Amateur Movie Makers (Dec 1926-Dec 1927)

AND NOW COMES THE FILM CADDY — THE LATEST AMATEUR WRINKLE MOVIES and MILLIONS By Ralph R. Eno PERSONAL movie making, more than any other recreation except golfing, appeals to American men and women who are conspicuous either for individual accomplishment, community standing, wealth or social position. However we may analyze the pleasure to be had from this new sport, and however simple or inexplicable the reasons may be why anyone should want to push buttons or turn cranks on motion picture cameras, we are faced with the fact that Americans whom we call leaders find a distinct satisfaction in doing these very things. This fact became evident to me very soon after I took up that varying and surprising occupation that my friends refer to as "film doctoring." My clients — or my patients, if you will — continually amazed me by casually turning up in "Who's Who" after their modesty and simplicity had led me to consider them as merely average, well-bred people. Then men, with names so well known that their social or financial fame could not take one unawares, began to come to me. Now I believe that no name, however resplendent, would cause the leaves of my ledger to flutter. Someone said to me the other day, "Why do all these millionaires go in for movies and what kind of fellows are they to deal with?" The last part of the question was easy to answer. I told him A "FILM DOCTOR," Representing That Newest Of All Professions, Which Has Been An Outgrowth Of Amateur Movie Making, Tells The Reasons Why Men And Women Of Great Wealth Find Personal Movie Making Interesting. that the average American man or woman of large wealth was more simple and more genuinely courteous in dealing with me — and, I am sure, with anyone else — than many of our fellow-citizens with less ample incomes. This is a truism among wellinformed people. As I discussed the first part of his inquiry it occurred to me that fellow-members of the Amateur Cinema League who, like myself, are in modest financial circumstances might be equally curious with my friend to know something of those many members of our League who possess great wealth. To enjoy a recreation that is enjoyed by so many wealthy people gives one a curiosity about the manner in which they engage in it. Faddists and followers of the newest thing are to be found in great numbers in this and in every country. So, I have found them among wealthy amateur cinematographers. These "shoot" without much thought or care. They look to their new recreation to accomplish for them the impossible; they expect it to give them a new "kick" and that "kick" without effort on their part. They bring nothing to it and they soon tire of it. They manifest this boredom with their movie cameras particularly if they meet friends who are more engrossed in amateur cinematic experiment. They find it inexplicable that anyone should take picture making seriously and are irked that their friends devote so much time to it. They frankly express the hope that their picture making companions will soon drop the hobby and get back to normal. One of these chaps said, recently in my hearing, "It's all perfectly silly and I don't know why anyone does it." He won't very long. I suspect that a large proportion of the adventure seekers and thrill hunters of the world are to be found among the conspicuously wealthy. This may sound like the preliminary to editorial moralizing for yellow journalism, yet I believe it to be a {Continued on page 43) Fifteen HM