In the flickering images, Kristin Acuna saw before her an unknown, yet familiar, woman. It seemed as though at any moment she might turn and speak directly to her, using gestures that Acuna recognized because they were her own – a personal legacy from her grandmother, Mildred Yount.
Acuna was viewing a film clip at the Texas Energy Museum. She never knew her grandmother, the daughter of Frank and Pansy Yount, but family film recently donated to Lamar University made it possible for her to feel more connected to her past and get a glimpse of the historic Beaumont that her family helped create.
Though the film is fascinating for viewers, it’s even more riveting for Acuna. “I felt like I was seeing parts of my face. And, I saw her as a child. I never thought of her as a child. It just totally brought her alive in a really different way.”
Downstairs, Fred McKinley ’64, ’87 and Greg Riley -82 were signing books to celebrate the release of Black Gold to Bluegrass, which chronicles the Yount-Lee Oil Co. of Beaumont and the legacy of founders Frank and Pansy Yount.
McKinley and Riley were researching the book last summer. After interviewing Kathryn Manion Haider, the granddaughter of Pansy and Frank Yount, and perusing historic family keepsakes, the two heard the magical words: “You guys have to come back to see the film.”
Learning the Yount-Manion film existed was overwhelming. “It was like Christmas, Easter, my best birthday, my wedding day and the birth of a child all rolled into one,” Riley said. “We never, in our wildest imagination, ever dreamed there would be film.”
Although they learned about it in May 2004, the authors didn’t see footage – so fragile it had to be professionally transferred – until about seven months later. “The anticipation was deadly,” Riley said. “I realized immediately this was greater than the book. The implications that have to do with Southeast Texas history are amazing. There were things on the film that we had assumed were lost forever.”
The 16mm and 8mm film captures Beaumont in the 1920s and life with the Yount family from the 1920s through the 1960s. It includes images of the Beaumont skyline in the roaring ’20s, the Calder Avenue streetcars, the opening of the Mildred Building as a Navy blimp flew overhead and aerial shots of the Yount-Lee tank farm at Spindletop Fields after the second oil boom. Yount was responsible for constructing many buildings in Beaumont and shot some of the footage personally. The writers wasted no time in contacting Howard Perkins, Beaumont historian and director of student publications at Lamar. Perkins, who also was researching aspects of their book, moved quickly to secure the film for Lamar, where it could be preserved.
“I’m just flabbergasted as a historian. Before now, Beaumont had no film of that era at all,” Perkins said. “It’s just magnificent.”
Frank Yount made his money after striking oil in Sour Lake and the surrounding area, and founded the Yount-Lee Oil Co. along with the Lee Brothers of Houston and other partners, including John Henry Phelan of Beaumont. Yount moved his oil company to Beaumont in 1923 and established his office in the San Jacinto Building. In 1925, he struck oil at Spindletop Field. The oil company became one of the most prosperous of its time.
Two years after Frank Yount’s death in 1933, at age 53, the company was sold for the third-largest cash transaction that had taken place in the U.S. to date.
After Frank Yount’s death, Pansy continued her husband’s dream of raising saddlebred horses in Lexington, Ky. There, she created Spindletop Farms, which produced some of the finest saddlebred horses in the world. The stables and its Spindletop Hall are now part of the University of Kentucky.
With encouragement from McKinley, Riley and Perkins, the family decided to donate the film to Lamar. McKinley graduated from Lamar, earning a bachelor’s in political science in 1964 and a master’s in history in 1987. Riley attended Lamar from 1980 to 1982.
“I can’t speak for Kathryn, but I don’t think they knew what they had historically,” said Perkins, who served as a liaison between the family and Lamar for the donation. The 5,500 linear feet of film contained nine-and-a-half hours of footage.
Perkins, who also wrote the preface for the Yount book, said the authors were able to capture still images from the film footage that will appear in their text.
“Nationally, I think the film is a real treasure-trove for the oil industry. The film is also very interesting in terms of Texas and Beaumont history,” he said.
Of the 46 rolls of film, 45 were preserved and digitally transferred for viewing, said Ramona Hutchinson, archivist at the Mary and John Gray Library. After finding a Houston company that specialized in transferring and preserving historic film, the library had the film digitally transferred to DVDs. Because of the condition of the film, it took the company three months to do the job, Hutchinson said. Some of the film was obtained in “the nick of time.”
The footage includes shots of Frank and Mildred Yount at home, Mildred Yount riding her bicycle and Pansy Yount. “It shows how dapper he was,” Hutchinson said. In addition, viewers see the Yount family mansion, which no longer exists, along Calder catty-corner to the Mildred Building.
The film also includes vintage clips of the South Texas State Fair, footage of the Sabine-Neches Ship Channel, other development in Beaumont in the 1920s, family vacations and their property in Lexington, Perkins said. He was surprised to find footage of the original Spindletop Oil Field shot sometime after the 1901 Lucas Gusher.
“Fred and Greg were a big help in getting this done,” Perkins said of the film donation. The film was donated to Lamar by the three grandchildren of Frank and Pansy Yount: Haider, of Northbrook, Ill; Mildred Yount Manion, of Galveston; and Edward Manion Jr., of Tuscon, Ariz.
Hutchinson and Christina Baum, dean of the library services, traveled to Lexington to attend an April gala and book signing of Black Gold to Bluegrass. At the event, held in Spindletop Hall, a segment of the Yount footage was screened for the first time. Baum, who earned her master’s and doctorate from the University of Kentucky, said Lamar screened about 10 minutes of the film at the gala, a fundraiser to help restore Spindletop Hall.
Hutchinson said the Mary and John Gray Library is pursuing a grant to have the film edited into a documentary – complete with a score and narration – on Beaumont history and its architecture.
