More from Ashima’s collection of home movies this week. Here, we feature a visit to India in 1969, with lush, detailed images of the spectacular architecture there. Ashima offers a little more detail on the locations:

This must have been 1969 and taken at two places, Red Fort in Delhi and Jama Masjid. The snake charmer was at Red Fort. This must have been just before we left for Europe.

The Red Fort is a tremendous fortress palace and Jama Masjid a historic mosque, both constructed by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the mid-1600s. See a satellite view of the Red Fort here and Jama Masjid here.

Click the “MPEG-2″ link above for high-resolution footage of this gorgeous film and more at the Internet Archive.

The adventure takes place on the Rogue River in Southern Oregon in 1979. The fishing outfitter, River Trips Unlimited of Medford, Oregon, is still very much in business and celebrating 41 years of river tripping on the wild Rogue.

From California, contributor Diane Dobronte offers a little bit of the fish tale:

The trip was during the time that my dad, Dr. Frank Dobronte, was in private practice as a periodontist in Pleasanton, CA. There were 10 or so other dentists in his study group and they met once a month to study together and keep up to date on the latest information in dentistry – they went on fishing trips together every year or every six months plus other fun stuff with the wives. My dad was about 10 years older than all the other men and outlived them all but one….. He always thought they exercised too much….haha…his love was fishing and vodka…I do know they had a great time together.

Be sure to check out our File Directory for a link to the unedited, full resolution version of this film on the Internet Archive, which also includes footage from Washington, D.C., and a Mother’s Day celebration with the kids — all with glorious SOUND!

Music: “Sisterhood” by Langhorne Slim

Fishing on the Zambezi ca. 1953-55

We begin this featured bit of home movie with my brother Timothy running around in Lederhosen. It was filmed at our home in Pretoria, South Africa. We lived in Pretoria while my father was a member of the air crew of the aircraft assigned to the U.S. Embassy. My father would have purchased the Lederhosen one of the times the plane was taken to Geneva Switzerland for annual maintenance. I remember Dad saying that they were free to travel for about two weeks. Whenever our father pointed his movie camera at us, my brother and I usually performed one of three actions: run in circles, pretend to fight, or climb a tree. My brother chose to run around in this solo performance. He looks to be around four years old so this would have been filmed in 1954. I am now thankful that I didn’t get Lederhosen as well. This short immediately preceded the fishing trip on the film reel and we thought it would be a humorous short subject to lead into the feature.

This piece of film is labeled only “Fishing on the Zambezi” and was filmed between 1953 and 1955. Since the Zambezi is the fourth largest river in Africa (2,574 km) and stretches from Zambia to Mozambique on the Indian Ocean, this isn’t very precise. My father flew into many airports along the path of the Zambezi which further complicates pinpointing the location. The fish you see on the pole are tiger fish. Tigers are common so they are not much help in identifying the location. A Google search on “tiger fishing” shows that they are still a popular sport fish. One web site says that the “Tigers are strong and fast and come from the wrong side of the tracks.” Tigers are edible though bony.

My father is the man filmed by himself and wearing a blue jacket. I noticed that his safari hat has a band which would place the trip after a safari he was on in 1952. If anyone knows if he is wearing an Air Force L2A flight jacket that would help me with the date since that jacket was stolen from customs in Geneva.

I going to make an educated guess that this fishing trip took place on the upper Zambezi which is above Victoria Falls. My father was in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) many times and hunted there. I’ve looked web sites that feature tiger fishing on the Zambezi and I much prefer what I see here. I’m not sure how I would feel if I was fishing there myself but I love the boat they used. I think of Humphrey Bogart and the African Queen. Now you see modern houseboats and fishing boats. Toward the end of the film a native in uniform is seen on the bank.

If anyone can identify the uniform please leave a comment. If I know where the film was made I can figure out the date from other records.

For more from the Lundys’ collection of home movies of Africa, please click the “Africa” category on the right. And be sure to check out our File Directory for a link to a full-resolution version of the complete home movie featured in this post, available from the Internet Archive.

