Travis Edward Pike -- "Fandango," "Betsy and Thumper" and "Wagner et Venitia"

David and Betsy rehearsing

Travis took time off to direct the live TV promo, Betsy and Thumper, for the re-release of Bambi co-produced by and starring dancer Betsy Baytos, (shown here on one foot), for Buena Vista. David Pinto (in the red jacket), composed, arranged and recorded the original music for the project in which Betsy appears to pop on to an illustrated page and dance with Thumper, the character she had been drawing. Betsy's brother, himself a fine dancer, looks on and contributes advice as David Pinto goes through the music cues with Betsy.

Travis gives Harry camera moves

Meanwhile, Travis ran through the same material with director of photography Harry Mathias (behind the camera) and Focus Puller,Steve St. John (center) as soundman Wolf Seeberg (up against the wall), ran the playback. It was on this project that Travis first consulted with Peter Anderson, then working on Tron at Walt Disney Studios.

Later that year, Travis looped Amin: The Rise and Fall (African English to American English), for Sync, Ltd., which led to his assignment in 1983 as the technical advisor for the Swedish to English dub of Ingmar Bergman's Academy Award winning Fanny and Alexander for Lingo-Tech Dubbing Services. That year Travis also wrote a treatment for a proposed 10-hour miniseries, La Bakaire, based on several biographies of Josephine Baker, for Carl Pingitore and Sweetwood Productions.

As Director of Production, Travis pursued funding for Cine-Media International's projects in development, including "The Hostage of the Golden Hands," an original screenplay Travis wrote in 1982, based on interviews with an alleged smuggler.

He worked on independent productions as well, like Sync. Ltd's English language soundtrack for "Wagner et Venetia," featuring Orson Welles as the voice of Wagner. When we put together this section, we asked Travis what it was like to direct the great Orson Welles. Travis replied, "It was just like the photo."