by Lisa Mitchell

		Abby Singer (right) with daughter, UPM/AD Jo Ann Singer. Click picture for larger view.

"It was late in the afternoon," Brodek remembers, "and I met a few people. I realized that one of the men I'd been introduced to was the first assistant director. He was calling out for everybody to be quiet, which is stemimal in Yugoslavian and Serbo-Croatian. Then, in a very thick accent, he announced, 'Das Abby Singer shot!'

"I was just bowled over! Everybody did his work and, at the end of the day when it was a wrap, I walked up to this fellow. He did speak a little English, but not much. I asked him, 'How do you know about the Abby Singer shot?' He looked at me very quizzically and said, 'We all know about the Abby Singer shot.' Then I asked, 'How do you know about Abby Singer?' And he said, in that accent you could cut with a knife, 'Who's Abby Singer? The next to the last shot is the Abby Singer shot.'

"I thought it was just thundering," Brodek continues, that Abby Singer has had such an impact on our industry, that in a faraway land, in what was not even a town, they were invoking his name and his shot."

Brodek, who is a member of the Directors Guild of America as an assistant director and a unit production manager, reassures that what happened was not a fluke. When he made another film in Yugoslavia, he found that "that's all they do is use the Abby Singer shot as part of their terminology. I've heard it in Germany too. And certainly in Canada."

At least one connection to how this Hollywood colloquy may have reached England is traceable to UPM/AD Dan Kolsrud, who was working in London in 1983. Wishing to share American filmmaking procedures on the Elstree Studio set, he decided to show instead of tell — and as they got ready for what would be the next to the last shot, he would just announce, "Abby Singer!"

This went on, Kolsrud says, "for days and days and everyone was confused. Finally, a member of the crew was elected to come up to me. 'Excuse me,' he said, as the others stood back listening, 'but could you please explain what you mean when you say 'Abby Singer?' So I told him how we use the expression in this country. He listened with great care and when I finished, he turned to the rest of the crew and said, 'Oh, the Guv' means the penultimate!'"

		DGA National Executive Director Jay D. Roth, director and Tournament Chairman Mel Damski, Abby Singer and Burt Bluestein at the Howard W. Koch Memorial DGA Golf Tournament. (Photo: Terry Lilly) Click picture for larger view.

Bluestein — a UPM/AD, ex officio member of the Western AD/UPM/TC Council, member of the National Board and this year's recipient of the DGA's Frank Capra Award — once took a picture of Singer when they were both at MGM. "It came out very well so I had it blown up and took it to Abby so he could autograph it for me. He asked me what he should say. I told him to sign it, 'From the last living legend.' And that's who he is: the last living legend."

As with all legends, Abby Singer and the Abby Singer shot have been the subjects of conjecture, rumor and apocrypha.

"There have been some really crazy interpretations," Abby's UPM/AD daughter, Jo Ann Singer, says, regarding the shot and its origins. "The most ridiculous one combined the Abby Singer shot with the Martini shot — the very last shot — saying that at the end of the day, Abby would go home where his wife would have a martini waiting for him. That is so not my father!"

Was it always only "this and one more" or did the shots sometimes go beyond that? "Well," Jo Ann says, "my father is terminally optimistic."

And what comes straight from the horse's mouth?

"A lot of people think I'm dead," Abby Singer laughs. "Some people think I'm part of the Abbey Players — or that the shot was named after the Abbey Players."

Singer, who was the Executive in Charge of Production at MTM Television for 12 years, had been one of the most respected production managers in the business. He began his career in the production department at Columbia Studios in 1946 as secretary to production head, Jack Fier, then became an AD there in 1949.

It was as a 1st AD at Review/Universal Television around '57 or '58 that Singer figures he started his unique method of spurring on his crews.

"I was an assistant director for many years," Singer, now 84, says. "And I was very hyper. In television, we would make maybe five or six moves during the day — going from one set to another, or from one stage to another. Or we'd move from the back lot to a stage. I would say, 'Fellas, we'll do this [shot] and one more and then we're moving.' This would give the crew a chance to begin wrapping up their equipment or to call transportation for gurneys, so they'd be ready to get out quickly. In the course of a year, I would say, maybe two or three times at the most, we'd go one extra shot."

There were two other ADs at Universal during this time, Singer thinks, who picked up on his system and started using his name to call the shot. And though now it is mostly thought of as the next to the last shot of the day, it was originally used more often.

		From left: DGA President Jack Shea, Congressman Howard Berman and Singer.. Click picture for larger view.

William Beaudine, Jr., who, along with Singer, is a past recipient of the Frank Capra Award, points out that it was the style of shooting and production planning specific to Universal Television that necessitated what Singer instigated. "They were so busy that they would literally say to a company, 'OK, you can have Stage 12 at 11 o'clock, but you have to be out by two.'"

