W.H. Tilley Collection, no. 4 - 1950s

Duration: 0:11:48

Year Published: 195219541950s

Format: 16mm

Sound: silent

Description: This collection of 16mm clips was originally shot and compiled in the 1950s by W.H. Tilley. It begins with several minutes of a Band Day parade up Congress Avenue (1952, with numerous marching bands and floats). The film also includes images of UT students in Littlefield Fountain and views from Mount Bonnell. A series of “Snap Shots Around U.S.A.” featuring W.H. and his wife Helen ensues, mixing travel photos (San Francisco cable cars, the Golden Gate Bridge, New Orleans’s French Quarter and Jackson Square, downtown Chicago) with live footage of Daytona Beach and Denver (The Natural History Museum and Capitol building). More Austin shots follow: a nighttime scene along Congress Avenue, the Santa Rita oil well, the Tilley’s home (from the street), an historic train engine, a gathering of Shriners, and a Shriner marching band in a Congress Avenue parade. The collection concludes with brief footage of Harry S. Truman, speaking and playing piano (along with labor leader James Petrillo on trumpet) at a Milwaukee union convention in 1954.