November 16, 2011
Lost and Found Films: Welcome to Mt. Adams, 1957
You might be tempted to yell “focus!” as you watch this weeks Lost and Found Film — a fading, purplish-blue, silent epic of two minutes and 40 seconds, dating back to 1957.
In a blurry succession of scenes, we see what appears to be a meeting in a high school gymnasium, with bunting along the stage edges as if for a political setting. The camera pans along showing a man at the podium and an audience, then the man leaving the stage to appreciative applause. The pleased audience then disperses, though many folks linger at the back and in the aisles, as if waiting for a moment with the speakers.
Then the camera pans across a line where people are receiving cake, pie and coffee, cafeteria-style. A man standing near a barrel labeled “Cracker Barrel” (with a small box labeled “Soap Box” nearby). People talk and eat in the gymnasium. Theres some kind of raffle. A boy struggles some with his cake and finally grabs a bite; around the room, elders also are seen eating.
This is one of hundreds of reels of film that Hannah Palin, film archives specialist with UW Libraries Special Collections, is trying to identify for archiving purposes. She has film clips from the late 1930s through the 1970s — some from research projects, some from campus events and some from commercial films or original productions.
Palin wonders if this footage might be related to an earlier Lost and Found Film called “Operation Cooperation,” marked as from 1958. Is this gym the “Woodland High Gym” referred to as the location for “Ye Olde Town Meeting” in that (similarly faded-looking) other film? If so, she asks, why is it labeled “Mt. Adams”? If not, she asks simply, whats going on here?
If you can answer these questions or provide any other information about the film, please write your comment below.
Nov. 10: Chemical engineering
Nov. 3. Art and Architecture Pavilion.
Oct. 27: Operation Cooperation, 1958.
Oct. 20: Halftime Hijinx
Oct. 13: Lynn Poole speaks at Johns Hopkins (Originally thought to be the UWs Glenn Hughes.)
Oct. 6: Womens Classes, Circa 1965
Sept. 29: Coulee Cleanup, Outtakes
Aug. 18: Kazakh Reel 6
Aug. 4: UW Penthouse Circa 1956
July 27: The University District
July 21: Palo Alto Home
July 14: Aberdeen Gathering
July 6, Research at Sea
June 30: Campus Color, circa 1940-48
Tag(s): Lost and Found Films
