Happy National Donut Day

National Donut Day is today.  National Donut Day National Donut Day was started in 1938 by the Salvation Army to commemorate the volunteers who served donuts to soldiers during WW I. In honor of that, I thought I'd share this short clip I found on an 8mm movie I picked up recently at an estate sale.  The film was labeled "Bowling" and features a men's bowling team in tournament in Madison, Tennessee sometime in the early to mid 1960's.  But the most interesting part of the film is this short clip where they stopped early in the morning for Krispy Kreme donuts, giving a peak into the look of the business (outside anyway).

The early morning sun reflects in the windows which allows a vague glimpse at the menu on the wall. Our bowler balances 4 dozen Krispy Kremes while a cigarette dangles from his lips.  A Krispy Kreme delivery van looms in the background.

While I prefer our local donut shop over Krispy Kreme, there is something about them when they glide off the assembly line hot and fresh.

Why not stop by your favorite donut shop today, Krispy Kreme or otherwise, and treat yourself?

Sliding into Halloween Once Again

Here are a couple Halloween-themed 35mm slides found among the many I picked up this past year. What's spooky about this one is the kid is completely unfazed.

Toy Story 1939

From the same film as the Turkey Farm Trip, is this fun little piece the original owner entitled "Hi-Ho Silver - Magic Box".  At first I thought it was done with stop motion, but I think it's probably done with wires.  Clearly having fun with one of his children's toys at Christmas of 1939, our home movie producer has the cowboy jump out of the box on his horse and prance around the room.

Turkey Trot 1939

Last year, I picked up a number of home movies from the 1930's and '40's at an estate sale. They were in very poor condition and suffered from extreme "vinegar syndrome". "Vinegar syndrome" is the degradation of acetate film. Cellulose acetate plastic replaced the highly flammable nitrate-based film stock used prior to the 1930's. An unfortunate consequence was these films are vanishing at a high rate due to this degradation. Once the process begins, there's no stopping it. The films become brittle, cupped, and the film will actually peel away from the acetate base.

When I first got the film, it was actually stuck together. I soaked it in Filmrenew for two weeks. That allowed me to separate the film from itself. The film is still very brittle and warped, but I was able to get a transfer done of the first reel.

8MMusial

I've never been a big baseball fan, or any sports fan for that mater, but I can appreciate the tradition of the game and I've always thought I might have been a fan if I'd been born about 30 years earlier.  There's something about the early players that seems lost to the current generation.  Maybe I'm romanticizing a bit, but the players of the 50's and 60's seemed almost magical, setting record after record and maybe none more famous than the battle of '61 when New York Yankees teammates Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle fought for the home run record held by Babe Ruth.  Maris won by hitting his 61st home run in the final game of the regular season.

In 1961, baseball was being played by the St. Louis Cardinals at the old Sportsman's Park.  And though Stan Musial was nearing the end of his 23 year career (missing the 1945 season and part of the 1946 season while serving in the Navy), he was still the star of the team and worshipped by the fans in St. Louis.

Juxtaposing Musial was a new up and coming pitcher named Ray Sadecki.  After having won the Cardinals' Rookie of the Year for 1960, he was now a full-time starter and held much promise.

Among the 8mm films I bought at the estate sale in St. Louis Hills last fall, I found footage of the 1961 Baseball Cardinals at Sportman's Park.  Titled simply "1961 Stan Musial and Ray Sadecki" it features Stan (#6) and Ray (#37) warming up for a game.  In addition, you see other players milling about the field including #32 Ernie Broglio whose unfortunate footnote is being traded by the Cardinals for Lou Brock in 1964.  Later in the film, the game begins and you see Musial hit a triple.

In honor of the home opener here in St. Louis (although it looks like a rain-out), I offer the the 1961 St. Louis Cardinals.

This second film appears to be from another game.  I'm not sure who the Cardinals are playing here.  Maybe someone out there recognizes the other team.  The highlight of the reel is the footage of Sportsmen's Park and a home run by Stan Musial.  Also seen is the Anheuser-Busch neon eagle.  It now resides on Highway 40/61 in downtown St. Louis, still lighting the night and greeting visitors to St. Louis.

In one scene with Musial, you see a few other players standing behind the batting cage.  A couple uniform number, 21 and 10, are attributed to Curt Flood and Alex Grammas, while two others, 5 and 22 are a mystery as I can find no information on these numbers being used by the Cardinals in 1961.

Although he went on to pitch in the Cardinal-winning World Series of 1964, Ray Sadecki was a disappointment for the team and was eventually traded to the New York Giants in 1966.

In 1968, Stan Musial was inducted into the Baseball Hall of fame and in 2011, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  Just last month, he was honored with a bridge in St. Louis.  The so-called Stan "the Span" opened February 9th, 2014.

Stooges on Film

Warning: This is going to be a wordy post.  But I hope you'll agree it has a pretty good payoff.

Last fall on a late September morning, I set out bright and early for an estate sale with one particular item in mind.  Browsing through the listing on estatesales.net earlier that week, I'd spotted them sitting on a shelf.

