Small town 1940s Ontario has been brought back to life thanks to The University of Western Ontario Archives. Dubbed 'Stars of the Town' by their creator, the late Rev. LeRoy (Roy) Massecar (1918-2003), the collection of 85 black and white 8 mm films representing 88 Ontario locations depict small town life in the province in the immediate post World War II era. The films have been described as "the home movies of southwestern Ontario communities -- communities whose day-to-day patterns of life in the late 1940s might otherwise be lost to history." To supplement his modest church stipend, the Rev. Massecar filmed people from the small towns on film, returned to screen the films at town halls and community centres, and invited the "stars" to attend for a modest admission price. "The Rev. Massecar concentrated mostly on faces, but in between glimpses can be seen of streets and shops and old cars and trucks, and even horse-pulled wagons. In the years after these films were made, life in small town Ontario change inalterably as a result of the onslaught of mass suburbanization as young men and women moved away from their birthplaces for jobs in larger urban centres leaving many of the towns to decline or to be swallowed by bigger neighbouring cities. The films were donated to Western Archives by Roy's wife, Marion Massecar, in 2005. Since then, the films have been converted to DVD format and are now available to order."