Tiny Town Home Movie, circa 1931

Home movie film of the James W. Bancker family from Summit, New Jersey, visiting Tiny Town, Colorado, and surrounding area about 1931. The film shows scenes of cars driving on a dirt canyon road along a rushing creek (possibly Turkey Creek Canyon), then the family at Tiny Town, then looking out from Lookout Mountain. 

Using census records and an obituary, we were able to piece together who the family is. Presumably the man (father) was James William Banker, born in London in 1874, high school education, mayor of Summit from 1936-1940 and vice president of Western Electric Co., worked 40 hrs. per week and earned a salary of $5,000 per year in 1940. Their house, which they owned, at 133 Hobart Road in Summit, New Jersey, was valued at $40,000 in 1930 and $50,000 in 1940.

One of the women is probably Ethel, Mr. Bancker's wife, who would have been about 48 in the film, was a housewife with two years of college education. The child would have been either James Jr. at 9 yrs. old, or Robert K. at 7 yrs. old. Both of whom later served in the military. James was a POW held two years in Germany and Poland before escaping. Robert died in the Korean War. There's no way to know which boy was shown in the film, but we think it is the younger one.

Film has been digitized and is available on our digital collections site.