JOSEPH B. WALKER

GREAT CINEMATOGRAPHERS

#2: [Right] with dir Frank Capra

JOSEPH B. WALKER

Born: 22 August 1892, Denver, Colorado, USA, as Joseph Bailey Walker.

Died: 1 August 1985, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

Career: After moving to Venice, Calif., with his family in 1910, he got a job with Lee De Forest [1873-1961] working on the wireless transmitter. [In 1911 he made the first wireless news report using equipment he designed; in 1912 he built the first wireless transmitters for airplanes and automobiles; in 1913 he made wireless news reports to the 'Los Angeles Times' on the Mexican revolution.] Became attracted to the film industry when the Biograph Company decided to make some pictures in Venice. He met doph 'Billy' Bitzer and became his asst making matte boxes, irises and other accessories. Ph newsreels for Gaumont News, Kinograms & Hearst-Selig News. During WWI he shot a series of films for the American Red Cross. The US Air Force gave him the job of ph the aerial work on the West Coast. When actress/dir/prod Nell Shipman [1892-1970] saw his Red Cross film, she was impressed with the camerawork. She asked him and Bert Van Tuyle, the film's director, to her Glendale home for an interview. Walker wrote about the meeting in his autobiography: 'Nell Shipman was the true prototype of an outdoors woman. "I just made a picture for Vitagraph," she told us, "and the picture is doing well, but I'm not happy working with Vitagraph. I'm leaving them to form my own company. I plan to make outdoor pictures, on real locations. No more studios with their fake sets." She appraised me. "I want you to make a test of me, only this is not to be like a studio test. I want this shot outdoors in bright sunlight with natural settings. The question is, can you make me look good under those conditions?" I had known at first glance she'd photograph well. Strong vitality, such as hers, always comes through on film...' 'After several pictures at Robertson-Cole/Film Booking Office of America [FBO], director George B. Seitz arranged for me to do a picture for him at Columbia. I didn't figure on lasting a week, but I stayed at Columbia until 1952 when I had to leave to take care of my zoom lens business [as chief engineer at Radio Optical Research Company, Hollywood].' [See below *]

He held numerous patents relating to film, television and... secret messages, e.g. Process for Producing Multiply-Exposed Motion Picture Films [filed 1922/issued 1924], Camera [1929/1933; see photos below], Dissolve Device for Cameras [1931/1935], Means for Forming, Transmitting, and Decoding Secret Messages [1937/1939], Photographic Camera Lens System [1947/1950], Compound Image-Forming Reflecting Mirror Optical Systems [1953/1954], Automatic Non-Parallax Dual Lens [1954/1955], Panoramic Television Cameras [1955/1959], and Zoom Lens Focusing Mechanism [1958/1961].

Camera [1929/1933] - No. 1,898,471

Was a member of the ASC since 1927.

Awards: 'Oscar' AA nom [1938] for 'You Can't Take It With You'; 'Oscar' AA nom [1939; b&w; this is not an official nomination: the title was on a preliminary list of submissions/nominees from the studios from which the two official nominees were selected] for 'Only Angels Have Wings'; 'Oscar' AA nom [1941; b&w] for 'Here Comes Mr. Jordan'; 'Oscar' AA nom [1946; color] for 'The Jolson Story'; Gordon E. Sawyer Award [1981] for Scientific and Technical Achievement.

* The development of the zoom was associated with the name of Joseph Walker who constructed a prototype in the 1920s. However, it wasn't until after WWII and the considerable investment in the technology of aerial photography, reinforced by the emergence of television in the USA, that the zoom lens became integrated into cinematographic technology. One report claims that the first professional demonstration of the zoomar lens was in 1946; NBC TV in New York demonstrated its camera equipped with a zoom lens in 1947. The multinational giant RCA acquired the services of Joseph Walker in the 1950s and the zoom lens developed into a standard resource, although, at this time, prominent in television and in the making of advertising spots. Its labor saving aspects, avoiding the costs of laying tracks, employing grips and electricians to adjust elaborate lighting plans and so on, caused the zoom to become a more prominent feature in the cheaper productions. [Paul Willemen]

