Alaska's Silver Millions---American Can Company 1936

AMERICAN CAN COMPANY. "ALASKA'S SILVER MILLIONS." Motion Picture Film; 1936. 1

The film, "Alaska's Silver Millions," was presented or funded by the American Can Company in 1936. Commentary or narration of the film was by Father Bernard R. Hubbard, S. J., known as "The Glacier Priest." The film was produced and edited by Beverly Jones, with photography by Nicholas Cavalier and Father Hubbard.


The collection consists of a VHS videocassette copy of the black and white sound motion picture film, "Alaska's Silver Millions." The 34 minute film begins with Father Hubbard's description of the three different sections of Alaska: the Yukon, Southeastern Alaska, and the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands. This description includes maps and film footage of the following subjects: Hubbard's sled dog team; an Inupiat woman catching tom cod through the ice; a reindeer herd; the Inside Passage; Juneau; Alaska Juneau Gold Mine; a dairy farm; calving glaciers and icebergs; the Valley of 10,000 Smokes; Shishaldin Volcano; and Aniakchak Volcano. The subjects of the remainder of the film are the salmon runs and salmon fishing and canning. Film footage in this part includes; maps of the Alaska salmon runs; spawning salmon; salmon traps; salmon tenders; fishermen brailing or emptying the traps; seine boats; and the cannery at False Pass on Unimak Island. The cannery footage of the fish house and canning house includes the following machinery: the iron chink, the filler, the vacuum sealer, washer, rackers (cooking trays), retorts (steam cookers), and labelers. The film ends with footage of canned salmon being boxed and loaded into cargo ships, and a farm in the Matanuska Valley.

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The St. Louis plant made shrimp cans for the operation until 1998--083