Christmas in Appalachia (1964) "The Permanently Poor" | 16mm Film Scan

Viewable in the highest quality since it was originally broadcast 61 years ago.

A somber look at Christmastime in 1964 from deep in Appalachia, showing the resilient people and what has become of what they call home in Pert Creek, Kentucky. Narrated/presented by Charles Kuralt. This documentary really makes one realize how fortunate we are today. 1964 was around the time of the lowest coal production in the United States since the Great Depression.

Scanned at 1600p frame resolution, and put in a lot of corrections ranging from light uniformity to image geometry. Unfortunately, has a handful of splices in parts that truncate sentences and such; a couple of artifacts from the dirt removal tool also occurred. This film was a 'Kinescope', meaning it was captured by a 16mm camera synchronized to a TV monitor; due to that it is limited in overall quality compared to just film. It was published by Carousel Films, lacking notice.

Fully Closed-Captioned. Audio processed with EQ & de-hum filter.

0:00 Pert Creek Introduction
2:22 One-Room Schoolhouse
4:07 The Baker Family
7:18 Government Surplus Food
8:05 The Hall Family
10:03 Hiram Mitchell’s Store
12:24 Automation Changed Mining
13:22 An Unemployed Miner
18:45 Johnson Family
23:40 The Nativity Story
25:40 Closing Thoughts, Credits


Credits:
Presenter: Charles Kuralt
Producer: Bernard Birnbaum
Director: Joe Gorsuch
Associate Producer: Walter Lister
Film Cameraman: Walter Dombrow
Chief Film Editor: Dave McCruden
Film Editors: Jerome McCarthy, Nancy Wood Small
Researcher: Jane Bartels
Unit Manager: Grace Diekhaus
Associate Director: Joel Banow
Technical Director: Sanford Bell
Audio: Marvin Lee
Prod. Supervisor: Briggs Baugh
Exec. Producer: Leslie Midley