“Taking sound movies of Minnesota settlers boarding ST. MIHIEL at San Francisco”
From the Mat-Su Borough Sanbote collection.
Excerpt from a letter written by Lawrence Vasanoja aboard the St Mihiel May 5th, mailed from Seward to his sister Sigrid back in Minnesota:
“I don’t remember what I have written & what not there has been so much to see, hear and do that half the time don’t know just what we are at. At San Francisco they sure gave us some welcome. Signs all over (Welcome Alaska Colonist), the city band, Mayor & Chief of Police met us at the depot and escorted us to our hotels. They gave us street car tickets, theatre tickets, fruit & presents for the kids and again yesterday on board ship the captain & nurse dished out birthday cake, candy & presents to the kids. Sound movies were taken of the whole performance. We have several news agents & Paramount Sound Movie operators on board. When we left Frisco there must have been at least 8 movie cameras clicking and 50 newspaper cameramen. They snapt 3-4 pictures at the same time. Must have been some 3500 or 4000 people seeing us off, mostly curiosity seekers and newspaper men. Some day you may see us on the newsreels in moving pictures.”
Excerpt from the Works Progress Administration newsreel Three Billions to Use, 1935. The ten-minute video is available at https://archive.org/details/ThreeBillionsToUse1935
