Vernon G. Frith

Vernon (89) passed away Thursday, December 13, at Encino Hospital after a brief illness. Vernon is survived by his niece Candace O'Brien, his seven great nephews, James, Daniel and John O'Brien, Gary, Daniel, David and Robert Hansford. He is also survived by his two step-daughters, Dorothy O'Dell and Elizabeth Chaden and her two children, Carne Michael Ramsey and Lesley Chaden.

Vern was born in Davenport, Iowa on December 27th, 1922, to Fay and Theodore Frith. He was the youngest of four children, two sisters, Dorothy and Ruth and a brother Bill who all preceded him in death including his sister-in-law, Ellen Frith.

Following high school, Vern followed his brother out to California in the late 1930's and worked first at Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank. Later he went to work with Bob Felderman in his film laboratory in Hollywood.
Vern met his wife Beth while living in Hollywood and they were married in Las Vegas on February 14, 1954 and they were married 52 years.

Together Vern and Beth started a film lab of their own called Hollywood Valley Film Lab. The lab took master cuts of 8 and 16mm films and they made multiple copies to be sold mostly through mail order. The lab was very successful and they sold it in the 1970's. Vernon also was the U.S. Representative to the Divert Film Festival in Germany. He was a consultant to Eastman Kodak and active in the USC Film School.

Vern was in his fifties when they retired and from then on he and Beth traveled the world. They made it to all seven continents. They particularly were proud of the fact that they got to Antarctica several times.

The other love of their lives was their membership in the San Fernando Valley Power Squadron. With the Power Squadron they took many trips on various waterways where they would live for weeks at a time on their boat, the Lady Beth II. Vernon rose to the rank of Commodore and was a frequent contributor to the Squadron newsletter.

Visitation will be from 12:00 to 9:00pm December 27th on the second floor of the main mortuary.

The funeral services will be held at 12 noon at the Old North Church at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, on Friday, December 28th.