HOME MOVIES: 1935 TRIP TO ALASKA

Genre: home movie

Year Published: 1935

Format: 16mm

Description: Shot by an unknown American tourist during a trip to Alaska in 1935, this silent, black & white and color home movie footage features some of the last known footage of actor and humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post. It also contains shots of scenery, the Yukon, and native peoples, and gives a good idea of what a tourist might have experienced in Alaska of this era. The story behind Will Rogers' trip to Alaska and untimely death is well known. Rogers was a famous advocate for the aviation industry and became good friends with aviator Wiley Post. Post planned to survey an air route to Russia from the U.S. West Coast, and invited Rogers to accompany him to Alaska. For the trip, Post modified a Lockheed Orion tail# NR12283 as an amphibian equipped with floats, so that it could land in lakes in remote areas of Alaska and Siberia. On August 15, the pair left Fairbanks for Point Barrow but were forced to land near Utqiaġvik due to bad weather. On takeoff, the plane's engine died and the plane crashed, killing both men. Opening: men stand near cars which are parked at a train station in Fairbanks, Alaska (:08). Movie star and humorist Will Rogers jokes with a baby and talks to onlookers (:46). Wiley Post is also visible from behind, his eyepatch strap clearly visible, and then at (1:30) he faces the camera. An aircraft hangar appears to be behind him. A man stands near the Cushman Street Bridge (1:36). Sled dogs in the snow (1:42). A man corrals the dogs in the snow (2:23). Husky puppies. Sled dogs attached to a sled are ready to go; dogs pull a sled (3:20). Sleds and the dogs trudge through the snow (4:03). Sled dogs pull the sleds through the snow (4:47). Starting at 4:51, footage in color. This is early Kodachrome footage; the type of film stock debuted in 1935. The ice breaking up on what is likely the Chena River (5:02). Streets of Fairbanks with a drug store visible (5:29). Shots of the Cushman Street Bridge. A porcupine (6:05). Different animals: elk, horse, and then a bear trying to drink from a glass bottle (6:16). Yukon steamship on the water (6:45). This sternwheel steamboat was built in 1913 in Seattle and demolished by a fire at Tanana in 1948. Men moving logs and cut lumber; cut and haul logs (7:00). An Eskimo and his dog (7:49). Dog in the water (8:25). A woman shakes the paw of a dog (8:47). At (9:17) is what appears to be a gold dredge or possibly a fish trap ? Passengers aboard the Yukon are gathered, a woman jumps rope (9:26). Alaskan village (10:16), location unknown. Eskimo or Inuit people pose for the camera (10:40). Clouds and hillsides; sunset (11:16). Yukon steamship at dock (12:28). At (12:39) the steamboat Alaska is seen. Going through rough waters on a boat (12:56). Raging waters (13:20). A woman in the middle of a bridge over water (13:26). Flowers in a garden (13:40). Snow capped mountains in the background and flowers in the foreground (13:56). Flowers -- a frequent subject for people who had the chance to shoot color film for the first time -- shot up close (14:22). Hillside, location unknown. Woman on boat with snowy mountains behind her (15:50). Smiling couple (16:04).

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