Robbins Barstow Oral History

Object number2010.001.0005

Date01/25/2010

ClassificationsOral Histories

Oral history interview subject Robbins Barstow

Oral history interviewer Stephen Fagin

ObjectOral history

Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

MediumBorn digital (.wav file)

DimensionsDuration: 34 Minutes

Terms

Collections

DescriptionAudio oral history interview with Robbins Barstow. An amateur filmmaker for over seventy years, Barstow's color home movie of his family's 1956 California vacation was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2008. Barstow was an active Democrat during the 1960 presidential election and saw Senator Kennedy at a Connecticut rally. Interview conducted via telephone on January 25, 2010 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is thirty-four minutes long.

Curatorial Commentary

Robbins Barstow passed away on November 7, 2010, less than ten months after this interview was recorded. His thirty-five-minute 16mm documentary, "Disneyland Dream," was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2008. "Disneyland Dream" chronicles his family's 1956 vacation after the Barstows won a week-long trip to Disneyland in a 3M Scotch contest. Rather than a typical disjointed family home movie, Barstow's unique film, in the words of critic and historian Kenneth George Godwin, is "an artfully constructed narrative using occasionally comical restagings and various camera effects, such as slow motion and reverse action, to evoke the entire family's excitement and pleasure in being the recipients of such an honour." The film may be viewed in full on YouTube: Disneyland Dream (1956) - Home Movie (youtube.com). An essay about the film by film conservator Liz Coffey may be found on the Library of Congress website here: film essay for "Disneyland Dream" (loc.gov). - Stephen Fagin, Curator