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Maw 1935
The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
Five
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Inside of Projection Room, Little America.
The background shots taken at Little America and the surrounding terrain, when published, will give the reader a fair idea of what the chief cinematographer of such an expedition is up against.
Boreal Desolation
It is a chaos of Boreal desolation — the Land of the Giant Faces — a treacherous terrain with mountains of broken ice everywhere and terrible crevasses waiting like the maws of some fearsome ogres to swallow men or whole dog trains, or even great trucks and tractors.
Mr. Herrmann had a personal experience of that kind one day when he tumbled into a blind crevasse and was saved a 12-foot fall only by a ski which caught in the ice and formed a bridge across the gaping gash which enabled the startled cameraman to scramble back to safety.
Little America City
The accompanying plan, drawn by our artist, John Corydon Hill, with Mr. Herrmann's coaching, will give the reader an excellent idea of the "Metropolitan District" of Little America. Consider it carefully, for it helps to grasp the situation that had to be dealt with cinematographically down there.
The life and entertainment center of Little America was the Paramount Penguin Motion Picture Theatre, where twice every week the members of the Byrd Expedition attended performances without regard to box office receipts.
As the plan sets forth, the Paramount Penguin Theatre is just the Mess Hall temporarily turned into a theatre with sound and everything. On show nights, according to plans made by Mr. Herrmann, the dining
tables were stacked against the wall and the benches were turned around to enable the spectators to face the screen, and then Herrmann and Peterson did their stuff.
Up to Date Theatre
Western Electric portable sound projection equipment had been installed and there was plenty of music for those who liked it.
The Paramount Penguin Theatre — from February, '34, to August 22, '34 (when the sun came back), was a first run theatre, showing 97 feature performances; after that it was a second run house.
One feature outstanding at these entertainments was the advent of the Supply Officer who never failed to be there at the door with an endless menu of confections of all kinds — something to please every patron of the big show — chocolate, nuts, candy bars, bon bons, crystallized fruit — no end.
The Programs
The programs were made up of film from the eight major studios and it was the best the studios had — no phoney stuff at all. (And here the writer must digress long enough to ask Fred Waring, of Waring's Pennsylvanians, on behalf of the bewhiskered young men who attended Paramount Penguin Theatre, the identity of that girl (the dancer) who was the overwhelming favorite of them all. According to Mr. Herrmann the vote was unanimous.) Other favorites were Mae West, George Raft, Gary Cooper, Claudette Colbert, Helen Hayes, "but the boys Missed Sally Rand," said Mr. Herrmann.
Twelve hours before a picture show Chief Herrmann (Turn to Page 22)
Chief John Herrmann with his dog-team on duty in Little America.