Vox Populi
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Joan E. Bauer: The Poet of the Camera
There is no ‘right way’ to shoot any scene.
…No two artists paint the same way.
—James Wong Howe, Cinematographer
~
In Come Back Little Sheba, Burt Lancaster stares
into the cabinet at the liquor bottle, then Shirley Booth
(playing his wife) finds the bottle gone.
Their faces revealed by a camera inside the cabinet.
Quick shots. Subtle. So many of my favorite films
photographed by James Wong Howe.
Born in Guangzhou, Howe comes to the States at five.
Someone gives him a Brownie camera.
Boxer, bellboy, then camera assistant on silent films
for DeMille. By 1922, chief cameraman, eagerly
innovating: gauze over the lens to soften a face,
frame of black velvet to darken the eyes.
He pioneers the hand-held camera, wide-angle lens,
low lighting. While some directors complain
about delays, most learn to let him take his time.
Tracy, Bogart, Lupino, Lancaster, Newman, Brando,
Anna Magnani. Six films with Cagney, a close friend.
130 films. Oscars for Hud & The Rose Tattoo.
As a child, bullied. Later, he brushes aside jokes
about whether he’s big enough to carry a camera.
Never talks about discrimination.
His wife, writer Sanora Babb, had been a communist.
During the Red Scare, she moves to Mexico to protect him.
Under anti-miscegenation laws, their marriage in France
not ‘recognized’ for years. At a second wedding,
the judge hesitates: She looks old enough. If she wants
to marry a chink, that’s her business She’s 41.
Copyright 2024 Joan E. Bauer
Joan E. Bauer‘s poetry collections include Fig Season (Turning Point, 2023). She divides her time between Venice, CA and Pittsburgh, PA where she co-curates the Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series with Kristofer Collins.
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Thank you, Michael for publishing yet another poem that needs to be read — that last quote: ohh my.
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Yes, Howe invented many of the camera techniques that have now become standard. A real genius.
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Wonderful piece. I only recently learned about Sonora Babb. She wrote a book called “Whose Names Are Unknown” about the dust bowl, but her publisher, Bennett Cerf, said he couldn’t publish it because John Steinbeck was publishing “The Grapes of Wrath.” Her book was finally published by the University of Oklahoma Press and it’s wonderful. Similar story, from a woman’s perspective. She got ripped off! I didn’t know she had such a cool husband.
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Thanks, Beth. I agree. They were a true artistic power couple.
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Thank you a fine tribute. Thank you for this waking this morning. Glory be tto those hearts that stop at nothing to love and cast their Art and beauty into the world. Glory!
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Glory to the artists who enrich our lives.
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