[from My Photo a Day Adventure blog]
Saturday, November 6, 2021 … Serendipitous timing … Eleanor Roosevelt died November 7, 1962 … Sunrise at Campobello, 1960, was the movie that led me to the summer home she and Franklin shared … on FDR’s “beloved island” … Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada … June 15, 2003 … at the Roosevelt Campobello International Park …
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were major humanitarian figures in American history when I grew up … so there was an immediate draw when Sunrise at Campobello was on color tv in the late 1960s, early 1970s … most memorable was the location filming at Campobello …
Opening scenes of the lively family … sailing, putting out a small fire near the beach, running up to the cottage … August 10, 1921 … just before FDR is stricken with the paralysis of his legs that he struggled with, but didn’t let get in the way of his political career … elected President 4 terms, 1933-1945 …
Front porch family time … 1920 … FDR, his mother, Sara Roosevelt, and Eleanor … FDR’s parents brought him to the island in 1883, when he was a year old, building their own cottage in 1885 … In 1907, Sara purchased the 1897 Kuhn cottage on the adjacent property as a belated wedding gift … FDR and Eleanor married, 1905 … The Kuhn cottage became the now known Roosevelt Cottage – source …
Expanded cottage … 1920 … FDR didn’t return to Campobello for over 10 years after 1921 … His final brief visits occurred in 1936 and 1939, before his death in 1945, though his family continued to use the house until 1952 … By 1957, the Hammer brothers, who purchased the property, began to lobby Congress for the creation of an international park … which opened August 24, 1964 … jointly owned and managed by both Canada and the United States, created by a treaty that honors the memory of FDR and the legacy of friendship between the two countries … the only such international park in the world. – source …
Will the real Eleanor Roosevelt please stand up … 1960 … Eleanor visiting Ralph Bellamy and Greer Garson … Hyde Park, New York location … Sunrise at Campobello …
Sunrise at Campobello, 1960 … nominated for 4 Oscars: Actress – Greer Garson; Art Direction, Color; Costume Design, Color; Sound … But first, it was a 1958 Broadway play … winner of 4 Tony’s: Best Play; Actor in a Play – Ralph Bellamy; Featured Actor in a Play – Henry Jones; Director – Vincent J. Donehue (also directed film) …
The journey to Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada … June 2003 … train from Vancouver, Washington to Buffalo, New York … rental car through New York and Massachusetts … up the coast through New Hampshire and Maine … a night at a Lubec, Maine B&B … the easternmost edge of the U.S. … then across the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Bridge to Campobello … the only bridge to the island … southern end of the Bay of Fundy … but wait! … The Bay of Fundy is one of the 7 wonders of North America. The highest tides on earth, the rarest whales in the world, semi-precious minerals and dinosaur fossils – source …
Movies, Of Course! 