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

Talking Pictures A wealthy Eastern manufacturer thought it would be a good practical joke to put a goose in the Pullman drawing room of a departing friend. The bird escaped from the car. Subsequently, the manufacturer was sued for a large sum, and the owner of the goose collected. He proved that his goose was trained valuable property by exhibiting films showing the goose "acting." During one of the Tarzan pictures, the director learned that it is easy enough to get a hippopotamus into water but sometimes hard to get him out. One morning a director scheduled a scene in a lake in which these big animals took part. In the afternoon he had planned to photograph them on land. It was three days before the last one could be induced to leave the lake. Sometimes animals cause trouble by growing. In Sequoia one sees a beautiful little fawn. To get consecutive scenes of a fawn a half-dozen different fawns had to be used, for fawns grow rapidly and as they grow they lose their distinctive spotted coat. It was impossible to make the picture as fast as a certain fawn would grow. In common studio practice, the property department is subsidiary to the chief studio art director, for minds particularly trained to artistic details are needed to give correct instructions to those persons who secure and handle so many different objects. Upholsterers, silver platers, florists, interior decorators, drapery experts are all picked from persons who have had years of previous experience in regular commercial establishments employing such technicians. They adapt their work, of course, to the special requirements of the [no]