International photographer (Jan-Dec 1934)

Two The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER January, 1934 Editorial Once upon a time maybe as long as fifteen years or more ago — there dwelt in Hollywood, the Picture Towne, a group of youngsters who called themselves Cameramen. They were employed by the men who produce motion pictures and they were a fine, straightshooting, upstanding, intelligent, clean cut outfit. Their middle name was loyalty and they were the most energetic lot anybody ever saw. They were the prop's (not the properties) of the growing young industry and no matter who else might, for some reason or other, shirk the job, usually through lack of knowledge, the Cameraman, like the Roman soldier, was always at his post ready for any emergency, even to direct, dress a set or play a part — if his assistant was equal to the job of cranking. The Producers found by experience that the group called Cameramen could be trusted in any event and that their skill, courage and artistry saved many a picture from the morgue. Time rolled on. The Producer was getting to be rich and powerful and somewhat forgetful of the "early days" when he and the Cameramen were the best of friends. The Picture Towne was growing upand becoming famous and the Cameramen, more or less left to themselves, began to talk about getting together in some sort of club or association where they could exchange ideas and, by talking shop, could solve their mutual problems. And so it befell that they passed the word around and formed an organization which they called a society and thus they began to enter upon the second phase of their brilliant and useful career. By this time the Producers were waxing richer and, one may say, a bit arrogant. To him and his kind the Cameraman began to be just one of the hired hands about the studio. He was on the pay roll and, therefore, entitled to some sort of recognition, but that was all, and so the Cameraman herded by himself and spent his valuable time putting beauty into the pictures and developing processes by which miracles were wrought. And here let it be said that the magic of the skilled cameraman is the most wonderful magic in the world, for the picture is what the cameraman gets and the man behind the camera is the real magician. And so the Producer became very proud of the work of his Cameramen and enthusiastically boasted about it, but when the Cameraman, conscious of his increasing use-value, humbly suggested that it would seem only commensurate with his services to be paid a reasonable advance over the old "take what you can get" scale, so that his family might live better and be a bit happier, he was told to run along and be a good boy. But the Cameramen were not like that. With a lively sense of their own importance of their usevalue in that great structure called the Motion Picture Industry the Cameramen began to compare notes and what they found out was sufficient. Men were sadly overworked and the majority were sadly underpaid. Committees were appointed to see what could be done and contact was actually made with the powers that be among the people who make the pictures. What was deemed, by the best minds among the Cameramen, to be a fair and equitable basis of agreement between Producer and Cameramen, for the adjustment of differences, was drawn up, submitted to the cinematographic body and considered a first class representation of the Cameramen's case. This was placed in the hands of a committee with instructions to put it up to the Producers and the battle was on. The tactics of the Cameramen was to go after the Producers and get them to sign this document, which was called a "Code of Ethics," while the tactics of the defense, or the Producers, was to stall the Cameramen, but to do it in a nice, quiet, soothing kind of way. During the exchanges (conversations they call 'em in diplomatic circles) the Cameramen were in dead earnest and they went at the job with their usual energy and intelligence. They felt sure they were on the way to success and that the bad old days of never ending work and inadequate pay were on the skids for good and, so flattering was the outlook, that scores of Cameramen who had held aloof from membership in the Society now hastened to enroll under that standard for the protection promised by the proposed Code of Ethics and so it was. Time passed. Many conversations were held, the Code was sent back time and again for amendment and the Cameramen, in their spirit of loyalty and trust, made concessions and did their all to get their Ten Commandments signed, but to no avail ink was dear. Now in those days there was a young man who happened to be at the head of the Cameramen s cohorts, by unanimous choice, and he was a fine, intelligent, aggressive and upstanding executive. At last he grew weary of the status quo and announced that he would take the matter into his own capable hands and it looked like business. There were daily conferences between the straightforward, sincere ambassador of the Cameramen and the affable and unctuous prime minister of the opposition, but to no avail. And, in the meantime, certain Cameramen had stood on the sidelines and watched the game. They hoped that the Code, by this time more resembling a football than anything else, might be signed, but as time flew on they lost hope and looked about for a true solution of the problem. They found it in the form of a Labor Union, did these determined Cameramen who had watched from the sidelines and, sure enough, that was the true solution. They found that because of the unlimited opportunities offered them through an affiliation with labor it was possible to more effectively handle their economic affairs. They learned that through the I.A.T. S.E. & M.P.M.O. they would build a friendship among 2,500,000 affiliated individuals, who have since grown to 5,000,000. They learned that through such an association there was not a village, town or city to which their employers could send them wherein labor was not represented wherein friends did not reside. They learned that not only was the manual laborer their friend, but the skilled laborer and the organized artists as well. The educators, too, were organized under the great banner of the American Federation of Labor and they found as well that their labor card was an open sesame to places previous inaccessible. It healed the sore places, barred nobody possessing the necessary qualifications for membership, provided for protection to Cameramen and Producers alike, at home and abroad, satisfactorily settled the wage problem, brought about over night far better working and living conditions than the Cameramen had hoped to attain through their Code of Ethics and, within an incredibly short time, established an orderly set up that has endured, grown and flourished for five and one-half years, and internationally respected. But the prosperity of the Cameramen began to irk the Producer and there were differences as to hours (TURN TO PAGES 16 AND 17)