[Van Buren Movie Queen]

Date1936

Viewing NotesPeople on train platform wave to camera. Many are children. A sign in background advertises the Movie Queen. A parade on the main street is led by policemen and Boy Scouts carrying flags, followed by a band. This film was shot in warm weather. Many cars pass the camera, their occupants waving for the camera. Sign on truck: "Van Buren Goes Hollywood. Pictures Are Now Being Taken for the Movie Queen, Gayety Theatre, Aug. 7-8. See Yourself on the Silver Screen. Benefit for the Boy Scouts." Views of city officials greeting the "Movie Queen" as she gets out of car with her male companion and several others. Several pose in the doorway. Queen and Boy Scouts in uniform pose for the camera. Young teen boys pose with sign for the "Movie Queen". More shots of the parade in town, including the Silver Bell Band. Views of the Town Office building, where on the steps, the Movie Queen receives a key to the town. Scouts, band, children watch and wave. Pan the window of the Northern National Bank of Presque Isle, Van Buren Branch. The Queen greets several women, two men chat in the bank. Views of Findlen's Drug Store with Ex-Lax advertisements in the window. Druggist creating a fizzy drink on the store steps as a woman drinks a soda. Overexposed shots of a wood mill, Cities Service filling station with attendant checking oil and washing a car window. At Watson Bros. IGA store, the Movie Queen enters and departs with employee carrying a bag of groceries. She shakes their hands. Camera pans store advertisements in window. Harris Tailor with goods in window, and tailor fitting a sport coat. Woman looks at stockings. Queen and her companion exit store. Views of circus set up with tent. Truck says "Hunt Circus" Potential customers listen to barker or chat with each other. Shots of many faces. John S. Plourde General Merchandise store with pans of front of store and truck. Produce is advertised in window. Horse-drawn wagon marked " JJ Plourde Meats" drives by. A family checks out couches in the window. Staff puts a baby crib on the truck for delivery. Richards Pharmacy has window advertisements for Vinco Herb Tablets (a stomach remedy). An employee gives the Movie Queen a kiss. Long sequence of exteriors of church as parishioners leave. We see many faces in the large crowd. Women work at E.E. Dionne Insurance and a man gives the Queen a paper to sign. Woman puts dog in toy car. At Cormier Bros. Garage, the Queen looks over a car as if to buy it. It has a 1935 license plate. She looks at a DeSoto advertisement. Pan the front of the Banque Provinciale du Canada, and a woman entering. Views of U.J. Daigle, an insurance agent outside his home speaking with the Queen. Views of Martin Bros. Builders, a shoe store, hardware store, and a swimming hole with lots of activity and spectators on the shore (overexposed and dirt in frame). Various shots of a softball game in an open lot. Queen exits at an auto garage, pretending to have had a breakdown, and the garage man tows the car away. Hotel Cyr sign on building. Bus stops by hotel. Policemen check car at the Canada border crossing. Views of the W. Vailancourt garage. People pose by truck and building. Views of sign at Gayety Theatre and exterior of kids coming out of theater, followed by crowds of others. At Parent Bros., men fill cars with gas and clean windows. Hammond Auto Company garage with car driving out. Queen examines features of car with her male companion. In a lumber yard, men move lumber around, and the Movie Queen looks around. Finished planks come down a conveyor belt. In the river, logs are moved around and start up a conveyor into the mill.

OtherLaura Alexina Michaud Sloane (1912-2009) was the Van Buren Movie Queen. from her obituary in the Bangor Daily News: ...1933, after which she taught elementary school in Van Buren. During this time, she sang and played clarinet in the town band, taught music lessons and ran a dancing school. She was selected as Van Buren Movie Queen and starred in a promotional film for the town. She married William J. Sloane, Oct. 17, 1936, and lived in Bangor..."

Creator

• Margaret Cram

• Margaret Cram