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CROCODILES AT HOME. SOME MORE OF THE ACTORS WHO HELP TO MAKE MR. DITMARS’ ANIMAL PICTURES WHAT THEY ARE
mera Wonderland
Compared with His Monkeys, Birds, and Flies
WINCHESTER
rehearsed well enough to start the camera. The scenario for this playlet was written by Mr. Snyder, tho "designed” would be a better descriptive word. The scene represented a living-room ; in a chair at a table sat the husky trumpeter (Husky is part of its real name) ; in a rocking-chair was the white-backed trumpeter.
Mr. Trumpeter — that is Husky — yawned and registered his inclination to leave a good home for the club. Exit Husky. There comes a knock at the door and Mrs. Trumpeter flops out of the chair to the door. Enter the Canadian goose, who represents, to quote Snyder, “some villain.” The goose registers entertaining conversation, and, when Mrs. Trumpeter turns her head, slyly steals a necklace from the drawer. The bird opposite sees the theft, and demands that thet goose return the jewels. There is an attempt at flight, but the trumpeter holds on until the arrival of Husky. The thief is subdued ; Husky is the hero of his home. Then the curtain.
To make these birds go over their parts time after time required much work from the wings, and coaching was more exercise than coaching in a world’s series game. Heretofore such animal-scenes have always been spoiled by the obvious fact that the animals were being shoved about and on and off by the use of poles. This Mr. Ditmars is avoiding. In filming the subject the stage ranges from a twelvefoot platform to a base the size of a postage stamp.
One of the first experiments was the impersonations by monkeys to register moods of the human race — mirth, rage, despair, and sorrow. These have been filmed to portray such enormous faces that to the spectators looking at the screen the effect will be much as the ogre appeared to the youth in “Jack the Giant Killer.”
But the monkeys have progressed in rehearsals, and in the porcupine their director has found a real film star. In monkey-drama he has taken real “human” scenes, and the principals have flirted, held hands, and spooned in the most approved fashion. He has tried “Cinderella,” but that was too much of an attempt in the present state of the dramatic art in the Zoo.
The second successful play put on at Bronx Park was "The Great Marathon.” It showed the exciting scenes attending the arrival of the smaller animals for a great jungle race. For this scene most elaborate scenery was prepared and much care had to be taken in teaching the animals what not to do as well as what to do. For instance, it took a week alone to prevent the Humboldt’s snake from interfering with the tame iguana and to teach the blue-fur monkey that it must not try to climb the scenery.
Along the course were side-shows, refreshment stations, and the other adjuncts of a country fair. Fully one hundred varieties of animals participated in the scene and struggled furi( Continued on page 68)
SCENE FROM "THE NATURE MAN” (universal)
THE SOFT-SHELLED TURTLE DIVES FOR A FROG. IT HAS A SOFT BATHING SHELL
PEARSON AND A CAPTURED WATER-BUCK
(Nineteen)