Each December, the Librarian of Congress names 25 films to the National Film Registry that are ‘culturally, historically or aesthetically significant’ and deemed worth of preservation. This year, alongside “The Asphalt Jungle,” “Deliverance,” and “The Terminator,” was a home movie of a Connecticut family’s trip to Disneyland.
Robbins and Meg Barstow of Wethersfield, Connecticut, along with their children Mary, David and Daniel were among 25 families who won a free trip to the newly opened Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., as part of a ‘Scotch Brand Cellophane Tape’ contest sponsored by 3M. The film follows the family as they visit Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Catalina Island, Knott’s Berry Farm, Universal Studios and Disneyland, all accompanied by Robbins’ droll narration. “When we made this movie back in 1956,” Barstow said, “none of us could possibly have imagined that it would come to this! It was just family fun, and such a neat story, about winning the contest.” The entire family was again gathered at the Wethersfield Barstow homestead on Christmas night this year. “We enjoyed so much watching the film again together on DVD, reliving that great family experience,” reports Barstow, “we are so excited and honored to have it named to the National Film Registry.”
Several year ago, Barstow donated the film, along with eleven other titles in the “Robbins Barstow 20th Century Family Home Movie Collection” to the Library of Congress, but has continued to show and distribute video versions of his films at festivals, symposia, as well as on the local Wethersfield Public Access Community Television.
Barstow has also been an ardent supporter of Home Movie Day, the international amateur film event, and he showed “Disneyland Dream” at the New Haven Home Movie Day in 2006 as well as at the Hartford International Film Festival earlier this year.
“Tarzan and the Rocky Gorge,” Barstow’s dramatic film from 1936, made when he was only 16, was included on the DVD “Living Room Cinema: Films from Home Movie Day”. Its enthusiastic reception prompted Barstow to begin putting digital copies of his films online, making them available to a new generation and viewers around the world. “Disneyland Dream” was an immediate Internet sensation, and has been downloaded nearly 33,000 times so far. One reviewer raved that “this is an absolute gem of a movie - it captures the era beautifully and brilliantly conveys the excitement surrounding the opening of Disneyland.”
Barstow, now 89 and still living in Wethersfield with his wife Meg, worked for many years for the Connecticut Education Association. Aside from his filmmaking, he is probably best known for his long-standing interest in saving the whales as one of the founders of the Cetacean Society, International.
“Disneyland Dream,” along with 15 other Barstow Travel Adventure titles, is available for viewing and download at the Archive.org site.
Complete list of 2008 National Film Registry titles