Gay Humphrey Matthaei and Francis B. Randall Collection of Photographs, Films, and Clippings, 1954-2010

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Series VI: Films from the collection of Francis B. Randall on CDs

Nine reels of 18mm film transferred to nine viewing CDs



Box 6 Cd 1 Moscow airport, Tues., 10 Aug. 1954

Shows the airport entrance. On the street walk officers and bureaucrats. But attention is focused on a woman in headscarf sweeping the streets with a traditional "metla" broom.

Diary Page 10: Arrival at airport, description of people


Box 6 Cd 1 Dining room in National Hotel, Moscow, Tues., 10 Aug.

"Travelers, including Gay, reading popular Russian newspapers ""Pravda"" and ""Izvestiia"" in hotel dining room; views of some other patrons."

DiaryPages 11-12: Describes dining room ("Lots of cut glass")


Box 6 Cd 1 Outside Kremlin, Tues., 10 Aug.

"Panning view of Red Square, the Kremlin, Manezh. From behind State History Museum, St. Basil's in the distance; pans to the Manege."

Diary Pagees 12-13: Walk around Kremlin; description of buildings, including ""1879 atrocity""--Historical Mus."


Box 6 Cd 1 Red Square, Tues., 10 Aug.

"On Red Square. View of St. Basil's, the Mausoleum; group of soldiers marching by; many citizens."

Diary Page 12


Box 6 Cd 1 Kremlin, Tues., 10 Aug.

More footage of Kremlin, Red Sq.; St. Basil's, Dormition, Anunciation, and Archangel Cathedrals; Moscow River; city skyline; Moscow Univ.

Diary Page 12


Box 6 Cd 1 Moscow streets, Wed., 11 Aug.

Street scenes: citizens, "babushki," officers going about daily life on Moscow streets.

Diary Pages 13-16


Box 6 Cd 1 GUM, Thur., 12 Aug.

Diary Page 19


Box 6 Cd 2 Outskirts of Moscow?

Images of daily life in more ""suburban"" ""Podmoskov'e""? Wooden buildings, wattle fences, dirt roads.

Diary Pages 27-28: F.B. Randall describes the ""slums on edge of town gradually merge into country villages.


Box 6 Cd 2 "Moscow? Kitaigorod?"

Queues outside of food shops; boys swimming in river; various children

Diary Pages 16: Randal describes Kitaigorod"


Box 6 Cd 2 "Outskirts of Moscow?"

Children. Juxtaposition of village children to those in the city.


Box 6 Cd 3 Moscow, Sun., 15 Aug.

Chatting with Orthodox Priest; sign reads ""Moskovskaia dukhovnaya akademiia." More life on city's outskirts.

Diary Pages 27-28: F.B. Randall describes the ""slums on edge of town gradually merge into country villages.


Box 6 Cd 3 Pioneer camp about 30 miles outside Moscow, Sunday 15 August

Gates of the "Pionerskii lager'"; inside the grounds and facilities. A day at camp for the Pioneer boys and girls. Studying, playing; mealtime.

Diary Pages 27 & 28


Box 6 Cd 3 Pioneer camp, Sunday 15 August

"Pioneer display: children marching, flag-bearing, dancing on outdoor stage. 10:47- Pioneer girls doing "the Robot!"

Diary Pages 27 & 28


Box 6 Cd 4 Moscow, All Russian Exhibition Center (VDNKh)

Collection of images and scenes from the Exhibition Center: people touring the grounds, tending the gardens; images of the livestock and other animals.


Box 6 Cd 4 Tashkent? Samarkand?, Tues., 17 Aug.

Footage transitions abruptly from Exhibition Center to a rural marketplace. Inhabitants clearly of Asian Russia in ethnic appearance and dress. Imagery aligns with much of the description of Tashkent and Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

Diary Pages 31-52: Again, much of the imagery lines up with descriptions here of Tashkent - Samarkand - Tashkent. Pp. 39-40 describe film being confiscated by police, though this may have been only still photography film


Box 6 Cd 4 Tashkent?, Sat., 21 Aug.

