Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1923 - Feb 1924)

29 Motion Pictures of the Mighty A stirring account of the adventures of news camera men abroad showing that it takes real daring as well as diplomacy to get a camera within range of royalty. By John Taylor Parkerson European manager of Fox News Reel PHOTOGRAPHING the great and near-great for the movies 'has become an art as interesting as a bootlegger's valise, and sometimes as intricate as the work of a secondi-story burglar. Few among the millions who daily occupy comfortable seats in the theater and see the news of the important happenings of the earth being flashed on the screen in rapid succession have any conception of the difficulties that were overcome in the making of these pictures. In America it is, not so difficult, as a rule. The United States is the camera man's paradise. There are few Americans who are not willing, at least, if not eager, to get into the news reels. Andi if it's something with a thrill he is after, there are more nuts from Maine to California who would sign their lives away for twobits' worth of publicity than you'll find in all the armies of the earth combined. But not so in Europe. Our esteemed brethren of the Old World have their own notions about new-fangled things. They have been living in an atmosphere of centuries' old suspicion that affects them all, regardless of nationality. With rare exceptions, however, it is a false atmosphere that holds itself above reason, but sinks to the depths at the first sign of the big, round, shiny American dollar. For the past four years I have Illustrations from the Fox News Reel of every crowned head, potentate, politician and palaverer of note in Europe, tog e t h e r with such minor details as Russ i a n famines, Smyrna disasters, premiers' conferences, wars, and the usual run of things that follow in their trail. My job has been V Premier Poincare has disliked the news reels ever since a news camera shoiied him smiling as he lej t a funeral. to direct several hundred camera men scattered over Europe, Asia and Africa, in the interesting research for motion pictures giving a close up view from the eye of the camera of what has been going on in the Old World. To enumerate the many important personalities and subjects of international interest that have been recorded on the film during the last few years of tumultuous peace would be to recount the complete history of events of that period, with one exception — Soviet Russia. But apart from that strange country, where camera men are not allowed, the difficulties of the news photographer abroad are many and varied. Europeans have an exaggerated idea of the value of motion pictures. Whenever there is a spectacular event — an automobile race, airplane competition, or anything calculated to draw a crowd and attract widespread interest — those in charge begin to wonder how much money they can make out of the film rights. They have been fed so much press-agent material about the fabulous earnings of cinema stars in the United States that their One of the greatest coups of a camera man was the filming of ceremonies in Belvedere Court from inside the Vatican. been sitting over in Paris on the top rung of a ladder leading to a veritable Tower of Babel , out of which has come motion pictures Clemenceau always refuses to pose for the news cameras, but occasionally they get him by stealth.