John Edward Gerschefske was introduced to the planet in 1933. He came
from a railroad family in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago,
Illinois. The son of a railroad switchman and Motorola assembly line
worker/nightclub singer. Also the grandson of the President of the
Florist Drivers Union in the 1930s and 1940s. He was carted off to
Roosevelt Military Academy soon after his parents separated in the
early 1940s. He excelled in sports, music and academics. In the 8th
grade he was #2 in the state of Illinois on the alto saxophone. He
lettered in football, track and field and basketball. After graduating
in the top 5% of his class, he worked for Motorola for a short time
before enlisting in the United States Navy (1951). He became an
Aviation Structural Mechanic and a member of the Glenview Naval Air
stations' Crash Crew. After his stint in the service, he studied
broadcasting and became a jazz disc jockey with WNIB in Chicago, and
WNIB in Muskegon, Michigan. When he wasn't on the air,he was stage
managing for local theatre groups in Chicago. He had his own weekly
Radio Jazz show that attracted many artisans throughout the Great Lakes
region.He met VIPs from all walks of life. For example, famous Painters
such as Gertrude Abercrombie and
Pablo Picasso. Jazz greats, like
Miles Davis and
Thelonious Monk. Actors, actresses,
politicians and many more! In 1956 he decided to head west to follow
his dreams of becoming an actor. Hollywood was where he landed. He
parked cars, tended bar and rustled up other odd jobs for cash, until
he finally got his big chance! A screen test with MGM went very well
and he was signed on under contract with MGM in 1958. His big debut was
in Verdammt sind sie alle (1958)
with Frank Sinatra and
Dean Martin. He went on to do a few
films with MGM, only to be black balled from the industry a few years
later, because he stood up for The First Lady of The Folksong, Odetta.
During a scene in a shoot, a certain director/producer was making her
cry, by yelling at her and using racial slurs. John had words with him
and the director told him to keep his mouth shut or he would never work
in acting again! John walked off the set and never worked as an actor
again.
An introduction to an MGM secretary by the name of Mary Kathleen
Kenoyer, who caught his eye, certainly changed his life! He and Mary
were married August 22, 1959 in Winterhaven, California and had a son,
John Jr. the following year. Although his career ended in 1963/64 he
was determined to land a gig doing something with the film industry.
From 1964-1965 he was doing freelance photography. Early on in 1965 he
became a news film apprentice editor with KABC-TV in Los Angeles. He
worked his way up to Senior news film editor as well as Documentary
film editor and sound editor, receiving an Emmy and Golden Globe award
for his Charles Manson documentary
series, Teenie Dopers and
James Stacy Dry Martini Mini-Doc
series. He retired from KABC-TV in 1981 and went into the Majors. The
same year with Disney Studios he worked with Disneys' Epcot Centers'
Circlevision in Florida with another brilliant Senior editor Dave
Strohmaier. They also put together Anastasia: The Mystery Of Anna
(1986) (TV), with Amy Irving, Olivia De
Havilland and Omar Sharif. He went on to
work at 20th Century Fox and Universal Studios doing various projects
towards the end of his career. At the end of 1986 he and his wife Mary
retired. His wife retired from Metro Goldwyn Mayer and The California
Highway Patrol. In 1987, John and Mary plus One opened a Mexican
restaurant in Lancaster, California. In 1990 they moved their
restaurant to Coeur D' Alene, Idaho. Two years later, they both retired
form all work completely. In late 1993 after being diagnosed with
emphysema, they moved to Kingman, Arizona. In 2000, his wife Mary was
diagnosed with congestive heart failure and had to have double stent
surgery. In 2001, they moved to Reno, Nevada and then Las Vegas. In
2005 Mary had another stent put in. Two weeks later, John was involved
in a terrible T-Bone auto accident, where the driver ran a stop sign at
70 miles an hour. He had several months of rehabilitation then they
moved back to Kingman to be near their son, daughter-in-law and
grandsons. The accident created too much stress on Mary. She steadily
went downhill. In June of 2005, 5 months after the accident, she passed
away due to a misdiagnosis of a bad gallbladder (Sepsis). John spent
the next 21 months broken-hearted after 46 years of marriage, never to
recover from his nightmares and the way Hollywood treated his dreams.
Unfortunately, he passed away from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to
the head on Saturday, March 31st, 2007.
