Running with the Wind: My Adventures with the National Geographic Society

By Dennis B Kane

Running with the Wind is a chronicle of the many and varied adventures of famed executive producer, Dennis Kane, as he circled the globe in search of exotic and informative subjects for the world of the National Geographic Society TV Specials. Kane's enviable 40 year career as a documentary film producer led him from the cradle of mankind in Tanzania to the far-flung reaches of communist Siberia.His films captured natural history and scientific discoveries in the making. Kane documented some of the world's most renowned scientists including Dr. Louis Leakey and his early anthropological finds in Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge, Dr. Robert Ballard's discovery of the passenger liner Titanic, and Mel Fisher's hunt for the Spanish treasure galleon, Atocha. One of his primary goals was blending natural history and action adventure in the same production using a wide and varied palette. Follow in his footsteps as he compiles a treasure trove of unique experiences on location.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 2, 2013
• ISBN: 9781468550689

Dennis B Kane

Dennis Kane served as Vice-President and Director of Television for the National Geographic Society and as Executive Producer of all National Geographic Television Specials for almost two decades. Additionally, the critically acclaimed National Geographic Explorer cable television series was developed under Mr. Kane's direction. During this time the National Geographic specials won nearly 300 major television awards among them 25 Emmys, three George Foster Peabody Awards, and the Columbia School of Journalism's DuPont Silver Baton Award. In 1988 Kane was appointed President of ABC/Kane Productions International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Capital Cities ABC Inc., producing over 80 hours of programming for the ABC television network, ESPN and PublicTelevision. ABC/Kane's worldwide productions and creative expertise resulted in seven Emmy's three Genesis awards and an Academy Award nomination. Today, Kane donates his time to several charitable organizations producing video productions around the world. He and his family live in Alexandria, Virginia.

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© 2012 Dennis B Kane. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 11/30/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4685-5068-9 (e)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-5069-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-5070-2 (sc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012902731

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Optimism, perseverance and honesty …

these are a treasure hunter’s

most important traits.

And in the end, it’s not the gold,

but the memories,

that prove the greatest reward.

Deo Fisher

Treasure Salvors

Contents

Foreword

Preface

History of the National Geographic Society

Where the Journey Began

In Search of a Yacht

Cradle of Mankind

Pathway to Gold

The Blood of the Grizzly

Man of the Serengeti

Portugal’s Men of the Sea

Embracing Tangents

Survival

Escape

The Forbidden

Siberia & Outer Mongolia

Levitation

Wind Raiders of the Sahara

Treasure Hunt

Buckingham Palace

Titanic

Returning Home: Journey across the Atlantic

Epilogue

Foreword

National Geographic is the only major American magazine to create a true and enduring counterpart in television. Its ongoing growth and success in TV is striking when compared with the feeble and fleeting efforts of other publishers with equal resources.

There are a number of good reasons for this, and not the least of them is a colorful, indeed legendary, National Geographic executive, Dennis B. Kane. Kane joined National Geographic in the early sixties and went on to head the Television Division for eighteen years, spearheading some of its proudest achievements.

Legendary is no idle adjective when applied to Kane. His world-spanning exploits amazed my generation, but how he accomplished things was something of a mystery. He was deceptively low-key and unpretentious and a master of informal diplomacy. And diplomacy was often badly needed. National Geographic documentaries were produced in some of the most dangerous and unstable regions of the world. They were constantly threatened by feuding film crews, accidents, and hostile governments.

So Dennis’s most important task was to leap from place to place and keep the cameras rolling—no matter what. Regardless of the difficulties he faced, he rarely showed his temper, and he won many friends with his utter informality and goodwill. He is a handsome, craggy fellow who sports his Irish background with a ready laugh and considerable charm. More often than not, he manages to turn adversaries into close drinking buddies.

Fortunately, Dennis has a huge appetite for new people and places. He frequently feels unbearably restless and is apt to move on with little warning. Working with him, this can be quite disconcerting. As you will learn, I got an early taste of this restlessness in Africa and once, to his subsequent embarrassment, Dennis took off for several weeks to sail the Atlantic without going through the formality of telling his employer!

