Herb Farmer grew up in Snyder, NY and attended Amherst Central High School with his friend Dan Wiegand (who eventually traveled with Herb to USC). These pictures, which were all dated 1936, show the outside of the school and both Herb and Dan (who were each 16 at the time) working on things in the school’s auditorium. Notice that Dan is using a Bell & Howell 70DR 16mm movie camera, which was probably Herb’s. That same camera was brought to USC and became the first official camera of the USC Department of Cinematography. One of the other shots shows Herb in what he called “Farmer Film Laboratories” which was located inside his house. Herb and Dan returned to ACHS in the summer of 1940 and installed 35mm projectors in the auditorium.
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