A Hollywood Tour of Scottsboro, AL

RE-MASTERED VERSION

Beginning with the opening street scene, the content here has been fully re-digitized and enhanced to 60fps, providing a smoother viewing experience.

Timeline thumbnails make it easier to visually browse & play each scene. If you prefer the previous version, you can find it HERE.

In 1941 - Bob Word, Sr., the owner of the RITZ Theater in Scottsboro, Alabama, joined forces with filmmaker Lloyd Royal of Meridian, Mississippi to produce a promotional film showcasing the local people and businesses around town.

Over 80 years later, Bob Word, Jr., the son of Word Sr., provided an aging copy of the film to Annette Bradford of the Jackson County Historical Association. The film has was first digitized by Bradley Reeves of Knoxville, TN - inspiring me to restore it further. With additional cleaning and treatment of the deteriorating film I re-digitized frame-by-frame with excellent results.

Visit: The Jackson County Historical Association (JCHA)

Click icons to copy direct links to film scenes

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Dedicated to Robert Donald Word Jr.

3 Feb 1934 - 22 Sep 2023

Bob Word, Jr. 1941 & 2023 with Elizabeth Payne Word

Prior to the advent of the home movie camera and the ubiquitousness of the camera phone, there was the local film. This cultural phenomenon, produced across the country from the 1890s to the 1950s, gave ordinary people a chance to be on the silver screen without leaving their hometowns. Through these movies, residents could see themselves in the same theaters where they saw major Hollywood motion pictures. Traveling filmmakers plied their trade in small towns and cities, where these films were received by locals as being part of the larger cinema experience.

Martin L. Johnson Main Street Movies: The History of Local Film in the United States

My grandfather, Dr. Samuel P. Hall Jr., was one of only two doctors in Scottsboro during the 1940s. I utilized his 16mm Keystone projector; retrofitted with LED light source, stepper-motor, and a machine vision camera with macro lens. Over 65,000 individual frames were captured and processed to generate the clips presented here.