Joseph Walker, Frank Capra's favorite cinematographer, began his working life as an electrical engineer who collaborated with Lee De Forest on building the first wireless transmitter. However, it was his interest in moving picture photography which led him to work in film laboratories. During WWI, Walker gained valuable hands-on experience filming aerial scenes, newsreels and other documentary footage. All the while, he continued to accumulate patents. Once qualified as a lighting cameraman, Walker started to work in Hollywood. After involvement in several low budget films as a free-lance cinematographer, he joined Columbia in 1927. He was to have a profound impact in elevating the status of this studio during the next two decades, inextricably linked with Columbia's best and commercially most successful films, until his retirement in 1952.
An expert craftsman in composition, camera movement and perspective, and consummately skilled in the use of wide-angle and zoom lenses [of which he had a vast personal collection], Walker also excelled at lighting his sets. His most memorable scenes include the moonlit hayfield of 'It Happened One Night', the torchlit funeral procession of 'Lost Horizon' and, of course, George Bailey running along the snow-covered main street of Bedford Falls in 'It's a Wonderful Life'. Known in the industry as a 'woman's photographer', he also captured the best attributes of his leading ladies through his close-ups, shot with his own patented 4-inch lenses. Though he worked primarily on b&w features, Walker was equally adept at the medium of color and won an 'Oscar' nominations for Columbia's biopic, 'The Jolson Story'.
After his retirement, Walker's ever-active mind developed and manufactured the Electra-Zoom Lens for RCA [expanding on his earlier design], later used as standard equipment by TV cameramen in the 1960s. In 1981, he became the inaugural recipient of the Gordon E. Sawyer Award, bestowed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for outstanding technological contributions to the industry. He detailed his memoirs in 1984 in his autobiography, entitled, 'The Light on Her Face'. [From biography by I.S. Mowis.]

James Stewart - Jean Arthur - Frank Capra - JW - "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" [1939] - photo Thys Ockersen Archive

Joseph B. Walker's career could have flourished in any of a number of directions. His pioneering work in the development of the wireless transmitter with Dr. Lee De Forest gave him a head start in the new world of radio broadcasting. His lifelong fascination with the workings of motion picture cameras led him to put his name to an impressive list of inventions. But it was as cinematographer that Walker made his mark.

After some years of freelancing as a newsreel photographer Walker shot his first feature, 'Back to God's Country', in 1919 on a formidable location near the Arctic Circle. For the next seven years he worked steadily at a variety of minor studios, photographing low-budget programmers. His huge collection of camera lenses [and his intimate knowledge of their possibilities] made him invaluable to the directors of these quickies. Walker could, by changing lenses, shoot a close, medium, or long shot without moving the camera, thus saving precious time in shooting westerns like 'Fighting Courage' or serials like 'Officer '444''.

In 1927 Walker photographed 'The Isle of Forgotten Women', directed by George B. Seitz, his first film at Columbia. Walker was to remain almost exclusively with this studio until his retirement in 1952. At the time, Columbia was the least of the majors; Walker, through his long association with Frank Capra, would help to change that.

Walker found Capra a most congenial collaborator, a director who could at once keep a tight rein on his artistic vision while allowing Walker remarkable experimental leeway. Though Walker was a master at composition and elaborate camera movement, his most memorable images come from his brilliant mastery of lighting: Barbara Stanwyck and David Manners by the fireside in 'The Miracle Woman'; the delicate mists of the moonlit haystack scene in 'It Happened One Night'; the shimmering, Baroque visions of 'The Bitter Tea of General Yen'; the stunning torchlight funeral in 'Lost Horizon'.

Though Walker's best work was with Capra, the cinematographer also had occasion to work with directors as diverse as Howard Hawks, Victor Schertzinger, Leo McCarey, George Stevens and Alexander Hall. It's difficult, in fact, to come up with many first-rate Columbia films of the era on which Walker did not work.

