Hillsdale in the 1930s - A Swinging Town

This original film of compiled footage documenting aspects of everyday life in Hillsdale, NY in the late 1930s was shot between 1936 and 1938 by an unknown, yet talented amateur filmmaker. The film was given to Palmer Vincent, Hillsdale’s Town Historian at the time. Vincent preserved the film and passed it down to his grandchildren, Doug, Ron and Susie Vincent, who enjoyed it as children and later recognized the film's value as an important visual record of life in Hillsdale during the "Swing Era".   Fast forward to the present, when Palmer Vincent’s grandkids had the foresight to share the virtual time capsule with Hillsdale documentarians Julia Brandi and Marilyn Herrington, who, working with skilled editor Elizabeth Wilder Elm, transformed this silent footage into a 22-minute documentary set to a foot-tapping soundtrack of swing tunes written and performed by such greats as the Dorsey Brothers, Bing Crosby, and Irving Berlin.   Glimpse life as it was lived nearly 90 years ago - a time when automobiles and horse-drawn vehicles still coexisted - when farms were plentiful, and passenger trains made regular stops at the Hillsdale station - a time when scores of school buses delivered students to the brand new and stately Roeliff Jansen Central School, and when the frozen Milk Pond off Anthony Street provided a winter’s harvest of ice for all of Hillsdale. And see how, despite America’s Great Depression, the close-knit community of Hillsdale flourished and the town thrived.    Hillsdale in the 1930s - A Swinging Town was produced by Ron Vincent, Julia Brandi and Marilyn Herrington, edited by Elizabeth Wilder Elm, and funded and supported by The Rheinstrom Hill Community Foundation & The Roeliff Jansen Historical Society  RT 22:16