Sound

After the photo lab I worked at went belly up, after going through my unemployment, savings and retirement fund, I started doing background work in the movies.  This piece of equipment is a boom mic, and quite frankly, they haven't changed all that much since this picture was taken.  But who is the guy?  All the techs I've seen on set dress casually.  For some reason, they seem to favor shorts.  Did boom operators once show up to set wearing suits?  Hard to imagine. 

Hollywood At War

These two photos are each stamped, "MAY 13, 1943."

Most people, when they think of Hollywood and war,  think of war movies.  The war actually made and destroyed the careers of many actors.  George Reeve of Superman fame was an up and coming actor who spent several years in the marines, returned to Hollywood only to find his career stalled.  John Wayne was a minor star who had made a few good movies, most notably Stagecoach.  Too old for the draft, bad knees from college football injuries, rejected by the O.S.S., he became a major star almost by default.  And then there was Dwight Frye, Renfield in Dracula, suffering from a heart condition, unable to serve, he ended up working two jobs.  Actor by day, draftsman at a defense plant by night.  He ended up dying of a heart attack from over work.