Time to get this blog going again !. Recently Auntie Soo-Jan and Uncle Mel shared a remarkable DVD with all the family . Let me have Auntie Soo-Jan tell you about it ....
"In 1987, we went to Guy's house for an Easter dinner. We were treated to a wonderful treasure of assembled footages of BaBa's old home movie clips put together by Guy and Jack (Sr.) into a video. The audio background of the video captured all of our laughter, explanations, exclamations and excitement that we experienced watching these old family doings at that party. Later, each of us siblings received a copy of this Jue Family History video. Recently, I became concerned that over time, the video may deteriorate to the point where these old images will be lost so I had the video converted into a DVD at Costco "
Over the next few weeks I will convert some of the clips from the DVD to You Tube videos and share them on the blog .
The first installment of the You Tube Videos is titled "Earliest Jue Family Movies". As many know my Dad, Jack Sr. , has been a keen movie maker and videographer all his life. What many may not know is that my grandfather , San Tong Jue , started all this movie making by making home movies of his family when he was in his 20's . This collection of early home movies features San Tong Jue , his wife Rose , their children , Jack Sr. , and Joan , and San Tong's sisters Dorothy and Corrine . Also on the movie are Jack and Joan's first cousins ,Maxine, Lorraine , and June , who are children of San You Jue (San Tong's brother) and Maxine May Kam.
There is a scripted train robbery movie that also includes Rose's brother Willie. This movie is remarkable when you realize that the young stars of the movie , Jack and Joan , recently celebrated their 82nd and 80th birthdays . The movies were shot circa the 1930's . These are movies from what I have called the " Halcyon Days" of the Jue clan , a time of joy and happiness and prosperity . Jue Joe's hard work in establishing the clan in America had paid off , and the family was doing well despite the Depression . I have also embedded this video in my previous post "Halcyon Days" which has nice still pictures from this period as well. At the end of this video is a preview of the next installment which is the trip that San Tong made to the village in China to marry his 2nd wife Yee Lai Ping some years after the tragic death of his first wife Rose.
My father, San Tong Jue, had never seen a movie when he was a boy in Sum Gong Village, China. Upon arrival in San Francisco in 1918, at the age of thirteen, he was taken by his father's friend to see a Charlie Chaplin silent film for the first time. "It was so magical, so amazing," exclaimed San Tong Jue. "I saw Charlie Chaplain light a cigarette and smoke blew out of his mouth and into the air. I thought it was real and jumped out of my seat and yelled with such excitement. The audience turned to me and told me to 'Hush up!'" That was the beginning of my father's love for photography and filmmaking. In his spare time, as a young man, he always had his brownie camera or movie camera (with hand crank)ready to catch the special moments in life. And it was a treat for my siblings and I to gather around the living room after dinner and watch our father's home movies, more Chaplain movies, and cartoons like Felix the Cat and Betty Boop. Auntie Soo-Yin.
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