Here is our list of videos and digital film transfers we have produced. Some are simple film preservation efforts and others are our own video documentaries. These are currently all available on YouTube and Vimeo. Enjoy!
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Our “crash course” history of the Turners Falls Canal
This 20 minute documentary uses vintage media and music to introduce the story of the birth of a new industrial community.
Franklin County Fair documentary
Produced in 2021, this is a full length history of the fair and why it is still an important part of community life today. The story is told using archival movies, images and music, so be sure to watch on a big screen with good sound! (No YouTube ADs!)
Montague Massachusetts 200th Anniversary Parade
This is probably the 200th birthday celebration parade of Montague, Massachusetts – 1954. It is filmed from the west side of Avenue A and 3rd St. in Turners Falls
This digital video was made from a surviving 8mm home movie from the family of Dr. Henry A. Rys.
Montague Massachusetts and Neighbors – ca. 1929
This is a half hour of Montague and Franklin County, in 1929! Our forgotten camera person has beautifully filmed, edited and titled this silent 16mm film into a unique historic record from pre-depression Franklin County!
The film contains places and landmarks you will recognize, but you may also see for the first time landmarks you have only heard about ! The first minutes kick off with scenes from the 1929 Franklin County Fair. Later, there is a fabulous and fun section featuring the Montague Inn, and the folks which ran it. Once located at the present site of the Post Office in Montague Center, the inn was a popular summer destination and center of community activity. Featured at the inn, was a now rare spring dance floor. This type of floor was designed to absorb and respond to dancing by a large group of people. Modern folks may find it disconcerting to jump on one of the rare surviving examples, as it clearly moves and bounces against the jumping motion of a person! Finally, one brief scene is outside of Franklin County. Can you spot it?
Factory Tour – Millers Falls Tools – 1943
Several generations of the Shortell family, of Greenfield MA, were involved with the famous Millers Falls Tool Company, which once had manufacturing facilities in both Greenfield and Erving (at the border with Millers Falls). Ed Shortell was the last manager of production before the company’s absorption by the Ingersol-Rand company in the 1970s. For more than 70 years, this film sat in a closet, until nobody living clearly new what was on it.
This 16mm film was loaned to Chris Clawson in 2017, who digitized it and produced this narrated version along with Rich Shortell and Ed Gregory. It is a unique and amazing war time tour of the factory at Millers Falls (Ervingside). Watch how production from another era at war got the job done!
The Mill at Montague
This lost 1991 documentary just became available. The oral history of Martin Machine. It is a video history of what is known today as the “Book Mill”. This half hour restoration contains first hand interviews from folks who knew and worked at this location. The VHS quality is rather good (considering) and is a time capsule which could not be made in the same way today.)
Fourth of July at Turners Falls – 1951
Have you ever heard of boat races above the dam at Turners Falls? During the 1950s, Montague’s Fourth of July celebrations focused at Unity Park. We have heard of booths, rides, fire works and various other activities and hope you folks from the community will share with us more films and pictures from these times.
The Turners Falls – Gill Bridge was dedicated on September 10, 1938. The earlier “Red” suspension bridge was then dismantled as scrap iron for the war effort. After the war, either side of the remaining “Red Bridge” abutments were areas for publicly accessible boat docks. This became the epicenter for the boat races and water events of the 4th of July weekend.
Here is our 12 minute documentary, complete with narration and music!
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There is more to list here… Please check back later…