North to Alaska and assignement desk editors

January 6, 2012 photog blogs

One surviving story that William Hudson of Pathe News shot is footage of Sir Hubert Wilkins 1926 flights into the Arctic.

Hudson ended up covering the story since Pathe assignment editors in New York wasn’t too thrilled with Wilkins’ choice of a freelance cameraman to go with and sent the Seattle-based Hudson along with Wilkins instead.

Part of the film is actually missing since Hudson intentionally destroyed it.  While its not mentioned in any of the newsreels, a print reporter from the Detroit News was killed in an accident. Hudson explains what happened and why he destroyed the film.

“…while trying to help the stalled ship, grim tragedy struck our press representation, Palmer Hutchinson of the Detroit News. Hutch stepped into the right propeller. The spinning blades killed him instantly.

I had just started my camera when he stepped into the view and before I realized it, I had filmed the dreadful scene. I was suddenly ill. I opened the movie camera, pulled out the film and let it drop – fogged – into the snow.”

The assignment desk and the “the story location is only an inch away” theory of reading maps to give crews directions also existed then too. Hudson wrote about his experiences with Pathe’s house cats while he was in Alaska back in 1926:

“Up until this time, editors made all of the contacts with the field cameramen. An editor knows film and he knows news and knows what it takes to get a story. The lower echelon news editors are paper jockeys who make assignments. They are not newsmen but they are supposed to take the burden off the shoulders of the editor himself. Our news editor was a veritable hound for watching the current press stories for his newsreel ideas and then pouncing on the best items. Unfortunately this doesn’t always work. Most news editors only have small-scale maps, where probably bought up in New York and its suburbs, and think the Pacific Northwest and Alaska are outlying districts of Los Angeles. As a result, their knowledge of the country and its people is rather sketchy and in some cases downright dumb. Pathe was breaking in a new news editor while I was in Alaska.

A story concerning an Eskimo family on the coast of Alaska, north of Nome, broke one day and was carried by the press bureaus. The next day I received a wire from New York asking me to run over and do an Eskimo story while the plane was being refueled. I had to explain in an expensive telegram that I was more than 500 miles from Nome and a trip to Nome by air had never been done in winter. Back came a wire asking me what a plane would cost for such a trip. I explained the cost would be close to $5000 for such a venture provided I could get a pilot to make the risky attempt. I also reminded the news editor I had a polar expedition on my hands that I did not dare to leave as the conditions and situation was changing every day.

A few days later the news editor came through with another weird one. A noted mountain climber announced he was going to climb Mt. McKinley. Would I please go over to the base of the mountain and make the climb with him over the weekend while the polar expedition took a few days rest? I explained, by way of reply, that it took several months of careful planning for such a mountain climb, and to equip such a party with experienced climbers took at least one year in advance just to set out the caches of food and emergency clothing and other supplies at “way” points along the trail.

Back came the reply: Why the need for all that food?

There are some things that New York City news editors, who probably never saw a tree other than in Central Park, and wouldn’t know mucklucks from lady’s slippers, will probably never learn.”

One surviving story that William Hudson of Pathe News shot is footage of Sir Hubert Wilkins 1926 flights into the Arctic.

Hudson ended up covering the story since Pathe assignment editors in New York wasn’t too thrilled with Wilkins’ choice of a freelance cameraman to go with and sent the Seattle-based Hudson along with Wilkins instead.

Part of the film is actually missing since Hudson intentionally destroyed it.  While its not mentioned in any of the newsreels, a print reporter from the Detroit News was killed in an accident. Hudson explains what happened and why he destroyed the film.

“…while trying to help the stalled ship, grim tragedy struck our press representation, Palmer Hutchinson of the Detroit News. Hutch stepped into the right propeller. The spinning blades killed him instantly.

I had just started my camera when he stepped into the view and before I realized it, I had filmed the dreadful scene. I was suddenly ill. I opened the movie camera, pulled out the film and let it drop – fogged – into the snow.”

The assignment desk and the “the story location is only an inch away” theory of reading maps to give crews directions also existed then too. Hudson wrote about his experiences with Pathe’s house cats while he was in Alaska back in 1926:

“Up until this time, editors made all of the contacts with the field cameramen. An editor knows film and he knows news and knows what it takes to get a story. The lower echelon news editors are paper jockeys who make assignments. They are not newsmen but they are supposed to take the burden off the shoulders of the editor himself. Our news editor was a veritable hound for watching the current press stories for his newsreel ideas and then pouncing on the best items. Unfortunately this doesn’t always work. Most news editors only have small-scale maps, where probably bought up in New York and its suburbs, and think the Pacific Northwest and Alaska are outlying districts of Los Angeles. As a result, their knowledge of the country and its people is rather sketchy and in some cases downright dumb. Pathe was breaking in a new news editor while I was in Alaska.

A story concerning an Eskimo family on the coast of Alaska, north of Nome, broke one day and was carried by the press bureaus. The next day I received a wire from New York asking me to run over and do an Eskimo story while the plane was being refueled. I had to explain in an expensive telegram that I was more than 500 miles from Nome and a trip to Nome by air had never been done in winter. Back came a wire asking me what a plane would cost for such a trip. I explained the cost would be close to $5000 for such a venture provided I could get a pilot to make the risky attempt. I also reminded the news editor I had a polar expedition on my hands that I did not dare to leave as the conditions and situation was changing every day.

A few days later the news editor came through with another weird one. A noted mountain climber announced he was going to climb Mt. McKinley. Would I please go over to the base of the mountain and make the climb with him over the weekend while the polar expedition took a few days rest? I explained, by way of reply, that it took several months of careful planning for such a mountain climb, and to equip such a party with experienced climbers took at least one year in advance just to set out the caches of food and emergency clothing and other supplies at “way” points along the trail.

Back came the reply: Why the need for all that food?

There are some things that New York City news editors, who probably never saw a tree other than in Central Park, and wouldn’t know mucklucks from lady’s slippers, will probably never learn.”