Shot in HDTV format, Continental Ohio is a thirty-minute documentary that encapsulates a century of Americana from an Ohio perspective.

n the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s, people got out more than many of us do today. Live entertainment was much more popular and common than it seems to be now. As a result, hundreds of traveling troupes toured the nation, playing venues in large cities and small towns. These varied widely from large spectacular shows such as circuses and carnivals to smaller entertainment companies performing tent shows, minstrel routines, and vaudeville acts. “The Musical Minstral Revue” of Sugarfoot Green from New Orleans, “Ten Nights in a Bar Room” with the vaudeville players of the Kinsey Komedy Kompany, Jack Kelley’s Big Tent Show, and the Harry Shannon production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin are a few of the shows that your grandparents and their friends flocked to see —names few people today recall or recognize… with the possible exception of Nyle Stateler.

Continental, Ohio is a multi-faceted story: It’s about the lost art of letterpress printing. It's about the history of the traveling shows of the ’30s. It's about life and culture in small town America. And it’s about the work ethic of Nyle Stateler, who took a job sixty years ago, and except for time off to fight for his country, dedicated his entire life to his craft and his print shop.