Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1942)

216 MAY 1942 "PROFESSIONAL, JR." TRIPOD The importance of 16 mm filming demands a sturdy tripod built along professional lines . . . the Professional, Jr. Built to precision standards "Spread-leg" design gives utmost rigidity. Quick, positive height adjustment. Smooth tilt and panoram head. Camera platform takes EK Special, B&H Filmo, Bolex or BerndtMaurer cameras; also adaptable for 35 mm Eyemo, Devry, etc. Ideal for sound and all important work. Used by leading 35 mm newsreel companies and 16 mm producers. Write for descriptive literature. CAMERA EQUIPMENT CO. 1600 BROADWAY NEW YORK, N. Y. Complete Rental Service 16mm SILENT 1 -...- 8mm SILENT ^ FILMS 16mm TALKIE I PROJECTORS — SCREENS — CAMERAS Send for your FREE Catalog NATIONAL CINEMA SERVICE 71 Dey St. New York WOrth 2-6049 Your OWN Titles Easy to make professional style. Junior outfits $8, senior $15. Print for others; mon eyin it. Write for free details. Kelsey.lnc. N-48, Meriden, Ct. lErySfMP&m*i Or if you are n longer using yours I G^ will pay CASH for your photographic and optical equipment. We carry a complete line of SILENT AND SOUND Movie cameras and equipment and all standard brands of STILL Cameras and equipment. Send for the BASS CINE BARGAINGRAM and the SUPPLEMENTAL PRICE LIST. Both are free. Write Dept. C M 7A scenes in Harrisburg only. Although this section of the film is not factually exact in its record, the gap at Lancaster has not seemed to bother my audiences. The task was tough enough in any case. Compared to the rainy dawn exteriors that I encountered at home, the train sheds of Harrisburg were as the Black Hole of Calcutta. I believed the meter this time and waited until the boys were lined up out of doors in front of the station. Here I caught a series of satisfactory scenes, as the boys were greeted and were marched off by an Army sergeant assigned to the detail. What followed was almost a nightmare. Imagine, if you will, several hundred young men — each under tension, uncertain of his future and more or less undressed — milling around amid a staff of strange and somewhat harried physicians and dentists. Add to this uproar the arrival of a camera crew of three, loaded down with cameras, lights, tripods and extension cords, and you come as close to Bedlam as I want to come in this lifetime. I owe a genuine debt of gratitude to the patient and understanding officials of that Army examination headquarters — and I am happy to acknowledge it here. With their help we got, at last, all the needed scenes. A calm followed the storm. The Boy. who had passed his examination at Harrisburg with flying colors, was not due for actual induction into the Army for several weeks. I spent that period at home, filling in the chinks of his personal sequences and adding whole new ones on the various routines of draft board operation. A series of titles, based on local news headlines, was selected, filmed and inserted. From that time on, things seemed to go especially well, as if in recompense for the difficult problems we had faced this far. Induction Day arrived bright and clear. Our boys from Strasburg again piled into the chartered buses, but they headed this time for Cumberland and the Army. We arrived before they did and received a splendid reception. Major W. E. Homan, Classification Officer at the induction station, attached himself to us as our guide and, under his supervision, all difficulties vanished. From there on, we simply followed the smoothly running routines of this great center until the Boy was in fact, sworn in as a soldier of the United States. There were forms to be filled out. giving a brief history of each draftee. With these in hand, Army clerks prepared identification cards for their new charges. These scenes were climaxed by an interesting (and obviously closeup) series of shots on finger printing. We followed the boys then out of doors, where — still in their differing and nondescript civilian clothes — they took the oath of allegiance to the flag they were LEADERS Purple Haze No Longer Available Purple haze stock is no longer being manufactured, and no more will be made for the duration of the war. The supply of ACL leaders printed on this stock is now exhausted and, in future, leaders will be available on black and white stock only. to serve. It was a motley group who raised their hands in the simple open handed salute, but it made an impressive ceremony by its very lack of regimentation. This, the pictures seem to say, is truly America. One of the most important phases of the Selective Service routine is that of classification of each selectee. Here, a trained Army man takes each new soldier through an exhaustive interview, discovering in the process all his immediate skills and capabilities and even some of his potential ones. It is from these records that the Army is able to pick men rapidly for any new and special task. There remained, following the interview, but one more important sequence of activity, to complete my story of the draftee. This was the amazing magic of measuring the men and of supplying them with uniforms. The outfitters were like cogs in a well planned machine, working with speed and precision. One man measured, another reached for the conveniently located supply. They rarely made a mistake in their swift judgments. From barrack coats to boots.* there seemed to be an infinite variety of sizes, and they knew them all at a glance. For the most part here. I worked in near shots and closeups, featuring the different items of equipment, ending this always interesting sequence on a striking contrast view of the Army's largest and smallest shoes. Such is the basic structure of Lancaster County Draft Board. There were, of course, many sidelights of humor and excitement, some left in the film, others excluded. We have in our section of Pennsylvania many hundreds of the picturesque Mennonites, bearded and strangely tonsured. They are conscientious objectors by religious creed. As is well known, they object also to being photographed, so that I was forced to leave them out of the footage on our local draft board. But, although their beliefs caused a loss to the picture in this way, they created an addition to it in another. With roughly one out of three of our county's registrants pleading religious objections. General Lewis B. Hershey thought it worth a personal visit to our board for a discussion of the problem. One of the high points of the film is a series of scenes in front of our headquarters, for which General Hershey and other high national and State officials graciously posed.