page_title: John Arnold (cinematographer)
section_title: 1910s and 1920s
hierarchical_section_title: John Arnold (cinematographer) / Career / 1910s and 1920s
caption_attribution_description: English: Cinematographer John Arnold (left), with director Edward Cline on the set of the 1924 film, Along Came Ruth
context_page_description: John Arnold was an American cinematographer. He began in 1914, and in his 25 years behind the camera, he shot 86 films. He also worked in film administration, directing the cinematography department at MGM, and was president of the American Society of Cinematographers from 1931 through 1937, and again from 1939 to 1941. By 1938, he was regarded as one of the most authoritative experts on cinematography. He invented several pieces of camera equipment and was awarded two Oscars, both Technical Achievement Awards. The first was in 1938 for improvements on the semi-automatic follow focus device used on motion picture cameras, while the second was in 1940 for the development of the MGM mobile camera crane.
context_section_description: Arnold started his career with Republic Pictures in New York City (not to be confused with Republic Pictures) in 1910. Arnold's first film was 1914's Springtime, directed by Will S. Davis and starring Florence Nash, Adele Ray, and William H. Tooker. Filming took place on location in New Orleans, Louisiana and in St. Augustine, Florida. In July 1916, he began working for Metro Pictures, his first picture being The Quitter, starring Lionel Barrymore, Marguerite Skirvin, and Paul Everton, and was directed by Charles Horan. While at Metro, he became the personal cameraman for Viola Dana, shooting every film she appeared in for the studio. In November 1919, Arnold began a new fad among cameramen, when he began to wear moleskin pants. He felt that they had the dual purpose of keeping him warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Arnold was one of the charter members of the American Society of Cinematographers in 1919.
  He continued at Metro throughout the 1910s and into the 1920s.  In April 1922, he went over to Fox Films to shoot Very Truly Yours, directed by Harry Beaumont, before returning to Metro in May to film Viola Dana's next picture, Seeing's Believing. By 1922, he had filmed every single one of Viola Dana's pictures for Metro, and had helmed the camera for 47 films for Metro. Arnold, accompanied by his wife, went on location in February 1923 to shoot the film The Fog.
  It is very seldom that the photography is praised in a poorly directed picture. The perfect picture results from close co-operation between the cameraman and the director.
  In 1921, Arnold was elected to the board of governors of the American Society of Cinematographers. With the advent of sound pictures in the late 1920s, Arnold was chosen to sit on a panel of industry experts in the fields of film engineering, projection, and cinematography to discuss and establish screen proportions and other issues which arose with sound pictures. The experts were chosen from four organizations: the Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences technicians, the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, the American Projection Society, and the American Society of Cinematographers. Through 1925 Arnold shot every film Viola Dana was in at Metro. This ended with Dana's departure from Metro in 1925 in order to go freelance. After her departure, Arnold was given a long-term contract by MGM, where he had been since they opened their west coast studios in 1916. That year Arnold filmed The Big Parade, which won the Photoplay Magazine Medal for best film of the year. The medal is considered the first significant annual movie award, prior to the establishment of the Oscars. 1927 saw the development of the "Arnold light", an incandescent light which replaced the arc lights which was used prior. In 1929 Arnold invented a new type of "sound-proof" camera, to reduce the noise in filming sound productions. Its first use was in Lionel Barrymore's The Unholy Night, although Arnold was not the cinematographer on that film. In 1929 Arnold invented the "bungalow", a mobile camera covering which freed cameramen from the restrictive camera booths which were necessitated by sound film photography. 1929 would be Arnold's last year behind the camera.  In 1930 he joined MGM's administration as head of their sound camera department, later to be called simply the camera department.
caption: Arnold (left), with director Edward Cline on the set of the 1924 film, Along Came Ruth
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