Page 58 - Flathead Beacon // 1.15.13

58 | JANUARY 15, 2014 SPORTS
FLATHEADBEACON.COM

LURCHING FROM ONE
THANKS FOR LISTENING!!!
NEAR DISASTER TO ANOTHER. Warren Miller
Don Brolin

#1 STATION WEEKENDS

O
N A QUIET STREET IN cozy. But it was a lot better than a crowd-
Boulder, Colo., Don Brolin was ed employee dormitory.
VOICE OF THE GRIZ-BRONCOS-WILDCATS
resting quietly in his afternoon When Don showed me his photos
nap. Don was watched over by his wife of the Sugar Bowl and some of his press
Colleen and her sister, a registered nurse releases I started thinking about hiring
from a small town near Duluth, Minn.
him to do the same thing for my compa-
Don and I had worked together for 35 ny. But he had never held a movie camera
years. He captured on ilm many of the in his hand before.
memorable sequences in my movies.
In late April after the Sugar Bowl

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We worked side by side occasionally, closed for the season, Don showed up in
and one of those times was in New Zea- my Redondo Beach second loor oice.
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land on the Jean Claude Killy TV series.
He was wearing a neatly pressed suit,
We got to spend a full day skiing on an white shirt, a necktie and a vest. He was
active volcano that was blowing up every set to enter the motion picture business
day between 3:30 and 4 p.m. It was nice with me.
to work with another cameraman who This was the start of a lifelong friend-
would put his life on the line to get the ship.

shots of skiing down the side of a very ac- Last summer, when Don and Colleen
tive volcano.
returned from their annual cruise, Col-
Don was always there suggesting a leen said, “Don, your dark tan from all of
better camera angle or a diferent thing this sun looks kind of yellow. I think we
to have the skiers do. Don was not a big should see a doctor!”
man physically, but he always did big He did in August. And the diagnosis
things with a camera in his hands.
came back. He had cancer of the liver and

He mastered the operation of the wasn’t expected to live much longer.
temperamental Mitchell Hi-Speed cam- When Don called and told me the bad
era. It ran for Don at a thousand frames news, I shed a lot of tears because he was
per second and allowed him to get a lot a close friend and we had shared 35 years
of never-before-seen shots of thorough- working together.
bred horses racing at Hollywood Park in I then went up into my garage full of
California.
stuf and located my 16mm Bolex movie
Don was deinitely a man for all sea- camera that I had been saving. Don used

sons with his camera and he ilmed a a Bolex to get all of his great sequences
half-dozen sailing ilms in the 1970s. On until we could aford to buy couple of py Hour
two separate occasions Don and his wife used Arrilexes.
Hap
Colleen sailed from Redondo Beach, Ca- I shipped that Bolex to him along
lif. to Honolulu and back.
with a note and few rolls of ilm. The note Pints and
That is a long way to sail in a 26-foot read: “Hey Don! Over the years I have
boat that was built in 1966. Don and Col- sent you on assignments all over the ers
leen still have that boat tied up in a slip in Appetiz
world, but you are on your own on this
Redondo Beach and every summer they new one. I don’t think anyone has ever
desert Boulder for a month to go cruising sent any pictures back from where you 5pm
to the Channel Islands and around Cata- are going, but I know if anyone can, you from 3-
lina.
will be able to do it.”
every day!
I irst met Don Brolin when he was With the days now getting longer,
doing the public relations for the Sugar Don will have more time to run that Bo-
Bowl. That was in 1964 and he was living lex. I know Don will send me back some

in his own “private room” in the lodge. great never-before-seen images.
He had built a wall around the empty As soon as I get them edited and write
space under a stair well. It was cramped the script I will share them with you.
but private. Some people might call it