User blog:Gaffer.lights/my time behind a film camera

 My earliest recollection of working in the motion picture

 One of my earliest recollections is of see Ann Blyth it was in the back lot at Universal Studios, we were shooting a seen from “The Merry Monahan’s” was one of the higher-budgeted Universal musicals of the 1940s, even though the storyline is strictly grade-B material.

 I first made the acquaintance of Ann Blyth on the film set of the filming of Danger Signal (1945). Warner Bros had borrowed Ann for this film. But burring filming, Ann suffered a broken back in a sledding accident while briefly vacationing in Lake Arrowhead and her mother and aunt went to Lake Arrowhead for a week. Ann had to be replaced in the role.

 After months of recuperation from a serious back injury. With her back support now taken off Annie had to go through lots of physio work on her back. The physiotherapy clinic where very good and her doctor with his Pain Management they would come out to see her ever week. At the end of 1946 Annie got a part in Universal’s Brute Force she was still in her wheelchair. With lots of work still to do on her back and long walks she got well.

 It was also on a back lot at Universal Studios, we were shooting a scene from "Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid". Also on the next lot at Universal Studios there were shutting "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" was filming. Tourists were shocked to see Glenn Strange's Frankenstein Monster having lunch with Annie in her fishtail costume. Both Strange and Lon Chaney in his Wolfman make-up were invited to the Mr. Peabody wrap party, where they hammed it up in make-up.

 In the fall 1946 a film crew had been sent down to see an underwater theatre north of Tampa on U.S. Highway 19. Perry had started out in north Florida, working with the strong-lunged young swimmers of Florida State University's Tarpon Club. He developed air hoses that let them stay submerged for extraordinary lengths of time and techniques for performing dry-land activities -- making coffee, dancing, playing the trombone -- on the spring pool floor. Florida girls who'd grown up in the water learned to do "ballet" (as Perry liked to call it) while wearing a constricting lame tail that zipped up the side. By 1948, Weeki Wachee was one of Florida's premier roadside attractions, drawing tourists from all over the US.

 "Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid" (Universal-International, 1948) this was another opportunity to work with one of my favourite screen stars of all time and a true movie legend Ann Blyth. William Powell. Unfortunately, Mr. Powell was very ill during the production, but "you would never have known it." He was a consummate actor and professional at all times. Filming was to start the summer of 1947, but ended up being delayed until February of '48. The cast and crew endured rainy weather, unusually cold temperatures and even pneumonia from some of its principal cast while they managed to "pretend" to be happily secluded on a South Sea island.

 The plot revolves around Mr. Peabody (Powell), a "mature" gentleman on the eve of his fiftieth birthday. When he and his beautiful wife (Irene Hervey) escape to a Caribbean seaside retreat for the occasion, the magical "fish story" begins. Powell encounters a mermaid named Lenore (Ann Blyth), and everyone including his wife believes her to be nothing more than a figment of his imagination -- A fantasy manifested out of anxiety over his lost youth.

 Andrea King’s scenes had to be filmed inside a giant heated water tank, still located on the Universal back lot. Andrea and Ann Blyth were both accomplished swimmers, so they rose to the challenge of doing their own underwater stunts, including a complicated sequence where Andrea catfights with the jealous mermaid. She recalls that particular day with a laugh. They attempted to film without heat in the middle of winter. "The tank's water heater was malfunctioning, they told us. So we tried anyway for about half hour, but Annie and Andrea King just went numb! I think Annie got terribly sick after that."

 In the spring of 1947 Annie had go her driving license, and she what’d to drive down scenic route down CA-243 abounds with mountain vistas and fire-following spring flowers. From Redlands, the CA-38 meanders northeast through an impressive rocky landscape that modulates into conifer territory as one climbs toward Big Bear Dubbed “Southern California’s only four-season resort,” Big Bear Lake nevertheless has an off-season in spring. After the skiers have departed and before the summer crowd has arrived, accommodations are plentiful and cheaper than at other times, although both weather and sightseeing are at their best in spring.

 The lake is a reservoir, like Lake Arrowhead. But unlike Arrowhead, which is densely developed around its entire rim, Big Bear Lake offers several points of public access. One of the most scenic is Boulder Bay, on the south-western side this is where we would always come.

 These were the best days of my life I had just tune 20 and so had Annie her birthday was on the 16th August and mine was the 8th of August we both had a great birthday party on the sandy shoreline. I rebuild the cabin we stayed in 1986 I still have good time and great memories of Annie and me we came back year after year until she got married. Even after she got married she would bring her growing family here for summer vacation.

 27423 NORTH BAY ROAD

 Area: Lakefront - Zip Code: 92352