American Cinematographer - June 1988 - 83

imnucn 1
'Voice of the Globe' Tradition Revived

on

Tape

by Bob Fisher
From an early age, Kelly FitzPatrick wanted
follow in his father's footsteps. And who
could blame him.
His father was James A. Fitz¬
to

Patrick, the globe-trotting writer-producerdirector of more than 300 travelogues for
theater and television. FitzPatrick was billed
as "The Voice of the Globe."

His slices of life, that began in
1929 with Ladies of Spain, were known to
millions of theater-goers as James A.

FitzPatrick Traveltalks. The one-reelers, last¬

ing about 10 minutes each, were among the
subjects - usually some cartoons, a
newsreel, a Pete Smith specialty - that
preceded a theaters feature film offering.
Fie first began producing films in 1917.

short

Each of FitzPatrick's Traveltalks

painted a bright and rosy picture of the
locale, something for which he was offtimes
criticized.
"Fie had an undying devotion to
showing the best of humankind all over the
world," recalled his son, Kelly. "Fie would
shoot in a country where there was a civil
war raging and would come back with a
travelogue saying, 'Go to this place. It has
great food... great hotels...' There would be
bullets zinging around his head, but you'd
never know from his travelogue. Sadness
doesn't exist in

a

FitzPatrick Traveltalk. Pov¬

erty doesn't exist. Neither does hunger, war
or any other type of ugliness," he said.
The other
runs

common

thread that

through each of the Traveltalks is

FitzPatrick's trademark ending: "And as the
sun sinks slowly in the west, we bid a
reluctant farewell to..."
"If anybody ever got the urge to
travel from a FitzPatrick Traveltalk, it was

me," the younger FitzPatrick said. Fie got that
opportunity at an early age, traveling with
his father during school vacations and holi¬
days. Fie took over the business, FitzPatrick
Travel Pictures in Santa Barbara, Calif., in
1973. The elder FitzPatrick died in 1980 at
the age of 86.

Now, Kelly FitzPatrick is reliving
some of his father's adventures, retracing
his steps in a series of shows called Now &
Then. The programs are
Turner

being produced for

Each episode will juxtapose
James A. FitzPatrick's original film footage

(shot

Above: Frame from
MGM title
quence

long as a half a century ago) with
his son's U-Matic format video tape. In many
as

se¬

of James A.

FitzPatrick's Trav¬
eltalks. Left:

instances, the current views will be from
the same vantage point used in the film

Kelly

FitzPatrick and

equipment for his

version.

Now & Then

"At selected

travelogues.

in the

origi¬
nal footage, we'll freeze the action and
scenes

dissolve into our new shot, taken from the
exact location as the original, to show how

things have changed," FitzPatrick explained.
"We're going to look at various locations
around the world and see the way they
were 50 years ago, then compare that
visually to what's happening today. Well let
people draw their own conclusions as to
what will happen in the next 50 years."
FitzPatrick and his three-person
crew plan to produce 104 shows for Turner
Broadcasting, which owns the MGM film
library, of which the Traveltalks are a part.
James A. FitzPatrick's

career

with MGM

spanned some 30 years, during which he
traveled to every country in the world,
covering some 1,000,000 miles.
For many

Broadcasting.

June 1988

people, the Traveltalk

images of far-away places were the only
they had of the world. Many of the
Traveltalks were filmed during the Depres¬
sion years when people didn't have money
to spend on travel. Even those who did
often found that a trip to a foreign destina¬
views

tion - or even
arduous task.

across

the country

-

was an

"My father really created the
desire, the urge, in people to travel,"
FitzPatrick said. "Fie provided the impetus to
make people want to go to Paris or Bombay

American

Cinematographer

81
American Cinematographer - June 1988

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