Talking pictures : how they are made and how to appreciate them (1937)

Properties there had ever been one in their cafes. They were afraid it might be learned that the "movies" had staged a successful cockroach hunt in their establishments. But, finally, the weary searcher found a proprietor whose greed for money outweighed other considerations. In this restaurant one hundred fat roaches were triumphantly captured and carried before the cameras. A record example of an effort to increase pictorial authenticity through completely correct "props" is found in an instance arising during the filming of The Good Earth. Part of this picture was made in China. The close-ups were photographed on farms reproduced in a valley of rolling hills at Chatsworth, California. To make these reproduced farms duplicates of those in Hopei Province, John Miller, veteran property man, spent nearly a year in China. He went with a truck far into the Chinese countryside. He offered farmers flat sums for every movable object on their farms. Very often they refused, despite the lure of ready cash, for the Chinese reverence for old things is deeply rooted. But more than a sufficient number of farmers were found who would sell enough to fill three hundred cases writh thousands of objects. These cases included complete hand and oxen-driven waterwheels which, when installed in California, lifted water three hundred feet up a terraced hillside, plows, grain grinders of stone, knives of various kinds, pots, dishes, condiment jars, beds, mattresses, and other priceless authentic properties. These objects were not new but worn. Many had been in actual service for a century or more. They added great value to the picture. [io5]