Evening star., 1934-12-25

WueH 1He Evening 0Ldr, on Jdnu.
ary l, inaugurateS in Washington the
wirephoto service Of the Associated
Press, it will be one Of the turning
points in the history of journalism.
The illustrated newspaper is largely
a product OF the past IS years.
Through most Of the last century,
daily papers contained no pictures at
all. In the first place, transmission
was so slow that they would have lost
their news value before they could be
printed. In the second place, the
process was difhcult and expensive.
Thus we find that Civil, and even
Spanish, war pictures were confined
largely to the weekly and monthly
publications. But since then efforts to
bring the delivery of news pictures
abreast Of the news itself have been
intensified steadily and have been re-
sponsible for some of the most thrilling
chapters in the history Of modern
journalism.
First BEAT" In 1897.
The first big picture beat" Of this
era was in 1897 when a special train
was chartered to carry pictures Of the
Corbett- -FitZsimmons fight from Car
son City. New, to San Francisco hours
ahead of the regular trains. In 1921
an airplane, at cost of $25 900, was
Jersey with the first photographs Of
the Dempsey Carpenter fight. In
1924, when commercial wire picture
transmission system was inaugurated
between eight cities, newspapers were
among its first and principle users.
The struggle to carry pictures as
rapidly as news has involved the twin
tasks of getting the picture and dis
tributing It, Behind repeated beats on
news pictures are stories of photog-
raphers who thought Of pictures and
not of safety when earthquakes and
hurricanes suddenly struck, who flew
at night over mountain and desert to
get with the first rays of dawn the
picture of burst dam, who stood at
the heels of Federal agents when a
murderous public enemy was cornered,
and who stretched their luck to the
breaking point to carry cameras into
the thick of strike, riot and revolt.
There are some inspiring stories Of
heroism and devotion. Readers may
recall the graphic pictures published
by The Star of events of the Cuban
revolution last year. Many Of these
were obtained by Jose Garcia, Cuban
boy who had learned to handle the
camera as an Associated Press office
boy. While blood flowed and the
Machado government tottered, Jose
obtained many pictures which told the
story as words could not.
When Jose Defied Death.
One day, at the sound of shooting
on the Prado, Jose seized his camera
and jumped on the back of an auto
mobile bound for the scene. He ar
rived as mounted police were riding
down the mob. He climbed to the top
of the spare tire and poised his
camera. A policeman saw him and
summoned his comrades with shout,
"Abajo los fotografos." Jose held his
perch for a split second as he snapped
police fired. He was badly hurt in the
fall, but stumbled back to the Associ-
ated Press Office and delivered his
negatives before he received medical
attention. He was under doctors
care for rs days, but he would not
stay idle while Cuba was alive with
picture news. Day by day he followed
the tide of revolution with his camera,
a marked man to the police, and more
than once he was fired upon.
This is only one example OF the
comparatively recent thrilling expert
ences of Associated Press photogra-
pliers.
To obtain picture coverage Of an
event, precise organization is essential.
Take, for example, the scene at the
Long Island bowl the night Of the
Baer- -Carnera fight. Three photogra-
pliers were at the ringside, two others
among the crowds or in the dressing
rooms. The editor in charge had six
and four motor cycles in
readiness. At an airport outside the
arena chartered planes waited with
motors running. The fight began at
1o:o8 o'clock BY 1o:4o the first plates
had been delivered at the Newark Air
port, loaded into other planes and
were on their way for distribution in
the South.
800 Deadlines Met.
The operation was repeated every
few minutes to catch planes bound for
other parts Of the country. Within
barely three hours and half after
the fight began the Associated Press
had sent So packages of fight pictures
by air and "a by train to member
It had co-ordinated mo-
tor cycle, train and airplane transpor-
tation to meet 800 newspaper dead
lines. t+
A still more recent example Of en-.
terprise was the distribution Of pic
lures Of the NaM revolt in Vienna.
A plane bearing these pictures was
from the deck Of the liner
Bremen 800 miles OF New York ct