Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
BOWEN G36.1-221
Date(s)
- 1927-03-15 (Creation)
Extent
Name of creator
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
Bursting of shrapnel during filming of "The Patent Leather Kid," on March 15, 1927, at Camp (Fort) Lewis. Trenches were dug and explosives laid before filming of the big battle scenes depicting the "Battle of the Argonne." 27,000 similar shrapnel shells were made and stored at Camp Lewis. Thousands of spectators had the opportunity to watch the filming until further into the war manuevers when it was decided that it was potentially too dangerous. Gravel and rocks were strewn over a wide area when the charges of powder exploded. An assistant powderman for First National studios, Walter Holt, was seriously injured in an explosion when a rock badly fractured his skull. He stayed on the job for half-an-hour to set off the complicated explosives before finally collapsing. (TNT 3-25-27, p. 1, TNT 3-16-27, p.1) BGN-103