Evening star., 1943-03-07
A Metal Forest
To Withstand
Winds
But First a Tour
OF Salvage Dumps
Had to Be Made
BY TED GILL.
BY TED GILL.
associated PresS.)
HOLLYWOOD.

Mighty oaks may grow from tiny
acorns, but the movies have FASH
ioned an amazingly realistic forest
out Of an old metal salvage dump.
Auto springs and universal joints
comprise most of the myriad of
used auto parts hand-picked from
junk yards for use In synthetic
woodland scene for Flesh and Fan
tasy." Covering half huge sound
stage, the fabricated forest consists
of trunks and main branches Of
metal covered with wrappings Of
filler and rough-textured cloth, then
painted to complete the miracle.
Live twigs and leaves were fastened
in place with camoufiaged connec-
tions.
Reason for the metal forest was
that for the picture, nature was
supposed to go on q rampage so
violent that imitation trees made Of
plaster, usually used, would not
SLano SuCn pressure.
To simulate hurricane, batteries
of powerful wind machines were
turned upon the forest where the
metal tree trunks, operating on the
universal joints and controlled by
fine wire invisible to the camera,
bent and dipped in realistic fury.
When the scenes were completed,
the trees went back to the junk
yards for conversion into war scrap.
Geological Surge.
Silly Sally-If you think certain
types Of movies don't run In cycles,
one studio recently came out with
1.-THE Cat People" Now we have
'"The APE Man." "Frankenstein, /"
1.-THE Wolf Man." "The Leopard
Man" and, not to be outdone, an
other Is now making Animal King
DOM" Pretty soon 1ilm factories
probably will be issuing . who's
Zoo in Hollywood"
Orphaned oddity- Wong
Howe, Chinese cameraman, tells
how he fooled the mosquitoes on a
recent location trip to Florida, and
how they finally got wise and drove
him to cover only to result in his
discovery Of new lens technique.
During filming OF night shots for
"Air Force" the mosquitoes made 1t
30 uncomfortable for Howe he turned
on the set lights and erected q de-
coy battery Of arcs = hundred yards
away which, when turned on, sent
the hungry mosquitoes diving
over there to see what the excite
ment was all about. Then Howe lit
the camera set, and before the con-
fused mosquitoes could return to at
tack he had one. scene practically
filmed.
This worked swell until the mos
quitos got wise, sent part Of their
force back. He finally finished, how
ever. by operating with = huge piece
Of gossamer chiffon draped over him
and the camera. This not only pro-
tected him from the annoying pests,
but with the scenes photographed
through the chiffon It gave them q
glamorous effect!
Names But No Voices.
Daily dilly-In one Of the strang-
est casting condolences In years
there's . Farrar, ! Cali and Curci
appearing In '.The Phantom Of the
Opera" They are Jane Farrar, Ro-
sina Cali and Elvira Curci-none Of
whom IS related to the opera divas
Of yesteryear.
Assorted asides-Just as they keep
q stad Of talent scouts busy looking
for promising new players, studios
also maintain at least one man to
search the country for rolls Of old
and unusual designs Of wallpaper
for use In period pictures. The
chaps assigned to decorate sound
stages are called rag" men.
Chitter chatter-Hedy Lamarr's
first name really is Hedwig, while
Lupe Velez's is Guadalupe. Tommy
Dix, youthful author of "The March
Of Dimes" theme song for Presi-
dent Roosevelt's infantile paralysis
campaign, Is making his first pic
ture. Band Leader Horace Heidi
has just bought . new suburban
NIGHT club