Dennis has a somewhat mysterious reputation—partly because he is so elusive. He is always just arriving on the scene or ready to leave. Despite this, he still found the opportunity to propel the National Geographic Television Division to new heights. The film library he started has become one of the best in the world. Under his direction, NGS moved into cable TV and eventually founded its own channel. The National Geographic Specials, the original Geographic series, ran on commercial networks for several years. At the end of that relationship Kane, convinced that public television was their true home, arranged a partnership with WQED Pittsburg and the Gulf Oil Corporation that lasted for sixteen years. The result was a hugely successful run for the Specials, where they won PBS its all-time highest ratings and lived on in the video markets around the world for decades.

Dennis eventually moved on—even from National Geographic—founding his own production company under the wing of the ABC Television Network.

Today, semi-retired, he is still on the road, donating his services to make promotional films for charitable institutions all over the world. And, of course, he has a rich fund of memories.

Nicolas Noxon

Westlake Village, CA

Preface

The question will undoubtedly arise: why was this book written?

The reason for the exercise is simple: for my children, my wife, and friends who have been after me for several years to put some of my experiences in the field to paper—and that’s all it is, not eloquent prose. Just indelible memories,and nothing else.

It’s a document that recalls the early, formative days of the National Geographic Society Television Division. They were exciting days filled with little knowledge of what would be worth producing—and what the then-conservative Geographic would allow us to produce. We wondered: What would the American viewing public expect from the NGS? Would we be able to attract and sustain an audience in the world of commercial television?

Nothing was set in stone; experimentation was the guide. None of the print-oriented giants of the era had experimented in the field of television; the Geographic was the first, an unusual situation for such a conservative organization at that time. The documentary, in the early sixties, was usually a presentation programmed by the networks to inform the viewer of one of the world’s current social ills. The documentary also fulfilled one of the network’s programming obligations to the then-powerful Federal Communications Commission. Only in rare instances would the usual news documentary garner acceptable ratings.

A balancing act had to be worked out quickly to meet both the acceptability standards for programming within the Geographic Society and the requirements of the entertainment value of these programs that we delivered to the CBS Television Network: The network wanted ratings. The Geographic required quality programming to maintain and further its reputation.

The NGS is one of the most respected print organizations worldwide. I was extremely fortunate and proud to have been a part of the television staff in those formative years, an experiment that survives today.

History of the National Geographic Society

Just a Little Background

The National Geographic Society was founded by a group of distinguished men in 1888 at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC. The founders’ goal was to encourage the dissemination of geographic knowledge throughout the world. One of the founding members was Alexander Graham Bell. Gardiner Greene Hubbard was one of Bell’s early financial backers and served as the first president of the Bell Telephone Company.

During the formative years of the Society, Hubbard was elected to serve as the first president. The first issue of the National Geographic magazine was presented shortly after the Society’s founding. The journal was published intermittently during the founding years until 1896, when monthly publishing became the norm. The early magazine bore little resemblance to the present-day publication. The articles were dry academic presentations lacking illustrations. Membership, in those days, could be counted in the thousands.

Gardiner Greene Hubbard died in 1897 and was succeeded by Alexander Graham Bell as president of the Society. Bell found the society in a precarious financial state. He soon realized the National Geographic magazine needed two dramatic changes: first, he felt that a change to the format and editorial policy, from a scholarly journal into a popular scientific magazine, would be a great improvement. Second, he needed a full-time editor who would make the changes that he felt were necessary.

It took until 1899 before Bell’s needs were met. Into the mix came Gilbert H. Grosvenor, a twenty-three-year-old teacher from a prep school in New Jersey. From an early age, Grosvenor had been fascinated by the geography and the history of foreign lands. He believed that the magazine could become more readable without sacrificing its educational value. His most important contribution was adding photographic content, giving the magazine more recognition than its newly acquired format had seen. Grosvenor ran into stiff opposition from the Geographic trustees when the changes he wished to make become known.

