Robert Gessner was born on October 21, 1907 in Escanaba, MI. He obtained a B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1929 and a M.A. from Columbia University in 1930. He started teaching at New York University in 1930. He married Doris Lindeman on May 27, 1938 and had two children, Peter and Stephen. Mr. Gessner was a screen playwright and the author of several books, including"Massacr" (1931);"Broken Arro" (1933);"Some of My Best Friends are Jew" (1936);"Treaso" (1944);"Youth is the Tim" (1945). He was a pioneer educator in motion pictures as an art form. Gessner founded the Motion Picture Department (now Cinema Studies) at NYU in 1941, the first four-year film curriculum leading to a B.A. degree in motion picture studies in the United States. He finished his book"The Moving Image, A Guide to Cinematic Literac" before he died in June 1968.
Robert Gessner published a book in 1936 about his overseas travels called"Some of my Best Friends Are Jew"
In Pompeii, three men, two in uniform and one in a suit outside of the entrance. The building reads “ENTRATA IN POMPEI”. 01:02:53 A man in a suit (friend of Gessner) walks along the entry road to Pompeii. 01:03:01 Gessner faces the camera and takes a photo before walking up the road and waving for the his friend to follow him. The friend stands in the ruins of the basilica at Pompeii. 01:03:15 Gessner in the ruins of the basilica. 01:03:25 Sign reads “TEMPLUM APOLLINIS”, the Temple of Apollo. Gessner stands on a block next to a colonnade, bronze sculpture. The other man walks across elevated blocks in the street (the blocks allowed pedestrians in ancient Pompeii to cross the streets which doubled as a drainage system). 01:03:38 Men in uniform walk around the garden of the House of the Vettii in Pompeii. 01:03:45 Gessner takes a photo through a gate. He walks towards the camera and stumbles off the sidewalk. The Pompeii forum through an archway. 01:03:55 Gessner walks up the steps to the Temple of Jupiter. He poses on what is left of one of the columns, resting his elbow on its surface. WS of the forum. Gessner walks away from the temple, across the middle of the forum towards the camera. He points backwards. 01:04:24 Main entrance and exit from Pompeii, Porta Marina. The other man walks on, waving to Gessner to keep walking. Nighttime shot of hills, camera tilts up to briefly show the moon. 01:04:45 The friend rises out of bed, gestures at Gessner to stop, and runs at him. Soldiers marching along a street. On the right, people carrying barrels. A man rowing for two people on a small rowboat exit a grotto, presumably the Blue Grotto on the coast of Capri. Three young boys stand on the side of the rocks. Other boats in the Blue Grotto from within. The front of a boat exiting the grotto through a narrow cavity. A steamboat moves along the water. 01:05:27 The man looks out over Capri with binoculars. Pans right to the Faraglioni, the famous rock formations off the coast. 01:05:33 Gessner stands at a lookout point next to four nuns. View of the Italian coastline from a plane, plane wing and clouds below. 01:06:13 Plane exterior reads “HERACLES” on the nose. Written across the tail in large lettering is “G-AAXO”. KODAK logo.
Gessner visits Italy