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History lesson |
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Monday, 14 July 2008 |
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Photo by Heidi Zemach Rich Smith was interviewed at the Johnsonburg Borough Building about the library. Smith chose to film and discuss the library for the "Our Town" documentary. Great history uncovered while filming documentary of "The Paper City."
By Heidi Zemach
Special to The Record
JOHNSONBURG – About two dozen Johnsonburg residents spent Saturday filming the town as they explored both the town is and the one it used to be.
The producer and support crew of the WPSU local documentary "Our Town: Johnsonburg" took up residence at the borough building as, one by one, local volunteers returned to hand in the videos they had taken, their notes, scripts and old photographs that were collected. The professionals from Penn State then interviewed each participant on the topic they had chosen.
Thea Distler and Nickie Oler, both juniors at the high school, had spent an evening on the rooftop of the community center filming the town from above to show a perspective from an interesting angle. From there they could probably see much of the town, including the now-vacant Johnsonburg Hotel – the only building remaining of 11 hotels that once thrived in Johnsonburg.
Thea and Nickie also researched the hotels in local history books and spoke with some older members of the community. They learned the Armstrong Hotel used to be quite grand, the food was as good as The Ritz in New York City and they baked thanksgiving dinners and held ballroom dances there. The young women also were interested in Mrs. Malfera, who had once run a hotel and played host to several husbands, and probably was connected to certain mafia types, such as the legendary Al Capone.
“Basically all we have is history, but what we do have is pretty interesting,” one of the girls commented. “Just don’t come here and see it right now,” the other joked.
Curt Breakey, a teacher and the former athletic director, filmed the athletic facilities at the high school. Luckily, some throwers for the track and field team were practicing, so he got to include some students. Shane Launer filmed the Knot Hole football fields. During the course of the project Launer and Breakey learned that where Memorial Field now stands there used to be a lake, and people used to canoe there. They also discovered that the bleachers there once were used at Penn State University. For sports fans they noted that Hall of Fame quarterback Johnny Unitus and Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly both once played ball in Johnsonburg.
Lillian Finno dug up several old photographs to use in the documentary, such as the huge local Homecoming Parade in 1946 for returning WWII veterans.
“We had thousands of people here in Johnsonburg, and we’ll never see it again,” Finno said. She also donated a photograph of a local parade for returning veterans in 1985. Finnos last photograph was of the “Dinky,” the little steam engine that used to run every day between the paper mill and Silver Creek, where logs were stacked. That diminutive train – which later received a diesel motor – was used by the mill until the mid-to-late 1960s and was the model for a popular Fisher Price toy pull train, according to Ron King, Domtar’s spokesperson.
Sharing their discoveries, Finno said Johnsonburg used to have separate communities of Italians, Irish, Polish, Germans, Swedes, English, Irish, Greeks and even a few Jewish people. Each group was represented by a store or restaurant. The Italians, who were in the majority, owned three or four grocery stores, Finno said, while the Greeks ran Johnsonburg’s first restaurant, which originated the still-popular spicy hot-dog relish. The Jewish community also owned some up-scale clothing stores. Not all groups lived in harmony however, King told the others gathered. The local KKK sometimes burned crosses as warnings to Catholics.
Tim Hoh, a longtime fire hall volunteer, was surprised at how easy it had been to amass 45 minutes of video at the fire hall on Thursday. With just 15 minutes of video remaining, Hoh wondered how he would cover all the rest he hoped to include. As often happens, many of the participants became attached to the information they had gathered, and wondered whether it would actually be included in the final documentary.
In the glare of several tall lights and a reflector, Rich Smith sat across from producer Charlie Gudeman and the WPSU cameraman and audio man, trying to appear relaxed. After announcing his name and town several times, and filming a trailer for WPSU, Smith launched into a discussion of the library, one of the town’s main centers of public activity. Growing more confident, Smith talked up the library’s audio books, computers, its well-equipped genealogy room, and its unique dollhouse, donated by Lillian Finno.
All of the footage will be condensed, edited, and made into a one-hour documentary at WPSU in Penn State, to be aired on PBS Channel 3 during an early September pledge drive. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 15 July 2008 )
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