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SULLIVAN'S
TRAVELS
AN EXPLORER WITH THE SOUL OF ANTHROPOLOGIST
& THE EYE OF AN ARTIST
By J. Fred MacDonald , Chicago-based
collector, archivist, writer and producer,
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 He
did not set out to become an educational
film maker. In his early adult years,
Sullivan C. ("Sully") Richardson
worked in advertising for a Detroit
newspaper. But he was also an adventurous
young man.
In late 1940 he convinced the local
Chrysler Corporation to sponsor a
daring expedition. Together with two
friends (one a car mechanic), Richardson
would drive a new Plymouth automobile
from Detroit to the tip of South America.
It would bring hemispheric publicity
to Plymouth. It would mesh constructively
with the Good Neighbor Policy and
its goal of harmonizing political
relationships with Latin America.
And it would highlight the potential
of a proposed Pan American Highway
linking the Americas along a modern,
concrete roadway.
In 1940, however, the Pan American
Highway was only a concept. Driving,
dragging and pushing his vehicle,
Richardson traversed 14,000 miles
comprised mainly of footpaths, swollen
rivers, steep mountains, and immovable
boulders. Eight and a half months
later, he reached his goal -- Cape
Horn at the tip of Chile.
Fortunately, Richardson filmed most
of the journey in richly colorful
16mm Kodachrome. In many hours of
insightful footage, this neophyte
film maker preserved his singular
impressions of Mexico, Central America,
and areas southward.
Richardson wrote a book about his
experiences, Adventure South, and
in 1947 he started Viking Pictures
Corporation, a small film company
in Chicago. Among his first productions
were two 20-minute distillations of
the trip through Latin America, Rough
Road to Panama and Rugged Road to
Cape Horn.
In Chicago, Sully made dozens of
instructional and corporate shorts.
These included educationals for Encyclopedia
Britannica Films (such titles as The
Story of Potatoes, The Story of Lumber,
and Forest Ranger), and industrials
for the likes of Chrysler, Mutual
of Omaha Insurance company, Standard
Oil of Indiana, and Universal Rundle,
a manufacturer of toilets and bathtubs.
Best Work
However, this man was an explorer
with the soul of an anthropologist
and the eye of an artist. And he produced
his best work when he photographed
the varieties of people he encounter
on his exotic trips. Behind their
façades of simple living, Sully
uncovered a complex strength and spiritedness
within his subjects. It might be a
Mexican woman happy to demonstrate
the proper way to make tortillas,
or an Eskimo hunter fighting bitter
cold to provide his family's next
meal.
He focused his lens on Central American
labourers, men and women, tapping
rubber trees, harvesting bananas and
balsa, and stripping bark to make
precious quinine--while generously
sharing fried iguanas with a hungry
interloper from North America. Children
were a favorite topic whether it was
eager, inquisitive students in a rural
Mexican school, a sick Navajo Indian
child being treated by a village medicine
man, or even suburban American children
plodding door-to-door to collect free
candy on Halloween.
Much of his work was condensed in
films such as Northward to Nome, Painting
with Sand, Rubber River, and Holiday
Assignment. Yet, the bulk of Richardson's
work remains until now, largely uncirculated.
Richardson's films reveal a fascination
with human survival in isolated places.
It was an experience with which he
was personally familiar.
Rejected Polygamy
Born into a polygamous Mormon family
that moved to Northern Mexico when
his Church rejected polygamy in the
1890s, young Richardson returned to
Arizona in 1912 when the rebel Pancho
Villa drove his family back over the
border.
Although he was later educated at
Northwestern University and lived
in large Midwestern American cities,
it was the wilderness that continued
to attract him.
In Land of the Crimson Cliffs he
lovingly photographed the rust-colored
canyons of the American Southwest.
Man from Superstition Mountain concerned
three friends exploring the Arizona
desert with its tarantulas, gila monsters,
rattlesnakes and treacherous mountains.
And Cattle Drive presented the hard-working
American cowboy driving live cattle
hundreds of miles to a railroad shipping
site.
Richardson died in 1986. But his
motion picture legacy remains vital.
Like most great film makers, his movies
and outtakes offer unique visions
into historical experience. The fact,
too, that he left Viking Pictures
in the mid-1950s for a successful
career in California real estate,
suggests that we all may possess the
artist's sensibilities and, given
propitious circumstances, we all might
be able to record on film the world
as we encounter it.
The difference lies in personality.
Sullivan Richardson was at base an
adventurer, a curious man, and a bold
one--and that made all the difference.
J. Fred MacDonald , collector, archivist,
writer and producer,
MacDonald & Associates
5660 North Jersey Av
Chicago, Il 60659 USA
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Email: macfilms@att.net
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