Camels

Diary Page 49: Travelers went "to the animal bazaar to take picures of the ten camels that were browsing."


Box 6 Cd 4 Tashkent?, Between Tues. 17 Aug., and Sat. 21 Aug., 1954

Brief scene of travelers enjoying some food and merry- making at table.

Diary Pages ?


Box 6 Cd 4 Tashkent?, Between Tues., 17 Aug., and Sat., 21 Aug.

People tending livestock. Children eating under a pavilion.

Diary Pages ?


Box 6 Cd 5 Tashkent / Samarkand, Wed., 18 Aug.

Arrival in Tashkent; footage of inhabitants. Descriptions of the town and its inhabitants--their dress and activities; adobe houses, etc. are rendered wonderfully in the diary entries. Footage opens in the "larger, modern, Russian part… with broad boulevards," (33) and moves toward older city. Palaces in the grassy foothills. At some point may transition to Samarkand, but not clear until next scene.

Diary Pages 31-40. (P. 33: "irrigated trees" of downtown (07:33 - 08:07); P. 35 "One old man struggled painfully with two huge logs") (02:13-02:23 on film)


Box 6 Cd 5 Samarkand; Registan, Thur., 19 Aug.

At the Registan. Foootage of people walking by with Tilya Kori Madrasah as backdrop.

Diary Pages 40-41


Box 6 Cd 5 Samarkand/ Tashkent, Thur., 19 Aug. - Sat. 21 Aug.

Views of the adobe houses from above.


Box 6 Cd 5 Samarkand/ Tashkent, Thur., 19 Aug., - Sat. 21 Aug.

More footage of inhabitants; marketplace


Box 6 Cd 6 Tbilisi, Georgia, Mon., 23 Aug.

Various images of Tbilisi village architecture and inhabitants.

Diary Pages Pp. 53-73: Describes trip to Tblisi; P. 59: Images from opening footage first described here, including architecture, clothing, etc.


Box 6 Cd 6 Tbilisi, Thur., 26 Aug.

Some of our travelers enjoying a day "swimming in an artificial lake near the airport."

Diary Pages 67


Box 6 Cd 6 Tbilisi; Caucasus, Fri., 27 Aug.

Trip "up to and through the high Caucasus." Footage of the country, often from the little "Pobedas [that] zipped along... the celebrated Georgian Military Road" (69). View of Svetitskhoveli Cathedral (described in detail earlier, (59). Mountain villages (71).

Diary Pages Pp. 69-73; P. 60-61: Earlier, detailed description of Svetitskhoveli Cathedral (in diary as "Basilica of the Life Giving Tree" (03:56 on film).


Box 6 Cd 6 Tbilisi; Caucasus, Fri., 27 Aug.

Gypsy encampment, with "quilted canopies."

Diary Pages 72-73


Box 6 Cd 7 Tbilisi

Diary Pages


Box 6 Cd 7 Tbilisi

Diary Pages


Box 6 Cd 7 Tbilisi and surrounding villages; Tsinandali, Mon., 23 Aug. - Tues., 24 Aug.

Difficult to place accurately the following footage. Much, perhaps, from an "evening walk around the quaint old streets" (64). Some from trip the following day to Tsinandali. Fine footage of village life, architecture, inhabitants.

Diary Pages P. 64: "The Georgians seem to live outdoors a lot, on their balconies, in their yards, in the streets… Lots of the old men look a lot like Stalin."; P. 65-67: Trip to Tsinandali; P. 65: "Flocks of sheep and long-horned goats being driven along the road" (09:51-10:34).


Box 6 Cd 8 Leningrad, Sun., 5 Sep.

Street scenes around travelers' Astoria Hotel, near the Moika and the monument to Nikolai I on St. Isaac's Square.

