1939 Florida - a Home Movie by Gus Martens

Рет қаралды 39,691

13 жыл бұрын

When my grandfather Gus Martens made a business trip to Miami and Key West in the Fall of 1939, he brought his family and sister-in-law along. Gus was a distribution manager for Hoffman Beverages, a line of sodas which included then-popular flavors like Sarsaparilla and Celery Tonic.
One of the retailers was a Mr. "Kongocoulus" (pronounced Kong-GAH-kuh-LISS. My spelling of his name is a phonetic approximation) a.k.a. "The Greek" who operated in Key West. Please note that on this video I screwed up the spelling of his name, resulting in a completely wrong pronunciation. My fault!! - - and my apologies to any of his descendants who may be watching this now.
Regarding the Horton Beer truck, Horton was not connected with Hoffman Beverages, so why was my grandfather so keen to document its business? Perhaps he was intrigued by its bright coloration. (Can you spot the little Seven-Up logo on its side?)
Gus surreptitiously filmed the African-American family from the inside of a car or truck - note the steering wheel poking into the lower right corner. The docked boats at Biscayne Bay are Coast Guard cutters, while the large ship sailing by is a navy destroyer. Gus' sister-in law Eleanor (the lady in the beige overcoat who shows her dress hem) was pregnant with Matthias during the trip. He would be born the following summer.
Gus usually flew to his business destinations via DC3 Douglas passenger aircraft, but for the one time he brought his family along, they went by car instead. At 2:52 there is a dark-green car in the background, which I believe is theirs. (It also appears in their "1931 Church Picnic" home movie.) There was no Interstate system back then, so driving from their home in Queens, NY to Southern Florida must have been a real schlep, though not one without enjoyable moments along the way.
(Grandpa did produce a travel reel from the journey, but it consisted mostly of b&w, commercially produced travelogues with predictable views that he spliced together.)
Gus continued working for Hoffman Beverages until the advent of World War Two, after which he took a job at the Edo Aircraft Corp. Hoffman was bought out by Anheuser-Busch a long time ago, but if you're curious about celery tonic, it's now available as "Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray" in New York City and South Florida - - and, IMHO, it's quite a good flavor, reminiscent of ginger ale with additional spices.
Robert W. Martens
Queens, NY
January 8, 2011

Пікірлер: 94

@robertwmartens 13 жыл бұрын

Back in the early 1980's, after both my grandparents had passed away, I tried to persuade my parents to transfer Grandpa's home movies to VHS, but Mom and Dad were much too involved with their own personal and family concerns at the time to deal with dozens of rusty old cans from Grandpa's basement. And then I got busy with my own life and forgot about them too for the next 20 or 25 years. Thanks goodness nobody thought of throwing them out in the meantime.

@brittenyevans1101 4 ай бұрын

Thank you for this gem. Please ask the key west museum / library to share your footage it's greatly needed ❤.

@robertwmartens 13 жыл бұрын

@seftonwallet Yes, he's my dad. The lady in the dark overcoat and hat was my grandmother Margaret, and the lady in the beige coat who flashes her dress was my aunt Eleanor. My grandparents weren't wealthy, but they always dressed as well as they could.

@Miamiart 13 жыл бұрын

Very historic stuff, Robert. The Walgreens building is still there on Flagler Street. It was a Sports Authority last time I was down there. I used to go to the fountain for lunch when I worked at Burdines down the street in 1961. Very Art Deco. Biscayne Bay is always beautiful. The quality of your grand dad's film work is amazing. Thank you.

@robertwmartens 13 жыл бұрын

@dadsoldtapes The only survivor I know of is the boy at the very end - he's my father, who's now 82. As for the B&W footage, it's low priority right now, but eventually I'll have it digitized. It costs money, unfortunately, and times are tough. Anyway, thanks for watching!

@fnchrstphr 7 жыл бұрын

Robert Martens 6

@getthismanshavingkitorgett1428 5 жыл бұрын

Is he still alive now?

@guaromiami 4 жыл бұрын

Have you looked into Patreon? You can raise the money for the transfers.

@ddkoda 8 жыл бұрын

Great composition, color rendition and retention as well as period correct music. This whole production transports us to a time worth remembering.

@robertwmartens 13 жыл бұрын

Well, Mr. K was a very important client of Grandpa's, so your theory is plausible! But Gus is no longer around to give the full story, so his movies will just have to speak for themselves.

@Scientia21 7 жыл бұрын

Quality of this colour film is incredibly perfect. I purely appreciate your dad's reserving the film perfectly in the stable&safe place.

@fnchrstphr 7 жыл бұрын

Yoshiaki Kurihara 5

@TerryB751 3 жыл бұрын

It's so great to see original color back in the day instead of colorized versions of black and white. Sometimes it's easy to forget it was always a colorful world when the video back then was primarily black and white.

@agentfungus9742 8 жыл бұрын

What a wonderful bit of history. I remember the 7up logo on little corner stores in the 60s in WI. This must've been a wonderful time to live in the US: after the Depression and before Pearl Harbor. What a rich life your grandfather must have had. Thank you for sharing!

@robertwmartens 13 жыл бұрын

@dadsoldtapes Thanks for the tip. As for my father's suit, it is true that people dressed up more in those days. My grandparents would have felt undignified to be seen at any social function or public arena without wearing their best. It had little to do with wealth - my grandparents were strictly middle-class, but those were the social standards back then. Even the poorest person was expected to have at least one good suit for church or temple.

@trainluvr 13 жыл бұрын

Awesome! Looks great on my 720p projector.

@karlhungus5554 7 жыл бұрын

Your films have the best music!

@tojamon 13 жыл бұрын

incredible quality and great footage

@camleenc 10 жыл бұрын

Amazing video.Loved it.Thanks so much for sharing.

@williamcharles9480 8 жыл бұрын

Good stuff! I am amazed at the richness of the color with this film. It must have been of the highest quality and price at the time. The use of a good camera is evident, also, considering the sharp images that were produced. This is quite a nice peek at the past days of a growing, yet still primitive region of Florida. Thanks for the view.

@davidblanc458 6 жыл бұрын

thanks dude. you're really good at movie making - I mean your grandfather and you

@provvit4149 6 жыл бұрын

This is brilliant graphics from a film from 1939!

@seftonwallet 13 жыл бұрын

@robertwmartens I love the train set, all the little things happening are totally amazing.

@fudgesauce 12 жыл бұрын

Nice job -- thanks for sharing. I've done some 8mm transfers of much more recent vintage film and you are right, the quality of transfers varies widely, and mostly you get what you pay for.

@prahslra 4 жыл бұрын

I love this and particularly like your soundtrack!

@robertmartens9787 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you.

@MonkeyMotordrome 13 жыл бұрын

Fantastic. Great job, Robert. And superb footage, Gus.

@andrewmmeyer8787 7 жыл бұрын

I really enjoyed your family home video!!

@Joylibelle 13 жыл бұрын

Robert Martens (belgian name?), you're so kind to share your home movies with the world! Thank you so much for uploading and for giving a view of the past.

@shooter8332 13 жыл бұрын

Amazing footage! I could watch hours of this. amazing to see 1939 in such beautiful color! thanks for sharing! Evan

@jankypop-a-matic58 4 жыл бұрын

Really nice color footage there!

@KorAllRBare 11 жыл бұрын

Nice flash back to the 1930's

@MrIveyIsBonkers 10 жыл бұрын

Very beautiful for 1939!

@jec1ny 6 жыл бұрын

Great video. Thanks for posting with the background story.

@Tahara-Aichi 10 жыл бұрын

i love this videos, great job

@stringalongmike1953 6 жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing. The music was excellent.

@guaromiami 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much for sharing this. I didn't know color film existed back then.

@seftonwallet 13 жыл бұрын

Once again, just wonderful care Gus takes with his shots. Robert, who is stylishly dressed lady at the end of the film with Eleanor, your Grandmother? I'm guessing the boy is your Father.

@cjay2 12 жыл бұрын

"Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray" originated in New York in 1869, and is still available. My fave soft drink.

@latenightcrazies 6 жыл бұрын

Thank you for sharing :)

@omegaman1409 4 жыл бұрын

Wow, this was during my grandparents generation. This brings it to life.

@Dajana1962 10 жыл бұрын

Thank you :)

@beerborn 8 жыл бұрын

Boy, would I love to have a cold Horton beer right now. Not that I ever tasted one. Then again the beer might have sucked and that's why they don't brew them anymore.

@fredapeeples6619 3 жыл бұрын

Beerborn~They still make Coors. Just saying.

@robertwmartens 13 жыл бұрын

Just google Film to Digital Transfer and you should find a place convenient to your location. But quality will vary, so definitely shop around. One guy digitized a reel for just 60 bucks, but the transfer was so dark, smeary looking, and poorly focused, I should have demanded my money back. Another placed charged a couple hundred for the same reel, but the results were beautiful. Good luck!

@susanlester1 3 жыл бұрын

Incredible!

@dadsoldtapes 13 жыл бұрын

Thanks for posting this, it really is intriguing to see in such good detail what exactly life was like over 70 years ago. Wonder if anyone seen up close in this video is still alive! Anyways, see if you can post that footage from the journey down to Florida, I mean yes you say it's in B&W but still would be nice to see.

@robertwmartens 13 жыл бұрын

I've no idea!

@michaela.chmieloski3196 3 жыл бұрын

Grandpa Gus' interest in Horton Beer may have been as a New York brewer which was located on 128th Street in Manhattan. If he was worried about the competition his fears were unnecessary--Horton was out of business a year after this filming.

@markcantemail8018 2 жыл бұрын

Michael thank You for the Information . I thought he might be filming a sharp looking modern Truck ? I had Diner the other Day in a Building that was Standard Brewing ware house . Thank you Mr Martens for this Film .

@dadsoldtapes 13 жыл бұрын

@robertwmartens Yeah, and a tradition that persisted for considerably longer is seen in the Miami Airport video... where people were expected to dress up when they traveled on an airplane. Even more remarkable, as late as 1968 students at my university were asked to put on jackets and ties when they went to the dining hall. Crazy. Have to wonder what fashion will be like come the middle of this century.

@Strike_Raid 3 жыл бұрын

Ship at 2:14 is USCG Pandora. She served in Miami and Key West all the way to 1959. Ship seen passing at 2:38 is US Navy Destroyer Somers, she was stationed in the Atlantic and Mediterranean an also survived the war.

@robertwmartens 3 жыл бұрын

Amazing identification! Yes, the name "Pandora" does appear in a few frames, but it's very blurred because Grandpa was panning the camera, so most people would not have noticed it - but you did! Thank you for catching that.

@The283915 8 жыл бұрын

wish I could share it 's great

@trishiannhellums2497 4 жыл бұрын

for a film that,s 81 years old its like it was made yesterday. so different than 1939 to 2020. life was so much better before the war.

@dadsoldtapes 13 жыл бұрын

@robertwmartens Right, I read about the process and there are some machines available to do it with, I could imagine them being very expensive. A cheaper option, albeit not sure if one still available, is to have it transferred to a VHS tape. That, in tandem with a VHS-DVD recorder is how my two videos I have up of my grandparents' Miami honeymoon from '51 are made possible. As for your father, it looked as if people were expected to wear suit and tie almost every day.

@onlythewise1 3 жыл бұрын

great movie old times

@pascoalnadador 6 жыл бұрын

Impressionante a imagem da época, por isso que os filmes americano sempre são lindos, estou dizendo o colorido!

@dadsoldtapes 13 жыл бұрын

@robertwmartens Yeah it does seem like converting a reel is quite expensive, not sure if its any more expensive than converting to VHS was in its heyday. About the film from your grandpa's road trip to Florida that year, I'm guessing he shot in black and white in order to preserve expensive color film for a more important event? If I were him I would have at least filmed a few segments of the trip in color, especially the GW Bridge and perhaps the Carolinas.

@dadsoldtapes 13 жыл бұрын

@robertwmartens @robertwmartens Yeah, my mother's father's parents were both born in 1900 too, and died in 1972 and 1982. I missed them by 16 and 6 years, respectively. It looked like Gus liked to make very long handshakes with whoever he met... btw, do you think your family and their outings in suit and ties you see here meant they also had time to go swimming (which is what we do in Florida?)

@robt5818 3 жыл бұрын

This is where I want to go on vacation: Florida 1939!

@dadsoldtapes 13 жыл бұрын

Hey, it was unfortunate that Gus never lived into the days of the VCR... the 1951 Miami scenes were brought to a company transferring super-8 film to VHS in 1986 and from there, as I do for my other vids, I copied them to DVD video and converted them through computer software... I would have thought your father would have gotten around to doing these vids. Assuming today that no film-VHS companies still exist, there are companies around transferring straight to digital?

@ziggyzeke6256 3 жыл бұрын

All of the adults in this video are gone even the babies, my mother was born in 1938 and my aunt who born 1939 are gone.

@mikeb4256 2 жыл бұрын

The ladies at the end of the movie.....dressed for a winter morning in Florida? What was it......60 degrees?

@robertwmartens 13 жыл бұрын

@Joylibelle Hmmmm, I couldn't say my name was specifically Belgian, although there was a Belgian Prime Minister named Wilfried Martens a few decades ago. On the other hand, there was a Danish character named Professor Martens in the 1961 monster movie Reptilicus. Awesome movie - not! Anyway, thank you for enjoying my grandfather's movies - there's more to come!

@ProblemForSolution 6 жыл бұрын

I know this is a bit maybe weird for you and I understand if you say no but is it ok if I use a part of your video in my music video. I will make it by myself and it should be just a compilation of these old videos.

