Post by Terry Harbin on Nov 8, 2005 8:40:48 GMT -5
Thousand witness street car's fall into the gorge
"Secret" Act for the Movies is greatly enjoyed
by the large crowd at Fall Creek -
The picture is a big success.
The 1,000 persons who clustered on the cliffs, ledges and plateaus of Fall Creek gorge Saturday afternoon never saw a more thrilling sight than the plunge of a real street car from the Stewart avenue bridge to the rocky depths below.
The scene was arranged for the Wharton Moving Picture Company's latest photo-play, "The Kiss of Blood" now being enacted. So that crowds would not hamper the work of the camera operators, the Whartons intended that only the members of their company and a few others should be present when the crash occurred.
Everybody's Secret.
Talk about the evolution of a secret. When the clock struck the hour of 2 there were enough persons on hand to start the mobilization of a small army. And automobiles! At least a hundred were parked near the entrance to the bridge.
Police Guard the Crowd.
Chief of Police Buck and Policeman Curtis superintended the traffic, kept persons from the bridge, and in this way prevented possible accidents. The most popular place for the sightseers appeared to be a flat ledge below the bridge, near the residence of Willard Austen, Assistant Librarian of the Cornell University Library.
About 2 o'clock the big crowd waited in nervous expectancy. Car 305, the relic of the Traction Company, which was to make the abysmal dive, was first given a trial run over the tracks and up to the throw off switch on the bridge. It was then towed back to the starting point, about a hundred yards from the bridge.
Dummy on the platform.
A dummy to represent the villain escaping with the Rajah's jewels was then strapped to the front platform, the power was turned on and the car moved along swiftly. The crowd in the gorge heard three revolver shots, the last one denoting that the car was on its way.
Down to destruction.
A thrill went through the crowd as the car poked its way past the trees skirting the north end of the bridge and sped along the bridge tracks. Near the center of the bridge the car turned abruptly to the right and with a ripping sound, crashed through the railing and began its meteoric flight to the creek-bed far below.
The front trucks of the car acted as a weight and the car shot down through the air like a rocket. It seemed but a second's interval when the car struck the rocks with a crash that sounded like the explosion of dynamite.
Hero on the job.
In the meantime, on the bridge, Thurlow Bergen, taking the part of the Rajah's son, who had been pursuing the runaway car, was going through a series of dramatic gestures and bravely looking over the torn bridge railing in doing his acting.
Two cameras were required to snap the sensational scene. One was located at the start of the street car and the other was on a ledge in the gorge. Hundreds of camera enthusiasts secured excellent views of the spectacle.
Experiment a real success.
The car was completely wrecked, the long dive and rocky creek-bed smashed it to bits, only the iron wheels retaining a semblance of being intact.
The Whartons were warmly congratulated on their excellent scene. They said it had been a complete success in every detail.
"Secret" Act for the Movies is greatly enjoyed
by the large crowd at Fall Creek -
The picture is a big success.
The 1,000 persons who clustered on the cliffs, ledges and plateaus of Fall Creek gorge Saturday afternoon never saw a more thrilling sight than the plunge of a real street car from the Stewart avenue bridge to the rocky depths below.
The scene was arranged for the Wharton Moving Picture Company's latest photo-play, "The Kiss of Blood" now being enacted. So that crowds would not hamper the work of the camera operators, the Whartons intended that only the members of their company and a few others should be present when the crash occurred.
Everybody's Secret.
Talk about the evolution of a secret. When the clock struck the hour of 2 there were enough persons on hand to start the mobilization of a small army. And automobiles! At least a hundred were parked near the entrance to the bridge.
Police Guard the Crowd.
Chief of Police Buck and Policeman Curtis superintended the traffic, kept persons from the bridge, and in this way prevented possible accidents. The most popular place for the sightseers appeared to be a flat ledge below the bridge, near the residence of Willard Austen, Assistant Librarian of the Cornell University Library.
About 2 o'clock the big crowd waited in nervous expectancy. Car 305, the relic of the Traction Company, which was to make the abysmal dive, was first given a trial run over the tracks and up to the throw off switch on the bridge. It was then towed back to the starting point, about a hundred yards from the bridge.
Dummy on the platform.
A dummy to represent the villain escaping with the Rajah's jewels was then strapped to the front platform, the power was turned on and the car moved along swiftly. The crowd in the gorge heard three revolver shots, the last one denoting that the car was on its way.
Down to destruction.
A thrill went through the crowd as the car poked its way past the trees skirting the north end of the bridge and sped along the bridge tracks. Near the center of the bridge the car turned abruptly to the right and with a ripping sound, crashed through the railing and began its meteoric flight to the creek-bed far below.
The front trucks of the car acted as a weight and the car shot down through the air like a rocket. It seemed but a second's interval when the car struck the rocks with a crash that sounded like the explosion of dynamite.
Hero on the job.
In the meantime, on the bridge, Thurlow Bergen, taking the part of the Rajah's son, who had been pursuing the runaway car, was going through a series of dramatic gestures and bravely looking over the torn bridge railing in doing his acting.
Two cameras were required to snap the sensational scene. One was located at the start of the street car and the other was on a ledge in the gorge. Hundreds of camera enthusiasts secured excellent views of the spectacle.
Experiment a real success.
The car was completely wrecked, the long dive and rocky creek-bed smashed it to bits, only the iron wheels retaining a semblance of being intact.
The Whartons were warmly congratulated on their excellent scene. They said it had been a complete success in every detail.