An appreciation for a Kansas City-born Angelino
By Lisa Gilman-Schanzer
Orven Schanzer, 97, died in 2022 from complications of severe inherited and acquired peripheral neuropathy and its many symptoms including drop neck/drop head syndrome that caused him problems swallowing, breathing, eating and sleeping.
Born in Kansas City, Kansas, in 1924, Schanzer moved to Los Angeles in 1946 and had a 45-year career at 20th Century Fox studios as a film and TV editor on many pop-culture classics. He thrived with annual visits back to his beloved hometown until 2019, at which time he was en route to Rochester, New York, to meet neurologist Dr. David Herrmann and see his latest research on Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and peripheral neuropathy.
Schanzer’s trips always included updates on the Friends of Sheffield Cemetery Restoration Project, dear to his heart because so much of his family is buried there.
In 2007, Rickie Haith, former chair of Friends of Sheffield and its preservation project, reached out to Schanzer to attend their WWII event. Schanzer eagerly began looking forward to returning to Greater Kansas City and visiting the landmarks he’d seen being built in the 1920s and 1930s, like the William Rockhill (Nelson Atkins Museum) and The Walnuts buildings.
A Central High graduate and ROTC cadet, Schanzer’s youth was spent in BBYO (B’nai B’rith Youth Organization) at the Linwood Multipurpose Center, where he was an AZA member who played basketball and softball. During the 1970s at Fox, he would meet director Robert Altman, remarking how brilliant the dailies were from the movie “McCabe & Mrs. Miller,” not knowing Altman came from Kansas City and enjoyed the same Linwood Multipurpose Center connection that he did. He didn’t know until he attended the 100th anniversary of the Center and Altman’s name was mentioned at the event.
Schanzer was drafted at age 18 while working at the Dolginow’s Jewelry store on Main St.. He trained for WWII at Camp Crowder near Neosho and returned from WWII by train at Union Station. The staff sergeant, though a self-described clerk in the 9th Army Air Force, European Theatre of Operations, was in the 394th Signal Corps that arrived at Omaha Beach a couple days after the Normandy invasion in a landing craft infantry (LCI) military transport to re-establish communications destroyed by WWII.
In 1947, shortly after he applied for work at 20th Century Fox studios, Schanzer started having Kansas City-connected coincidences. For instance, while walking in front of the studio entrance, he happened to see his Kansas City barber he was so fond of and warmly greeted him. His barber said he worked there. Schanzer was elated. Schanzer also loyally used a former Kansas City tailor who did alterations on the studio lot.
Schanzer was even asked by his boss, studio head Darryl F. Zanuck, if he wanted to see one of the Kemper boys audition. Schanzer thought his being there might make the prospective actor nervous, and he declined.
In later years, Schanzer’s medical appointments at the local Motion Picture Television Fund’s Health Clinic in Los Angeles were a homecoming of sorts; he’d see postered hallways of hometown heroes like Jean Harlow, William Powell (a Central High alumni) and Ginger Rogers.
After retirement, the former boy scout focused on humanitarian efforts and community outreach as the face of neuropathy and co-founder of his Los Angeles grassroots health nonprofit, Ambor Schanzer Fight Against Neuropathy (fightagainstneuropathy.org). The nonprofit is dedicated to raising awareness and research funding for a neuropathy cure for the nearly 30 million people nationwide suffering with the incurable, debilitating neuromuscular disease. Schanzer was further grateful to get a letter from former Mayor Sly James during a Kansas City trip acknowledging and praising his neuropathy awareness endeavors.
Schanzer is survived by his daughter, Lisa Gilman-Schanzer of Los Angeles; cherished nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, great-grandnephews, cousins and dear friends in Overland Park, Kansas; Leawood, Kansas; and Independence, Missouri.