Picture-Play Magazine (Sep 1918 - Feb 1919)

Filming the Fighting Front 21 to his death. That was what we'd come out to get. One of the men, Lieutenant Charles Phelps Cushing, of the marines, serving on special detached duty as news photograph editor of the signal corps, was in charge of the work, and was standing holding his hands before his eyes, his thumbs and fingers touching to form a rectangle — a sort of frame through which he could study the picture made by the scene in front of him.* ' 'He was; just about to tell the photographer to go ahead and shoot, when all at once a shell burst. It was about a thousand feet away, I judged, and I don't mind telling you that I began to feel nervous. Later on I got used to shells, but I hadn't at that time. Cushing was just looking sort of thoughtful, "•^Readers of Picture-Play Magazine will remember Charles Phelps Cushing as a regular contributor of articles which appeared in these pages before we entered the European conflict. He has been in service since the outbreak of the war.— Editor. while his photographer stood awaiting orders, and looking politely bored. " 'That would have been a nice bit to have had in the background — that shell,' said Cushing quietly. 'Maybe we'd better wait a minute. I like to have the stuff looking real.' He squinted up at the aeroplanes. 'Maybe they'll come closer. Or perhaps he'll pot the Albatross. That would make a peach if we could catch it just as it landed !' "So we waited and watched. But they didn't come any closer, and finally the Albatross banked, dived, looped, and then suddenly scooted for home. We waited some more. But there weren't any more aeroplanes or shells bursting near us. "'We're out o' luck/ said the camera man finally. "Well, at that, Cushing told him to go ahead and shoot, so they took their pictures and we started back. The camera men with the armies have to adapt themselves to every kind of army life.