The Reel Truth About Three American Sights

Three views of America, from Boston to Alaska, are offered this month. Start out in Boston, continue to Sturbridge, Mass., then head west to Alaska and its popular Inside Passage.

“Boston,” plus: Cambridge, Cape Cod, Salem, Plymouth, Lexington and Concord. (Republic Pictures Home Video, 60 minutes, 1989).

Although some sights are shown briefly, Laura McKenzie’s lively narration covers a lot. Sprinkled lightly with history, viewers are provided with information on how and what to see, accommodations and restaurants, plus what to avoid.

In Boston, McKenzie takes viewers along the Freedom Trail, a walking tour that includes Boston Common, State House and Museum, Park Street Church and Cemetery, King’s Chapel, Old South Meeting House, Paul Revere House, St. Stephen’s Church, Old North Church and Beacon Hill.

At the harbor, cruise to the Constitution and the marina. A walking tour stops at the aquarium, the Boston Tea Party Ship and Museum, the Children’s Museum and Faneuil Hall and marketplace, which features shops and restaurants.

McKenzie offers places to eat--gourmet, budget and ethnic. Also, shoppers are tempted with Filene’s bargain basement and trendy shops and boutiques of Newbury Street in the Back Bay area, Copley Plaza and the Prudential Building.

In the Charleston area across the Charles River, Bunker Hill Monument, Cambridge, Harvard, Radcliffe and the Military Institute of Technology are featured.

Information about bus tours, trolleys and subways is given as is information on theaters and night-life, including a visit to Bull & Finch, TV’s “Cheers” bar.

An excursion north to Salem includes stops at Witch House and Witch House Dungeon, First Church of Salem, inns, B&Bs; and the Essex Institute Museum.

Viewers also get a look at Pickering Wharf, the marina and restaurants and Chestnut Street, the old residential district, the House of Seven Gables and the birthplace of author Nathaniel Hawthorne.

In the historic suburbs of Lexington and Concord, watchers can ride with Paul Revere to the Battle Green, Buckman Tavern, Minute Man National Park, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and Old North Bridge.

In Plymouth, stops are at Plymouth Rock, Mayflower II, Plymouth Wax Museum and Plimoth Plantation, a re-created town of the 1600s.

The video continues with the picturesque harbor of Provincetown near the tip of Cape Cod. Scenes of its quaint shops, restaurants and night life flash by. And a visit to Hyannis pauses at the Kennedy summer home and the JFK Monument.

General information and where to write for information ends the film.

Tapes are available from Republic Pictures Home Video, P.O. Box 66930, Los Angeles 90066-0930, (213) 306-4040. Price: $19.95.

“Old Sturbridge Village” (Video Tours Inc., 30 minutes, 1989).

A filmed visit to Sturbridge, Mass., and to Old Sturbridge Village, a re-created New England town of the 1830s, gives armchair travelers an opportunity to view what many people consider “the good old days.”

People in authentic costumes perform daily chores in this “living history museum,” where homes are stocked with the furnishings, tools and appliances of that era.

Gardens produce vegetables that look as they did then and livestock are raised much the same way as they were in 1830. An old clock gallery, working sawmills, gristmills, a cobbler’s shop and women spinning and weaving are part of the scene.

All buildings at Sturbridge have been moved to the village from original sites or have been re-created.

The video offers costumed workers at a barn-raising and craftsmen making pottery. Also, an old-fashioned gift shop sells products made in the village.

Final scenes show the preparation and serving of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

Film quality is excellent. However, there are no travel tips or hotel recommendations.

Available from Video Tours, 300 Winding Brook Drive, Glastonbury, Conn. 06033, (203) 659-8687. Price: $19.95.

“Alaska, Inside Passage” (Alaska Video Postcards, 40 minutes, 1989).

The grandeur of Alaska’s panhandle have been beautifully captured. Glimpses of wildlife, glaciers, green forests, rushing rivers and a map showing the 1,000 islands of the Alexander Archipelago that stretches from the U.S. border north to Skagway serve as an introduction.

A stop at fiord-like Tracy Arm, a water-sculpture garden filled with free-form icebergs, is followed by a cruise of Glacier Bay, where 16 glaciers calve thunderously into the sea.

Wildlife in the bay includes the kittiwakes, one of 200 species of birds that nest precariously on the rocky ridges of the mountainsides, some ungainly sea lions and humpback whales.

A side trip takes viewers to Chichagof Island to join a Tlingit Indian celebration.

In Sitka, with its early Russian influence, scenes are of St. Michael’s Cathedral, including a treasure of Russian icons; Castle Hill, where the Russian flag came down and the U.S. flag went up, and the New Archangel Russian dancers.

Also, viewers will see the totem poles in Sitka National Historical Park, a bald eagle sanctuary, a logging championship and the Sitka summer music festival.

In Ketchikan, harbor activities feature the importance of tourism, fishing and the timber industry. The video takes on the rain forest of Tongass National Monument and Creek Street, an old red-light district built on pilings over Ketchikan River.

From Ketchikan there’s a side trip to the hauntingly beautiful Misty Canyon Fiords National Monument, with its 3,000-foot granite cliffs and waterfalls, and a stop on Admiralty Island.

In Juneau, viewers get to see the capitol, governor’s mansion and St. Nichlas Russian church. On Franklin Street the past comes alive as false-fronted buildings and old-time saloons race by.

Outside Juneau is the awesome Mendenhall Glacier and scenes of river rafters on the challenging Gastineau Channel.

A trip up Lynn Canal takes viewers to Skagway, “Gateway to the Klondike,” where many of the original gold rush buildings have been preserved.

Early film clips of gold seekers struggling through the snow of the Chilkoot Trail on their way to the Yukon contrast with the White Pass and Yukon Railroad, which today carries summer tourists on the scenic trail from Skagway to Lake Bennett.

Haines, the final stop, is the site of Ft. Seward, Alaska’s first Army post, and where winter scenes show a large concentration of bald eagles that have flown north to roost in the cottonwood trees.

Tapes are available from Alaska Video Postcards, P.O. Box 112808, Anchorage, Alaska 99511, (800) 248-2624. Price: $19.95.