\n<\/p>\n
\n\tGary Smith, the Emmy-Award-winning producer behind numerous television specials and live events, died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 90.<\/p>\n
\n\tBorn in 1935, Smith studied scenic design at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University) before beginning his career as an art director at CBS in 1956. He made the leap to producer while working on \u201cThe Judy Garland Show\u201d in 1963 and, two years later, produced NBC\u2019s \u201cHullabaloo\u201d a variety series that showcased early performances from The Rolling Stones, The Supremes, The Who, Simon & Garfunkel and Sonny & Cher.<\/p>\n
\n\tSmith\u2019s influence on music television blossomed throughout the 1960s, as he produced the first television specials for Paul McCartney and Bette Midler and the final television performances of Elvis Presley and Bing Crosby. Other musical acts that he\u2019d produce specials for included Frank Sinatra, Luciano Pavarotti, Neil Diamond, Tony Bennett, Dolly Parton, Sammy Davis Jr., Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorm\u00e9, Woody Allen, Ann-Margret and Burt Bacharach.<\/p>\n
\n\tBeyond music, Smith produced theatrical specials as well as live television. He led the televised specials of \u201cBaryshnikov on Broadway\u201d\u00a0and\u00a0\u201cPeter Pan,\u201d Royal Command Performances for the Queen of England, and many television events starring Barbra Streisand. He also produced awards shows, including six Tony Award broadcasts, four Emmy telecasts, a People\u2019s Choice Awards and the AFI Life Achievement Award tributes to Streisand and Tom Hanks.<\/p>\n
\n\tEven when he wasn\u2019t behind the camera, Smith produced spectacular events like the opening of EPCOT at Disney World, the 25th Anniversary of Disneyland, the 1986 celebration of the Statue of Liberty\u2019s restoration, four Democratic National Conventions, the Inaugural Galas of Presidents Reagan and Clinton, and the Bicentennial of the Constitution celebration. <\/p>\n
\n\tAs an individual, Smith earned eight Primetime Emmy Awards in his career, and was nominated for over 30. His company, Smith-Hemion \u2014 which he started with director Dwight Hemion in the early-1960s \u2014 earned a groundbreaking 24 Emmys.<\/p>\n
\n\tSmith is survived by his wife, Maxine, four sons, Jake, Zack, Doug and Sam, a daughter, Daisy, and five grandchildren, Spencer, Jasper, Sienna, Ryan and Charlotte.<\/p>\n
\n\tDonations may be made to SHARE, Inc.,\u00a0which supports children in need. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gary Smith, the Emmy-Award-winning producer behind numerous television specials and live events, died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 90. Born in 1935, Smith studied scenic design at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University) before beginning his career as an art director at CBS in 1956. He made the leap to producer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[5055,5056],"class_list":{"0":"post-11618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-producer","9":"tag-specials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}