PHOTOGRAPHING THRILLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21159, 16 April 1932, Page 11 (Supplement)

PHOTOGRAPHING THRILLS.

'( AN ADVENTUROUS LIFE. SCENES FOR SERIALS. The motion picture industry has has afford a continuance of thrills and excitement for at least one explorer between his jaunts in quest of adventure in far corners of /the earth. He is Harold * McCracken, -who is to be seen in Explorers, of the World," the current .film of exploration in far-away lands which rnaj be seen in New Zealand shortly. " Mstion pictures have played an important part in my career as an explorer," says McCracken. "On most of my expeditions to Alaska, the \ ukon and the north coast of Siberia my films have not only helped to make the trips .profitable, but getting them has provided some of the most exciting incidents. And during the periods between, when compelled to spend my time in the land of cities, the motion picture industry has also afforded me even more thrilling experiences than I ever enjoyed on my. most spectacular expedition out beyond . the frontier. " For several years a large part of the time that I spent, periodically iu New York was devoted to the making of Aeroplane and other stunt stories for the news-reels and for' feature-film prbductions. I was a young man in quest of /' 1 jdvenlure—arid I found plenty of it both a{ home and on the Arctic front'ev: tilmthriller stuff became my specialty and many of the breath-taking scenes in the news-reels, the old Pathe serials, Johnny Hines films, Ben Lyon features, etc., had afforded me greater thrills than they possibly could have given the cinemagoers who saw thern.

"On one of my motion picture air adventures I was held responsible _ for causing Harvard to lose the classic Harvard 'Varsity boat race, while filming it for Pathe News. Just before the race I was asked by Caperton, my favourite pilot, just what I wanted to get. Among others things, 1 suggested a diving glide down over the two boats when they were about half-way up the course. When asked how close we should go, I suggested goirig as close as he wanted to. He did: In fact, we went so close that it caused the Harvard crew (so they claimed after the race) to lose their stroke —and the race.

" The police arrested the pilot of another similar type 'plane—to protect him from the infuriated students. Incidentally, ihat was the last time that a 'plane was permitted to fly less than 1000 ft. over the Yale-Harvard boat races.

" Once, while filming a stunt story of eight men simultaneously jumping from a blimp with parachutes, I accidentally pulled the rip cord on my own 'chute—and harelv caught the bag before it opened and wrecked the 'plane ' n which I was flying. Another assignment, on a war picture, ' The Great Deception,' featuring Ben Lyon, was to make six consecutive tail-spins, dropping from 2500 ft. to as close to ground as possible without crashing! I photographed a crash in the centre of. the Altoona Auto Speedway of a 'plane in which I was supposed to have been flying —and got a bonus for the picture! I flew with my film camera strapped on the end of the wing of a 'plane—and found it far more comfortable ' out there ' than in the cockpit. And of auto races and crashes there

rtvas no end. On one race track film featuring Johnny Hines T rode astride Harry Hartz's little racer at 120 miles an hour in a staged race between eight or nine cars."