Two weeks ago, literally minutes before we published our Ocean City post, we made a serendipitous find. While working on an unrelated patron request we stumbled across a film entitled Ocean City Hurricane, 1933 in our rich a/v collection. Not only does this film contain great before and after footage of the storm, it also captures the creation of the inlet which ended up defining modern day Ocean City, only hours after it tore from the bay across the island. If you pay close attention you can see some of the very same structures captured in the Bodine photographs here, here and here we featured two weeks ago.
Since the film discovery came late, we didn’t have enough time to digitize it and add it to the previous post. This week it gets our full attention. The chilling footage captures the destruction and offers a view of the city most living Marylanders have never seen.
We initially suspected the footage was somehow affiliated with Stark Films, a bygone local production house. The addition of title cards to the homemade footage suggested a professional touch and, since MdHS holds a number of the company’s reels, it seemed a reasonable guess. We have since learned from newly found provenance records that the film was shot by S. Watts Smyth of St. Louis, Missouri, who may have had editing experience or at least access to a production house.
According to Bunny Connell, daughter of S. Watts Smyth, the family “spent each summer in Ocean City from 1926-’33.” Until 1933, the family made the more than 900-mile journey by train from St. Louis. However that August, they made the 15-hour drive in their new Cadillac LaSalle. This was the Smyth’s last summer spent in Ocean City before moving to Wyoming. Connell entrusted the film to MdHS in 1987.
This clip has been edited down to two minutes from the 11-minute original. To view the complete film or for more information about using or licensing it, please contact specialcollections@mdhs.org
If you’d like to read some background about the storm check out the references in our previous post or read the following article from the Baltimore Sun. Enjoy! (Eben Dennis and Joe Tropea)
Amazing. Breathtaking. and to be able to see this in motion. Thank you!!!
Posted by Melissa Phillips | 11. Jul, 2013, 3:30 pmI love Ocean City and to get to see the history of it..is amazing!
Posted by Jen Gruber | 05. Aug, 2013, 11:55 pmWOW when I see my wonderful O.C. back in the early days , it breaks my heart to know our fellow Marylanders have suffered many Storms…God Bless our OC and hopefully we will never never see this again…..I remember when the storm of the 60′s ran rampage threw all of the coast and 49th ST was hit soooo hard, broke my heart…Stay safe you sweet people of mine. Forever a MD……Donna
Posted by Donna Casson Eichor | 11. Jul, 2013, 8:52 pmthank you for this. amazing.
Posted by Billie Jo Burbage | 12. Jul, 2013, 4:51 amI had no idea this video ever existed. Thank you to the Historical society for preserving it. And Thank you to whomever donated it to the Historical Society
Posted by Reese Cropper, III | 12. Jul, 2013, 1:36 pmHeard the ‘stories’ of this mighty Storm that carved the inlet and forever shaped the ‘island town’ but nothing like seeing to comprehend! May OC ‘weather’all the storms to come as well….Thanks For This Gift of Filming
Posted by Marianne Leizure | 12. Jul, 2013, 6:25 pmMy mother grew up in Ocean City and was there during the hurricane. She watched the inlet cut (until Mr. Dan Trimper told her to go home!) I showed her the video tonight and she was so thrilled! Thank you for this treasure.
Posted by Sarah Phillips Hooper | 12. Jul, 2013, 9:47 pmThis is such an incredible record of how OC came to be as it is today. Thank you for sharing this treasure.
Posted by Cathy Gunther Williams | 16. Jul, 2013, 12:15 pmMy great father was the chief / city Engr. Robert Allen told me many stories about their struggles with his great friend Trimper. How the train and bridge fell into the ocean
Posted by Richard Watson | 19. Jul, 2013, 7:45 am