Decades before Triad-area radio stations would risk their licenses by allowing a Fox 8 photog on their air, Fox Movietone News cameraman Jess Kizis sat down for an interview with Fred Allen on his “Town Hall News” radio show back on June 21, 1939.
Here is that interview and a transcript of Kizis’ radio appearance:
FRED ALLEN: “And now ladies and gentlemen, I know you didn’t expect to meet, uh are you prepared Uncle James?”
UNCLE JAMES: “I cannot tell a lie Fred, I am.”
ALLEN: “And what unusual occupation have you peeked in on during the past week?”
JAMES: “Well I was sitting in a movie theater the other day watching the newsreels and got to wondering about those men who risk their lives to bring the news of the day to millions of people.”
ALLEN: “Well don’t tell me Uncle James.”
JAMES: “Yes Fred, our guest this tonight is one of them. He is the ace cameraman of the Movietone news staff, Mister Jess Kizis.”
ALLEN: “Well good evening Jess.”
JESS KIZIS: “Good evening Fred.”
ALLEN: “Glad you didn’t have your camera, we could have snapped that reception there. Jess, how long [laughter]…I could have used it many a week up here. Jess, how long have you been contributing your celluloid might to the weekly newsreel?”
KIZIS: “Twelve years Fred.”
ALLEN: “Twelve years and I imagine during your long career, you have recorded for pos…posterity, my having never met them of course I wouldn’t be familiar with what they were. But you have recorded have recorded for posterity more than your quota of history in the making.”
KIZIS: “Yes I have covered quite a wide variety of events and happenings alright.”
ALLEN: “And now what are some of the more dramatic episodes you have recorded on celluloid Jess?”
KIZIS: “Well there was the Flint sit-down strikes, the Wyoming Valley floods, the Coney Island fire and the Morro Castle and Mohawk disasters.”
ALLEN: “Well between strikes, floods, fires and shipwrecks, you really ought to be an authority on catastrophes.”
KIZIS: “Catastrophes unfortunately make the most exciting newsreel shots Fred.”
ALLEN: “Yes that is only too true. You know there is one thing that always puzzles me Jess. No matter what goes on, there always seems to be a newsreel cameraman there to get his pictures. How do you fellows know when things are going to happen? Who decides what happenings are going to be filmed?”
KIZIS: “Our assignment editor.”
ALLEN: “Your assignment editor? He tells you where to go in a nice way?”
KIZIS: “Yes Fred.”
ALLEN: “Well, uh, tell me Jess, how can the Movietone news cover events in Japan, Italy and Perth Amboy so effectively and, eh, quickly?”
KIZIS: “The company has a staff of some two hundred newsreel cameramen scattered all over the world.”
ALLEN: “Oh and they take care of everything?”
KIZIS: “Most everything. We also have a large number of freelance men to augment the regular staff. They cover any stories that pop up in unusual places.”
ALLEN: “Well what becomes of all these pictures? What do you do with old newsreels? You can always find a use for yesterday’s newspaper but you can’t wrap up a herring in a newsreel.”
KIZIS: “Old newsreels are filed away Fred. At the vaults of Movietone news, we have a copy of every foot of film that has ever been shot.”
ALLEN: “Back again to the centipede must run into feet.”
KIZIS: “Yes we have about fifty million feet.”
ALLEN: “Hey yea, a woman over-appreciated my last remark. Uh what did you say you have over five…fifty million feet? Fifty million feet of film. Say Jess if you had a Donald Duck and a travelog and you’ve got a full-length show at any neighborhood theater. But tell me, have you ever been injured in the line of duty?”
KIZIS: “Yes I have had my hand badly cut by a blimp propeller trying to get some freak shots and I’ve been slugged a few times working at riots but its all a part of the game.”
ALLEN: “Ah yes, as the hunter said as when the antlers fell off of the dead deer, its part of the game. Have you ah…have you ah…have you…we’ve got to get on here. But ah, heh heh, have you ever had to preform any unusual physical feats to record some important footage?”
KIZIS: “Well to take the view from the top of the Triborough Bridge, I climbed the cables carrying a hundred pound camera.”
ALLEN: “Well that is certainly is a lot of trouble to go through to get a picture of Flushing isn’t it? Has your life ever been in jeopardy?”
KIZIS: “Yes Fred, I covered the Machado Revolution in Havana with bullets flying all around me.”
