THE LATE MARTIN JOHNSON

Evening Star, Issue 22881, 12 February 1938, Page 5

THE LATE MARTIN JOHNSON

HUNTED WILD ANIMALS WITH CAMERA Once in a _ great while an unusual personality will come along and carve for himself a niche unique in the world’s experience. Of such calibre was Martin Johnson, popular naturalist and explorer, and his wife, Osa, whose thrilling camera record, ‘ Borneo,’ a Twentieth Century Fox release, will be shown at the Grand next Wednesday. Presented by Osa Johnson, her husband’s last (picture is the fifteenth motion picture story of their remarkable adventures in the savage spots of the world. '

Among the first and most popular of the motion picture camera explorers, who hunt wild animals with the lens rather than with bullets, young Martin Johnson started his personal saga of travel and adventure by running away from home at the age of 14. Eventually he returned, but at 16 he departed again, this time to , join Jack London on his famous cruise around the world on the Snark. For years he had been a Jack London fan, the cruise was the outcome of a letter of appreciation he sent the famous journalist-wanderer. The Snark ‘ went first to the South Seas, furnishing Martin with his first taste of motion picture work when he was allowed to crank London’s ancient When, in 1910, he married Osa Leighty, they spent their honeymoon at London’s Californian ranch. For two years they operated a chain of small picture theatres and toured the western States, showing the film* of London’s ‘ The Cruise of the Snark.’ In 1912 they decided to visit the South Pacific and make their own film. This was ‘ Cannibals of the South Seas,’ the first feature film bearing the names of Mr and Mrs Martin Johnson. For several years they cruised this area, making three additional films. Next, they spent a year sailing around Australia, then two years ins Borneo, and following that, went to the Malay States, Ceylon, and .Egypt. Several feature films resulted from these expeditious. Their next expedition was to Africa, and for 12 years they found much material in that continent, whose length and breadth they salaried over and over. For their later African adventures they purchased two amphibian airplanes, which greatly facilitated thenwork. 1 Having exhausted the possibilities of the Dark Continent, the couple returned once more to Borneo, a mysterious, incredible island which exerted a strange fascination upon them after their first visit many years before. Here they filmed the culminating adventure of Martin Johnson’s career, * Borneo, ’ a highly spectacular and startling insight into the last unknown savage land on earth.