During the fall of 2016, while going through a box of VHS tapes and DVDs, UWSP Archivist and Records Manager, Brad Casslelberry, found two curious film canisters of 16mm film. With only the label “Stevens Point,” to identify them, you can imagine that Casselberry was absolutely intrigued. He soon tracked down and repaired a 16mm projector so he and staff could view the film.
As the film projector sputtered to life, after the initial film credits, paired with quintessentially 1950s music, an aerial view of the city came into focus. The fly over showed a view of the old court house and the Hotel Whiting, then came the voice over, “This is our town, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, USA.” Casselberry knew right away that they had something extremely special on their hands. And he could not wait to share it.
Robert M. Carson produced at least fifteen “This is Our Town,” promotional films during the 1950s for various cities across the nation including Chippewa Falls, Oshkosh, and Eau Claire, in Wisconsin. The movies were directed by different people, but most often Beatrice Berry wrote the simple yet informative scripts and Thomas J Valentino composed the delightfully quintessential mid-century score. Berry has been lost to history, but Valentino continued to produce music and won a Grammy for a song in “Saturday Night Fever.” Carson went on to produce a movie starring Cesar Romero, better known as The Joker in the 1960s television series “Batman.” All the films are written with the same format, with the same background music, with similar scripts featuring business and industries as well as many local members of the community at work and play.
“This is Our Town: Stevens Point, Wisconsin” mentions at least 100 local residents by name as well as numerous businesses and firms popular during the time. It is speculated that Carson’s production company sold sponsorship to local businesses to be featured in the films, but it has not been confirmed. Carson and his staff traveled across the country pitching their promotional films typically to local Chambers of Commerce. It is unknown how the Stevens Point Chamber of Commerce used their version of the film or if it was publicly shown, but we do know that in 1957 it was shown to sixth grade students from the Central State College Campus School as part of a study unit on Stevens Point “as a good place in which to live and work.”
Casselberry felt strongly that this film should be shown and made available to the community. “That’s the whole point of an archive, to preserve history and be able to share something like this without barriers,” he said. Holder Printworks of Madison digitized the film in 2016 making the movie easily accessible to the public. There are copies of the hour long film available to borrow through the library. It is also available on YouTube and has been embedded below. The film has been shown a number of times publicly, without charge, and we are proud to share it here with you again, on our website.
Please enjoy “This is Our Town: Stevens Point, Wisconsin, USA”
Sources used:
Stevens Point Journal, Oct 18, 2016
Garden City Telegram, Sep 30, 2014
World Cat Identities
A Brief History of 16mm Film
Special thanks to the UWSP Archives
Historic Stevens Point 