[O.P. Geer--home movies] Reels 12-33

Date1930 – 1945

Can DescriptionsCollection-level description: amateur, edited footage with intertitles and scenes of family life, work at the law office, travel, summer camp, boating and sailing. Also contains footage of an American Legion parade in New York in 1937, and battle ships in New York harbor in 1934. Also contains amateur fiction: a skit at Geer's law office regarding a bankruptcy case. Viewing notes: Family cabin, guests. Motor boat. Dogs. Sailboat. Woman on phone in the cabin. Mr Wagsall driving by to sell beans. Woman in shawl walking along shore. Diving. Woman cooking. Dinner bell. Dinner. Sailboat race. Man with easel painting boat. Father and daughter on rocks shooting with pistol at object in the sea. Boat fueling. Dominoes. Swimming. Reels 12-14 Seals diving. Man with anchor. 'Target Practice at Outer Heron.' Dinghy. Shooting at object in water. 'On the Damariscotta.' Silhouettes of sailing vessels. Seguin Lighthouse. 'The Destroyer Dewey just launched at Bath, 1934.' Young woman (Blanche Geer) studying. Reels 15-19 'Poem of Montclair' [edited film, described in Movie Makers September 1933]. 'Life in a commuter's family from day to midnight.' Horse and buggy approaching. Milk truck, paperboy, man shaving. Percolating coffee, woman cooking eggs. Man reading morning paper, chauffeur to school. Police officer controlling traffic. New York ferries, skyline. Bank teller through bars, market. Grocer brings bag to Geer's car. 'The hours spent in New York are another story, so back to Montclair.' Armory Horse Show. 'The Night Before Christmas' 1932. Stocking, tree, presents. Family dinner, African American household servant. Winter exterior shots. Outdoor, dog, various activities. '2 p.m. Saturday at the Montclair Club.' golf. 'Radio celebrities I have interviewed' with radio [Charlotte Geer was a professional radio critic, see Radio Digest, March 1933, p. 40.] Woman typing. Two couples playing bridge. Drinks. Geer operates splicer. Sets up projector. Reels 20-23 'The Four Seasons, 1932-1934. Winter, snow, spring. Williamsburg, Virginia. ACL title. b&w 1935 license plates of cars from around the country. 'Welcome White man to Boothbay Harbor.' Welcome to Boothbay, the Madeira Club sign. Boothbay Harbor post office. Memorial Library. Street scenes. Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club. Intertitle: Commodore Welles. Motor yacht. Intertitle; Fleet Captain Robert W. Moore, Jr. Intertitle; Jud Morris, Former Club Champion. Intertitle: 'Doc Rockwell, the comedian.' Ralph Crane of Brown Brothers. Trick photography: split screen of harbormaster. Intertitle: W.E. Sawyer, Ship's Chandlery. Newspaper clipping re retail milk price. Hotel Fullerton. Depositor's Trust Company sign. Bell's garage, man comes out to car. Car up on lift. Views around service station. Railway Express Agency sign. Intertitle: John Wagstaff brings us vegetables. Elmer Berquist. Intertitle: Dr. George Nevens brings his family into camp. Family lines up on porch edge. Man with camera and child. Linekin Bay Ferry. Boat pulls out. Fog, lobster boat with dock in foreground. Intertitle: The Herring Catch is counted by the bushel. Intertitle: Bringing home the catch. Intertitles Lobster fishing. At our "doorstep." Man rows standing up. Intertitle: Nearing the last of his 75 traps. Intertitle: Too small. Intertitle: "My seventh today." Intertitle: Bait en brochette. Intertitle: Mr and Mrs Horace Jones. F.B. Higgins Lobsters sign. Two men set a net. Dog swims. Men haul in net full of lobsters. Two barrels on a wheeled cart. Sign, Boothbay Studios. CU brushes and paint. People paint plein air, looks like man giving a class. The Sprucewold. Bell. Intertitle: End of Reel 1. Reel II Traveling with Geers, 1931. Intertitle: Vacations in Maine at Boothbay Harbor. Intertitle: The way we prefer to meet our guests. Steam engine arrives. Much black smoke, rounds corner. Intertitle: In 1935 our gets were... Much sailing footage around Pemaquid, Boothbay, 1937-1938. Also Scripps motor. Reels 24-29 Color fade (Magenta). Yacht Club. Gardening. Seagulls. Water skiing. 1937 Linekin Bay. Fort Pemaquid. Damariscotta. Monhegan Coast. Fort Popham. Phippsburg Center. Visit to Outer Heron. Damariscove gas station attendant. The Sturtevant Visits the Harbor. Governor Gardner visits Linekin Bay (1935). 'To Lakewood and Quebec, Sept 5-9, 1935' Old Powder House. St. Lawrence bridge. Cote de la Montagne. Fort Knox. Bridge over the Penobscot. Cadillac summit. Lake Winnipesaukee. Adirondack Mountains. Lake George. Young people skating on pond. 'The Storm of January 19, 1936' snow and oil truck. Snow, people shoveling. Kitty Hawk. Roanoke Island. Williamsburg. 'Paul E. Luke, Maker of the Beetle Three' (boatbuilder). Boat christening. Interior of boat. Bell's Garage. Extension of camp. Golfing. Reels 30-33, Golfing. Firetrucks. Boys of the SS Hamilton, SS Bowdoin. 'McMillan gets a send off for his annual trip North.' Boothbay Harbor town parade. Fire Department. Esso Gas Station, fill tank, 21 cents a gallon. Mt. Holyoke College. Chapel, canoe races. Petrouchka play, outdoors. The May Queen. Gymkhana horse and human competition.

Viewing NotesReel 30: Esso gas station was on McKown Street and Todd Avenue. In 2013 a bank site. Robert Rice says Orland McKown ran the station before and during WW II, followed by Ralph Watts after the war. Two men at the Esso station, the man in the back is Erving Emerson, who ran the Esso station before the war and perhaps during the war. Erving Emerson's granddaughter identified this man as her grandfather. The Gulf station was run by Simon McDougall. It was near the turn to Eastern Avenue off Townsend Avenue, about half a mile back toward Boothbay Harbor. It was identified by Robert Rice who worked for Simon McDougall in the summer of 1952. Robert Rice dates the film to around 1940: "the convertible car is a 1936 Buick convertible. And the Chevy coupe under the sign is a 1939. He wrote, "the Chevy doesn't look like it is new. The Buick does, but I suppose the Geers kept it in storage during the winter and only sued it during the summer months, as they were summer people. Based on the Chev and the young lady wearing white/brown shoes I would guess the year is more like 1940." Notes above via Barbara Rumsey, 18 April 2013