The world and our industry lost a giant, a gentleman, and an inspirational influence on a generation of lighting professionals with the passing of Bill Klages yesterday at age 97, if I’ve got his birthdate of May 7, 1927 correct.
A New York native, Bill trained as an electrical engineer, found his way into television as a video controller in the earliest days of black and white transmission in the 1950s, and became a network lighting director on a chance opportunity when a sudden job vacancy created an urgent need on a show he was working on. That unexpected turn of events opened the door to a rich era of production lighting.
Those first shows were television dramas, and he told me the objective was to emulate film-style lighting. It worked, and many seasons of General Electric Theater gave way to a long list of live performance television specials for the biggest stars of the day, several weekly “must-see-TV” variety series, Broadway shows adapted for television, national political party conventions, permanent TV studio lighting installations, and the creation of The Klages Group, a design firm that defined highest-level quality for live-event television lighting, and was an incubator for many of the industry’s best lighting designers.
How did it happen that this particular electrical engineer practically created an art form? Bill just happened to have the eye and soul of an artist mixed with a scientific brain, a sense of infinite curiosity, and an abundance of natural organizational skills. Bill was versed in art, music, theatre, fine dining, and conversation, all seasoned with a large dose of math, geometry, and electricity. It was the perfect recipe.
I met Bill in the early 1980s via an introduction by a friend who had rigged many of Bill’s shows. The Klages Group had just launched and Bill was looking for designers with concert experience. He said he could teach me everything I would need to know about television lighting in a couple of hours, which, of course, could easily be taken as a huge, if not humorous, exaggeration. But Bill was fairly serious, because the core of his entire approach to lighting for the camera boiled down to the most basic principles of angle, color and intensity. Naturally, we know there’s more to it when you consider those tools need to be employed by someone with the eye and the “touch” to create drama, beauty, and to tell a story with lighting. And these are really a small part of the process, which also includes managing the entire lighting production process, and dealing with (and charming) producers, directors, and crew. Because of Bill’s entry to the business in its embryonic state, it’s hard to imagine anyone advancing the art and science of television lighting design, much as he did, from pretty much nothing to creating the standard of quality to which we now all aspire. Plus, he was just a great guy with a razor sharp sense of humor and an unerring sense of which wine to order.
I was midway through an extended project and wasn’t able to accept the offer. That’s just the way life journeys go, I suppose. But Bill and I remained friends for all these decades since. He was a major influence on me and my work. Our many lunches spent talking about our projects (and everyone else’s), the latest equipment, and tons of industry gossip are some of my most cherished memories. I even managed to talk Bill into doing one of his famous talks for a Live Design Television Lighting Master Class, and it was the highlight of the weekend. I know there are so many others who worked more closely with Bill, but I am so grateful to have gotten to know him on both a professional and personal basis.
Bill, you will be missed.
Jeff Ravitz is a Primetime Emmy®-winning lighting designer, lecturer, and writer specializing in live entertainment being captured for multi-camera television broadcasts and webcasts. He is the co-author of the newly released book, Lighting For Televised Live Events.