Year 1955, Part Two
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Home movie from the second half of 1955 depicting Donald and Verna Perser's travels between Toronto, Chicago, and Delavan, WI.
Credits
Donald Perser (filmmaker); Verna Perser (participant)
Complete catalog record
Cfa collection: Perser Family Collection
Notes: The film begins with a colorful homemade title card with the year 1955. Verna and Donald stop at a gas station on their drive from Toronto to Chicago. They drive through Canada Customs and cross the bridge to Michigan, where they stop for a picnic in a roadside park with travel companions Mary and Don.; Now in Delavan, Wisconsin, Verna and Donald swim with friends in a lake. They then take a boat out and take turns water skiing. After a while, Verna lounges on a lawn chair.; Verna and Donald then make their way back to Toronto by car. On August 19, they attend a ticker tape parade for Canadian swimmer Marilyn Bell, the first person to swim Lake Ontario and the youngest person to swim the English Channel. A crowd of 100,000 watches the parade travel along Bay Street to City Hall, as streamers descend from high rises and get caught in streetcar cables.; Back in Chicago, Verna and Donald visit the S.S. Aquarama, a luxury cruise liner that docked at Navy Pier for the summer of 1955 before touring other Great Lakes ports. On board, they watch high divers and the Tommy Bartlett water show, with views of Chicago's skyline in the background.; Later that August, Verna and Donald travel to the annual Canadian National Exhibition at Exhibition Place in Toronto. They see Shell Oil Tower, amusement park rides, and a circus sideshow. At nighttime, they film the fireworks display.; The couple then takes a Labor Day trip to Wasaga Beach, Ontario to stay at the Perser family's cottage. A young man carries a pack of Coca Cola towards the camera. At the end of the reel, Verna and Donald visit his parents' house in Thorncrest Village, Toronto. Verna opens presents under the Christmas tree.
Subjects: Border crossing; Canada; Water Skiing; Lake Michigan; Boats and Boating; Travel; Parades and processions; Swimming; Fairs; Christmas
Places: North America > Canada > Ontario > Toronto; North America > United States > Illinois > Chicago; North America > United States > Wisconsin > Delavan
Cfa elements: Reversal Positives, 600 feet
Cfa records: https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objects/35715
Notes: The film begins with a colorful homemade title card with the year 1955. Verna and Donald stop at a gas station on their drive from Toronto to Chicago. They drive through Canada Customs and cross the bridge to Michigan, where they stop for a picnic in a roadside park with travel companions Mary and Don.; Now in Delavan, Wisconsin, Verna and Donald swim with friends in a lake. They then take a boat out and take turns water skiing. After a while, Verna lounges on a lawn chair.; Verna and Donald then make their way back to Toronto by car. On August 19, they attend a ticker tape parade for Canadian swimmer Marilyn Bell, the first person to swim Lake Ontario and the youngest person to swim the English Channel. A crowd of 100,000 watches the parade travel along Bay Street to City Hall, as streamers descend from high rises and get caught in streetcar cables.; Back in Chicago, Verna and Donald visit the S.S. Aquarama, a luxury cruise liner that docked at Navy Pier for the summer of 1955 before touring other Great Lakes ports. On board, they watch high divers and the Tommy Bartlett water show, with views of Chicago's skyline in the background.; Later that August, Verna and Donald travel to the annual Canadian National Exhibition at Exhibition Place in Toronto. They see Shell Oil Tower, amusement park rides, and a circus sideshow. At nighttime, they film the fireworks display.; The couple then takes a Labor Day trip to Wasaga Beach, Ontario to stay at the Perser family's cottage. A young man carries a pack of Coca Cola towards the camera. At the end of the reel, Verna and Donald visit his parents' house in Thorncrest Village, Toronto. Verna opens presents under the Christmas tree.
Subjects: Border crossing; Canada; Water Skiing; Lake Michigan; Boats and Boating; Travel; Parades and processions; Swimming; Fairs; Christmas
Places: North America > Canada > Ontario > Toronto; North America > United States > Illinois > Chicago; North America > United States > Wisconsin > Delavan
Cfa elements: Reversal Positives, 600 feet
Cfa records: https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objects/35715
Sources
- Chicago Film Archives · record ↗ — title, year, creator, length, format, color, sound, genre, description, credits, catalog record, video
Record added 2026-11-08 21:25:01