Back in 1923, some 102 years ago, motion pictures were a relatively new thing. Covington had a couple of movie theaters, but the experience was not the high quality entertainment venue we have today. The reels were short and had to be changed often, movies were in black and white, sound had not come along yet. While there were a few silent movie dramas of note that stirred audiences exploring the new medium, no one thought St. Tammany would be in the forefront of using motion pictures to advertise the wonders of this area, particularly in the endeavors to grow satsuma oranges.
The short two-reel movie made to promote the satsuma orange growing industry in St. Tammany Parish caught on. It was an early effort to use film to promote local attractions and agricultural activities, but for some reason, the viewing public wanted to see it again and again, in New Orleans and from points around the South. The film helped promote St. Tammany in a number of ways. The flowery language extolling the virtues of the satsuma was a bit over the top, however.
Article from St. Tammany Farmer March 10, 1923
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Here is the text from the above article:
ST. TAMMANY ON THE SCREEN
Have you sat in the movies and been thrilled by the beauty of the scenery from the West? Have you wondered at the wealth of the orchards of fruit in California and Florida? Have you pictured to yourself the delight of strolling through them and gathering the luscious fruit fresh from the ladened branches, of kissing the dew from the lustrous coloring of nature's brush just touched by the morning sun, while you lay in the shade and whispered your delight to the summer breezes around you?
If you are lover of nature, you have. If you have an eye to the money value of lands taken from the crude surroundings of undeveloped wilderness and placed within the circle of the beckoning hand of transportation and the devouring markets of an eagerly buying public, and have visioned the fortunes that passed in the transition—then you have.
It is wonderful to think of. But did it ever occur to you that right here in St. Tammany parish on nature's screen the pictures are just as beautiful, the fruit just as brightly colored, the scenery and the breezes just as enticing and the speculative opportunity just as great! Isn't it true that your imagination has been too weak tc grasp the possibilities of a greater fruit-growing section right in St. Tammany parish than is in either California or Florida? The psychology of it is very simple.
In truth, you may have never thought of it. It has perhaps never occurred to you to investigate it at all, while other countries have been exploited in newspaper's and magazines. They have been placed on the screen and taken directly before the people of the markets of the world, some of whom hardly knew, before, what an orchard looked like. And they were told that this was the finest fruit in the world—full of health and vitamins--"Drink orange juice and be healthy and happy."
In fact the people where the fruit is grown have talked about it so much that they have come to believe that orange juice is a panacea for every ill under the sun. Hollywood holds the glass high and drains it. They have helped to make the pictures. They do not tell you that irrigation costs six and seven dollars an acre; that diseases must be fought; that it takes intelligence and industry and hard work to make nature smile approvingly and to bring the dollar into your pocket. But they have made those lands worth $500 and $1000 an acre and can now sit in the shade and see the other fellow do the work; and the situation is not different from what it is going to be in St. Tammany parish, for some of the men who are now doing the work in California were former owners of land and would not do for themselves what they are doing as farm laborers.
But you will not have to take a car and hunt for the beauty spots and find the orchards that are in St. Tammany. It is true the industry has just begun to attract public attention and is talked of more outside than in the parish because the home man is usually slow in visioning his own country as a wonder-production of the earth.
Our own people made little out of the timber. The man with money who was familiar with values came in and bought it for a song, and most of it has been taken away. But the orange groves of St. Tammany will stay and will always be a source of ever increasing wealth, but it is probable that the choice lands will go into the hands of those who have the foresight to read indications of the development that is coming. No; even today you will not have to travel over St. Tammany to read the future of the orange industry.
Every week, Monday and Tuesday, a film was run in the Parkview Theatre in Covington showing some of the orchards and some of the beautiful scenes of the parish. Those who saw it will wonder at the beauty of it all, and especially at the magnificence of the orange and grape fruit orchards—the promise of one of the greatest fruit industries of America. The pictures were put on by W. L. Brown of New Orleans, son of Mr. Brown, of Glen Gordon farm on the Mandeville Road.
They are putting in an orange grove of 500 acres after an investigation of St. Tammany's success thus far. It was during this investigation that Mr. Brown found the scenes he had filmed by a film corporation, paying the expense out of his own pocket. The matter was discussed at a meeting of the Covington Association of Commerce, which adjourned to the Parkview Theatre to gee the movie.