Beaudine believes that it was in the '70s and early '80s, because of Universal's accelerated TV output, that "the Abby Singer" as the term for "this and one more" really began to spread throughout Hollywood and beyond.

"I've heard stories that absolutely floor me," Singer says. "Not long ago, a producer friend, Bruce Paltrow, said that he got a letter from Kate Burton, who had been filming in Wales, who wrote that she heard them use the Abby Singer shot on her set.

"Once my wife and I were in Israel," Singer says, "and, after leaving a restaurant in Tel Aviv, we came across a film company that was shooting nearby. I walked over and started talking to a cameraman about what they were doing. I told him that I worked in the film industry in Los Angeles. He gave me his name and asked for mine. When I said that my name was Abby Singer, he said, 'Oh, why don't you stop it!' He made me show him my driver's license before he would believe me. Then he called the whole crew over to meet me.

"People have told me they use it in South America and Japan. Reports have come back that they use it in Russia, France, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Australia and New Zealand. It's all so funny to me. I get such a kick out of it! I'm even in the dictionary of terms used in the motion picture industry."

And there it is in Filmmaker's Dictionary by Ralph S. Singleton and James A. Conrad (Lone Eagle Press). "Abby Singer Shot: Production jargon for the next-to-last shot of the day (e.g., 'The next shot is the Abby Singer'). The term came into use when Mr. Singer was an assistant director." (There is no listing for "Martini shot.")

"Several old-time directors have asked me to come on their sets to meet their crews," Singer says, "because they can't believe that I'm still alive."

Or just can't believe that such a ubiquitous production term could actually be flesh and blood.

DGA Western Executive Director G. Bryan Unger recalls being in meetings with Singer when new members or trainees come in. "We go around the room, introduce ourselves, and when Abby says his name, they look at him. You can just see their minds going, 'Is he kidding?' Then, after the meeting, they come up to me and say, 'Gee, I didn't know there really was an Abby Singer!'"

		Barbara Gelman, Yudi Bennett, Bob Jeffords, Abby Singer and Herb Adelman receive certificates for years of service on the DGA AD/UPM/TC Council West.. Click picture for larger view.

Unger, who had worked out an earlier DGA/AFI Agreement — and who was involved in its recent renewal — understood how much the school could benefit by having access to DGA UPMs and ADs.

"They had to have people who could help them manage and run their productions. [The agreement lets] assistant directors go over there and help the AFI students on their projects, which can range from a couple of days to a week. The reason it's good for the Guild is that AFI has a very good program. Many of the AFI [students] will be coming into the business and eventually getting into the DGA as directors. It's important that they have relationships with DGA assistant directors; that they recognize the quality of the people who are in the DGA. It's really a win/win relationship between us and the AFI in that program.

"Abby, of course, has many, many contacts in the industry, and he made sure that the AFI agreement was renewed. He has been very active in recruiting more assistant directors to go over there and help out. More people will do it because Abby is there."

"I'm having a lot of fun," Singer says, clearly relishing this gig. "I go over the kids' scripts with them and look at the production problems that they have. I help them get locations, equipment and stages. Up until September 11, I was able to get stages from various studios. But since then [because of heightened security], it's been impossible - and very hard on the kids. But we manage."

However meaningful the AFI connection is to the Guild, it is only one of the most recent contributions in Singer's long line of service.

"I've been a member of the Guild since 1949," Singer says, "and it has been my life. I think it's one of the greatest things that could happen in this country — to have a union with the clout of the Directors Guild, which can do so much for its membership in health and welfare and pensions and salaries."

		Bryan Unger and Abby Singer. Click picture for larger view.

As a fierce protector of his Guild (and he says "my Guild" in the same breath as he says "my family"), it is no surprise to learn of his role on the Administrative Committee. "We get some people sometimes who have broken laws. They work for non-union pictures and we censure them. I'm usually the one who is asked to talk to them. And I can be very tough. When somebody does something to jeopardize all that the Guild has accomplished, I say, 'You should be ashamed of yourself!'"

"There are certain things about the Guild that are like glue," Bluestein adds, like, "People who are involved with its workings and who keep it together. Abby is one of those people. He's also a loyal friend and keeps up with his contemporaries."

As one of the regular ways he stays in touch with the men he cares about, Singer is a part of a convivial group of retired DGA members called the ROMEOs — Retired Old Men Eating Out. Because of Singer's position at AFI, he takes a bit of ribbing as the only man in the bunch who is still working, which means that he has been active in the industry for 56 years. Who can imagine how much time and money he and his shot have saved companies across the years and the globe?

		Abby Singer. Click picture for larger view.

The stories about Abby Singer are also "this and one more" — but with no wrap in sight.

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