ALLEN: “Instead of shooting your subjects it was practically vice versa. Say what about celebrities? Have many famous folks strayed within range of your focus?
KIZIS: “Yes I have taken Colonel Lindbergh, Herbert Hoover, Howard Hughes, President Roosevelt, Al Smith and many others.”
ALLEN: “Is any of the front-page celebrities eh personalities a favorite with the cameraman?”
KIZIS: “I say Postmaster Farley was, Fred.”
ALLEN: “Postmaster Farley? Well he doesn’t go around handing out stamps to the boys between close-ups does he?”
KIZIS: “No, but he’s always ready to cooperate.”
ALLEN: “We’ll know for sure in 1940. What about, look at Jim that old Republican shorting, what about the sporting luminaries Jess?”
KIZIS: “Max Baer is my favorite. Max likes to clown around before the camera as does Tony Galento.”
ALLEN: “Oh yes I’ve seen Tony in a lot of pictures. I’ve…I’ve seen a lot of Tony in one picture too. I hear…I hear he was pretty mad at one theater manager last week.
KIZIS: “That’s unusual Fred. Tony’s generally good natured.”
ALLEN: “I know, but one theater showed a newsreel of Tony training for the Louis fight. It was followed by a trailer that said ‘Coming next week, dark victory.’”
KIZIS: “I see what you mean.”
ALLEN: “I sense that you would Jess. Now in all your years in newsreel activities, what has been your biggest scoop?”
KIZIS: “I guess the time I covered the capture of Two Gun Crowley.”
ALLEN: “Oh I remember Francis Crowley. They caught him in a rooming house uptown. How did you know the police were going into action?”
KIZIS: “I didn’t. I just happened to drive….I just happened to be driving through that block when the excitement began.”
ALLEN: “What did you do?”
KIZIS: “I got my camera out of the car and was grinding away even before the police commissioner got there.”
ALLEN: “Well that’s certainly quick work. You know I once heard about a newsreel man who got to a fire before Mayor LaGuardia. I don’t believe that. After all you can’t do the impossible you know. I saw a picture yesterday where the mayor showed up with a fish in one paper. Say I just happened to think about another…[laughter]…say I just think Jess about another Movietone feature. Do you ever make any of those comedy Movietone shorts…shots…with Lew Lehr?
KIZIS: “Yes, I have made quite a few of them.”
ALLEN: “Say tell me, how do you get Lew’s picture up in the corner of those news shots? Do you have to take Lew out and hang him up in the hippopotamus quay or wherever it is?”
KIZIS: “No, we just photograph the scenes. Lew gets up there the best way he can.”
ALLEN: “And he’s been doing it lately, I’ve noticed. What about that liquid double-talk? Do you photograph that?”
KIZIS: “Lew dubs in his own dialog back in the studio.”
ALLEN: “Do you think confidentially after looking at Europe, does Lew think monkeys are the craziest people?”
KIZIS: “I wouldn’t know Fred.”
ALLEN: “Well next time I see some monkeys, I’m going to ask them how they feel about Lew. But enough of this Darwinian chit-chat, tell me Jess what is the most recent important assignment you have covered?”
KIZIS: “The arrival of the King and Queen here in New York.”
ALLEN: “How close did you get to their majesties?”
KIZIS: “I was about six feet from them at the fair.”
ALLEN: “It must have been quite a thrill.”
KIZIS: “Yes Fred, it was one of those experiences that makes my job so fascinating. As far as I’m concerned, there is no other job in the world like it.”
ALLEN: “In other words, the newsreel cameraman is a soldier of fortune.
KIZIS: “Without the fortune, yes.”
ALLEN: “Well thanks a lot for this little verbal hike around your tripod Jess. Now before you go, I wonder if you’d do me a favor? If you could take a newsreel picture for me of sort of a minor catastrophe.”
KIZIS: “I’d be glad to, Fred.”
ALLEN: “Could you just shoot a few feet of Mister Van Steden up on his podium there?”
KIZIS: “Is that a catastrophe?”
ALLEN: “Mister Van Steden is a catastrophe with skin on it.
KIZIS: “I get it.”
ALLEN: “Good-bye Fred.”
KIZIS: “Thank-you and good night Mister Jess Kizis.”
If you want to download this 7:55 long MP3 file of Kizis’s interview to listen elsewhere, right-click here and save the file.