Evening Star Newspaper, December 16, 1928, Page 99

ILLUSTRATED s sl Part 7—10 Pages MAGAZINE SECTION - he Sunday Staf. WASHINGTON SUNDAY MORNIN( DECEMBER 16, 1928. FICTION AND News Cameraman'’s Life One of Hazards, Thrills and JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR., Exposed hearing PRESIDENT-ELECT HOOVER Knows ation’s Nerve Center of News’ind Pictures, s Batt]eground of “Sharpshooters.“ Where More Shutters Snap Per Moment Per Square Foot Than in Any Similar Area Some Big Shots and Im- portant Scoops —A Day With Camera Man‘ BY DON GLASSMAN. ORTY sharpshooters. Forty eyes squinting_down_forty lines of sights. Forty fingers on forty triggers. Forty loaded guns. Forty good men and true, aim- ing to fire and hit The President of the United States faces the firing squad. He i he Brave Preside Bang A m thunderous i dusky the the Chi ecutfy and pallid. _Seffichody scene. resident is shot?” that dreadful phrase was caught’ by a ratio microphone and wafted to disiént corners of the land and created a panic in the breasts of many dn't know the difference “shot.”” The radio Once, yday event at the White so common in the lives of and his retinue of news that they forget to men- ting autobiographies ecution a day is a good e House photographer to follow. Of course, Mr. President m congent to face the firing squad tw or even thrice in one day. The exeel tioners never tire. For them, it 'is a distinct pleasure to “shoot” a /Presi- dent, even with his back turned But hold on. That's not all the Fhooting that goes-on around the Capi- tal in one day. Shock troops of the press are te be found at the House Office Buflding, at the Senate Office Building. 2s he dives for a cockpit a criminal and Headquarters. tion it when w About rule for a They snap his captor at Police They are in the funeral cortege that wends a weary way to Arlington. They fly over the city. They descend in manholes. They are the power of the press, A news cameraman is some one to reckon with these days. He is respon- sible to his picture-loving public, whose appetite for visual entertainment grows each yeap Back in Civil Mathew Brady toured the cantonments and camps. He snapped President, Lincoln and mighty generals who held the line. That was the birth #f the Profession which today ‘emvlays 4 1 Egad! | the greatest ease. their man, the | gestrous suilen mrM a moment’s notice, of tripping its ¢ ‘They catch Lucky Lindbergh | movie camera. in the World. the News more than 100 photographers in the | Capital alone. | _Look at him, the news cameraman. Seemingly. he's like other men of the species, all flesh and bones” But ex- | amine him anatomically and your | knight of the tripod shows structural features not common.to most of us. His shirt has'a brass front, his | stomach is lined with cast iron and his A third appendage, a k box.with a single eye, seems to ow out’ of him. He carries it with He is most ambi- n hiding it under his coat, or id. The fellow is inhuman: he never | forgets to change focus, adjust the tripod, spot his subject, change plates or time the expost I To * * S it lure of the lens that causes him to sit on a doorstep for three weeks? sk the swinging clubs of police | men? To wear his brass front whel | bullets To hang from a dirigible? “I don’t mind speeches, hand-shaking | and interviews,” said Col. Lindbergh, | but I can't stand photographers. You would think they would be satisfied with the miles of films they have taken. | _“It cures me from ever wanting to | enter the movies,” he wound up. | Lucky Lindbergh was not the first | to say that. A generation ago, even 10 | years ago, it was the custom among | celebrities to treat a cameraman like a | | scavenger. Representatives and Sena- tors threw them out of the Capitol Build- ing. Tripodsmen hid their black pill boxes under overcoats and invaded the sacred | | precincts nevertheless. Foreign am- | bassadors, spying a cameraman under | the bushes, would make for him with | upraised cane. Many a photographer returned from an assignment with a blue kink in his spine. But blue kinks and snappy lenses make for good pic- tures—everything shows in the de- veloper. Cheer up, Mr. Photographer. On your next expense account to the boss, include the cost of ironing out one blue kink in the vertebrae. John Coolidge likes residence in the White House. “It would be ideal,” he said, “if photographers would stop tak- ing my picture every time 1 poke my head out the front door.” Washington is the “picturesque” city. Aside from its natural beauty, it to cameras at recent oil in Capital. Underwood. JACK DEMPSEY ‘Welcomes camera men aboa THE LONE EAGLE, rd ship. i R Filmed as he-wings-around Dupout-Circle during tour.of ‘welcome. the possible exception of New York. For these reasons, and because of the pub- lic's interest in the Nation's busine more shutters snap per moment pe square foot than in any similar area over the globe. The volume of “art,” as it is termed in the profession, that flows from the Capital is nothing short of spectacular, And all of it is marked “Rush!” Slow motion does not serve the camera man's ends. cial