 The
San Francisco Museum and Historical Society and the city’s
public library teamed up recently to produce “Amusing America,” an
award-winning, free exhibit located at Pier 45 at Fisherman’s
Wharf. The documentary, which won the “Videographer’s
Award of Excellence 2005” (www.videoawards.com),
chronicles participatory commercial amusements in American cities—San
Francisco in particular—and how they changed the way Americans
lived.
Written by Ink Mendelsohn and directed by videographer/editor Garry
L. Newkirk, visitors to Amusing America are transported back
in time to a new era in America when the lights came on; the trolleys
rolled, and recorded music and the first movies were invented. Beginning
with the gilded Age of the 1880s and ‘90s, world’s fairs,
penny arcades, swimming baths, skating rinks, dance pavilions, amusement
and theme parks have given ordinary American affordable entertainment.
To tell the story, the exhibition
is supported with an 8-minute video displayed on four flat panel screens
that takes vintage photographs and puts them in motion along with
music and sound FX, which were supplied from Productiontrax.com. “The use of sound FX enhanced the
film, giving it a more natural feel that made you forget that you were
looking at still photos,” says Newkirk.
From the sunny California shore
at Santa Cruz and Santa Monica amusement parks, to the banks of the
Great Lakes at Cedar Point to the Mother of Them All, Coney Island,
they are still laughing and screaming together. “Amusement
parks are the great melting pots of urban America,” comments Stan
Barker of the National Amusement Park Historical Association. In
fact, these amusement venues might be called the last level playing
fields in an America with an ever-widening economic divide.
The film also has been chosen
to be screened at this fall's International Independent Film & Video
festivals 2005 in New York and Los Angeles. The event features films
and videos from around the world, including Canada, Spain, France,
China, Germany, Brazil, Ireland, England and the U.S.
On the web: San
Francisco Public Library
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