Long Ago in Oberlin

This 1940s video is amazing both for its vintage quality and the short Kurtz family scene that it records! It was sent to me by my high school classmate, Frank Roellinger, whose father was an English professor at Oberlin College and a close friend of my dad's. The beginning of the video shows the dedication of the Wright Laboratory of Physics at Oberlin College. The date on the cornerstone is 1941, allowing us to date at least the first segment of this 8 mm film.

The second scene is of Frank's mother wheeling his older sister down the street. His mother became Frank's and my Cub Scout den mother a dozen or so years later.

The third scene is my dad at the reservoir at the end of Cedar St. with a bunch of boys, perhaps at a birthday party. The boy in the foreground is David (freeze the video when he is looking toward the camera and check out that quizzical frown that we still see today). In the background to Dad's left, tossing things into the water, is Eric. And my theory is that the curly towhead squirming on Dad's lap is Rob. For that to be true, this third scene would have to date from about 1943 when Rob would have been three. Dave and Rob have both seen this video but aren't as convinced as I am of these identifications. Dave does not remember the occasion.

Here's what Frank had to say when I quizzed him about both the scene and the remarkable quality of this 1940s film and whether or not he had colorized it:

Not colorized.  I think my father said that in the war years, sometimes color film was available, other times only B&W.  His collection from then is mostly color but not all. 

The films that he made were mostly of our family (that's my mother pushing a baby carriage with my sister inside, I presume).  Just incidentally, as he walked around with the camera which was more or less a new toy for him, he made other shots.  The quality is amazingly good, considering everything.  Those 8mm frames are extremely small and must be greatly enlarged to be viewed.   

Actually I made this transfer from the 8mm projector to VHS tape more than 20 years ago.  Then more recently digitized some scenes from the VHS tape.  Haven't touched the projector in 20+ years but if it still works I could make a better transfer now as I have a much better video camera now. 

As for details of the scene with your dad, I don't know much more than you do.  That's the old Morgan St. reservoir, of course.  The last time my father and I watched this together was probably sometime in the 1950s and he probably never said more than, "There's John Kurtz and his boys."  Others may have been Fritz Mosher and/or others from the neighborhood.  My parents then lived on Morgan St. about halfway from the reservoir to Professor St.  They were in a duplex with the Moshers in the other unit.

Whoever those boys are, this is quite a family treasure. Doesn't Dad look handsome? As Rob commented, "Dad in a coat and tie at a kids party seems odd, but then I guess he spent most of his daytime hours in a coat and tie, so maybe not so strange."