On April 4, 1940, the Brewster Standard printed a brief news article noting that on April 18 the Southern New York Fish and Game Association was hosting a special “motion picture meeting” that would include Martin Bovey’s new colored picture films of hunting and fishing in Canada, along with “trout fishing on the Neversink River” with Edward Hewitt, George La Branche, and Dick Hunt.
Hewitt on the Neversink is a period film, shot in Kodachrome—a color reversal film that produces deeply saturated colors. The film stock was first introduced in 1935, and producers like Bovey were quick to take advantage of its possibilities. The production history of Hewitt on the Neversink is unknown, but it was probably filmed during the summer of 1939, following Hewitt’s article on Skaters in the Sportsman and his collaboration with Ashaway Line Company, which sponsored and distributed the film. Films like these were typically loaned to fishing clubs for private viewings, and over the years copies of the film alternately appeared and disappeared. Although the Ashaway Line Company still exists today, their entire angling archive has been lost.
With many thanks to the Bovey family, we are pleased to share this film with you. For more about the project, check out Joseph Grigley’s Hogan Award-winning article “Edward Hewitt and the Neversink Skater.”