Dwight Long

By VARIETY STAFF

Dwight Stanley Long, who sailed around the world in his youth and made documentary films during World War II, died July 3 of pneumonia in Santa Monica. He was 89.

At 21, Long went on a six-year sailing trip around the world and afterward picked up his camera and prepared for the action that would take place during World War II.

While Long's work predates cable, his travel footage and war scenes continue to be viewed, including his prewar adventure "Sailing the Seas."

One of his films shot aboard the Yorktown II near the end of World War II was seen nationwide in theater newsreels at the time and continues to be used in films about the war.

Born and raised in Seattle, Long studied journalism at the U. of Washington and planned to work his watery way around the world, sending dispatches to newspapers and magazines as he sailed along.

In later years, Long utilized his cache of film made during the 1930s and 1940s to create several travel documentary films, which he narrated into the 1970s as "Armchair Adventures" at UCLA's Royce Hall.

He is survived by his brother and sister.