book review show that was hosted by Out of the blue, and on Boston College professor P. Albert Duhamel. Ms. the very same day, Morash E Child was scheduled to appear on the show to talk received that call that would about her new book Mastering the Art of French change the course of his life. Cooking. Russell Morash in The New Yankee Workshop “I had written WGBH a letter “So a call came in to the office and I picked By Laurie Atwater and Jim Shaw saying that I was now ready it up,” Morash begins his story. “It sounded like An aspiring actor and director, Russell Morash was to join the world of television,” someone who was a two-pack-a-day smoker headed for the bright lights of Broadway after he graduated Morash explains with a laugh. “I filtered through Tallulah Bankhead,” he laughs and from Boston University in the late fifties when a call came had no business writing that letter. I continues, “This was no mere mortal.” He describes in from a little-known television station in Boston. For this knew nothing about TV!” Someone the conversation with this very patrician sounding Lexington man, the choice proved to be life altering. at WGBH received the letter and cook who made a strange request for her segment on “I keep thinking of my life as a series of intersections offered him a job. “TV stations the book show. “She said, ‘I will require a hot plate,’ where I was at the right place at the right time.” Morash don’t respond to aspirants,” Morash “ Morash says with a hint of Julia’s signature trill. states.” says, “it never happens!” “So I told her that I would pass her request along There have been so many intersections in Morash’s life But it did happen and Morash to the producer.” Morash obviously remembers the that we might question serendipity and think perhaps that it was was subsequently offered a job call with fondness and says that Julia “got her hot the convergence of temperament, talent and moxie that placed in the relatively new field of public plate and brought her own omelet pan and eggs and Morash in the “right place” and set him on the path that would television. “The guy who hired me was infatuated with the D she made the guy an omelet on the air.” The book become his highly successful career. Morash would dismiss theater,” Morash says. At the time GBH was loaded down with review show got such a positive response that the this idea out of hand, no doubt, but his heightened ability to people who had graduated from more technical communications station decided to fund a three-show pilot featuring take notice of the moment, his intellectual curiosity, work ethic programs according to Morash. “They knew nothing about, Julia and her French cooking. Morash was chosen and great instincts converged with his ability to execute, and dealing with actors, talent, speech and movement—any of the to direct—not because of his great knowledge of that combination has consistently characterized his rise and things I thought I knew something about.” food, or his understanding of French, but because lead him to make a profound impact on television. Morash was hired as a cameraman which he considers he was one of the few that could operate the mobile Take for instance the unique marriage of theatricality and a lucky break. “As a budding television director—to learn unit! Yankee practicality—these qualities so paired in young Russell through the lens was great.” Morash recalls buying himself a “The rest is history,” Morash says. And fifty Morash made him uniquely suited to survive the rough and Leica camera and he began experimenting with composition. C years later The French Chef, now considered a Crockett’s Victory Garden was the second wildly successful Morash show. Top photo, the tumble world of early television and to recognize the enormous “My first practice was taking pictures with that camera. I really classic in the genre, is revered and continues to be Victory Garden with it’s “Main Street” paved path used to roll the large cameras used to opportunity that it offered. Who better to lead the way through became excited about the technical side of the business.” The Julia years. Clockwise from top: watched by many. “It’s really a miracle that any film the show. Above left, the original host of the show, James Underwood Crockett shown this great adventure than a guy whose ingenuity and creative Truth be told, Morash had more than a casual relationship The popularity of The French Chef with of that is considered good enough to watch,” he on the cover of his successful gardening book. Right, Chef Marian’s Marian Morash) well- vision allowed him to overcome the enormous financial and with television! His hands-on relationship with the box that Julia Child, directed by Russell Morash, says—a miracle because the process that created loved vegetable cookbook. technical barriers that were always part of the mix to “get it transformed America began as a young man in Lexington made Child an instant celebrity. 1. She The French Chef was a product of Morash’s done.” where he spent years lugging the heavy sets for Peter’s Music graces the cover of Time magazine in “make-do TV.” They had no studio so they found Still, it’s difficult to get this modest gentleman to take (which was on Mass. Ave. where Not Your Average Joe’s is 1966. 2. Julia in the kitchen. 3. Julia with a temporary kitchen in the Boston Gas Company were wonderful guest hosts for the show,” Morash kind of power and it was called ground mismatch,” any credit for his personal contribution to television. With over located today). Peter’s was a record shop, but they were also her director Russell Morash. 4. Julia auditorium. It had been set up to promote the use says. “What’s funny is their kitchen was set up to Morash says. “Every time you touched the stove you forty years at WGBH and nine directing Emmys to his credit, doing a brisk business in TV sets and television repairs. Young showing her characteristic humor with of gas cooking. “We used it for two days to make do electric cooking which Julia came to hate as would get a nasty little tingle, but that’s how the he’s still just a thrifty Lexingtonian with a great story to tell. Morash drove the truck out to the homes of Lexingtonians to her fabulous pegboard of culinary tools in the pilots.” The show later moved to the Cambridge most serious cooks do, but she soldiered on.” show was made! We had to tough it out. “Morash Recently he and his wife and sometime business partner Marian pick up broken sets in need of repair. “TV was a very big deal the background. 5. Julia, photographed Electric Company which also had a kitchen set- In fact Julia endured long hours and even lights up when he talks about Julia. “She was so welcomed us into his home to talk about his long career. in those days,” he says. He recalls the first television he ever by her husband Paul Child showing her up designed to create demonstrations to promote electrical shocks while they were making the great.