Former Wood River Valley resident Otto Lang, one of the early directors of the Sun Valley Ski School and an acclaimed film director, died in his Seattle home Jan. 30. He was 98.
Lang lived a long, rich, gracious, multi-faceted and accomplished life in several fields. He was director of the Sun Valley Ski School in 1941-42 and from the end of World War II until 1951. Less than a year before he died, he told the Seattle Times, "I know it is a broad statement, but it is true: Skiing is responsible for everything in my life. It connected everything."
"Everything" covered a lot of ground and living experience in Lang's 98 year?. He was born on Jan. 21, 1908, in a small town near Sarajevo, in the former Yugoslavia, where his father was on temporary duty with the Austrian military. He was raised in Austria, and like many Austrian boys became a skier. His competitive career began in the Junior Nordic disciplines, particularly ski jumping, and ended as a Senior Alpine Racer for the Arlberg Ski Club, competing in the prestigious Arlberg Kandahar.
The first in a series of breaks that would guide Lang's life occurred in 1930. Hannes Schneider was easily the leading ski school light of Europe (and, a few years later, America), and working for his ski school in St. Anton, Austria, was a prized job among skiers. Lang told the Mountain Express' Jeff Cordes in 1993, "Hannes' ski school consisted mainly of boys from the St. Anton and Stuben areas. He wasn't prone to engage instructors from other towns. But...I spoke French, English and a smattering of Italian. There was a need for instructors who could speak the language."
He got the job. He was an elegant skier and Schneider said that Lang was "perhaps the most popular of his teachers." Lang learned Schneider's Arlberg technique of skiing and teaching skiing and one day while leading his class down a steep St. Anton gully he came upon and helped an injured skier, an American named Larry Dorcy who was related by marriage to railroad tycoon James Jerome Hill. It was another break. Through Dorcy he met Hill and another American, Katherine Peckett from Franconia, N.H., whose family owned an exclusive retreat called Peckett's on Sugar Hill. Lang accepted Peckett's offer to teach skiing at Sugar Hill, and Lang arrived in the United States in December 1935. Lang wrote his first book during rainy New England days that winter, "Downhill Skiing," (available in the Ketchum Community Library in the ski history section), and among his clients at Peckett's that season was Nelson Rockefeller, which in itself could be considered a break for any young Austrian ski instructor in America.
Seeking better mountains and more consistent snow conditions than what exists in New England, Lang headed west at the end of that season with Hill both to ski and to shoot his first film on skiing. The film was called "Ski Flight" and ran for six weeks as a complement to Walt Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" at Radio City Music Hall in New York. In 1937, with Schneider's blessings, Lang opened the first official American Hannes Schneider Ski School at Mount Rainier, in Washington, followed by schools at Mount Baker and Mount Hood. Meanwhile, Nelson Rockefeller, a contemporary and friend of Sun Valley's founder Averell Harriman, began visiting Sun Valley, and Rockefeller wanted Lang as his private instructor. Lang came from Washington several times to be with Rockefeller, and by 1939 had been persuaded by Harriman to join the Sun Valley Ski School, directed by the great Austrian ski racer Friedl Pfeifer.
When World War II began, Pfeifer and many of the other Austrians were temporarily interned, but Lang was by then married to an American girl and had become an American citizen. He took over as ski school director for the 1941-42 season. Although he was classified 1-A in the draft, he was never inducted into the military, according to ski writer Bill Berry, due to "an influx of family." During the filming of the classic "Sun Valley Serenade," Lang's skill in directing the skiing sequences caught the eye of Hollywood producer Darryl Zanuck, who was in charge of production for the Army Signal Corps. Zanuck commissioned Lang to make military training films, among them, "The Basic Principles of Skiing," for the newly formed Mountain Troops. According to Berry, "The filming was at Sun Valley, and strictly improvised. Otto decided to make a film which would lure recruits to want to ski, and there are 10th Mountain Division veterans who recall it did just that."
At the end of the war Pfeifer had moved on to Aspen, Colo., and Lang resumed directing the Sun Valley Ski School. Sigi Engl was his assistant. In 1948, Lang brought the great French skier Emile Allais to Sun Valley. Because Allais taught and skied a French technique very different from and competitive with the Austrian Arlberg technique used in Sun Valley, and because the wounds and animosities between the French and Austrians caused by World War II were not entirely healed, it was considered a bold, innovative and controversial move. But Allais went on to have a huge influence on American skiing.
In 1951, Lang left Sun Valley to pursue a successful career and life in the Hollywood film industry. His directing credits include "Call Northside 777," "Five Fingers" and "White Witch Doctor," and all Japanese scenes in "Tora, Tora, Tora." He made many other films, and his work included four nominations for Academy Awards in the documentary field. During his film career he maintained his active interest in writing and skiing, and during the 1972 Olympics in Sapporo, Japan, he worked as a reporter for Copley newspapers. He traveled extensively for both pleasure and work, and he was a keen photographer.
In 1987 he moved back to the Northwest and, from his home in West Seattle, Lang began work on what he called his "Ottobiography," which was published in 1994. It is called "A Bird of Passage: The story of My Life." Later he published "Around the World in 90 Years," a collection of photographs of his travels.
Famed ski photographer Warren Miller, who worked for Lang on the Sun Valley Ski School, said of his passing, "It's the absolute end of an era. He was the last of that generation. No one else is left."
Gerard Schwarz, music director of the Seattle Symphony, is reported by the Seattle Times as describing Lang as "a great photographer, a great writer, a great director in television and movies, a brilliant intellect and in some ways most importantly, a very positive caring and loving human being."
Sun Valley Co. spokesman Jack Sibbach said that in recent years Lang had become a close friend of Sun Valley owners Earl and Carol Holding. Sibbach said the Holdings shared Lang's love for the Sun Valley area and that they held him close to their hearts and deeply respected him. Sibbach also said Sun Valley is planning a tribute to Lang that is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 25 and will include a torchlight parade on skis.
Lang is survived by his longtime companion, June Campbell, of Seattle; and sons Mark Lang of Coronado, Calif., and Peter Lang of Santa Rosa, Calif.
Sun Valley Ski School Director Otto Lang and actress Ann Sothern pose for a publicity shot at the resort in the early 1940s. Boyle Collection, Ketchum Community LibraryRegional History Department
