Motion Picture Classic (Feb 1917 - Jun 1919)

HARRY POLLARD AND MARGARITA FISCHER WILEY CABALLERO Morales — saved the situation. While Joe knelt beside the gas-engine and nursed it tenderly, Wiley steered the vessel. The cap tain had quit some time before. He said “It” — meaning the sea — “was the worst he had ever seen, and he didn’t know much about steering such boats, anyway.” They finally swung around the west end of Santa Cruz and into shallow water. Here a wide rip, racing with the current of a mountain brook, made their landing perilous. But Wiley Caballercf jockeyed the boat to a landing-place, and, with Joe Morales rowing, a life-boat carried the picture-makers to shore. After their shaking-up, it was a simple matter to jump, when the waves lifted them to the exact point, to a ledge of rock on shore. They learnt, later thac the same day a sailing vessel, on the way to Santa Barbara to convey a Fox company under the direction of Oscar Apfel, also to a location on Santa Cruz, had been lost in the storm. When the Pollard craft put back to Santa Barbara, the next day, it brought the Fox players to the island. The boat, chartered from Pollard, cost the Fox Company one hundred and seventy-five dollars for a two-hour trip. But, altho they had landed safely, the vernal equinox had not finished with them. The wind swept across the rocks so strongly that making camp there was out of the question. Night was coming on, so they cached their paraphernalia, their cameras and “properties,” and made their way over a hill into the comparative shelter of a canyon. There they pitched their tents and struggled with camp-fires on which to brew some warm coffee. They did not attempt to cook anything else. All were too’ weary for that. Even in the hollow they could hear the huge waves dashing against the cliffs around them, while the wind whistled thru the canyon. And after they had gone to bed, and had begun to lose the uncomfortable sensation of a rocking earth caused by the trans-channel trip, the wind blew the tents down. Then there was nothing to do but to crawl, with blankets and canvas, into the. caves and crevices lining the canyon The Guatemalan goat had a good night’s rest, they said. \ Passing lightly over the next three days as the scenario writers do, but, as the wind did not, “The Pearl of Paradisers” came to the incident of the lost man. Now, the location chosen for most of the scenes, while capital for film purposes, was hardly a place for real humans to make their home. So the players, instead, pitched their permanent camp on the other side of a mountain from the location. On fair days it was possible to sail in the schooner for the mile or so between the two points, but on stormy days, when the waves were high, there was nothing to do but walk. It was Frank Ormston’s father who filled the role of the lost one. The players had started to walk over the mountain from location to their camp. Before they had finished their journey it was dark. The trail in many places was so steep that only one could descend at a time, while the men picked each foot-rest for the women in the party. They made their way to camp in safety, and then a count of noses showed that one was missing. Not only was the nose missing, but its owner was not to be seen. Pollard, Wiley and Joe started back along the trail, but could go but a short distance. What had not been dangerous to descend in the dark was impossible of ascension, and the searchers quit until davbreak. ’ f Thirty-seven)