American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1945)

Aces of the Camera HARRY PERRY A. S. C. By HAL HALL HARRY PERRY, A.S.C., is the only cameraman in Hollywood who can claim the unusual distinction of having slept in the swimming pool of an ocean liner. Not only did he sleep in the swimming pool, but he had as his sleeping neighbor no less a celebrity than Robert Montgomery. No, it wasn’t a lark, and neither of the above mentioned gentlemen had been gazing at the bottom of a cup that cheers. It was a situation brought about by the war. Harry was in Monte Carlo in 1939 making transparency back¬ ground shots for David O. Selznick’s “Rebecca.” When the war broke out his French camera crew stopped work im¬ mediately and reported for military duty and he was forced to stop work and start for home as fast as possible. After many difficulties he found himself aboard the S. S. Washington where he was as¬ signed a cot in the swimming pool. Mont¬ gomery was assigned the cot next to his. Every square inch of space on the ship was taken up with cots. While Harry now goes quietly and efficiently about his photographic wiz¬ ardry in the Transparency Department at Paramount Studios, he has in the past been one of the most globe-trotting globe-trotters in the ranks of Holly¬ wood’s ace cameramen. He says he hopes his travel days are over, and hopes to devote the remainder of his time to transparency work right in Hol¬ lywood. Harry’s cinematic history is interest¬ ing. It was in December, 1918, that he started on his first camera job. Alvin Wyckoff, A.S.C., was then head of the camera department at the old Lasky Studio on Vine Street, Hollywood. Alvin gave Harry a job as an assistant cam¬ eraman. For three years he was first an assistant and then a second camera¬ man, and shot stills along with his other work. ' Then Tom Forman was made a director and the first thing he did was to insist on my being made a first cam¬ eraman to shoot his first picture. Harry was a bit nervous about it, for Thomas Meighan was the star of the picture, and Harry felt that he might not be good enough to photograph so great a star. He did the picture to the great satis¬ faction of everybody concerned. In fact, he did it so well that he photographed seven pictures in a row starring Meighan, and directed by Forman. It was while photographing these pic¬ tures that Harry started his travels. He went to Long Island to make three of them. Then to Boston and Maine to make “Cappy Ricks,” to Ashville, N. C., to make “Conquest of Canaan,” and to Sing Sing Prison to do “The City of Silent Men.” Then he returned to Cali¬ fornia and left Lasky to go with B. P. Shulberg’s producing company at the famous Selig Studio on North Broad¬ way, Los Angeles, and at the old F.B.O. Studios which is now R.K.O. Studios. Harry photographed eleven feature pictures for Shulberg. Among them were “April Showers,” with Coleen Moore; “Shadows,” with Lon Chaney; “The Vir¬ ginian,” with Kenneth Harlan and Flor¬ ence Vidor; and “The Broken Wing,” with Harlan and Marion Cooper. In 1925 Perry returned to the Lasky Studio where he spent six months mak¬ ing preparations and building camera mounts for airplanes. Then he was made head cameraman on Billy Wellman’s great air pictures, “Wings.” It took more than a year to photograph that picture, and Harry at one time had ten first cameramen working under him. Five months were spent in San Antonio, Texas, with the Air Forces. All the flying shots with the principals, Buddy Rogers and Dick Arlen, were actually made in the air, as process background technique had not then been perfected. Harry put in more than 300 hours in the air on that film alone. Perry followed “Wings” with another air picture, “Now We’re in the Air,” (Continued on Page 204) American Cinematographer • June, 1945 187