Film, Motion Picture

Detroit's Riverfront 1925-26[sic]

Silent black and white 16mm film reel containing a compilation of twenty-one Detroit News Pictorial newsreel stories relating to ships, boats, and the city's riverfront, which span roughly from 1925 to 1928. Highlights include the NORONIC, activities at the Ford River Rouge Factory Complex, Gar Wood's MISS AMERICA VI, the CADILLAC, the DUBUQUE, the PUT-IN-BAY, the construction of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, the GREATER DETROIT, and the launching of the GREATER BUFFALO's hull.

The first segment, "Yacht Club Cruises Pass in Annual Review" concerns the Detroit Yacht Club's twelfth Commodore's Annual Review. The segment features yachts flying their flags in dress ship as they leave the club for Lake St. Clair, Commodore E. J. Stafford aboard the yacht MAMIE O, and a signal gun being fired.

The second segment "Board of Commerce Members Start Cruise," shows the Canadian Steamship Lines passenger steamer NORONIC departing with "tired business men" from the Detroit Board of Commerce aboard for a 1300-mile cruise around the Great Lakes.

The third segment is entitled, "Henry Ford Scraps Old Ships bought from United States Government," and it shows workers using acetylene torches, and cranes to scape freighters. The footage was presumably shot at the River Rouge Factory Complex.

In the fourth segment, "American Rubber Industry Growing," the freighter LAKE FARGE is loaded with boats and cranes for a voyage to the Ford Motor Company rubber plantations in Brazil. The segment also shows Captain L.E. Burns of the LAKE FARGE.

Gar Wood's speedboat MISS AMERICA VI is the subject of the fifth segment, "World's Fastest Board Which Cracked in Test," from 1928. The footage captures the boat being lowered from its hoist, and doing several runs on the St. Clair River, followed by divers preparing to recover pieces of the boat and images of the smashed hull following the crash.

In "New Ferry Boat Takes to Water," the sixth segment, the Detroit and Windsor Ferry Company ferry CADILLAC is christened and launched at Great Lakes Engineering Works. The christening is performed by Mrs. William Green, the daughter of the ferry company's vice president, Captain Fred J. Simpson. The ferry is side-launched.

The seventh segment, "Government Boat Transports Scouts," shows Boy Scouts boarding the U.S. Navy Reserves gunboat U.S.S. DUBUQUE at the Belle Isle boat dock for a trip to Camp Kabekonah at Thunder Bay.

The ninth segment is entitled, "Soo Locks Prepare for Winter Closing." The locks are shown covered in show, yet still in operation. The title card in this segment refers to 1927 statistics for traffic on the locks.

The tenth segment is "Crippled Children are Guests of Rotarians," and it shows students from the Nellie Leland School boarding the excursion boat PUT-IN-BAY for a trip to Put-in-Bay.

The annual Detroit Board of Commerce cruise is again the topic in the eleventh segment, "Business Men Start Cruise." This group is shown boarding, and their passenger steamer, disembarking.

The twelfth segment, "Loading an Automobile carrier for its first trip to Milwaukee" consists of a brief shot of a car being driven onto the deck of a freighter which is filled with other cars.

The thirteenth segment is also very short. "A Passenger Steamer Departs for Cleveland" consists of a brief hazy shot of a Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company passenger steamer with three smokestacks.

In the fourteenth segment, "City Clerk Christens First Tunnel Section," barges float the first tube of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel from the foot of Randolph Street into place, where it is christened. City Clerk Richard W. Reading performs the christening, and the title card states that he christens the section "Detroit."

The construction of the tunnel is again the topic in the fifteenth segment, "Sink 8000 Ton Tube into River." In this story divers prepare to run hoses into the tunnel section so that it can be filled with concrete and sunken. Workers on the surface and the diver use a telephone system to communicate. A passenger steamer is shown passing over the construction site.

The seventeenth segment is entitled, "Million Dollar Fire Sweeps River Front." In this story, the Detroit Fire Department fire tug JAMES BATTLE is shown spraying the Detroit and Windsor Ferry Company docks, and firefighters work to put out flames in the surrounding buildings, including that of the Finsterwald Furniture Company.

In the eighteenth segment, "GREATER DETROIT On Trial Spin," the Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company passenger steamer is shown disembarking for the shipyards for the first time.

The nineteenth segment, "Sister Ship to 'GREATER DETROIT' Launched-- 'GREATER BUFFALO' Takes Waves with Side Launching at Loraine, Ohio," shows the side launch of the hull of the Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company's GREATER BUFFALO. The camera also captures a woman in a fur coat, who presumably took place in the launch ceremonies, and workers on the catwalks above the slip.

The reel's penultimate segment, "Customs Border Patrol Uniformed for First Time" shows Chief Sumner C. Sleeper of the inspected first platoon of United States Customs Border Patrol, Alvie LeBrun issuing assignments, the patrol's automobiles, and their power boats.

In the twenty-first and final segment, "Drug Manufacturers Entertain Druggists," members of Michigan State Pharmaceutical Association are shown disembarking from the excursion boat TASHMOO for a visit to the riverfront complex of Parke, Davis and Company. This segment is continued at the beginning of film reel 2015.011.006.

The film is on a metal 12" reel housed inside an olive film reel shipping carton with a WJRT-TV 12 mailing label addressed to Dossin Great Lakes Museum curator Robert E. Lee, and dated 1976. A brief handwritten summary of shots on the reel is included in the box.