James Blaine Shackelford (20 September 1886 – 5 August 1969) was a

cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...

. Born Wichita, Kansas, he was the son of Joel M. Shackelford. Young James grew up in the home of a guardian, Jerome Brooks, a farmer, in Enid, Oklahoma. James Shackelford died in Los Angeles, California.

Career

Shackelford was a cinematographer for Roy Chapman Andrews, an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

explorer, adventurer, naturalist and director of the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

. He accompanied Andrews on a series of expeditions through the fragmented China of the early 20th century into the

Gobi Desert The Gobi Desert (Chinese: 戈壁 (沙漠), Mongolian: Говь (ᠭᠣᠪᠢ)) () is a large desert or brushland region in East Asia, and is the sixth largest desert in the world. Geography The Gobi measures from southwest to northeast an ...

and Mongolia. The expeditions made important discoveries and brought the first-known fossil dinosaur eggs to the museum. In 1933, Shackelford and

George Dromgold George C. Dromgold (July 14, 1893 – April 9, 1948) was an actor and writer, who wrote a book about his South Seas exploration. Early years George Dromgold was the son of R. W. Dromgold, a Los Angeles businessman, real estate investor, and me ...

traveled to the Great Barrier Reef and Papua, spending three months at

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

. At

Suva Suva () is the capital and largest city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rewa Province, Central Divi ...

, they observed and analyzed fire-walking. Dromgold wrote a book, ''Two Lugs on a Lugger'', with photographs by Shackelford, describing their adventures. Shackelford was cinematographer for the film crew of

Clyde E. Elliott Clyde Ernest Elliott (July 23, 1885 – June 12, 1959) was an American motion picture director, producer, and writer. He is best known for animal films, especially Frank Buck (animal collector), Frank Buck’s first movie, ''Bring 'Em Back A ...

Charles E. Ford Charles E. Ford (March 26, 1899 – August 7, 1942) was a newsreel and film producer and the director of Frank Buck's jungle movie '' Jacaré'' (1942). Early life Ford was the son of Charles A. Ford, an insurance salesman, and Martha A. Ford. ...

and

James Dannaldson James Melven Dannaldson (born July 17, 1915, Omaha, Nebraska, died August 12, 1984, Tarzana, California (age 69)) starred in the Frank Buck film Jacaré. Early life Dannaldson was the son of James Jerrmiel Dannaldson and Lulu Belgium Rola Hia ...

, which shot some 260,000 feet of film on the lower reaches of the Amazon River in Spring 1942. The film became Frank Buck's popular movie Jacaré. The group spent three and a half months at Para, at the mouth of the Amazon, usually within a day's journey of the city, so that they could return to civilization for the night. The company's most primitive adventure occurred on Marajó Island, at the mouth of the Amazon, where they spent four weeks. They ran out of imported food and had to subsist for five days on moldy doughnuts filled with small worms and on chickens which seemed to be 90 percent vulture. Shackelford's later career included work in ''The Bells in Old Town'' (1946, ''Klockorna i Gamla sta'n'' was the original Swedish title).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shackelford, James B. 1886 births 1969 deaths American cinematographers Artists from Wichita, Kansas People associated with the American Museum of Natural History American explorers Filmmakers from Enid, Oklahoma