planes, high-speed autos, trains, speed boa nd the air mail. ‘When the urge: real great, he em- ploys telephotograph. If Davy Farragut had been com- mander of a battery of cameramen in- stead of a fleet of warships, his slogan would have been, “Damn the police- men’s clubs. Snap ahead. So the life of news cameramen! They've been feted by Presidents, dined by kings and slugged by policemen. But so long as the public thirsts and deadlines fall, your cameraman will be there to catch the act. A famous Capital shutter snapper, whose wares have appeared in 10,000 or more publications offered to take us with him for a day's work,."Just for fun,” he said. His life that day, as written in his personal diary, is de- tailed here with his kind permission, Thus she runs: * oK K K €] TP betimes at 7 o'clock, being roused from peaceful slumbers by a flash of light shining through the ground glass of bed chamber window frame. “Limbs painful from running after Senator —— on the White House Jawn last night. And finding myself more ‘or less exposed, I slid under the focusing cloth to steal a few clicks, because it would never do to arrive at the office on time. harbors more magnificoes and celebri- ties'than ‘any -American metrapolis with i “Did marvel at my waking speed. Raising the curtain, I snanped into my usual reducing exercises when a courier dispatched from the office saying be- times that the New York office wants four thousand prints of Se in_his usual pose, flying off the handle, Offered bonus for & picture of the Senator with his former friend and present enemy, Mr. So-and-So. “Egad, after my reducing exercises which included revolving back and forth and getting in trim for the daily grind. Finding my mirror, which the wife misplaced last night, I noticed good contrast in my development. “My eyes being open, they were focused on the bath. I gave my valet the formula for fixing the mixture and he reported in a few minutes that the temperature was right, but the water was foggy. So I went in the dark room under ruby lights and tried to figure out the spots. After a speedy wash and a bit of retouching here and there, I grabbed a meal of thin gelatin from my wife’'s new set of plates, and took to the air with snap in my limbs, my camera swinging gracefully from my side as becomes a gentleman of pic- toriai fashion. aty of assignments at the office. of State eating breakfast. A page of war pictures for Satur- day night's deadline. A new State flag arrived at the Post Office. Assignment at Department of Commerce—big boomn for aviation. “Arrived at White House in time to photograph the President. Everything quiet along the Potomac. Mr. Coolidge still maintains that silence is golden. “After a quick lunch I saw the boss driving out Potomac Park, looking for an odd cherry tree that hasn't been shot this season. A troupe of cavalry men insured my clear road ahead as Army, Navy and Marine officers bowed. “Attended six ceremonies at Arling- ton, including piacing of wreath on damous tomb. New mt_er?meg » President. Made eight trips to hotel for pictures of arriving celebrities. “Phoned to the office and ordered to photograph tew row of houses in Vir- ginia. Drove 80 miles and relurned home in time to dress and cover soclety ball where we had exclusive rights— with seven other firms. “To bed at midnight, after reading one chapter of Signal Corps bulletin on ‘How to Load a Plate Holder.'” * Ak of by the "’HE coterie news cameramen— “still,” “‘noi: and “movi that hang around the west wing of the royal iresidence are members of the White House News Photographers’ Associa- tion, the only organization of its kind in the world. Its object, according to the adopted constitution, is to promote interests of news photographers as- signed to the White House. Indirectly, it promotes the interests of thousands of newspapers, and thus also promotes the picture thirsts of many million readers scattered all over the globe. At 40 men. Advantages of working concertedly gave rise to this organization in 1921, The Chief Executive had already adopt- ed the rule of withholding special privi- leges around the White House. What was granted to one was granted to all. But the inexpediency of having to deal with 40 representatives in order to transact the same business caused this band of tripodsmen to unite for their common welfare. Other fruits came of this idea. For instance, when Charles Lind- bergh had the D. F. C. pinned on him by President Coolidge on June 11, 1927, at the Monument Grounds, the associa- tion erected a balcony stand above the heads of spectators. Space was rented out'fo each CAWEIAMAD AU & Rr0 Tata bergb present membership amounts to about | “Sharpshooter” spotting a world series game with a long - distance, \ lens. . JOHN C. BROCKHURST, Camera explorer and ace. How a Picture-Was Mmlc.