The Motion Picture Studio Insider (1935)

28 Motion Picture Studio Insider June, 1 93? NO DULL CAREER! Capt. E. H. Rob inson s Entry Into Pictures Made at Flying School By BEN BURNETT and DALE MILLS BLIND flying, 1I,000 feet in the air and his goggles frozen over with moisture was one of several harrowing experiences for Captain Earl H. Robin' son, Hollywood’s premier film flyer. Not being able to see the dials, he allowed the huge plane to flap blindly downward at will. When the indicator pointed to 2000 feet and commands were being given to the cameramen to leave the ship by parachute, the plane broke through the cloud bank 800 feet above a peace' ful looking valley, much to the discredit of the altimeter. Captain Robinson, familiarly known in Hollywood as “Robbie” has had an interesting, though somewhat varied ca' reer. Shortly before his graduation from the Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field, San Antonio, a Paramount location unit arrived to commence the filming of “Wings”. After pestering the entire company for several days he was finally given a job dressing dummies. This job he held until his graduation from school and at the same time grad' uated to the post of Chief Aeronautical Assistant to William Wellman, director of the picture. Upon completion of the flying scenes he returned, with the com¬ pany, to the West Coast. Since then he has worked on “Young Eagles”, “Sky Bride”, “Lost Squadron”, “Dawn Pa¬ trol”, “Legion of the Condemned”; in fact, practically every air picture that has been made. He has worked as stunt pilot, aeronautical supervisor, chief pilot, scenario collaborator, camera pilot and has even applied make-up to appear in actual scenes. One of his most recent pictures was “Wings in the Dark” on which he did the screen adaptation and handled the flying direction. Flying direction is somewhat changed since his advent into pictures eight years ago. The camera plane, in which he flies, is now radioequipped. In other words, he can direct from his plane without being ’talked back to’, an advantage that ground direc¬ tors would, at times, like to have Rob¬ bie’s original story tentatively titled “Fledglings”, was bought by the Fox Studios and is now being readied for When questioned about his “stunt work” he was, at first, a little reticent, but later told us of one of his narrowest escapes. The picture, he would not men¬ tion, but a grounded plane, loaded with 60 sticks of dynamite was one of the props. Robbie was to dive from an al¬ titude of 5000 feet and flatten out 25 feet over it. The explosion should have occured as the tail of his plane cleared the ground one but through an error the blast came just as he was above. Stunned momentarily, he climbed to an altitude of 1500 feet. He realised that his pro¬ peller was bent and some of the fabric missing from one of the wings but his motor was behaving so that he was able to make a safe, though somewhat preca¬ rious, landing. To him, just another day’s work, but making our typewriter seem a sort of ‘haven of rest.’ Capt. E. H. Robinson production. As a sort of ‘jack of all trades’, with his flymg direction, adap¬ tations and original stories it wouldn’t surprise us to see him, in the very near future, become a full-fledged drector. When we talked to him he had just returned from Bishop, California, where he had been on location for Paramount studios. His crew there was comprised of twenty-five men, two camera-ships and four cameramen. They were there (Continued on Page 51) Captain Robinson with Charles Marshall, aerial cameraman, shown preparing to ta\e off for an aerial photography expedition over Hollywood.