Skip to main content
Collections Menu
[Home Movies of Mt. Clemens, MI; Picnic; Party and More / circa 1945 - 1947]

[Home Movies of Mt. Clemens, MI; Picnic; Party and More / circa 1945 - 1947]

Dateca. 1945-1947
Mediumacetate
DimensionsFilm Format: 8.00 mm
ClassificationsMoving Images
Credit LineGift of the Family of Tomojiro Sagara
Object number2001.32.5
DescriptionColor and black and white home movie footage of the Mount Clemens, Michigan area, filmed by Tomojiro Sagara circa 1945-1947. Footage includes picnicking outdoors, home interior, and views of a front yard with various groups of Japanese American and Caucasian family members and friends.

0:30 -- Three young women (and cameraman) picnicking with two young girls in bonnets (one toddler, one slightly older). Three older boys play around a car. Color is distorted for the first 5-10 seconds.
2:54 -- Indoor, at a house party (“Okura’s party”?). Low light. Camera pans to land on all guests at the table, including the two young girls from earlier footage. Boy toasts with his glass at the very end.
3:35 -- Three young men are checking out a car parked by houses; weather is cold enough to see their breath.
3:50 -- Group of (presumed) family members standing outside in the snow (clearly uncomfortable in the cold), as if having a group portrait taken. Various rearrangements and running to and from the house.
5:15 -- Young woman shows a doll to the cameraman. More family members posing in the thin layer of snow.
6:31 -- Small group of Caucasian and Japanese American people dressed up, outside a house. Group gets into a car and backs out of the driveway. Two Japanese American girls (likely Sagara’s daughters) in matching outfits play with a Caucasian toddler. Different people posing for photos in dressy outfits, wasting time on and around porch steps.
9:45 -- Multiple people in the group fiddle with cameras as the video camera pans across the small gathering. More standing for portraits, more guests arriving.
10:30 -- Daughters walking with the Caucasian toddler again.
11:07 -- Film turns to B&W. Nighttime, exterior view of Emsee Theatre, Mount Clemens, Michigan. Marquee reads “Glenn Ford ‘Framed’ / Betty Hutton ‘Stork Club’ ”. Workers pulling down a ladder from the marquee and walking away with it.
11:31 -- Two little girls running in the grass, sitting and posing in the grass (same girls as early in the color footage -- likely Sagara’s daughters). A few other young people are in the grass also. Footage is grainy and scratchy. Man (possibly the filmmaker, Tomojiro Sagara) with the two girls.
14:10 -- film ends.

1 film reel : si., b&w and col. ; 8 mm. original reversal pos. , Title provided by cataloger. , Enclosed in 6 in. diameter gray-blue tin and reel. Reel is full. , Original label on reel tin: Mt. Clemens Church St. / Okura's party.;Color and b&w super 8 movie footage of Mt. Clemens Church St., possibly in Michigan, and Okura's party, ca. 1940s. Color footage includes people at picnic (underexposed), dinner scene (bad lighting), family posing by house that appears to be from the 1940s. Black and white footage includes Glen Ford and Betty Hutton and the Stark Club.

Support the understanding and appreciation of the Japanese American experience.

Become a MemberMake a Gift