HOME MOVIES: 1930s BINNEY FAMILY

Genre: home movie

Year Published: 1930

Format: 16mm

Description: These home movies come from the estate of Albert A. Binney, Sr. a long-time resident of Montecito and Los Angeles, California. In 1930, Binney co-founded Binney, Chase & Van Horne, a successful insurance business that was still in operation through 2018. These home movies show various family activities but the locations and people in them are unknown. Apparently the family was fairly affluent (just to afford home movies required a certain amount of largesse) and based on their clothes and lifestyle, one can assume they were not a typical American family from the period which, of course, is considered part of the Depression. This particular film dates to the mid to late 1930s and consists of two parts. The first part focuses on the family's young children and is shot in black and white; the second part starting at (3:23) is early Kodachrome color and shows snow play, including skiing and at (5:18) sledding down a track. The car at (3:40) looks to be a 1934 Dodge 6 Sedan. At (6:17) the children are seen once again. The young girl carries an antique porcelain doll. At (6:41) is a panning shot of a street, presumably in Pasadena or Los Angeles. It might be on Van Ness Avenue, where the Binney family had a house at one time. At (7:09) the young girl seen earlier in the film is seen surrounded by geese, and behind her is a spectacular art deco fountain with what appear to be flamingos spouting water skyward. The film ends with a spectacular Kodak animated logo, put on by the lab that developed this home movie.

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