Dann Cahn R.I.P.

Dann Cahn, a film editor who made his career working on such classic television shows as I Love Lucy and The Beverly Hillbillies, died on 21 November 2012 at the age of 89,

Dann Cahn was born on 9 April 1923 in Hollywood, California. Both his father and his uncle were film editors. He served in World War II, as part of the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Force  in Culver City at the Hal Roach Studios. His first editing work came while he was in the military, editing the training short "Airborne Liferaft."

After the war Dann Cahn followed his father and uncle into film editing. He started editing in television with an episode of Your Show Time in 1949. It was in 1952 that he became the editorial supervisor for Desilu, working on the classic sitcom I Love Lucy. In the Fifties he would also work on such series as Our Miss Brooks, The Lineup, Cavalcade of America, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Make Room for Daddy, and U. S. Marshal.  He also edited the film Forever Darling. In the Sixties he also edited such series as The Beverly Hillbillies, Many Happy Returns, Branded, My Mother the Car, and The Guns of Will Sonnett. He edited such films as Heaven with a Gun (1969), The Phynx (1970), and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970).

In the Seventies he edited such shows as The Delphi Bureau, Police Woman, Man From Atlantis, and 240 Robert. He directed such films as Zero to Sixty (1978) and The Octagon (1980). In the Eighties he worked on such shows as The Fall Guy, Remington Steele, My Sister Sam, and DEA. He worked on the films Tough Enough (1983) and The Elite (1989).

Dann Cahn also served as a producer on such shows as Branded, The Mothers in Law, and Shaft. He also directed episodes of Rescue 8, Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, M Squad, Leave It to Beaver, Coronado 9, and Man From Atlantis.

I Love Lucy  was not the first American filmed series. It was not even the first using a three camera system. That having been said, it was among the earliest American filmed series and among the earliest to use a three camera system. This made Dann Cahn a pioneer in the area of television editing. Not only did he work on I Love Lucy, but other early filmed series such as Our Miss Brooks and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. Dann Cahn then paved the way for television editing to this day.