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Family Films, Part III

I don’t have all of Ben Hacken’s film output, so I don’t know how often he took movies of family events. I have only four such events over a 15-year period, beginning with the footage of Zanvil Samuel Feuerstein, my great-grandfather, in 1937. But this one is the gem of the collection.

It is the wedding of my mother’s first cousin, Sylvia Feuerstein, and George Braun on October 11, 1947. Those nimble with the numbers will jump to the conclusion that Sylvia and George have been married now for 65 years. It is the gem because it’s far and away the longest-running of the Ben Hacken films I have—nearly seven and a half minutes. I’m not sure of all the relatives it shows, but I’m working on identifying as many as I can, and then perhaps coming up with a stop-action clip of some sort that identifies everyone.

What a 65 years it has been for Sylvia and George—four sons, ten grandchildren, four great-grandchildren!

Many have commented that they wish they knew how these family stories I’ve been posting turned out, and there’s an easy way to find out. The Feuerstein Family Tree is online in both a graphical version and a text version. I find it much easier to understand a family history and grasp the family relations from the graphical tree—which is a flash-based tool that enlarges when you click on it—but many others have said they much prefer the text tree because it shows on iPhones and iPads and is not a clunky as the graphical tree.

The upshot of this clip, and the others I’ve been posting, is that it’s important to preserve and share family history. It is a living thing that helps each of us understand who we are and where we’ve been, and sometimes, it can even show us where we may be heading. I am thankful that his film, and the others from the Ben Hacken collection, fell into my hands and that I’m able to bring it back to life.

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  • bev morse November 21, 2012, 4:51 pm

    paul – lovelovelove it – and i thought MY wedding looked like the jewish mafia! (look at my photos – shot by larry fink – friend of ours – the village, stockbridge/mass school, etc – brilliant photog) –

    HUGS and thank for including us in –
    bev&steve

  • Robert Rand November 21, 2012, 5:56 pm

    Mr. Paul,
    I have a similar, grainy 16 mm color film of my parents wedding in Toledo, Ohio on August 14, 1941. A few months later, my dad was off for World War II. My mom and dad didn’t see each other for the next four years – except in newsreels. My dad became an aide to General George S. Patton so she would see him at the movies standing behind the legendary “Old Blood and Guts” as US soldiers rolled through North Africa and into Sicily. Thanks for sharing – sending best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving out to you and your family!
    Mr. Bob

  • Michael Braun November 29, 2012, 9:02 pm

    Wow, wow, wow. Thank you Paul for bringing this film to life. What a pleasure it is to see my parents kiss and dance on their wedding day. Seeing my four granparents and so many faces of relatives brought tears to my eyes. Fortunately, I spoke to my parents today, but what I would do to be able to have one more conversation with some of the people in this film.
    Love to you and all the Skolnicks