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59

We chose a rough and bumpy spot to slow us up and hazarded a guess as to exactly where the plane would stop.

Let me set the scene further.  Our cameraman was a short, plumpish Hungarian who looked ill at ease grinding the handle of his manually operated camera like a huge coffee mill.   When I landed the distance between the cameraman and where I hit the ground was a bit overshot. He stuck manfully to his job cranking away at the risk of his life. Luck, and the braking quality of rough ground was on our side and we didn't collide but he got one of the closest close-ups in the history of motion pictures.  It filled the entire screen and was probably the first giant economy sized close-up in film history.

As I recall Anton grinding away I have continued to understand and appreciate the courage of cameramen and realize the risks they take to 'Shoot it. Now. It may never happen like this again."  Time after time when I've seen a motion picture involving mountain climbing and watched the dlimbers leap gracefully from crag to crag like mountain goats, I'd wonder where in the Pink Shades of Hell the cameraman was standing, dangling or perching to get it? Think about it sometime.

It was a busy summer at Mineola.  The motion picture was getting reams of publicity and aviation was getting a good deal of attention.  Some of the more optomistic even predicted privately that it might even have a commercial future.  It was still new and a newsmaker. Daily it seemed something widened the focus on flying.  New planes, a new record of some sort or some new development in engineering or safety.  That was the news.  The sensationalism was the accent on accidents...the crashes, mishaps and the death. This accent turned into a handicap. [[strikethrough]] for [[/strikethrough]] Fliers were forbidden to fly beyond the field...it was feared they might land on a rooftop or on the 

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