Music: Tshokwe_Angola_1

Capetown Vacation, March 24 – 27, 1954

This movie opens with a shot of the U. S. Air Force C-47 assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa. My father was a TSgt in the U.S. Air Force and the radio operator on the aircraft. This footage was probably shot before the aircraft took off for Cape Town since it comes first and it looks like preflight maintenance is taking place. I became slightly obsessed trying to identify the type of aircraft in the background but had no success. I wanted it to be a Vampire jet which I remembered was flown by the South African Air Force but it didn’t have a tail wheel.

The next scene is a wall of the Castle of Good Hope (Kasteel Goede Hoop in Afrikaans) with Table Mountain in the background. According to Wikipedia, Castle was was started by the Dutch East India Company in 1666 and is the oldest building in South Africa. With all this history, I’m amused that my father only filmed a small part of an outside wall, apparently preferring to focus on Table Mountain. There is logic to the shot though. The camera pans to the right, across the wall. At the end of the pan, you can see a whitish blob on Table Mountain. This is the upper cable station for the cable car. Then you get a close-up of the cable station and the camera pans down to the base of the mountain, then scenes of Cape Town, and finally the cable car moving down to the lower cable station.

The woman is my mother, then around twenty-eight years old. Contrast how she is dressed compared to what you see tourists wearing now. I asked her about wearing a dress while clambering around on the top of a mountain and she told me that pants were seldom worn and shorts never. There is a long pan across Cape Town. Unfortunately it is a bit cloudy but you still get an idea of what Cape Town looked like in the 50s–considerably less built up. If you look at the same scene today you will see tall buildings, something not seen then.

The movie switches from the mountain to the shore. I believe my mother was filmed on the north-east shore of the Cape of Good Hope though my evidence is all inference: I used Google Earth to look at the coast line around the bay; my parents did travel out to Cape Point on this trip; and they were in Cape Town only two full days. A wider shot would have been nice here. Mom is still climbing on rocks wearing a dress though it appears she has added pearls this time.

Visit the File Directory page for a link to a high-quality version of the original home movie on the Internet Archive. More footage from the Lundy home movie collection here, here, here, and here.

Music: cdk, “The Raven”

Viewing the home movies from Africa, identifying the locations and activities of the scenes, and writing descriptions of selected clips for Lost in Light has been an engrossing project. The scenes of us leaving Africa have generated a nostalgic and sentimental response that I find odd and not a little unsettling after fifty years. This was a remarkable time for my family. We experienced a lifestyle inconceivable for an Air Force enlisted man – very nice house, large landscaped yard, two live-in servants, a social life that included diplomats. My mother learned to drive an American car on the left side of the road. I attended a private boy’s school, Waterkloof House Preparatory School where I wore a uniform and played cricket, football (soccer to Americans), and rugby and I returned to the U.S. nearly ten years old with a British accent that my Virginia grandmother had a difficult time understanding (Why is the boy saying “tow mah tow?”)

Looking back with an awareness of history and modern sensibilities, I feel some guilt now, knowing that apartheid was in full force while we lived in Africa. But I also know that my parents treated the Africans who worked for us fair and well. They had stockings on the mantle at Christmas and Piet, the gardener/handyman, cried when we left and would have followed us back to the U.S. if we could have taken him. My parents would have extended this tour of duty if they could have done so. I now wish that I had attended school there longer, learned another language while I was living amongst those who spoke it, and been older when we left so that the memories would be stronger.

But here we are leaving South Africa from Capetown on the African Endeavor – seventeen days to New York City. Here is an odd present meets past coincidences involving this ship. Some forty later, my parents were in a restaurant in Florida, one of those places with lots of things on the walls. Above the booth where they were seated was a life ring from the African Endeavor. Cue the Twilight Zone theme.

You first see a pan shot of the ship with Table Mountain in the background.

Interspersed with my mother, brother, and me boarding the ship are a man and woman throwing streamers. They are Bill and Bunny Hall, friends and neighbors. Career military families have to be able to move on recognizing that they have to leave friends forever but I know this was particularly hard on my parents and was the first of several for me.

As the ship leaves you see another view of Table Mountain.

My memory of the ship was that it was much larger. It probably was to a lad nine and three quarters years old but I have to say that the pool looks pretty small and unappealing now. Maybe that is why everyone seems to be reading or playing shuffleboard.

