*Footage of this era and subject is uncommon to find on 16mm film and rarely available in high-resolution scans.
TITLE: Farm and Circus Scenes, 1949
REEL ID:
L060R002
RUN TIME:
0:08:15
FORMAT:
16mm motion picture film
FILM TYPE:
Color Kodak Kodachrome
SOUND:
Silent (no synchronized sound)
Description:
This multifaceted 16mm home movie from 1949 captures a striking contrast between everyday rural farm life and the arrival of a traveling circus, offering a rare and engaging portrait of work, family, spectacle, and community ritual in midcentury America. The reel moves fluidly from agricultural labor to extraordinary public events, preserving moments both ordinary and unusual.
The film opens on a working farm, where a horse pulls a plow steadily through open fields. Farmers drive tractors while shoveling corn stalks onto trailers, with children actively helping alongside adults. Scenes of livestock follow—cows grazing in the field and children feeding corn cobs to hogs—highlighting the shared labor and responsibilities of family farming. Leisure moments appear as well, with a family fishing together using cane poles and proudly displaying their catch, followed by scenes of children playing and wrestling on the ground.
The tone shifts dramatically with the arrival of a traveling circus identified as Circus M.H.C. People work together to erect the large circus tent as crowds gather to watch. Exotic animals arrive in transport cages, including tigers and leopards, while one person walks a lynx on a leash. Circus elephants wander near the tent, one holding flowers delicately in its trunk—an image that underscores the novelty and spectacle of the event for the surrounding community.
The reel concludes with scenes of civic and school life. A high school ceremony crowns a class king and queen, followed by a tree-planting event on school grounds. The final sequences document a graduation potentially Michigan or Mizzou, closing the film on a note of tradition, transition, and community continuity.
Together, these scenes form a vivid snapshot of American life in 1949—where agricultural labor, traveling entertainment, and communal milestones intersect within a single year and place.
Tags:
1949, Farm life, Rural America, Agriculture, Horse-drawn plow, Tractor farming, Corn harvest, Children helping on farm, Cows, Hogs, Feeding livestock, Family fishing, Cane pole fishing, Kids playing, Children wrestling, Traveling circus, Circus tent, Big top, Circus workers, Exotic animals, Tigers, Leopards, Lynx on leash, Circus elephants, Elephant with flowers, Community gathering, High school ceremony, Class king and queen, Tree planting, Graduation, Americana, Postwar America, Home movies, 16mm film, Vintage lifestyle, Analog film, Archival footage