HOME MOVIES: VISIT TO UNITED KINGDOM

Genre: home movie

Year Published: 1930s

Format: 16mm

Description: One of two stunning 16mm home movies shot by Ward Harris in the 1930s, this color film shows scenes of the U.K. including England as it appeared before WWII. Harris was an Edison Mimeograph dealer in San Francisco in the late 1920s and an avid collector of things related to Thomas Edison. His famous collection included phonographs, batteries, light bulbs and other electrical equipment including Edison toasters, etc. and was so large that at one point an inventory revealed it had 50,000 items. Unfortunately with his death in the 1950s the entire collection was dispersed. This film and its companion are the only ones of a series of films made by Harris that apparently survived. The film begins with scenes shot at Stonehenge and Bath, and includes a brief history of England (which would have been narrated by Harris himself, probably on an Edison recording; but this version of the film is silent and we do not have the recording to accompany it sad to say). At 8:57 you will see London, with Harris himself shown at 10:10 feeding pigeons. Trafalgar Square is seen at 10:30. At 11:30, a train trip is taken. At the 12:38 mark, a brief interlude (which again would have been narrated by Harris) as a man in China makes an Ediphone mimeograph recording as part of the film. At 13:17, rural life in the U.K. is seen with a farmer using a tractor to tend his crops. We could definitely use your help identifying the town seen at 13:57, possibly Stratford on Avon but probably not. At 16:54, fishermen or life guards are seen pushing a large boat out to sea. At 21:28, a house has a grass roof trimmed and placed. At 23:52, we see what appears to be Royal Guardsmen, and possibly Kensington or Buckingham Palace.

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