In his amiable and informative autobiography, 'The Light on Her Face', Walker quotes Columbia head Harry Cohn: "Y'know, there's one thing that's always made me curious about you. Practically every money-making picture we've had at Columbia, you've worked on it. How do you account for that? And don't tell me it's the photography! Photography doesn't sell pictures!" Maybe not. But those silvery images stay in the mind long after the movies' plots have faded from memory. The elegance of Walker's cinematography even survives the indignities of being shrunk down and contrasted out for television, though the delicacy of his lighting suffers on video. Walker, like many another of his gifted peers who worked predominantly in black-and-white, seem sadly relegated to a medium for which their work was not designed and which does not have the sensitivity properly to display the beautiful and precious images it chews up as so much fodder. But should the viewer have the willingness and the opportunity to return to Walker's films as they were originally intended - on 35mm film - he or she will find that there were few more gifted practitioners of the art of cinematography. [From article by Frank Thompson.]

FILMS [1 reel = c. 10m]
1917	American Red Cross [Bert Van Tuyle] b&w; 1 reel
1919	Back to God's Country/Wapi, the Walrus [David M. Hartford] b&w; 6 reels; cph: Dal Clawson; filmed March-May; prod Canadian Photoplays & Shipman-Curwood Productions
1919	Something New [Nell Shipman & Bert Van Tuyle] b&w (tinted); 5 reels (56m); prod Nell Shipman Productions
1921	A Bear, a Boy and a Dog [Bert Van Tuyle] b&w; 2 reels; prod Nell Shipman Productions
1921	The Girl from God's Country [Nell Shipman & Bert Van Tuyle] b&w; 7 reels; prod Nell Shipman Productions
1922	The Grub Stake [- A Tale of the Klondike]/The Golden Yukon/The Romance of Lost Valley [Nell Shipman & Bert Van Tuyle] b&w; 7 reels; filmed March-August; prod Nell Shipman Productions & Sierra Pictures
1923	Danger [Clifford S. Elfelt] b&w; 6 reels; prod Clifford S. Elfelt Productions
1923	Richard, the Lion-Hearted [Chet Withey] b&w; 8 reels; prod Associated Authors
1924	What Shall I Do? [John G. Adolfi] b&w; 6 reels; prod ?
1924	The Wise Virgin [Lloyd Ingraham] b&w; 6 reels; prod Peninsula Studios
1924	Chalk Marks [John G. Adolfi] b&w; 7 reels; cph: Charles Kaufman; prod Peninsula Studios
1924	Let Women Alone [Paul Powell] b&w; 6 reels; prod Peninsula Studios
1924	The Girl on the Stairs [William Worthington] b&w; 7 reels; cph: Charles Kaufman; prod Peninsula Studios
1925	My Neighbor's Wife [Clarence Geldert] b&w; 6 reels; prod Clifford S. Elfelt Productions
1925	Clash of the Wolves [Noel Mason Smith] b&w; 7 reels; uncred cph; ph: Edwin DuPar & Allen Thompson; prod Warner Bros.
1925	The Pleasure Buyers [Chet Withey] b&w; 7 reels; prod Warner Bros.
1925	North Star [Paul Powell] b&w; 5 reels; prod Howard Estabrook Productions
1925	Fighting Courage [Clifford S. Elfelt] b&w; 5 reels; prod Clifford S. Elfelt Productions
1926	The Fighting Stallion [Ben Wilson] b&w; 5 reels; prod Ben Wilson Productions

