For all of you who enjoy watching golf today, you may not know it but in the late 50's and early 60's a CBS producer called Frank Chirkinien revolutionized viewing golf on TV. During his career he produced 38 Masters telecasts and he will also be remembered for being the man who introduced cameras on blimps to cover college football, and the producer of the first televised Winter Olympic Games in 1960.
Dave Skretta of AP says,Chirkinian introduced high-angle cameras and new angles, put roving reporters on the grounds, and made sure to capture the unique blend of sounds, the club hitting the ball, the ball falling into the cup ,that came to define modern golf coverage. He even changed the way scores were delivered, according to par rather than by total.
In February, Chirkinian was selected for induction to the World Golf Hall of Fame in the lifetime achievement category. He will be inducted posthumously on May 9th
Ben Wright was one the voices of the Masters, taking over in the tower at 16 vacated by the British legend Henry Longhurst who Chirkinian hired and loved as a broadcaster for many things including his dearth of words..Frank believed in letting the picture do the talking.
I first listened to Ben broadcasting back in the mid 60's when he walked with the players during the Piccadilly World Matchplay at Wentworth and those were in the days when Arnie and Jack and Lee etal were in the field. I met him and we became friends in the mid 80's when he came up here to be a guest commentator at the Canadian Open at Glen Abbey, and we have stayed in touch since..
Today I asked my friend Ben who has been a regular with me during the past 15 years on the Fairways Golf show to say a few words about his friend and golf partner Frank.. here it is,,
Bryan. Ben you and Frank are best of friends... How did that start ??
Frank became my greatest friend, but our relationship started anything but promisingly. I was appointed to the CBS TV team over his head by Bill McPhail, then president of CBS TV Sports, for the US. Matchplay Championship, sponsored by Liggett and Myers at the Country Club of North Carolina in August 1972. Apart from the time we were on air Frank hardly spoke to me that week. "The Ayatollah", as Frank was known by all and sundry, was ticked off about the appointment, which infringed on his authority. Worse was to come, however.
I returned to the US. for the first tournament of 1973, the Los Angeles Open, and had a nightmare journey. I left a New Year's Eve party in Cornwall in the early hours of the 1st of January and drove for eight hours to London's Heathrow airport. Alas, my over the Pole flight was delayed eight more hours, and I arrived at my hotel in LA at about 4am., to be told that rehearsal was at 10am. My Asian taxi driver spoke little English, and had never heard of Riviera Country Club. I arrived very late for that rehearsal, whereupon my associate producer Chuck Will told me to run to my tower at the par three 16th hole as quickly as I could manage.
Of course this involved running to the far end of the golf course, and I flopped into my seat quite breathless. Frank said, as soon as I had put on my headset: "Roll tape, now that the Limey bastard has condescended to join us". That tape involved a much speeded up record of my epic run!
I tried to explain the problems I had endured to get to LA, only to be told that I should have started out earlier from the UK. Frank would brook no excuse for tardiness, nor did he ever tolerate it throughout my 27 years of working for him - no matter who was the culprit. He then started the rehearsal by throwing me into the fray as the leader that Friday morning, Bruce Devlin, stepped to the 16th tee.
Poor Bruce hit his tee shot into the right hand bunker, skittered his second across the small green into the left hand bunker, and walked off with a triple bogey six to surrender a two stroke lead, and recede into the pack. "Now it is a new ball game", I said, whereupon Frank asked icily where I had picked up that expression.
"I picked it up from you guys", I replied. "You picked it up from us guys, did you? Well let me tell you something. You have been hired to talk like an Englishman. Now an Englishman talks with a plum in his mouth, and few people here understand a f...... word he says. But Limeys are supposed to be golf experts.One last word of advice to you Wright. If I ever understand another f...... word you say, you're fired!"
I was so upset that I asked to borrow my cameraman's Sky Guide, and called British Airways. But there were no First Class seats available that evening for London. So I stayed with Frank for 27 years! After the tournament finished he commended me for my work during the weekend, and the ice was broken. For the next 27 years Frank stood by me through thick and thin, and we became fast friends.
But Frank was just as loyal to all the CBS crew, despite his frequent outrageously ethnic insults. He meant no harm, and in fact was actually the most gentle and sentimental of men. And, having worked all over the world I have no hesitation in saying that he was far and away the best producer-director of golf for whom I ever laboured. In short, Frank Chirkinian was the father of televised golf, and its greatest and most innovative talent.
Ben Wright.
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