Lynne Gross has hosted TV children’s shows, produced PBS shows, taught at two universities, and written 12 textbooks. She’s not done yet
inside
by Jefferson Graham
Lynne Gross retired in 2009, at age 70, after teaching “a little bit of everything” at Cal State University Fullerton for 20 years. During that time, she wrote 12 text books on television production, books that updated so many times, the grand total actually came to 55 editions.
“I left teaching because I felt guilty,” the Manhattan Beach resident says. “I had a really good job, and thought someone else should have the chance to enjoy it.”
In retirement, she wanted to teach science to children, spend more time cycling, and learning more about the birds and fish in her front yard, which would be the Pacific Ocean. She also wanted to write, free of the restrictions of academia.
She satisfied most of those goals by joining the Roundhouse Aquarium board of directors. She was instrumental in the negotiations with Skechers president Michael Greenberg for the $4 million in donations used to remodel the Roundhouse in 2018.
“The Roundhouse is what everybody who visits takes a picture of. It also does great work. It teaches kids, including under-served children, about keeping the oceans clean. It’s a good, environmentally aware facility to have as a symbol of our town,” she says.
Last year, at age 84, Gross completed her writing goal, her first work of fiction, a musical titled, “See Where We Land,” a project that began when she was the young age of 82.
Writing her musical began with melodies swirling in her head that she worked out on her piano, and recorded. When she told friends about her musical ambition, they weren’t surprised. A friend from the Television Academy of Arts & Sciences, on whose board she had served, offered to show her how theatrical scripts are formatted.
“At Cal State Fullerton, one of the things I taught was screenplay writing,” she says. “So I knew the dramatic form.”
Edward Fink, a colleague from Cal State Fullerton, helped get the musical produced, and he agreed to direct it. When he first heard about Gross’s latest endeavor, he wasn’t surprised.
“I thought, well, that’s Lynne, she’s never one to sit and stare at a wall. She always has numerous things going on.”
Fink put her in touch with another Cal State Fullerton colleague, music teacher Geoffrey Munger, who shaped her songs into a full-fledged score.
Munger, who now teaches at Saddleback College, says of Gross, “She was extremely collaborative. Beyond that, I was constantly astounded by her drive to promote our project.”
“See Where We Land” is about a kid from Iowa who comes to Hollywood with dreams of selling a screenplay. As happens, things don’t turn out as well as he had hoped.
The musical is set in the 1970s, Gross says, because she knew the time well. Gross hails from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and came to California with husband Paul in 1959. He worked in the aerospace industry as an engineer. They started out in Orange County, before moving to Long Beach, and then to Manhattan Beach.
The couple has three kids, aged 59, 57 and 54. The oldest is a computer scientist, the middle son is a lawyer, and the youngest is a social worker. They live in British Columbia, Colorado and West Los Angeles, respectively.
“Manhattan Beach has been a lovely place to live and raise our children,” she says. “When my children were growing up, I wasn’t able to give back much to the city because I was working 40 miles away. Now I have the time.”
The musical’s theme of becoming a screenwriter, she says, “was just something I knew about. I combined about a dozen stories I had heard over the years into one.”
Gross started in television in 1967 as the host of “Guideposts,” a children’s TV show on KCOP, Channel 13. It followed “Felix, the Cat.”
Television was young, and colleges needed teachers to train the next generation of television producers. An administrator at Long Beach City College saw her children’s show and asked her to teach television production.
“I wasn’t qualified, but neither was anyone else,” she says. “Long Beach was known as Iowa by the Sea. Everyone seemed to be from Iowa.”
The mother of three at the time had two kids in diapers, but was up for the challenge. “I was the only woman in the department, and all my students were male,” she recalls.
Women were not considered for jobs as TV anchors, disc jockeys or camera operators because their voices were thought to be too high, and the equipment too heavy.
Sexism followed her throughout her career.
“For a woman to get the same credit as a man you have to work twice as hard and be twice as good,” she says. “That’s not hard,” she adds with her characteristic assertiveness.
On the bright side, she noted, “Every teacher gets the same pay, depending on seniority, so I never got less pay than the men.”
After completing “See Where We Land,” she e-mailed the Cal State Fullerton theater department, asking for a student reading. The university had recently built a new television studio, and saw the reading as a way for its students to familiarize themselves with the new equipment.
The theater department videotaped a performance of “See Where We Land” last fall. Gross worked throughout the production on rewrites and on building the props.
“Getting it captured on video was a big deal,” says Gross. “Though written for the stage, it now lives on YouTube.”
Her next goal is to see her musical produced locally, perhaps on senior day at the Manhattan Beach Joslyn Center, or as a student production at Mira Costa High School.
“I realize this is a pretty big dream,” says Gross. “But I dream big…and you don’t stop dreaming when you retire.” ER
