The Paper Bag Films

All seven of the original Block Blazers appear at some point in this recently discovered super 8 footage (below) from the early 1970s. However, it's not hard to see why this roll of film didn't claim a permanent spot on any of my showcase reels - which number in the dozens.

Based on the camera work and quality of image, I can certainly understand why the former me (of 35 years ago) decided to hide it all away. It's choppy; it's unsteady; it's aimed into the bright sun of a winter's day; and it's not terribly interesting. But what puzzles me most is why I chose to hide it all away in a large, brown paper bag! Which is where it has lived out the past 3 decades. All twisted and flowing free inside an old Woodward's shopping bag. Apparently something stopped me from completely tossing the film out in the garbage, but at the same time, stopped me from storing it with any proper long term care and consideration.

Following the poor quality scenes of foot hockey, we are treated to some equally poor quality scenes on the tennis court. I'd be interested to know the whereabouts of this tennis court's location - if either of the two combatants swinging rackets would be so kind as to educate me in the comments section of this blog. That's Don and Bartholomew to be sure, but they're clearly not playing tennis anywhere near the old Blazer homestead. It must be some out-of-town destination that we only visited once. Maybe Haney? Just long enough to shoot these awful scenes.

The closing section gives us a rare glimpse of both Evert and Doug - caught walking together in the same frame of film. It's probably the last time this pairing would ever be seen in such close proximity to each other again. And perhaps, for that single image alone, we should be happy that the brown paper bag (and the film within it) was rescued from a final resting place at the city dump.