Dad's and My Home Movies
Introduction
This page is intended to be the home for movies that I have made, or those of my father, Frank Dawson Bliley. These are rough and unedited movies, most without titles, that will be used as resources for future projects. All are relatively small files for movies at less than 100 megabytes. Should you want a high-quality version on DVD, just let me know and I can provide that to you.
A Word of Caution—The home movies files are larger than most you will encounter on the Web and they are best suited to a high-speed Internet connection. Many hundreds of megabytes. They are not suitable for a dial-up connection or other limited bandwidth connections. Also, their playability depends on browser and plug-in compatibility. Reports have been received of files not playing only on one of two browsers on the same computer. Most files are in the commonly-used MP4 format. If they will not play, try finding and installing a free MP4 player for your computer system.
NOTE: All of these resources are Copyrighted 2015 and should not be downloaded and/or re-posted on another Web site, or distributed through another manner.
Charles A. Bliley
736 Bel Arbor Trail
Webster, NY 14580
K3NAU@AOL.com
Frank Dawson Bliley's Home Movies—Transferred: Fall of 2015
The following are a set of 16 mm films filmed and edited by my father, Frank Dawson Bliley, in the 1940s. All but one were transferred from film to HDTV in October of 2015. A few of the films were beginning to suffer from vinegar syndrome that reflects the slow deterioration of the films. This transfer was an attempt to save some of the most precious of his movies. The photos on this page are of Dad filming himself in a mirror during The Family Album film, and the 16mm camera and projector are the models he used to make the movies for over a decade and show them at home.
Watching Home Movies with Mom in 1990 (2015 Transfer/700 Mb/HD/44:31)
In 1990, my brother John got the idea of watching some home movies with our mother, Isabelle Bliley Kaiser, and recording her comments while they watched the movies. My other brother, Dick, was asked to join them in the fun and off they went to a local media production company offices. A wonderful movie was created and sent out to family members on VHS tape. We ere all delighted with this production. Fast forward, 25 years, and it seemed possible that my dream of updating the movie with the images using the latest technology—HTDV at 1080 pixels per inch—was possible.
The decision was made and over a period of several months, the original source films used in the 1990 production were transferred to HDTV format. That was the easy part. I then had to update the titles and deal with trying to synchronizing the soundtrack with the films. Unbeknownst to me, the films in 1990 were projected at a much higher speed than originally filmed. That meant they went by at almost twice the speed and made everyone move like characters in a Keystone Cops movie. Thanks to modern computer technology, I was able to adjust the speed and make a reasonable facsimile of the 1990 production before the films disintegrated.
I apologize for the small screen image, but this film runs for almost 45 minutes and at small scale, is over 700 megabytes.
You may want to watch the separate films presented below at normal speed and in a much larger size, click on the movie links listed below. You will see what they looked like and sounded like when viewed back in the 1940s, with the addition of my titles. Each one is a separate chapter in the movie with Mom.
With a new wife, his first son and one on the way, it was time to move on to a new home. And, a new home it was to be. This movie chronicles the construction of a new home at 965 Arlington Road, on the one of the highest points just south of the city of Erie. He wanted a good location overlooking Lake Erie as it provided an advantage in his ham radio pursuits, but was not too far away from his business in the city.
The film show the ground breaking with his wife, Isabelle and her mother-in-law's sister, Mary Wooster. The basic construction is completely covered with scenes at the end of the house from top of Dad's 65-foot telephone pole used to support his ham radio antennas. These are scenes of Erie and Millcreek Township to the south in the summer of 1941. The movie continues with Christmas at the home of Frank and Lula Bliley with Joanie and Mal, scenes of family in Canon City, Colorado, more of the peninsula in August of 1941, and ends with Grandpa Bliley's 79th birthday party on March 13, 1944 in his home.
What a collection of scenes from the life of Mom and Dad from 1939 through to 1944. Subjects include: their first apartment, a visit with Dad's parents home on West 9th Street in March of 1939, a few frames of Mary Wooster and her husband in California, the back yard of Mom's parents with her young step-brother, Lanny, Ross and Frank A. Bliley, grandmother Bliley's brother George Dawson and his wife, Edith in Warren, Pennsylvania, Harry and Charlie Bliley visiting from Canon City, Colorado and enjoying the peninsula in Erie with other family members in town for the 1947 family reunion.,
Here is a collection of shorts about the early lives of my siblings from about 1939 to 1947.
Most of this movie is of traveling on Trail Ridge Road to 14,000 feet in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park. It is springtime and there is still plenty of snow and tire chains are necessary! Look for the scene of some putting on chains a U.S. Government vehicle at 06:36. This was probably a National Parks System employee's car.
