Film, Motion Picture

The Andrews 1938, Betty's Cottage 1941

Silent color 8mm film containing footage shot by and of Chester J. Selden on several occasions. The film features footage shot at the Detroit Zoo, of several people at home, of a trip to a rural area with several men in Army uniforms, of another trip to a house in a rural area, of rowing, and of a snowfall.

The film opens with a shot of the he Horace H. Rackham Memorial Fountain at the Detroit Zoo. Then a woman is shown standing beside a sign at the zoo pointing toward "Snakes," "Tigers," "Lions," the "Beer Garden," and the "Jo Mendi Theatre." Shots follow of monkeys, tigers, porcupines, baboons, a rhino, birds, a bear, prairie dogs, hair sheep, deer, a ram, a Muscovy duck, and a peacock.

After a cut are scenes shot in a house of a woman and man with a baby. The woman is filmed as she makes a doily.

Next are several scenes likely taken on the same trip. A body of water, a country road, a dead deer, men in uniform gathered around a cottage and visiting a gas station, a truss bridge and dam, and a New York Central Railroad train passing are all show in this portion.

In another scene shot in a house, a woman sews using a sewing machine, two women looking through the May 1940 issue of Screen Guide magazine, a playful exchange happens between a man and woman, and a woman gets a manicure. Next dogs are filmed in the backyard, and a group of people are shown in a parking lot posing for the camera then getting into a car.

Another sequence likely taken on the same trip, begins with a man and woman posing for the camera, then a second man attempts to force the woman to drink something. Afterward a group of people and dogs are filmed outside of a wooden-sided house in a rural area.

Next a group of young people are shown row boating, two of the men wrestle, then the women dance.

The final shots consist of a squirrel and birds being fed, then of a snowfall over a neighborhood.