Diary Pages Pp. 84-100: Leningrad; P. 86: Description of St. Isaac's Sq.; P. 95: "Walked along the canal near the hotel…"


Box 6 Cd 8 Leningrad- Gulf of Finland, Sun., 5 Sep.

Leningraders on the beach at Gulf of Finland.

Diary Page 96


Box 6 Cd 8 Leningrad, Sun., 5 Sep.

Difficult to pinpoint location. Leningraders; children. Very sad, very Russian scene of a probably drunk man sleeping on the grass (05:02-05:14).

Diary Pages ?


Box 6 Cd 8 Leningrad, Sun., 5 Sep.

Smol'nyi complex

Diary Pages 96-97: Description of Smol'nyi


Box 6 Cd 8 Leningrad, Sun., 5 Sep.

Hermitage as seen from Vasil'evskii Island


Box 6 Cd 8 Leningrad- Gulf of Finland, Sun., 5 Sep.

Footage of a movie being filmed on Gulf of Finland

Diary Pages 96: "On the beach they were making a movie. Peasants in carts and 18th C. gentlemen… We took movies of the movie makers and attracted a crowd."


Box 6 Cd 8 Leningrad, Sun., 5 Sep. (?)

Housing complex? Dirt communal courtyard; garden plots; laundry on the line; wooden shacks.


Box 6 Cd 8 Leningrad, Sun., 5 Sep. (?)

Schoolchildren on the street.


Box 6 Cd 8 Leningrad, Sun., 5 Sep. (?)

Various street scenes around downtown Leningrad. Man painting Aleksandrovskaia kolon(?); St. Isaac's Sq.


Box 6 Cd 8 Leningrad, Sun., 5 Sep. (?)

Footage from the banks of canals. Man dragging a boat with a long pole; food line(?); Spas' na krovi.


Box 6 Cd 8 Leningrad, Sun., 5 Sep. (?)

Street scenes from downtown Leningrad. G. Mattaie chatting with butcher; schoolchildren; Neva.


Box 6 Cd 9 Leningrad, Fri. 3 Sep. - Sun. 5 Sep.

Leningraders, children in park (Yet to determine which); boys playing soccer.

Diary Pages 84-100: Leningrad


Box 6 Cd 9 Leningrad; downtown, Fri. 3 Sep. - Sun. 5 Sep.

Street scenes, mostly on and around Nevskii Prospekt. Book vendor on Nevskii; Spas' na krovi; crowds of pedestrians; artist on the street, surrounded by children.

Diary Pages 84-100: Leningrad


Box 6 Cd 9 Leningrad, Fri. 3 Sep. - Sun. 5 Sep.

Housing complex, communal courtyard(?). Children on teeter-totter.

Diary Pages 84-100: Leningrad


Box 6 Cd 9 Leningrad; Smol'nyi, Fri. 3 Sep. - Sun. 5 Sep.

Smol'nii Cathedral, with bust of Stalin in the foreground.

Diary Pages 84-100: Leningrad


Box 6 Cd 9 Leningrad, Fri. 3 Sep. - Sun. 5 Sep.

Street scenes. St. Isaac's Sq.; banks of the Moika; women collecting bricks.

Diary Pages 84-100: Leningrad


Box 6 Cd 9 Vyborg - Helsinki, Mon. 6 Sep.

Train station. Train ride passes through "industry and Neva and slums of Leningrad into the swamps north of town" to the "pine forests and little hay fields--pleasant woods to Vyborg."

Diary Pages 98-99


Box 6 Cd 9 Copenhagen, Denmark, Tue. 7 Sep. - Thur. 9 Sep.

Street scene, downtown Copenhagen.

Diary Pages 100-111: Copenhagen


Box 6 Cd 9 Copenhagen, Kronborg Castle, Thu. 9 Sep., 1954

Kronborg Castle

Diary Pages 108-109: Description of Castle.