A journey can be both physical and personal. Noel Hughes started a series of journeys in 1931.
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There was the physical journey from Melbourne in Australia to Chicago in the United States, plus his excursions once he was in America.
Then there was the personal journey of a young man, 21 years old, traveling to a foreign land to attend college during the Great Depression. In the next 10 years, he would scrape by working multiple jobs, finish his degree and then start a career; he would break up with the girlfriend he left behind, miss his siblings growing up and starting families, and lose his father to a heart attack; and he would meet a woman, fall in love with her and start a family of his own in the United States. Noel's journeys ended in 1991 when he died at age 81. But, he left a collection of home movies, photos, and letters from his father, all of which combine to tell his story. These mementos of his journeys are now in the hands of one of his grand-daughters, Haley Hughes.
You can follow the project on Facebook. Sharing Noel's journeys has become a journey onto itself. NewsFootage from "A Tour of Chicago 1930s (home movie)" was recently featured in Part 1 of a Fox 32 News special report "The Economy: Chicago at the Tipping Point".
At about the 1:37 mark in Part 1 of the report, a few seconds of the footage is shown with the credit "Journeys in America" while explaining the thick, soot-filled air of Chicago in the 1930s. |
The most recent film transferThe most recent letter from home
11 May 1932, Noel's father George writes:
"We are more than pleased to know that you have managed to keep body and soul together and that the work provided for you in the college and elsewhere has been sufficient to meet your actual needs. We will be greatly relieved when we hear that you have been able to cover your needs during the summer vacation." Read the entire letter at News From Home: A Father's Letters to His Son The most popular film transfer |
