Canoeman's Holiday

Harry Wismer narrated this travelogue from 1956, which shows a couple, Jean and George Wheelock, on holiday taking a short fishing trip on the St. Croix River in New Brunswick. The navigation looks dangerous to say the least. I always thought white-water canoeing was something to be undertaken with guides conducting tours for the paying public. However, this couple has no hesitation in heading through fast flowing rivers on their own, even paddling through logging drives along the way. They also enjoy some fishing, catching trout, salmon and bass during their foray in the wilderness. After their adventure, they return back to their camp and their children to enjoy eating the day's catch. I was surprised that this mid century travelogue was so daring where other such films usually show tourists as passive observers. These seasoned sports tourists made canoeing look like a breeze. I wonder how many others followed their courageous example and ended up in the river.

Canoeman's Holiday (1956)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

RKO/Sportscope short takes a look at the Loon Bay Lodge in St. Stephen, Canada. We ride down river with George and Jean Wheelock as well as Scott and Elmo Wright as they tackle the white water. These Sportscope shorts are always hit and miss with the majority of them, that I've seen at least, being misses. This here is certainly one of the better entries I've seen but keep in mind that none of them have been exactly good. What works here is some nice shots of the white water as there's obviously a camera in one of the boats following the couples down river. These gets us close to the action and makes for some mild entertainment even though the actual cinematography isn't anything special. This series always tries to be like other popular series from other studios be it Pete Smith or whoever. This one here once again tries to work like a TravelTalks short but here we get boring narration and B&W footage. If you have 9-minutes to kill you might want to give this a shot but only if, like me, you plan on watching every short TCM shows.

Harry Wismer narrates this late RKO SportScope about fishing up in New Brunswick. It's all fishing from canoes as folks in flannel set out on the rough waters from Loon Bay Lodge, to pole and paddle, to fish for bass on rivers in logging country.

Loon Bay Lodge is still there, still looking rustic from its site on the Internet, perhaps more rustic than it looked back then. I was never in New Brunswick, but the equivalent places in New York State, on Lake George and Lake Champlain, looked rustic because people wanted an inexpensive holiday, and rustic was cheap. If you wanted less rustic, you went to the Catskills, and if you wanted Urban, you went to Atlantic City and stayed near the Boardwalk, or Atlantic Beach, if you wanted to be on Long Island, which was nicer.