Lives Of Newsreel Men

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 40, 10 November 1939, Page 5

Lives Of Newsreel Men

Adventures In Australia And New Zealand THERE are always plenty of adventures for the men behind the news the newsreel cameramen throughout the world who risk their necks to show on the screen today’s news tomorrow. . They must be prepared to “go out and get it,” no matter where it is; no matter what time of day. But they look on adventures as all in the day’s work, and confess that the greatest thrill for them is in arriving at tile job before their rivals rather than the actual job itself.

J)URING the last few years newsreel cameramen have become even more daring, and close-up pictures of wars and disasters of all kinds have become almost commonplace on our screens (states the “Sydney Morning Herald”). And through their exploits ■—courageously recording history for the man in the street to see with his own eyes-—the names of many of these men have become household words. Perhaps the most famous at present is Erie Mayell, Fox Movietone cameraman, who secured the pictures of the bombing of the U.S.S. Pauay in the Yangtse River. Another ace ot the newsreel camera is Al Gold, of lox Movietone News, who made the pictures of the Hindenburg disaster, sticking to his camera and coolly tilting it for angle shots as the blazing dirigible crashed to the ground. Like Mayell, Gold always seems to be where the “news” is hottest. His adventures are legion. Bushfire Dangers. Australian newsreel cameramen, too, have had their adventures —bush fires, perhaps, being their most hazardous experience. A Cinesound newsreel of the Victorian disaster was shown throughout the world, the credit for the film going to F. McKechnie, the cameraman, and Geoff Thompson, sound engineer, they took their turn at helping rescue ville, one of the centres of the fierce Victorian fires, and were rewarded by being able to film a fire which broke out alongside them. In between filming they took their turn at healping rescue furniture from the burning cottages, one of the shots actually showing Mr. Thompson helping to carry out a piano. Blizzards and hurricanes do not daunt these men, either, even though, as Mr. A. E. Gross, the supervising editor of Cinesound Review, says, the men have to go out at the height of such disasters, when the news is iikely to 'be “hottest,” and cannot afford to wait till the storm abates. Last year, when floods and hurricanes were devastating the South Coast, Jack Kingsford Smith, of the Cinesound staff, volunteered to fly down and take his own photographs. This he did, his being the only plane to leave Mascot at the height of the storm.

Bert Nicholas, another Cinesound cameraman, talks lightly of his experiences, which he refuses to regard as anything more than an ordinary day’s job. One of his most adventurous jobs was filming the wreck of the Minmi at Cape Banks last year. The ship was broken in half and big seas were breaking over her, but Bert Nicholas scrambled on board and pulled his camera across from the shore on a rope. The gaping hole in the middle of the ship he bird to take with a running jump,

the slippery decks and heavy seas making it a dangerous enterprise. Fox Movietone News cameramen, too, have had their adventures in this part of the world. Among these, Eric W. Bierre ranks trs his worst experience being gassed in the crater of au active volcano. “It happened during a trip to White Island. New Zealand.” said Mr. Bierre. “I and my assistant fell to the ground gasping for breath, and in about 30 seconds were both unconscious. The rest of the party, who had been standing some distance away, saw our plight, but could do nothing to help us till the vapours had blown away—about four minutes later. Then they carried us and the camera to a safer spot, and. using artificial respiration, eventually brought us round. It was some days before we recovered, and the camera equipment was severely damaged by the gases. “I learnt afterward that the vapours from this volcano are a mixture of the smoke from the molten sulphur and deadly chlorine.” Fascinated by Tall Chimneys. Tall chimneys and steeplejacks seem to have a fascination for Ross IV. Woods, Fox Movietone’s stunt cameraman. One of his thrills was climbing single-handed with camera gear through the network of a radio tower in Sydney during the final stages of its construction. Recently, too, he courted disaster by climbing to the top of the new Bunnerong. power-house chimney stack, swinging with his camera in a boatswain’s chair to photograph the painters at work. J. W. Trerise is another Fox Movietone man who is very used to thrills. America has proclaimed him one of the finest slow-motion cameramen in the world. He confesses that his greatest thrill was when he was cut off in a blizzard on Mount Buffalo, narrowly escaping being frozen to death while out on the snow-clad ranges. Walter H. B. Sully, the first man to shoot sound pictures in Australia, is another Fox Movietone cameraman who has had a few experiences to make his hair stand on end. He has taken newsreel photographs from every possible danger angle—in front of express trains, and from the tops of ships’ masts. He says: “My biggest thrill was when the camera equipment came apart, in the air while I was shooting the feeding of sheep by plane during the great north-west floods. Part of the gear shot through the tail of the fuselage, just missing. smashing the rudder.”

These newsreel cameramen become so used to danger that they think nothing of it, and will gladly risk life and limb so that you may see. with your own eyes what is happening in the world today.