Mico Tele-Vue

I found this Mico Tele-vue 35mm slide viewer at an estate sale about a month ago.  It's not like I needed yet another slide viewer, but I loved the look of this one.  It reminded me of a 1950's portable television.

The Pink Dot that Hurts a Lot?

I found this partly-used box of Sylvania Flashbulbs (with the Blue Dots for Sure Shots) at an estate sale a while back.

I had absolutely no use for them (having sold my Land Camera last year) , but I liked the box graphics and it was only $1.

I was familiar with the Blue Dots, but I'd never heard that they could turn pink indicating they had gone bad. Apparently, the blue dot is Cobalt Chloride which turns pink when exposed to moisture in the air, indicating a vacuum leak in the bulb and therefore no good, not to mention possibly dangerous if used; cracked flashbulbs have a tendency to explode.

(Not So) Picture Perfect

About 25 years ago, I bought a Kodak Target Six-Sixteen box camera from my then girlfriend's (now wife) Aunt at her garage sale for $1. 

A Tale of Four Projectors

I'm an admitted AV Geek Wannabe.  Is there anything lower than that?  I never belonged to the AV club in high school and never got to wheel around or operate the 16mm projectors that would grant brief respite from the daily school lesson in favor of a film.  Any film was better than a lecture.  While I had a fascination with the films in school, it wasn't until many years later that I developed an interest in the equipment.  Over the years I've acquired a number of 16mm, 8mm, and Super 8 projectors and a variety of film.  This is the story of four garage sale finds.

First up is the Kodak MovieDeck 455.  This is kind of an odd duck.  As opposed to the traditional projectors where the film reels are upright, this one has the film reel laying flat with the film winding an obstacle course of glides into the belly of the beast and winding on a pickup reel laying flat in the bottom.  I bought this at a garage sale Summer of 2010 thinking it was a slide projector.  The projector and screen were $7.  This projector is a dual 8 projector, handling both Standard 8mm and Super 8mm film with the flip of a switch.  For those not in the know, the difference between 8mm and Super 8mm film, from a projection standpoint, is the size of spacing of the sprocket holes on the film. 

Super 8

I took my son to the movies today to see "Super 8".  If you're unfamiliar with the movie, it's set in 1979 and is in the genre of such 80's movies as The Goonies and Stand By Me.  In case you're not quite sure of when the movie is set, writer-director J. J. Abrams not so subtly reminds, and in some cases, hits you over the head with this fact.  Less than 5 minutes into the movie, you've been treated to E.L.O.'s "Don't Bring Me Down" and Wings' "Silly Love Songs" along with a potpourri of 70's product placement.

The movie revolves around a boy obsessed with winning a film contest by filming his own monster movie on super 8 film starring his friends.  While filming a pivotal scene at a train station, the boys, and camera, witness a train derailment that unleashes....well, I won't spoil it for you.

I have to admit, one of the reasons I wanted to see this film was my own devotion to the super 8 format.

When I was child, about once a year, my parents would borrow a super 8 projector from friends or relatives and we would drag out our own collection of films chronicling past vacations.  Years later, I decided I wanted to shoot some of my own super 8 film and document some of my own family's adventures.

Back in 2005, I found a Sankyo Sound XL-40S super 8 camera at a garage sale for $10.  It was originally produced in 1975.

I promptly joined 8mm forum and learned where to buy and develop super 8 film.  Unfortunately, I also learned you could no longer buy sound film.  But buying silent film is fairly easy, your choices spanning eBay, private sellers, or directly from Kodak.  Getting it developed was a little trickier.  As it turns out, there is only one place left in the United States that develops super 8 film, Dwayne's Photo in Kansas. 

I ordered 1 roll of film.  After all, I had no idea if the camera worked and at $15 for a 3-minute cartridge, I wasn't going gamble any more.  As it turned out, the camera worked perfectly and I shot my kids in many summer activities -- playing in the sprinkler, the pool, and camping.  But I didn't know whether I had captured anything until I sent the cartridge to Dwayne's for development.  When it came back, I immediately got out my Elmo ST-600M super 8 projector I picked up on eBay years before and threaded it up.  I was very pleased with the results and ordered more film with the intent of filming those scenes that I felt played best on super 8 film -- Halloween, Christmas, vacations, all those events typically filmed when this camera was state of the art.  It costs another $15 to develop, so the costs average out to $10 per minute.  Not a cheap investement, but a fun one.

J. J. Abrams clearly wanted to accomplish 2 things -- he wanted desperately to create a movie in the 80's style of Steven Spielberg and he wanted to create a movie that kids today would remember years from now.  I can't say I was blown away by the movie, and to me, it missed it's mark matching E.T. or Raiders of the Lost Ark.  But while on the surface it might seem it was aimed at my generation, I think it was aimed at the kids of today and for what it's worth, my son said he loved it and wanted to see it again.

I'd love to see a revival of super 8 film as a result of this movie and I suspect there might be a little bump in the sales of cameras.  It remains to be seen whether the interest, and the movie, will be lasting.