2008 MPSE Career Achievement Award Recipient
Bill Wistrom
As a young man in Santa Monica in the early 1950's, Bill was already in love... with movies and filmmaking. In late 1953 he got his chance -- starting in the mailroom at Paramount Studios. In 1954 a position in film shipping opened up and Bill transferred. It was during the slow times in shipping that he was able to observe picture editors at work. Soon he was apprenticing with Bob Swink on The Desperate Hours and Anna Bauchens on Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments.
In 1955 a paying gig as a sound editing apprentice opened up and Bill was accepted. One of his earliest jobs was continuing his post production experience on The Ten Commandments with the sound editing team of Tom Middleton and Howard Beals.
Few sound editors today could imagine working on an early Foley session like Bill did; standing with several other sound editors, grips and construction workers on Paramount's western street -- directed by Mr. DeMille himself. The filmmaker had the small army of people chopping hay, pounding mud and lifting heavy objects to create the soundtrack of the enslaved Israelites building the Egyptian pyramids and monuments. They worked at night to reduce the amount of traffic noise since this was being shot outside in the middle of Hollywood instead of in a recording studio. Being new, Bill at first thought that the famed director was just another guy yelling at people. But what he admired was that Mr. DeMille really cared about getting the sound right.
During this time, in February 1955, Bill became a card-carrying member of the Motion Picture Film Editors (now MPEG). As part of the studio’s sound staff he worked on a number of features, one after the other, gaining valuable experience.
In 1959 a new medium came calling: Television. Many feature sound editors were not interested in working for "that little screen," but Bill saw the opportunity and for the next 14 years supervised and edited on "Bonanza." In 1967 he took on the additional responsibility of Post Production Coordinator on "High Chaparral." These shows eventually ended and Bill "moved" to Walton Mountain, editing that landmark series with Vic Guarnier.
During a summer hiatus Bill had the great pleasure of supervising Sam Peckinpah’s classic Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid at MGM with Milton Burrow. Returning to "The Waltons," Bill stayed on at Lorimar working on several TV shows and Movies of the Week.
In 1975 Bill returned to MGM with Milt Burrow to supervise John Milius' epic The Wind and the Lion.
Later that year Bill was approached by Glen Glenn Sound’s Rick Larson, Emery Cohen, Rom Kobayashi, and Joe Kelly. They were setting up the first all-electronic sound editing system (the PAP system) and wanted Bill's wide experience to enhance the project. Bill and his team put the system to work in late 1975 on the TV shows "Kojack," "Columbo," and "Westside Medical;" features The Muppet Movie, Raise the Titanic, Borderline, and Movie Movie; and movies of the week “Raid on Entebbe” and "Friendly Fire" -- the first electronically edited show to win the sound Emmy.
While still working on various MOWs and the series "Falcon Crest," Bill returned to Paramount to do temp dubs on the feature films Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
His next step was to help pioneer an all-digital sound editorial system at Glen Glenn. In 1984 he, Jim Wolvington, and Bill Thiederman supervised Chris Cain's Where the River Runs Black, the first all digital sound job. To this day, Dolby Labs still uses it to demonstrate its first stereo optical track taken from a digital source.
Once again, Paramount re-entered Bill's life. In 1987 "Star Trek: The Next Generation" producer Peter Lauritson asked Bill and Jim Wolvington to create the sonic world for the new version of Gene Rodenberry's visionary masterpiece. This became a long-term gig, as Bill continued his Trek tour through "Deep Space Nine," "Voyager," and "Enterprise." At the end of the fourth and final season of "Enterprise," Bill decided the time was right to retire -- after 50 years in the sound trade.
Bill stays extremely active in the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Motion Picture Sound Editors, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. As much as he is enjoying retirement, his heart will always be with all the great friends and collaborators he had the privilege to work and create with. They share this honor with him.
