Hello friends....Meet the new caretaker of the NYU's Colortran Mini Crab Dolly, Noah Elliot Morrison! Noah is an accomplished filmmaker from the Detroit, Michigan area.
Hopefully, you've read the previous post of me picking up this dolly # I-20 in October 2024. The original plan was for my son Adam and me to refurbish this dolly and eventually use and share it with the filmmaking community here in the Cleveland, Ohio area.
If you haven't read the previous post, my friend, Zul Atmosudirdjo, Teaching Soundstage Manager at NYU was nice enough to gift this dolly to us. It's an incredibly special dolly as it was used in Tisch School of the Arts' filmmaking curriculum for better part of 40 years.
Many world renowned filmmakers that attended Tisch during the past 40 years most likely used this very same dolly for their coursework and completed their Reels with it. Prior to that it was used in New York City's independent filmmaking movement during the late 1960s and 70s. What makes this dolly more rare than others (in this case) it has a letter (I) followed by the number (20).
I distinctly remember a phone call I had with 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. He told me that the serial numbers that started with a letter, were part of the first batch of dollies manufactured.
Since dolly I-20 was originally a gift, Noah simply paid for the round-trip cost of me driving to NYU and bringing this dolly back to Ohio.
As Adam and I were getting ready to refurbish # I-20, we realized there were some maintenance issues that were beyond our scope.
During a conversation I had with my friend Noah, he was very much interested in taking over and restoring this dolly for his filmmaking services. Noah has many contacts that are skilled with hydraulics and knows a great machinist as well. His contacts will help to update this 60+ year old dolly with modern equipment.
Since Noah's had it, he's already been able to repair the tricky steering mechanism. He will now update the hydraulic system that raises and lowers the camera pedestal.
Thanks to Noah, I will soon be posting some very useful information and a few hand printed diagrams that he shared with me regarding the dolly's steering mechanism. This service information may be useful for others that may encounter steering issues with their mini crabs.
In the meantime, if any of you have questions about the steering, etc., please email me at gzaryk118@gmail.com and I can reach out to Noah for any info he may have.
More to come.....
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