THE LEGEND OF FREEHOLD POND
https://springsteencenter.org/event/the-music-film-series-featuring-the-legend-of-freehold-pond/
Presented by the Monmouth County Historical Association
A documentary film by Adam Worth
Running time: 45 minutes
Before the legend, there was a town. Nothing about it was extraordinary. That's what made it everything. The Legend of Freehold Pond returns to the New Jersey borough that shaped Bruce Springsteen and asks what any of us carry out of the places that make us.
SYNOPSIS
Before Asbury Park, before the E Street Band and the stadium shows, there was Freehold. The Legend of Freehold Pond is an exploration of Bruce Springsteen's childhood in the small New Jersey town where he was born, and of the town itself: its history, its people, and the forces that shaped it.
In the decades after the Second World War, Freehold lived through what much of America lived through. Work came and work went. Old divisions held, and slowly began to give. A generation grew up in the space between what their parents had known and what the world was becoming.
Directed by Adam Worth and presented by the Monmouth County Historical Association, the film is at once a portrait of an artist before he became one, the story of a hometown, and a reflection on a country in transition. Above all, it is about how the places we come from never really leave us. They become part of who we are, and part of everything we make.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Adam Worth is a five-time New York Emmy Award-winning filmmaker with nineteen nominations. His previous documentaries include films on the Revolutionary War, Hurricane Sandy, and September 11th, and many other feature films, documentaries, and television broadcasts as cinematographer, editor, or director. He has created work for MLB Network, MSNBC, HBO Films, Food Network, A&E, and CBS. He directed, shot, and edited The Legend of Freehold Pond for the Monmouth County Historical Association.
ABOUT THE MONMOUTH COUNTY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
Founded in 1898, the Monmouth County Historical Association is the oldest historical organization in Monmouth County. From its headquarters in Freehold, home since 1931, it operates a museum, research library, and archives, along with five historic house museums across the county. Its mission is to preserve and celebrate the history of Monmouth County for all.
SCREENING
World Premiere Screening
Thursday, October 29, 2026, at 7:30 p.m.
Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, West Long Branch, New Jersey
Tickets: Pay what you will, at SpringsteenCenter.org
The Legend of Freehold Pond premieres in the new theater of the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, which opened this year on the campus of Monmouth University as the home of Bruce Springsteen's archives and a national center for the story of American music.