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Charles Norton grew up in North Carolina and was very susceptible to colds, flu, etc. In the third grade he was sick in bed for the entire school year. The doctors told his parents that they would have to move to Florida for his health or construct a cottage at the beach to build him up, which they did at Atlantic Beach. By the time he was 9 years old his family had the cottage and he spent the summers swimming in the ocean and became a strong swimmer and rider of waves. He was the best on the beach and swam in all weather including storms.
When he was ten a boy took him sailing in a small sailboat. He fell in love with sailing immediately. The fact that you could utilize the wind to take you where you wanted to go was marvelous to him. He began sailing as crew in a racing scow the style of which dated back for centuries and the time of the Vikings. The old salts used hiking boards for ballast which they switched from side to side. No decks, about 22 feet long. They would sail in the ocean with 6 or 7 man crews and he'd be on the floor of the boat with a scooper bailing water over the side. The young man who owned the boat (which was fully equipped for racing), which utilized a storm jib, reefing, topsail, spinnaker and hiking boards was named Buzz Mitchell. The skipper was tough and he and his crew won most of their races against the old salts that had generations of experience. They demanded Norton get the water out which was hard work because the water poured over the gunnels without the obstruction that decks would have provided. It gave him great experience and an understanding of the ruthlessness of racing in heavy weather. But they supported him in learning and this was one of his lessons at a young age. Hard work under pressure with no let up. The point was to win and these were the sacrifices.
The next year he persuaded his father to buy him a 15 foot boat and spent the summer learning to sail by himself. He and his friends would turn the boat over in the middle of the sound and swim it to an island, turn it back up and start sailing again. His father realized how much he loved sailing and the following year had a Comet built for him which cost about $250 at the time. It was a miniature "Star", a sailboat known world wide, Charles rented a "Star" in Portofino years later and sailed around that area.
He and his friends quickly had a fleet of about 22 Comets. Initially one person was winning most of the races but during his boyhood illness he had become a tremendous reader and held on to this when he became well. He read a book called "The Aerodynamics of Sails" by Manifred Curry. To this day this book provides any sailor with an easy to understand explanation of why sails work. It elucidates the tools and knowledge needed to come out on top using tactics and strategy. He began to win all the races and set course records all over the Carolinas. And here he was only 11 years old!
When he was 15 he sailed his boat "The Popeye" 800 miles to New York and the Worlds Fair. The New York Herald Tribune says his arrival was at the Battery Pier A Thursday at 4 PM. They were featured on the cover of all the New York News Papers and the Christian Science Monitor on Friday August 2nd. It was remarked in the paper that not since Lindberg's historic flight across the Atlantic has there been such a hero's welcome in New York City. One person remarked that you might as well try to see the President. He was given the Key to New York City by the Mayor, a Trip around New York in the Mayor's Yacht with an escort and then the boat was put on view at the New York Worlds Fair in the Maritime Building with an escort around the fair and into all the exhibits through side doors. No waiting in line. This was 1940 and their was closed Circuit Television from the FAIR and he was on it. He was given many Honors for the sailing trip to New York. He was made a member of the Quiz Kids Hall of Fame and also Boy of the Month in "Youth of Today" and "Boys Life".
His competitors in races had accused his boat of not being regulation with more dead-rise in the bow than the other Comets. Years later he kept his boat at the Larchmont Yacht Club on Long Island Sound having been offered free berth because of all he had done for sailing. He worked in New York at CBS and because of his heavy schedule he raced in only one race week at Larchmont which is a 7 day race. Because of his job he could only race three days out of the seven and he took two first places and a second but he couldn't conceive that he could win anything overall so he didn't go to the banquet and found out later that he had indeed one a third place trophy as his time was that good on the three days he raced. Larchmont had his boat measured before the race and it conformed totally to the Comet measurements dispelling the earlier claims that it was not regulation.
He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1949 with a BA in English and Minors in Business and Dramatics. Membership in the Honors Society, "The Order of the Old Well", in recognition of High Attainment in Scholarship and Leadership was conferred on him at that time. He was captain of the University Boxing Team and won two Gold Medals in pole vaulting. He is a Navy Veteran having served during World War II and was stationed at Guantanamo air station in Cuba. He had made the highest qualifying grades for Air Corps training in his squadron and was made Assistant to the Duty Officer while awaiting call up for flight training. The war ended and he returned to Carolina.
