A difference between the modern news photog and his/her ancestors of the newsreel lens of a few generations ago – TV photogs turn stories daily rather than twice a week and don’t have to resort to Lou Hutt and his colleagues’ “brilliant” idea to fill air-time (at least I hope not!). As for why the two young men in skates were willing to even attempt the stunt…the answer is the same reason why you see people today recklessly standing outside to record severe storms with their cellphones and sending the resulting footage to either their local TV stations or CNN’s iReporter for free.

The scene: Paramount News’ offices on West 43rd Street in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City in the late 1930s. It was “makeup day” and eight hours to deadline (in TV terms, they had eight hours to make slot). The makeup editor (Max Klein) in charge of putting the next newsreel together needed just one more story to finish the reel.

No spot news nor sports was to be had to fill those final few minutes of the impending newsreel and the news staff was trying to think of what they could shoot and have in the can within eight hours as a kicker. So in the grand old newsreel tradition, the scheming newsreelers came up with a stunt. How about a pair of skaters out on a tiny platform jutting fifteen feet out from a ledge on the Empire State Building’s 103rd floor with only 1200 plus feet of open air between them and the city streets below?

It was a brilliant idea in their minds. Now all they had to do was find a pair of skaters crazy enough to even attempt the stunt. And well apparently in New York City one can find anything…sure enough one of the staffers found a pair of young men foolish enough to agree to go along with their harebrained scheme in the name of getting their faces into the newsreels.

With the subjects of their stunt secured, Paramount’s carpenter and his assistants descended upon the Empire State Building with a small hardware store in tow – lumber, nails, hammers and saws. An assistant news editor sweet talked the building superintendent while indemnity papers and accidental death releases were signed. Five dollars was promised to each of the two young men as well as the tantalizing lure of being seen in theaters across the country. NYPD oddly enough was not notified of what the newsreelers were up to.

Five hours before deadline, the platform was finished and the four photogs assigned to shoot the stunt were getting into place. Two were over on the Chrysler building with telephoto lenses, another on the ledge where the platform was attached and Lou Hutt was harnessed to the top of the NBC TV antenna on the mooring mast so he could get shots looking down upon the duo as they skated far above the city streets.

After a few minutes of practicing on the ledge, the duo made their way out onto the platform and began to skate. They spun, twirled and lept on the tiny four foot by four square up in the clouds while the newsreel cameras ground on. Then sirens were heard below and Lou Hutt called for a halt to the show, saying it was enough footage and it was swell. The skaters made their way back to the building and Lou started to make his way down off the antenna.

Lou’s harness broke. He came tumbling down, camera and all from the top of the antenna to the ledge below.

The office staff was kind enough to send Lou a basket of flowers to his hospital room the next day along with a note from his editor telling him he probably should take it easy for a while.

They made their make-up deadline/slot, but Lou paid for it with a broken arm, fractured wrist and three cracked ribs.

Editors note: I have more old news photographer stories like this that I have collected listed over on this page.

A modern view of the 103rd floor ledge that the newsreelers built their platform on can be seen at this link.