 This is Jimmy Powers and happy to be coming your way with another Grantland rice story there This is Jimmy Powers transcribed with another chapter from the Grantland rice story the tumult and the shouting Today, we're going to hear about television and sports granny called it sport light films and I'll narrate in first person Whatever identity I've enjoyed from my byline the sport light title board on movie shorts has given me contact with countless Movie goers who may not know a knitting from a goal post and care less Women particularly have been entertained by sporting action on the screen and I believe these experiences They have shared have given them a keener appreciation of sport in general It was back in 1920 that I ran into Jack Fenton in New York Jack was a motion picture man with ideas. I was a sports writer with a solid 20 years of background in my field Jack suggested we make a series of one real sport motion pictures with John Hawkinson a fine cameraman and a hard worker the films would be called the sport light after the column I had been syndicating since 1913 Right here. I want to say we were fortunate and that we could count on the friendship of Bob Jones Jack Dempsey Bill Tilden and other famous members of the Golden Age the films had the authentic flavor We were moving along full steam ahead when the first sound picture the jazz singer with Al Jolson hit the country however, the transition to sound didn't take place overnight and by 1932 when we joined Paramount Pictures on a contract of one picture per month. We were geared for most anything Graham McNamee a good friend handled our first sound commentary Ted Husing followed then Bill Slater and a flock of others The core of our spotlight team evolved around cameraman Russ Irvin and Ernest courts With Rod Warren who joined us after graduating from Penn State in 29 as our advanced man our first talking picture in 1929 was a film called four aces in which Tex Rickard introduced four champions Dempsey Jones Tilden and Hitchcock Since then we've run a gamut that includes a hundred and twenty three activities under the classification of sport We were also the first people to film Cyprus Gardens, Florida when we worked with water skier Dick Pope and his aquacadone skis. I Recall especially well to escapades our sport like crew undertook in 1926 we made the one-realer the call of the wild in New Brunswick, Canada with my old Tribune boss Bill McGeehan in The role of the heavy Bill was supposed to be tracking a giant moose through the tundra muskig and blueberry bushes The combination of Bill's bad heart and non-cooperative moose made it tough sledding However, the quick minds of Eaton and Warren jackpotted They rented a particularly noble if dead moose from a native guide and propped him up in the densest bush with stilts Bailing wire and ropes Then Bill banged away with his muzzle loader at the defunct critter That moose should have shared equal billing with McGeehan Due to my interest in animals particularly wild animals of all types I've long been partial to our films dealing with them in this connection two of my closest friends have been Ross Allen a feature contributor who heads the Florida Reptile Institute and the late Raymond Dittmar as curator of the Bronx Zoo Allen has not only captured alive several thousands of rattlesnakes But wrestles with live alligators and knows thoroughly the secrets of the famous Everglades a Very handyman to have around Allen takes his chances I was discussing the subject of snakes with Raymond Dittmar as the curator of the Bronx Zoo Over a cocktail at the Chatham Hotel in New York one day We agreed that the water snake from the Gulf of Mexico was about as deadly as they come when the subject of cobras came up How high can a cobra strike I asked I believe it's no farther than the height of his arc You might be right conceded Dittmar's let's find out a short time later We were at the Bronx Zoo Dittmar started into the cobra enclosure. He was armed with nothing more than a broom I with four martinis. I mumbled something about discretion being the safest part of valor Nonsense retorted the snake man practically dragging me in with him Three of the hooded devils were taken a siesta, but Dittmar's pushed them with his broom and started hurting them into one corner I was standing with my back to the door when the third cobra with the mind of his own Started on a nend sweep in my direction Bill I wheezed you're a snake short so saying I backed out of that door so quickly I tripped and fell outside the door. I never did get to measure the cobra's proclivity as a broad jumper Here today is one of the prime movers of granny rice's sport light crew and from the size of him He must have been able to move plenty his name is rod warren and he joined the sport light movie staff back in 1929 The year he graduated from Penn State Rod Warren you've been part of the famed sport light crew for 25 years. How did your association with granny rice come about? well, Jimmy 1929 was a great year. I had been a theater manager in Philadelphia for just one year a Chapter that I knew named Jack Eaton had accepted the a new job working with grantland rice as manager of His new sport lights to be made in sound He asked me to come along with him as his chief assistant We all learned about sound pictures that first year with a 26 picture schedule And about 50,000 miles to travel with a two-ton so-called portable truck There was very little chance to really get to know granny But naturally we were home sometimes and Stranges that might seem Granny had a very peculiar idea Where he liked to call his office? He had an enormous office with Condi Nast because he was editor of the American golfer It was about six offices in one But grant being the type he was seemed to like to come over to our little office. That was more intimate and chin with us about the various people we had met from time to time and Seemed to take a great interest in all of our New experiences. Rod Warren. What were the early days like? Did granny rice help you much directly or indirectly in your movie work? He was a peculiar employer He had a peculiar idea He seemed to feel that he was not a motion picture man. He was a newspaper man Even though he knew we were fairly new at our business He didn't make the slightest move towards directing us or giving us an order Rod Warren, I know the Grantland Rye Sportlight pictures were familiar and favorite shorts through the movie houses of America What is the status of those films today? Well the Grantland Rye Sportlight As you know was the oldest motion picture series in the history of the industry It began with the story of the opening of the Yale Bowl in 1920 And naturally it ended with Grant's sudden death Only two months previous to this loss I Had resigned from his sport light production company and had joined with him in a partnership to produce a new series of sports pictures or Sports adventure stories. I should call them for the coming color television market With Grant gone there seemed at first no one to take his place But I was fortunate to find a fellow Tennessean and a warm friend of Grant's Willing to try anything once his name. Well Herman Hickman The so-called poet laureate of the Smokies and as you know just the right size for bigger screens and bigger pictures Again Rod Warren in your mind. What was the greatest quality that granny Rice had? Well Jimmy to my mind He had no single outstanding quality He had a rare and a very unusual mixture of qualities seldom encountered in these days Perhaps his greatest qualities were negative ones Let's look at it this way first of all He never took advantage of anyone either fairly or unfairly Secondly his only fear seemed to be the fear that his words or actions might hurt someone He avoided debates and criticisms like the plague itself And now he's gone and After 25 years of close association I can't tell you how a man with these attributes Could possibly reach the highest pinnacle of success in such a competitive wrangling field Rod Warren, thanks for giving us the inside picture of the famous sport light sports movies and from one who was there nearly all the way And now until our next chapter. This is jimmy powers transcribe saying so long for now