Small Town, USA: Free public screening at the Knox Memorial Theater

In 1944, the U.S. Government decided to make a series of films to show the rest of the world what life was like in a typical American town. They chose Mount Vernon as the prime location for filming.

On April 8, at 6:30 p.m. at the Knox Memorial Theater — the very theater where those films first premiered in the 1940s — newly restored versions of those films are being screened for the general public as part of the nation’s America-250 commemoration.

Julien Bryan, an award-winning maker of international documentary films, spent over a year in Mount Vernon with a film crew — eventually producing over 100,000 feet of film footage of the area and its residents. No professional actors were employed. Residents of Mount Vernon and Knox County appeared as themselves … often in their own homes, shops, and workplaces.

Join us as we learn about, watch, and discuss some good, old-fashioned, patriotic propaganda movies. Don’t miss this opportunity to glimpse our community as it once was — or at least how it aspired to be.

These films are being shown with the assistance of the Ohio History Connection, the Knox County Historical Society, the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County, the Mount Vernon Arts Consortium, and the Knox Memorial Theater.

This event is free and open to the public. All ages are welcome. For more information, please call the Library at (740) 392-2665.