1. Home
  2. Studebaker Autos
  3. 1963 Short-Subject Movie Featuring Wagonaire

1963 Short-Subject Movie Featuring Wagonaire

Has anyone seen or heard of a 1963 Warner Brothers motion picture short entitled "Vacationlands USA?"

Last week's lengthy letter to Hemmings Classic Car about errors in the July 2006 1964 Daytona convertible article "landed" me a modestly-paid job reviewing a major Studebaker story for a further-out issue of HCC in which Studebakers will be featured. Apparently, they took my critique to heart and realized they were letting too many errors get to print, for which I admire their honesty.

Anyway, while researching information for that review, my mind wandered off course and I started reading the May 1963 Studebaker News in a 1963 file box I had opened to look something up.

In that issue of Studebaker News is a story entitled, "Wagonaire Stars in Warner Brothers Movie." A new, 1963 Daytona Wagonaire is pictured with the slider forward and two kids standing up in the back (yeow; there goes the Legal Dept!). The Wagonaire is carrying 1963 California black license plate FHP 969. The full caption to the photo is:

"Airy view is enjoyed by young Diane and David Beard during a Wagonaire cross-country tour of U.S. National Parks in "Vacationlands U.S.A," a Warner Brothers motion picture short-subject [film] soon to be seen in theatres throughout the nation. Arthur Godfrey narrates the color film, which shows the splendor of America's favorite National Parks Vacationlands."

Anybody seen this short-subject film? Anybody got connections at Warner Brothers to see if a copy exists? Such a film could be a real treat at a National or Zone SDC meet. (In fact, if anybody can scare up a copy, we'll show it in Omaha during The Co-Operator Tech Session so we don't have to answer so many questions! ) BP

Reply to
bobcaripalma
Loading thread data ...

Bob,

Several years ago on the old movies channel there was a short subject that featured a bunch of sliding roof Wagonaires where each had a cameraman manning a Mitchell camera. They were all in line and pulled out one at a time.

JT

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote:

Reply to
Grumpy AuContraire

That's probably it! BP

Reply to
bobcaripalma

Oh... It was in B&W. I should have clarified Mitchells on tripods. Actually the cameras might have been Auricons as they were the workhorse of TV stations back then since they recorded optical sound tracks.

JT

Reply to
Grumpy AuContraire

Then that's not the film. This distinctly says the Vacationlands film was color. Sorry. BP

Reply to
bobcaripalma

That feature was a retrospective of the work of the newsreel cameraman, probably to commemorate the closing of Movie Tone News. I have a copy, somewhere here, that was sent us gratis by a commentator at the old AMC, when they had a format similar to what Turner Classic Movies has now. It is indeed a stirring scene, but not the one you're after.

Mike Seery, Western Lake Erie SDC

Reply to
comatus

The shot with all the wagonaires I had seen 20 years ago when Lowell Thomas (!) was still alive and did a naration of the many shorts he had done over his lifetime.

Bob Miles

Reply to
bob m

I think the B & W film with several camera equipped Wagonaires was a promotional film for and by Movietone News.

Reply to
Dwain G.

That's probably correct. What I saw was definitely an old newsreel short.

JT

Reply to
Grumpy AuContraire

By golly, that sounds exactly plausible!

JT

Reply to
Grumpy AuContraire

Lowell Thomas used Wagonaires with cameras mounted on tripods in the rear section and protruding above the roof. This was for making newsreel movies that were seen in theaters before the feature came on. I was to Mr. Thomas' home many times and met him there. Brings back good memories. I am not familiar with the short movie that Bob is asking about. He could start by contacting the few Beards that belong to SDC, especially the two in CA, as they may be related to the children in the movie.

Reply to
studegary

One of the worst jobs in the world is editing footage with an optical sound track. I used to rent them to shoot interviews with bottlers of Pepsi and then have a print made for presentation.

BG

Reply to
Bill Glass

Yep.

Sound tracks are intended as a finished product and in commercial work are recorded on separate devices such as Nagra synchronized recorders.

I spent the early part of the 1970's as the senior cinematographer/film editor for the Safeguard ABM project on Kwajalein. Though we seldom produced films with a soundtrack, the few that we did were rough cut there (including soundtrack) then sent out to a commercial lab for A&B roll to release prints.

JT

Bill Glass wrote:

Reply to
Grumpy AuContraire

I remember seeing Lark Wagons on TV doing a LARK cigarette commercial. The car would drive around with a camerara man in the back of the car filming,while the soundtrack was saying something about have a Lark today... show us your Lark packs.The people would hold up the red packages of cigarettes with the word LARK on them. Does anyone else remember ever having seen this commercial or ever smoked a Lark ? I will be smoking the tires on mine this weekend. I'll be driving the

160 miles plus to the LebanonValley dragstrip to attend Hemmings Musclepalooza.
Reply to
jflan63

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.