Scenes of Lewiston Lodge, Brainard Lake State Recreation area, Rocky Mountain National Park, Grand Lake boating, Poudre Lake, Elk, and ending with a beautiful sunset in the Rocky Mountains!
My Dad was the founder of the Bliley Electric Company in Erie, Pennsylvania. The company started out making parts for ham radio operators, but moved into commercial and military products during World War II. In August of 1944, the entire company took a day off and they spent the day at the local amusement park on the shore of lake Erie. Here is a visual archive of their day's events and festivities including riding the amusement rides, playing baseball, and dancing in the parks Rainbow Gardens hall.
For more information, red the story of the picnic in the Fun & Trivia section of the company history on this Web site. In addition, you can download the employees' memoir from the link below.
This was our first attempt at transferring the home movies to digital format back in October 2007. Dad's entire collection was transferred but it was not done especially well. At least we "saved" all of the films and have something to view today.
Chuck Bliley's Home Movies
Here are a few of my "movies". Currently, all of these were created in the digital era. I do have a few movies that I made with the same equipment my father used. My problem was trying to ignore the sound of the camera's gears running during filming as it sounded just like the sound of a gasoline pump running. To me that was the sound of dollars adding up beyond my bank account, and I did not have the financial assets of my father. I only made two movies—the first one of the arrival of the steamship Queen Mary on her final port of call in New York City before being permanently birthed in Las Angles, California, and the second of my trip to the Galapagos Islands in 1971. Some day, I hope to put these up here for you to view.
The photo to the right is of me showing my home movies of the Galapagos Island trip I made in February 1967 shortly before I entered the U.S. Coast Guard. I used my Dad's 16mm movie camera and projector as shown above.
I joined a relatively new start-up company named Microwave Data Systems here in East Rochester, New York in 1990. Within a few years, the company had grown and was bursting at its seams. A new building was constructed about 10 miles away in southern Rochester. To celebrate the company's success, an open house was held a few months after we had moved in, settled down and cleaned out the construction dirt. I was excited by this change and wanted to let my parents in Erie see the new place, but they were not able to come up to Rochester for a visit.
So, I rented a video camera and created two video post cards from Rochester. The first video was of our home in Henrietta, New York from the inside and out. The second movie was a tour of the new building. It was a very dark and rainy October day and I wanted to get in before the public arrived so that the images would not be cluttered by others and I could move around freely. An old friend outside of work, Dave Bogdan, was there to meet me in the lobby. Along the way, you will meet friends within the company from the president/founder, the my old boss and company VP, personnel manager, finance director and others. Pardon me for me for being excited and exhibiting a lot of pride, but I was, as I was assigned a private office to go with my new title of Manager or Technical Publications. I just wanted to brag a bit to my parents. Within a few week,s the VHS videotape was shown to my parents and my wife's back in Erie.
Created on VHS VideoTape, 246 Mb, NTSC, 00:12:30, MP4
While visiting the local art museum, my wife, Marilyn, and I were in for a real treat---a free organ concert while we were touring the local art museum, the Memorial Art Museum of the University of Rochester. This was no ordinary organ, but one that was rescued in 2005 by staff members of the Eastman School of Music visiting in Europe. They found an Italian Baroque organ in an antique shop about to be scrapped and arranged to save it. A year after it was transported to Rochester and refurbished, we had the pleasure of listening to this wonderful instrument and seeing the bellows room as it played for the public. The Sunday recital organists are usually organ students of the Eastman School of Music here in Rochester.
Created on Canon Digital Camera, 128 Mb/NTSC/00:04:30/MP4
Travel Shorts from Our 2007 Trip West
We made a splendid trip across our beautiful country in August and September of 2007. It was our first long-distance trip together and it was a delight Here are two delightful short videos. These are two of my favorite movies of Marilyn, even if they are short. :-)
Our time in Yellowstone National Park was a delight, but it was hot! As the day come to an end and we headed back to our hotel, we stopped at a riverside picnic ground to see the Firehole River. The river in this area is flat and bordered by lush grasses. We walked over to the edge. I asked Marilyn if she wanted to go for a dip, but she declined. The next best thing was to sit on the bank on a virtually vertical and short bank to dip our feet into the water.It felt good and we paused there for ten or fifteen minutes before continuing on your way.
Marilyn and I thoroughly enjoyed the cool waters and she screamed with pleasure by the cool waters. Here is a brief video repose of her pleasurable statement.
Created on Canon Digital Camera, NTSC, 00:00:30
As we drove across Utah on our way to Colorado and back home, Marilyn experienced driving across the barren desert wasteland for the first time. She loved the ease of driving with very light traffic, but it became boring and she wanted it to pass more quickly. Without realizing it, she was speeding well beyond the relatively high speed limit of the open highways of Utah. I caught her speeding and recorded my observation on my camera.
Created on Canon Digital Camera, NTSC, 00:00:30
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