New Britain Herald Newspaper, April 3, 1925, Page 27

Ak e ) » . S Dsre-Levi! el Most /m;z sca HE MONTAIN JUMPED OVER [HE musiclans play, the lights grow dim, , , - Then a beam of light from the projection machine and the movie s on. Those who pald settle back in thelr seats comfortably, For the next two hours-they will bs amused, Perhaps the first scene shows a group of men trying to climb w precipltous Incline, One “slips ) + + « he falls over a clift and is saved by the rope wrapped about his body, A thrill runs through the wudlence, , 2 ) The scene changes. Now It fs a forest fire. The heroine is determined to run the engihe through ‘ the blazing trees to reach her Rero and save him from dgath. The camerd I8 on the engine, Through the fire the audience goes, with the ple- ture. Another thrill, , , ., 80 1t goes for two hours, The sflent people of ! the sereen become more than passing shadows. They are real. Each man and woman In the audience imagines HE or SHE is in their places, EASY JOB, INDEED! But does the audience ever stop 4o econsider the hazards attached to this business of thrilling D the 20,000,000 or more motion picture fans in the h United States? Not so you could notice it! To the Average person in the audience a moyis \ actor {8 a person who has a million dollars in | 1 the bank and an easy fob. To them the camera- ‘\ man is & gentleman whose Jife is one grand x'vnltz. ¥ Perhaps sometimes this is true. In most eases 4 It is emphatically not true. There are a host of people whose names never come before the pub- lic who glve themselves unstintingly and risk thele lives that America and the world may be amused, > We refer to the professional thyill maker, The cameraman. The daredevil. The man who “dou. A NEWS PHOTOGRAPHER Instinct Of Fear AREDEVILS every once In & D while thrill cltizens of tue big citles. They will walk @ tight. rops suspended between the twen. tieth floors of two akyworapers. Or they will stand on their heads atop LILLIAN BOYER HANGS BY A FOOT “The director told the man he could open the bottom of the dre r and let the dirt end the used dummies for it) slide through when he said ‘Al right! That was the signal. dummy elopers (they MOVIE DIRECTOR REYNOLDS HUNTS LO- CATIONS. A MISTAKE, BUT—~ “This was dona. Then I was sent up to get bles” for the star when there i8 a bit of work to ¢ ; & flagpole 400 feet in the alr. Or ENT THROUGH FLAMES some downward ‘shots’ of what the elopers saw HILBURN WENT THROUGH FLAME they will cltmib the outside of & bulid- be done that might cost one's precious neck. In their supposed ride in the dredger. THRILL ALL GONE wsed a wild animal hunt for several days. “When t swing had been made 8nd whild 1 was still In the dredger eight feet above ground the direclor wished to tell me that T had enough Buch a man—he {s but one among many-—is Percy Hilburn, cameraman for a Hollywood movie s plot Hilburn had a fracas is it these indlviduals never one broken camera and feel dizzy, never fear high places? : Ordinary people would be para: v badly ma ar : %0 he yclied to me ‘all right’ With that the at the mers thought of dolng these s dredgerman opens h p down I come GLAD IT'S OVER it themselves. ) 8 faced death so many times (hat ( ! %ns her u ¢ i, ! A through the teeth with the whole load of dirt In a forest fira picture, Hilburn had another lentiets and medical men say I all tha thrill of it s gone. gh ti i Sclentiats I | He has faced it om earth, under the @arth, on tumbling all about me experience whicit he ix glad {8 in the past Instead thers fs no reason why people should “My stomach was ed the o | water, under the water and In t | Hilburn is & movie hero, but not the type who be afrald to walk across a plank over and my nose was save an inch or sc does his “perils” by doubles, nor ives pu - o un A high gorge any more than they In eaviy da; motion picture 8 1d fear to cross it If it is on the . hahi . explosi' ¢ nderstood by movie r 2l £ ground, appluuse for them. “He's the man behind,"'a xplosives w ! < font e | ' pl they are toduy it fact alone saved the life of The trip was estimated as one of 60 seconds. B Man has & fear of