THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 25, 1996 TAG: 9610240129
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: 80 lines
``Earth Voyage to Yesteryears.'' Featuring nine travelogues at 2 p.m. today at The Commodore Theater, 421 High St., Portsmouth. Admission: $5. 393-4383.
Two generations of moviegoers heard James A. Fitzpatrick's melodious voice mutter ``As the sun sinks slowly in the West, we most reluctantly say farewell to. . . '' Honolulu, Mexico, Cairo, Hong Kong and some 200 other destinations.
It was the era of movie short subjects. With the price of a ticket, you got a newsreel, a cartoon, previews and often a FitzPatrick ``Traveltalk.''
James FitzPatrick Jr., walking in the footsteps of his father, brings back that era at 2 p.m. today. At the Commodore Theater in Portsmouth, he hosts ``Earth Voyage to Yesteryears,'' featuring nine of his father's famed travelogues, coupled with his comments.
``My father's motto in life,'' FitzPatrick said, ``was to `see the world before you leave it.' He fulfilled that goal. He traveled around the world 50 times.''
He was under contract to the legendary MGM studios longer than any other person - from 1930 until 1955. Louis B. Mayer, the head of the studio, got hooked on armchair traveling when he saw the senior FitzPatrick's first film, a 1929 vitaphone visit to Spain.
FitzPatrick Jr., who now maintains offices in Richmond, admits that his father's view was ``through rose-colored glasses. In his travelogues, luggage never gets lost and you never see poverty. He never staged scenes, though. What you see is real. It's just through his eyes. That's the magic of the camera. The camera frames what you see. You can set your own viewpoint.''
Travelogues ended in 1955 when, scared by the threat of television, theaters stopped showing short subjects and offered double features instead. FitzPatrick, by 1955, had churned out 225 Traveltalks.
Today, the younger FitzPatrick travels the United States showing his father's films and finding a surprising reaction.
``At first, we thought they would be seen mainly as nostalgia by older audiences. We found that young audiences like them too. They have a camp appeal, plus they are an authentic record of the world as it was - before overpopulation, before a lot of problems. My father filmed at Honolulu before it was overrun by tourists, for example.''
FitzPatrick Jr. remembers growing up in Beverly Hills with his three sisters and one brother ``in the heyday of movies.'' He played golf with Clark Gable.
``I started traveling with my father in the 1950s,'' he remembered. ``The criterion was that I could go along if I was big enough to carry the batteries for the camera. Back in those days, cameras were run with batteries. I lifted weights and I went into training to be able to carry the equipment.''
FitzPatrick Sr. died at age 86 in 1980.
Now, his son plans, quite literally, to walk in his footsteps. He will return to the site of each of his father's travelogues and film a new version, using the same camera angles and locations. The new travelogues, coupled with the original classics, will be aired on Turner Classic Movies Channel as a continuing 30-minute series.
``When Ted Turner purchased the entire MGM library in 1980, it was a turning point for film history,'' FitzPatrick said. ``He preserves the films and he shows them. That meant that my father's films were rediscovered.'' Turner keeps the negatives stored in an ideal film environment created by a depleted salt mine deep under the earth near Hutchinson, Kansas.
Admission to the Friday event is $5. The Commodore Theater will open at 1 p.m. for those who want to have lunch before the films. Films to be shown include ``Rio de Janeiro, City of Splendor'' (1936); ``India on Parade'' (1937); ``Honolulu, Paradise of the Pacific'' and ``Rural Mexico'' (1935); ``Picturesque South Africa'' and ``Cairo, City of Contrast'' and ``Beautiful Switzerland'' (1937); ``Beautiful Switzerland'' (1934); ``Czechoslovakia on Parade'' (1938).
FitzPatrick Jr. says he is particularly pleased that his father's films originally showed at the Commodore. ``It's always an added treat to find theaters that have been preserved - theaters where the films were first shown. It's truly a feeling of deja vu.''
FitzPatrick will meet with the theatergoers before and after the screening and will also conduct a trivia quiz on travel.
``Yes, I know my father often ignored politics and other problems at all his sites. His films lack the cynicism of today but they are a true record of the world past,'' the younger FitzPatrick said.
``To my father, the world is a book, and those who don't travel read only one page.'' by CNB