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On the Big Screen


picture Ruth, center, at her Deerfield Fair tailoring exhibit
The year Ruth had an exhibit at the Deerfield Fair on Tailoring, with an Indian tied rug display to attract fair goers to the exhibit, she was also in a movie scene shot at the fair using new Cinerama technology.

Called Cinerama Holiday, the movie was written and produced by Louis de Rochemont, a Newington, NH resident who was a pioneer of widescreen films shot using the Cinerama process.

The film is a holiday adventure in Cinerama, which emphasizes spectacle and scenery. In it an American couple explores Europe while a Swiss couple explores the United States, including "the autumnal splendor of New Hampshire," according to a summary of a 1955 New York Times film review.

picture Husking bee
The scene - a husking bee. In her autobiography Ruth writes:

"We husked the corn so fast that the scene had to be tried twice as the crew wasn't ready. They angled natural light with 4 foot by 4 foot sliver reflectors, and arranged the children in a hay wagon. Each child had an apple and a balloon to keep him or her busy. When the first load of corn was gone, Edna's husband had to go back to Greenland and get some more ears for the second attempt to photograph the husking bee. The women in the scene were kissed when a red ear was found. I was next to Lester Maynard, and he found one!"

Ruth notes that while she was at the filming, Mrs. Dietta Pevear and her daughter, Marion, were in charge of the exhibit.

"Later, Mr. de Rochemont invited the participants in the husking bee to a Boston showing of Cinerama Holiday on a huge wide screen with a three-dimensional effect," Ruth continues. She attended.

Largely unseen for decades, Cinerama Holiday was released on Blu-ray in 2013 and there is a trailer for the movie on YouTube.