The Good

The second part of my New Jersey trip last month was to visit with some of my ‘older than me’ cousins and learn as much about the family as possible.  And to pick up some film.  A LOT of film.

This much film:

1. 8 Unlabeled reels
2. Summer 1956 John Barone
3. Summer Vacation 1967
4. Krissy 1st Birthday
5. Xmas 1967 & Aunt Mary
6. Aunt Mary & Jane’s 5th
7. Freidas?
8. Mane July 1970
9. Xmas 1972
10. Jane’s Birthday 1972
11. Summer 1954  Jean, Doris, Gloria & Kids; John on swing
12. 1956 Birthday Party
13. Feb 1952 Miami
14. 1956
15. Sep 1959?
16. Monaco?
17. Jan 1952
18. 1958 Uncle Stitch
19. 1969 Jane’s 10th Birthday
20. Anna’s Engagement
21. Xmas 1969
22. Uncle Mack and Family 1953
23. Feb 1952 Miami (2)
24. Summer 1958
25. Las Vegas
26. Denmark
27. Jackie 1952
28. Gerry & Doris Wedding Copy
29. Jane Communion
30. April 1967
31. PA Farm Vacation 1964
32. April-May 1952 Gerry & Doris Wedding, Honeymoon
33. 1954 & 1957  Ft Knox to Spaghetti Festival
34. Maureen 1957-1958
35. Xmas 1958
36. Xmas 1964
37. Nov 1958 – May 65 (Damaged?)
38. 70?
39. 1960 Reunion

That’s 46 reels of Fischkelta/Pantoliano film goodness.  Why? Because I was able to transfer some film from before and thought I’d be able do it again.

The Bad

I thought the film I had successfully transferred was 8mm.  It was, in fact, 16mm.  Who’d have thought 8mm made that much difference….but it DOES.  There is no straightforward way of transferring it.

So I bought an 8mm projector on eBay; and I was “antiquing” in PA after coming home and came across this 8mm editor, and it still works.

I was able to preview some of the unknown reels.

The only way to transfer 8mm film yourself is to project it on a wall and film the project.  Essentially, bootleg your own video.  It works. But it looks like garbage.

The Ugly

The other way is to have a company that does this sort of thing do it for you.  They clean the film and use a VERY expensive machine to capture the film frame by frame.  Then they usually pop it on a DVD with some hokey music and you’re done.

They charge by the foot of film.

They charge a LOT.

This much.

Now I am pretty sure that there IS NOT IN FACT 4300 feet of film, and this company charges you only for what they transfer, not what you give them.  But it still going to be expensive, but the quality will be good….

But alas, I have reached the limit of altruism for this project.

So what to do?  I am inviting you to ….

Sponsor a Reel!

Think Sponsor a Highway but with film — if we each are willing to kick in a little $$$$ all of these films can be preserved for everyone now and everyone to come.

Right now we have 16 sponsors.  The more that will help, the lower the cost for everyone!

 

Thanks to an excellent afternoon with Doris Olsen and Rita Borrelli, we finally have an image of Anthony Pantoliano (a.k.a. Uncle Squidgy).

He is on the left.  This is a still from the VHS transfer of Doris Olsen’s wedding video (itself a transfer from a 8mm film –more on that soon).

So today, I was duped in to crashing the wedding brunch of Mary Pantoliano’s great grand daughter.  Thankfully the family was very gracious about it.

Apart from meeting/re-connecting with many of the Cousins, I was given a package of photos from Patricia by way of her sister.  Some awesome stuff!

Like this one of Uncle Stitch (in the white hat) as an adult — the only one so far.

As well as this one, which helped me ID folks in another photo entirely.

Anything concrete about Pasquale Pantoliano is the holy grail as far as I am concerned.  Thanks to S. O’Neill giving me some anecdotal information about his death, I was able to locate his obituary from the Hudson Observer.

They had to run it twice because (typically) they couldn’t spell his last name right — even the correction was wrong.

 

The more fascinating find was the page 2 article on 11/12/1920 where the Pantoliano family pleads for Charles Pantoliano to come home, as he went missing after the accident.  According to Mack, Charlie always felt guilty about some accident where a man died….

 

It also confirms that there was an Anthony Pantoliano, for whom I’ve not yet had any personal or anecdotal reference.  Possibly because his son changed his name to Paine.