\of.lvl;.c‘.iatehPrcsidcnti\\'fl ory cost, which he was glad to pay—first, because he was assured of having a good picture, and, secondly, because he saved his clothes press. As soon as certain pictures were taken the flilms were rushed to a pilot at Bolling Field. Two hours after the plane left Washington it landed at West Side Park in Jersey City. From there pictures were loaded in an auto- mobile. Motorcycle policemen cleared the way to Hudson tubes, a train mes- senger nabbed the package and rushed to an auto at the Manhattan end. Other picture services used express trains. The Pennsylvania Railroad set a new world speed record with a spe- cial train that ran from Washington to New York in 3 hours and 7 minutes. Heretofore the record had been 3 hou and 40 minutes, and was set in carrying films of President Coolidge's inaugural The new record means an average of 72.7 miles an hour. No stops were made. The train consisted of an en- gine, baggage car and passenger coach. | A dark room had been fitted up in the baggage car, and finished prints were iready for distribution as soon as they arrived in Pennsylvania Station. Another firm engaged Casey Jones, stunt pilot, to drop movie films by a parachute over Long Island City. When | the airplane made its descent the films } were being developed, printed and titled. Special messengers rushed them off to movie theaters for exhibition that night. This great public tribute to Lind- bergh was the photographers’ heyday. Philip Carlin, announcing the event over a national chain from the tep of ‘Washington Monument, told his radio audience that there were no less than 250 photographs, every one of which he could see from his perch 504 feet in the air. It was the first time Washington’s tripodsmen had received official recog- nition from the United States Govern- aking plans for the Lind- Photographers were given. places alongside the corps diplo- matique and cabinet members ‘This was made possible by the White House Ne: Photographers’ i The advantage of further demonstrated during the mistice day celebration at the President Wilson's home in 1923 founder of the League of Nations had requested that no pictures be taken of him, and policemen guarding the roped inclosure about the doorway meant to enforce the order. There was a lively fracas between cameramen and blue- coats. Clubs flew and pill boxes were smashed. One movie man turned his lens on the scene and recorded a police- man manhandling a _photographer. Valuable cameras and plates were de. troyed. Wilton J. Lambert, attorn was engaged to press charges agains those who instigated this outrage against the pictorial press. ‘The result of the association’s action was the intrenchment of photographers in an official position which is steadily | mounting to greater strength. Apolo- gies for rough conduct were forthcom- ing. Special orders were issued to the metropolitan police charging them not only to treat photographers carefully, leges. * ok ok K OTWITHSTANDING, entree is not easy in other places. To wit, in the House of Representatives shutter snappers may ply their trade only dur- ing the opening and close of & congres- sional session and when the President makes an address. Never may they cross the sacred threshold of the United States Senate. And a few years ago— ah! what could be more revolting to a photographer—a sign was posted in the entrance of the House Office Building which exhibited characteristic congres- sional contempt for news cameramen. The second and third clauses of the pronunciamento regd: but also to accord them special privi- 2. Dogs are not allewed to be brought into the House Office Building. 3. Permission to photographers must be in writing by the superintendent of the House Office Building. Sooner or later science is bound to come to the aid of the news photog- rapher and give him a pill box that {will take pictures without focussing or tedious changing of plates. All strange manipulations by the cameraman serve to frighten his human prey. There is a strange psychology about picture tak- ing for the press. As no one else, a cameraman is in position to know the vagaries and peccadilloes of those whose pictures appear regularly in public prints. Some people believe there is something sinister hidden behind the sharp lens. Others take to posing as they would to an operating table. And still others, “trained seals,” they are called, are so educated to the business that they may even pay cameramen for taking shots. A good instance, although not a trained seal, was the congressman who posed on the White House steps and offered cameramen $100 to take his picture and send it to papers back home. It seems certain friends of his had wagered that the congressman would be thrown off the steps should he make an appearance at the Execu- tive Mansion. Then there are officials so supersti- tious about: black boxes that they pro- pose to bar cameramen from public gatherings on the ground that to take pictures would be sacrilegious. But gradually these eloguent censors are be- ing pushed aside, and the right to pho~ tograph for the education and enter- tainment of the public is recognized by respected authorities and leading tri- bunals. When Queen Marie appeared in the Capital and visited Mount Vernon some one issued a manifesto barring camera. men from Washington's old homeste But three tripodsmen entered smi (Continued on Ninth Page.)