Harry Watson; Early TV News Cameraman

Harry Watson, a member of a family of child film stars who later became a pioneering cameraman for KTTV in the 1950s, died Friday at his home in Tujunga of complications from a stroke. He was 79.

Born in Los Angeles, Watson was one of nine children of Coy and Golda Watson. The family home was just down the street from the Mack Sennett studios, which were in an area of Los Angeles known as Edendale, so Coy Watson found work for himself and his brood in motion pictures.

The Watson kids, six boys and three girls, worked in more than 1,000 movies. Harry Watson had roles in more than 40 films, including “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” opposite Jimmy Stewart; “A Damsel in Distress,” with Fred Astaire; and “The Barber Shop,” with W.C. Fields.

As a boy, Watson was also interested in photography, a passion he shared with his uncle George, the first paid news photographer at the Los Angeles Times. George Watson later left the paper to manage Acme News Pictures, a forerunner of United Press Photos, and Harry went to work for him covering the 1932 Olympics. All of the Watson brothers eventually became news or commercial photographers. In the 1940s and ‘50s, there was a Watson at four of the five metropolitan daily newspapers in Los Angeles.

Harry Watson joined the Coast Guard during World War II. He covered five South Pacific island invasions and photographed Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s return to the Philippines.

After the war, Watson returned to the newspaper business, taking a job with the old Los Angeles Daily News. He stayed there until the paper folded in 1954.

In the colorful newspaper days of the 1940s and ‘50s, the Watson brothers were known for their wild sense of humor--so wild that no editor in town dared hire more than one Watson at a time. Their pranks became newsroom legend.

Harry Watson, who disliked anything pretentious, phony, humdrum or routine, is credited with some of the more interesting gags.

According to his brother Delmar, Harry once bought a dead duck from a poultry stand near a cemetery that had excluded the press from a memorial service. And that duck came flying over the wall just as the service was nearing the end and an American Legion rifle squad was firing into the air.

As a TV newsreel cameraman, Watson once asked top officials of a local aircraft factory to pretend they were watching their firm’s first jetliner make its first takeoff, so he could film it for television a few minutes in advance.

“Like this,” he said, raising his eyes slowly to the sky and then, with a look of horror, looking sharply back down to the ground. . Observers recalled that the laughter on the part of the executives was a bit thin.

After the Daily News folded, Watson was hired as a newsreel cameraman by KTTV Channel 11, then a news station owned by the parent company of The Times. Watson was stationed at the paper’s offices and would grab his newsreel cameras and head out on stories with Times reporters.

“When television news coverage first began, there was a shortage of camera operators who could cover the news,” Delmar Watson recalled in a story written about the brothers some years ago.

“Regular operators could operate the camera but knew nothing about doing news coverage, so good newspaper photographers were in demand,” he added.

Harry Watson was part of the first KTTV news crew, working as a cameraman and eventually becoming a news editor.

“Once Harry flew to Nevada to cover a story about a train wreck near Las Vegas,” Delmar said. “His plane crashed on the way back, killing the pilot and injuring Harry. [Doctors] wanted to amputate Harry’s leg, but Howard Hughes heard about the crash and flew in a doctor at 2 in the morning, saving Harry’s leg. Hughes’ only request was no publicity.”

Harry Watson spent a year in the hospital recovering from his injuries but was able to resume his television career. He retired from KTTV in the 1970s.

In addition to Delmar, Watson is survived by his wife, Peggy; daughters Priscilla, Kathy, Linda and Mary; brothers Garry, Billy and Coy Jr.; and sister Louise. His brother Bobs and sisters Vivian and Gloria preceded him in death.