Thanks to the friendly people at Google, you won't trash my server's bandwidth by downloading the film. If the video below is too 'jumpy,' I'd recommend downloading it directly from Google - make sure you have Google Video Player installed though (it's easy). You can turn down the music if you like, as it was added by me: the original film is silent.

I immediately recognized the setting of this parade -- the block looks almost identical today, seventy years later. The buildings seen across the street, behind the paraders and revelers, is the 500 block of North Broadway, the short block between St Mary's Cathedral and the Great Northern railroad tracks.

At the South end, closest the camera, is an IGA store -- Fargo records show the building was built by H Idelkope, but the younger of you will recognize it as Duane Johnson Bookseller's building. I often rode my bike there to buy comics in the 1980s, and it is still a bookstore today even though Duane no longer runs it. There's two small shops just north of the IGA (both are still there, but I believe are unoccupied), and the two-story building with the brick stripes across the top is the Aggie Block -- from my childhood, it was Lantern Comics, who moved into the Aggie when the building they occupied across the street was razed to 'improve' the area by building an ugly strip mall that's 90% unoccupied today. The Aggie Block was refitted a few years back, just before the current explosion of Broadway improvements, and gained a lot of attention because it looked like the original building. As you can see, the front of the building hasn't changed in seventy years. The retail space is actually available right now, since Lantern closed last year, if you're looking. Since the building was built in 1926, it helps date the film.

You can't see them in the picture above, but the side of the IGA, off the left side of the frame, has two billboards along the wall. At first I wondered when those were removed, but then remembered locking my bike to them in the 1980s. They must have been removed sometime in the past twenty years or so. The Great Northern line is still the Amtrak line in town, so I'm sure track-side advertising for visitors was a reason for the billboards.

The further board, quite blurry, but in enlargement is an ad for Super Pyro Antifreeze, something quite necessary in November around here. The billboard is a bit strange -- it appears to have moving parts! consider these two frames, a minute apart:

There appears to be a strip down the middle, and across the top right half of the billboard -- in one frame, the front end of a truck is obscuring parts of the Super Pyro title, but in the other, the whole title is visible - but the truck's wheels and headlights are not completely covered. The mechanical nerd inside of me wishes the film showed more of this billboard, to see exactly how it operated.

The other proclaims -- "It's Diamond Walnut Time!" The statement is still relevant today -- Diamond Walnut Growers produce a large part of the world's walnuts, and no Thanksgiving turkey stuffing is complete without walnuts.

Pretty much all of the films originate from the AOUW, a fraternal organization created in the great Fraternal Order Outburst of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Their headquarters were even located here in Fargo, and both of their buildings still exist today -- more on those films later. As to be expected, besides the legions of soldiers walking in formation, the AOUW Float and the AOUW band were featured in this film.

The float is quite cool: it depicts the AOUW building (which later became the Pioneer Mutual Building), in its unaltered 3-story construction - this building was built in 1927, which further places the age of the film.

The plaque on the side of the float is quite interesting, and no doubt a sign of the times -- the top lines read, "20 employees own and pay taxes on their homes in fargo" On the left: "we insure the whole family." The image is too blurry to read the rest.

Now this kid, who crosses the street at the end of the parade, has it right: dressing in layers and sporting a bomber cap with ear flaps. November is chilly around here! If I were him, I'd have been disappointed by the lack of candy thrown by the military processions, but no doubt this was an exciting day, due to the lack of Playstations, TiVos, MySpaces, and LaserTags. It was a much simpler time back then, a time when a leather bomber cap was a regular part of the day's dress. I'll refrain from wondering what that hat would go for at auction today, because if the kid did things right, nothing was left of that cap by the time he was twelve. If you lived without computers, telephones, television, and celphones, your only option was to go knock around the neighborhood with your friends, and that tended to wear out clothes.

Sports fans, take note: On November 11th of whatever year this parade occurred, Fargo played Grand Forks at "Dakota Field" -- my guess is this was what we now know as "Dakotah Field," the football field at North Dakota State University...which was the North Dakota Agricultural College, or "AC," at the time.

There's not enough of the buildings in the background to tell exactly where this is, because most schools in Fargo had those 'peaks' in the 1930s. The football footage is unfortunately short, and too heavy on the introduction. Still, seeing a football game, on film, from this era, from this region, is a rare thing.

Derek - this is AMAZING! Good for you for saving a true piece of history - you were obviously meant to find that film. Thanks - I really enjoyed watching it.

--arteme , 03/06/2006 12:45:28