International photographer (Jan-Dec 1934)

Two The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER February, 1934 Under Three Flags Expedition By Edwin G. Linden HE Under Three Flags Expedition," while not known in Hollywood, was an important and ■ extensive undertaking and its wanderings and findings were made into a big picture. We traversed the highways and byways from the northernmost point in Canada, to the southernmost point in Mexico that automobiles are able to get to under their own power. It is true that there is no big name such as Mae West on the main title for all that we featured in this film was oil, and especially Socony-Vacuum oil. At first it seemed rather strange that an oil company should be willing to make a feature length picture just for their own use but I soon found out why. They had developed a new oil that is soon to appear on the market and our film was only to sell the idea of the extent of research that had been conducted to prove the oil, not to the dear public who will never see our masterpiece, but to the thousands of distributors and dealers over the entire country, and when it is eventually placed on the market there will be $5,000,000 spent in advertising in order to sell it to the public. There were fourteen cars in all, each a well known brand and ranging from Ford and Chevrolet to Cadillac and Pierce-Arrow. All were painted and equipped alike and they made an impressive sight to the millions who saw the caravan in its three months' traveling through three countries. I should here give credit to those to whom I refer as "we" of the camera staff. There was Otto Hesse, of New York City, still photographer, and the late John Shepek, Jr., assistant cameraman, who was taken ill in Chicago and was replaced by Bill Reinhold in Cleveland. Our photographic equipment included two Mitchell standard cameras, two Filmos, three Graflex, two Leicas and forty kodaks with the several other brands of miniature cameras scattered among the personnel of the expedition. According to this showing they were certainly camera-minded. Our official start was 1,200 miles north of the U. S.Canada border and fourteen miles north of Notekewin, Alberta. Here the few wagon tracks that had formed the road branched off in various directions and were soon lost in the tall prairie grass. Only a single telegraph wire continued north to be the only communication that people from there on have with the outside world unless they go on foot or dog-sleds. A telegraph operator hooked on this line, keyed out our start to the world, while the boys for the first time in two weeks broke out the camera equipment to make our first image on greyback. Our pictures here will prove to anyone who cares that northern Canada is all the same as Kansas. While fourteen mud-covered cars started out with horns honking we registered the start at F/4, which is all October noon light in Notekewin is worth on anybody's film. Ours was the task of putting on negative a record of the trip, not only to be interesting, but to be instructive to the many men with technical minds who would analyze the results. The road back was a repetition of what we had been through the previous ten days in getting here. Two hundred miles of muskeg roads with gumbo mud so deep that the axles dragged and so slippery that it was as easy to go sideways as forward, yet every day we progressed south was the consolation that the days would get longer and warmer. Often at night we plowed ahead under the guidance of the northern lights, but it was slow going as the rains had made the roads nearly impassable and it often required all hands to free the cars that had sideslipped into the ditch. The light cars naturally were the best performers in the mud, the heavily laden camera car seemed to have a yen for the ditches and received its share of harsh words, the pictures show only the physical side of the mud battle, it really needed sound to convey the spirit of the men, who knee deep in mud pulled on ropes or pushed on fenders while they sang our anthem of "Beef, More Beef," to the accompaniment of roaring engines. Eight horses on foot were worth more than eighty under the hood. Once through the mud we traveled rapidly over fine graveled roads which took us through the towns of Edmonton, Saskatoon, Moosejaw and Regina. We had the pleasure of shaking hands with Premier Bennett, who wished us well, and of visiting the barracks of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, where we were entertained by their drills, and we in turn entertained them by taking their pictures, the first time anyone has been accorded this privilege. As fine a body of men as anyone would care to meet are these Royal Canadian Mounted Police. At Nor Portal where we crossed the line we found it was much easier to get out of the United States than it Avas to get back in. Ten days from the start and we were in Chicago where the boys had a chance to see the Century of Progress, and many thousands at the Fair had a chance to see us. From Chicago our route was east through Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo, past Niagara Falls and across the Empire State, some of the most beautiful scenery of the trip so far, all the hills were covered with autumn foliage, each in a different shade of the gradual change from green to brown to red to orange to yellow. And the greatest novelty of all was the complete lack of signboards. In Storrowtown, N. Y., we visited a collection of old Colonial buildings which had been brought from their original sites and re-erected here in surroundings in keeping with their age, an entire village was formed and each of the buildings had been built during revolutionary times, not of 1933, but of 1776. Here we were able to put a little comedy and story into our film that was fast becoming a travelog of the roadways. We were blessed with a clear sparkling day that made the pictures of Storrowtown stand out above the wonders of the three countries that comprise the finished picture. Historic Boston was interesting, not for any photographic reason, for it was again F/3 :5 at high noon, but its winding streets and quaint buildings had a charm that will long be remembered. At New York City we had a day — while everyone rested and reorganized for the trip to San Antonio. But not the camera crew ; Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.