Main Street U.S.A.

Last week, the Gazette ran an article on the upcoming Medina Bicentennial that talks about a movie made in Medina during World War II.  Bicentennial Article

Every couple of years, the Medina Library receives a request for "Hometown U.S.A., you know, the movie that was made back in the 40's."

The movie depicts a fictional lawyer writing a letter to a nephew serving overseas in World War II. The lawyer describes a typical day in Medina and manages to cover all the local industries, shops and some well-known Medina characters, all to encourage the unnamed nephew to settle in Medina when he returns from the war. Pathfinder Magazine  sponsored the movie and it was produced by Pathe Studios.

And yes, the Medina Library has that movie. But the DVD case, and the movie title, as seen below, is Main St. U.S.A.

Main St. U.S.A.  or is it Hometown, U.S.A.

It premiered in Medina on April 10-11, 1945 at the old Medina Theater that was just recently demolished.

And here is were the confusion comes in.

Because the newspaper ads printed at that time and even the actor/lawyer in the film refers to "Hometown, U.S.A."

This promo appeared in the April 6, 1945 Medina Gazette.

This article appeared in the April 10th Medina Gazette, 
the day of the opening. It also refers to the movie as
"Hometown, U.S.A."

Even the marque at the theater entrance calls it "Hometown, U.S.A."

Photo taken from Bob Hyde's web site: www.medinasquare.org

BUT, the opening credits from the movie itself, as shown in the first image above, was "Main St. U.S.A."

Did the movie going public of Medina feel confused or deceived by the title switch? Certainly such a momentous event would be chronicled in the local papers!  Except....

President Roosevelt died the very next day. The Gazette has always been a newspaper with
strong Republican leanings, so this graphic was all that appeared in their pages.

The very next day, President Roosevelt died.

So a big follow up to the premiere did not show up in either The Gazette or The Sentinel.

Bob Hyde, a Medina native, avid historian, and creator of the Medina History web site Medina Square, was just a youngster and remembers everyone was very excited by the movie. And he remembers it was called "Hometown, U.S.A.".

But why the confusion? Why did everyone call it, and remember it as "Hometown, U.S.A" when it is titled and labeled, "Main Street USA"?

World War II, though winding down in Europe, was still very much in the local papers.

The Army was still recruiting women for the
Women's Army Corps

So there wasn't a lot of local coverage after the movie premiered.

A June 5th Medina Gazette article reported that 500 booklets of "familiar" Medina scenes titled "Hometown, U.S.A."  were printed and available from the Medina Chamber of Commerce. Has anyone ever seen a copy of that brochure?

To confuse matters even further, in 1990, the Medina Area Chamber of Commerce produced an 11 minute video that contained a lot of boosterisms for Medina. If you want a laugh, view it just to see the fluffy hairstyles and fashions of the time. And it was called "America's Home Town, Medina, Ohio".

1990's "America's Home Town" movie produced by the Medina Area Chamber of Commerce

If anyone has any answers to this puzzle, please share your information, because ---

ENQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW

UPDATE!!

Tom Hilberg of the Medina County Historical Society brought in a copy of the brochure that was released after the movie. And look what it is titled!!

  

Also, on Facebook, Jay Summers had this comment to add:
Jay Summers I'd surmise the confusion comes from the Marketing Campaign and Editorial Choices didn't match up. Which is fairly typical in Film Production. The Marketing and Advertising folks don't talk w/ the Producers & Editors. Quite often titles are changed prior to release. I'd guess, the Producers in California and Marketers in Ohio, didn't talk. Had planned on "Hometown USA", marketed it as such, then the Producers changed the title to utilize it elsewhere. Most films go through several title changes before release.

LikeShow more reactions · Reply · 2 · August 23 at 11:47am

Thanks for the insight into film marketing, Jay!