Film Description
Buy at Home Campaign (ca. 1930s)
Sponsor: Merchants of Burlingame, California. Production Co.: Blaché Screen Service. Director/Producer: Maurice Blaché. Transfer Note: Scanned from a 35mm print held by the Library of Congress. Running Time: 14 minutes.
Made by San Francisco–based producer Maurice Blaché, the Buy at Home series promoted local small town commerce across the western United States during the Great Depression. This example was made in Burlingame, California. It features ads for merchants and various citizens—from firefighters and police officers to students of McKinley Elementary School and members of the Burlingame–San Mateo Lions Club.
Note: The Wallowa County Museum preserved a film made for Enterprise, Oregon, with a grant from the NFPF. Two other films made in California—for Fortuna and the Scott Valley region of Siskiyou County—can be viewed on YouTube.