Historic film found

A piece of Vernon history has been discovered.

Earlier this year, Army Cadet League historian Francois Arseneault found a collection of 16 mm films stored away in Ottawa at the Army Cadet League national office.

The films had been undiscovered for at least 50 years.

Of the dozen films, two large reels in particular stood out, marked Vernon Army Cadet Camp. Several others feature cadets in Ipperwash, Picton and Ottawa.  

“The film footage shot in the summer of 1956 is in remarkable condition, being Kodachrome colour and well stored for the past six decades. What makes this film so unique is the variety of footage including a CPR troop train arriving at the Vernon train station with 800 cadets, a military convoy through the centre of town, life at the military camp, cadets touring through town featuring Nick’s Kandy Kitchen, the Allison Hotel, the North Okanagan Regatta, Kal Beach, Polson Park and the old grandstand and much more,” said Arseneault.

At one hour 13 minutes long, it also captures life in Vernon during the 1950s.

“Without giving away the ending, it’s charming. Unfortunately it has no soundtrack. The two reels were digitized, edited into a good quality HD film,” he said.

“This is the best preserved and well shot Vernon cadet camp film I have ever seen and is now part of the growing collection of historical film and video footage on Vernon’s military camp. I suspect there are more old films of Vernon waiting to be rediscovered.”

Arseneault said it’s not known who shot the films but appears it might have been one of two local and well known photographers, either Cam Leblond or Doug Kermode.

Both men were well known to the camp having taken photos since the cadet camp began operations in 1949 and both could operate the film cameras of the day alongside their 35mm SLR cameras.

There were no productions notes or credits so it is entirely possible that there may have been more reels that have gone missing.