American Farmer Movie - 1953, Blazey Family | Ford Motor Company

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• published: 11 Apr 2015
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The following information is from a newspaper article in the summer of 1953 - likely Canandaigua's 'Daily Messenger'. The article started with: "Mr. and Mrs. Everett Blazey of the Rochester Road and members of the family are the central characters in a 16mm color film being made on the Blazey farm for the Ford Motor Company. This film entitled "The American Farmer" is being made by MPO Productions of New York for inclusion in the Ford Motor Company's series, "Americans at Home". With one exception the entire cast is made up of the Blazey family and their neighbors. William (Tony) Imof, a non-professional actor from New York will be included in portions of the film. (The article further describes how the 600 acre Blazey farm nearly fit the requirements for the film.) The Blazey farm produces cash crops such as peas, hay, grain, dry beans and sweet and field corn and usually carries between 50 to 100 Holstein heifer feeders. The 30 minute movie will show the everyday activities of Mr. and Mrs. Blazey ; their son Everett Jr., who farms as a partner of his father; a younger son, Edward; and a daughter Roberta. The Blazey's have two other daughters, Mrs. William Borncamp and Mrs. Richard E. Hook whose homes are both near Cheshire. Long active in community affairs and farm association work, Mr. Blazey holds the following offices; a member of the executive committee of the Ontario County Farm Bureau; president of the Ontario County Agricultural Society and a director of the Farm and Home Bureau and 4-H Club Association. In addition, he is vice president of the Farmers Production Credit Association, a director of Thompson Hospital, a Justice of the Peace in the Town of Farmington, a member of the advisory committee of the Canandaigua Office of the Lincoln Rochester Trust Company and a director of the Genessee Valley Regional Marketing Authority. He is also a trustee of the Perinton Methodist Church. His hobby is flying his own light plane and he is a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and a charter member of the New York State Flying Farmers Associations. Fully as active, Mrs. Blazey is chairman of the County Home Bureau Executive Committee, a member of the executive committee of the county 4-H Clubs, former chairman of the Mertensia Home Bureau Unit and leader of the Jolly Homemakers 4-H Club of which her daughter, Roberta is vice president. She is also active in church and Red Cross work. When the film is completed and edited Mr. Baer (unit manager for MPO Productions) indicated that up to 200 copies will be available through Ford dealers and through other usual channels of distribution for 16 mm movies. With favourable weather, Peasley Bond, unit cameraman, expects to complete operations by Aug 15. Including wives and children 11 members of the NPO production unit are staying at the Greenwood Inn, East Lake Road, Canandaigua. About this YouTube Movie. A digital copy of this film was provided to me via Roberta Blazey a few years ago. It was digitized from a VHS film and hence lost much of the original 16mm quality. However, the story is there and the audio quality is quite good. As a student in Canandaigua Elementary school I can remember seeing this filmed played over the years in our school auditorium. I was always proud of those days - in the mid to late 1960s. Mr. and Mrs. Everett Blazey are now deceased as well as Everett Jr. Edward Blazey lives with his wife Mary in Lima, New York. Robert and her husband Patrick live in Canandaigua. Joan Borncamp (nee Blazey) lives in Canandaigua and Olive Hook (nee Blazey) lives in Kingston, Ontario Canada. More interesting information about the movie was provided by Roberta Bolger (nee Blazey) in April 2015. The cemetery shot was likely recorded at the Hathaway Cemetery across Hwy. 332 from the former King House. There was a cemetery in ‘the back forty’ but it didn’t have an iron fence around it. Hwy 332 is the main highway in front of the Blazey home. Today the Hwy is four lane and all the Blazey buildings are gone with the exception of the large cinder block barn. Mr. and Mrs. Blazey sold the farm many years ago and the property become home to the Finger Lakes Race Track. The Ford Motor Company was concerned that Mr. Blazey did not use Ford equipment (or implements manufactured by Ford) during the harvest. Some of the equipment was International Harvester- a competitor. Ford insisted the harvest scenes be re-filmed with Ford equipment. At this point the harvest was over at the Blazey farm and a new location needed to be found. Ford flew the film crew and Everett Blazey to Calgary, Alberta where grain was still standing and filmed the scene with Ford equipment. Roberta said ‘Dad was wearing a sweater in Alberta and it was way too hot in Canandaigua for wearing a sweater during the harvest’. She noticed MPO Productions also called her Alberta rather than Roberta…maybe they had Calgary on their minds?