After my grandfather died – my grandmother sold his Bell & Howell “Sundial” 8mm film camera at a garage sale. Unfortunately – the random purchaser also took the entire collection of family home movies from the 1950s and 1960s. Perhaps it still survives out there somewhere – waiting to be found and scanned.

Last year I borrowed my father’s old Keystone 250 film splicer and I found this single 50 foot reel wedged into the bottom of the box. It was a little moldy from sitting in a barn for over 30 years – but most of it was still in decent shape after a good cleaning. I’m not entirely certain if the rough parts in the middle section are caused by damage – or exposure/development issues where the film would have been “flipped” to be run back through.

In any event – this is the only film I have from that “lost” collection. Since my projector only handles Super 8mm film – the first time I ever saw this was on the small screen for the scanner. This film was labeled “Niagara Falls – April 13, 1960”. My mother is the child without the glasses and she would have been 12 years old at the time.

Digitized with a Kodak Reelz and edited with DaVinci Resolve Studio. All products used were purchased by me for my own personal use.