1954 United States

About this footage

Couples in formal dress dance through much of the New York footage, at wedding receptions, at holiday parties beside the tree and at a dinner in an ornate restaurant. One family filmed a sweet sixteen cake. Another caught a woman opening a gift of ski boots. In Hicksville the camera turns to a house under construction with a glowing window, cows grazing in a field and two girls pulling a toy wagon across a backyard. New York City shows up from the air, with views over the Manhattan skyscrapers, and from the water, where sailboats and motorboats move along the river and boys stand around a harbor. Down at the shore, a man walks a boardwalk past a castle building.

South Dakota summers happen on the water. Speedboats race across a mountain lake, water skiers cut behind motorboats, children swim near a depth marker, and a boat with a light travels a forested river at night. The same reels hold a marching band on Main Street, a bride and groom in tuxedo and gown, and adults in costume at a Halloween party. In Wisconsin Dells, families visit an amusement park with a princess statue, a carousel, a handmade castle diorama and a petting zoo, and a man and child watch a red tractor work a field. Ohio has backyard cookouts in Columbus with a man in a chef's hat, a blindfolded girl at pin the tail on the donkey, and in Toledo a snow-covered house and Christmas presents under the tree. Nevada adds a massive dam with its spillway, frost on desert bushes and a girl dancing barefoot on a sunny sidewalk. Smaller sets come from family picnics under trees in California, swimmers at Panama City Beach in Florida, and a Pennington, New Jersey yard where a child mows the lawn.

Useful for stories on postwar weddings and family parties, lake and boating summers in the Upper Midwest, or snowbound winters at home in Ohio.