1926	Officer '444' [Francis Ford & Ben Wilson] b&w; 10-part serial; cph: Jack Jackson; prod Goodwill Pictures Inc.
1926	The Dixie Flyer [Charles J. Hunt] b&w; 6 reels; cph: William Tuers; prod Trem Carr Productions
1926	The Baited Trap [Stuart Paton] b&w; 5 reels; prod Ben Wilson Productions
1926	Temporary Sheriff [Dick Hatton] b&w; 5 reels; prod Ben Wilson Productions
1926	In the Tentacles of the North [Louis Chaudet] b&w; 6 reels; prod Ben Wilson Productions
1926	Flaming Fury [James P. Hogan] b&w; 5 reels; prod Robertson-Cole Pictures (RCP)
1926	Tarzan and the Golden Lion [J.P. McGowan] b&w; 6 reels; filmed September-December; prod RCP
1927	The Outlaw Dog [J.P. McGowan] b&w; 5 reels; prod RCP
1927	Fire and Steel [Bertram Bracken] b&w; 6 reels; cph: Robert Cline; prod Ellbee Pictures
1927	The Great Mail Robbery [George B. Seitz] b&w; 7 reels; prod RCP
1927	Death Valley [Paul Powell] b&w; 6 reels; cph: Frank Heisler & Clifton Maupin; prod Furst Wells Productions
1927	The Flying U Ranch [Robert De Lacey] b&w; 5 reels; prod RCP
1927	Shanghaied [Ralph Ince] b&w; 6 reels; prod Ralph Ince Productions
1927	The Isle of Forgotten Women [George B. Seitz] b&w; 6 reels; prod Columbia Pictures (CP)
1927	The College Hero [Walter Lang] b&w; 6 reels; prod CP
1927	The Tigress [George B. Seitz] b&w; 6 reels; prod CP
1927	Stage Kisses [Albert Kelly] b&w; 6 reels; prod CP
1927	Aflame in the Sky [J.P. McGowan] b&w; 6 reels; prod RCP
1927	That Certain Thing [Frank Capra] b&w; 7 reels; prod CP
1927	Lady Raffles [Roy William Neill] b&w; 6 reels; prod CP
1928	After the Storm [George B. Seitz] b&w; 6 reels; prod CP
1928	Modern Mothers [Philip Rosen] b&w; 6 reels; prod CP
1928	Ransom [George B. Seitz] b&w; 6 reels; prod CP
1928	Beware of Blondes [George B. Seitz] b&w; 6 reels; prod CP
1928	Say It with Sables [Frank Capra] b&w; 7 reels; prod CP
1928	Virgin Lips [Elmer Clifton] b&w; 6 reels; prod CP
1928	Court-Martial [George B. Seitz] b&w; 7 reels; prod CP
1928	Submarine [Frank Capra (replaced Irvin Willat)] b&w; 103m; silent & sound (music + sound efx) version; prod CP
1928	The Street of Illusion [Erle C. Kenton] b&w; 7 reels; prod CP
1928	Driftwood [Christy Cabanne] b&w; 7 reels; prod CP
1928	Nothing to Wear [Erle C. Kenton] b&w; 6 reels; prod CP
1928	Restless Youth/Wayward Youth [Christy Cabanne] b&w; 7 reels; prod CP
1928	The Sideshow [Erle C. Kenton] b&w; 7 reels; prod CP
1928	Object - Alimony/Object - Matrimony [Scott R. Dunlap] b&w; 7 reels; prod CP
1929	Trial Marriage [Erle C. Kenton] b&w; 7 reels; silent & sound (music + sound efx) version; prod CP
1929	The Eternal Woman [John McCarthy Jr.] b&w; 6 reels; prod CP
1929	The Quitter [Joseph Henabery] b&w; 6 reels; prod CP
1929	The Bachelor Girl [Richard Thorpe] b&w; 7 reels; silent & sound (music + talking seq) version; prod CP
1929	Flight [Frank Capra] b&w; 12 reels; cph: Joseph Novak; aph: Elmer Dyer; silent & sound version; prod CP
1929	The Song of Love [Erle C. Kenton] b&w; 9 reels; silent & sound version; prod Edward Small Productions
1929	The Broadway Hoofer/Dancing Feet [George Archainbaud] b&w; 7 reels; silent & sound version; prod CP
1929	Murder on the Roof [George B. Seitz] b&w; 6 reels; silent & sound version; prod CP
1929	Ladies of Leisure/Ladies of the Evening [Frank Capra] b&w; 10 reels; silent & sound version; filmed 1929-30; prod CP
1930	Around the Corner [Bert Glennon] b&w; 68m
1930	Midnight Mystery [George B. Seitz] b&w; 69m; pfx: Lloyd Knechtel
1930	Ladies Must Play [Raymond Cannon] b&w; 64m
1930	Rain or Shine [Frank Capra] b&w
1930	Dirigible [Frank Capra] b&w; uncred cph: Frank Zucker, George Meehan, a.o.; aph: Elmer Dyer; tech efx: Ned Mann & William J. Butler
1930	El código penal [Phil Rosen] b&w; Spanish-language version of 'The Criminal Code' (1930, Howard Hawks; ph: James Wong Howe & Ted Tetzlaff)
1931	Subway Express/Danger Ahead [Fred Newmeyer] b&w; 68m
1931	The Miracle Woman [Frank Capra] b&w
1931	Lover Come Back [Erle C. Kenton] b&w; 68m
1931	Fifty Fathoms Deep [Roy William Neill] b&w; 68m
1931	Mon ami Tim [Jack Forrester] b&w; 66m; cph: André Dantan & Enzo Riccioni; French-language version of 'Fifty Fathoms Deep'
1931	Platinum Blonde [Frank Capra] b&w
1931	The Deceiver [Louis King] b&w; 66m

