The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

June, 1940 Page 235 MOTION PICTURES— NOT FOR THEATRES By ARTHUR EDWIN KROWS Editor of "The Spur," New York City Installment Eighteen — presenting the pioneer industrial producers of Penn- sylvania and Maryland, also some single project producers, and a study of how the regular makers of non-theatri- cal films are able to earn a living. WHEN Lyman Howe's organiza- tion was flourishing in VVilkes- Barre, he had many assistants in his different departments, and it was in- evitable that, when some left him to head their own enterprises, they would remain more or less in that area. With- out such a reason, geography would be insufficient to explain why Joseph De Frenes kept his headquarters there so long, because the city is situated in the heart of the anthracite region of Penn- sylvania, oflf in the mountains, pretty much away from the main centers of interstate commerce which are so vital to the well-being of workers in this curious, narrow profession. Wilkes- Barre is in the historic Wyoming Valley, about a hundred miles from Philadelphia and, in an impractical bee- line, virtually the same distance from New York. Joseph De Frenes has made many creditable industrial films since starting his independent venture; but one thinks that he might have produced them in happier, more financially profit- able circumstances for himself, had he hung out his shingle, say, in Detroit where so much business was to develop. Bosworth, De Frenes and Felton De Frenes' name has appeared before m these pages—rather inconspicuously, in the story of the glamorous early ca- reer of his nephew, Albuin Mariner. In tlie long ago De Frenes had been a ■ist-card photographer in the -Austrian ' yrol. From there he went to Italy where he resumed his civil trade. He was an exceptional man in the line, even then. One day—I understand that it liappened in Naples—he had the good fortune to serve Burton Holmes. The celebrated American traveler was so well i)lcased with the photographic work done then that, when next he arrived in London, he mentioned De Frenes to Charles Urban. That amiable gentleman thereupon gave De Frenes a trial as- signment or two, and Holmes' judg- ment of his ability as technician being "fell confirmed thereby. Urban initiated Erratum A glaring error appeared, on page 197 of our May insertion, in the statement that A. Harrison Jr., founder and president of The Har- col Film Company, "was a person of exceptional capabilities—he died recently." Not only is Mr. Harri- son alive and active but still is, not "was," "a person of exceptional capabilities." Our sincere regrets and ai)ology to Mr. Harrison and our readers alike. him into the mysteries of Kinemacolor. Presently, therefore, De Frenes was making Italian scenics with the cameras of that interesting process. While on one of these Italian locations, in 1911, he was observed by another American traveler, this time merely a tourist, although also a rather notable one—John H. Patterson, head of the National Cash Register Company. Pat- terson was already using films in his employee welfare work and, naturally, his interest was more than just idle curi- osity. Moreover, he probably had heard of, and possibly had seen, the first American showings of Kinemacolor in New York that very spring. His inter- est was so pronounced, indeed, that he arranged with Urban to send De Frenes to America, there to make some experi- mental colored motion pictures. So De Frenes came overseas and duly photo- graphed some gardens at Dayton, with fiowers and children prominently shown, as usual in such demonstrations, ^nd re- turned to Urban at London. It has been said that these were the first Kinema- color pictures actually to be produced in the United States. His thorough knowledge of photo- graphic principles and his general dependability of character carried De Frenes rapidly upward in the scale of Urban's estimation. Before long he was placed in charge of the Kinemacolor laboratories in London. There it was that, dissatisfied with the technical work of his given assistants, he summoned his nephew Albuin Mariner from Berlin to aid him. But De Frenes, who preferred to work at large in the field, was restless, and welcomed long range assignments from his discerning employer. One of his best known accomplishments was a rare trip, with a motion picture camera, through the heart of Africa, all the way from Cape Town to Cairo—and they had no buses in which to make the journey then. The Kinemacolor Company of Ameri- ca was formed by wealthy men living at Allentown, Pennsylvania, who wanted to establish headquarters there; and this may well explain why De Frenes first became acclimated in America in that State. It also would suggest the reason for his next becoming acquainted with Lyman Howe, whose business establish- ment at Wilkes-Barre was only about fifty miles distant from Allentown. In all events, although De Frenes was well enough pleased with the new country, he did not find the American organiza- tion of Kinemacolor as much to his liking as the English one, so he left it to join Lyman Howe, and Wilkes-Barre became his home. Howe, like virtually all the regular non theatrical producers of the time, was not averse to making industrial pictures on the side. Among other undertakings of the sort, a note, dated June, 1916, informs me that De Frenes and C. R. Bosworth, photographers belonging to the Lyman Howe Company, "have just completed work on the Willys-Knight picture" at an automobile plant in Tole- do. The title of the subject is not es- pecially significant; but the name of Bosworth is, for he was to become part- ner of De Frenes in an independent company. Bosworth was not really a production man—not in the extremely- thorough sense in which the other prac- ticed. He was, rather, a business man, a salesman. I knew him slightly, a friendly, glad-hand type, remarkable for his faith in tliis as the best of all pos- sible worlds, and with voluble, expansive qualities which suggested that he might at some time have been a lecturer with the Howe films on the church circuits. However, I don't know about that. In the Howe production group at Wilkes-Barre there was also Paul M. Felton. He was an animation artist. When they come to award Ma,x Fleischer the laurels for smooth screen action in his first "Out of the Inkwell" cartoons, I trust that the judges may take into account also the early work of Paul Felton. Those artists who knew him still marvel at what a prodigy of patience and application he was. Throughout his career at the animation table he worked the livelong day and far into the night, giving human verisimilitude to his drawn figures. He obtained the result chiefly, I be- lieve, by means of the device know as the Rotascope, with the aid of which the artist is able to trace photographs of ac- tual motion. But whatever "short-cuts" Felton employed, the time and energy he saved thereby were merely relayed to other asi)ects of his job. One of his most celebrated early industrial cartoons was "Striking Tires," a comic produced for the B. F. Goodrich Rubber Com- pany ; but the more memorable example to me is the marvelous, living statistical graph in "The University of the Night," produced for the International Corres- pondence Schools at Scranton. In 1917 Felton arranged with Bos- worth and De Frenes to leave the Lyman Howe employ to form their own indus- trial concern. In the firm name on the office door Bosworth's name was placed first t^ecause it represented the important sales contract; De Frenes came next for