International photographer (Jan-Dec 1934)

May, 1934 T h e INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPH E R Nineteen Tower of Babel, soon to rival the Woolworth Building in height slips before us. Lee — we're over the top now! Every vestige of fog has disappeared and San Francisco lays before us like a bas relief map. Across the Golden Gate lies Fort Point where workers are frantically striving to regain those precious months lost when severe storms played havoc with their trestle work. Two huge masses of concrete mark the progress of the great cable anchorage there. Behind us lies beautiful Marin County with the grim coast defense guns of Fort Baker pointed determinedly out the Golden Gate. Is this an omen? Below — oh, far below, we can see mere dots getting into bug-like vehicles and driving off. To our right, a pearl in an emerald setting, is Alcatraz, formerly a military prison and soon to become a Federal Penitentiary. Secure in the belief that our little skip swung away out there in the air is as safe as a trolley car, my attack of cold feet has left me and so I can be excused if at first I didn't notice the faint cries from the tower. Looking down, my heart takes a mighty leap and lands in the region of my tonsils as I see the guide rope hanging limply from the skip. Almost instantly we start a slow spin which gathers speed. Right then and there I decided that this type of sound could best be monitored through the headphones. It would have taken a crowbar to open my eyes. Boy, oh boy, what a wonderful "dry" jag you can get from a spinning skip. Here, our derrick engineer proves himself equal to the emergency as with skill approaching genius he lowers us gently into the tower where the guide rope is fastened once again. Hundreds of feet of raw stock pass through the gates to become permanent records (and perhaps bore a blase audience) of another achievement of mere man in the making. Can I be excused, in this age of daily miracles, if I pause to marvel that enormous projects such as these can be conceived and planned in every detail before a single piece of the structure is fabricated? Everyone is satisfied with their stuff and the lower away signal is given with the added command "and hurry up" given by Jack McHenry. Almost instantly he regretted them thar words for our engineer took him literally and our descent was made in nothing flat. Well, it's all over but the shipping. The weather held out just long enough for the story and we speed along the Marin shore through the thick fog rolling in to catch the last ferry that will bring us in in time for the air express plane leaving that night. Just another assignment completed and we are free to turn our thoughts to the next story — a picture of trained cats! But I'll gamble with you that our newsreel cameramen tackle it with the same enthusiasm that was so evident on the bridge story — because — well, not because it's all in a day's work but perhaps it's sort of part of the make-up of these fellows to get the most out of the old box no matter what's in front of it. The use of Fred Westerberg's CINEMATOCRAPHER'S BOOK OF TABLES will make your job worth more by saving time and assuring accuracy. $1.00. WE . a . cook* v-c . *ardo; "Zooms" Us way , . ...~«s(ul films o* " f^he petto" + BELL * HOWELL c O M P A ig49 Larchmont A> . Yo,k; , 1 films of recent m<toV» The W* -'«*, K «««*■* » fate tribute production «M £*" Col)te V«° L» ^ ph„to graphic 'zoom _. at li definition 40 mm to ^ and At F 3.5 the range is and at 1S £+Yirom 40 ^Vom 40 mm, to 20 the "won" as° . vaned auto ,. Close ingpM" , ,„ keep *e U .^Jses. W"te *° rNn^doneVhn ~*g£U «*■> » ~ SonsWestudtostnt &chro ^f? \1 roOR-e^P nrrected for PrlCC ' Seal lengths from Seven tocai £5, and pnees Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.