Joe Gibson showing off Hearst Metrotone’s first sound camera.

The fast arrival of motorized cameras, a sound truck and the newly created profession of news soundmen in the late 1920s was quite simply, an event that turned the worlds of news cameramen completely upside down.

Once traveling alone in fast cars with a lightweight hand-cranked camera that was ready to go in seconds, the working photogs of the era had to learn to deal with a new crew member, a large truck and a new camera that required cables, batteries and time to be setup all at once.

At least in those days, they were afforded the luxury of a twice-a-week deadline instead of filling multiple newscasts a day.