high places, | cameraman who grinds for others’ plaudits. | 3rool v ¥ Percy Milburr something t e ar y zh, € peopls becoms i Hilburn went to Brooklyn, N. from his ; : : : & | Al s T I I SO e B pr s NS e i o L e from under their eyebrows—quite as exp o 1 1 n ] P ;i 5 iorehn s tatstiting 7% 3 which was to blow out a mountnin. One hurdred THe: sitl ) s ere {3 an instinctive desire by the name of Percy, but more than P8 water dashing against my camera, s word - 2 atop & very high b ERIN by B O Teek 1116 Inchios ot dacingemdiBels U iiomeg bun? g anawersd, Wo'll have 158 it ALL OVER AGAIN and si 4 and we had ¢ A p g 5 3 ' he Hilburn stationed himself about ards aw s which we wore and wet blankets we push onaself away from the railing liant red halr. over.' “After I had exbausted myself, I e % ; L 4 actor f h f 5 the idea of looking down and while the directors and actors wenf much furthe fions 5 - s. Just the ide ookt own ar | Casfing about @ Mt he decided to become & wpye v nonted by my experionce and fized my to shore, fully expecting to be mobbed. Eut fhe f s s kil : & @ ack g f s MAGINT you mig no = motlon pletare cameraman. 16 obtained OMDIOY: yoir g0 that the waves hit mo sidewald mext e Aldnit ey o worT os it e Hasen SR e | ment—and & most strenuous {nitiation. As he Hilburn's most nerve-wracking experience came We made our way k to camp, and ihe next SREROTEHILIED A p and d spine A 1 1 N It mera, when bang e 8! ting a tre A T Tily up and down b tells his first experience in the Rocky Mountain range in Cafada. day returnedl to 'shoot’ the soenes ove ! [ Hilburn trained his ! ang! u ) Ptk S ¥ Yo lowersd ovar the al 1 By the mou he ecame th was o ver the BATTLE WITH PIRATES TICKLISH OB had to be lowered over the slde of the Y mou! 1 th Ame w : ; it ; i S e “It was a pirate picture we were o shoot off “The thriller in this bit of film was to be a the day previous pebble , Sp Oyster Bay canoe accldent. A ‘shooting’ the upset, the “Imaghne it. There I was dungling gl e ¢ A t 3 You do mot be lizzy at “The main thrill was to be @ battle between' director wanted a couple of views of the bark 3 t above th v and 3 : ; e be obtained if the ond of ght—at least, mot in the t feular »rnicious t nly thing b een me and 'y d win ver touched € i a sailboat and a mumber of pirates in rowboats. racing down through a particularly pernicious the only th ; HEon e ang dod et 5 G Sebgits (ol e “I was detailed the first day to get the Scenes stretch of.rapids. the rope held v‘\‘ t .‘,\,v -;:n W I had so th o Ix... g ;u c L o e i el 1 the sallboat crew weuld mee as they looked dgwn *“*The only way to get to the Siecky Ty S UER ey twedith s M\‘ 1 Mmounta 1 he would t in " We . e t e sem tlar canals and cause £ 4 T sk time ever | e mountain and he w nos ecn « into the pirates’ boats, To do this it was deemed the clilf above was by means of ropes. The canocs short 1 ev ! ! . ; 5 ) i e 1 advisable to tle me to the bowsprit of the sailboat, Wed to be lowered the sane we reached 1 1 sl G ! s bl i face down and with only my hands free. Not - “I was atationed on a rock in the middie of the the happlest man in two contine e ey e . g th s an Interesting fact t . | forescaing coming events, T made no objection PABCH. S0d inompo Hrenchita il il 2L : ; s Pt Would beliove + s only one for fear of falling is the only o fias. unt nto rough s helpers wers on the ong poles ticularly b er % : R s SInsTYLAInEEwe (N URUT S ke Stn/ Solgh = VRS Sy ' enng Scorediiia K W : And b Hiz which bables responded in a psycho : water. »rv,,"‘ with each dip of the Bow, down to cateh the cances & drffted too far times and 1dly injured ! 1 had been Sxect K 11 : T e WA, would go my head under water, mouth and nose down stream, so we could r DGR ‘ Js il 4 A ! ‘ il and ears filling. But through it all I clutehed But they dldn’t. * They lost a Sl e n & ‘ oy T A e e my camera I was mad. 1 stood on my 2t bl bl L B 4 - s . 1 = 1 s War, but fear of high places mever “At length when we got back to ev ne 1 cc t i e 1 L e be a ‘ . drowned and filled crown to soles wi knew b R effectively s 1. 1t is born . Ll the director asked me what T had got I t0id him