"If I was going to make a movie of Meher Baba, I'd better learn to move fast."
Meher Mount
Your Friday photo is in honor of the 70th anniversary of Avatar Meher Baba’s visit to Southern California…
In 1956, Meher Baba circled the globe in 30 days, flying 30,000 miles and visiting five continents.
Charmian Duce Corrinet (later Knowles) was asked by Meher Baba to film His visit in America. The result of Charmian’s filming and editing is Meher Baba in the USA, 1956 a film produced by ©Sufism Reoriented.
This photograph of Avatar Meher Baba at Meher Mount on August 2, 1956, is a screenshot from that film. He is with co-founder and lifetime caretaker Agnes Baron who is taking Him on a tour of the property.
“...if I was going to make a movie of Meher Baba, I’d better learn to move fast. He moved so swiftly at times, it seemed his feet didn’t even touch the ground.”
On Making the film Meher Baba in the USA, 1956
“Early one beautiful morning in July 1956, a group of us drove out to Idlewild Airport [New York] to begin what Baba had called a sahavas – time in the intimate company of the Master. I had been given a special charge for this visit… Baba had asked that I make a movie of it,” explained Charmian Duce Knowles in her book Spread My Love.
Charmian described her film experience and equipment: “I had only held a movie camera in my hands once before… That and two years of still photography in college were my only training for making a film about the Avatar. I decided that what I lacked in experience, I could at least make up for in equipment.
“We had heard about a new movie camera [16 mm] that had automatic light control and that used film cassettes. It wasn’t even on the market yet, but a friend went clear to the factory in Detroit and managed to deliver one to me in New York City. It was the most technologically advanced camera of its time, but there were still drawbacks.”
When Meher Baba emerged from the airport, Charmian started filming. She said she quickly realized “that if I was going to make a movie of Meher Baba, I’d better learn to move fast. He moved so swiftly at times, it seemed his feet didn’t even touch the ground.”
Meher Baba in the USA, 1956 is one hour and 23 minutes long. Meher Baba’s visit to Meher Mount starts at 50:22 minutes into the film and continues for approximately six-and-one-half minutes.
Sources
Charmian Knowles, Spread My Love (Walnut Creek, CA: Sufism Reoriented), pp. 113-114, ©2004 by Sufism Reoriented.
“Film of Meher Baba at Meher Mount - 1956,” by Margaret Magnus, Meher Mount Story Blog Post, accessed May 23, 2026.
Image: Screenshot from Meher Baba in the USA, 1956 filmed by Charmian Knowles and produced by Sufism Reoriented ©1972. In the late 1960s, assisted by Henry Mindlin and Charmian’s future husband, Duncan Knowles, she added a soundtrack. Charmian and Duncan provide the narration.