Eulogy for Philip Chamberlin
Phil died peacefully at home in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 29 at age 85. Born on a potato farm in Maine in 1925, he attended a one-room school and graduated from Dartmouth College after serving in the Navy Air Corps during WWII. Phil was a record-setting long distance runner, and he earned a doctorate from UCLA, where he acquired the nickname Philm Chamberlin. He was in charge of film programming, arts, and lectures at Monterey Peninsula College and UC Santa Barbara before becoming the Director of Education at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where he founded the film program in 1968 and was the Curator of Motion Pictures. Around this time, he and his wife, Pat, built the Nickelodeon Theatre in Santa Cruz with Bill Rainey and his wife and another couple. At the suggestion of director, George Cukor, who believed the movie capital needed a festival, Phil launched Filmex (the Los Angeles International Film Exposition) in 1971. He brought in Gary Essert, his friend from UCLA, to collaborate on the first expo. Phil left the Museum to become the Director of Special Projects at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where he founded the Student Film Awards program. He left that job to pursue his dreams. One of his dreams came true when he met actress and song-writer Dolores Fuller.
Phil married Pat in 1948, and they had many adventures and children together. He played the drums and managed a 17-piece swing band at Dartmouth. Pat was the singer, but they had to hide this fact from Northfield School for Girls where she taught English. Soon they were off to Denmark with a toddler in tow. Phil taught philosophy and Shakespeare at International People’s College, and Pat taught English and Music and had a second baby girl. They moved to Seattle where a son was born and Phil taught at Lakeside School for Boys. Two more sons were born at the UCLA hospital when the family was living in Topanga Canyon near the beach in Malibu, and Phil was going to graduate school. He bought a 16-millimeter projector and showed movies on the wall at home—silent comedies, Fred Astaire musicals, foreign films, and Japanese Samurai classics. His children learned to read subtitles as soon as they could read. At some point Phil stopped giving his family the same effort he gave his career, and the marriage ended in divorce. When he married Dolores, he left Los Angeles and moved to her home in Las Vegas. Her death in May of this year left him broken-hearted. His oldest son's death from a heart attack was also a crushing blow to him.
Phil’s enthusiasm for movies knew no bounds, and he was among the first to embrace the idea that films can be both powerful art and education. He liked both high and low art cinema as long as it was good. He helped pioneer a type of film exhibiting common today that features program notes, appearances by directors to give insight into the creative process, or live orchestra accompaniment for silent pictures. He was an absolute stickler for excellent projection. He loved Duke Ellington, samba dancing, and Borgward cars (keeping several on hand to serve as parts after the company stopped making them.) He was also one of the founders of the original Santa Barbara Film Festival, taught a film studies class at UCSB, and edited and published the Film Society Review, pressing his children into service to collate the envelopes by zip code for mailing.
A bit of Phil lives on through his children and grandchildren and in the documentary devoted to the career of his father directed by Billy Tooma entitled, Fly First & Fight Afterward: The Life of Col. Clarence D. Chamberlin. He also appeared in a documentary on Dolores’ life directed by Regina Goetze for German television. Thanks to Stone Wallace, who collaborated with Phil on the “autobiography” of Dolores Fuller, we know that he was an extra in his friend, Martin Scorsese's, Casino and had parts in The Ironbound Vampire and Corpse Grinders II.
The family is grateful to Joy, who looked after him so well at the end, and to Dominique and Andy of Infinity Hospice Care. ~SC
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IN MEMORY OF DR. PHILIP CHAMBERLIN - RENAISSANCE MAN
A Remembrance by Stone Wallace
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Dr. Philip Chamberlin lived a remarkable life befitting the truly remarkable man that he was. Personally, Philip was imbued with the positive attributes that characterized him as a singular human being. Professionally, his varied interests and endeavors qualified him as a true Renaissance man.
Academic, PhD, historian, film scholar, collector, producer, writer, actor, Philip possessed an impressive resume which highlighted his many talents. One of the accomplishments of which he was most proud was as the husband of Dolores Fuller, whom we all remember as another remarkable person of innumerable gifts and talents.
Philip and Dolores. One could not name one without mentioning the other. They were a true team, intensely devoted to one another. Philip was Dolores's champion booster and indeed protector. Together they weathered the good times and the bad, the tragedies and setbacks that constitute the Romance of Living. Sadly, both shared a tragic bond: The loss of a child. But through individual courage and a shared strength, both Philip and Dolores overcame their grief as best as one could under these circumstances and managed to go on.
Even as he advanced in years, his brilliant mind continued working and he was always planning. Unfortunately, much like Dolores's hope to see "Ed Wood - But I Wouldn't" become a Broadway musical never materialized during her lifetime, many of Philip's ideas failed to come to fruition. But such was his character that he NEVER became discouraged and always kept planning for the future.
Yet even with these unrealized dreams, Philip, though a quiet, unassuming and modest man, had much to be proud of. He was proud of being a record-holding track runner, being selected to be principal of a school in Massachusetts when he graduated Dartmouth, his friendship with his mentor Rosenstock-Huessy. He worked as an educator, serving as Head of Arts and Lectures (along with teaching classes in Film Studies) at UC Santa Barbara, where his passion for motion pictures led to his participation with his first wife Patricia in the development of the Nickelodeon Theatre in Santa Cruz; was Director of Special Projects at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences; was President of the Board of National Artists Foundation. As the Director of Education at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Philip founded the film program in 1968 and shortly thereafter helped organize the first Los Angeles International Film Exposition (Filmex). Later, working alongside Dolores, Philip had a major hand in restoring Ed Wood's first movie, a Western called "Crossroads of Laredo", which, through their efforts, eventually received a theatrical run 48 years after it was first filmed. A former pilot himself, Philip always spoke with pride about the man he affectionately referred to as "Pop", his father Clarence Chamberlin, a renowned aviator who was the second man to fly across the Atlantic after Charles Lindbergh, and apparently with much more dramatic results.
Dolores became popular on the autograph circuit (especially after the release of Tim Burton's "Ed Wood") and was frequently requested for interviews. In all of these endeavors, Philip was constantly at her side. When Dolores had a difficult time remembering the answer to a question, Philip was always there to "fill in the blanks". He was of inestimable help in the preparation of Dolores's autobiography, again adding details which Dolores had forgotten.
Philip also worked as an actor alongside Dolores, sharing scenes in Karl Petry's "The Ironbound Vampire" and appearing individually in Ted V. Mikels' "Corpse Grinders II". Philip displayed a flair for offbeat comedy in the latter effort, giving a wonderful performance as the unhinged mortician Mr. Yonkers. Both also appeared as extras in Martin Scorsese's "Casino".
But it was simply as a man that Philip Chamberlin truly shone. He possessed the heart of kindness, always willing to lend a hand wherever he could. He was generous . . . almost to a fault.
His children remember him fondly and those who were fortunate to know him will always remember him as a loyal friend. In short, Philip was a man whose simple and genuine goodness enriched the lives of others. Another Earth Angel has transcended these worldly bounds to take his rightful place in the celestial heavens. And in closing, a fitting quote from one of Philip's favorite authors, William Shakespeare: "Good night, Sweet Prince".