Film, Motion Picture

Fight, Bremen, UM Game, Casa Loma, Niagara Falls

Silent, black and white 16mm film containing a series of assorted scenes, including footage of Detroit House of Corrections baseball players and boxers, a commercial clip concerning the 1928 flight of the BREMEN, a University of Michigan football game, a shot of Detroit's riverfront and skyline, and footage from a trip to Toronto and Niagara Falls. The home movie footage was presumably shot by a member of the family of John S. and Hazel B. Nawrot.

The reel opens with a brief pan around driveway from a row of parked cars to a group of people standing outside a wooden-sided building.

Afterward, the camera pans around a group of baseball players practicing on a baseball diamond. Some of the players wear Detroit Tigers uniforms, while at least one wears a DeHoCo (Detroit House of Corrections) jersey.

The following scene shows a boxing match in the Detroit House of Corrections yard. Two men fight in a ring in the middle of the yard. A referee follows the action in the right, and several other men watch from ringside. Initially the camera captures the fight from nearby, then after a cut, the camera overlooks the yard from an elevated position. From this vantage point, a large group of men lined up along the yard's walls can be seen.

With a noticeable change in film quality, a commercial film from Pathegrams entitled "The Bremen Flight" then begins on the reel. This clip concerns the first westward transatlantic airplane flight, made in 1928 by the BREMEN flown by a German and Irish crew.

With another change in film quality, the reel then contains footage of University of Michigan Wolverines football game, shot from the stands, and later from the field. The camera captures action on the field, spectators tossing things into the air, a marching band's performance, and what appears to be a tumbling performance.

A very brief clip of an automobile on fire in a parking lot in front of an Annis Furs billboard falls on the reel before an east to west pan across Detroit's riverfront, presumably shot from Windsor. Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company passenger steamers are visible on the river. The Union Guardian Building, still under construction, stands among the skyline.

The remainder of the film was shot in Ontario, Canada. Toronto's City Hall is the focus of the next series of shots. The camera pans around traffic and around the building's exterior. A war memorial outside of the building, and a Toronto mounted police officer are also filmed. Next the film makers shots around Toronto's Casa Loma. A couple with a young girl--presumably John S. and Hazel Nawrot with daughter Olive--is featured in these scenes. The Liberty Grand Building, and the Horticulture Building (with a banner reading "Welcome I.A.D.M. Convention Hall" above its doors) are also shown. From an overpass, the camera then pans around a stretch of railroad tracks which runs beside tree-covered hills. A Grafton Clothing billboard in the shape of a castle is situated beside the tracks. The man and child from earlier again appear on the bridge. Several similar pans follow of lakes and from hills overlooking a town. An incline railway, presumably the Hamilton and Barton Incline Railway is shown carrying a horse-drawn carriage and a car. Afterward the family is again shown walking around the paths beside Niagara Falls' rapids. The Whirlpool Aero Car, Brock's Monument, and the falls themselves are also captured on camera. The film ends with a shot of the McKinley Monument in Buffalo, New York.

The film is on a metal reel housed within a metal canister. The canister's underside is marked "Flight of the Bremen" in purple marker, and "Fight, Bremen, UM Game, Casa Loma, Niagara Falls" in pencil A handwritten list written on the verso of a torn Wagemaker Company document included in the tin reads, "DeHoCo Fight; Bremen flight; UM football; Toronto, Casa Loma, Art Davison; Buffalo, Niagara Falls."