The international photographer (Feb-Dec 1929)

Th ity-two T h e INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER July, 1929 ceived when plane which he was taking from Glendale to location at Inglewood failed to clear a high line tension line at Glendale airport, crashed and burned. Howard Hughes had narrow escape from death when a Thomas-Morse single seater which he was flying for the first time went into a tail spin at location at Inglewood from a height of about 300 feet. The plane was a mass of wreckage out of which Mr. Hughes emerged smiling. He was laid up for about a week with a bad eye and bruises. Maurice Murphy had a forced landing at Inglewood because of a bad motor. He was later killed in a crash at San Diego while flying a Maddox plane. Ralph Blanchard, technical director at the start of the picture, was killed in a home-made plane after leaving the employ of Howard Hughes. Ross Cooke had a crash at Santa Paula location and British type S. E. scout was washed out. Al Wilson lost a prop from the German Fokker which he was flying over fog above Hollywood and jumped with a parachute. He alighted on the roof of a house close to Hollywood Boulevard and LaBrea; plane landed in Joe Schenk's back yard, two blocks from Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Roscoe Turner brought a big twomotored bomber across country from New York to Caddo Field in the San Fernando Valley. He went into a tail spin over the San Bernardino Mountains and narrowly missed crashing. After changing ship over from passenger ship with capacity of twelve passengers to German bomber, it was tested at Caddo Field and Roger Manning, technical director, narrowly missed serious accident when he was knocked down by a prop blast and tail skid narrowly misses his body. Jack Rand had a landing gear buckle in landing after a shot in the air and the plane turned over on its back. Frank Clarke did a ground loop at Long Beach and broke a wing and prop. Roscoe Turner took up a Ryan monoplane belonging to Roy Wilson with Ben Lyon as passanger, to fly to the Breakfast Club. While circling there they ran out of gas and were forced to land in the Los Angeles river bed, where they crashed and turned over, but escaped injury. A bomber landed at Rogers Field and broke a wheel, holding up work for several days. A scene was made of a bomber by about five cameramen and Howard Hughes on a 20-foot parallel, photographing it coming straight for them with motors going. There were about forty men on the ground to stop the bomber before it reached the parallel, but it took them along like they were nothing and the only thing that stopped it was a large twelve-foot log right at the foot of parallel. A tragedy was narrowly averted. In attempting a shot of the bomb er taking off two cameras worth $8,000 were smashed and scattered over the field when hit by landing gear and propeller. Harry Perry and Jeff Gibbons narrowly escaped being killed when part of a broken prop whirled by their heads. Also Elmer Marcy, mechanic, had a narrow escape when a piece of prop went through the nose of a bomber where he was riding. The bomber ended up in a plowed field and was laid up a week for repairs. Mr. Hughes, who was playing golf, was notified by phone, and the first thing he wanted to know was if the film was all right. When told that it was ruined, as the magazines were smashed to pieces, he said: "Well, I'll be out when I finish my game" — which apparently was more important than a $25,000 loss. Phil Phillips, a Hollywood flier, who formerly was employed by the American Society of Cinematographers as assistant business manager, was killed while taking a British S. E. 5 from Hollywood to location " . his destination he apparently ran out of gas and to avoid crashing into a grove of trees he made a bank with the wind and lost flying speed and dived into the ground. Phil was a fine boy and evidently sensed an accident before he left the Caddo Field where he had molded a little grave and put a silver tin foil cross on same at spot where he sat talking to Schechel, the field watchman, while his ship was being warmed up. Frank Tommich was sent down from Oakland to bring up another S. E. 5 to take the place of the one smashed and was five days getting back on account of bad winds. While in Oakland, where we were attempting to get the biggest and most expensive scene ever made for pictures, we had many forced landings and several crashes. This scene will run only about 100 feet in the picture and cost $100,000 to get. It consisted of fifteen white ships, representing the British, and sixteen black ships, representing the Germans. These two groups are shown coming together and engaging in a dog fight around the bomber, and was photographed with cameramen in four other ships and several automatic cameras on ships in scene. This shot took two months, including two weeks' rehearsal, before being done satisfactory. One day a plane flown by Jerry Andrews was run in to by another plane, pilot unknown, and the upper part of Andrews' upper wing was ripped off, but he made a successful landing. Another day two planes, pilots unknown, came down with the ends of wings smashed. Another time a plane flown by Stewart Murphy crashed into one flown by Ira Reid. Murphy used his parachute successfully, but his ship was washed out. Reid brought his down with the lower right wing knocked off. While coming back from Oakland three Fokkers were washed out through forced landings. They were flown by Ross Cook, Ira Reid and Earl Gordon, none of whom were hurt. While attempting to spin the bomber for a scene being shot from three camera ships it went out of control of Al Wilson, who was forced to jump from a height of 5,000 feet. Phil Jones, mechanic, who was in the cabin of the bomber, was killed in the crash that followed and the bomber washed out. Burton Steene, Akely cameraman, who photographed aerial scenes throughout the picture and who photographed the bomber as it fell, had an attack of heart failure next day and passed away about a week later. Steene had suffered from heart trouble for several years unknown to us fellows on the picture, for he never complained. Roy Wilson, Earl Gordon and Ira Reid all had forced landings on the same day. O'Toole was badly hurt by a prop at German field location and laid up. A month later he was killed in an airplane accident, but not on the picture. Roy Eilers was hit by a bomber prop and laid up for a week. Following are approximate flying hours by cameramen, actors and pilots on "Hell's Angels": Burton Steene, 200 hours; Harry Perry, 175 hours; Elmer Dyer, 50 hours; Ben Lyon, 75 hours; Jim Hall, 65 hours; Roscoe Turner, 300 hours; Frank Tommich, 350 hours; Frank Clarke, 450 hours; Earl Gordon, 150 hours; Ross Cook, 150 hours; Jack Rand, 150 hours. WELCOME LOCAL 665 Canadian Society Cinematographers and Photographers of Toronto Makes Its Bow A. M. Beattie, press representative of the Canadian Cinematographers and Photographers, recently organized at Toronto, Canada, sends this interesting communication to The International Photographer: Organized six weeks ago, with a membership now of 29 cameramen, representing every large center of population in the Dominion, Canadian Society Cinematographers and Photographers Local 665 is away to a flying start. Already it is the proud boast of this local that its membership includes more than 90 per cent of the eligible cameramen in the Dominion. At its inception Vice President Francis E. O'Byrne, who presided, stated that it was the intention of the members to raise the status of Canadian cameramen to that enjoyed by their brothers across the line. Prior to the formation of Local 665 Canadian cameramen led a most uncertain existence. Salaries were whatever employers cared to pay, hours were long and there was no extra pay assured for overtime. Men could be discharged for any reason whatever and foreign cameramen could come here and compete without having to conform to any regulations whatever.