Hollywood Studio Magazine (April 1967)

Little Notes From A Big Lot UNIVERSAL CITY STUDIOS by Mabel DeCinces INSURANCE DEPARTMENT One of the busiest, efficient, and most important departments on the studio lot is the Insurance Depart¬ ment. Ben Lorber, insurance manager for MCA, Decca, and Universal Pic¬ tures (including subsidiaries domes¬ tic and world-wide), is an increas¬ ingly busy man these days with a growing department. In 1963, Mr. Lorber moved from his offices of long tenure in the Universal home office at Park Ave., New York, to take up residence on the coast with offices at Universal City Studios. At that time the department had a roster of two, Mr. Lorber and his secretary, Shirley Corrigan. Today the roster boasts a total of seven - Mr. Lorber, his assistant Mike Tay¬ lor, who is group insurance super¬ visor, his secretary Shirley Corrigan, and four additional girls: Ileane Coukoulis, Rose Satuloff, Ida Sad- ders, and Pat Goza who process the unending stream of claims under Shirley’s supervision. Mike Taylor joined the ranks in October, 1965. Ileane Coukoulis joined up in January of 1966 when a complete Group Program opened up for MCA and Universal City Studio employees. The other three girls joined in January of this year when the entire Group Insurance program for Decca, Universal Film Ex¬ changes (domestic and world-wide), United World Films, Universal- International (foreign) and Uni¬ versal Films of Canada, Ltd. was transferred from New York to Mr. Lorber’s offices in the MCA Tower at Universal City Studios. It’s a mighty busy place-that In¬ surance Department! Although a good bit has been said about Group Insurance, when all is said and done it becomes essentially only a per¬ centage proportion of the work that goes on. Everything that is owned, borrowed, rented, etc. by the com¬ pany from buildings, personal prop¬ erty of the company, film automo¬ biles, etc. down to the actors who are principals in TV and Feature Pro¬ ductions are insured by MCA on all kinds of protection policies and everything originates in the insur¬ ance department with Mr. Lorber at the negotiating and processing helm. The volume is not only ter¬ rific-so is the value of insurance handled. To quote co-workers in that De¬ partment, “Our hats are off to a very fine executive and conscientious man whom we also know to be a swell guy-Ben Lorber.” Ray Beck leaving Tech Dept, to join the Industrial Engineering Department. Joe Drago from Tech office is now in the Grip office. Congratulations to Ken Richard¬ son, Print Shop. Ken recently be¬ came engaged to Miss Marilyn Mor¬ rison. Fil Moreno from Budget, now in Print Shop. A1 Johnson, head of Mail Dept., enjoys driving his new Cougar. Continued success and good health of Bob Melcher, Mail Room. Bob entered a muscle-man contest held in Santa Monica, winning first prize. Happy to hear that Cathy Sand- bach, Production Dept., has re¬ turned and is feeling better every day. Eileen Allen, girl Friday of the Paint Dept., excited about seeing her young cousin, John Wright, who is visiting from London, England. By the time this goes to press, Bud Westmore, head of Makeup Dept., will have become a grandpa for the third time. Daughter Bridget has two other children. Will keep you informed in the next issue. Dave Preston, Universal Men’s Wardrobe (now retired), would like his many friends to visit him at his new residence in the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood. Rolland Wisusik looking very fit after an illness of two months. Mr. Wisusik is superintendent of the Universal branch of the North Hol¬ lywood Post Office. Acting super¬ intendent Robert Seaberry and co¬ worker Wayne Gracey, who has been with this branch for 22 years, held down the post. A DAY AT THE RACES Three hundred race fans boarded the buses for the race track, their once a year trip to Santa Anita Park. This was for benefit of the Valley committee of the Spastic League and the League’s training center in Los Angeles. Charity race-day chair¬ man was Mrs. Wm. D. Dehn; Mrs. James Zamiechowski is president. Jockey Jerry Lambert rode the winner of Spastic Children League race and excitement in our little group mounted when Howard Bry¬ an’s horse “Little Soldier,” a long shot, came in second. Bets on this race were sentimental as owner Howard Bryan is a cousin of Mrs. C. T. DeCinces. Attending were: Mr. & Mrs. Robert Spensley, Mr. & Mrs. Ralph Roberts (nee DeCinces) from Covina, Mrs. Gordon Davidson, Mr. Fairbanks (sound man from MGM Studio, now retired), yours truly and Dominic DeCinces (Universal Still Depart¬ ment, now retired), among others. It was a good day at the races for a worthy cause. RETIREMENT Happy and healthy retirement to John Barada. John came from Re¬ public Studio with Revue to Uni¬ versal Studio in 1959. He was check¬ er of hand props in the Property Dept. John McCarthy, head of Property Dept., and co-workers surprised John with a cake and punch party. Also presented him with a nice cash gift. John and his wife, Anita, are plan¬ ning a trip to Arizona where they have many friends. As John’s hobby is water-color painting, they will travel many places for scenery, too. 11