Prior to the advent of the home movie camera and the ubiquitousness of the camera phone, there was the local film. This cultural phenomenon, produced across the country from the 1890s to the 1950s, gave ordinary people a chance to be on the silver screen without leaving their hometowns. Through these movies, residents could see themselves in the same theaters where they saw major Hollywood motion pictures. Traveling filmmakers plied their trade in small towns and cities, where these films were received by locals as being part of the larger cinema experience.
This project draws on the filmography in Martin Johnson’s, Main Street Movies: The History of Local Film in the United States (Indiana University Press, 2018). By creating detailed records for these films, with information such as production dates, and the names of people and places depicted, it will be possible to tell stories of individual films, and of the traveling filmmakers who made them.
Sponsored by the Middlebury Chamber of Commerce.
Sponsored by the American Business Club. Starring Carolyn McClesky, Joe Lassiter, Johnny Nall, Prentis Bass, Mrs. G.N. Crosthwait, Mrs. O.W. Lows and Fowler Faubion.
Presented by the Lions Club, with proceeds going to their work for blind children.
Sponsored by the Norwalk Kiwanis Club for the Milk Fund Benefit.
Sponsored by the Manistique Business and Professional Women's Club.
Starring Ruth Marion Shaw as the Movie Queen. Sponsored by the Auxiliary to James J. Shea Post, No. 19, American Legion.
Sponsored by the Ironwood Kiwanis Club. Starring Louise Dick as the Movie Queen.
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Amateur Cinema