One can only wonder what Rev. Massecar would think today of the legacy he left to local communities.
Archives Awareness Week in Wellington County started with a showing of a half dozen of the films Massecar created in Wellington County – specifically those filmed in Drayton, Elora, Palmerston, Hillsburgh, Rockwood and Erin.
The silent-film series, Stars of the Town, brings to life small town Ontario.
The story is in order to supplement his modest income, divinity student Rev. LeRoy (Roy) H. Massecar (1918-2003) travelled to small towns in Ontario, where he would film scenes of everyday life.
He had a passion for film at a time when people did not have home movies. The series was shot between 1947 and 1949. Massecar filmed people doing everyday things and after editing the films, he would return to the towns to screen them at community centres and town halls, charging a small admission.
The films were called Stars of the Town because the residents were indeed the stars.
His wife, Marion, donated his collection of films featuring 88 small towns in Ontario to the University of Western Ontario archives in 2005.
At that time, the archives converted the films to DVD format, which are available to order. The list of those films is now over 100.
Moorefield film
Despite the extensive list of films donated to the Western Archives, there appear to be a few hidden gems in the community.
Attending the event was Nancy Johnston, of Elora, who said her family owns the film taken in Moorefield and is in the midst of discussion about donating it.
“My dad bought it after the gentleman had taken the film and had came back a few years later [to show] it at the town hall. He’d offered it for sale, so my dad bought it.
“We didn’t realize for quite a few years, until about five years ago, that there were more of these [films]. We just thought we had one of Moorefield.”
It was filmed in the same time frame as the others.
“At one point, to preserve it, we put it on a VCR tape and put names to it because my mother and I could remember almost everyone on it.”
Johnston said when DVDs became popular, it was converted to that format with music added to the background.
“But we still have the original film as well.”
