Volume III: Biographies

BURNS, Martin

Studio employee (1914)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: Martin Burns was a "darkroom boy" at the Thanhouser studio in 1914.

Biographical Notes: Reel Life, April 18, 1914, printed "Sonnets of a Darkroom Boy," by Martin Burns, a darkroom boy at the Thanhouser factory:

At eight bells in the morning, along comes Charley Gercke.

He says, "Good Morning, fellows, it's time to go to work."

So we start the old machinery, and we turn out every light,

And we keep the stock a-rolling from morning until night.

The perforators perforate; the printers print, they say;

The developers develop all the livelong day.

The dryers dry; the joiners join; the projectors they portray -

All silently contribute to the Moving Picture Play.

The "title man" makes titles, to guide us on the screen;

The "color man" makes colors of yellow, blue and green.

The machinist and 'lectrician, each in a different way,

Helps produce the pictures for the moving picture play.

The actors act; the packers pack the reels up in a can;

The painter paints; the "old maid" faints when confronted by mere man.

The props get props, and no one stops until the end of day,

And Saturday noon - it's not too soon! - they all flock for their play.

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