THE ANTARCTIC.

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 1, 2 January 1936, Page 14

THE ANTARCTIC.

Hollywood cameramen who film their pictures ,on a comfortable sound stage do not know how well off they are, according to John L. Herrmann and Carl Petersen, Paramount cameramen who^ were with the Byrd Expedition for eighteen months, and who returned to the studio to help assemble the film, soon to be shown under the title of "At the Bottom of the World." Down in Antarctica, they declared, they had to wear special silk gloves at all times to keep their hands from freezing to the camera mechanism because of the intense cold. When the : temperature went to 45 degrees below zero or lower, they had to heat both cameras and film before they could ; even take a picture, otherwise the ] mechanism would jam or the film be- ] come brittle and break. For eighteen months the party never set foot on land, although they walked and rode ■ about in their dog sleds and tractors. '. They were on a solid pack of ice, 200 1 feet thick, floating on 2000 feet of ' water. Vegetables were of the dehy- ' drated variety that had practically no ; taste. For fresh meat they frequently , ate seals. It was discovered that the ' meat could be made palatable by strip- * ping the carcass of its blubber as soon as it was killed, thus eliminating the ; fishy taste. "At the Bottom of the World" will be the second picture Para- 1 mount has made dealing with the Byrd Polar expeditions.