MacMurray’s films of China, 1925–1929

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Amer­i­can diplo­mat John Van Antwerp Mac­Mur­ray (1881–1960) began film­ing in 1925, two years after Kodak intro­duced the Cine-Kodak Motion Pic­ture cam­era, which made pro­duc­tion and dis­play of motion pic­tures pos­si­ble for ama­teurs. The John Van Antwerp Mac­Mur­ray Papers at Mudd Man­u­script Library con­tain twenty-eight silent 16mm films, which Mac­Mur­ray shot while serv­ing as Min­is­ter to China (1925–1929). Although the coun­try was divided by civil war and Nation­al­ists took con­trol of Peking (Bei­jing) in June 1928, the films are not polit­i­cal in nature. They con­tain street and other local scenes in Peking, the West­ern Hills, and other places that Mac­Mur­ray vis­ited. A find­ing aid to the John Van Antwerp Mac­Mur­ray Papers at Mudd Man­u­script Library may be found at http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/wh246s13m .

 

Mac­Mur­ray shot the first film that is fea­tured here dur­ing a visit with his wife and sis­ter to the North­ern city of Kal­gan (Zhangji­akou) at the Great Wall of China, the gate­way to Mon­go­lia. They accom­pa­nied the Amer­i­can explorer Roy Chap­man Andrews and his exca­va­tion team between Kal­gan and Chang­peh (Zhang­bei) through the Wanchuang (Wanzhuang) pass. Andrews had led a series of expe­di­tions in the Gobi Desert in the 1920s. In 1928, how­ever, rogue sol­diers and brig­ands made access impos­si­ble, hence Mac­Mur­ray had to secure pas­sage by call­ing upon the assis­tance of local war­lord Chang Tso-lin (Zhang Zuolin). The film cap­tures the exit of the crew of 37 peo­ple, eight cars and 150 camels from Kal­gan on April 16, 1928, escorted by 50 Chi­nese cav­al­ry­men. In addi­tion, Mac­Mur­ray filmed local scenes in Kal­gan and on the way to the Wanchuang pass.

Although there is exten­sive cor­re­spon­dence with Roy Chap­man Andrews in the John Van Antwerp Mac­Mur­ray papers, there are no exchanges about this par­tic­u­lar event. A descrip­tion of the expe­di­tion can be found in Dragon Hunter: Roy Chap­man Andrews and the Cen­tral Asi­atic Expe­di­tions by Charles Gal­lenkamp (2001).

3 thoughts on “MacMurray’s films of China, 1925–1929”

  1. Miles Lamp­son is fea­tured in the blog entry “Peking Friends and Fam­ily Scenes” ( http://blogs.princeton.edu/reelmudd/2010/09/peking-friends-and-family-scenes.html ). In addi­tion, you may be inter­ested in the entry “Rent­ing a tem­ple in the West­ern Hills” ( http://blogs.princeton.edu/reelmudd/2010/08/renting-a-temple-in-the-western-hills-1925–1929.html ), as Lamp­son rented a tem­ple there too. Cor­re­spon­dence between Mac­Mur­ray and Lamp­son can be found in the John Van Antwerp Mac­Mur­ray Papers at http://diglib.princeton.edu/ead/getEad?eadid=MC094&kw=#ref986 (Box 49, folder 15).

  2. Look for­ward to see­ing the infor­ma­tion as I believe my grand­fa­ther Miles Lamp­son will fea­ture. He was the British Min­is­ter in Peking at that time and a good friend of the MacMurrays.

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