International photographer (Jan-Dec 1934)

Twenty T h INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER June, 1934 AROUND THE WORLD ON LOCATION (Continued from Page 14) Later on we were entertained by the King's private dancers and a parade of his sacred elephants. Taken all in all, it was a great birthday party, with the King having as much fun as anybody and snapping pictures right and left with his small camera, prints of which he proudly showed us the next morning. If a colorful background and interesting, happy people, connected with a unique story, have anything to do with it, we should have a very interesting short subject of Cambodia. Leaving Phnom Penh we drove farther into the interior of Indo China, eventually arriving at the worldfamous ruins, Angkor Wat. Here again we met our old friends, the Bonzas, and with their help, wove a story around the deserted ruins of what had once been one of the world's most beautiful cities. Angkor covers approximately twenty-five square miles. There are some twenty or more large temples and palaces and many smaller ones that have been won from the dense jungle by the extensive exploration of the French Government. It was our pleasure to meet Mons. Marshall, who has spent the greater part of his life obtaining historical data and rebuilding these marvelous old ruins. It is impossible to describe their magnificence and one must see them and spend many hours climbing up huge steps, through long, dark corridors and feeling the silence that seems to surround them, to appreciate them, even in part. One amusing incident stands out from all the others. In the very top of the largest building of Angkor is a small alcove that seems to be the storehouse of all the stone, bronze and wooden idols of Buddha, reclaimed from the ruins. To this place we brought fifty yellow robed Bonzas, as we wanted a scene of these monks paying homage to the Buddha. The camera was set up on the rock floor while Paul Perry and the rest of our party ■were outside the temple working on our generator. I was staying close to the camera, as a slight bump on that rock floor would cause it to slide. The Bonzas were friendly, but as inquisitive as ever. They had mooched all of my cigarettes, a package of gum and a box of raisins that I had and I was casting around for some way to entertain them and keep them happy, anything, in fact, to steer them away from the camera. It was beginning to look like a hopeless task when I remembered that there was a small German music box in my camera case. Some years ago I had been given a wine jug (without the wine) as a Christmas gift, and in the bottom of this jug was a music box. The jug had long since been broken, but the music box remained as a necessary part of my equipment. Winding it up, I set it in the hand of a large, bronze image. The melody of "How Dry I Am" filled the temple. The priests sat around very quietly, as it was some new miracle to them, and they were quite happy and forgot all about the camera ; so, for the next threequarters of an hour, I played "How Dry I Am," for what seemed like a hundred times, and on any future trips I shall never be without something to keep the natives happy. Our work finished at Angkor, we returned to Saigon, and there took a small China coaster, the Sun Sche, back to Hong Kong, where Paul and I made new contacts and obtained much information regarding our Chinese pirates' story, which we hope to make in the near future. And right here I want to say that I have never worked with a finer fellow than Paul Perry, and I am looking forward to the time when we can be together again. There is an old saying about one going to the Orient — if you go there once, you will spend seven years before you shake the dust of the Orient from your feet for good. After fourteen trips to the Orient I have learned that there is no place so wonderful as California, but I also know that I shall go back to the Far East again, mavbe for— JUST ANOTHER LOCATION. EARL THEISEN'S HOLLYWOOD NOTEBOOK stance, BEFORE an infant can appear before the camera there are miles of red tape to be unwound. The State of California has done everything possible to protect the youngsters in the movies. For inlittle Katherine Snelling, at Universal Studio, could not be in films without the consent of both parents ; a welfare worker as well as a trained nurse had to accompany her to the studio. The baby could remain at the studio for only two hours and is permitted to "act" only twenty minutes. No smoking is allowed on the set while she is working. Also a properly heated nursery and a thoroughly disinfected auto must be provided. The salary paid the infant's parents is fixed by California State Law and is at the rate of three hundred dollars a day. While on the subject of babies mention should be made of Pete Smith's short subject on baby raising, which is to be released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The picture will illustrate the right and wrong methods of doing things for the infants. The picture should include directions of what can be done with the child while the parents go to the movies. Another short that would prove popular could be on the care of the older babies ; when to buy them diamonds, when to feed them and in what quantities, what to do with them on club nights, and many other practical phases of the subject could be covered. Of course such a subject would have little value in Hollywood, since here the babies are busy in the movies. "The Butcher who sells you a ham, doesn't worry about its fate. You can boil it or fry it or drop it in the well ; it's all the same to him after he gets his money." That is the attitude of Irvin S. Cobb, who has sold a number of his Judge Priest stories to Fox Film. Cobb should be appointed a missionary of one to convert other equally famous writers to a faith in the picture makers who are in the business of making pictures. Until now most famous writers were egotists enough to feel that they knew the picture medium. A few story conferences in the studios showed them there was as much difference in the screen story as there is difference in prose and poetry. William Darling, Fox Film art director, is faced with the task of reproducing an entire Hungarian village to be used in "Caravan." The "Chateau Tokay," an immense structure nearly two hundred feet long and more than sixty feet high, with its moat, drawbridge, and portcullis, is nearing completion on the crest of a hill at Fox Movietone City. Did you know that much of the material that goes into make-up is ground as fine as the pigment in ink? In fact the same type of machine is used in both factories. Max Firestein, of Max Factors, took me through the Max Factor Make-up Factory. He showed me vacuum machines for cleaning the boxes from the factory before make-up materials are put into them, machines for pasting a label on any shape bottle (in fact, the same machine will put a number of labels on the same bottle), machines for screwing caps on bottles, and so on endlessly. Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.