RARE 14’ Original Kodak 16mm Film WW2 WWII WORLD WAR 2 Footage Action Photos

Description: Apparently this one requires a little history on whats here & why it’s here, so you’re going to have to read if this item is of interest to you. This listing is for 14’ of film. I believe the other two pieces I have listed ( a 11’ & a 9’ strip) may have come from the same reel. I thought this might be D-day invasion Normandy France but someone messaged me & said it wasn’t… I do not know & will see if I can find other parts with better clues, however I do believe this may be one of the five beaches they landed on in France. See all 3 listings there’s war planes, boats unloading, bombs & explosions & men running for their lives. I don’t think it’s a training exercise. Please read… The Kodak film is marked 42 which I’ve recently learned means that’s when Kodak manufactured the reel. The photographer from whose estate these items were extracted was Navy enlisted & deployed during WW2 & was a professional photographer his entire life. In early 2014, my business partner & I were asked by a friend to enter an abandoned photo studio / photo development center & attached home (7000 sq ft) to see if there was anything inside worth saving before the demolition. The city photographer had lived & operated his business there since the 1950s. It had already been abandoned for a couple years at that time. My partner had 30 years as an antique dealer under her belt & I (4th generation antique dealer) both having owned antique malls & having spent many years setting up at shows all over the country since the late 1980s, I suppose we seemed a good people to ask. Our friend & at the time landlord of the commercial building where we ran our antique business, had purchased the 75+ year old building, and the contents, and had scheduled the demolition of this nearly historic building & favorited photo studio, and home of the photographer to our community for over half a century. Having put him off on entering the building for months, as we were busy setting up a new business at that time, and honestly weren't excited about doing him this "favor", but in February 2014, we had a few extra minutes in our day, and nothing has been the same since. Neither of us had any idea what we were about to walk into that day, what was there, or how it would change our lives forever. Walking inside was like going into a time capsule. Everything I knew and had learned growing up suddenly became more important. Cabinets from the 1950's, vintage photo advertisements still hanging by the customer service counters & old cameras & undeveloped film lying all over the room, in stuffed & stacked closets, all with layers of dust which made it apparent that very little if anything had been moved in a while. There was no electricity & it had surely been that way for some time upon our arrival. The place was locked & boarded up for the most part, chained in some places, and entry at first through a back door proved almost dangerous with the attempted blockades that had been put there to deter breaking in, yet there were certain signs of homeless having come and gone since everyone else left. The building seemed enormous & walls had been added downstairs throughout the studio & developing areas over the years, making it almost maze like. In the dark, having no light coming into the extensive areas for development & storage, it was even eerie, but for the most part, it was like George just walked out one day leaving everything behind. It was strange. With only vintage camera stands & brochures left inside the mid century modern cabinets & pegboard displays still in tact with old and even vintage inventory, cameras were strewn about the main retail area as if they had been pilfered through, irresponsibly, perhaps more valuable ones had been stolen or removed. Older items of less relevance to the 2000s photography industry, were stored in the remaining antique furniture, drawers & closets or even in bedrooms in the upstairs home or in one of the 2 attached apartments that had been over time, FILLED with nostalgia, unused or no longer relevant equipment, old unclaimed photos, boxes & boxes of slides, projectors, cameras, vinyl records (about 8000 of them), tube radio cabinets, phonographs, record players antique to modern, and no less than 15 sets of speakers wired up & distributed through the building downstairs where George & his deceased wife Dolly apparently filled every room of the facility with music daily. Remnants of old train sets, dolls, and home made pottery were left about nearly every room not occupied by photo collections or photo equipment. Upstairs in the home, a library of books that took years to sort, not to mention art pieces and other photo collections that were obviously kept for historical value had been forgotten and left as though someone intended to come back, but never did. Mind blown, after about 2 hours of literally being lost in time, and at some points LOST in the dark maze of developing & storage rooms downstairs, which were oddly still cold with the cement walls that had been added to obtain that environment, coupled with 60 to 70 years of history & important vintage items, we called our friend. Both of us, completely confused as to how everything here was literally abandoned & left to decay, asked for the demolition to be called off immediately. We were even further dumbfounded when he explained that he was paying someone a handsome fee to "clean out the garbage" & take it all to the local landfill” before the building's destruction which was scheduled only weeks away. A huge chunk of our city's history, and George Fulmers's life work, was about to be forgotten forever. Over the following 35 days, after contacting anyone and everyone we could think might & should help with this enormous but very necessary task, with ZERO INTEREST from anyone including the local museums or historical society, we closed our business to accomplish it ourselves. We hired help & worked around the clock to save the items you’ll start to see here as we decide what we can sell to finally bring recognition to this estate, and determine what needs to remain WITH the estate for possible later placement as a whole. 