Fred Jackman — Little Close-Ups of the A. S. C. (1922) 🇺🇸

Fred W. Jackman, president of the A. S. C, is one of the veterans of the cinematographic profession and it is largely due to his cleverness in developing trick photography that the present day cinema comedy owes its success.

Without the trick element the comedies would be shorn of half their effectiveness and power to amuse and Mr. Jackman may well take much credit to himself for bringing the comedy to its present enviable place in the cinematographic world. But it’s all in the game with these clever fellows — they do not take any credit to themselves — they simply do their work and let it go at that.

Mr. Jackman had his kindergarten instruction in cinematography at the old Essanay Studio in Chicago which turned out enough camera talent to run a dozen studios, and after served on the staff of Pathé, Triangle and Hal Roach before going to Keystone where his most representative work was done. He photographed Harold Lloyd’s first comedy and twenty more immediately following, Hal Roach directing, then he moved his camera to Keystone where during the past five years he has supervised photography and photographed intricate portions of such celebrated Sennett pictures as “Mickey,” “Down on the Farm,” “Love, Honor and Behave,” “Yankee Doodle in Berlin,” “Married Life,” “A Small Town Idol,” “Heart Balm,” “Molly O.” At Sennett’s Mr. Jackman had his first experience directing two reel comedies and he was, therefore, not a stranger with the megaphone when Hal Roach called him back to the old homestead recently to direct the second Pathé-Roach serial featuring Ruth Roland.

Mr. Jackman was elected president of the A. S. C. to succeed Phil Rosen in April, 1921, and he has been a popular and efficient executive.

Mr. Jackman is among those cinematographers who have many a time risked life and limb for the benefit of their art and his name will go down in American cinematic history as an honored one.

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Collection: American Cinematographer, February 1922

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