When my mom died, there was a plastic box stuffed with home movie reels, from all time periods back to the 50s. One of my sisters was friends with a video producer, so I handed over the box to her to get processed. That was several years ago and my parents died 12 years ago so it's been out of sight, out of mind. She just sent me the first of the clips that have been processed and they are strange and haunting.
The clip shows my dad coming home from somewhere, and Mom, Dad and several friends are standing in front of a 50's era airport, probably in Kansas City. My dad is the handsome man with the cigar who looks a little like Humphrey Bogart and my mom is the tall glamorous woman in the headscarf who looks a little like Anne Bancroft. They decamp to someone's house to smoke and drink. They are talking and dancing, but there is no audio, so it's like a dream in which I am in a bubble, seeing but not able to touch or hear my parents. Was I born then? I think so, but children are not seen here, as is appropriate to the time.
I never was a Mad Men fan, but my sister tells me that this is an echo of the social mores of that show. I am thinking of adding an audio track, but right now, I just love the silence and the starkness of the black and white images of my young and beautiful long-gone parents.
Update from my sister, though she doesn't know for sure either: "I'm pretty sure that this was in California and [Dad] was discharged from Korea. I think it was not the habit of doctors to wear their uniforms home the way other officers did. But, of course, I'm not sure at all. It looks like it's autumn, and these people are dancing West Coast Swing, and it doesn't look so cold. So, California, right?" My father was a doctor in the Navy during the Korean War, and stationed in Long Beach. They moved to Kansas City after he was discharged.
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Comments
I haven't smoked in about 20 years, but am thinking of getting an electronic cigarette, I loved it so much. You can get them without the nicotine. Funny you mention Mad Men, because it makes that show look very authentic. I think Betty should be more expressive though, not with such a flat affect. I remember women being much more smiley and expressive, like your mother in this film. Thanks for sharing. I really liked it.
I also like how the people and home are stylish without looking ridiculously expensive.
Gary, we probably all have those movie reels! Do you think that these people were happier than we were at that age? I wonder. The funny thing is, I don't even think of the past that much and now I'm getting a gift of it.
CO2 - glad you enjoyed it.
Rita- didn't we dance barefoot at that age? Imagine doing it now... well, it's winter, so never mind. But yes, young and caught in time.
By the airport clock, it would have been way past your bed-time.
What fresh, delightful faces. Your parents are beautiful.
Scarlett - I feel like a voyeur too, so don't worry. I'm thinking - who are those people?
`R
oh, and that's how mr. forte and i still dance. really. ;
femme, now I will picture you swirling across the floor! And I think Mom probably drew in those eyebrows.
Robin, it's a whole different view of a house party. Actually, we ought to bring those back, far cheaper than going out.
designanator, I would love to know what they're saying, but I especially wish that I had the audio of Mom singing!
Diana, in fact, they were all skinny! I guess times have really changed. They were lovely, though.
Bleue, the coolest thing is to get them digitized so you can play them over and over again and freeze it.
Tom - our 60s videos are still in processing, so I'll be interested to see those too. But it's strange how the 50s are so cool now, really it's a media thing. Since I was so young, I don't have these memories. Some rather bad photos, but no idea of how they walked and moved and smiled.
It is fascinating to look at home movies of times and places we don't remember or never knew. I have on videotape the film my grandfather shot in Northern Ontario in the 1920s and 30s when he was managing a gold mine.
My late uncle, who inherited his genius for things mechanical, managed to take the 16mm film and transfer it to video. I take it out from time to time to watch my father, his brother, his sisters, his parents and their neighbours. It's utterly captivating.
If I could figure out a way to put it into the computer, I would, but alas ... the genius passed this generation by.