If you have fond memories of the summer of 1957 and would like to revisit it, you have a 10-minute window of opportunity.
Recently unearthed movie footage from the 20th All-American Soap Box Derby captures Akron in living color during that glorious weekend.
Promoters weren’t exaggerating when they promised “the greatest of all derbies” that August. Akron’s big event featured an impressive celebrity lineup: Jimmy Stewart, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Dinah Shore and George Montgomery. An estimated 75,000 people jammed Derby Downs for the Sunday race.
Akron amateur filmmaker Richard Mitten was there to capture the experience. He had amazing access to the weekend’s activities and recorded the fun on 16-millimeter film.
The silent footage hadn’t been seen for decades until nephew Mark Mitten, 55, a business strategy consultant in Chicago, borrowed it from a Columbus cousin and asked an Illinois film house to convert it to digital video. The derby was among 20 reels that Richard Mitten recorded in the 1950s and stored in metal canisters.
“It’s kind of a surprise to see what you get,” Mark Mitten said. “There’s some marvelous things, including my parents’ wedding at St. Bernard’s. How many people have the good fortune of having film footage of their parents being married back in 1957?”
Mark, the son of Robert and Hellen Mitten of Akron, attended Case Elementary, Litchfield Junior High and Firestone High School. His father started the Hesselbart & Mitten advertising agency. Mark’s other uncle, Rayy Mitten, was a reporter for the Akron Times-Press in the 1930s and Akron Beacon Journal in the 1940s.
The family’s creativity was passed down to Mark Mitten, who served as a producer on the second and third seasons of NBC’s The Apprentice, led Chicago’s unsuccessful bid for the 2016 Olympics and is helping produce a documentary about film critic Roger Ebert.
Producing the Soap Box Derby footage was a lot easier than some of his other projects. Mitten didn’t have to do much because his uncle was such a good cameraman and director.
“Frankly, this is his film,” Mitten said. “It’s a great story that he told. I did very little editing to it.”
A trip back in time
Viewers will want to pause frequently when they watch the 10-minute film. It starts out in downtown Akron, which is adorned with fluttering flags and colorful banners welcoming the 159 champions competing in the All-American.
The director drives up and down South Main Street, capturing the excitement of a vibrant city. Streets are clogged with 1950s automobiles and sidewalks teem with families.
Store signs whiz past: Carlton’s, Koch’s, Lang’s, Kramer’s, Bonds, Shulan’s, Dale’s, Bear’s, Federman’s and, of course, Polsky’s and O’Neil’s. Attentive viewers will notice the Allen, Strand, Palace and Loew’s theaters. A WAKR sign blinks with red letters on the side of First National Tower.
Richard Mitten whirls back to the Sheraton-Mayflower Hotel, where champions emerge from automobiles, sign autographs, climb a platform, stand for a photo portrait and chat with a WAKR-TV newsman.
“Strip away the decorations,” Mark Mitten said. “Akron was really a hot town. It was a jumping place.”
Celebrity convergence
The scene switches to Derbytown at Camp Y-Noah. Dinah Shore and George Montgomery play pingpong with Roy Rogers and his son Dusty. Jimmy Stewart and his wife, Gloria, dine on buffet food with their daughters.
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans are decked out in glittering western outfits with cowboy hats and fringe tops. Before he sits down for supper with his wife and Akron Mayor Leo Berg, Rogers tilts his full plate to the camera and smiles.
“I was like, ‘Wow, that’s Roy Rogers!’ ” Mitten said. “See, this is what I think is so fascinating … I don’t think anybody has that footage off guard like that where you’ve got Roy Rogers showing you his plate of food, you’ve got Jimmy Stewart sitting there with his wife and family.”
Again the scene changes. Young racers enjoy speedboat rides at Portage Lakes, where the sky and water seem impossibly blue on this sunny day. Wait a minute. Shouldn’t the kids be wearing life jackets? Pretend you didn’t see that.
Kids smile from shore as the boats navigate the Iron Channel connecting East Reservoir with West Reservoir. Dietz’s Landing is visible briefly before the All-American entourage returns to Turkeyfoot Lake.
Finally, race day arrives. The director cuts to Derby Downs and pans across Chevrolet banners promising “Sportsmanship at Its Best” and “Every Boy a Champion.”
Bleachers are packed for the sold-out event Aug. 18. If fans arrive late, they have to stand. The crowd seems really animated.
Three at a time, derby cars race down the steep hill toward a checkered flag at the bottom. The heated competition narrows until Terry Townsend, 14, of Anderson, Ind., wins the championship.
The crowd swarms around the Indiana boy as he answers questions from reporters and takes photos with his family.
From open convertibles, celebrities wave to the stands. Derby weekend concludes with a banquet at Goodyear Hall.
Wow. Let’s watch it again.
Watch more vintage Akron
Mark Mitten has posted the video on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpcVBNcM0iE .
He feels lucky to have the footage, a time capsule that no one has seen for decades. “It just shows you the scale and the excitement and how big a deal this was to Akron when it was in full swing,” he said.
Although he hasn’t lived here since the early 1980s, Mitten comes home often to Akron. He remains an unabashed fan of the city and the All-American Soap Box Derby, which he enjoyed attending as a child.
“It’s a great piece of Americana that needs to be preserved,” he said.
By the way, he hopes to post more of his uncle’s movies on YouTube. Here is another film that shows Main Street: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJvgp4EYmeU . And here is his parents’ wedding day in April 1957: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz-RBRCH_vE .
“I probably will be adding some more,” he said.
Mitten considers the Soap Box Derby movie the best of the footage that he’s discovered so far, and he’s happy to share it with Akron.
“That video just embodies a time, a spirit and a place,” he said. “It was great. It’s something that people shouldn’t forget.”
Copy editor Mark J. Price is author of The Rest Is History: True Tales From Akron’s Vibrant Past, a book from the University of Akron Press. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.