This is 16mm amateur film taken on and around Lake Geneva Wisconsin during the 1930s. Much of the film was taken in front of George Williams College Camp. This camp, and some of the buildings show, still stand today, and the camp, now operated by Aurora University, is run in much the same manner and serves the same purposes as it did back then. There are a few shots of "E" and "A" sailboats, although most of the sailing footage is in Part 2. (I have more sailing footage than what I posted in either of these two videos). The narration was added in 1995. The film is set to play at 16 frames per second.

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This is 16mm amateur film taken on and around Lake Geneva Wisconsin during the 1930s. Most of this footage concentrates on various ILYA sailing races, featuring mostly E and A boats. I have more sailing footage than what I have posted here. The narration was added in 1995. The film is set to play at 16 frames per second.

WILLIAMS BAY — Thanks to a California man who’s sharing his family history on YouTube, it’s possible to get a nostalgic peek at life at a Lake Geneva-area summer camp during the 1930s.

John Meyer, a Chicago native, spent summers as a child in the 1950s and ’60s at the George Williams College summer camp in Williams Bay. His father and grandfather both were trustees of the private liberal arts college. Meyer Lodge on campus bears the family name.

“College camp was a major part of our family,” Meyer said in a phone interview from his home in Carmel, Calif. “Trustee meetings in the summer were always at the college camp, so the family would spend two weeks there every summer.”

The tradition was passed down by Meyer’s father, whose own idyllic summers sailing and swimming at the camp in the 1930s were recorded by Meyer’s grandmother. A budding photographer, she took plenty of black and white photos, but also film footage, using an early 16-mm movie camera, purchased in 1929 by her husband.

Growing up, Meyer remembered seeing the films only once, when his dad bought a projector. But in the mid-1990s, when he was involved in video conferencing for his business, he realized the potential of the footage. He transferred the silent film to video, and asked his dad to watch those old home movies once again.

“Dad was 75 at the time,” Meyer remembered. “Mom was there, too. I hooked up a microphone to add audio to the tape. I told him, ‘Tell me what you see.’”

Meyer's YouTube channel is the full story in the e-edition of Walworth County Sunday, www.youtube.com/johnmeyer77.

Read the full story in the e-edition of Walworth County Sunday, HERE.

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