@robertwmartens 6 жыл бұрын

Yes, it's OK with me. The film is in the public domain and should be assessable to anybody. I'd be curious to see your video after you're done with it.

@ProblemForSolution 6 жыл бұрын

I'll give you credit in description if you want

@donaldblock4475 5 жыл бұрын

Was this filmed in color or was it colorized? Love your videos!

@robertwmartens 5 жыл бұрын

Thank you. My grandfather almost always used color film after it was introduced on the home movie market in the late 1930s. This one used 16mm Kodachrome aka Kodacolor.

@martinhughes2549 5 жыл бұрын

@@robertwmartens wasn't Kodacolor a lenticular additive process? Kodacolor looks very grainy from the films I've seen . This looks like kodachrome. Very stable colour & very high quality reversal film introduced in 1935. Very nice upload. Very interesting. Looks lovely btw.

@robertwmartens 5 жыл бұрын

@@martinhughes2549 I'm sorry, my level of technical knowledge regarding color processes is not up to yours! I'll take your word for it that this is Kodachrome. I thought "Kodacolor" and "Kodachrome" were exchangeable terms, at least when applied to movie film. Thank you for your informative response.

@martinhughes2549 5 жыл бұрын

@@robertwmartens That's ok. I hope I didn't seem rude. There was a "Kodacolor" process for still photography in the market from 1942 I believe ( negative/Positive pricess) . I don't know if that was ever adapted to movie film though .Blame Kodak, they recycled trade names for different products. Kodachrome was used for an earlier 2 colour process btw . It's really confusing!

@robertwmartens 5 жыл бұрын

@@martinhughes2549 Don't worry, I didn't take it as rude at all.

@billkarmetsky4003 3 жыл бұрын

Awesome. I cry over what's become of the entire area. All globalized sludge. Then, everything was local. There was no racism. Everyone got along very well and were very decent about it. Although I have to laugh at the heavy women's fashions of the day in south Florida. Haha!

@alswann2702 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing. My family's been in Florida since Sherman burned 'em outta Georgia in 1864. My dad was a WW2 vet so this from his childhood. I'd like to move back. California sucks!

@debs-110 8 жыл бұрын

whats the name of the song in this video ? The video is great.

@robertwmartens 8 жыл бұрын

+Debii Deruelas The name of the song is "Pavanne".

@debs-110 8 жыл бұрын

+Robert Martens thank You. Robert !

@Thirdgen83 5 жыл бұрын

Where did he get the money for color film? It was new in 1939...

@robertwmartens 5 жыл бұрын

Maybe a little pricey but apparently not out of the range of a middle-class salesman's salary. Could someone find the cost of such film back then?

@zynthesis 4 жыл бұрын

@@robertwmartens 1940's Kodak Cine Film was roughly $100 for video cameras, which is roughly $1,800 today. In 1917, the photography film cost 3.50 a roll which is about $60 today and and $5 in 1940s. Secondly the film had to be sent to Kodak for processing this service was built into the price and was free if you purchased the film. It was roughly %40 of the cost of the film. By the 1950's the goverment considered this service to be a Monopoly and Kodak had to allow other companies to develop the film. This film was used when the Hindenburg crashed and was the same film used when JFK was assassinated.

@bonniebluebell5940 6 ай бұрын

Florida was amazing then...anyone got a time capsule?

@guitarciaaleon5900 Жыл бұрын

🍊🇺🇸🚸💎🏅🎥🎞️🎞️🎞️💡🎦🎼▶️🥇

@pukalo 5 жыл бұрын

They took this from you.

@JordanWilliams-ix2td 7 жыл бұрын

This is so surreal & fascinating....all of these people r most likely dead...R.I.P

@robertwmartens 7 жыл бұрын

Indeed they are. My father, grandparents, aunt, uncle and "Mr. Konkalonkas" (the spelling of his name is my approximation) have gone to the hereafter. If any of the youngest children including those in the African-American family that my grandfather filmed briefly are still living, they are now in their late 70's and 80's. And so it goes.

@yogibeer9319 3 жыл бұрын

Back before they ruined Key West

@musicbox8351 6 жыл бұрын

z jazz Music

@HandsONreviews4u 3 жыл бұрын

Music could have been Andrew Sisters or something better

@alberte.3059 6 жыл бұрын

Used too many film loops...

@jankypop-a-matic58 4 жыл бұрын

You sound a little 'loopy' yourself!...lol

@michaelgrant7530 3 жыл бұрын

1939? Nonsense

@robertwmartens 3 жыл бұрын

It's true. Check out my grandfather's film of the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair. He filmed it within a year of his Florida trip. He shot both with Kodachrome film, which Kodak had introduced to the home movie market in the late 1930s.