Hello friends....Meet the new caretaker of NYU's Colortran Mini Crab Dolly! Noah Elliott Morrison, who is an accomplished filmmaker from Detroit.
Hopefully, you've seen the previous post of me acquiring mini crab # I-20 back in October 2024. The original plan was for me and my son, Adam, to refurbish this dolly and eventually use/share it with the filmmaking community here in the Cleveland area.
If you haven't read the previous post, in short, my friend, Zul Atmosudirdjo, Teaching Soundstage Manager at NYU was nice enough to gift this dolly to us. It's a very special dolly that was used at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. This dolly was part of Tisch's filmmaking curriculum for the better part of 40 years.
Many world renowned filmmakers that attended Tisch during the past 40 years, in all probability, used this dolly for their coursework and to complete their Reels. Prior to that it was used in NYC's independent filmmaking movement during the late 1960s and 70s. What makes this dolly more rare, is that the serial number has a letter (I) followed by the number (20).
Years ago, I remember a phone call I had with the late Joseph Tawil, who was not only a friend of William Sargent (designer/inventor of the mini crab) but was also Colortran's president.
Mr. Tawil oversaw the launch of the mini crab. During a discussion we had of how many dollies were manufactured, he mention that dollies with serial numbers that started with a letter, were part of the first run of dollies manufactured.
When my son and I were getting ready to refurbish # I-20, we realized there were some tune-up issues that were way beyond our scope. Mainly, the steering mechanism would not engage in crabbing or rear steering and the hydraulic system needed expert attention. Afterall, this dolly is pushing 60+ years of continued service!
During a conversation I had with Noah, he stated that he would be willing in taking over the restoration of NYU's dolly. Noah mentioned he had contacts that were skilled with hydraulics and he also knew a great machinist. Since dolly I-20 was originally gifted to me, Noah simply paid me for the costs I incurred of picking the dolly up from NYU.
So far, Noah and his machinist have successfully repaired the complicated steering mechanism to its original functionality. Noah is now planning to upgrade the hydraulic system that raises and lowers the camera pedestal with modern equipment.
Thanks to Noah, I will be posting very useful repair information with diagrams he drew when he and his machinist tore apart and repaired the dolly's steering mechanism. This info will prove to be useful to others that may encounter steering issues with their mini crabs.
In the meantime, if any of you have questions about the steering mechanism, i.e., not being able to engage 2 or 4 wheel crabbing or rear steering, please email me at gzaryk118@gmail.com and I will reach out to Noah for steps to diagnose these issues.
