YouTube Video Promotes Shopping Local in 1938

DAYTON – The students laugh and squirm and look generally unnatural as they stand in large groups in front of a slowly panning movie camera. Business owners also look stiff as they pose for a short moving picture shot, some of them smoking cigarettes.

These are all citizens of Dayton in 1938, shown in a short 15-minute movie created to promote patronizing local merchants. Also shown in the video are many scenes showing business fronts on Dayton's Main Street and surrounding areas.

Several of the businesses portrayed are still around, including Elk Drug, Suffield's Furniture, Dayton Hardware Store (now Dingles), Columbia Chronicle-Dispatch, and Blue Mountain Cannery (now Seneca Foods).

The origin of the video is a mystery to us at The Times. It was posted last month by a YouTube user named "Arky Sparky," who has posted a number of old videos from various parts of the country. We were alerted to it last week by several Dayton residents.

The video is called "Dayton Washington 1938," and can easily be found with a YouTube search.

Its introduction begins with a deep-voiced announcer proclaiming the importance of local businesses in supporting roads and emergency services through their taxes. The intro ends with, "ladies and gentlemen, support, wholeheartedly, your local merchants." It is followed by a statement on the screen which says, "The following leading MERCHANTS have sponsored this program."

Movie images of local businesses are followed by shots of their owners and employees posing for the camera. These are interspersed with several shots of large groups of local high school and elementary school students. There are no still shots. A music soundtrack that sounds typical for movies of the era, accompanies the video.

While some of the businesses shown are familiar, many are not. They include auto dealers (Low Motors Chevrolet, Maughan Motor Co. and a Hudson and Terraplane dealer), gas stations (Texaco, Motorest and Blue Mountain Service Station), retail stores (Hamilton Hardware, Harvester Supply, Edwards Department Store, Z.E. Scott Lumber and Coal, Hechtner's 5 & 10 Cent Store, Moore Paint Shop, Columbia Market, Dayton Drug), and other businesses (Dayton Hotel, Columbia National Bank, Dayton Creamery, Rogers Construction, Bake Rite Bakery, Mill Stream Dairy).

If any of our "older" readers have memory of, or information about, the making of this movie, we'd love to hear from you.