Virgil Miller — Little Close-Ups of the A. S. C. (1922) 🇺🇸
Virgil E. Miller, A. S. C, has been at Universal Studio since Mt. Lowe was a foothill and the Los Angeles River a ridge of rock.
The old padres as they passed along El Camino Real used to pause and watch Virgil tuning up his old Pathé and they would remark: “That is the Señor Virgilio Molinos. Some day a great movie studio will be built up around him and he will be a famous cameraman.”
And so it happened. In those early days Virgil thought he wanted to be an electrician and when the studio was built up around him he became chief of the electrical department of the Universal Film Mfg. Company which position he occupied for nearly two years. Then he heard the call of the camera and went to the camera shop over which he presided for two years before he decided finally to take up cinematography as a profession.
Mr. Miller knows as much about cameras as the men who make ‘em and a lot more than some men who make certain kinds of them. He is a student of and researcher in lighting effects and for a long time has been making special tests as to the actinic values of various lighting units and the economic use of the same.
Since taking to the camera Mr. Miller has shot all of the Universal stars including Dorothy Phillips, Louise Lovely, Ella Hall, Mae Murray, Priscilla Dean, Ruth Clifford, Monroe Salisbury, Herbert Rawlinson, Fritzi Brunette, Eddie Polo, Marie Walcamp, Frank Mayo, Gloria Hope, Gladys Walton, Edith Roberts, Hoot Gibson, Lyons and Moran, Breezy Eason [B. Reeves Eason], Lon Chaney, Jack Mulhall and many others.
He has worked with Directors Elmer Clifton, Douglas Gerrard, Reaves Eason, J. P. McGowan, Albert Russell, and at present is with Hobart Henley.
Mr. Miller [Virgil Miller] is a university graduate and has annexed two degrees, E. E. and B. S., but his greatest honor, to hear him tell it, is that he has five fine boys.
Some of his best known pictures are “Smashing Through,” with Herb Rawlinson [Herbert Rawlinson]; “Wolfbreed,” featuring Lon Chaney; “Pink Tights” with Gladys Walton; “Blue Sunday” with Lyons and Moran and Universal’s biggest serials.
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Collection: American Cinematographer, February 1922
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