Family life in the 1970s

The standard 8 vintage home movie featured in this post covers a number of different topics and is in many ways typical of how a film would be used. Many times a film was purchased for a specific event, but sometimes a film was just used to record normal family life and the things important to the individuals concerned. This film is an example of one of those times, and shows several events in a family’s life.

About this film

This film was a ‘free-be’ in a package I purchased from eBay a couple of days ago.

I saw a ‘Buy in now’ deal for a 7 inch reel of super 8 film which was taken in New York in the 1990s and I thought it would be an interesting addition to this site so I purchased it for about £17. Included in the package were what the seller described as some other films which he had laying around which he was including to get rid of them.

When the package turned up I found there was the listed New York film and an additional five 3 inch reels of home movie film, a 3-inch commercial film featuring Chimps((I remember those chimp films from my childhood – I think they used to be on the TV as well on a Saturday morning )), a 5-inch home movie of holidays in Portugal and Spain, a Laurel and Hardy 5 inch reel and 3 short bits of film which probably make up another 4 inch reel. So all in all I think that’s pretty good value.

This film was one of the 3 inch home movies and actually jerked about quite a bit during the scanning process so I needed to run it through a stabiliser to improve the video quality.

Some Stills from the film

The gallery below shows some screen shots from the film to highlight the different subjects covered.

The film of Family Life

The digitised version of the standard 8 film showing family life from the 1970s is shown below.

The film starts with some sequences shot at a seaside resort with a pier. I don’t know the exact location of this but I believe, from other films in the package, that the family lived a few miles from Whitby in Yorkshire, so I would guess this is one of the seaside resorts in that area.

There is then a short sequence showing a Railway station; first the inside of the station with its glass roof, and then a shot of the outside. I don’t recognise the station, but it looks like a small station rather than one of the big railway hubs. There is then a few shots at a house entrance which could be the family home, or a hotel where they were staying. The camera pans up and down the street, and it’s from the cars shown in the street here that I’ve estimated the date as the 1970s.

There are then more shots at the seaside and in a gaming hall on the pier, and then the action switches to a steam railway yard which shots of a couple of the engines.

The final few seconds of the film concentrate on a large building with what seems to be a cricket pitch so possibly it could be a school.