Film, Motion Picture

Urban B134 7048 - 134 7802, 4 209 4052 - 4752

Silent color 16mm film tape containing footage shot for "Detroit Means Business," of Washington Boulevard and Woodward Avenue, cyclists on Belle Isle, Indian Village, Cultural Center institutions, and aerial footage of downtown and the riverfront to the west.

The reel starts with shots of people playing croquet on the lawn in the middle of the pedestrian mall on Washington Boulevard with Trolley Plaza and Book Tower standing in the background. A brief clip follows of people walking in an unclear location, shot from a low perspective. Afterward are two shots of fruit vendors stands on the pedestrian mall on State Street west of Woodward Avenue, with the Kresge location visible in frame. Next the camera moves to the north corner of Woodward Avenue and Grand River Avenue for a view down Woodward's sidewalk from behind a planter. A glass cylinder painted with "Woodward," and containing a series of lights, stands in front of the former J.L. Hudson Company downtown store. The camera then moves back to Washington Boulevard for a low angle shot of a sign reading "CBDA, Downtown Invitational Croquet Tournament Featuring Howard Johnson Orangemen, Grand Trunk Western RR Wheels" taken from a low angle on the mall in front of Trolley Plaza.

Following a brief gap in the film, the camera rolls as cyclists ride past on Belle Isle. Next, two men paddle a canoe on one of the island's canals, passing underneath one of the island's bridges. Several other shots follow of the cyclists, including a shot of a man in a wheelchair, the riders passing with the Renaissance Center and the Belle Isle Bridge framed in the background.

Next, the camera films the "This Is Historic Indian Village" sign located on the north corner of Kercheval Avenue and Iroquois Street. This is followed by series of pans from a close-up of a streetlight across an adjacent home, to the sign.

The next portion consists of shots filmed around the city's cultural center. It begins with a shot of the Woodward Avenue face of the Detroit Institute of Arts, with one of the circular fountains in the foreground. Banners hung over the museum's entrance promote the "Golden Age of Naples" exhibit. Then the camera films the "Center for Creative Studies College of Art and Design" sign at the edge of the courtyard along John R Street where East Kirby Street terminates. The college's Kresge-Ford Building stands in the background. The west corner of the Detroit Science Center's exterior is the focus of the final shot of this portion.

After a very brief shot of the interior of a helicopter, the camera captures a series of aerial shots of the city. These scenes include a pan from the Medusa Cement silos on the riverfront to the downtown skyline with a sunset behind it. After a brief shot over the Detroit River with Belle Isle in the distance, the camera flys toward the skyline and sunset. The helicopter gets a view overlooking the Renaissance Center, then gets footage of downtown from the north. It then performs a low altitude pan along the riverfront past a Budweiser distribution building, Stroh River Place, the Holnam and Medusa Cement silos, reaching and then rising over the Renaissance Center. After a very quick shot of Brewery Park, the camera again pans from the riverfront west of downtown to the Renaissance Center.

The reel ends with a brief shot from a car's trunk near Washington Boulevard.