Bear Facts

When Cambell Church, Jr., hosted the E.F. Hutton party aboard the M/V Westward in Southeast Alaska in 1934, Hutton and his guests arrived in style. Hutton's four-masted yacht Hussar had been launched three years earlier in Kiel, Germany. The financial magnate had commissioned the vessel for his wife, Marjorie Merriweather Post, and she had no intention of setting sail aboard just any boat. Money was no object for the elegant Ms. Post, and she ensured that her sailing ship would be every bit as distinguished as she was.

Measuring 360 feet by 50, with a draft of 17 feet and a main mast soaring 178 feet in the air, carrying a complement of 30 sails on three square rigged masts and a mizzen rigged fore and aft, the Hussar was a sight to behold as she steamed toward Ketchikan to deliver her passengers into Church's care for a hunting and fishing sojourn.

Aboard the Hussar, the guests dressed for meals served by stewards in uniform. For hunting, fishing and camping trips, they dressed down and removed themselves to the 86-foot Westward for expeditions into the Alaskan bush. Church was an avid filmmaker, and his cinematographic energies were matched by members of Hutton's party, namely celebrated film producer Hal Roach and his wife Margaret. The latter conceived the elaborate titles for the film, which read:

Bear Facts, 1934

Depicting Primitive Life Aboard the "Hussar"

Directors....Anybody Photographers...Everybody-mostly "E"

Cast

Jumpy Hut....Edward F. Hutton

Blonde Sardine Fisherman...Miriam Rice

Baby Bear Hunter.....Ernest Rice

Goopy Gertie....Gertrude Guasti

The Banjo Player....Hal Roach

Smallest of Small Game Hunters...Margaret Roach

Night Club Proprietor.....David McCulloch

and "Ed's" Baby Bear....Himself

Film Editress Margaret Roach

titles...Margaret Roach

Assisted by...Irwin S. Cobb

Scenic Effects by...Mother Nature Herself

Props by Ed Hutton

Climb aboard and watch the 1930s era revelers hunt big game and very big fish and otherwise thoroughly entertain themselves in this fascinating 45 minute, 16 millimeter film that has been preserved by the Church family and is only now being offered to the public on DVD.

Transferred from 16 millimeter film. To learn more about Campbell Church, Jr., and M/V Westward, click on these links:

Westward in the Twenty-First Century
Westward, Cruising Alaska 1920s Style

DVD-Video. Black and White. Silent
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