Vintondale in 1938, Part 1 of 2

This video is a milestone for GloTube. Not only is it the first video to be submitted by someone not long associated with the Home Page (myself or Judy Rose), it is of major historical interest, as this week's and next week's are films made on behalf of the Vintondale Fire Company in 1938. It was sent as part of a DVD collection of film/video clips to my brother, Robert Kennedy, by Mary Rubis's daughter, Kathy, and Bob (who was a third-grader in the Vintondale Elementary School in 1938) copied the DVD and sent a copy of it to me.

The Fire Company clips have a narration, added about 60 years later (he says in it), by Julius Morey, who was president of the Fire Company when the film was made, and seemed to know just about all of the 2000 residents of Vintondale at that time. Mr. Morey gave the Fire Company film to Jane Donaldson Marines and her husband, EJ, who had it turned into a videotape by WJAC-TV. Mrs. Marines made copies of the videotape to pass on to friends and one of those, Kathy, turned it into a DVD. I next turned a copy of that DVD from normal DVD format to an Internet-compatible format (Windows Media Video) for this page.

This week's seven-minute-14-second clip is a tour around the town, featuring the businesses downtown, and some of the well-known residents who were regularly seen there. Next week's clip will feature hundreds of school children, school staff members, and miners. The 1938 footage also includes highlights of that year's Firemen's Convention, but since it did not take place in the Blacklick Valley, it will be used later as a general interest Cambria County clip. (Incidentally, though it seems that the narration has been edited at some points, the clip as shown is exactly as received by us.)

No Video Jonal this week. The Video Jonals are personal reminiscences made by yours truly, but since the processing of this video was similarly time-consuming, I will not be adding a new "Jonal" this week. Would love to hear from you: jrk@nantyglo.com.

                                                                                       — Jon Kennedy

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© 2008 Jon Kennedy

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