American Cinematographer - August 1990 - 42

graph I got, the best photograph I made in my life,
was a circle made
by the high-powered lens at one
and a half mile range showing the crossed blankets
and showing the men walking away. And people
asked me, what do you see? I couldn't tell, I was
overcome. I couldn't tell them, but you'll get the
signal. The crossed blankets - and Mallory and
Irvine were dead. That is clearly shown."
Despite its tragic ending, Captain Noel's
film of this second expedition titled "The Epic Of
Everest" was exhibited in England to enthusiastic
reviews. Noel then took his film and crossed the
United States 14 times lecturing about the first at¬

tempts to scale Everest. American audiences were
eager for color renderings of his trip so Noel hand
tinted dozens of his glass lantern slides with aniline

dyes to compliment his presentation. In 1927 he
would publish a book about his earliest adventures
and Everest experiences called "Through Tibet to
Everest" which became a best seller.
The summit of Everest was not reached by
a climber until 1953, and it would be another dec¬
ade before a cinematographer would film from the

top of the world. In 1963 Lute Jerstad labored
Photo:

Captain J. B. Noel

against 20 below weather and 60 mile-per-hour
winds to shoot a shaky 360-degree pan of the earth
below with a windup 16mm Bolex camera fixed to
his ice axe for support. His footage would become

Above: Noel with
his NS camera
and 20-inch Cooke

telephoto lens at

part of the first National Geographic TV Special,
"Americans On Everest". In 1988 the first live pic¬

23,000 feet on the
North Col of

were transmitted via microwave and satellite
from the summit by climber/cameraman David
Breashears. The quest to conquer Everest has cost

Everest. Taken
from a hand-tinted

tures

glass slide. Right:
Noel, age 98, in

than 80 lives to date, at least two of them

his home at Rom¬

more

ney Marsh, Kent,
with his NS

cameramen,

camera,

which is

now on

display at

since the first bold efforts

by the Brit¬

ish in 1922 and 1924.
As the memory of those

the Science

early climbs, sixtyplus years ago fade into history, writers from time

Museum, London.

to time will remind us of those heroic first efforts

and usually focus their attention on the mysterious
fate of climbers Mallory and Irvine. Seldom have
the accomplishments of Capt. Noel been remem¬

bered, and yet when his life experiences are total¬
led a truly extraordinary man emerges. He was the
last survivor of those early Everest climbs when he
died in the spring of 1989 at the age of 99. His heri¬

tage is the diaries, letters and books from those
distant

Photo

by David Clark

their progress. As they reached to within perhaps
800 feet of the top they were obscured by clouds and
never seen

again. The other climbers looked for

them for two days and Noel emotionally described
his feelings as his camera documented the signal
from the search party that Mallory and Irvine were
gone.
"We had no wireless telephone in those
days, they weren't known. They (search party) put
a
signal out of crossed blankets. And the photo¬

40

American

Cinematographer

August 1990

expeditions - and Noel's films.
Prints of "Climbing Mt. Everest" and "The
Epic Of Everest" can be found at the British Film
Institute and the Royal Geographical Society. Cap¬
tain Noel's camera is now on display next to Her¬
bert Pontings' at the Science Museum in London.
The quality of Noel's work is remarkably good even
by today's standards. That Captain Noel succeeded
at all would be reward enough, but that his films
have become, in the end, the most graphic and
inspirational record of those first heroic climbing
endeavors is a cinematic legacy that will last for¬
ever.

A
American Cinematographer - August 1990

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