Filmed by Gus Martens on June 15, 1946 in College Point, NY. The Kiwanis Club sponsors a Field Day beginning with a parade down College Point's main street. In Part 2 the parade finishes in College Point's waterside park where festivities continue with children's athletic games, appearances by local dignitaries, and plenty of free milk supplied by the church ladies. Filmed on 16mm Kodachrome. I did apply or enhance the colors in any way - - this is exactly how the film appears now, 70 years after it was made.
Gus Martens was my grandfather and he was very involved in his community. He was a Shriner, a Mason, a Boy Scout official, and an active member of the College Point Reformed Church. Based on this movie he may have been involved with the Kiwanis Club as well - unless he just wanted to film the festivity.
College Point is a neighborhood bordering the East River in the Borough of Queens, NY. Although it is politically a part of New York City, in the 1940s it had the look and feel of a small Long Island town. Its residents preferred to call themselves Long Islanders rather than New Yorkers. Before mailing addresses were standardized, the national post office had no problem delivering letters addressed to "College Point, Long Island" or even "CP, LI".
My teen-aged father, marching in his Scout uniform, appears briefly in the final scene. One of the pastors wearing a straw hat is probably Reverend Kline of the College Point Reformed Church. The rest of the multitude in this movie are strangers to me. Such is history.
Robert W. Martens
February, 2016