Noted Producer David L. Wolper Receives Prestigious Garland Award

Noted Producer David L. Wolper Receives Prestigious Garland Award For His Olympic Contributions

David Wolper, right, receives the William May Garland Award from SCCOG Chairman Barry Sanders.

Mr. Wolper joins Juan Antonio Samaranch, Lord Killanin, John C. Argue, Mayor Tom Bradley, Anita L. DeFrantz, Barry A. Sanders, Peter V. Ueberroth, Harry Usher, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Paul Ziffren on the list of recipients since 1980 of the award named in honor of the founder and first president of the SCCOG.

Former Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee President Peter Ueberroth said, “David Wolper was, and is, the soul of the Games of the XXIII Olympiad. His ability to capture both the United States and the worldwide international audience set the standard and the ratings that insured our success.”

“David Wolper is a most worthy recipient of this award,” said SCCOG Chairman Barry Sanders. “His contributions to the Olympic Movement have spanned the decades and extend far beyond the 1984 Opening and Closing Ceremonies which are most associated with his name.”

Wolper’s professional introduction to the Olympic world took place when the Munich Olympic Organizing Committee chose him to produce the official film of the 1972 Olympic Games. “Visions of Eight” was produced using his concept of documenting the Munich Olympics through the camera lenses of eight noted international directors.

A few years later, Mr. Wolper became active in the bid to bring the 1984 Olympic Games to Los Angeles, eventually being named by Mayor Tom Bradley to the “Committee of Seven,” a group of civic leaders who secured the Games for Los Angeles through a series of successful negotiations with the International Olympic Committee. David later became Vice-Chairman of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the LAOOC’s Television Commission.

A year before the Los Angeles Games, Mr. Wolper accepted the position of Commissioner of Ceremonies. His subsequent production of the critically acclaimed Opening and Closing Ceremonies for the 1984 Olympic Games helped to make him one of the best known producers in the world.

In honor of the 25th Anniversary of the 1984 Olympic Games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum last summer, he created a spectacular show which incorporated a number of elements from his landmark ceremonies of 1984.

David L. Wolper is the Chairman Emeritus of the LA84 Foundation, the private, non-profit foundation endowed with surplus funds from the 1984 Olympic Games and dedicated to the development of youth sport. He also has served on the Board of Directors of the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games for more than three decades.

In a show business career spanning more than 50 years, Mr. Wolper holds the entertainment industry’s two highest honors: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences prestigious Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and election to the Television Hall of Fame by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.