Mr. Brown says that Mr. Friedlander is deserving of a memorial for the prosperity he will bring to this section through his selection of St. Tammany as the greatest place in America for the successful growth of the Satsuisa orange. Mr. Friedlander nas traveled through South America, Mexico and the United States searching for just such an opportunity as is offered here.
End of article
Here is an editorial about the unexpected popularity of the satsuma industy publicity film.
Text from the above editorial:
DOES A MOVIE PICTURE PAY?
Publicity that is worth while as an investment is not simply the announcement of something to the public so that it will reach the largest number of people, but it is the making of that announcement in a manner that is convincing of the TRUTH of the statement—and this statement must hold attention a sufficient length of time to give thought to the subject.
The person must be impressed with the value of the statement with reference to any anticipation of making use of it, therefore its truthfulness is of first importance; also its attractiveness is of great importance, because a pleased mind is more ready to consider and investigate.
At the time Mr. W. L. Brown conceived the idea of boosting the growing of Satsuma oranges in St. Tammany parish by means of a movie picture of the industry and its opportunities for further development, showing orchards already planted and lands available for planting, there were those whose enthusiasm was cooled by a lack of confidence in the value of the plan.
Some of these became converts upon the appearance of the first picture run in St. Tammany, and we believe most people who saw the picture here at home were astonished at realizing how little they really knew of the developments that were taking place in their midst. Almost immediately there was more loyalty, and more appreciation of the advantages offered by investments in St. Tammany parish. Then how much more must the stranger who is seeking opportunity and a new home be impressed with this picture. The truth of this is coming to us through quite a number of inquiries from people who have become interested.
Mrs. J. D. Grant, who is now in Asheville, N. C., writes to Mr. Brown to know if arrangements cannot be made to have the picture run there. She had read about the picture in the papers and had heard that it had been well received in New Orleans. Mrs. Grant wished to see it herself and expressed her desire to be of any service she could in a matter of so much importance to St, Tammany.
A Saenger theatre in New Orleans which had run the picture has requested the privilege of running it again, because of the demand for it.
Mr. W. H. Sullivan, mayor of Bogalusa and manager of the Great Southern Lumber Company, one of the greatest lumber companies in America, writes to Mr. Brown as follows: Have just seen the Satsuma picture made in St. Tammany parish, and it is about the best piece of publicity I over saw. It shows what you have in a way that holds the attention clear through.
And Mr. D. Morgan of Bogalusa writes to the Harcol Film Company, who made the picture:
Gentlemen:—Referring to your letter of the 11th regarding the St. Tammany picture, this has been shown in the Majestic Theatre to about 500 people, and tonight it will be shown in the park at our open air picture show. The attendance runs about 1000 people. Would like to keep this picture over until Colonel Goodyear gets here, Saturday, and show it to him. Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Townsend both saw it here in the office and think it is a very fine picture, and Sullivan is anxious to have Colonel Goodyear see it.
The several copies of this picture which will be exhibited throughout America will no doubt attract considerable attention to this section. The picture is not only valuable as an advertisement of the orange industry here, and the advantages it offers for investment, but it tells of the beauties of scenery, especially inland water scenes, that hardly are equaled anywhere.
It seems to be an inevitable law of nature that successful accomplishment in one way leads to successful accomplishment in some other. Since the picture has been made, there is evidence of greater interest in the doing of some things that heretofore have been considered out of the question. Yet some of these very things are now considered as well as accomplished, although the time is not ripe for announcing them.
It should not be difficult for those who are familiar with the growth and history of St. Tammany parish to comprehend that a wonderful change has taken place in a very short time. In a few years from now it will be as easy to get money for making a few movie films as it is now to sell a few tickets for a church bazaar.
Published Sept. 29, 1923 End of article
In those days W. L. Brown was the chief promoter of the Satsuma Orange Industry in St. Tammany. In 1923 he appeared before the New Orleans Lions Club to share the promise of the satsuma orange.
Text from the above article:
BROWN TELLS LIONS' CLUB OF THE ORANGE INDUSTRY
Shows Pictures of Satsuma Industry in St. Tammany Parish
COAST CROP ESTIMATED AT $1,000,000 IN 1922
Says St. Tammany Parish Offers Greatest Opportunities of any Section
The Satsuma orange industry was declared to represent the greatest horticultural development and to have made the greatest progress of any similar industry in America by W. L. Brown, orange grower of St. Tammany parish, in an address last Tuesday to members of the Lions' Club, New Orleans, at a noon-day luncheon of that organization at the Grunewald Hotel.
