Martin Johnsons Describe Perils of Filming Elephants in African Jungles--"But Lions are Easy," is Their Verdict

Seated in their dressing room after an appearance on the stage with their latest picture, "Simba," Mr. and Mrs. Martin Johnson related to a CRIMSON reporter a few nights ago fascinating account of their numerous journeys into wild lands to take moving pictures of animals in their native haunts.

During the last nine years the pair have made four trips into the plains and jungles of Africa. Previous of this they explored every island in the Southern Pacific, as well as Borneo; Mr. Johnson has calculated that of their 20 years of married life they have spent only three in civilization.

"Elephants are the hardest of all game to photograph," said Mr. Johnson. "The herds which we generally see are limited to 150 animals, although it is reported that during the dry season vast herds of 2,000 or more travel from one water-hole to another. But they stampede so readily that we have to trail them for months before coming close enough to photograph.

"Even when we have got near to them, our difficulties have only begun, for an elephant is not a pleasant beast. Once when I was walking through a bank of bushes my outstretched hand hit something that didn't feel like wood. It wasn't; it was the side of an elephant! I couldn't get out of that place fast enough!"

Mrs. Johnson also has had exciting times with these animals. She was photographing one once when it started to charge her. "I grabbed my title but my chance of escape was small. There are only three small spots on the elephant head where a bullet proves fatal. The guns we use make a 45 look like a toy, and yet an elephant can digest a good four shots from them. This time luck was with me; the animal crumpled and fell 15 feet in front of me.

"But lions aren't so hard to picture," interposed Mr. Johnson. "They are muscle-pound and while fast in a sprint, tire quickly. After a heavy meal, also, they are slow and easy to stalk."