During his first years at the Society, Grosvenor had the firm backing of Alexander Graham Bell, which gave him time to apply his new thinking to major aspects of National Geographic’s future. In 1904, Grosvenor was faced with a dramatic problem when an issue of the magazine was about to go to press with eleven blank pages. A few days before, he had received an unsolicited packet of photographs containing the first pictures ever taken of the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. The pictures were stunning, and he decided to fill the eleven blank pages with them. He knew this was a bold move and feared that he would be fired for his actions. As it turned out, approximately a week later, he was elected to the board of trustees of the Society.

By 1906, the magazine had a readership of nearly ninteen thousand. Grosvenor ran the first color photographs in 1910, becoming a pioneer in the journalistic use of photography. In 1920, he became president of the Society.

By the early twentieth century, the Geographic had become involved in many expeditions to previously unexplored regions of the earth: Perry’s race to the North Pole in 1909, Hiram Bingham’s 1912 excavation of Machu Picchu, Richard Byrd’s expeditions to the North and South Poles in the years 1925–1930. During World War II, the Cartographic Division of the Society was open to the military forces of the United States and our English allies. President Roosevelt was presented with a map case from the Society during the war years. He was so impressed with the case that he asked the Geographic if it would be possible to secure a replica for his friend and ally Winston Churchill. Churchill used the case throughout the war. After the war, the Geographic requested that Churchill return the original maps in the case to be updated and to allow them, along with many others, to be housed in the National Geographic’s museum. Churchill politely refused.

After the war years, the Society resumed its funding of scientific expeditions, including those of anthropologist Dr. Louis Leakey for his work in Kenya’s Olduvai Gorge; Jane Goodall and her research with the wild chimpanzees in Tanzania; Diane Fossey, working with the mountain gorillas of Rwanda; and Jacques Cousteau, with his wake-up call about the pollution of the world’s oceans.

Gilbert Grosvenor retired in 1954 as president of the Society, after serving thirty-four years in that role and fifty-five years as the magazine’s editor. Gilbert’s son, Melville Bell Grosvenor, then became president and editor. Melville Grosvenor, like his father before him, was an innovator. He saw the new technology of television as part of the future for the Society. In the early 1960s, the Television Division was established under the direction of Robert Doyle.

Where the Journey Began

From my earliest memories, I had always longed to travel.

The summer of 1965 was no different. I wandered around downtown Washington, DC and watched the construction of National Geographic’s new headquarters on the corner of Seventeenth and M Streets, and I dreamed about the world. Looking through the windows of Explorers Hall, I marveled at Jacques Cousteau’s diving saucer, the American flag that Perry had planted at the North Pole, and a huge globe rotating in the center of a pond studded with fountains. All I really knew about National Geographic was a memory from my youth of paging through the yellow-bordered magazines at the dentist’s office. The organization was a dark and mysterious place to me on those summer evenings. It held a degree of fascination and mystery that I have rarely found at any other time of my life.

I had arrived in Washington in 1960 from a local TV station in Salisbury, Maryland and was employed by Channel 5 Metro Media as a television director. My responsibilities included directing the late-night news, two children’s shows, and wrestling from the old Capital Arena. The highlight of my career had been directing three of President Kennedy’s press conferences from the State Department in the early sixties.

Larry Fraiberg, the manager of Channel 5, had a special event in the works—the dedication of the new National Geographic headquarters. President Lyndon Johnson was to offer the dedication. Speeches from many National Geographic officials and Washington notables would also be included. I convinced Fraiberg to let me produce and direct the event. A day before the dedication, my TV crew scouted the location. The building’s facade was flawless—sweeping columns of white marble rose from the second floor to the overhanging roofline, nine floors above. As you entered the building, the great seal of the Geographic was set into the marble floor; to your right, there was generous space for a future museum. On the left, fountains were embedded in a small lake-like setting; at its apex, a large globe of the earth rotated on its axis. Natural light poured into the area from large floor-to-ceiling windows surrounding the entire entrance floor. My television crew plotted out the positions for the cameras and installed lighting and microphones. There would be a least two hundred people attending the event.

The television broadcast and dedication were a great success, and my enthusiasm for National Geographic was at a new high. I decided, from that moment forward, to do everything in my power to land a job with their Television Division. I interviewed with Robert Doyle, the chief of television. Doyle liked my background, told me he had nothing available, and said they expected to do some hiring in the near future. That was all I needed to hear. For the next two years, I called Doyle every Monday morning at ten to check in and keep my name fresh in his mind.

