WHAT IS THE "RAY HUBBARD" AWARD?
The Ray Hubbard Award is given for unusual and dedicated support
to the quest of finding, preserving and sharing the history of Niles, especially as
it relates to film. The Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum is proud to give this
award each year to an individual or individuals who continue to support and contribute
to research on the Niles Essanay Film Manufacturing Company and for participation in
our efforts to bring this history alive for all to see.
Ray Hubbard was a television producer and broadcasting executive who
won numerous awards and whose career spanned the pioneering days of the medium. He
was the recipient of virtually every major broadcasting award, including the Emmy,
Dupont, George Foster Peabody, Freedom Foundation, National Conference of Christians
and Jews and Action for Children's Television awards, as well as prizes and medals
from film festivals around the United States and the world.
The range of Hubbard's pioneering programming subjects reflected his conviction that
TV should be used as an engine for social change, justice and education. His
achievements include producing "A City in Shadow" in 1956, the first TV documentary
on inner city decay and the poor, and broadcasting performances of Muddy Waters, Jimi
Hendrix and other well known black musicians. His 1961 documentary, "The Innocent
Fair", on the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition ended with an intentionally
emotional, nostalgic look at the majestic, crumbling Palace of Fine Arts that was to
be demolished for luxury apartments. The show created a ground swell of support that
saved the building, which is now home for the educational center "The Exploratorium"
and a San Francisco landmark.
He also produced the award winning "The Reading Show", which used a silent serial
"The Vanishing Shadow" such that the children had to read what the actors said.
Teachers discovered that the students intentionally read ahead of the show to discover
what would happen, which had a dramatic effect on their skills and was a fore-runner
of today's computer-aided teaching systems. In the 1970's, Hubbard established Unicorn
Projects, Inc., a non-profit production company through which he could execute his deeply
held beliefs about educational programming. Out of this came such noted television programs
as the series based on the work of author-illustrator David Macaulay entitled "Castle,"
"Cathedral," "Pyramid," and 'Roman City." The most recent of these, "Roman City," won the
national prime-time Emmy as the Outstanding Animated Program of 1994.
Long before the advent of such vintage film channels as American Movie Classics,
Hubbard, a lifelong movie lover, purchased rights to old black and white films that,
as he said, "Nobody else wanted," gave them a regular Saturday evening slot, and
called it "Cinema Club 9," after the channel number of the Post's flag ship station,
WTOP. Relying on his vast personal knowledge of film lore, he introduced the movies
himself and his love of the movies was translated into a panoramic novel about
Hollywood's golden age, MAJESTIC, published by Bantam in 1981. He also produced the
documentary "When the Movies Came from Niles".
Ray Andrew Hubbard died December 27, 1999 and is survived by his wife of 49 years,
Marion, and three sons.
The range of Hubbard's pioneering programming subjects reflected his conviction that TV should be used as an engine for social change, justice and education. His achievements include producing "A City in Shadow" in 1956, the first TV documentary on inner city decay and the poor, and broadcasting performances of Muddy Waters, Jimi Hendrix and other well known black musicians. His 1961 documentary, "The Innocent Fair", on the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition ended with an intentionally emotional, nostalgic look at the majestic, crumbling Palace of Fine Arts that was to be demolished for luxury apartments. The show created a ground swell of support that saved the building, which is now home for the educational center "The Exploratorium" and a San Francisco landmark.
He also produced the award winning "The Reading Show", which used a silent serial "The Vanishing Shadow" such that the children had to read what the actors said. Teachers discovered that the students intentionally read ahead of the show to discover what would happen, which had a dramatic effect on their skills and was a fore-runner of today's computer-aided teaching systems. In the 1970's, Hubbard established Unicorn Projects, Inc., a non-profit production company through which he could execute his deeply held beliefs about educational programming. Out of this came such noted television programs as the series based on the work of author-illustrator David Macaulay entitled "Castle," "Cathedral," "Pyramid," and 'Roman City." The most recent of these, "Roman City," won the national prime-time Emmy as the Outstanding Animated Program of 1994.
Long before the advent of such vintage film channels as American Movie Classics, Hubbard, a lifelong movie lover, purchased rights to old black and white films that, as he said, "Nobody else wanted," gave them a regular Saturday evening slot, and called it "Cinema Club 9," after the channel number of the Post's flag ship station, WTOP. Relying on his vast personal knowledge of film lore, he introduced the movies himself and his love of the movies was translated into a panoramic novel about Hollywood's golden age, MAJESTIC, published by Bantam in 1981. He also produced the documentary "When the Movies Came from Niles".
Ray Andrew Hubbard died December 27, 1999 and is survived by his wife of 49 years, Marion, and three sons.
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