Norwood Historical Society Collection

SummaryThe Norwood Historical Society Collection is a single 16 mm. film called "Movie Queen," made in Norwood, Massachusetts. It was produced as part of a local talent production and consists of a welcome parade and presentation of the key to the city, then a tour of the town's businesses. The film was shown in association with a three act play, both productions featuring local players. The film and the play were directed by an itinerant director associated with the Amateur Theatre Guild of Boston. The movie queen arrives by train, accompanied by a young man smoking a cigar, perhaps representing her manager. An intertitle, "Movie Queen visits Sunday Church-goers," introduces views of people emerging from churches preceding scenes of visiting shops, a florist, and other businesses. The film ends with an intertitle, "Hail the Movie Queen, Give her a hand!" This version of "Movie Queen" does not have the comedic kidnapping component that is present in many other surviving versions.

Biographical/Historical NotesNorwood Historical Society is located in Norwood, Mass., at the Fred Holland Day house at 93 Day Street. The "Movie Queen" film was located in the attic of the house in 1989. Jack Tolman, a video teacher at Norwood High School, was involved with the historical society's work on the film. A script of "Movie Queen" by Lauren K. Woods and associated production documents from the Amateur Theatre Guild may be found in the Marion Angeline Howlett Papers, Harvard Theatre Collection, Harvard University. See also "Movie Queen" films in these collections: Movie Queen, Bar Harbor Collection (Bar Harbor, Maine), Bath Historical Society Collection (Bath, Maine), Belfast Historical Society Collection (Belfast, Maine), John Bruner Collection (Groton, Mass.), Daniel Lapointe Collection (Van Buren, Maine), Lincoln Memorial Library Collection (Lincoln, Maine), Movie Queen, Lubec Collection (Lubec, Maine), Newport Historical Society Collection, (Newport, Maine), Sheldon Museum Collection (Middlebury, Vermont).

RepositoryNortheast Historic Film

AvailabilityThe Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Reproduction and UseAuthorization to reuse and/or reproduce must be obtained from Northeast Historic Film. See http://www.oldfilm.org/research for more information.