[1] In 1945, McCollum gave Columbia sound engineer Edward Bernds an opportunity to write scripts for the shorts department, and then to direct.
[2] Years later, Bernds discussed his trying experience during the filming of A Bird in the Head: It was an awful tough deal for a novice rookie director to have a Curly who wasn't himself.
[2]Bernds feared that his directing days would be over as soon as they began if A Bird in the Head (featuring a sluggish Curly) was released as his first effort.
[3] McCollum continued to function as a short-subject producer, in close collaboration with writer-director Edward Bernds and writer Elwood Ullman.
McCollum's attention to the studio's business activities paid off when he arranged to use sets and costumes commissioned for important Columbia feature films.
[5][6] Hugh McCollum died on March 16, 1968, in the Corona del Mar section of Newport Beach, California.