My position at Channel 5 was increasingly unfulfilling. I was beginning to get discouraged, and I felt I had gone about as far as I could go. I decided to broaden my job search. American Airlines was developing a film unit, and I approached them in hopes of a position on their production team. Their reaction was positive. I decided this was a good break for me, and the following Monday morning, I called Doyle to announce I was on the verge of accepting a job with American Airlines. Doyle asked me to come to the office. I was hired as his assistant, and the adventure began.

It was 1966, and I had entered a new world. It was the world of Louis Leakey, Jane Goodall, Frank and John Craighead, Captain Irving Johnson, and the great underwater explorer, Jacques Cousteau. I was apprehensive at the start. Here I was, with twelve years of television experience, embarking on a career with legendary characters that I had only read about in the pages of magazines.

Several years before, the president and editor of the magazine, Dr. Melville Bell Grosvenor, had appeared on one of the most prestigious television programs of that time, called Omnibus. Dr. Grosvenor was a man who embraced new ideas, and television seemed to be a good fit in his plan for the future of the society. By 1966, the newly established Television Division had been trying to align itself with a commercial television network. Into the mix came David Wolper, the leading commercial documentary film producer in the United States, if not the world, at that time.

Wolper had distinguished himself in the documentary film industry. His company was one of the first to present a documentary special by securing 108 independent stations across the country—forming his own network, as the three major networks had refused to grant him airtime. That special, The Race for Space, was nominated for an Academy Award, and it launched the Wolper organization into the mainstream of documentary film production. Wolper’s organization was producing some of the most outstanding documentary programming ever seen on television. He was given the commission to take National Geographic, after almost one hundred years of successful publication, into the unknown territory of broadcast television.

At the Geographic there were plenty of skeptics. Should the Society venture into the unknown world of television? What would television do to the untarnished image of the Society? Wolper made the sale to CBS, and National Geographic became Wolper’s partner. It was the kind of business agreement the National Geographic had never entered into before. This was a major departure.

My arrival at the television division came on the heels of an arduous, yet phenomenal, first year in production. Orson Welles narrated all four shows in the first season. The premier production, Americans on Everest, took viewers to the Kingdom of Nepal and the first successful American assault of the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest. It was followed by Jacques Cousteau’s adventure in the Mediterranean Sea, entitled The World of Jacques Yves Cousteau; Captain Irving Johnson’s epic journey, Voyage of the Brigantine Yankee; and Jane Goodall’s Among the Wild Chimpanzees.

The Geographic, Wolper, and CBS were ecstatic over the first season’s ratings. The television viewers’ enthusiastic response to the first four films guaranteed National Geographic a continuing relationship with CBS. When I was hired in 1966, plans were underway for a powerful and dramatic second season.

In Search of a Yacht

My first assignment for the Society was to travel overseas with Nicholas Noxon, one of Wolper’s producers, who was about to embark on the initial phase of a film with the world-famous anthropologist Louis Leakey. I was assigned to start preparations on a show featuring Irving Johnson, the noted American sea captain, and to assist in the initial phase of the Leakey film. These films would become known as Yankee Sails Across Europe , a project taking viewers through the inland canals of Europe, including Scandinavia; and Dr. Leakey and the Dawn of Man , an anthropological film set in Africa’s Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.

Some things in life are indelible. I will never forget my first experience traveling for the National Geographic Society. I was to meet Noxon in New York at the TWA terminal; this would be his first overseas business trip. My family came over from New Jersey to say their good-byes. We had a small gathering in the lounge of the TWA building. Our flight was called, and we boarded. Noxon and I sat up all night talking. We could hardly believe this was actually happening, and so far no one was calling us back. My early fantasies about National Geographic were about to be realized. They would come in this order: Rome, Corsica, Cannes, Nairobi, and the incredible Serengeti Plain.

In Rome, I was to meet George Sluizer, a Dutch producer whom I was touting to produce Yankee Sails Across Europe.