Mr. Brown gave a brief sketch of the Satsuma industry in his parish and in the Gulf section which he illustrated with motion pictures of agricultural, pastoral and scenic views in St. Tammany parish. He gave the audience a glimpse of the great orange groves of the parish showing the trees in bloom, the ripe fruit growing on the trees; how it is picked, crated and shipped to the markets of the world.
Gulf Coast Is Satsuma's Home
The home of the Satsuma orange in this country and the territory in which it is grown commercially extends along the Gulf Coast from New Orleans to Pensacola, and east of the latter city to the Apalachicola river, Mr. Brown said. No commercial orchards have been successful more than fifty miles north of the coast.
In 1917, he said, shipments of oranges from Gulf Coast orchards were only 11 cars, but in 1921 the shipments had increased to 400 car loads. In 1922 the production had grown to 620 cars. The value of the Gulf Coast crop last year was more than $1,000,000.
Mr. Brown declared that the Satsuma orange industry offered the greatest possibilities of any horticultural industry in America and was the most profitable fruit or crop that could be grown.
Mr. Brown has been unceasing in his endeavors to put before the outside world the possibilities of St. Tammany parish for Satsuma orange growing. He is giving his time and money to boosting the proposition. and if ever there was a time that out people should come in and help on a proposition, now is the time. Not only is financial encouragement needed but your entire hearty moral support lends weight to the movement.
End of article
A special screening of the promotional film was given in the offices of the Times Picayune newspaper in New Orleans.
Text from the above article
TIMES-PICAYUNE SEES ST. TAMMANY
Mr. W. L. Brown showed the St.Tammany Satsuma film to The Times-Picayune, Thursday, and no doubt the opportunities of St. Tammany were strongly impressed. The cost of the bridge, however, is placed at five instead of nine million by the bridge committee. New Orleans must soon learn that she has an interest in St. Tammany that will largely add to her prosperity.
"An extensive motion picture advertising movement, portraying the Satsuma orange opportunity in St.Tammany parish, is being projected by the officials of the St. Tammany Land & Development Association, which showed its first picture on the fourth floor of The Times-Picayune building last night (Thursday).
Sixteen similar films have been released and will be seen shortly in various parts of the United States and Canada. "The film, entitled "A Bit of the Southland," with subtitles, -The Gold That Grows," and "St. Tammany Beauty Spots," is composed of two reels; one showing the growth and development of the Satsuma industry and the other portraying the natural beauty spots of the parish, particularly those along Lake Pontchartrain's shore.
"In St. Tammany parish last year, the progressive citizens of the parish decided on a co-operative movement to develop the community in a big way. The St. Tammany Land & Development Association, with offices in New Orleans and Covington resulted. Its personnel, according to W. L. Brown of Covington, its president, includes 75 per cent of the property owners of the parish."
Later a subsidiary association was organized, the Satsuma Orange Groves, Inc. " 'The first organization solves the marketing question,' Mr. Brown said. 'The second organization was formed for those desiring to own orchards who would be unable, for various reasons, to attend them. Through our organization we are able to care for orchards much cheaper than they could hire labor. So you see, we not only sell them
the land, but plant their orchards and take care of them until owners are able to take them over."
'Mandeville, over the lake, is the natural playground of New Orleans,and we plan to make the St. Tammany shores of Lake Pontchartrain the most attractive suburb of New Orleans. "A proposal for bridging the lake at a cost of $9,000,000, will be laid before the state legislature by the St. Tammany organization, said Mr Brown, pointing out the fact that New Orleans has no direct link with any of the national highways. The proposed bridge will connect the city with the Jefferson Highway and the Old Spanish Trail.
"'Approximately 132,000 tourists traveled by automobile in this direction from Florida last year and few of them touched New Orleans because of the lack of a connecting highway,' said Mr. Brown. "Although there are facilities for us growing of other fruits and vegetables in St. Tammany, the prize product is the Satsuma, which at present is free of disease or pests. Prospective settlers in the parish are promised good roads, schools, pure artesian water. crops, churches of all denominations and a variety of sporting interests- hunting, fishing, bathing and boating, with excellent facilities for tennis and golfing."
St. Tammany Farmer March 22, 1924
End of article
Even President Calvin Coolidge liked St. Tammany satsuma oranges, according to the news item below..
Click on the image above to make it more readable.
Efforts to promote satsuma farming continued into the late 1920's, but it never did catch on in the way that promoters had hoped.
Then came tung oil trees...
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