The voice on the other end of the line said that as a 19-year-old college kid, he was chosen by Howard Cosell of ABC as the assistant cameraman for the filming of the TV documentary "Run To Daylight" with Vince Lombardi!   One of the

perks of my business is getting at least one phone call from a very interesting person, athlete or ex-athlete almost every month.   Since I have always been a fan of Vince Lombardi, I was intrigued!  The caller introduced himself as Ron Vidor and explained that he had never seen the finished film!   I told him I had restored the original 1964 film in 2003 and that it's been available only from Rare Sportsfilms.   I eagerly asked Ron how he met Cosell and what it was like being at Packer Training Camp, etc., and so he told me his story.

Ron said, "My Dad was a top commercial cinematographer and director in New York City. After I graduated high school, Dad told me I was going to have to pay my own way through college at USC. (He wanted me to be a doctor or lawyer.)  Dad said, 'So you can earn some money, I'm going to have my best people train you to be an 'A-list' movie cameraman.'   So for the summer, he flew me to New York to train under the top movie cameramen in the business.   After intense training for several weeks, I then started getting some work around New York as an assistant cameraman."

Early 1960's: Young Ron Vidor with Gordon Willis, who later was Director of Photography for The Godfather trilogy, as well as many of Woody Allen's films.

"The following summer I came back to New York to do more camera work.   Howard Cosell was planning to do the Lombardi documentary and had heard I was a 'hot-shot' young cameraman.   He asked me to be his assistant cameraman and go with him to St. Norbert's in Wisconsin with the crew for two weeks to film Lombardi and the Packers at training camp."

I asked Ron what he remembered about working with the Packers and Lombardi.   "That was a long time ago," he said.   "I played high school football, but did not really know anything about the NFL, so I was in awe of pro football once I got there.  We shot film of the newly-drafted rookies, as well as the veteran players, but Howard seemed most interested in Paul Hornung and Bart Starr - we shot a lot of film on them, as at the time, they were some of the biggest stars in the NFL.   We also shot inside the locker room, on the practice field, in team meetings, everywhere.   The players understood what we were there for and treated us all as "part of the family". Cosell and Lombardi were the biggest personalities in camp.   Howard carried a big stick and pretty much directed the filming.   Lombardi seemed to run a very tight ship and was very cordial.   Everyone - the players and us - had a lot of respect for him.   By the way, all players had to be in their rooms by 10 o'clock curfew - so, young college kid that I was, I remember often going out with several of the players girlfriends, now starved for attention at those late hours!"

Ron acknowledged his true calling after that summer at St. Norbert's, going on to become one of Hollywood's top cinematographers.   Currently, he's often back and forth between his home in Los Angeles and an assignment elsewhere in America.  His credits range from filming JAWS, Rocky III, Romancing The Stone, Stand By Me, and ER.

Now a successful professional in Hollywood