Evening star., 1922-10-22
Knights of the Black Box
Have Nerve-Racking Job

easy and cheap way of getting supers
to act for your own personal littl.
drama
| When the recent disarmament con-
ference or whatever you call that
meeting was held in Washington We
T! certainly had our hands full. Many
of the foreign dignitaries either did
! not want their pictures taken or else
, they were pulling an awful lot of up
stage stuff. a couple of them, how
ever. were really and truly camera
shy and il was several days before
We could get decent snap of them.
! but we finally managed to get them
= by means of the old-time trlangl-
game which for the benefit of your
! innocent mind L will explain, is the
! placing of q camera man in tn"
/ front of the victim, and when he
! thinks he can escape by turning his
J head to the right or left, he only
| finds that he is facing another camera
and has been snapped. Triplicate cop
| les are made from the plate SO that
all of US can turn in photograph,
but generally the would-be dodger.
seeing the game is up. smilingly con-
sents to be mugged and gives US
! really honest-to- goodness pose.
But to turn to the work We guys
have to do here in Washington. Som"
notable floats in from continental
! Europe, Abyssinia. the orient or the
! north pole, and we are supposed 10
| cover them by movies and stills every
! time they do anything. from present
! ing a memorial to the President to
| sneezing their precious heads off. We
! are expected to get good. clear.
! sharp negative in the interior OF a
! station or in the subdued light of
| hotel suite If it is night. We are
i supposed to get the picture anyhow.
| and in the majority of instances we
are ,abooed in taking a fash be-
| cause of the jumpy condition OF the
! nerves of the individual about to be
| photographed.
| when some dignitary oounces in
on a train we are supposed to run
| along beside his automobile and keep
! taking snaps at him as he is con-
! yersins with some high government
| official or with the chairman OF the
| recention committee. who generally
wears so many futtering badges that
mart of the picture looks like an eA-
hibit of a silk factory.
ssnILLY and I (Biliy Is my pal
D YOU know were stationed at
the White House for time and
;f 7 cou,d sit down and write book
on the experiences we had while we
were on this detail 1t would contain
eenuiue humor You ought to see
so,pe of those who prance up to the
| White House. thinking that they ha|e
business with the Honorable warren
| C. They may have just come IN tor
a haudshake. or they may have pre-
scented an invitation for the chief
executive to visit their home town.
and If they can't con George CHRIS
tian into having the President drop
his work and come out in the back
ward and be took with them, they
| dron ON, where we are, and in tones
| inst loud enough for us to hear, ana
none of us are particularly dear, theE
spill something about like TINS:
81 am very glad to notice that the
President agrees with us. and the
conference tomorrow. which ne mas
| arranged will no doubt result IN tnis
| very important question being settied
not only to the satisfaction OF those
! concerned but also In "A manner tnat
| will be very beneficial to the entire
I country All that line of patter Is
bunk, but We don't dare slip up on II
because it might be one OF those
thousand -to-one shots that sometimes
go through.
when we are covering a parade
| and want to get shots from different
points we have to grind out thirty
or forty or even fifty feet, then fold
IN the legs of this monstrosity, slap
il on our shoulders and do marathon
to some distant part Of the street so
that we can get other views. or
| course, in this wild, mad scramble
for movie news nowadays We cannot
1 wait for nice clear weather, because
there are lots of happenings that take
place while the dewdrops fail by the
| bucketfuls.
Another little pleasing thing we
have to do is to hop in a plane with
some flyer whose speciality Is doing
| stunts, and no matter how much his
boat might be rocked by the air
| waves, we have to keep grinding
right along. If we happen to get air
sick, which is just as bad rs being
seasick, that makes not q bit. OF
difference The picture has to -
! grabbed just the same.