1931	Forbidden/Jane Doe [Frank Capra] b&w
1931	The Final Edition/Determination [Howard Higgin] b&w; 66m
1931	Shopworn [Nicholas Grinde] b&w; 66m & 72m
1932	American Madness [Frank Capra (replaced Allan Dwan)] b&w
1932	By Whose Hand? [Benjamin Stoloff] b&w; 65m; cph: Ted Tetzlaff
1932	The Bitter Tea of General Yen [Frank Capra] b&w
1932	Virtue [Edward Buzzell] b&w; 68m
1932	Air Hostess [Albert Rogell] b&w; 67m; aph: Elmer Dyer
1933	Below the Sea/Hell's Cargo [Albert Rogell] b&w + c (doc seq)

[Left] with Frank Capra - "Lady for a Day"

1933	Lady for a Day [Frank Capra] b&w
1933	It Happened One Night [Frank Capra] b&w; filmed 1933-34
1934	The Lady Is Willing [Gilbert Miller] b&w; 66m & 74m
1934	One Night of Love [Victor Schertzinger & (opera seq) Reginald Le Borg] b&w
1934	Broadway Bill/Strictly Confidential [Frank Capra] b&w
1934	The Best Man Wins [Erle C. Kenton] b&w; uwph; ph: John Stumar
1934	Let's Live Tonight [Victor Schertzinger] b&w; filmed 1934-35
1935	Eight Bells [Roy William Neill] b&w; 69m
1935	Love Me Forever/On Wings of Song [Victor Schertzinger & (opera seq) Reginald Le Borg] b&w
1935	The Girl Friend [Edward Buzzell] b&w; 67m
1935	A Feather in Her Hat [Alfred Santell] b&w
1935	The Music Goes 'Round [Victor Schertzinger] b&w; spec cam efx: E. Roy Davidson
1935	Mr. Deeds Goes to Town [Frank Capra] b&w; spec cam efx: E. Roy Davidson; filmed 1935-36
1936	Lost Horizon/Lost Horizon of Shangri-La [Frank Capra] b&w; uncred addph: Henry Freulich; aph: Elmer Dyer; spec cam efx: E. Roy Davidson & Ganahl Carson
1936	Theodora Goes Wild [Richard Boleslawski] b&w
1936	When You're in Love/For You Alone [Robert Riskin & (uncred) Harry Lachman] b&w
1937	It Happened in Hollywood [Harry Lachman] b&w; 67m
1937	The Awful Truth [Leo McCarey] b&w
1937	Start Cheering [Albert S. Rogell] b&w; spec cam efx: Ganahl Carson
1937	Joy of Living [Tay Garnett] b&w; sfx: Vernon L. Walker; filmed 1937-38
1938	You Can't Take It with You [Frank Capra] b&w
1938	There's That Woman Again/What a Woman [Alexander Hall] b&w
1938	Only Angels Have Wings [Howard Hawks] b&w; aph: Elmer Dyer; sfx: E. Roy Davidson, Edwin C. Hahn & Harry Redmond Sr.; filmed 1938-39
1939	Mr. Smith Goes to Washington [Frank Capra] b&w; sfx: Fred Jackman Jr.; montages: Slavko Vorkapich & John Hoffman
1939	His Girl Friday [Howard Hawks] b&w
1939	Too Many Husbands/My Two Husbands [Wesley Ruggles] b&w; filmed 1939-40
1940	Arizona [Wesley Ruggles] b&w; int ph; ext ph: Harry Hallenberger & Fayte Brown
1940	He Stayed for Breakfast [Alexander Hall] b&w

