The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-09-14
Frederic Haskin's Letter
Movies Made by a Naturalist.


tience and subterfuge are the chic
= essentials in directing animals fol
the movies, according to DR.. Ray
mond L. Ditmars, well known cur
ator of reptiles OF the Bronz zooios-
ical park here. Violence is never
necessary and therefore inexcus-
able" he says. You can get any
effect you want by simple trickery.'
DR.. Ditmars, il cooperation with
/ Charles Urban, movie producer. is
now filming the Fables of La Fon-
tain-those delightful old animal
stories which subtly illustrate
human frailties-using the animals
of the zoo as actors To make the
| fables effective, the animals must
portray humor and tragedy, pleas
ure and anger, and various other
emotions quite as convincingly as
| human screen stars. And they do
How? That is what we asked DR..
Dltmars, and this is what he told
US:
Suppose We want to photograph
a scene which shows the elephant
presiding over a meeting of the
other animals" he said. Accord
ing to the scenario, the elephant
asks the monkey what fault he has
to find with himself, and the mon
key can find none. L can swing
from high limbs he boasts, and
run fast, but l feel sorry for the
bear HIS is big and clumsy and
very slow, I'm told The elephant
then turns to the bear and asks
him what complaint he has to make
concerning himself. The bear does
not share the monkeys view. He is
strong and can crush his enemies
beneath his giant paws and he gets
a splendid rest cure every winter,
but there is the poor little fox. He
feels sorry for him. The fox, how
ever. feels sorry for one of his
neighbors, and so 1t goes on clear |
around the circle of animals, il |
Illustrating the human tendency to |
excuse ones own faults while de- |
crying the sins Of ones neighbors. i
Finally, the elephant becomes !
disguised. He must register great |
anger and contempt, turning wrath |
fully from one side Of the animal !
group to the other. We got that by /
placing a man the elephant liked
on one side of him and another
whom he hated on the other. 1t
was as simple as that.
We. get bear to stand up on
his hindlegs by placing on a roof
or ledge above him tout of the
view of course) a man who
holds an apple in his hand. Food
is the great bait. You can always
get a satisfactory response with il
Really a case of directing the food
and letting the animal follow his
natural bent
Movies of Frogs.
There are some animals which I
are too small and nimble to make
good actors" continued DR.. Dit i
mars. We could not use live
.rogs, for instance, in one of the ]
ables, so We had to use dead ones. Y
fortunately, We were to get large {
lumber of dead frogs from an ex- |
,erimental laboratory which had
ust used them in a stomach test. I T
The purpose of the test had been :
o discover what kind of insects the
rogs ate, in an effort to prove {
whether they were or were not CT r
-alue to the farmer. Well, we made Y
Iur fable frogs out of d plastic sub T
lance and applied the skins of the
cad ones. Then we moved themB :
With invisible wires l had to work (
IL day and night on those frog d
Genes, because they had TO be g
AIKEN while the frogs were still
moist. If I'd put it off until the t
ext day, they would have been i.
ried up and useless" z
Here DR.. Ditmars was interrupted b
Dr. a few moments by one of the b
90 keepers, who communicated 2
is message in an agitated whisper. /
hese- geese, it seems, in one of u
he pools had become suddenly up a
-age and refused to be trapped into c
osing for the camera They were n
OF hungry, and would not leave D
lie water for scattering OF D
rain.
Let it go until morning." di- O
ected DR.. Ditmars. Don't feed a
lem until l get there. and they f;
III be in a conciliatory frame Of e
ind then. Let me see, where was II
he said, getting back to the in 81
rview. r
What sort of creature do you a
nd the most difficult to photo d,
-aph? we asked, steering him po-
tely. II
Insects" replied the doctor i'm d;
edlateIy, because they are 30 fl
nall. We have to trick them. too.
e wanted to get some pictures of ''T
fferent species Of insects which OF