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 June 2, 2008 - Barry Gottehrer, who was instrumental in the creation of the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting in 1966, passed away on April 11. The following is excerpt from Scenes from the City: Filmmaking in New York City, edited by James Sanders: Within weeks of his inauguration, Mayor John V. Lindsay had selected a special assistant named Barry Gottehrer – a veteran newspaperman and former city editor at the Herald Tribune – to canvass the film industry and come up with a package of proposals. It was an inspired choice. “Barry has had the advantage, in everything he has done in his life, of not knowing better,” his former colleague Jay Kriegel has observed. “Being a reporter, someone who asked questions, very fact-laden, and very detail-oriented in asking, ‘why not?’ Very commonsensical.” “I remember Barry’s first report,” Kriegel recalls, “I remember it because I remember how simple and powerful it was.” Gottehrer made several proposals, obvious perhaps in retrospect, but unheard-of at the time. First, that the city establish what he called a “one-stop system” – a single agency issuing a single permit, free of charge, good for shooting anywhere in the city, and valid for the length of the production. Second, that a single, high-profile unit of the Police Department be created to assist film crews working anywhere in the five boroughs. Third, that a special aide be appointed, working directly under the Mayor, to assist producers with problems they might encounter while filming on location. And finally, that the Mayor himself officially direct all agency heads to cooperate with film and television production in the city. Lindsay threw his full weight behind the report, and by the end of May, with the issuance of Executive Order 10, all of Gottehrer’s proposals were set in motion… The results were astonishing – and almost instantaneous. In 1966, the number of feature films shot in part or whole in New York leapt from 11 to 25. The production total for the first three months of 1967 equaled all of 1966, and by the end of the year, the number of features filmed in the city had reached 42. Over Lindsay’s full two terms in office, no fewer than 366 feature films would be shot in whole or in part in New York City. “For the first time,” the Mayor himself later observed with evident pride, “our parks and museums, our streets and courthouses, our libraries and monuments, all these things that make New York unique, have been made available to film people.” The Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, would like to offer our condolences to Mr. Gotthehrer’s friends and family and express our sincere appreciation for his efforts to bring filmmaking back to New York City. |  |
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 design by  The City of New York Mayor's Office of Film Theatre & Broadcasting 1697 Broadway Suite 602, New York, New York 10019. |
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