The international photographer (Feb-Dec 1929)

The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER April, 1929 "THE DAILY GRIND" By Ralph B. Staub BEN REYNOLDS, camera ace for Warner Bros, thinks he may have to make a hurried trip to Florida — he received a wire that land was discovered on his property. Ben just completed the recent SOPHIE TUCKER epic. * * * JOE WALKER has an invention in the form of a muzzle that covers the cameraman's face and keeps him from sneezing when making sound pictures. Well, since the advent of talking pictures, the cameraman has led a dog's life anyway. * * * I see BOB KURRLE is wearing a Puritan hat. Must be the effect of photographing "Evangeline" with Dolores Del Rio. IRA HOKE tells me he wears his heavy underwear in winter while shooting talking pictures — to keep his bones from rattling. * * * We saw JOHNNY MESCAL at the Rancho Golf Club and stood there admiring him — he has his mother's eyes, his father's nose and his uncle's niblick. * * * ARTHUR REEVES tells me he has an assistant with a brand new brain — so far he has never used it. * * * Saw ARTHUR EDESON with a beautiful girl — he sure is getting to be a lady killer — he starves them to death. SID HICKOX has just completed the camera work on the recent Jack Mulhall-Dorothy Mackaill vehicle. William Beaudine directing. * * * CHARLES ROSHER cables me that he met the Prince of Wales while out riding — they both happened to be thrown together. * * * TED McCORD is shooting Ken Maynard's new picture. Ted says it's great to be out West where men draw from the hip and women help them drink it. * * * ERNIE HALLER is grinding on the new Ralph Dawson picture at First National, with Loretta Young and an all-star cast. * * * SOL POLITO is cameraing for AI Santell at First National. Boyle Talkies Popular Among the highlights of talking pictures, Mack Sennett's two reel comedies have attracted much favorable comment during the past month. Real entertainment characterizes these modern laughmakers. The technique of both photography and sound are equal in every way to the most successful dramatic productions. To John W. Boyle goes the credit for the photography and light effects that have contributed largely to the success of these short entertainments. Ernest Crockett, veteran Sennett cameraman, is associated with Boyle. The first four of a long series are now on the screen. They are : "The Lion's Roar," "The Bride's Relations," "The Old Barn," and "Whirls and Girls." '% Cameramen Wear Gloves In the making of scenes for "The Argyle Case," Vitaphone production, now in course of filming at the Warner Brothers studio in Hollywood, it was necessary not only to show fingerprints of the characters being taken in the customary manner, on paper, but also the "bringing out" and photographing of finger marks on furniture in a room in which a murder has been committed. To insure that this highly technical work is done by the actors in just the correct way, Mr. J. H. Ash, fingerprint expert of Los Angeles, will act as technical advisor. Cameramen responsible for the photography of the picture are : James Van Trees, Ben Reynolds, Edgar Lyons, Pliny Goodfriend, Ernest Smith, Louis Jennings, Bill Schurr and Carl Meister. Irving Lippman is making the stills. Warner Bros, certainly are keeping the boys busy these days. Saw a group of ten on the Sophie Tucker set making "Honky Tonk." TONY GAUDIO is cinematographer-inchief for Alan Crosland on a new all-color all-talkie at Warners. HAL MOHR is practicing to walk on his hands so he can line his camera upside down for the new effects Paul Fejos is putting in "Broadway." * * * "Hell's Angels" has had so many cameramen to date that they can't remember their names — they call them by numbers now. "Women Should Organize" Marjorie Rambeau, in a recent interview with the Minneapolis Labor Review, declared herself in favor of Trades Unions. Miss Rambeau has long been a member of Actors' Equity, and has thousands of friends in the I. A. T. S. E. Coming from such an authority, her views carry great weight. " 'Trade Unionism is the making of civilization. It's the only thing. It's a protection to employe and employer.' " 'I was one of the first 500 members of Equity,' Miss Rambeau said proudly. Equity is the Union of the stage folks, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. " 'I want to appeal to the women workers in industry to organize. It would be a great satisfaction to me to think that I could have in any way aided them in seeing the necessity for organization. " 'As an artist, I have learned the benefits of and necessity of Trade Unionism, and I believe it even more necessary that the women of industry should be organized than the women of the stage. It is their only hope to gain that which is rightly theirs but which as individuals they are powerless to obtain and can only hope for through organization,' she said. "Ask Miss Rambeau who the greatest men in the world are and she will answer without hesitating 'The Stage Hands'. The members of the Theatrical Stage Employes' Union are her pals and boosters. They have no stauncher friend than Marjorie Rambeau." o First Hundred Years the Worst There has been so much comment recently on the "hard times," that a few statistics from the business representative of Local No. 659 seem necessary in order to dispel any undue worry. According to our employment records, over 75 per cent of our membership is now working. This figure is within 15 per cent of the normal working conditions as compiled by A. F. of L. bodies. Unions as a rule have observed that when only 10 per cent of their membership is on the "swing gang," conditions are considered as ideal. With our own conditions only 15 per cent below this margin there is no cause for undue alarm among cameramen.