A little over two and a half minutes into this clip you will see us sail past an island. This is St. Helena Island. Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled here between 1815 and 1821. Google Earth and Wikipedia confirmed what I remembered.

Before we crossed the equator, I remember being taken outside at night to see the Southern Cross constellation. My father told me I wouldn’t see it again unless I traveled south of the equator again.

Toward the end are some general shipboard scenes and a lifeboat drill. I really like the firing of the line launching gun. It doesn’t look like it went smoothly at first try.

The clip ends with us sailing into New York harbour and seeing the Statue of Liberty in the mist.

I’ll close with a “kids say the darndest things” family story that happened after we returned. My father had acquired a case of South African brandy and he discovered that there would be a problem bringing it through customs. So he and some shipboard acquaintances decided that it would be a shame to waste it and proceeded to see how much they could
consume before we landed. We get back to Virginia and visit my father’s teetotaler aunt and she asks if we were sea sick. I admit to having been sick. She then asks if my father was sea sick as well and I replied “no, but he was drink sick.” I’m sure there was an awkward pause after that.

Visit our file directory for a link to high-quality footage of the entire trip, plus more home movies from life back in the States. More of Mack’s Africa footage here, here, and here.

Music: “Electro-Mortgage Blues” by Gurdonark

December 1955 Elisabethville, Belgian Congo; Luanda, Angola; Leopoldville, Belgian Congo

In December 1955, Edward T. Wailes, the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, traveled to Belgian Congo, Northern Rhodesia, and Angola. The scenes in this movie do not include the trip to Northern Rhodesia. The reason for the trip is lost in time but it was memorable for my mother because he invited the wives of embassy personnel to travel along. My father would have been on the trip anyway as he was a member of the flight crew. We kids remained in Pretoria, South Africa. My mother has one vivid memory that remains to this day. She is prone to motion sickness and at one stop she bolted from the plane ahead of the ambassador, a breach of protocol. She figured that would be better
than the alternative.

Several weeks after Lost in Light put this movie on their site, my mother found several pages she wrote during the trip. I transcribed the pages and they appear below in italics. My comments are in brackets.

Mon. 12 [December, 1955] On route to Elizabethville [Lubumbashi]

7:00 A.M. We took off from Jan Smuts airport [now O.R. Tambo International Airport (2006) and before that Johannesburg International Airport (1994)] at 4 A.M. I think everyone is too excited to be sleepy. We are having coffee & coffee cake (which I made) now & taste mighty good. Lavern & myself are sitting in the African Room it has huge pictures of natives and animals on the walls. The room was original planned for the VIP but the seats are as hard as rocks and not reclining – so the Ambassador & Mrs. Wails & Frenchie

[Mrs. Mills, wife of Major Mills, the assistant Air Attache] are in the other room that is much more roomy & has four comfortable seats. Once the plane is the air, we can walk around the plane. We should land around eleven.

Elizabethville – 4:00 P.M.

We were met by the Consul general & wife – Mr. & Mrs. Murdock – I had met them in Pretoria. They are the only Americans here, even have a local girl as secretary. We were taken to the hotel and what a riot, no one at the desk spoke English and none of us spoke French but finally Mr. Murdock came and got every thing cleared up. We all had lunch together and then went sight-seeing. It’s a funny little town looks like a western town, dirt streets and small shops. Every one seems to be driving a new two-tone car. Tonight we are going to cocktails at the Murdocks.

[The movie opens with people leaving the aircraft. The woman in the blue dress coming down the steps is my mother. Fortunately, this was not one of the times she was airsick. The sign on the steps is for Sabena Airlines, the national airline of the Congo. I'm inclined to place the scenes of people disembarking from the aircraft and the three women walking down the covered sidewalk in Elisabethville.]

On route to Luanda, Portguese [sic] East Africa, Tues. 13

Another long flight – will take us about seven hours to get to Luanda. Have just finished playing scrabble with Frenchie. We will have lunch on the plane today. We are flying over beautiful country. Lots of water & trees – so different from [South] Africa.

