International photographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

on Iocatjon For bAckqROUNtJs By HARRY PERRY Harry Perry started as a cameraman hack in 1918. He has made five trips hack and forth to Europe in the last few years for different Hollywood studios. When the war started he was making shots around Monte Carlo for Selznick, hut was forced to leave in September, 1939, before his work was finished. The authorities would not permit him to work in the district because of troop movements. He returned home on a boat so crowded that he, with about fifty others, slept on cots in the bottom of the swimming pool I minus the water) . During the past six or seven years most of his work has been on location trips, last year going to the Bahamas and New York for backgrounds for "Honeymoon in Bali." Despite the fact that Perry is a globe trotter who has visited countries known and unknown, he always finds his work exciting and enjoys each new experience. — (Editorial Note.) Last October Paramount sent me to New York to photograph hackgrounds for "The New Yorker," directed by Charles Vidor. Stanley Goldsmith, assistant director, was in charge, accompanied by Curtis Mick, production manager. We were successful in making some difficult shots; quite a few on Fifth Avenue around the RCA Building, where they had to hold the crowd back for minutes at a time. This was a problem, especially at noon, which was the only time we could work to get the light across Fifth Avenue. Some night shots were made on Fifth Avenue, shooting across from Saks Store toward the RCA Building. On these we used lights on the Avenue and the buildings across the street. Another shot presenting complications was Times Square just at dusk. We used a few Photo-floods for the foreground action. All the big signs were wanted, including Wrigley's and the Paramount Theatre and the traffic going across Fortysecond Street at Broadway. By the time we got started thousands of people had crowded up and it took a lot of policemen to keep them from running the camera down. Finally we had to get on a platform so they would not push the camera over. We took several shots from the Brooklyn Bridge, doubling in the lights of the Battery and up-town building lights and fortunately the sway of the bridge did not affect the double exposure at all. After finishing in New York I received word to go to the West Indies for location shots with a 16mm camera for a picture to be made by E. II. Griffith, called "Dildo Cay." E. D. Leshin, production manager in charge of assignment, was sent from the studio to \'cw York to complete arrangements. We flew to Miami, where we staved one day, then took the Pan American Air Finer to Port au Prince, Haiti. Upon our arrival there we found we had missed, by just one day, the monthly liner that stops at the Grand Turk Islands on its way to New York. We had to get to these islands, so it was up to us to find a boat that would take us there. We spent two or three days at Port au Prince, trying to find a boat capable of making the trip, then made a very interesting drive across the island, about two hundred miles over very rough roads. The villages were fascinating, with their grass covered houses and little naked children running around. At one spot by the side of the road we passed a native girl of about eighteen sunning her naked body on the bank of a small stream and so unself-conscious that she scarcely noticed us when we went by. We had to ford several streams with the car. After a heavy rain this would have been impossible. Our destination was Cap Haiti, where we arrived late in the evening. Now we had to find a boat with a motor. Sounds simple, but we were unable to accomplish it. All of the boats were of the plain sail type, manned by natives, so finally we were forced to engage one of these. We got the best boat to be had, about forty feet long and manned by a crew of six natives. There were no lights, no life preservers, no cabin. A light leaky row boat was carried which would have accommodated only half the crew if we had needed it. We started out for Grand Turk Islands about four o'clock in the afternoon, ran into a heavy wind the first night — which took us along like an express train — as well as making us feel very bad for quite a while. Then due to the lack of lights we had the experience of being almost run down by a liner. We were saved by the use of my flashlight, which I flashed back and forth. They passed about fifty feet to one side of us. We were supposed to get to our destination next day, but did not make it until the following Monday. The second night out we ran into some reefs and had to anchor there all night. The third day, Sunday, we were becalmed for twenty hours, about twenty miles from our goal. Finally a light breeze came up and it took us five hours to make the twenty miles, reaching the islands called Grand Turk and Salt Cay, about which the book "Dildo Cay" was written. On Grand Turk Island we were the guests of the English Commissioner, as there are no hotels nor accommodations. In Salt Cay we were the guests of the Herriott family. There are about three hundred and fifty native blacks on the island and there are six people in the Herriott family, the only white people there. The Herriott family have been in the salt business there since 1820. They were very helpful to us in getting our shots. The pictures we made at Salt Cay, covering several hundred acres of ground, showed the evaporation tanks and the system of making salt. They have windmills for power, carrying the water in and out of the different tanks. It also was interesting to watch them load sacks of salt into little lighters or sailboats, taking them to the big liner and transferring them to the hold. After finishing there we had to get to another island twenty miles away, called East Harbor. This necessitated another rough sailboat ride of about five hours. We were in East Harbor for two days. Then Paramount Studios sent a plane to pick us up and take us seven hundred miles to Miami. Upon our arrival there we went to Key West along the new automobile road which was built several years ago after a hurricane took out the railroad. We took pictures of the town, the old residences, coral reefs, and some in the vicinity of the Mangrove Islands, near Key West, location shots for research work for a production to be made by Cecil B. De Mille. We left Key West on Christmas morning, got back to Miami about noon, stayed the afternoon, then took the train that evening for St. Augustine, Florida, where we went to see the Marine Gardens, about twenty miles south of the city. Here we made shots for possible use in under-water scenes for "Reap the Wild Wind." These gardens are very unusual and interesting. They are in two very large tanks, with all the most modern ways and means of temperature control and proper circulation of water. Both tanks have a lot of flora and coral for backgrounds, which make it look like the bottom of the sea. In one of the tanks are many large porpoises, lots of turtles and other fish which are not ferocious. On the bottom of the tank and along the sides are probably a hundred portholes through which visitors may watch the fish. A diver goes down and feeds them. The porpoises are very playful and take fish from his hand. In the bottom of the other tank, swimming around the wrecked hull of a ship. are seven or eight man-eating sharks, two big baracuda and some morays, and many other varieties of fish, all of which are ferocious. The diver goes down to this tank also and entertains the spectators who look through the portholes. There probably are five hundred to a thousand visitors every day who pay a dollar and ten cents admission, and it is well worth the price. 20