Evening star., 1939-02-17


anniversary this year. For half
that time, so years, George Harris
has been one of the men who point
ed their cameras at the cavalcade
of world events.
| Now ST. Mr.. Harris has been in
the Photographic business since he
was IT, He was still an amateur,
he says, when the Pittsburgh Dis
patch sent him 70 photograph the
Johnstown flood in 1882 but the
lure OF covering events pictorially
soon drove him into the business.
In the early 1900s he was sent
by the San Francisco Examiner to
cover the volcano eruptions in
Hawaii. When he returned to San
Francisco, he remembers, the man
aging editor of the paper was
stormlng because he couldn't get a
picture of Senator Hoar of Massa-
chusetts, who had just died. He
advised the young man to go to
/ Washington and make pictures for
the newspapers of the country.
Few Pictures in Papers Then.
There were no staff pbotogra-
/ piers on newspapers when Mr..
Harris came to Washington. In
fact. newspapers were just begin
ming to use pictures.
"All the photographers thought
was crazy when I set up business in
Washington" he recalls. But I
said to myself some day that's going
to be the news center of the world. -"
One of his first big assignments
was TO take group picture of Theo-
dore Roosevelt's first cabinet. The
dignitaries gathered in the cabinet
room of the White House and the
President asked Mr. Harris if he
could make the picture with only
daylight for illumination. When
the photographer looked doubtful,
Mr.. Roosevelt said, You ought TO
say tyes) to anything and then
find way to do it."
Mr.. Harris, pointing to the pic
ture, which hangs on the wall of
his Office, showed that the then
Secretary of War Taft was on the
edge OF the picture. Il started to
move his chair in he reminisced,
but he laughed at me and said
"A mouse can't move an elephant "
His Luckiest Picture.
Mr.. Harris says the luckiest pic
ture he ever got was of Mr.. Taft
on his last day in the War Depart
ment.
After had taken his picture, -
he related, "he was called to the
telephone. He started to smile and
started swapping his picture. I
took four pictures that way with
him at the phone and when he was
about to hang up, I told him I
wanted a broad grin. He laughed
out loud as I snapped the picture.
Afterward he told me he had every
reason to smile He had been talk
ing to President Roosevelt, who
told him he had just been made a
presidential candidate. I called
those candid shots The Evolution
Of Presidential Smile"
Mr.. Harris travelled more than
so 900 miles with the first President
Roosevelt when he was in office and
remembers him as the only Presi-
dent who ever worried about the
press. He never went to bed until
he was sure we were comfortable. :"
One of the high spots of Mr..
Harris Photographic career occurred
when President Wilson invited him
to attend the Paris Peace Confer
ence. After he made the pictures
that had to be made, he decided
to get pictures of every man around
the conference table.
Red tape barred his way and It
began to look as though he'd have
to return without the 86 pictures
when it occurred to him to offer Mrs.
Wilson the first album of pictures
of the men, if he could get the
pictures. That smoothed his way
and after six weeks he had visited
the homes or Offices of each man
and obtained autographed pictures.
Not a Shave on the Boat.
PRESIDENT wilson took his press
with him when he went to London to
pay his respects to King George ".
There was no water on the train or
on the boat that carried the party
across the channel and the men ar
rived shaveless at Buckingham
Palace.
When one of the reporters started
to apologize to the King for days
growth Of beard, Mr.. Harris said the
King laughed and, stroking his full
beard, declared, You have nothing
on me. haven't shaved either this
morning"
The most beautiful woman he
ever photographed, Mr.. Harris said,
was Nine. Konstantine Dumba, wife
of the Austrian Ambassador to the
United States. The easiest to pho
tograph, he added, was Mrs. Grace
Coolidge.
Shed do anything for you," he
declared. Shed ask you if you
liked her dress and If you hesitated
she'd go change it,"
Most difficult to photograph was
Theodore Roosevelt, not because he
made trouble, but because, accord
ing to Mr.. Harris, he wore thick
glasses that reflected the light.