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| Name |
Parvin Lee Strosnider |
| Gender |
Male |
| Notes |
- "I was born on a farm in Indiana during the depression. I went to a 'little red schoolhouse' with eight grades in that room. My father ran a small country store on my grandfather's farm. We were poor, but we did not go hungry, thanks to the farm.
When I was about ten, my father lost his store and my baby sister died before she was a year old. My father had a nervous breakdown and my mother, who had retired when I was born, returned to teaching to make ends meet. I was a happy child and was not old enough to realize what my parents were going through. I accepted the fact that there were things I couldn't have because all my friends were in the same situation. I had more than some who had to come to school in raged clothes and sometimes without shoes.
The depression was ending and my father was recovering. One of the few luxuries we had was going to the movies; not often, but enough to reinforce my desire to be a part of them.
Since I can first remember, I have wanted to work
in motion pictures. For a poor farm boy in the depression, it was a far cry to think of going to California and becoming part of the movie business. By the time I was out of high school the depression had ended, my father was working, and they could afford to send me to college.
I spent two years at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana studying theatre and radio. I did a lot of stage work during this time. Terre Haute had eight active stages and I worked them all. I learned a great deal which I could later apply to motion picture work.
I came to California in 1951 to study film at UCLA. My father paid my $50 tuition each semester. I earned
a little money taking photographs of actors and doing some
commercial photography.
I had learned photography while in high school. I worked at the Post Office on my first Christmas vacation and earned enough money to buy a professional camera. I also became photographer for the theatre department at UCLA, and photographed all their plays.
I also worked on some little theatre stage shows in
Hollywood. With my training and experience in Terre
Haute, I knew my way around a stage. I could do lighting,
sound, and stagecraft.
Two of my friends at UCLA were Carol Burnett and James Dean. Carol lived just a couple blocks from me and was as poor as I; Jimmy was little better.
[In the 1950s,] I worked on my first film. It was an educational film made by a teacher and some students from UCLA. . . . My next job involved making promotional
films for a company in Atlanta, Georgia. I traveled all over the country and made industrial and promotional films. I learned the basics of film making: I wrote, directed, photographed and organized the films with one assistant. It taught me a lot about organization. I worked there for about three years.
I returned to Hollywood in 1956 just as low, low budget, independent films were getting started. . . . The main money I made during this period was from that [genre]. My still photography business was very lean. . . . I returned to Atlanta to do a couple more films there. . . .
One day in 1962 a group of people asked me to record sound on their picture. . . . I had no film sound experience, but had worked in radio in Indiana and knew the basic principles. Word was getting around that I was a non-union
sound man and calls started coming in. Independent pictures were getting better; we were learning our craft. I liked recording sound, because it was possible to get better sound than it was to get good photography with the conditions under which we had to work.
In 1965, I also worked on several of the Disney short animal and nature films which were so popular at the time. It was quite an experience, as we were working with loggers in quite rugged country and a quite temperamental cougar. The people in the area were quite friendly and I enjoyed the experience, though it was one of my most physically difficult shoots.
Producing my own pictures was a goal; I started buying equipment to that end. Friends started renting
my film gear. This escalated until I rented a second apartment for the equipment and I hired my friends to help out when I was working on a film. I added a transfer service and soon had four people working full time and was renting and selling equipment to many of young independent film makers.
As soon as I was supporting myself with film work, I stopped doing commercial still photography and did
photography for pleasure. I took two seminars with Ansel
Adams, which greatly improved my work. I have benefited
from his influence to this day. . . .
A Disney animator, head of the motion picture department at an art institute, asked me to teach a production class on Saturdays, when I was not working. This was a satisfying experience and soon the word got around; UCLA asked me to teach a night class. [Later, I taught] film classes at USC, Art Center, and City College. [For three years, I made] films for a company that manufactured computer systems for the military, primarily the Navy.
My father had died in September, 1956 and in August, 1968, my mother passed away. It was a heavy loss. She had been spending the winters with me in California. We were closer than we had been for some years.
I inherited the farm. I still have it today and enjoy spending a couple months a year there. I have friends from school who still live in the area and we get together often. While I was working, it was good to get back there for a rest. It is a totally different life from the one I live here. 'It brings out the farm in the boy.'
[Over the next decade,] the independent film business
was growing rapidly. In 1972 I made a series of promotional
films for the Delta Queen, a steamboat, on the Mississippi. I spent a lot of time on the boat traveling on the Mississippi over three years.
My business was growing faster than I could keep
up with it; in 1977 we moved to larger facilities. In 1979 I was taken into the union and things opened up for me. I worked at Disney Paramount, Fox and Universal, but it was at the The Burbank Studios that I found a home. I worked for Warners, and Columbia for a number of years.
I also had the pleasure of working with some fine actors during this time. Notable were Jimmy Stewart, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Jayne Mansfield, Henry Fonda, Jack Lemon, Ron Howard, George Burns, Joan Baez, and Lucile Ball.
In 1980, I had become so busy with film work that I sold most of my film rental company. I kept some of the equipment, which I rented out of my house, mainly to old customers who were my friends. I still have some equipment which I rent to the Cinema Verite field; we were suddenly doing a lot of walking around with hand held equipment.
I worked for on political films for Pat Brown, Ronald Reagan, Bobby Kennedy, George McGovern, Norton Simon, Alan Cranston and the like. . . . Things seem to have raced along until I retired in 1989.
I had a long a varied career and enjoyed every minute of it. I didn't realize at the time how much fun I was having. I miss working very much but wouldn't be able to handle it physically now. I have been fortunate to have had many treasured friendships over the years. I am happy so many still exist. I wish I could start and do it all over again."
Edited by Roy Richard Thomas October 2010
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| Person ID |
I35797 |
Complete |
| Last Modified |
31 Oct 2010 |
| Father |
Orin Strosnider, b. 1 Nov 1888, Owensburg, Greene, IN  , d. 14 Sep 1956, Cameron Hospital, Angola, Steuben, IN (Age 67 years) |
| Mother |
Lelia Payne, b. Jan 1897, Indiana, USA , d. 28 Aug 1968, Clay County Hospital, Brazil, Clay, Indiana, USA (Age ~ 71 years) |
| Family ID |
F18041906 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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