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Maury Orr broke the gender barrier in early broadcast television as a director and assistant director on such shows as Space Patrol, Lawrence Welk, and telecasts of the Academy Awards, and championship golf.
Orr was a young graduate from UCLA in 1949 when she landed a secretarial job at the CBS affiliate in Los Angeles after claiming she knew shorthand. A quick night course brought her up to speed, and she became one of the first women working in the new medium. "I never felt any resentment, or had a moment's trouble with any of the guys," she's quoted as saying in the book "Space Patrol: Missions of Daring in the Name of Early Television." "It was just a matter of whether you had any ability and if you got along."
In 1952 Orr's abilities were tested when the director of a live TV commercial called in sick, and she was asked if she could direct the spot. "I said sure. You were an idiot if you said no. Nobody knew very much anyway. In those days, it was just being in the right place at the right time." That same year she moved to ABC where she was made an "associate," or "assistant" director, on such shows as Space Patrol, and The Plymouth Show-renamed The Lawrence Welk Show, where Orr would spend much of her career as an assistant director. The title was an honorary one, though, as management initially refused to give credit to women in those jobs.
In the 1950s, before the introduction of videotape, most shows and commercials were broadcast live. "The odds were that something was going to happen that wasn't right," Orr recalled. On the ABC show "You Asked For It," a viewer requested to see a piranha display its legendary appetite. Unfortunately, the trainer fed the fish just before airtime, so instead of viewers witnessing a voracious feeding frenzy, they watched a piranha settle to the bottom of the tank and take a nap. In a commercial for L.A. car dealer Fletcher Jones, a line of cars was suppose to pass behind the dealer as he addressed the camera. "It was live, and Fletcher was extolling the virtues of this wonderful used car," Orr recalled, "And it's on fire! You could see flames underneath it, and coming out the engine, but Fletcher never noticed. Up in the booth we were falling on the floor, we were laughing so hard."
In 1960, she became the first woman director of a national golf telecast at what was then the Bing Crosby National at famed Pebble Beach on the Monterey Peninsula. ""They didn't have anybody at ABC who knew anything about golf," she was quoted as saying for a 1998 article in Golf magazine. Orr was an avid golfer, and a member of the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. ABC had tepid interest in any tournaments that weren't the Masters, or the Open, and seemed skeptical that golf alone would attract viewers. In the press announcement ABC advertised celebrity appearances, and highlighted, "Blonde Miss Maury Orr, handicap 4, will direct the ABC telecast." "I begged them for a couple of more cameras and they said it just wasn't in the budget," says Orr, who was given a total of five cameras. Today's tournaments are typically covered by dozens of cameras.
During her forty-year career with ABC, Orr served as assistant director on many shows including The Ernie Kovacs Show, The Soupy Sales Show, numerous golf tournaments, and 10 Academy Awards broadcasts. She retired in 1970, and was elected President of the Women's Southern California Golf Association, where she devoted herself to youth programs, and teaching golf to disadvantaged children. According to her nephew filmmaker Gregory Orr, "My aunt was very close to her father who was an avid sportsman, and a "man's man," and she relished the give and take of male camaraderie." Her older brother William T. Orr, a Warner Bros executive and Jack Warner's son-in-law, further exposed her to industry players. "She was one of the first women in a medium dominated by men, but she wasn't afraid of anyone," said her nephew. "She treated big stars and working crew members alike with respect, humor, and professionalism."
Maury Orr died in Sachse, Texas of congestive heart failure on May 6, 2016. Her husband Jack DeMots passed away in 1987. In addition to her nephew, survivors include her daughter Andrea DeMots Karr, son-in-law Joseph Karr, grandson Wyatt Karr, and niece Diane Orr.