He started in the mail-room at CBS in 1950 and was later accepted into the Directors Guild of America in 1952. He became Assistant to Robert Stevens, Producer and Director of "Suspense" and performed the jobs of script supervisor and stage manager as well. Essentially they did everything to prepare the show and on the day of the live shoot a crew and First Assistant Director were brought in. Robert Mulligan who had been Steven's assistant prior to Charlie was the First Assistant who came in. He went directly to Hollywood to Direct "To Kill a Mocking Bird" with Gregory Peck who won the Oscar for his performance. When Charlie went to work for CBS, he signed a contract that they would own anything he created while there so he left CBS to produce a pilot film based on four books by William B. Seabrook which he optioned. His technical advisor was Dr. J.B. Rhine of Duke University Head of the Department of Para Psychology and author of the acclaimed book "New World of the Mind". The Pilot Film Charles Produced Starred Franchot Tone, Darren McGavin, John Baragrey, Robert Middleton and Blanche Yurka. It was directed by Harold Young who had Directed "The Scarlett Pimpernell" with Merle Oberon and Leslie Howard. He directed 75 other films as well. Charles rejected a deal with CBS to produce the series because they wanted a different producer who was familiar with California production. They offered him the job of Assistant Producer. He turned it down at the advice of his attorney and never had another solid offer. The pilot is written up on the Internet and can be purchased on a DVD entitled, "Lights Out."
He returned to work at NBC as Staff Associate Director and Directed episodes for "Wide, Wide, World" and other shows. He left N.B.C. to form a Company with James Hammerstein, Son of Oscar. They had a screenplay written by Norman Brooks who had written "Fragile Fox", an acclaimed play on Broadway, which was made into the successful motion picture "Attack" by Robert Aldrich and starring Jack Palance and Eddie Albert.
Through Lillian Small their Agent, they made contact with David Miller, who was in New York Directing "Happy Anniversary" with David Niven and Mitze Gaynor. David wanted to direct the movie but first wished to supervise a rewrite of the Screenplay. Jim and I agreed that was a good idea and thought it would be cheaper to take the writer and his wife to California than pay per diem to David and have him stay in New York. Wrong, they should have done it by mail and then they would have had a paper trail. They refused an umbrella deal with Columbia which Lillian engineered. Another big mistake.
Money ran out and Norton headed back to North Carolina with his wife and two daughters and within 2 weeks landed a position as Director of Public Information at the Research Triangle Institute where he was given top security clearance and wrote news releases to the papers on projects that were government financed. RTI had an annual report done the year before by an Advertising Agency that he wanted to improve on. Charles was given the assignment and wrote and laid out a report style that is still being followed.
After this, he was asked by the Mayor of Durham to try to bring the School of Performing Arts to the Research Triangle. He brought Durham, Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Hillsboro together and made a pitch. Winston Salem out pledged us and won the Contract. Richard Adler, Sidney Blackman, Agnes DeMille and Mayor Grebarak then asked Charles to start a professional Equity Theater in Durham which he did with Buck Roberts. They cast in New York and had a successful season. In addition, Charles brought Wayne Rogers, a friend from California, to star in one of the plays. Also, he brought Rick Wyler to Star in "Streetcar" with Mary Jane Wells.
When Charles directed his first Television Show, he shot 15 5/8 pages the first day with 3 moves, totally startling everyone, and brought the entire show in 7 hours ahead of schedule. It turned out to be one of their best episodes. He directed a second episode "Bang,Bang,Bang" starring a monkey.
He directed "No Hard Feelings" in Africa, a picture which he also wrote and which contained 7 original songs by Jim Wetherly who wrote "Midnight Train to Georgia". Jimmy Haskell wrote the music. It was an action movie he had been inspired to write about rapes that were taking place on the U.C.L.A. campus when his daughter was arranging to go there. He wanted to alert the board of Governors to ways they could protect their Students and Secretaries.
The picture, which he brought in a week ahead of schedule, received two stars in "Movie Guide" when J. Lee Thompson's Film, "King Solomon's Mines", starring Richard Chamberlain, Sharon Stone and John Rhys-Davies received a "Turkey." For bringing it in a week ahead of schedule, the company gave him a free trip to the Sabi-Sabi Game reserve which was a tremendous thrill.
Charles had studied directing in University and with Lee Strasberg at the American Theatre Wing while working as an Associate Director at NBC. Charles trained many of the 2nd Assistant Director "Trainees" for the DGA and has lectured at several universities on film Production. He gave a three hour lecture at the Art Center College of Design that was very well received. His daughter graduated there in Illustration) and was just named teacher of the year at the "Pace Academy" in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
