This week’s post is a beautiful, relaxing family get together from 1948, sent to us by Diane Dobronte in California. She offers some background:

This film is a real treasure for my family as it is the only record I’ve found of my Grandparents. It was shot in 1948 by my Dad, Frank Dobronte, on a visit to see his family in Trenton, NJ. My Grandparents: John and Rose Dobronte migrated to the United States from Hungary in 1906. They married in 1911 and went on to have 10 children, five sons and five daughters. They were all hardworking, tireless and had a lot of fun together.

This looks like a Saturday or Sunday at 940 Franklin St, Trenton – my grandparents house. Four of the five handsome sons are there: as they come out the door, Ernie, Bill, Zoil, Frank (my dad) and Grandpop (son John is missing). Three of the daughters, Maggie, Ethel and Bette are there as well as three of the wives: Zoil’s wife, Lorraine, and Ernie’s wife, Audrey with their baby son, Erniejr… always known to me as “little Ernie”; and Sylvia my Uncle Bill’s wife (daughters Helen and Rose are not in the film).

My Grandpop was known as a wonderful gardener and he shows some of his garden off in part of this clip. The little boy with the fireman’s hat on is James Schultz, son of Maggie… (we always called him Sarge-I’m not sure why)… he didn’t become a fireman. My Grandpop was a poet and wrote poems to the love of his life, Grandmom. Unfortunately I did not learn to speak Hungarian and missed a lot of what they said to me… but there were always smiles, laughter and lots of delicious Hungarian dishes whenever we visited – I remember a feeling of deep love.

In the clip they are all coming out of the side door that went into the kitchen… lots of good things were made in there!

Be sure to visit the Internet Archive for a full-resolution version of this excerpt and additional footage.

Posted: August 7th, 2007 under 1940s

I enjoyed watching this 1948 home movie featuring a very pleasant family. Wonder how their life was through the years.

Lovely little movie here with a farm (?) family just mosying about in their abode. I'm sure this was a family gettogether of some kind. From what it looks like, there's the mom, dad, and 3 sons. They all have wives, and they know their place. After that, a trip to the beach! In color!