Afternoon in Luanda

It really pays to travel with the Ambassador. We are getting deluxe treatment. All the big wheels met the plane and the consul General had arrangements made for sight-seeing tours. One of the local employees, who speaks very good English took the Mills, Windslows & us on a drive up to a huge fort [Fortaleza de São Pedro da Barra] and a drive around the beach and to the market. Tonight we are invited to the Consul General house for dinner. It’s quite funny, we aren’t ask if we would like to go. They just say a car will pick us up at seven. The people here are very nice, in fact I think this will be my favorite stop. It isn’t too hot but very humid and my hair is a mess. Pete [my father, Mack Lundy Jr.] is taking a nap.

[I believe that the Luanda scenes begin with the people getting in the automobile. The man who turns and waves at the camera is Major Mills and this matches my mother's comments above. There is a long pan around the edge of the bay. What you are seeing is the water side of the Avenida Marginal. You can see a distinctive, long building with a rounded section on the right end. I used Google Earth and Google image search and identified it as the Banco Nacional de Angola. Note the eroded hill side in the background. If you look at the same scene now it is built up and you can hardly tell there is a higher elevation.]

Wed. Luanda 14th

We had a grand time this morning. Went in a native canoe to a little island to swim. It was a beautiful beach and the water was very calm (Atlantic Ocean). I got a real good sun tan now. The natives look & dress different here. Everything is very expensive here. Have bought nothing so far.

[Two women are coming down steps in bathing suits. The one in the back is my mother. It looks like they are about to go out on the canoe mentioned above. The cut to the next scene of the people in the canoe is abrupt but it could be part of the same outing. Since this is the last day in Luanda it is likely that the scenes on a beach with Angolan fishing family residence is the same day.]

Thurs Eve. Leopoldville, Belgian Congo [Leopoldville is now Kinshasa]

Arrived here around eleven. Have already been sight-seeing, to a party, and seeing what the natives have to sell. Every night they put their things out on the side walks – ivory and wood carvings.

[The scene shifts from a beach in Luanda to streets in Leopoldville. It is a bit jarring to see a street vendor selling ivory but interesting since my parents still have one of carvings you see here.]

Rode the ferry across the Congo River to braz [braz, this is most likely the first four letters of Brazzaville which is in the Congo and across the river from Kinshasa]

[The last scenes in this movie show the ferry leaving Leopoldville. This area has deteriorated a great deal since this movie was made. I wasn't able to use Google Earth to find the ferry departure point.]

See our File Directory for a link to full resolution MPEG-2s of these scenes and more from the Lundy home movie footage, available at the Internet Archive. For more from this collection of home movies from African and elsewhere, go here here, and here. More to come.

Music: Django Ue

This week’s film comes from a truly amazing collection of footage, submitted to us by Mack Lundy in Williamsburg, Virginia. This excerpt takes us to Rhodesia, 1952, for a glimpse at a hunt: climbing trees to search for game, scenes of the hunting camp and grass gazebos, the hunters with their prey, skinning an elephant, a zebra, and a cape buffalo. The footage was shot by Mack’s father, Mack A. Lundy, Jr.

Mack fills us in:

How did my father, an Air force TSgt, happen to be on safari In Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) in 1952? He was a crewman assigned to the Air Attache in the American Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa where we lived for four years. We being my mother, brother, and me. The staffs of the embassy and Air Attache were small and socially not much distinction was made as to rank. There were quite a few perks to being associated with the diplomatic corps. I have the actual game licence issued to my father showing all the fees were waived. It was an exciting event for a boy from south-west Virginia only seven years out of a German POW camp. His hometown newspaper printed a story about his safari. He went on other hunting and fishing trips in Africa but later in life, he regreted the trophy game he killed and never really hunted again after we returned to the U.S. He preferred to use a camera to record wildlife. Some of the trophies taken during this safari have survived fifty years of moving and I have the lever-action rifle he used for smaller game.

The unedited Internet Archive version of this film includes the safari as well as footage from Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda, complete with elephants, hyenas, hippo, cape buffalo, and other scenes of wild Africa.

Music: Ephat Mujuru, “The Lion (Shumba)” from Journey of the Spirit

According to the box, the film is from 1964, shot by the Dreckman family of Lakewood, California.

If anyone can add any more details about the locations depicted here, please leave a note in the comments. This is an orphaned film, so we don’t have an original source to go to for more information. Any background our viewers can offer will help us to archive and tag this film better.

Music: “Spanish Surf” by cdk