Unlike today’s hero making of sports figures, in the 1920s, adventures and explorers earned the title instead. Charles Lindbergh and his historic flight across the Atlantic is still remembered, while others of the era are forgotten today.
Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd is one of those forgotten names. In 1928, Byrd had organized an expedition to Antarctica. Officially organized as a scientific expedition, in reality it was for glory and adventure…and publicity.
Paramount won the exclusive rights to cover the Byrd expedition, and the chief of the newsreel division, Emanuel Cohen, chose two of the best cameramen Paramount Newsreel had shooting for them. Willard van der Veer, the chief photographer of Paramount’s New York office, and Joe Rucker, chief of the San Francisco office were the names chosen.
Shooting in temperatures of -70F and lower presented van der Veer and Rucker with challenges they have not faced elsewhere, least among them moisture inside the cameras freezing the brass gears solid when the cameras were taken outside. The snow also was another major problem the two faced. Van der Veer recalled later, “our cameras were left 
outdoors as much as possible to prevent the sweating (fogging) of the lenses, but it was often very difficult to keep out the snow when it was drifting. Drifting snow has a way of getting into a tight camera case – even though it’s light-proof, it’s not snow-proof, and it’s a very interesting thing to open your camera and find snow in it.”
Being far from home in a desolate wasteland and with the average temperature hovering around -70F, simple pleasures where often hard to find. Joe Rucker once asked for an ice cream soda of all things while he was rebuilding his Akeley camera due to the cold. “Seventy-two degrees below zero outside, and Little Joe asks for ice cream. Next he’ll be asking for a chunk out of the Pole,” retorted van der Veer in reply to Rucker’s wish.
A US Navy commander who was a member of the expedition, keenly aware of the importance of good media relations, obliged Rucker and his wish. A radioed request for a recipe to make ice cream went to headquarters in New York City and ten minutes later, a recipe was found and sent. The cook went to work mixing up powdered milk, dehydrated eggs, sugar and melted snow into a concoction that just needed to be frozen to make Rucker’s ice cream.
Van der Veer maliciously suggested, “if Joe wants ice cream, let him go freeze it himself.” And Rucker did, stumbling outside into bitterly cold winds of nearly a hundred miles an hour with his precious can of ice cream. With the addition of some carbonated water and ginger flavoring, Rucker got his ice cream soda.
During their two year stay in Antarctica, Rucker and van der Veer exposed over twenty miles of film. Weeks after their return to New York in 1930, Paramount edited the footage into a feature length presentation called “With Byrd at the South Pole” – which is still in print today, a rarity for newsreel footage. The footage itself shot during the Antarctic expedition also earned Rucker and van der Veer the 1930 Oscar for Best Cinematography.
Not ones to rest on their laurels, after the accolades were over, Rucker and van der Veer returned to their jobs in relative anonymity of shooting news wherever it broke on the globe.
Posted on
February 9, 2010 | Posted by
amanda |
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By the time this article was written outlining Norman Alley’s views on news photography and television news, the Hearst newsreel crews were under contract with CBS News to shoot newsfilm for programs such as Ed Murrow’s See It Now.
This little ENG bundle weighs in at around 70+ lbs. I’m talking gear, not me. The package basics are the NEC 3 tube camera (25lbs), Sony BVU-50 Portadeck (25lbs), camera battery belt (10lbs), extra BP battery for deck (5lbs), and miscellaneous poop in the Porta Brace bag for the deck. Not shown is the giant Frezzi light and equally giant battery belt worn around the waste. Mind you there were times we’d have to wear two camera battery belts. When fully geared, I got teased that I looked like the Michelin Tire Logo.
