"The following films from the Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens Archives and Special Collections each offer an exciting glimpse into various travel expeditions made by Marjorie Merriweather Post and members of her family during the 1930s-1950s."
“St. Anton-Deenie Skiing, 1950”
16mm, Kodachrome
Silent – 16 f.p.s.
Time – 14:00
This film is of a skiing holiday in Austria with Dina Merrill, her husband, Stanley Rumbough, and family friends. There are numerous shots of people skiing and many scenes featuring magnificent mountain landscapes.
“Caribbean Cruise”
16mm, Color & B + W
Silent – 16/18 f.p.s.
Time – 11:45
The opening scenes have numerous shots of gardens, flowers and dogs, and a gathering of people. The film then cuts to the beginning of a wedding ceremony. The rest of the footage is a mixture of views shot from a ship and also on land, featuring glimpses of local Caribbean life including celebrations and Marjorie Merriweather Post in the Caribbean countryside.
“Deenie Beach / Scenery; Post Ranch”
16mm, Color reversal
Silent – 14fps
Time – 20:11
This film combines a number of events and places. It begins with Dina Merrill and friends paddling on a canal in Cambridge, England. The following shots are of a tennis match, a man swimming, and a few seconds of a beach. The location changes to Texas and what is presumed to be the C.W. Post Ranch and the C.W. Post Plant. There are numerous landscape shots from a car and a plane of both Texas and Los Angeles. The remaining minutes of the video show some scenes with Joseph Davies in the Netherlands, Marjorie Merriweather Post on the Sea Cloud yacht, and a horse racing event.
“Scenes From Russia”
16mm, B + W
Print with optical sound
Time – 1:36
This film has various short scenes of Russia, with snippets of a railway station, Stalin, military parades, and at the very end, a few seconds of Marjorie Merriweather Post receiving flowers and posing with a child.
“French Riviera – Dad & Me, 1950”
16mm, Kodachrome
Silent – 16 f.p.s.
Time – 17:40
The film features scenes of sport and leisure, such as polo matches and people shopping. There are also scenes from a visit to Paris with a great amount of street shots in addition to aerial views of Paris from the Eiffel Tower. At the French Riviera, people are filmed swimming and sunbathing. Later, there are scenes of a more mountainous region, presumably also in France.
Compiled and Arranged by—Margaret Huang (Archivist / Librarian) & Jaime McCurry (Digital Assets Librarian)
