This 1938 silent home movie was shot by someone who was aboard a “banana boat” ocean liner as it cruised from Panama to Cuba and then New York City, and the eastern United States. (There was probably another reel to this film, starting in New York and heading to Cuba, but it has not been located.)

The film begins with two swimmers in a pool with a water polo sign (0:15), then cuts to passengers standing on a ship deck. A blurry statue can be seen in the distance (0:37). The camera quickly pans over houses and palm trees, people sitting by the side of a field, and rolling hills (0:54). A sloth at a zoo and a Spanish sign: “Adultos 25, ninos gratis cuando vengan acompanados por adultos” (1:04). “Bushmaster, World’s Largest Viper” sign (1:05). A toucan and other birds (1:07). Sign for short-keeled toucan (1:16). Dark, indistinct views of other animals in cages (1:47). Boats on the Panama Canal (2:17). The U.S. Las Cruces steamboat (2:42). One of the lock zones of the Canal (3:16). Title card: “Going thru the locks of the Canal to Colon and Cristobal. This is an eight hour journey” (3:42). Three men in hard hats waiting on shore (3:57). A line of men hauling up a rope (4:08). View from a ship as it goes through the locks (4:50). Green hillsides of the Canal (5:24); swimmers in the water. A narrow steamboat passes by (5:38). A woman pets a small black dog held by a man (6:02). Four sailors in white uniforms walk with a woman between them (6:07). Two women in dresses in a plaza walk toward the camera (6:16). A man dives into water (6:27). A Pan Am seaplane at anchor (6:35). “The Panama Canal Mt Hope Fuel Oil Handling Plant” sign (6:45). “The Texas Company Overseas Ltd.” sign (6:48). Fort Davis, Panama, 14th Infantry sign (6:50). Title card: “On board S.S. Penna leaving Panama City thru Canal to Colon. February 8, 1938” (6:58). The SS Pennsylvania ship (7:01). Title card: “Havana, Cuba, Feb. ’38” (7:17). The Havana Capitol building (7:18). A telecommunications building in the Old Town of Havana (7:31). “Florida New Haven Connecticut” sign (7:45). A graveyard behind a church (8:01); passengers disembark from a seaplane on the harbor (8:15). A crowd watches jockeys on Oriental Park Racetrack in Havana (9:54); Cuban and American flags (10:17). A blimp in the sky (10:40). PAA International Airport (11:08); sign saying, “Visitors Welcome, Pan American Airways System.” A crowd gathers to watch a seaplane, stamped with “FAA American Airways System” take off (11:27). “M&M Line” sign (11:48). The Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company (11:51). “Cruise-Way to New York Clyde-Mallory Lines” sign (11:53). U.S. Route 41 and Route 80 in Georgia signs (11:58). A man on a Greyhound Detroit bus (12:04). Natural Bridge State Park (12:07), as well as signs for Natural Bridge Hotel in Virginia and Endless Caverns in New Market, Virginia (12:24). A stewardess boards a Trans World Airlines (TWA) DC-3 airplane (12:28) before it takes off. The New York City skyline, with the Empire State Building visible (13:06). Monument to the USS Maine, which blew up in Havana Harbor (13:12). A Coca-Cola sign near Columbus Circle (13:18). More blurry skyline views and a busy sidewalk; Planters Peanuts sign (13:57). Sign commemorating the site of the first telegram, sent along the B&O Railroad on May 24, 1844 by Samuel Morse (14:09). The Chevrolet building (14:13). View out the window crossing a bridge in winter (14:40). Additional views of the Chevrolet firm (14:43), with an American flag on top. The Loews Hotel (14:55); Nut Club nightclub (14:57). Chevrolet building again (15:05). Lightbowns Tourists sign (15:11). A woman walks across the lawn to a car (15:21). George Washington’s Mount Vernon (15:35). The National Memorial Arch in Pennsylvania (15:37). Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, one of the battlefields of the U.S. Civil War (15:44). Family poses in front of a house and eats dinner together (16:10). Another view of the Chevrolet building (16:29). King George Cafe sign (16:52).

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com