The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-02-13
PERIL IN FILM POSING.
Real Tragedies That Mark the Pro-
duct Of Moving Pictures.

Job as people are apt to imagine.
Grave risks have to be taken and
more or less serious accidents are
common. Sometimes these result
fatally.
The other day, for example, man
named Bittner descended in a para
chute from the Column of Victory in
Berlin with view to being cine
matographed as he was falling, but
something went wrong with his ap-
paratus and the parachutist was
dashed to death.
Similarly, a picture player named
Dunno was killed on the railway
while acting a part. The unfortun-
ate man was only supposed to be run
over by the approaching train, it be-
ing the intention to substitute dunn
my at the last moment. But the
rails were slippery, the driver was
unable to pull his engine in time and
the actor was mangled to death be-
meath the wheels.
Not long ago an actor playing the
part of a cowboy in Chicago fell and
was killed during the rehearsal.
Miss Alice Hollister, whose face
and figure are familiar to frequent
ers of picture shows, nearly lost her
life while rehearsing in Egypt. At
tired in the voluminous draperies of
an Arab peasant woman, she was
seated on a primitive wooden wheel
which brought up from deep we'll
water for irrigation purposes.
At a certain moment she had to
bring the camel which worked the
wheel to halt and descend from her
seat. Unfortunately the camel re-
sumed it's walk too soon, the wheel
started revolving again and Miss
Hollister was jerked into the well,
which was more than 100 feet in
depth.
Luckily her cumbersome garments
caught a projecting stone in the side,
and, being of athletic build, she
managed to hang on until she was
rescued by means of rope in the
hands of her dragoman. But it was
a narrow escape.
No one viewing on the screen the
superb riding of Alice Joyce, expo
nent of "cowgirl'' parts in Western
drama, would suppose that any horse
could ever succeed in throwing her.
AS matter of fact, however, she has
met with several accidents.
Miss Gene Gauntler moving pic
ture company's leading woman, has
been exceptionally unlucky. Only re-
Gently she was attacked by Bedoulns
in the Sahara and had to fight hard
to get away. In Florida she was
nearly engulfed in a quicksand. In
a battle scene she was kicked by a
horse and nearly killed. In another
war scene there was a premature ex-
plosion of a caisson that hurled her
high in the air, and the fall made
her unconscious, but it made great
picture.
Once when she was to be rescued
from a burning house, the company
bought an abandoned farm house in
the country and set it afire. The fire
burned more rapidly than had been
provided for in the rehearsal, and
Miss Gauntler was unconscious and
almost dead when the rescuers
chopped hole in the roof and pulled
her out. They had intended to take
her out through window, but the
real thing made a much better pic
ture
A naval lieutenant is another pic
ture player who has had many mar
row escapes, his latest exploit in this
direction being fall from a high
cliff near Brighton, England. Once,
too, he was badly wounded in a
sword duel with picture player an
tagonist Of course, the injury was
quite unintentional and accidental.
Alfred Brighton, young Ameri-
can picture player, lost his life in
the Hudson river, year ago. He
had to leap into the water and res
cue a girl who was supposed to be
drowning. While swimming toward
her he was observed to throw up his
arms, sink once or twice, and strug-
gle frantically on coming to the sur
face
The spectators on the bank ap-
plauded, imagining it to be part of
the performance, and the operator
kept turning the handle of the ma
chine, while shouting to the drown
ing man, Keep it up!' Only when
he had sunk for the third and last
time did anybody suspect that any,