[Hat] with Rosalind Russell

"This Thing Called Love"

1940	This Thing Called Love/Married But Single [Alexander Hall] b&w
1940	Penny Serenade [George Stevens] b&w; replaced ph Franz Planer who fell ill; filmed 1940-41
1941	Here Comes Mr. Jordan [Alexander Hall] b&w
1941	You Belong to Me/Good Morning, Doctor [Wesley Ruggles] b&w

With Loretta Young - "Bedtime Story"

1941	Bedtime Story [Alexander Hall] b&w
1941	Tales of Manhattan [Julien Duvivier & Mal St. Clair (dir W.C. Fields seq; deleted, but included in video release)] b&w; uncred cph (worked 1 day only): Arthur Miller; filmed 1941-42
1942	They All Kissed the Bride [Alexander Hall] b&w; Walker used a special lavender lighting technique on actress Joan Crawford to enhance the brilliance of her eyes
1942	My Sister Eileen [Alexander Hall] b&w
1942	A Night to Remember [Richard Wallace] b&w
194?	Flying for Uncle Sam - The Air Transport Command ATC [?] b&w; doc/9m; the story behind the Air Transport Command, the civilian pilots who delivered planes, mail, freight and munitions for the war effort during WW2

[Left] with Dorothy Arzner - "First Comes Courage"

1943	First Comes Courage [Dorothy Arzner (fell ill and was replaced - uncred - by Charles Vidor)] b&w
1943	What's Buzzin', Cousin? [Charles Barton] b&w
1943	What a Woman!/The Beautiful Cheat [Irving Cummings] b&w
1944	Mr. Winkle Goes to War/Arms and the Woman [Alfred E. Green (fell ill and was replaced - uncred - by Lee Jason)] b&w; uncred cph: George Meehan (replaced J. Walker who fell ill)
1944	The Impatient Years [Irving Cummings] b&w; uncred cph: Burnett Guffey
1944	Roughly Speaking [Michael Curtiz] b&w; sfx: E. Roy Davidson, Hans Koenekamp & Warren E. Lynch; montages: James Leicester
1944	Together Again [Charles Vidor] b&w
1945	She Wouldn't Say Yes [Alexander Hall] b&w; spec optical efx & miniatures: Lawrence W. Butler
1945	Tars and Spars [Alfred E. Green] b&w
1945	The Jolson Story [Alfred E. Green (replaced H. Bruce Humberstone 2 days before start of filming) & (prod numbers) Joseph H. Lewis] c; montages: Lawrence W. Butler; matte ph: Donald C. Glouner; filmed 1945-46; re-released in wide-screen (1954) & 70mm (1969)

1946	It's a Wonderful Life [Frank Capra] b&w; replaced ph Victor Milner; cph: Joseph Biroc (c.op + finished prod as ph); spec pfx: Russell A. Cully
1946	The Guilt of Janet Ames [Henry Levin (replaced Charles Vidor)] b&w
1946	The Lady from Shanghai [Orson Welles] b&w; uncred cph; ph: Charles Lawton Jr.; filmed 1946-47
1947	The Mating of Millie [Henry Levin] b&w
1947	The Velvet Touch [John Gage] b&w; sfx: Russell A. Cully; Walker was borrowed from Columbia by RKO
1948	The Dark Past [Rudolph Maté] b&w
1948	Mr. Soft Touch/House of Settlement [Henry Levin & Gordon Douglas] b&w; cph: Charles Lawton Jr.
1949	Tell It to the Judge [Norman Foster] b&w
1949	A Woman of Distinction [Edward Buzzell] b&w
1949	No Sad Songs for Me [Rudolph Maté] b&w
1949	Never a Dull Moment [George Marshall] b&w; process ph: Clifford Stine; filmed 1949-50
1950	Harriet Craig [Vincent Sherman] b&w

1950	Born Yesterday [George Cukor] b&w
1951	The Mob/Remember That Face [Robert Parrish] b&w
1951	The Marrying Kind [George Cukor] b&w
1952	Affair in Trinidad [Vincent Sherman] b&w