C. 1950 Detroit Footage

detroithistoric...
2015.011.044
Black and white 16mm film containing a series of silent scenes--each centered on a different subject. The film includes scenes of activity in and near downtown, children playing in a neighborhood, a tour of Shady Valley Farms in Southfield, Belle Isle in the winter, WWJ-TV at a Detroit Tigers game, the mailboat G.F. BECKER at work, and the antenna atop the Penobscot Building.
The film begins with a brief shot of Cass Avenue, south from around Peterboro Street. Traffic passes and the Hotel Fort Wayne is visible in the distance. The next shot features a car parked in front of a building on an unidentified street. A bus and a car pass in the foreground.
The next two shots feature pedestrians crossing the street downtown. In the first shot the camera is situated facing north along the east side of Woodward Avenue at Campus Martius. This is followed by a low shot across a downtown street of pedestrians crossing.
The next section of the film features two children outside of a large Tutor Revival house, then footage of children playing football on a lawn across the street from two Tutor Revival houses.
In the following shot, two girls sit on an arched brick wall along the side of a short bridge.
The film then features a series of shots including clouds, a church, a garden, the exterior of a house, and clothing hung from clotheslines. The segment ends with two shots of streets--the first is a road lined by trees and utility poles, and the second is a residential street.
The next few scenes show a tour of Shady Valley Farms near Inkster Road and 10 Mile Road. The section begins with a car pulling up to a barn and silo, with a "Tasty Seal Turkey" sign in view. A family is then filmed among a field of turkeys. The family is shown dipping their feet in a bucket before entering a building. A worker shows the woman and child a rack in a refrigerated unit. The camera then returns to the turkeys outdoors for several final shots.
Then the film features scenes of Belle Isle in the winter. Snow-covered fields, trees, bridges, the shore, and canals are show. This segment also includes shots of a man riding a horse through the snow on one of the roads, the Nancy Brown Peace Carillon, and of cars driving through he snow on MacArthur Bridge.
Then the film moves to Briggs Stadium during a Detroit Tigers game. First the camera films traffic--including streetcars--and pedestrians outdoors. Inside, Ty Tyson is shown announcing a game, and WWJ-TV camera are shown trained on the action. After a shot of a sign reading "Televised Baseball Today," a crowd is shown watching a game on a TV inside of a bar. Then the film shows announcers and camera crew filming among kitchen appliances in a WWJ-TV studio.
The next segment on the reel appears to deal with mail on the Detroit River. In the first shot a man on shore hands mailbags to men on board the T.H. Browning Steamship Company tugboat G.F. BECKER, which served as a mailboat. Inside a building, shelves of compartments containing mail are filmed. The BECKER is then shown docked along the riverfront to the east of the Ambassador Bridge. The camera rolls showing the riverfront, from aboard the BECKER as it departs. The passing freighters GEORGE A. SLOAN and its mail bucket are then shown. Again the camera films, as the BECKER returns to the dock. The boat is then shown making deliveries by bucket to an unidentified ice-covered boat, and to the Interlake Steamship Company freighter AUGUSTUS B. WOLVIN.
The final segment on the reel begins with a shot from a rooftop of the rear of the Music Hall and the upper portions of the Broadway Exchange Building. Several shots follow of the Penobscot Building's antenna as taken from the building's roof. The final shot is of an American flag flying on a pole atop a roof.