Film, Motion Picture

Gar Wood 1938. Lansing, Mich.

Silent, black and white 16mm film containing home movies primarily dealing with speedboat racing and presumably shot by a member of the family of John S. and Hazel B. Nawrot. The reel features the 1930 Harmsworth Trophy race, family activities on and around Lake Orion, the 1931 Harmsworth Trophy race, an outboard hydroplane race on Lake Orion, the 1938 Gold Cup Race, and a brief clip from a high school football game.

The film opens with footage of the 1930 Harmsworth Trophy Race shot from the edge of the Detroit River, opposite Belle Isle. In the first shots, outboard motor boats speed past, and planes fly overhead. One plane has "News" painted on the underside of its wing. A seaplane lands on the river. Afterward is footage from the actual race of the ESTELLE IV, ESTELLE V, and MISS AMERICA IX. Betty Carstairs drove the ESTELL IV with mechanic Joe Harris. The ESTELLE V was driven by Bert Hawker with mechanic Joe Bodkin. The MISS AMERICAN IX was driven by Gar Wood with mechanic Orlin Johnson.

The next segment of the film was shot on Lake Orion. The sequence begins with a shot of sailboat passing with a small island visible in the background. A rowboat floats past in the foreground. Then from a moving boat, several waterfront homes are filmed. In a stationary shot, a speedboat, the MISS OLIVE, is filmed as it passes beneath the Bellevue Road Bridge. The film continues with the boat speeding around the lake, sometimes with a child riding along with the driver. Next a group of swimmers are filmed as they dive off a dock then swim about. This segment closes with several shots of a man in a small boat outfitted an Evinrude outboard motor speeding around the lake.

After a splice in the film, the camera is now set up on a boat at the end of the Detroit Yacht Club's dock for the 1931 Harmsworth race. In this first shot, the camera overlooks a crowd of people gathered along the dock, which is lined with boats ceremonially dressed with signal flags.

The camera then captures Kaye Don riding past in a Chris-Craft boat painted with his name. Don then watches in the foreground, as boats pass him, heading upriver. Then Don's MISS ENGLAND II is then shown being towed past.

After a cut, the camera is directly behind Gar Wood as he waves to the passing crew of the MISS ENGLAND II. Wood wears coveralls with "MISS AMERICAN IX" embroidered on the back.

A Ford Tri-Motor airplane flies over the MISS ENGLAND II, MISS AMERICAN VIII, and MISS AMERICA IX make several passes in the race's first heat. Afterward the race the camera captures both boats being towed in. At the dock, in a rapid series of shots Don inspects a document beside a man in a peaked cap, Don poses with his team, Don and Wood shake hands, and the camera gets a good view of the boats' engines and Orlin Johnson still in the MISS AMERICA IX.

The camera then captures an up-river race between a large number of smaller speedboats. Each boat is painted with a number. One boat also bears the name RED HEAD.

After the mass speedboat race, the MISS AMERICA IX is again captured passing. From a boat, the camera then pans across spectators gathered in the stands on the riverfront.

Following a brief gap in the footage, the camera returns to the Detroit Yacht Club dock where it captures people walking along the dock, and boats tied up alongside it.

After a cut is a brief shot of a man and woman getting into, then riding off in a car outside of the Nawrot family cottage "Olive" on Lake Orion's Kelly's Island. Then the camera moves to Lake Orion itself, for footage of passing speed boats, and shots taken from the bow of a boat. The camera passes a capsized and partially submerged boat being towed by another boat.

The next segment of the film centers on a race of small M-class outboard hydroplanes. This too presumably takes place on Lake Orion and may be the Detroit Championship Hydroplane Races or the Sugar-Water Outboard Regatta. The camera captures both the boats and the spectators. One boat is painted with the name TRIANGLE BOATS. A large wooden-sided building with a faded "Tobacco" sign above its door is visible in the background of some crowd scenes.

After a splice in the film, the hydroplane WARNIE (G-9) is shown on a trailer at Kean's Marina. Then several scenes shot at the 1938 Gold Cup Race on the Detroit River follow. From a vantage point behind a row of spectators in folding chairs along the riverfront, the MISS CANADA III and EXCUSE ME are shown racing. Then the TOPS and BAD NEWS both are filmed as they get towed past. The camera pans around to show Bill's Marine Bar on the riverfront, where a sign promotes the election of Leonard J. Pete Maher to County Clerk, as well as the neighboring marina. The camera then returns to the race and the first heat, where the MISS CANADA III is in the lead ahead of the ALAGIE, EXCUSE ME, and DELPHINE IX. After several more shots of the crowd on the riverfront, the final heat follows, featuring the MISS GOLDEN GATE and the MISS CANADA III. This race segment concludes with the spectator boats returning to the shore.

The final shots of the reel are of a high school football game, and a marching band taking the field with "NW," "H," and "I" signs on their tubas, and "N" logos on their drums--presumably from Northwestern High School.

The film is on a metal reel with a Crowley Milner and Company label on it. The reel is housed within a metal canister with "Gar Wood 1938," and "Lansing Mich" handwritten on its lid in red. A handwritten list on the verso of a torn blank legal form reads, "Walt Boat; JN. Boat; Gar Wood 1930 Race; 1931 Race; Races; Races." "Walt" likely refers to Walter N. Stuart, the son of Hazel B. Nawrot's brother Frank Steward. The Steward's cottage "Golden Inn" stood next door to the Nawrot's "Olive" on Kelly's Island in Lake Orion.