Hollywood comes to Storm Lake 

Hollywood celebrates its biggest night of the year next month when the Academy Awards honor the best films and filmmakers of the year.  As with everything else in the world, there’s a Storm Lake connection. Native son Winton Hoch won the award three times for his cinematography, including some of the biggest pictures in Hollywood history.  Hoch, who was born in Storm Lake in 1905, received Oscars for “The Quiet Man,” “She Wore A Yellow Ribbon” and “Joan of Arc.” He also received a special award from the Motion Picture Academy for technological achievement. Other big pictures he shot were “The Searchers,” “Mister Roberts,” “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” and “The Green Berets.” He shot 66 films in addition to many television episodes.  After high school in Storm Lake, Hoch moved to Los Angeles in 1924 and studied chemistry at California Institute of Technology. His scientific work in the Technicolor lab made him an expert in the new field of color movies, and after working as a color consultant to filmmakers, he went behind the camera himself in 1936 and never shot a movie in black and white. Top directors like John Ford sought Winnie, as he was known in Hollywood, for his eye in composition and color. He was elected President of the American Society of Cinematographers in 1979.  THEN THERE’S Gene Hackman. Although he doesn’t acknowledge it in his biography, Hackman lived in Storm Lake for a year in 1945 and was pictured as a sophomore in Hi-Breeze, the Storm Lake High School yearbook. He moved here from Danville, Ill., with his mother after she was divorced from his father. I don’t know why the Hackmans came to Storm Lake, maybe they had relatives here. The Hackmans lived on Otsego Street near Sunset Park. Hackman dropped out of high school here at age 16 and enlisted in the Marines. Eventually he ended up in California and began acting.  For 40 years in the late 20th century, Hackman developed into one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Hackman won Oscars for his lead role in “The French Connection” and his supporting role in Clint Eastwood’s “The Unforgiven.” He was nominated for three other Oscars. He’s retired at age 91 in San Bernardino, Calif.  OTHER NOTABLE entertainers with Storm Lake connections include Ann-Margret, who served as Grand Marshal of the Star Spangled Spectacular after starring in  the 1983 TV movie “Who Will Love My Children?”. It was based on the life of Lucille Fray, an Iowa woman who sought homes for her 10 children as she was dying of cancer. One of the children was the late Joann Samsel, who was raised by Dick and Cleta Thomas of Storm Lake. Joann was portrayed in the movie.  Ann-Margret, who is 79 years old, was nominated for two Academy Awards during her six decade movie career. She was also a noted singer and was nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist in 1962.  Comedian Jack Benny performed at Storm Lake early in his career in the 1930s, joking 30 years later about Storm Lake in a skit with Bob Hope on Benny’s CBS television show. Benny played in the old Princess Theatre on West Fifth Street, in a building now owned by Central Bank. Trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong and band leader Lawrence Welk entertained at the Cobblestone Ballroom. Armstrong played here in his prime. Welk, a North Dakotan, played here frequently in the days before he became big and had his own highly-rated weekly TV show on ABC. Reruns continue Saturday nights on PBS.  Younger people today probably have no idea who Jack Benny, Louis Armstrong and Lawrence Welk were, but they were huge stars in the 20th century. Their memories are left to people like me living in history. John Cullen is the founder and retired publisher of The Storm Lake Times. He can be reached at news@stormlake.com.