In 1938, Staten Island optometrist Fred Brock used his new 16mm camera to make two silent films in collaboration with his Grymes Hill neighbor, Wagner College.
The first film, “Campus Life the Clock Around,” is a silent melodrama made on the Wagner College campus. It includes scenes in the lobby of Reynolds House (previously known as North Hall) and what used to be the dining wing of Cunard Hall. The story featured students Caroline Berkel, Charles Hellriegel, Everett Jensen and Al Beck.
The second film, “Movie Bugs,” was a team effort between Fred Brock and Wagner College biology professor Ralph Deal. Together they made a movie of microscopic organisms taken from a nearby pond — hence, the film’s title.
You can read more about Brock and Deal in this article from the July 31, 1938 issue of the Lincoln (Nebraska) Sunday Journal & Star:
