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« Previous Story | The Industry Report Home Page | Next Story » Author, Film Maker, Ski Pioneer Otto Lang Dead At 98By J.D. O'Connor He was 98. The Bosnian-born, Austrian-schooled ski master was brought to the United States in 1935 in an early effort to bring the latest downhill skiing skills to an unruly, woefully under-skilled American skiing public. Watching an annual ski race held on the flanks of Mt. Rainier in 1936, Lang quickly realized how badly America needed him. "I tell you, it was like something I'd never seen," Mr. Lang told the Seattle Times in 2003. "People flying through the air, crossing their skis, falling, somersaulting. It was just unbelievable the mayhem and danger - twisted knees and ankles and everything. So I said, well, this is a place they need a ski school very badly!" That year he opened the ski school at Mount Rainier, adding two more at Mount Baker and Mount Hood the year after. His graceful style and demanding approach to the sport was instilled in countless Americans. Former Olympic skier and fellow Washingtonian Franz Gabl called him a "true pioneer" and credited Lang with bringing skiing to the Northwest. In 1939, after nearly getting caught in Paris as the Nazis swept across Europe, Lang made his way back to America and took a job running the ski school at Sun Valley, Idaho. While there, he struck up a friendship with Darryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox, and found himself in charge of the skiing sequences for the movie "Sun Valley Serenade" with skating sensation Sonja Henie. Proving equally adept in the movie studio, Lang eventually produced several Fox movies, including "Call Northside 777," with Jimmy Stewart; "Five Fingers," a 1952 spy film nominated for an Oscar; and the Cinerama film, "Search for Paradise." In the 1950s and '60s, he directed episodes in a number of TV shows, including "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "Daktari" and "Cheyenne." Returning to the Northwest in 1987 he wrote a memoir, "Bird of Passage," and later published a collection of photographs from his travels, "Around the World in 90 Years." Skiing remained his passion. He told a Seattle Times reporter last year: "I know it is a broad statement, but it is true: Skiing is responsible for everything in my life. It connected everything." « Previous Story | The Industry Report Home Page | Next Story » |
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