1931 - Church Picnic in Belmont Lake Park, Long Island

The First Reformed Church of College Point, NY went to Belmont Lake Park in 1931. My Grandfather brought his home movie camera along - the rest was recorded history.

All the camera tricks are Grandpa's. Likewise the rapid editing, especially in the balloon blowing sequence. It must have looked avant garde at the time! Contemporary filmmakers like Hans Richter and Oscar Fischinger were experimenting with similar techniques, but I doubt Grandpa had such groundbreaking aspirations - he was probably just conserving film during a lengthy contest. Sure looks neat anyway - MTV in the 1930's.

The soundtrack comes from two compositions by Roy Harris - his 8th Symphony, and a suite titled, appropriately enough, "Memories of a Child's Sunday".

The First Reformed Church of College Point is still around today.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Church
• Picnic
• First
• Reformed
• College
• Point
• Belmont
• Lake
• State
• Park
• Long
• Island
• Children
• Games
• Oscar
• Fischinger
• Hans
• Richter
• Roy
• Harris

[nyimtman]

Wow, that was enjoyable to watch, great job

[Mackeson3]

@bregman1155 I want Albany to record the Harris 5th and 7th symphonies using the same artists as the above. The only available modern recordings of the 7th are terrible!

[robertwmartens]

Symphony No. 8, and Memories of a Child's Sunday, by the American composer Roy Harris.

[roxykcny]

i walk around belmont lake a few times a week now, nice to see it then too.

[bregman1155]

What a wonderful combination of images and music! I happen to work for Albany Records and I love hearing the recording of the Harris pieces used this way!

[JGCUOZZO]

very interesting, enjoyed watching it. I had hoped to see more landscape type scenes of belmont lake.

[soundcrest]

This is great. We attended this church when we lived in College Point 1979-93