From the Actor
John Jay Considered the grand-daddy of the modern ski-film road show, John Jay was a Rhodes Scholar whose prolific output and inveterate showmanship were the inspirations to an entire generation of newly minted skiers. His books and magazine articles aside, Jay’s annual ski filmsâ€"featuring his trademarked brand of wittily inspired commentaryâ€"have played to tens of thousands of alpine enthusiasts. John Jay died in 2000, four days before his 85th birthday.
Otto Lang Entrepreneur, ski instructor to the stars, Academy Award®-nominated documentarian: Otto Lang ranks among the greats of ski-film production. Opening America’s first ski school in the mid-1930s, Lang was invited to head the Sun Valley (Idaho) Ski School, offering instruction to the likes of Gary Cooper, Groucho Marx, and Twentieth Century-Fox studio head, Darryl Zanuck. At Zanuck’s invitation, Lang embarked on an illustrious Hollywood career as producer/director. Otto Lang resides in Seattle.
Dick Barrymore He took a short vacation from the Los Angeles Fire Department to make a documentary film about skiing. Thirty years and thousands of feet of film later, Dick Barrymore enjoys a global reputation as an itinerant artist whose motion pictures highlight every aspect of the sheer joy of skiing, from innovations in early equipment to the thrill of adventure and competition. Hanging up his camera in 1990, he decisively retired from ski-filmmaking while at the top of his game. Dick Barrymore resides in a thatched-roof bungalow at the sourthern tip of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula
Product Description
9 classic ski films. 3 legendary filmmakers. 1 distinctive collection.
From the TOPICS ENTERTAINMENT video vault, comes CLASSIC SKI FILMS, the 1st title in the new series aptly named, "Films of Distinction - Treasures of the American Cinema". Classic Ski Films relives the Golden Age of Alpine Skiingâ€"from 1940s Hollywood coming to Sun Valley, Idaho for lessons, to the birth of hotdogging in 1970s Aspenâ€"with Classic Ski Films on DVD. Whether it was the first WWII training film for U.S. mountain troops, or the pageantry and power of the 1960 Winter Olympics, three extraordinary pioneering filmmakers captured it through the lens of history.
* The Films of Distinction line is an exclusive archival video series bringing the work of pioneering producers and filmmakers to the attention of today’s discerning audiences. Look for other DVD boxed sets in the Films of Distinction library, available from TOPICS Entertainment®.
