This New England

Those old home movies, even interrupted by melting film and screaming kids, were highpoints of family life for decades before videos -- and a sometimes melancholy measure of the passage of the years -- new babies and disappearing oldsters.

Bathing suits creeping up the legs, kids upgrading from rope tows run by Ford truck engines to J-bars at New Hampshire ski areas, men always wearing hats in the city, to hardly ever at all, beach wagons to Subarus, cocktails to white wine...

The march of time.

You'd watch them through the haze of cigarette smoke. No one worried about second-hand smoke in those days.

So kudos to the Rhode Island Historical Society for its Home Movie Day, on Saturday, Oct. 24 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Aldrich House, 110 Benevolent St., Providence. (In my family we had stuff going back to the '20s but it has probably all disintegrated by now, like most of the people in them.)

As Director John Waters of Pink Flamingo infamy says: "There's no such thing as a bad home movie."

The society tells us that local film archivists will be on hand to discuss film preservation, home movies and amateur films of New England interest.

The Aldrich House, by the way, was a home of U.S. Sen. Nelson Aldrich (Nov. 6, 1841-April 16, 1915), often called the "General Manager of the United States'' for his vast power in Washington and relentless defense of business interests in a rapidly industrializing America. He was a big investor in the Belgian Congo around the time when Leopold, King of the Belgians, was turning it into a giant slave-labor camp for grabbing rubber and other commodities -- helping to lead Joseph Conrad to write "Heart of Darkness.'' That led to anything but a home movie -- Apocalyse Now.

Senator Aldrich's daughter Abby married John D. Rockefeller Jr., thus helping to continue his family's financial and political power through today, albeit in diminished form from where it was in the heyday of Nelson Rockefeller and his brothers in the mid 20th Century.

 Tags  Aldrich House Home Movie Day Nelson Aldrich Rhode Island Historical Society

Comments

Karen Eberhart, RIHS said:

Thanks for the kudos for the Home Movie Day event at the Rhode Island Historical Society. Home Movie Day is an international event to promote home movies and their preservation. This is the 4th year that the RIHS will host the event for Rhode Island. Last year we saw classic footage of babies beginning to walk as well as animated shorts using GI Joe action figures as the actors and images of US soldiers enjoying a USO show while stationed in Korea. We are excited to see what will be on the silver screen this year.

You mentioned your family's movies from the 1920s and surmised they had all disintegrated by now. Don't be so sure as film is surprisingly robust and can survive a long time in good condition. We have projected movies from the 1910s at Home Movie Day. When in doubt, don't throw it out. Bring it to the RIHS and we'll be happy to inspect it for you and provide information about preserving it for future generations.

Karen Eberhart, Special Collections Curator, RIHS

Link | October 23, 2009 10:49 AM
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jeff blanchard said:

Above and beyond his business advocacy, Aldrich was among the tiny band of conspirators whose duck-hunting trip to Jekyll Island led to the creation of the Federal Reserve system...

Link | October 23, 2009 7:27 PM
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