The Dawn Patrol [Flight Commander] (Archive of 34 vernacular photographs from the set of the 1930 film)

Los Angeles: First National Pictures, 1930. Archive of 68 vernacular photographs, housed in a contemporary photo album, each photo with descriptions in silver manuscript ink just below it, and distributed in three sections as follows: (1) 34 photos taken on the set of "The Dawn Patrol" (Howard Hawks, 1930), an aviation drama set during World War I. Included are shots of planes in flight, and several others of star Douglas Fairbanks Jr. With manuscript annotations to the album pages identifying most of the photographs; (2) 16 vernacular photographs taken on the set of the pre-Code film "The Life of the Party" (Roy Del Ruth, 1930), and 18 vernacular photographs of the sinking of the RMS Tahiti off cost of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands on August 16-17, 1930, taken from the nearby SS Ventura.

The front cover of the photo album identifies the photographer as J.N. Boucher, and he appears four times in the album, twice dressed as a pilot in "The Dawn Patrol" section, and twice in "The Life of the Party" section, in one standing in front of a Vitaphone truck, along with a man identified as Dolph Thomas, who worked as an uncredited sound engineer on the film.

Photographs variously sized, generally between 3.5 x 2.5 and 5.25 x 3.25 inches, Very Good plus. Photo album Good only, with several pages detached a few loose photographs.