Charles H. Joffe, 78, a co-producer of Woody Allen’s movies and the business expert in the talent agency that managed the budding careers of a host of high-profile comedians that included Robin Williams, Billy Crystal and David Letterman, died of lung disease July 9 in Los Angeles, said his wife, Carol.
In 1978, when Allen’s “Annie Hall” won the Academy Award for Best Picture, it was Joffe who picked up the Oscar at the ceremony in Los Angeles while Allen remained in New York playing clarinet in a gig with his jazz band.
Joffe was the brash, wise-cracking, cigar-chewing contract bargainer in the talent agency Rollins Joffe, which booked Lenny Bruce’s first act in New York in the 1950s. The agency later mentored, among others, Dick Cavett, Robert Klein, Tom Poston, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Martin Short and Martin Mull.
Eric Lax, author of “Woody Allen: A Biography,” said in an interview Monday that starting with Allen’s movie “Take the Money and Run” in 1969, “Charlie was able to guarantee Woody total artistic control over his films, something almost unheard of in Hollywood.”
George B. Hartzog Jr., 88, whose political skills as director of the National Park Service in the 1960s and early ’70s led to the addition of nearly 50 million acres to the park system, more than doubling its size, died June 27 in Arlington, Va., said his wife, Helen.
In his nine years as parks director, Hartzog was attuned to President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society aspirations and the environmental advocacy of Stewart Udall, then-secretary of the interior.
During his tenure, Hartzog oversaw the acquisition of 72 sites, amounting to 2.7 million acres. The list went beyond national parks to include recreation areas, seashores, river ways and historical monuments.
Hartzog directed, among other projects, the creation of the Gateway National Recreation Area by the bays of New York’s metropolitan area and Golden Gate National Recreation Area on San Francisco Bay. They were the first urban national parklands outside Washington.
As parks director, Hartzog pushed for the advancement of minorities. He appointed the first African- American park superintendent, the first female superintendent, the first American Indian superintendent and the first African-American chief of the Park Service police.
