candid film of a South dakota town in 38-39

[Bustercat]

http://www.archive.org/details/sIvanBes1938_6

Great examples of real life dress and bearing.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

First thing I notice - ALL American made!

-dixon cannon

 

[Lily Powers]

First thing I notice - ALL American made!

-dixon cannon

Sadly, even Levi Strauss can't make that claim on their iconic denim jeans.

 

[Fletch]

Great reel. Reminds me of some stuff the Boone Co., IA, Historical Society sent over years ago (are you reading this thunderw21?)

You know, the smaller the town, the more likely they were to take movies like this, and the poorer the town, the more likely a Federal project was to come thru and photograph. That's why we have such a good vision of 1930s street life in New York and the Mississippi Delta, and almost no idea of it in Walla Walla or Kokomo.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Great stuff!! Even the seediest looking people have a dignity that seems to escape the average Joe Blow of today.

We have a reel of ordinary townspeople of my hometown shot in 1952 specficially to document everyday life - the camera was set up on a tripod on the sidewalk at different spots around town, and all you see for fifteen minutes are shots of regular people walking by. It's fall, so everyone has on either overcoats and hats or plaid lumber jackets and cloth caps, and the thing that always strikes kids when they see the footage is that there are no logos of any kind visible on anyone's clothes unless they're standing next to a gas pump holding a nozzle.

The film also includes footage of a rather terrifying local ritual -- the 1952 edition of Freshman Reception at the local high school, in which the entire incoming class was forced to parade thru the middle of town wearing union suits with bras and girdles on top, Indian headdresses, and burnt cork on their faces. Something to offend everyone.

 

[Wire9Vintage]

Mesmerizing! Almost feels like you could chat to those folks as they walk past...

Some thoughts:
1. People have always been "nothing but folks," as my mother would say. (like mugging for and/or hiding from the camera!)
2. I'd love to live in a town with such a bustling downtown!
3. How many of those young men survived the war that was just around the corner?

Lizzie, the ritual you describe boggles the mind!

 

[Bustercat]

Fun how no one can hold their smiles back when they get close.

My first reaction was "wow, what happened?" It's pretty different than what one sees today. Alot slimmer, too.

 

[Fletch]

Yep., It's as if every calorie, every sip of water, every second of rest was a luxury.

I think a lot of us might have gone mad in such a world. It was a world where, every summer heat wave, people literally worked till they dropped dead. I don't think it's because they didn't know any better. I think their work ethic was how they understood God.

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

Wow, pretty cool, thanks!

 

[lostinthe50's]

Thanks!

Love watching that and glad to have the link so I can watch others. I am watching the one about Victory Gardens right now. I have to say even during the Great Depression the people looked so much happier and friendlier than most people today. Plus the school spirit and overall attitude towards one another seemed to be just common place then where now it's me, me, me.

 

[Fletch]

Well, there was not only no room for "me, me, me," there wasn't even much room for "me."

We were not terribly forgiving of one another's human foibles. Forgiveness was for the next world, not this one - especially in the small, quiet, White places. Petty authority and scolds were everywhere, and were generally felt to be the bedrock of the community. People could be generous and helpful, true, but mostly because they were so alike that it required no understanding or thought. The minute you disturbed that alike-ness, you threatened everything. If you stuck out at all, you got hammered down, or you left home for someplace big and anonymous where nobody knew you or cared what rules you'd broken.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, there was not only no room for "me, me, me," there wasn't even much room for "me."

We were not terribly forgiving of one another's human foibles. Forgiveness was for the next world, not this one - especially in the small, quiet, White places. Petty authority and scolds were everywhere, and were generally felt to be the bedrock of the community. People could be generous and helpful, true, but mostly because they were so alike that it required no understanding or thought. The minute you disturbed that alike-ness, you threatened everything. If you stuck out at all, you got hammered down, or you left home for someplace big and anonymous where nobody knew you or cared what rules you'd broken.

And that differs from now in what particular way? It's perfectly fine to be "not alike" now, but only as long as you are "not alike" in the way everyone else approves. Especially in a small, white town.

As far as dealing with small-town pettiness goes, well, we deal with it differently in Maine. "Mind your own damn business" ought to be our state motto. As long as you keep your dog off my grass, I don't care what you do -- that's how I was raised.

 

[Fletch]

I'd say that's rational. But here, we're dealing with an agrarian, especially majority Scandinavian, heritage that prevailed in the Dakotas, Minnesota and much of Iowa. It started off as a nobly communitarian spirit: you had to be there for your neighbors so they'd be there for you.

But it got to be more than that. You had to avoid doing anything that might seem to show them up or pass silent judgment on them. That meant sticking very closely to the common denominator in everything you did. The only way you were allowed to one-up your fellowman was in a ritualistic, almost Asian sense of self-deprecation.

Besides, I'm sure you'd agree there is a lot more self-centeredness, blatant selfishness, and disregard for the social niceties nowadays. Part of it, I'm sure, is because the common scold has lost hi/r protected status. Mostly, today, we see them as just another flavor of crank in a world that seems to be full of cranks.

 

[Maguire]

Well i'd say the whole small town anywhere has very similar way, and even though things aren't as great today, you still get that feel. I'm sure if we were filming in downtown manhattan, 1935 you'd probably feel quite differently about everyone being friendly etc, although granted, I'm sure it was a very different place then than now.

When you throw people together who have no common ground and nothing at stake with each other, its breeds anti social tendencies, thats why suburbs today can't capture the small town feel, especially in NYC etc. In Small town wherever, your neighbor is the guy down the road who you see everyday, and many times may be the neighborhood's doctor, mechanic, shopkeeper, etc. The point is he's someone you will be dealing with on a daily basis, not an anonymous person who you may see in the morning leaving his house and returning at night.

I don't mind the anonymity, i don't like that aspect of small towns (nothing really is a secret, there is always gossip) but its a small price to pay for the rest of the advantages and niceties of it. In any case, I can imagine things were better than, and even the scruffiest people there seemed more content or at least, more dignified as was said before, than the average person today, even if the people today on average have far more luxuries, things that our grandparents wouldn't dream of.

 

[Maguire]

sorry for the double post but some things i noted:

Guy in a t shirt around 18 minutes in and a guy with clip on suspenders at the 19:22 mark. I always imagined clip on suspenders were a relatively modern thing. didn't expect to see them back then.

 

[shortbow]

Just great. What jumped out at me was how tiny the hat brims were.

 

[Bustercat]

As lostinthe50's mentioned, there's quite a bit more footage of this town, Britton, SD
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4 (the one I posted first)
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 8
Part 10

Here's some footage of Britton's real Indians (Lakota Sioux) from the same period. I wonder how they felt about about the highschoolers in town parading in costume headresses?
[YOUTUBE]mnC2kbhNlI4[/YOUTUBE]

Seems they still like parades in Britton.. 126 years this July 4th!
[YOUTUBE]D12drgSKAyM[/YOUTUBE]