THE THIEF OF BAGDAD 317
bining this principle with the use of an incline, accomplished the seemingly impossible.
Then there was the Magic Carpet. It was required that a Carpet floating over the heads of the populace should soar with the Thief and the Princess above the housetops of Bagdad, in and out of high arches and finally across the desert and disappear up the silver path to the moon. I remember distinctly that not a single member or the staff said, "It can't be done." It was done. Mr. Fairbanks doesn't like us to speak at cost, because he feels that the loyal effort that went into, this picture cannot be reduced to dollars and cents. I think, however, that merely as an index to the seriousness of the problems involved he will not object to your knowing that it cost over $78,000 to fly the Magic Carpet.
This involved the erection of a specially constructed steel arm working on a revolving base and so built that the rug could describe a full ninety-degree arc within range of the ingeniously placed camera platform.
Perhaps the most extraordinary, though not the most spectacular, effect in the picture is the
