[1][2] As a young man, Ganzer moved to California, and in 1932 was given a job at Paramount Pictures in its casting department.
His first directorial feature film credit is for The Girls of Pleasure Island (1953); he had been assisting F. Hugh Herbert, who became ill during production.
[3] From 1954–1979 he was a prolific director of episodes for television series, and directed a handful of additional feature films.
He was married to Murial Ganzer, and they had a son Alvin, and a daughter, Carolynn Jacobs Finnegan, all of whom survived him.
[2] He died on 3 January 2009, in Poʻipū, Hawaii, where he and his wife had moved about six years earlier to be close to their son.