Africa's Big Five and Other Wildlife Filmmakers: A Centenary of Wildlife Filming in Kenya

The Start of Wildlife Filming, 1909

18 Africa’s Big Five and other Wildlife Filmmakers TheStartofWildlifeFilming,1909 ‘Nature, red in tooth and claw.’ – Alfred Lord Tennyson Cherry Kearton, Carl Akeley, Pop Binks, William Boyce, George Lawrence Most people seem to be under the impression that the first wildlife footage in Kenya was filmed by Cherry Kearton for the Roosevelt expedition. However, it seems very likely that Carl Akeley was filming at around the same time. Carl Akeley was certainly familiar with stills cameras,havingboughtoneinLondonin1896.Thefirstphotographic studio had been established in Nairobi in 1905 by HK (‘Pop’) Binks, and Pop very soon hired himself out as a cinematographer on hunting safaris. Pop therefore could also have been the first. Akeley did not set out to make commercial films, but he needed footage of live animals to aid him in his taxidermy – for when eventually he shipped the skins that he collected back to the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Theodore Roosevelt’s famous safari began when he arrived in the port of Mombasa in April 1909. Cherry Kearton arrived separately a month later, and it was apparently not until August or September of that year when they met in Nyeri, to the west of Mount Kenya. Roosevelt had just come down the mountain, having ‘collected’ an elephant, and Kearton was asked to film the celebratory Kikuyu and Maasai dance, or ngoma that was staged by the then Acting Governor, Sir Frederick Jackson. In the resulting film, the dancers were erroneously identified as Zulus. The level of ignorance about Kenya’s people at that time is embarrassing, and the presidential party’s knowledge of wildlife was little better. Roosevelt’s party then headed Africa’s Big Five and other Wildlife Filmmakers 19 north to Samburu, then Meru, the Aberdares and back to Nairobi before travelling west. Roosevelt’s account of the trip does not state for how long Kearton accompanied him – in fact he only very fleetingly mentions the fact that they met at all. Footage exists of the presidential party crossing a river (said to be the northern Uaso Nyiru) on horseback, trailed by a very, very long line of porters all carrying 60 pound loads on their heads. Kearton’s own expedition, with or without Roosevelt, covered a lot of ground, and when in Nairobi he based himself at the Norfolk hotel. FromtheKeartonfootagethatIhaveseen,hewasdefinitelyinNairobi for the launching of William Boyce’s balloonograph in September 1909. Chicago newspaperman Boyce’s plan was to film wild African animals from the air. In order to achieve this, he hired the top aerial cinematographer of the time, George Lawrence. Lawrence had achieved fame by filming the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 from the air, using a camera suspended from several kites strung together. Boyce suggested a balloon as an alternative method of obtaining aerial photos, so they brought two balloons as well as Lawrence’s kites. The expedition carried 28,000 pounds of photographic equipment and supplies, including kites, collapsible towers, and the balloons. The test launch of the balloon in Nairobi was not far from the Norfolk hotel, on a hill the other side of the river, an area now known as Ngara. The whole exercise was fraught with problems, as their method of making the hydrogen gas was time consuming, not to say dangerous. Boyce had brought large quantities of sulphuric acid, and piles of iron filings andmetalscrapswerethrownintotheacid,thenthegaswastransferred from wooden tanks to the balloon through cloth tubes (Health and Safety eat your hearts out…). The balloon was tethered, so that it did not get carried away. Large crowds gathered and waited patiently for a whole day, only to be disappointed. A second attempt the next day was more successful. Also present were Carl and Delia Akeley, who had arrived on the same ship as Boyce and his party. Delia climbed into the basket and was carried some 500 feet into the air, winning the dubious distinction 20 Africa’s Big Five and other Wildlife Filmmakers of becoming the first female to ride in a balloon in Africa. The basket was small, just 3 feet across and 3 feet deep. Lawrence went up with his camera and ‘was amazed’, but his photos did not come out. Boyce then got into the basket himself, but his 250 pound frame was too heavy and despite jettisoning his heavy boots, the basket refused to rise. It was then decided that the balloon should be taken to...