10 years later, antiques, art & records & books have been sold & placed, while the photograph collection has very intentionally remained completely intact & together until this last year, when we started to list a few nude and army photos to help cover the continuing costs of storage, which over the years have now easily surpassed $50,000 while we have spent time only here & there actually inspecting or trying to sort through what we estimate to be over 100,000 photographs not including the limited 16mm & a few 8mm films, and boxes full of slides that we found properly stored inside. There are still images in the collection that have not been viewed by us. Not as many now, but still some. We are just starting to inspect the 8 mm and 16 mm film that was extracted. I'm looking at 21 rolls of 16 mm film that I have no idea the contents over the upcoming days & weeks. The film that is being offered in this particular listing was found with the others but was not found ON a reel, it was loose or had a clothespin holding it together. I believe the 3 pieces I'm currently selling, (and it may be the only war footage we have, I don’t know yet because to this day I have not looked at the other 21 reels) … but I believe these 3 strips are all the same reel that has been broken into parts over time because of its age and lack of completely proper storage. It is obviously real war footage. It is obviously not Florida. There are obviously hills, explosions & men running for their lives. There are also boats, unloading soldiers on a beach. A war plane in one part... the film was manufactured by Kodak in 1942 … George went to France with the Navy. So… At first I assumed this had to be Normandy France, D-Day invasion. I am not a war buff... I just gave you the history of how I ended up with this estate. The estate that no one wanted to help with, that suddenly everyone thinks I should give away because of its historical relevance. I have provided this history here today because upon listing these three pieces of what I believe are very important film, I have been attacked and even offered a dollar. Now I get how it would be very very hard to understand without this history how someone would have something like this but we are just getting started listing some very important items from an estate that is very important to my local area but had things in it that are relevant to many many others too. George Fulmer served in the Navy during World War II and had a slew of negatives that were found on his back porch out in the weather destroyed. To this day I can't imagine why he would've done that, and we never found the original prints, as there would've been hundreds, unless they were moved or stolen before we got there, which is entirely possible. But sadly the photo negatives had literally crumbled and you could barely see the images all the pieces were stuck together and the main thing that identified what was in there was the writing on the box they were in. So I'm not going to defend myself when you email me and tell me I should give this stuff to the museum or the library of Congress because believe me I spent enough time reaching out to people who were not interested in helping us save this most important collection. I paid for storage bills instead of food sometimes so please don’t attack me. I closed my business for 35 days to extract these items when no one wanted to help so please don’t attack me. I believe there should be a documentary about it if you have any interest in helping identify some of the things that we have then kindly email me with the information you might have but don't attack me. I put my heart and soul into preserving these pictures over the last 10 years and I would appreciate your appreciation for the photographs that this man spent his life taking and keeping. If you don't like my price on something make me an offer - If you have some information feel free to offer it. I am open to anything you have to say and I can send you more pictures eBay only gives me room for 24 here I have no idea what this footage is from but I do believe 99% it is World War II footage that George Fulmer quite possibly took himself. There were over 300 cameras in the home and at least 50 of them were for film. And I know he carried a camera everywhere he went. I can't imagine he would not have come home with footage of this war. Several months after moving the collection & it’s parts to a facility where it could be sorted, I made it these sad but very necessary phone call to my friend contacted attorney to obtain the copyrights to we had before George passed away. My friend, who knew George personally, had that done for us. Sadly, I never met George before he passed away, but when you sort through 70 years of someone’s life, you kinda get attached. We promised ourselves to preserve these photos we saved & to get them to the right place one day to document his life & the lives of so many others! I wish I had more information on this film. Nonetheless my pictures are the best description along with the history I have given you here and all I can do is give you a COA that tells you where it was found. Thank You LOTS of ACTION on this 14’. Explosions, people running, men lying down shooting, advancing a hill. Overall, Fair condition. Lots of pictures were taken for my best description. There are hundreds of usable frames. I’d say at least 25-30% is good for use or prints, maybe more depending on your skills & resources but I’d rather be conservative Shipping will be by priority mail unless otherwise requested.

Price: 2500 USD

Location: Saint Petersburg, Florida

End Time: 2024-10-02T17:41:33.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD