Field Guide To Sponsored Films
Field Guide To Sponsored Films
Field Guide To Sponsored Films
SPONSORED FILMS
by Rick Prelinger
This publication was made possible through a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation. It may be downloaded as a PDF file from the National Film Preservation
Foundation Web site: www.filmpreservation.org.
Photo credits
Cover and title page (from left): Admiral Cigarette (1897), courtesy of Library of Congress;
Now You’re Talking (1927), courtesy of Library of Congress; Highlights and Shadows (1938),
courtesy of George Eastman House.
Page 1 and back cover (from left): The Stenographer’s Friend: or, What Was Accomplished
by an Edison Business Phonograph (1910), courtesy of Library of Congress; Tomorrow’s
Drivers (1954), courtesy of Prelinger Archives; A Continent Is Bridged (1940), courtesy
of Prelinger Archives.
Acknowledgments iv
Introduction vi
How to Use This Guide xii
Film Entries 1
Appendix 1: Works Frequently Cited 105
Appendix 2: Sources of Copyright Data 107
Appendix 3: Repositories Cited 108
Appendix 4: Films by Date 111
Index of Subjects, Places, and Organizations 116
Index of Personal Names 130
About the National Film Preservation Foundation 140
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Gathering, sifting through, and evaluating information for this publication was a huge
undertaking involving hundreds of individuals and institutions over the course of 18
months. Rick Prelinger tirelessly oversaw the project from start to finish, developing the
research strategy, selecting and documenting films, collecting holdings data, and writing
and indexing the entries. The guide is a testament to his knowledge, enthusiasm, and perse-
verance. Assisting Rick in refining the methodology were a team of archivists and scholars:
Dan Streible (New York University), Donald Crafton (University of Notre Dame), Michael
Mashon and Amy Gallick (Library of Congress), Wendy Shay (National Museum of
American History, Smithsonian Institution), Margaret Compton (University of Georgia),
Abby Smith, and the staff of the National Film Preservation Foundation. As the project
took shape, this group advised on the scope and content. Several experts—Jennifer Horne
(Bryn Mawr College), Steve Lubar (Brown University), Gregory Waller (Indiana University),
and Charles McGovern (College of William and Mary)—critiqued the film selection in
the winter and spring of 2006 and offered invaluable suggestions for improving coverage
and documentation. Additional suggestions were contributed by colleagues attending the
University of South Carolina’s Orphan Film Symposium, which in March 2006 featured
a panel and film screening based on the project.
In summer 2006, Alex Thimons, a Cornell University undergraduate who had helped in
the initial stages of the project the previous summer, returned to fact-check the manuscript
and assist, under the direction of the NFPF staff, in its final preparation. We owe him a
special thanks for his exacting and perceptive research.
iv
Acknowledgments
This project was funded through a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and
would not have been possible without the encouragement and support of the foundation
and its program officers. Thank you.
v
INTRODUCTION
The Field Guide to Sponsored Films is a first effort to review and assess the thousands of
industrial and institutional films sponsored by American businesses, charities, educational
institutions, and advocacy groups over the last century. In the tradition of the naturalist’s
field guides, it describes examples discovered by patient observation and points out their
identifying characteristics. In so doing, The Field Guide calls attention to historically sig-
nificant but neglected titles, makes an argument for reclaiming their rightful place in film
history, and suggests directions for scholarship.
Sponsored films are as old as film itself. From the earliest years of cinema, motion pictures
have been produced to record, orient, train, sell, and persuade. Though it is estimated that
300,000 industrial and institutional films have been made in the United States—far more
than any other type of motion picture—the film type is little known. Almost every major
company, national business association, and educational institution produced or commis-
sioned titles intended for staff, customers, or the public. Today these films are valuable
both as documentation of past places, events, and practices and as examples of changing
styles of rhetoric.
Though definitions of industrial and institutional film have been debated since as early as
the 1920s, the more practical approach is to look for shared criteria. Sponsorship heads the
list. Sponsorship is the common thread that links films funded by for-profit and nonprofit
entities, and it runs through both works made for internal viewing (such as training films)
and titles targeting customers, business partners, and the public. Sponsorship also implies
the packaging of information from a particular corporate or institutional perspective. Finally,
sponsorship denotes direct institutional support, generally through funding, though occa-
sionally through donated services or other nonfinancial assistance. Sponsored films encom-
pass advertisements, public service announcements, special event productions, cartoons,
newsreels and documentaries, training films, organizational profiles, corporate reports, works
showcasing manufacturing processes and products, and of course, polemics made to win
over audiences to the funders’ point of view.
The timeline of the development of sponsored films begins before the invention of the
motion picture with the experiments of visual education pioneers. Beginning in 1891,
the charismatic John H. Patterson, head of National Cash Register Company and a passion-
ate believer in the educational power of images, assembled a corporate library of 68,000
glass lantern slides documenting business activities. Almost every imaginable interaction
between worker, manager, salesman, and customer was visualized and arranged into exposi-
vi
Introduction
tory sequences for employee training. Public lecture programs were also developed on topics
in which Patterson had an interest, including health, welfare, and municipal reform.1
Meanwhile, cinema had already proved itself as a medium with broad outreach potential.
By 1897, short advertisements such as Admiral Cigarette (entry 4) were being shown out-
doors in New York City. In the initial years of the motion picture, the same production
companies made both theatrical and sponsored films. Indeed, sponsored films were often
packaged as narratives to make their message more accessible to audiences.
The proliferation of sponsors and subjects led to an increase in the number of production
companies specializing in nontheatrical films. Arthur Edwin Krows recounts the early history
in a series published in Educational Screen from September 1938 to June 1944. Although
Krows’s recollections can be inaccurate in their detail, his essays are an invaluable look back
at the pioneering companies. He tells how entrepreneurs like Carlyle Ellis and Watterson
Rothacker tried to build production empires, which never quite achieved their promise, and
how others started more quietly and survived much longer. Reid H. Ray Film Industries
survived under various names for six decades, until the 1970s; the Jam Handy Organization,
founded around 1917, stayed in business through four wars and massive industrial mod-
ernization. It would, however, be a mistake to characterize the history of sponsored film
solely in terms of large firms. It was also an arena for small innovators—On Film Inc.,
Centron Productions, the Eames Studio, and a host of others. Some companies, such as
the Western Union Telegraph Company and the Hills Bros. Coffee Company, became so
committed to using film to document and promote their operations that they created in-
house production units.2
The late 1940s and 1950s were the golden age of the sponsored film. During World War II,
film producers, like most other American companies, put peacetime production on hold
and went to work for the war effort. After the enforced break, the industry exploded.3
In the postwar boom, production companies and 16mm distribution outlets proliferated,
thanks in part to the availability of war-surplus 16mm equipment. The sheer profusion
and variety of titles produced from 1946 to 1980 renders it difficult to map the most sig-
nificant works. Production companies existed in most regions of the United States. Some,
especially those in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Kansas City, and Chicago, served
national accounts. Others, less well known today, focused on regional businesses and non-
profit groups. Though generalizations are risky, the New York producers of the 1950s and
1960s seem to have enjoyed a creative efflorescence, moving into innovative, sometimes
even experimental, filmmaking. Los Angeles producers capitalized on local access to high-
end production services and created some big-budget productions, a few with major stars.
Detroit’s venerable Jam Handy Organization turned out thousands of films over its 60-year
history, most of them guided by Jamison Handy’s principles of visual instruction.4 (It was
1. See “The NCR Archive: Magic Lantern Slides,” Dayton History, www.daytonhistory.org/magiclantern.htm. For educators, it
was a small step from glass slides to slidefilms, short strips of 35mm film that were shown with verbal explanation or syn-
chronized phonograph records. Slidefilms, later known as film strips, were inexpensive to make, convenient to use, and so
portable that the projectors were said to be able to fit into a saleman’s jacket pocket. Patterson is said to have been a major
influence on Jamison Handy, the founder of the Jam Handy Organization.
2. For a survey and timeline of sponsored film producers, see Thomas W. Hope, Hope Reports, Industry: AV and Training,
vol. 3 (Rochester, NY: Hope Reports, 1972), 167–71.
3. See Leo C. Beebe, “Industry,” in Film Council of America, Sixty Years of 16mm Film, 1923–1983: A Symposium (Evanston,
IL: Film Council of America, 1954), 88.
4. On Handy, see M.R. McKeown, “Detroit: The Commercial Hollywood,” Barron’s, June 29, 1936, 11–12; and Lawrence M.
Hughes, “Jamison Handy: Master of ‘Show ’Em,’” Sales Mgmt 90 (March 15, 1963): 40–45.
vii
Introduction
said that during these years more film stock may have been exposed in Detroit than in
Hollywood!) The Calvin Company, Kansas City’s high-rise motion picture factory, quoted
production prices by the minute, pioneered many efficient filmmaking methods, and sent
films throughout the Great Plains and the Southwest. A handful of Chicago firms handled
national associations with headquarters in the Windy City and exploited local talent.5
Many distribution channels connected sponsors with viewers. In the early teens the Bureau
of Commercial Economics in Washington, D.C., began exhibiting and distributing indus-
trial films. By 1914, the YMCA Motion Picture Bureau started bringing educational films,
often sponsored, to clubs, church groups, and other organizations. The YMCA Bureau
evolved into Association Films, a for-profit enterprise that circulated sponsored films,
charging sponsors according to the number of viewers reported. Modern Talking Picture
Service was organized in 1935 and led the field for some 40 years, ultimately absorbing
Association Films. By the mid-1930s, nontheatrical exhibition of sponsored films likely
surpassed their theatrical use.6
Several technical innovations fueled the popularity. The first was the introduction of non-
flammable film by Pathé-Frères in 1912. Pathé’s product, the first practical alternative to
flammable nitrate film, was manufactured in a 28mm gauge that was easier to handle than
the larger, 35mm theatrical standard. With its safe and convenient film stock and projector,
Pathé made it possible to show movies at home, in schools, and in other noncommercial
settings. Thousands of Americans bought equipment.7 However, it was Eastman Kodak
Company and the Radio Corporation of America that created the products that enabled
sponsored film to come into its own. In 1923, Kodak introduced 16mm nonflammable
“safety film” along with lightweight, easy-to-use cameras and projectors; 28mm was dropped
almost as rapidly as it had been adopted. RCA’s 16mm sound camera followed in 1934
and along with other improvements in sound recording and track printing, paved the way
for inexpensive sound film production. After years of experiment, Kodak perfected an
improved Kodachrome process and in 1938 brought color film to the 16mm market.
Many companies, schools, and associations maintained film libraries. The Bell Telephone
System, General Motors Corporation, General Electric Company, International Harvester
Company, Ford Motor Company, the American Red Cross, and the National Safety Council
were all involved in distribution, publishing film catalogs and shipping prints. Advertising
agencies and public relations firms commissioned films on behalf of clients, crafting sales
and advocacy messages that were coordinated with print and radio campaigns. Sponsored
films could reach millions of viewers. At its height the industry employed thousands of
people and supported at least one trade journal devoted to sponsored film production,
appropriately called Business Screen (published from 1938 to 1976). Festivals arose in the
5. See Robert Brundage, “Industrial Movies: Big Hollywood Screen Firms Eye Growth of Business Film Industry,” WSJ,
Dec. 10, 1945, 1; Michael J. Saada, “Business Movies: Company-Backed Films Play to Audience 500% Greater Than in
1946,” WSJ, Oct. 29, 1951, 1; William M. Freeman, “Industry Telling Story by Movies,” NYT, Jan. 24, 1954, F1; Ray Vicker,
“Subtle Salesmanship: Business Movies, with Low-Keyed Promotion, Win Big TV Audience,” WSJ, June 25, 1954, 1;
“Enterprise on Celluloid,” Newsweek, Aug. 19, 1957, 71–75; Carl Spielvogel, “Advertising: The Company Motion Picture,”
NYT, Feb. 9, 1958, F9; and Ronald G. Shafer, “Soft-Sell Movies: Entertaining Approach Helps Firms Promote Their Products
on Film,” WSJ, Oct. 14, 1964, 1. For a portrait of the industry in 1960 and case studies of New York production companies,
see Ralph Caplan, “Industry on the Screen,” Industrial Design 7 (Apr. 1960): 48–65.
6. For more on the growth of nontheatrical film distribution in the silent era, see “New Movie Expansion,” NYT, May 8, 1921, 85;
and Elizabeth Richey Dessez, “Motion Pictures for Social Groups,” CSM, Aug. 14, 1928, 10.
7. See Anke Mebold and Charles Tepperman, “Resurrecting the Lost History of 28mm Film in North America,” Film History 15,
no. 2 (2003): 137–51. Through the introduction of 28mm film equipment, middle- and upper-class Americans who had spurned
grubby nickelodeons became film enthusiasts and helped to make motion pictures a nationally shared entertainment.
viii
Introduction
Where did Americans see sponsored films? A typical American living in a city in the 1930s
might see an industrial or institutional film in a theater as a short subject preceding the
featured attraction. At newsreel theaters that existed in some large cities, the viewer might
find sponsored films on the program. Short screen ads running a minute or less also littered
movie schedules and flourished through the 1930s, despite audience objections. Industrials
were shown at often-compulsory lunchtime screenings and in on-the-job training sessions.9
Lodges, women’s organizations, 4-H clubs, scouting groups, Grange branches, and similar
groups also provided venues. Larger than any of these was the biggest captive audience of
all, schoolchildren.10
Industrial and institutional films played in classrooms as early as the mid-teens. Several
states, most notably Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia, estab-
lished distribution services and traveling exhibition programs for young audiences. Educators
took exception with the use of curricular materials espousing an explicit point of view. Media
experts evaluated the educational value of sponsored films and announced their recommen-
dations through the publications of the Film Council of America and the Educational Film
Library Association. H.W. Wilson Company’s Educational Film Catalog (later Educational
Film Guide) became an essential tool. Educational film libraries purged titles thought to
exhibit overt corporate promotion.11
By the late 1950s television had grown to eclipse all other means of sponsored film distri-
bution. As early as the late 1930s, experimental television stations were broadcasting short
sponsored films in a few large cities. After World War II, as broadcasting became more reg-
ularized, sponsored films occupied network time slots and were omnipresent on independent
and UHF TV stations. Programmers were always in search of inexpensive ways to fill air-
time but refused to broadcast explicit advertising. The requirements for television affected
the nature and style of production and brought about “public service” films that advanced
corporate goals without dwelling on mission and products. Companies commissioned films
such as Once upon a Honeymoon (entry 295), a Hollywood-style musical introducing the
color telephone as a decorator accessory and mentioning its Bell Telephone System sponsor-
ship only in an introductory title. Sponsors considered television a major outlet, and few
titles dating after the mid-1950s were made without broadcast in mind.
Then in the 1970s came signs of obsolescence. The advent of inexpensive, portable video
equipment made it more economical for organizations to switch from film to video and
move production in-house. As cable and home video became more common and viewers’
options expanded, the traditional sponsored film audience waned. Although filmmakers
tried to stay up-to-date, incorporating techniques such as cinema verité cinematography
8. See Robert W. Desmond, “Business ‘Goes Hollywood,’” CSM, May 29, 1935, WM8; and “Camera! Action! Sales!,” Bus
Wk, May 27, 1939, 38–47.
9. For a description of workplace exhibition practices, see “Time to Show the Facts,” Bus Scrn 10, no. 2 (1949): 21–22.
10. See Gregory Mason, “Teaching by the Movies,” The Outlook, Aug. 22, 1914, 963; and “Reaching the Consumer with
Films,” Pr Ink Mon 37 (July 1938): 19–22, 60–73.
11. On the use of sponsored films in the classroom, see F. Dean McClusky, “Public Schools,” in Film Council of America,
Sixty Years of 16mm Film, 1923–1983: A Symposium (Evanston, IL: Film Council of America, 1954), 46–59; and Herbert
Kerkow, “Films for Schools: Public Relations Tools for Industry,” Sales Mgmt 54 (Mar. 1, 1946): 68–71. On the film council
movement, see John Beaufort, “Film Library Waits Calls of ‘Grass Roots,’” CSM, May 1, 1948, 20.
ix
Introduction
and split screens, these efforts did not keep sponsored films alive. Today lower-cost video
and digital media have, by and large, taken over the communications role of sponsored
films, and in-house media units have sprung up to customize productions for corporate,
government, and nonprofit employers. On the other end of the spectrum are companies that
produce and distribute generic presentations on widely applicable topics, such as human
resource management. A few multinational giants, like Federal Express and Wal-Mart,
produce corporate programming and run television networks to link their geographically
far-flung outposts. However, the Internet has become the prime communications venue.
Though sponsored works are still being made (even on film), they generally have a
narrow focus.
Huge numbers of sponsored films survive. Many slipped the notice of the distribution cata-
logs and trade magazines of their day and lack active copyright holders. No national catalog
or database has been developed to record the scattered holdings. Furthermore, unlike the-
atrical features that are safeguarded by a handful of corporate owners and public archives,
sponsored films are found in a variety of repositories, ranging from private collections and
corporations to regional nonprofits and commercial stock footage libraries. Such are the
factors that today confound attempts at describing and evaluating these materials.
For several decades sponsored films have been difficult to see and largely forgotten by
scholars. Thanks to the Internet and video, a number of long-unseen titles have once again
become viewable. The conventions and assumptions of such films as The Atom and Eve
(entry 32) or The Home Electrical (entry 186) can seem surprising, even humorous, to con-
temporary audiences. Some titles, such as The House in the Middle (entry 190), have earned
a place in popular culture. When these works are seen as part of a larger historical frame-
work, they become much more revealing.
The Field Guide to Sponsored Films attempts to put these films into context. It names 452
of the most significant or influential examples produced during the first century of film.
Using a short entry format, it describes the works’ major characteristics, suggests the rationale
behind their production, and touches on the reception and impact. By providing informa-
tion on several hundred titles of special interest, The Field Guide explores the contours of
this film type and sketches its potential documentary and evidentiary value for cinema,
cultural, and historical studies.
As historically neglected film types gain attention, archivists and scholars face challenges
quite unlike those confronted in collecting the better-documented fiction feature. In a uni-
verse of hundreds of thousands of poorly known and largely undocumented works, where
to begin? What criteria should inform acquisition and preservation policies? How can prac-
titioners compare similar titles and characterize their specificities, intentions, and reception?
As new works are discovered, what can be learned from examining related titles? The field
guide approach provides a point of departure.
The following entries are not limited to titles still known to exist. This book also covers
a number of works not reported in major American collections but mentioned in at least
two publications of the period. The descriptions, it is hoped, will stimulate a search for
lost titles and encourage preservationists to save what they have and seek better materials
for works known through damaged or incomplete copies. The book might also increase
the availability of films on video and the Internet. Filmmakers seeking footage may also
find The Field Guide helpful, especially since a number of the cited films are in the public
domain or unclaimed by rights holders.
x
Introduction
Research took the project into resources that have not generally been the province of moving
image scholarship. In addition to the nontheatrical film catalogs and trade journals that
targeted producers and sponsors, I reviewed the two largest American private collections of
sponsored film; unpublished records of two major producers, the Jam Handy Organization
and Jerry Fairbanks Productions; and a wide spectrum of periodicals serving professionals
in advertising and marketing, industrial management, municipal government, and photog-
raphy. These nontraditional sources were a treasure house of information. I also combed
digitized newspaper archives and collections of paper ephemera relating to nontheatrical
film and polled archival colleagues. The working draft of The Field Guide was reviewed by
the project team and by scholars and archivists with expertise in relevant subject areas.
The 452 entries that appear in this book represent many industries, regions, perspectives,
and styles. Though readers will immediately recognize some titles (such as the films from
the Eames Studio and the Bell Telephone System) and individuals (such as George Stoney,
Helen Levitt, Stan Brakhage, and Alexander Hammid), most will seem new except to
devotees. The project team aimed to present a regionally balanced selection showcasing
a variety of organizations and lesser-known women, ethnic, and regional filmmakers.
The selection criteria took diverse factors into account. The project team strove to identify
culturally or socially significant films of potential interest to historians, social scientists,
film experts, and other specialists. Films sometimes earned inclusion for their vivid, detailed,
or revealing portrayals of their subject; in other cases, they presented telling specimens of
corporate or institutional rhetoric. Also highlighted were examples that might encourage
the discovery of similar works. Finally, we tried to single out films of cinematic excellence.
The resulting list is a snapshot rather than a canon, and one that will evolve as more
about the film type becomes known.
Omitted were titles produced exclusively for classroom use, funded solely by the U.S. gov-
ernment, or made for electoral campaigns. Also excluded were works sponsored by religious
organizations for their own membership, titles made primarily for screening abroad, tech-
nical productions intended for medical, engineering, and scientific professionals, and trailers
and other films sponsored by motion picture studios to promote their productions. Space
does not permit coverage of the many works produced exclusively for television broadcast
and not available through film distribution channels.
In looking back on this compilation one can’t help noticing fascinating clusters of related
films calling out for further study. Though the social welfare films of the teens are reason-
ably well documented, few have looked at the booster “municipal movies” of the 1920s.
Roland Marchand and William L. Bird have written about the direct-to-consumer screen
advertising and free-enterprise dramas of the 1930s, but still to be explored are the neorealist
psychology films of the 1940s, many by documentarians with progressive roots. Almost
nothing is known about the exuberant, experimental works of New York filmmakers in
the 1950s, many produced for Fortune 500 sponsors, and the reciprocal influence of
1960s cinema verité and industrial filmmakers. May this book serve as a road map for
new explorations.
Rick Prelinger
xi
HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE
The Field Guide to Sponsored Films describes 452 films commissioned by American advo-
cacy groups, businesses, charities, educational institutions, fraternal and service organiza-
tions, state and local government units, and trade associations between 1897 and 1980.
The films were chosen on the basis of (1) historical and cultural significance, (2) quality,
and (3) reception and influence. Effort was made to achieve a balance across industries,
charitable groups, and regions.
The entries are arranged alphabetically by film title. Descriptive titles are provided
in brackets for untitled works. In a few cases, entries are given for series, such as Ford
Educational Weekly.
The first covers the physical characteristics of the film, its major production credits
(sponsor, production company, producer, director, crew, and cast), published sources dis-
cussing the title, and American repositories that have copies. For titles in the two Prelinger
Collections, production credits were transcribed from the film itself. Corporate and per-
sonal names reflect the form of name in use at the time of the film’s production. Sources
are listed in chronological order, beginning with the original copyright registration date
and number. Copyright data were drawn from the publications listed in appendix 2 and
do not report the current copyright status. The citations for frequently consulted publica-
tions are given in short form; the full references are provided in appendix 1. Citations of
Web sites are valid as of June 30, 2006.
The holdings data were derived in two ways. More than 20 stock footage houses, collec-
tors, corporate archives, and public institutions, including the Library of Congress and the
Smithsonian Institution, contributed up-to-date information specifically for this project.
Holdings data from the other repositories were taken from published catalogs, scholarly
monographs, and institutional Web sites; the use of such secondary sources is noted in
appendix 3. Roughly 20 percent of the titles were not found in any American collection;*
for these fugitive titles, no repositories are listed.
The second part of the entry outlines the film’s purpose and content. Quotations cited
without a source are taken from the film itself. Any other quotations are from resources
cited in the first part of the entry.
The third section summarizes awards, accounts of the film’s reception, and production or
distribution details of special interest. Also mentioned is the availability of Internet viewing
copies and sources for further reading.
Compiling a reference work is a humbling task. Many films represented here are known
largely through published descriptions and secondhand accounts. Errors and omissions
are inevitable, and the reader is encouraged to send corrections to Rick Prelinger at
[email protected].
* To be included, a title had to have been described in two or more published accounts of the period.
xii
FILM ENTRIES
1
Admiral Cigarette
unrehearsed film argues for encouraging troubled boys to form a club and work things out
themselves. NOTE: Developed at the sponsor’s New York City treatment facility. Viewable
online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/Activity1950.
Promotional film for Seventeen intended to show how well the magazine knows and serves
its teenage audience. The film observes teenage girls at home, in school, at work and play,
and alone and with friends, zeroing in on teen concerns about dating, marriage, and adult-
hood. At one point, high school newspaper editors fire questions at Seventeen editor in chief
Enid Haupt. NOTE: Produced in Eastmancolor. Shot near Philadelphia and at Seventeen’s
New York City office. Mia Farrow is featured in her first screen credit.
Short advocating airport construction, especially in rural regions, by illustrating the centrality
of aviation in the American economy. Airport America presents a rich panorama of townscapes
2
America Sails the Seas
and farms and shows how aviation serves business. “The air is the greatest freeway man will
ever know,” says the narrator. “It doesn’t have to be built or maintained. It touches every city
and town.” NOTE: Produced and released in Kodachrome. Viewable online at Internet Archive,
www.archive.org/details/AirportA1954.
11. ALL MY BABIES: A MIDWIFE’S OWN STORY (1952, sound, 55 min, b&w, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Georgia Dept. of Public Health. PRODUCTION CO.: Medical Audio-Visual Institute, Association of
American Medical Colleges. DIRECTOR/PRODUCER/WRITER: George C. Stoney. CAMERA: Peaslee Bond. MUSIC:
Louis Applebaum. EDITOR: Sylvia K. Cummins. CAST: Mary Coley. RESOURCES: Copyright 25Mar1953 MP4939;
1954 Catalog, 3; George Stoney, “All My Babies : Research,” in Film: Book 1: The Audience and the Film-
maker, ed. Robert Hughes (New York: Grove Press, 1959), 79–96; Lynne Jackson, “The Production of George
Stoney’s Film All My Babies: A Midwife’s Own Story (1952),” Film History I (1987): 367–92; Lynne Jackson,
“A Commitment to Social Values and Racial Justice,” Wide Angle 21, no. 2 (1999): 31–40. HOLDINGS: LC,
MacDonald, MoMA, NLM, UCLA.
Portrayal of African American midwives in rural Georgia, with a focus on the work of Mary
Coley in Albany. The film traces the course of pregnancy through birth. NOTE: Although
designed principally for training certified midwives, the film was widely praised and screened
for broader audiences. Selected for the National Film Registry. For more about George Stoney,
see Lynne Jackson, “Filmography,” Wide Angle 21, no. 2 (1999): 168–81.
12. AMERICA SAILS THE SEAS (1946, sound, 32 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: National Federation of American Shipping. PRODUCTION CO.: Palmer Pictures. PRODUCER: Alfred T.
Palmer. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; “New Films,” Mod Ind 13 (Mar. 15, 1947): 122; EFG (1951), 331;
Ec Ed, 1. HOLDINGS: MacDonald.
3
The American Cowboy
Promotional film for the U.S. merchant shipping fleet that emphasizes its importance in war
and peace and argues for expanded foreign trade following World War II. The film includes
scenes of prewar China. NOTE: Produced in Kodachrome.
4
Americans at Work
at the Illinois Steel Company, where modern industrial safety measures are practiced. The
immigrant improves himself through education, marries a schoolteacher, and becomes thor-
oughly American. NOTE: The film was shot on location on Ellis Island, at U.S. Steel’s facility
in Gary, Indiana, and at the National Tube Works in Lorain, Ohio. Films like An American
in the Making were part of a broad industry campaign to acculturate immigrants; see Gerd
Korman, “Americanization at the Factory Gate,” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 18
(Apr. 1965): 396–419.
19. AMERICANS AT WORK (1959–60; sound; approx 104 films, 15 min ea; b&w; 16mm)
SPONSOR: Public Relations Dept., American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations.
PRODUCTION CO.: Norwood Studios. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; Roscoe Born, “AFL-CIO Slates TV
Campaign to Improve Public View of Unions,” WSJ, July 29, 1958, 15; “Films for Labor,” Bus Scrn 20, no. 5
5
Anarchy, U.S.A.
(1959): 28–29; Gerald Pomper, “The Public Relations of Organized Labor,” Public Opinion Quarterly 23
(Winter 1959–60): 487. HOLDINGS: AAFF, LC.
Series produced by the labor federation to introduce Americans to the industries represented
by the AFL-CIO unions. Titles include Telephone Linemen, Bookbinders, and Subway Workers.
Gerald Pomper wrote, “There is no overt advertising for the labor movement. Instead, the
public is presented the image of clever, skillful, and prosperous workers who ‘keep the wheels
of American industry rolling.’” NOTE: Produced for television broadcast and for 16mm distri-
bution to civic, community, and labor groups, Americans at Work was the AFL-CIO’s response
to the National Association of Manufacturers’ Industry on Parade (entry 203) and to an ongo-
ing Senate investigation of labor union corruption. The films were carried by more than 200
television stations.
Right-wing film arguing that the civil rights movement and urban disturbances of the 1960s
were evidence of a worldwide communist revolution and growing dominance at home. The
polemic warns that communists may be planning to create an independent African American
state. NOTE: Anarchy, U.S.A. incorporates purchased news footage.
23. AND TEN THOUSAND MORE (1951, sound, 10 min, b&w, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Housing Authority, City of Los Angeles. PRODUCTION CO.: Dept. of Cinema, University of Southern
California. DIRECTORS/PRODUCERS: Algernon G. Walker, Gene Petersen. NARRATOR: Chet Huntley. CAST: Harold
C. Hillhouse. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; “Antidote for Housing Propaganda,” LAT, Jan. 23, 1952,
A4. HOLDINGS: UCLA, USC.
Student film sponsored by an urban housing authority advocating the financing of public
housing. In the story a newspaper editor sends his reporter to investigate the low-income
6
Angry Boy
housing shortage in Los Angeles. Visiting slums in central L.A., the reporter finds decaying
dwellings, some without plumbing and heating. The film contrasts them with the sturdy
pre–World War II city housing projects that continue to provide a healthy environment for
their residents. And Ten Thousand More takes its title from the number of new housing units
reportedly required by L.A. residents. NOTE: The film was broadcast and screened at public
meetings during the postwar public housing debate in L.A.
24. AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR (1950, sound, 24 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSORS: General Petroleum Corp.; Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Roland Reed Productions Inc.
DIRECTOR: Frank Strayer. PRODUCER: Guy V. Thayer Jr. WRITER: Charles “Cap” Palmer. MUSIC: Eliot Daniel.
NARRATOR: James Stewart. RESOURCES: Copyright 26Apr1950 LP248; “And Then There Were Four,” Bus Scrn
11, no. 5 (1950): 22. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger, MacDonald, UCLA.
Driving safety film sponsored as a public service by oil companies. Of five drivers who leave
home in the morning, only four return, and we wait to learn who the victim is. The film
gives considerable discussion to careless driving habits and depicts Angelenos from different
walks of life as well as their homes, neighborhoods, streets, and freeways. NOTE: And Then
There Were Four was shown theatrically in first-run houses before being distributed on the
nontheatrical circuit and released in 16mm. Received an award from the National Committee
on Films for Safety in 1950. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/-
and_then_there_were_four.
25. AND WOMEN MUST WEEP (1962, sound, 26 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: National Right to Work Committee. PRODUCTION CO.: Gentron Productions. RESOURCES: Copyright
8July1962 LP22540; George Bliss, “NLRB Election Upset Because of Use of Film,” CT, May 9, 1963, A1;
Joseph A. Pichler and H. Gordon Fitch, “And Women Must Weep: The NLRB as Film Critic,” Industrial and
Labor Relations Review 28 (April 1975): 395–410; Robert G. Rodden, The Fighting Machinists: A Century of
Struggle (Washington, DC: Kelly Press, 1984), chap. 60, also available online at www.iamawlodge1426.org/-
hisupdate60.htm. HOLDINGS: LC.
Antiunion film dramatizing a strike staged by the International Association of Machinists in
Princeton, Indiana, in 1956–57. NOTE: The film was based on a fictionalized pamphlet by
Rev. Edward Greenfield, an antistrike movement leader who worked as a propagandist for a
right-to-work organization in California. And Women Must Weep was used to counter union
organizing campaigns; in 1963, the National Labor Relations Board nullified a union repre-
sentation election because the film was shown beforehand. The IAM answered with Anatomy
of a Lie (entry 21).
7
Art in the Negro Schools
27. ART IN THE NEGRO SCHOOLS (1940, silent, 2 reels, b&w, 16mm)
SPONSOR/PRODUCTION CO.: Harmon Foundation. CAMERA: Kenneth F. Space. RESOURCES: Copyright not regis-
tered; Negro Year, 455. HOLDINGS: LC, NARA.
Educational film surveying the instruction of the fine and performing arts at leading African
American institutions, including Calhoun, Dillard, Fisk, Hampton, and Howard. The film
argues that exposure to theater, music, dance, and the fine arts produces well-rounded stu-
dents and enriches their lives. NOTE: Art in the Negro Schools was part of the sponsor’s Negro
Education for American Living series. The foundation provided funds for parks, established
the Religious Film Association, improved educational opportunities for African Americans,
and fostered awareness of African and African American art.
28. THE ART OF SHIP BUILDING IN 1930 (1930; silent; 57 parts, 1 reel ea; b&w; 35mm)
SPONSOR/PRODUCTION CO.: Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered.
HOLDINGS: Mariners.
Series produced to train shipyard workers in modern naval construction techniques. These
beautifully photographed films carefully document the stages of ship construction and include
scenes of the workforce at the sponsor’s Virginia facility.
Safety film for children that exposes dangers in the home, on the street, and around firearms.
Ask Daddy contrasts perils posed by contemporary life with those of “caveman days.” NOTE:
In Washington, D.C., alone, approximately 20,000 schoolchildren saw the film.
31. ASK ME, DON’T TELL ME (1960, sound, 21 min, b&w, 16mm)
SPONSOR: American Friends Service Committee. Director/Producer: David Myers. RESOURCES: Copyright not
registered. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger, Prelinger.
Exploration of juvenile delinquency in San Francisco featuring interviews with teenagers
from different racial and ethnic groups about their neighborhoods and gangs. The documen-
tary offers community projects, such as the “Youth for Service” program, as a constructive
way to draw teenagers back into the community. Ask Me, Don’t Tell Me is a revealing por-
trayal of multicultural San Francisco through the eyes of disenfranchised residents. NOTE:
Received first prize in the “Film as Communication” competition at the San Francisco
International Film Festival in 1960.
32. THE ATOM AND EVE (1966, sound, 15 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Bay State Film Productions Inc. RESOURCES:
8
The Awakening of John Bond
Copyright not registered; Lin Nelson, “Promise Her Everything: The Nuclear Power Industry’s Agenda for
Women,” Feminist Studies 10 (Summer 1984): 291–92. HOLDINGS: See note.
A soft-sell argument to women for building an investor-owned nuclear power plant in
Connecticut. To illustrate the increasing need for electricity, the live-action film follows
Eve from infancy to womanhood and parallels her growing use of electrical appliances with
that of millions of other “Eve”s across the region. Lin Nelson wrote, “Eve dances, flits, and
demurely gyrates through a world charged with electricity and rich with all the wonders of
a dream house.” NOTE: Distributed by Green Mountain Post Films, www.gmpfilms.com.
33. THE ATOM COMES TO TOWN (1957, sound, 29 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Chamber of Commerce of the United States. PRODUCTION CO.: Muller, Jordan & Herrick. RESOURCES:
Copyright 25Jun57 MP8235; “Peacetime Roles for the Atom,” Bus Scrn 18, no. 5 (1957): 37. HOLDINGS: AAFF, LC.
Promotional film showing the role of atomic energy in medicine, agriculture, industry, and re-
search and the potential for nuclear-generated electrical power. NOTE: Produced in Eastmancolor.
36. THE AWAKENING OF JOHN BOND (1911, silent, 1 reel, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis. PRODUCTION CO.: Thomas A.
Edison Inc. DIRECTOR: Charles Brabin. WRITER: Bannister Merwin. CAST: Mary Fuller, Harold M. Shaw, Bigelow
Cooper, Miriam Nesbitt. RESOURCES: Copyright 5Dec1911 J164290-93; “Picture Show as Educator,” LAT,
June 16, 1912, II6; Boyd Fisher, “Motion Pictures to Make Good Citizens,” Am City 7 (Sept. 1912): 236–37;
Martin S. Pernick, “Thomas Edison’s Tuberculosis Films: Mass Media and Health Propaganda,” Hastings
Center Report 8 (June 1978): 21–27. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Narrative commissioned by a national advocacy group to encourage the prevention of tubercu-
losis, then a leading cause of death in the United States. In this melodrama John Bond refuses
to improve living conditions in a tenement that he owns. However, when his wife contracts
tuberculosis, he sees the error of his ways and joins the fight against the disease. NOTE: One
of many early public health films shown free in selected American cities. Twenty thousand
were said to have seen this title during its first week of exhibition in New York City parks.
9
Back of the Mike
38. BACK TO THE OLD FARM (1912, silent, 1 reel, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: International Harvester Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Essanay Film Mfg. Co. PRODUCER: Frank W. Heiskell.
WRITER: E.L. Barker. CAST: Beverley Bayne, William Bailey, E.H. Calvert, Frank Dayton. RESOURCES: Copyright
not registered; “Back to the Old Farm,” Bus Scrn 1, no. 4 (1938): 16; Arthur Edwin Krows, “Motion Pictures
—Not for Theatres,” Ed Scrn 19 (May 1941): 200, 223; John W. Branta, “Rural America and the Screen,”
Bus Scrn 8, no. 7 (1947): 23–24; Before Video, 49–50. HOLDINGS: AAFF.
Film outlining the advantages of modern farm equipment. John Branta pronounced Back to
the Old Farm “the first full length reel industrial motion picture made in America.” NOTE:
Sometimes referred to as Back to the Farm, the film was reissued in 1940 as a comedy with
an added soundtrack. By 1915, International Harvester had established a distribution service
providing free film loans to rural communities; see “International Harvester: A Pioneer of
1911 Shows the Way in 1938,” Bus Scrn 1, no. 1 (1938): 14.
10
Behind Your Radio Dial
cereal, the “Breakfast of Champions.” Baseball discusses the origin, history, and technique
of the game and positions it as a healthy activity for youths. The National League ballplayers
are shown eating Wheaties. NOTE: Also distributed in 16mm to schools, clubs, and commu-
nity groups.
One of the many hunting films sponsored by the arms manufacturer, Bay at the Moon con-
sists of three vignettes illustrating hunting practices in different regions. Accompanied by
folk music and minimal narration, this fascinating urban view of rural folkways presents
firearm use as a vital part of country life. NOTE: Produced in Kodachrome.
44. BEHIND THE FREEDOM CURTAIN (1957, sound, 18 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Automatic Voting Machine Corp. PRODUCTION CO.: McLarty Productions. CAST: Robert E. Horrocks,
William D. Ellis. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
Promotional film by an automatic voting machine manufacturer. In contrast to old-fashioned
paper balloting, the machines are shown as easy-to-use, accurate, and honest. NOTE: Behind
the Freedom Curtain was shot around Jamestown, New York. Produced in Kodachrome. View-
able online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/Behindth1957.
45. BEHIND THE SCENES AT HUTZLER’S (1938, silent, 14 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Hutzler’s. PRODUCTION CO.: Stark Films. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered. HOLDINGS: Maryland.
Informal staff portrait sponsored by the Baltimore department store to celebrate its 50th
anniversary. This picture takes pleasure in the company’s esprit de corps and shows the employ-
ees dining in the cafeteria, posing for the camera, playing quoits, and enjoying themselves at
an in-house party and talent show. In the spirit of fun, Behind the Scenes at Hutzler’s also
takes a good-natured swipe at top managers trying to lose weight. The concluding intertitle
reads, “THE END OF A PERFECT DAY (EVERY DAY–AT HUTZLER’S).”
46. BEHIND YOUR RADIO DIAL (1947, sound, 24 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: National Broadcasting Co. PRODUCTION CO.: RKO-Pathé. DIRECTOR: Edward J. Montagne. CAST:
Arturo Toscanini, H.V. Kaltenborn, Fibber McGee, Fred Allen. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; “NBC
Orders 500 Prints of Film on Radio for National Distribution,” Bus Scrn 10, no. 3 (1949): 8. HOLDINGS: AAFF,
LC/Prelinger.
A comprehensive, behind-the-scenes tour of NBC’s radio, television, and sound recording
studios at Rockefeller Center in New York City. NOTE: Distributed theatrically and nonthe-
11
The Benefactor
atrically and broadcast by NBC television stations. Viewable online at Internet Archive,
www.archive.org/details/BehindYo1947.
48. THE BEST MADE PLANS (1956, sound, 22 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Dow Chemical Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Dallas Jones Productions. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered;
EFG (1954–58), 32. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
Promotional film for Saran plastic wrap, a Dow Chemical product. Targeting home econom-
ics classes, women’s clubs, and community groups, The Best Made Plans follows a weekend in
the life of a typical suburban family, during which plastic wrap is used for almost every con-
ceivable purpose. With the housewife as field marshal, the husband as passive bumbler, and
the young daughter as princess, the film suggests that successful households depend on the
near-infinite functionalities of plastic wrap. NOTE: Produced in Kodachrome and released in
Eastmancolor. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/BestMade1956.
12
Boil Your Water
Narrative promoting the sponsor’s Hotpoint appliance line. The plot involves a wealthy man-
ufacturing heir who elopes with a nightclub singer who can’t cook. When the couple break
up, the singer goes to cooking school, learns how to use Hotpoint appliances, and prepares
the perfect meal for her estranged husband. They reunite and the accomplished cook earns
the respect of her formerly unsupportive in-laws. The film includes scenes of a television pro-
gram promoting the Hotpoint electric range. NOTE: Reginald Leborg directed the musical
sequences. Also distributed in 16mm.
13
Booked for Safekeeping
organisms living in the untreated liquid. “Nothing could convey to the mind of either chil-
dren or adults the folly of drinking such fluid than the succession of horrors that wriggle
and writhe on the screen,” wrote a reporter in the Atlanta Constitution.
14
Bridging San Francisco Bay
Drama arguing for more sympathetic treatment of troubled adolescents. A social worker
reaches out to Jerry, a disturbed youngster in an unhappy home dominated by an uncaring
stepmother. During a melodramatic confrontation, Jerry takes out his anger by attacking sofa
cushions with a switchblade. Shot like a low-budget Hollywood feature, the film mirrors the
period’s growing concern with juvenile delinquency. NOTE: Boy with a Knife was made as a
fund-raiser for the Los Angeles Community Chest and distributed widely. Viewable online
at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/Boywitha1956.
63. BRIDGING SAN FRANCISCO BAY (1937, sound, 60 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: American Bridge Div., United States Steel Corp. PRODUCTION CO.: Jam Handy Organization.
RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; EFC (1939), 168. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger, SI/NMAH.
Dramatic documentary showing the construction of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.
Focusing on the dangerous task of winding the suspension cables, Bridging San Francisco Bay
appears to have been shot, for the most part, with a handheld camera from atop scaffolds and
15
Brink of Disaster
towers. Much of the “ground-level” footage was shot by Ken Allen of Hills Bros. Coffee, which
had its headquarters near the San Francisco anchorage. NOTE: Also released in 16mm. A 17-
minute version is viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/Bridging1937.
67. CALHOUN SCHOOL, THE WAY TO A BETTER FUTURE (1940, silent, 1 reel, b&w, 16mm)
SPONSOR/PRODUCTION CO.: Harmon Foundation. CAMERA: Kenneth F. Space. RESOURCES: Copyright not regis-
tered; EFC (1939), 81–82; Negro Year, 455. HOLDINGS: NARA.
Portrait of Calhoun School, founded in 1892, and its vocational work among rural African
Americans of Lowndes County, Alabama. The film shows the living conditions of the poor
16
A Case of Spring Fever
and illustrates how the school makes a difference in health education, agriculture, and road
construction. Mary McLeod Bethune, then-director of the Negro Affairs Division of the
National Youth Administration, addresses graduates. Educational Film Catalog singled out
Calhoun School’s “creative camera technique” and pronounced it a “deep and moving pano-
rama of Negro life.” NOTE: The film was part of the foundation’s Negro Education for American
Living series.
17
Century 21 Calling
Advertising short for Chevrolet combining live action and animation. The film relates the
story of Gilbert Willoughby, who, exasperated by his stubborn boxspring mattress, impru-
dently wishes for the disappearance of springs. Coily, the animated spring sprite, grants his
wish, and Gilbert is bedeviled by once-familar appliances that no longer function. Apolo-
gizing to Coily, Gilbert acknowledges the contribution of springs to daily life, especially in
the Chevrolet. NOTE: From the Direct Mass Selling series, this film combines two features
common in industrial films: the anthropomorphized product and the discovery of the
product’s central role in everyday life. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/-
details/CaseofSp1940.
75. THE CHILDREN MUST LEARN (1940, sound, 13 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. PRODUCTION COS.: Documentary Film Productions Inc.; Educational
Film Institute, New York University; University of Kentucky. Director: Willard Van Dyke. WRITER: Spencer
Pollard. CAMERA: Bob Churchill. MUSIC: Fred Stewart. EDITOR: Irving Lerner. NARRATOR: Myron McCormick.
RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; Living Films, 30–31; EFG (1943), 93; Film Forum Review staff, “The
Children Must Learn,” in Ideas, 159–60. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger, MacDonald.
Documentary profiling an Appalachian farming family struggling to scrape out a living.
Linking education and economic development, The Children Must Learn suggests that better
schooling, especially in agricultural techniques, would bring improvement. NOTE: Made
in conjunction with And So They Live (entry 22). Viewable online at Internet Archive,
www.archive.org/details/Children1940.
18
The Clean Look
children beseeching Uncle Sam for help as the word “greed” floats above their heads. After
falling from a train, an industrialist’s daughter is rescued and adopted by immigrant workers.
Unbeknownst to her father, she ends up working in his factory. She falls ill, becomes reunit-
ed with her parents, and persuades her father to hire only adults. NOTE: Praised by contem-
porary reviewers, Children Who Labor was part of the National Child Labor Committee’s
multimedia campaign to fight the industrial exploitation of children.
19
Clean Waters
20
The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company
a folk music sound track, Coffee House Rendezvous profiles seven coffee houses located near
churches and college campuses and illustrates the wholesome activities that occur in these
public places. NOTE: The film was made as part of the “Think Drink” campaign mounted by
the Coffee Information Service, whose objective was to turn 17- to 20-year-olds into coffee
drinkers. Produced in Eastmancolor. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/-
details/CoffeeHo1969. The film’s editor, Mark Rappaport, has had a long career as an
independent filmmaker.
85. COLOR AND TEXTURE IN ALUMINUM FINISHES (1956, sound, 18 min, color, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Aluminum Co. of America. PRODUCTION CO.: On Film Inc. DIRECTORS: Wheaton Galentine, Tracy
Ward [Virginia Bell]. PRODUCER/WRITER: Tracy Ward [Virginia Bell]. CAMERA: Richard Bagley. MUSIC: Frank
Lewin. NARRATOR: Walter Abel. RESOURCES: Copyright 12Feb57 LP10427; “Inspiration in Visual Design,” Bus
Scrn 18, no. 3 (1957): 37; Ralph Caplan, “Industry on the Screen,” Industrial Design 7 (Apr. 1960): 61, 64;
Howard Thompson, “New Arrivals in 16-mm,” NYT, July 28, 1957, 69. HOLDINGS: LC, UCLA.
Film from the leading American producer of aluminum illustrating the versatility of the
material in building and design. Color and Texture in Aluminum Finishes was singled out in
the trade press for its avant-garde qualities and considered by Howard Thompson as “proba-
bly the most strikingly imaginative industrial short subject ever filmed in the United States.”
NOTE: Although originally targeted at design professionals, the short was also successfully
shown to general audiences. On Film Inc. continued making critically acclaimed and un-
usual films, including In the Suburbs (entry 198) and Pittsburgh (entry 318). Richard Bagley
went on to shoot Lionel Rogosin’s On the Bowery.
Report on the American Missionary Association’s work in the South. The Color of a Man was
produced to mark the association’s 100th anniversary and to help overcome racial prejudice.
It contrasts the situation in the South with that in the District of Columbia, where the African
American community is served by its own schools, hospital, and churches. Improving the
standard of living for African Americans, the film argues, requires addressing racial prejudices
and bettering the education system.
88. THE COLORADO FUEL AND IRON COMPANY (1920s, silent, 10 min, b&w, 16mm)
SPONSOR/PRODUCTION CO.: Colorado Fuel and Iron Co. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered. HOLDINGS:
Bessemer.
Tour of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company’s steel mill in Pueblo, Colorado. The film
documents the steelmaking process, including coke preparation, blast furnace operation,
and the making of steel rail and wire, and shows the mill, administrative building, company
21
Columbia Bicycles Advertising Film
store, medical dispensary, and hospital. Appearing is Jesse Welborn, company president when
the CF&I suppressed the coal strike of 1913–14 that led to the infamous Ludlow Massacre.
NOTE: Built in 1882, the plant was at one time the largest integrated steelmaking operation
west of the Mississippi.
89. [COLUMBIA BICYCLES ADVERTISING FILM] (1897, silent, 100 ft, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Columbia Bicycles. PRODUCTION CO.: Unknown. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; “Camera!
Action! Sales!,” Bus Wk, May 27, 1939, 38; Patricia Murray, “When Advertisers Tried Films in the Gay
’90s,” Pr Ink 205 (Nov. 19, 1943): 25–26. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
One of the first documented advertising films. The short ran less than a minute but included
all the promotional basics: children sporting a Columbia Bicycles banner, footage of a local
bike race showing the product in action, dealer location, and prices.
22
The Crime of Carelessness
96. THE CO-OPS ARE COMIN’ (1941, silent, 35 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSORS: Harmon Foundation; Cooperative League of the United States of America. PRODUCER: Leopold
Steiner. CAMERA: Robert Blair. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; EFG (1947), 196. HOLDINGS: LC, NARA.
Documentary about the co-operative movement in the Midwest. The film is structured
around the tour of a six-member study group to consumer co-operatives in eight states and
concludes with a radio broadcast of the group’s findings.
97. THE COST OF CARELESSNESS (ca. 1915, silent, 2 reels, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSORS: Brooklyn Rapid Transit Co.; Brooklyn Institution for Safety. PRODUCTION CO.: Universal Animated
Weekly. WRITER: Eugene C. Clarke. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered. HOLDINGS: GEH.
Public service film promoting safe behavior by Brooklyn pedestrians, streetcar riders, and
automobile drivers. Cost of Carelessness starts in the classroom, where students watch a safety
movie, and moves out to the streets, where a boy is hit by a streetcar, a shopper trips while
descending from a tram, and a reckless automobile driver has a terrible accident. The film
shows why Brooklyn residents should pay attention on local streets. NOTE: Shown as part of
a “Safety Crusade” in borough schools and at civic group meetings.
23
Crossroads for America
Melodrama loosely based on the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire in New York City,
in which 146 workers died. This industry-funded film places the blame for a factory fire on
a careless smoker as well as on negligent management.
24
The Days of Our Years
104. THE DAVID HALL STORY (1963, sound, 25 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Employers Mutual of Wausau. PRODUCTION CO.: Solana Studios. DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Jack La Frandre.
CAMERA: Robert K. Geisel Studios. EDITOR: Patti Dozzie. NARRATOR: David Hall. CAST: David Hall. RESOURCES:
Copyright not registered. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
Insurance-company-sponsored film presenting a cautionary tale for teenage drivers. Based on
the true story of David Hall’s 1955 automobile accident, this grisly documentary reconstructs
Hall’s many months of treatment and rehabilitation and is narrated by the victim himself.
NOTE: In 1963, Hall was named “Handicapped American of the Year” by President Kennedy.
For more information on David Hall, see “Honored,” Washington Post and Times Herald,
March 8, 1963, A20.
105. THE DAWN OF BETTER LIVING (1945, sound, 16 min, color, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Westinghouse Electric Corp. PRODUCTION CO.: Walt Disney Productions. RESOURCES: Copyright
13Apr45 MP15998; “Color Movie Sells Appliances,” Mod Ind 12 (Sept. 15, 1946): 108–10; EFG (1948), 358.
HOLDINGS: LC, MacDonald.
Animated film encouraging homemakers to upgrade home electrical systems after World
War II and plan for increased circuit capacity for new appliances. Intended for women’s-club
audiences, The Dawn of Better Living shows the evolution of lighting systems from pioneer
America to the present and projects a bright “electrified” future. NOTE: Produced in Techni-
color and released theatrically; also distributed in 16mm. Westinghouse issued a pamphlet
based on the film. For more about the postwar domestic demand for electricity, see Mary
Roche, “Wiring for Electrical Living,” NYT, Feb. 24, 1946, 100.
107. DAY WITH THE A.S.P.C.A. (1930s, sound, 1 reel, b&w, 16mm)
SPONSOR: American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. PRODUCTION CO.: Pathéscope.
RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; EFC (1939), 79; 1000 and One: The Blue Book of Non-Theatrical
Films (Chicago: Educational Screen, 1939–40), 74. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Promotional film showing how the ASPCA watches over the interests of New York City’s
animal population 24 hours a day.
108. DAYLIGHTING THE PADRES TRAIL (1937, sound, 2 reels, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Southern Pacific Railroad. PRODUCTION CO.: Castle Films. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered.
“Brief Reviews of Current Releases,” Bus Scrn 1, no. 1 (1938): 37; Ward Allan Howe, “Rail Notes: Ferry’s
End,” NYT, Feb. 27, 1938, 167. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Travelogue following the scenic trip along the coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco
aboard the streamlined Daylight train.
109. THE DAYS OF OUR YEARS (1955, sound, 20 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Union Pacific Railroad. PRODUCTION CO.: Dudley Pictures. DIRECTOR: Allen Miner. PRODUCER: Carl
Dudley. WRITERS: Herman Boxer, Joseph Ansen. CAMERA: Alan Stensvold. MUSIC: Howard Jackson. EDITOR:
25
Deadline for Action
Ernest Flook. NARRATOR: Art Gilmore. CAST: Florence Shaen, Rev. C.S. Reynolds, Henry Rupp Jr., William E.
Hill. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger, MacDonald.
Safety film produced for railroad workers that illustrates the impact of occupational accidents
on families and friends. The Days of Our Years shows how a single workplace accident can
disrupt an entire community. Filmed on location in working-class neighborhoods of Los
Angeles. NOTE: Shot in Kodachrome. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/-
details/DaysofOu1955.
26
Dial S for Service
27
The Doctor in Industry
not registered; Richard Rutter, “New Attitudes Made to Order,” NYT, Dec. 31, 1955, 19; “Industry’s Shortest
‘Attitude’ Film Packs Champion’s Punch,” Bus Scrn 18, no. 8 (1957): 38. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Unusual training film produced for airline customer service personnel. The entire action of
this potent short takes place in a telephone booth, where the caller displays increasing frus-
tration as he deals with the telephone reservations clerk. Dial S for Service was praised for its
laconic minimalism.
119. DOWN THE GASOLINE TRAIL (1935, sound, 8 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Chevrolet Motor Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Jam Handy Organization. RESOURCES: Copyright 21Mar36 and
23Mar36 MU6294; Steven Heller, “Ephemeral Films: The Prelinger Collection,” Print 42 (Mar.–Apr. 1988): 126.
HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger, MacDonald.
Theatrical cartoon showing the odyssey of a gasoline drop from its entry into a Chevrolet’s
fuel tank to its explosive end in the engine cylinder. Down the Gasoline Trail uses humor
to leaven the technical explanation of how a fuel system works. NOTE: Released as part of
Chevrolet’s Direct Mass Selling series. The cartoon was broadcast from NBC’s New York City
experimental television station in October 1939. Viewable online at Internet Archive,
www.archive.org/details/DowntheG1935.
120. THE DYNAMIC AMERICAN CITY (1956, sound, 14 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Chamber of Commerce of the United States. PRODUCER: Frederic J. Baskaw. RESOURCES: Copyright
not registered. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
Film promoting urban renewal as a means of stimulating business activity in American cities.
The Dynamic American City illustrates the stages of the redevelopment process, from the dem-
olition of decaying neighborhoods to their revival. In contrasting the old with the new, the
film argues for the aggressive replacement of aging structures. NOTE: Produced in Kodachrome.
Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/DynamicA1956.
28
The End of the Road
Advertising travelogue showing the New York–San Francisco journey aboard the new all-
electric liner S.S. Virginia and featuring demonstrations of its electrical equipment. NOTE:
Also distributed in a one-reel 35mm version and in 16mm.
126. THE END OF THE ROAD (1919, silent, 7 reels, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: American Social Hygiene Association. PRODUCTION CO.: War Dept. Commission on Training Camp
Activities. DIRECTOR: Edward H. Griffith. WRITERS: Katharine Bement Davis, Edward H. Griffith. CAST: Claire
Adams, Richard Bennet. RESOURCES: Copyrights 30Jan 19 LU13332 and 1Mar19 LP14184; “Government Film
29
Enterprise
to Teach Here Lesson of Life,” Atlan Con, Mar. 22, 1919, 10; “Sex Film Used by Small as Bait to Women,”
CT, Mar. 26, 1924, 6; Sex Ed, 10, 21, 31–34; Exploitation, 27–36. HOLDINGS: LC, NARA.
Wartime venereal disease prevention film intended primarily for female audiences. Sponsored
by a public health organization devoted to eradicating syphilis, The End of the Road tells the
parallel stories of two women, one of whom receives instruction in sexual hygiene from her
mother, while the other does not. NOTE: The End of the Road was originally produced for use
by the military. Sometimes referred to as The Story of Life, the popular film was also put in
theatrical release but withdrawn in 1919.
129. AN EVENING WITH EDGAR A. GUEST (1938, sound, 15 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Household Finance Corp. PRODUCTION CO.: Jam Handy Organization. DIRECTOR: Louis Marlowe.
MUSIC: Samuel Benavie. EDITOR: W. Kislingbury. RESOURCES: Copyright 12May39 LU8833; “Advertisers’ Films
Draw Huge Crowds at Nation’s Two Big Fairs,” Sales Mgmt 45 (July 1, 1939): 34–47. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
Film for the Household Finance Corporation featuring its spokesperson Edgar A. Guest, the
popular poet and radio personality. Guest performs without making any explicit reference to
the sponsor or its products. NOTE: The short was shown under the title A Heap o’ Livin’ at
the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair. Also released in 16mm. For more about the sponsor’s
films, see E.A. Petrtyl, “After Giving 5,330 Shows, Here’s What Advertiser Learned about
Films,” Pr Ink 184 (July 21, 1938): 50–56.
30
Farm Petroleum Safety
effects. NOTE: Educational Film Guide mentions the availability of a 45-minute silent version.
James Sibley Watson’s own filmography indicates that the film was made in collaboration
with Melville Webber. For a contemporary account of Watson’s film work, see “Klieg Lights
Now Glint and Gleam Where Family Horse Once Reigned,” CSM, Feb. 15, 1929, 4.
31
Fears of Children
Subtle case study produced for parents, teachers, and mental health professionals on the im-
portance of constructive parenting in overcoming childhood fears. The parents of a healthy
five-year-old do not grasp why their child fears entering a cave. The mother tries to be sym-
pathetic, but the father shows impatience. Feeling anger at his father, the child drowns his
stuffed bear. After the parents take time to think about their son’s behavior, they resolve to
show greater understanding, and father and son reconcile. “Psychiatrists alone cannot solve
the mental health problems of our nation,” said a Mental Health Film Board spokesperson
commenting on the film. “More and more it will be the responsibility of parents, teachers,
nurses, doctors, and ministers” (NYT, Dec. 12, 1951). NOTE: A companion pamphlet was
issued under the same title. Third in the Mental Health Film Board’s Emotions of Everyday
Living series. Primarily distributed in 16mm. The Mental Health Film Board, founded in 1949
by psychiatrists and filmmakers, sponsored psychiatric films for professionals and the general
public. Rex Thompson, the son, played Louis Leonowens in the movie The King and I.
Public health film informing African Americans about syphilis and its prevention. Feeling All
Right contextualizes the problem by focusing on a community affected by the disease and the
local organizations that are leading the fight against it. The film ends as it begins, with images
of home, family, and neighbors. “Its frank and simple appeal is a welcome relief from the
histrionics with which producers usually overburden the subject of syphilis,” wrote Raymond
Spottiswoode. NOTE: The film was part of a government multimedia campaign to combat a
disease then infecting an estimated 20 percent of Mississippi’s African American population.
The production was filmed on a $30,000 budget with a cast of nonprofessional actors. In its
first year of release, Feeling All Right was seen by an estimated 1 million viewers. Notable was
its use in 60 Mississippi Delta towns in conjunction with a mobile syphilis-testing unit. Public
health officials reported testing 15,000 people and treating 1,765 cases. The NAACP opposed
distribution of Feeling All Right. Roy Wilkins, the group’s acting secretary, was quoted in the
New York Times as saying that it would “bolster that school of thought that would relegate
Negro Americans to exclusion, separatism, and inequality in places of public accommodation.”
Dr. W.A. Mason, credited with collaborating on the script, was a Georgia public health offi-
cial. For more about the production company, see John N. Popham, “The South Sees Itself
via Its Own Educational Films,” NYT, Jan. 22, 1950, 85.
32
Food Freezing in Tennessee
33
For the Living
NARRATOR: Nate Way. PRODUCER: Sam Orleans. CAST: Mrs. Inslee C. King, Elvin Overton, Helen Graham,
Susannah McCroskey. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered. HOLDINGS: ETSU.
Promotional film for a Tennessee frozen foods company featuring Knoxville actors, sets by
Sterchi Brothers Furniture, and music by local organist Billy Barnes.
145. FOR SOME MUST WATCH (1949, sound, 28 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Institute of Life Insurance. PRODUCTION CO.: International Film Foundation. DIRECTOR: Francis
Thompson. PRODUCER: Julien Bryan. CAST: John J. Sutton, Alice Clark, Emilio Mengucci. RESOURCES: Copy-
right not registered; “Know Your Insurance Agent,” Bus Scrn 10, no. 4 (1949): 32; Cecile Starr, “For Some
Must Watch,” in Ideas, 200–201. HOLDINGS: AAFF, MacDonald, UGA.
Portrait of Jack Sutton, a local hero who helps his neighbors through his successful work in
the insurance business. Set in Oneida, New York, For Some Must Watch follows Sutton’s daily
routine as an insurance agent and demonstrates how his assistance enables three families to
solve their financial and medical problems. “Bryan’s people have a regular habit of emerging
as real live persons instead of mere faces passing across the screen,” observed Business Screen.
NOTE: The film used nonprofessional actors and was shot on location. Also released in 16mm.
34
Freedom and Power
General Electric cartoon promoting electricity and the freedom of business to operate with-
out governmental intervention. In following the applications of electricity from Benjamin
Franklin’s kite experiment through the innovations of GE’s founder, Thomas Edison, Freedom
and Power also offers a history of free enterprise. The discussion outlines the role of the elec-
trical industry in supporting national security and the American way of life and argues for
“individual rights” over “state control.” NOTE: Produced in Kodachrome. This short from the
35
Freedom Highway
More Power for America series was broadcast on ABC TV in August 1952. Viewable online
at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/Freedoma1952.
152. FREEDOM OF THE AMERICAN ROAD (1955, sound, 27 min, b&w, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Ford Motor Co. PRODUCTION CO.: MPO Productions Inc. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; “How
Citizen Cooperation Can Win Freedom of the American Road,” Bus Scrn 17, no. 2 (1956): 33; “Ford Campaign
Seeks to Stir Action on Roads,” NYT, Feb. 4, 1956, 20. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
One of many corporate advocacy films made in the mid-1950s that encouraged private citi-
zens to demand better highways. This argument for the construction of the interstate high-
way system is introduced by Henry Ford II and presents highway improvement case studies
involving the Bay Area’s Bayshore Freeway, the “Golden Triangle” in Pittsburgh, the Route
128 corridor outside Boston, and county roads in North Carolina. NOTE: Freedom of the
American Road was part of a public relations campaign described by a Ford spokesman to
the New York Times as “an all-out, saturation effort on behalf of the American highways.”
The film was accompanied by a magazine of the same title. Viewable online at Internet
Archive, www.archive.org/details/Freedomo1955.
36
Frontiers of the Future
Film picturing a “day in the life” of typical Chevrolet plant workers. After a montage of
people leaving home and punching time clocks, the film segues into a 13-minute sequence
showing employees getting paid and patronizing local businesses. From Dawn to Sunset pre-
sents Chevrolet workers not only as the supporters of their families but also as the economic
lifeblood of their communities. NOTE: Produced to improve General Motors’ corporate image
after the recognition of the United Auto Workers union, From Dawn to Sunset portrays labor
and management as codependent economic players. The film reapplies socialist realist princi-
ples to make a capitalist argument. Released as part of Chevrolet’s Direct Mass Selling series.
Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/FromDawn1937.
156. FROM POD TO PALATE (1930s, sound, length unknown, b&w, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Reid, Murdoch & Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Unknown. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered. HOLDINGS:
MacDonald.
Promotional film showing how Monarch Foods, owned by Reid, Murdoch & Co., brings
fruits and vegetables to the American consumer. The film centers on harvesting and cannery
operations in Oregon, Minnesota, and Michigan and documents the preparation of peaches,
strawberries, raspberries, pears, green beans, and peas to be sold under the Monarch label.
The process ends with grocery displays of the canned product.
157. FROM TREES TO TRIBUNES (1921, silent, length unknown, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Business Survey Dept., Chicago Tribune. PRODUCTION CO.: Indian Film Co. RESOURCES: Copyright not
registered; “From Trees to Tribunes,” CT, June 5, 1921, B4; advertisement, CT, Aug. 23, 1923, B4. HOLDINGS:
Not reported.
Promotional film showing the process of producing a metropolitan newspaper, from the
harvest of trees for paper pulp to the delivery of the printed paper to the subscriber. NOTE:
The film was remade in 1931, in 1937, and finally in 1947 in Technicolor to celebrate the
Chicago Tribune’s 100th anniversary. All versions were released in 35mm and 16mm. The
Tribune also published a booklet, ran full-page pictorials, and broadcast radio lectures under
the same title.
Training film for supermarket checkers, the foot soldiers in the “battle for the customer’s
dollar” that is fought daily in America’s supermarkets. The Front Line profiles three effective
checkers, all women, and presents them as role models. The film is an enjoyable period piece
that highlights the work of women in the service industries. NOTE: Produced in Ektachrome.
Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/FrontLin1965.
37
General Motors around the World
RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; EFC (1939), 83; GM Catalog, 15. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
Short sponsored by a manufacturers group to improve the public image of industry during
the Great Depression. “Where are tomorrow’s opportunities? What’s ahead in America for
you and your children?” asks narrator Lowell Thomas. Looking into the future, Thomas pre-
dicts economic revitalization made possible through industrial research. The “frontiers” are
emerging fields such as aviation and television broadcasting that will create new opportunities
and products for Americans. NOTE: The National Industrial Council comprised representatives
of state manufacturers associations. The film, which was also released in 16mm, was sold to
corporations in a kit with film strips and a projector. Viewable online at Internet Archive,
www.archive.org/details/Frontier1937.
160. GENERAL MOTORS AROUND THE WORLD (1927, silent, 38 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: General Motors Export Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Newspapers Film Corp. RESOURCES: Copyright not reg-
istered; “Film Shows Progress of Our Autos Abroad,” NYT, Jan. 24, 1928, 25; “Auto Film Shows World on
Wheels,” NYT, Jan. 26, 1928, 26. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
Panorama of the world operations of General Motors, commissioned by company president
J.D. Mooney to accompany his annual report to the GM executive committee. Said to have
been shot in 25 countries on five continents, the film documents the reach of this early
decentralized business organization and the spread of the automobile to 104 overseas mar-
kets. The short also includes scenes at the corporate headquarters in Detroit, in the “Master
Controls” statistics room in New York, and of operations in Belgium, Brazil, Egypt, Peru,
and Spain. NOTE: The New York Times (Jan. 26, 1928) reported that General Motors around
the World had been screened to an invited audience of journalists, bankers, and exporters
on board the Aquitania, which was moored at a New York City pier. The Newspapers Film
Corporation evolved into the Jam Handy Organization. Viewable online at Internet Archive,
www.archive.org/details/GeneralM1927.
162. GIVE US THIS DAY (ca. 1950, sound, 25 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Oregon Wheat Growers League. DIRECTOR: Robert Carlisle. PRODUCER: Felber Maasdam. WRITER:
William N. Robson. CAMERA: Felber Maasdam. MUSIC: George Poole. NARRATOR: Gayne Whitman. RESOURCES:
Copyright not registered. HOLDINGS: UGA.
Agricultural film promoting wheat and showing how it is produced. Profiling an eastern
Oregon wheat-farming family working a 1,200-acre ranch, Give Us This Day was shot over
the course of a year and documents fertilizing, planting, harvesting, and milling operations
as well as off-season activities. Included is a time-lapse sequence of wheat germination and
growth. The film promotes wheat as a healthy food that builds people who “are taller, health-
ier, and heavier than those who depend on rice.” The farm family—Floyd and Bobbie Root
and sons Bill and Bud—live near The Dalles, Oregon. NOTE: Produced in Kodachrome.
38
Golden Years of Progress
163. GIVE YOURSELF THE GREEN LIGHT (1954, sound, 24 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Dept. of Public Relations, General Motors Corp. PRODUCTION CO.: Jam Handy Organization.
RESOURCES: Copyright 6May54 MU5702. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
Film by the world’s largest automobile company advocating the construction of the interstate
highway system. It makes its case by poking fun at the inadequacies of America’s antiquated
roads (it shows frustrated drivers dissolving into a herd of sheep) and likening “freedom of
the road” to the basic freedoms for which Americans have fought and to the Manifest Destiny
of national expansion. With numerous scenes of cities, roads, and freeways under construc-
tion, the film argues for “better highways and more parking spaces.” Included is a sequence
showing Robert Moses, New York City’s commissioner of construction, accepting an award
for best essay in GM’s Better Highways Contest. NOTE: Produced in Kodachrome. Viewable
online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/GiveYour1954.
167. GOLDEN YEARS OF PROGRESS (1933, sound, length unknown, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSORS: Advertising Federation of America; American Association of Advertising Agencies; Association
of National Advertisers. PRODUCTION CO.: Audio Productions. DIRECTOR/WRITER: Charles W. Barrell. RESOURCES:
Copyright not registered; “Advertising Urged to ‘Sell’ New Deal,” NYT, July 1, 1933, 5; Strother Holland
Walker and Paul Sklar, “Business Finds Its Voice,” Harper’s Magazine, Feb. 1938, 322. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Promotional film for the American advertising industry that was created for exhibition at
the 1933–34 Chicago World’s Fair. Golden Years of Progress recounts the history of advertising
through the life of an average American family over the past 50 years. A spokesperson for the
39
The Goodall Summertime
sponsors, quoted in Harper’s Magazine, said that the film brings “home to the public what a
force general advertising had been in giving them the standard of living existing today.”
Sales promotion film aimed at menswear shops stocking the sponsor’s lightweight “Palm
Beach Suits.” Framed by a fictional narrative about a merchant eager to boost sales, the film
describes the patented Goodall weave and gives tips on selling warm-weather suits. The Goodall
Summertime includes footage of millworkers and textile manufacture at Sanford Mills in Maine.
Antituberculosis film targeted at children that drives home its message with live action and
animation. The short portrays the infection and cure of a two-year-old boy. Included is a
visit to a surreal laboratory, where a doctor addresses the animated tuberculosis bacillus “Tee
Bee” via a radio device hooked up to his microscope before killing off the germ and its tribe.
NOTE: Also distributed in 16mm.
170. GOOD-BYE, MR. ROACH (ca. 1959, sound, 10 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Velsicol Corp. PRODUCTION CO.: Clemson College Extension Service. DIRECTOR/CAMERA: L.W. Riley.
RESOURCES: Copyright not registered. HOLDINGS: AAFF, LC/Prelinger, MacDonald.
40
Heads Win
and Tom looks for a reason. He sees a union film that traces the cause to corporate domina-
tion of the American economy. The Great Swindle urges workers to mobilize through union
membership and political action. NOTE: Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/-
details/GreatSwi1948. For more on the director, see “Marzani Turns to Film Making Awaiting
Red Charge Appeal,” Wash Post, Feb. 27, 1948, B1.
41
Hear Now
Promotional film for the well-known correspondence school. In the narrative a rank-and-file
employee of the “Goliath Electric Company” is rejected for promotion and dismissed for his
bad temper. Stymied in his job search by a lack of skills, he follows his wife’s advice and enrolls
in an International Correspondence School to study electrical engineering. The newly trained
engineer is rehired. Putting his educational skills to the test during a dramatic emergency, he
wins a promotion. NOTE: When screened at the Strand Theater in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in
April 1919, Heads Win reportedly attracted 7,000 viewers. The film was distributed by the
Bureau of Commercial Economics.
42
Highway Hearing
Mgmt 61 (Oct. 1, 1946): 134; Gregory A. Waller, “Free Talking Picture—Every Farmer Is Welcome: Non-
Theatrical Film and Everyday Life in Rural America during the 1930s,” in Going to the Movies: The Social
Experience of Movie-Going, eds. Robert Allen, Richard Maltby, and Melvyn Stokes (Exeter, UK: Exeter
University Press, forthcoming). HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
Movie for rural audiences that promotes the efficient use of animal feed. Injured in an acci-
dent, a wealthy young man goes to live on a farm to recuperate and becomes attracted to the
farmer’s daughter. Inspired by a screening of an animal feed promotional film titled Animal
Checkers, the young man helps improve the farm and marries his sweetheart.
43
The Home Economics Story
185. THE HOME ECONOMICS STORY (1951, sound, 24 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Home Economics Div., Iowa State College. PRODUCTION CO.: Film Production Unit, Iowa State
College. RESOURCES: Copyright 01Apr51 MP2159; Mental Hygiene, 159. HOLDINGS: Iowa State, LC/Prelinger.
Promotional film for the Iowa State College home economics program showing the educa-
tion of three home economics majors. The Home Economics Story outlines the components of
the curriculum and the vocational opportunities for graduates. The narrator makes clear that
“each girl has been preparing for two careers, one her chosen specialty, the other…a career
in homemaking.” NOTE: Produced in Kodachrome. Viewable online at Internet Archive,
www.archive.org/details/HomeEcon1951.
187. HOPE, A RED CROSS SEAL STORY (1912, silent, 1 reel, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis. PRODUCTION CO.: Thomas A.
Edison Inc. WRITER: James Oppenheim. RESOURCES: Copyright 8Nov12 LP101; “Film Urges Hygiene,” Wash
Post, Nov. 10, 1912, E3. HOLDINGS: MoMA.
Tuberculosis prevention film sponsored by the national public health association and pro-
duced to assist in the 1912 Red Cross “Christmas Seal” fund-raising campaign. A country
banker scoffs at an invitation to assist in a tuberculosis campaign, dismissing TB as an urban
disease. He does not know that his fiancée has contracted it and must leave their small town
to receive treatment. When she departs, the banker sees his error and organizes local anti-
tuberculosis activities. The film ends with the patient’s recovery and the couple’s reunion.
44
The Hungry Dragon
EDITOR: Philip Martin Jr. CAST: Frank Sinatra. RESOURCES: Copyright 9Nov45 LP13665; Lawrence F. LaMar,
“Sinatra’s Anti-Bias Movie Short Scores Hit at Preview,” Chi Def, Oct. 13, 1945, 14; Film Forum Review
staff, “The House I Live In,” in Ideas, 202–3; Mental Hygiene, 159. HOLDINGS: AAFF, GEH, LC, LC/Prelinger,
Prelinger, UCLA, UGA.
Advocacy film commissioned by the civil rights organization to discourage ethnic and racial
prejudice. Caught in a dispute that assumes ethnic dimensions, a group of boys find common
interests through the intervention of Frank Sinatra, who tells a story and sings two songs.
NOTE: The title number was written by Earl Robinson and Lewis Allan [Abel Meeropol].
This widely distributed film, produced at the end of World War II, discourages prejudice
but disparages people of Japanese ancestry.
190. THE HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE (1954, sound, 12 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSORS: National Paint, Varnish, and Lacquer Association; National Clean Up–Paint Up–Fix Up Bureau;
Federal Civil Defense Administration. PRODUCTION CO.: Robert J. Enders Inc. RESOURCES: Copyright 3May54
MP4701; “Business Sponsors Two Films to Aid Civil Defense Program,” Bus Scrn 15, no. 5 (1954): 18.
HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger, MacDonald.
Civil defense film promoting the well-maintained house as part of America’s line of defense
against nuclear attack. Cosponsored by the paint and coating industry’s national trade associ-
ation and the federal government, The House in the Middle uses footage shot at the Nevada
Proving Ground (now the Nevada Test Site) to demonstrate how a clean, freshly painted house
has the survival edge in the event of a nuclear blast. NOTE: Released in 16mm Kodachrome
and in black and white. Abridged version for television broadcast. Selected for the National
Film Registry. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/Houseint1954.
191. HOW MOTION PICTURES MOVE AND TALK (1939, sound, 11 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Bell & Howell Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Castle Films. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; “Leading
Sales Films of 1938–39 and the Results Attained,” Sales Mgmt 45 (Oct. 10, 1939): 54; EFG (1945), 354.
HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
Promotional film for Bell & Howell film projectors illustrating the technological basics of
motion pictures. Designed for students and amateur movie buffs, How Motion Pictures Move
and Talk shows (in animation) how sound is recorded on film and how release prints are made.
NOTE: The short film is said to have reached more than 1 million students through 5,000
showings during its first year of release. In addition to the 200 prints made for free educa-
tional loan, another 200 prints were available for rent from dealers and distributors. Released in
16mm and 8mm. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/HowMotionPic.
45
I’ll Tell the World
for October,” Ed Scrn 4 (Oct. 1925): 498; Arthur Edwin Krows, “Motion Pictures—Not for Theatres,” Ed
Scrn 20 (Apr. 1941): 151. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Puppet animation film promoting good health habits for children. According to one reviewer,
The Hungry Dragon drives home its lesson through a fairy-tale-like story involving a little
princess and a handsome knight, Right Living: “Bad Food and Late Hours seize the Princess,
bind her and carry her off…through the Forest of Declining Health…. And finally they turn
loose upon her their pet dragon, Tuberculosis, but the Knight Right Living is in close pur-
suit. He battles with the dragon, rescues the princess and they live happily ever after” (Ed
Scrn, Oct. 1925).
194. I’LL TELL THE WORLD (1939, sound, 4 reels, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Macfadden Publications. PRODUCTION CO.: Splay Pictures Corp. DIRECTOR: Lynn Shores. PRODUCER/
WRITER: Herbert Crooker. NARRATOR: Lowell Thomas. CAST: Patricia Murray, Billy and Bobby Mauch, Jed
Prouty, Rex the Dog. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; Bosley Crowther, “Films for the Fair,” NYT, Mar.
5, 1939, X5; “Advertisers’ Films Draw Huge Crowds at Nation’s Two Big Fairs,” Sales Mgmt 45 (July 1, 1939):
34–47. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Comedy commissioned by the large magazine publisher to illustrate the power of advertising.
An American family risks hard times when the father’s button business falters because of his
resistance to advertising. His family persuades him to give modern marketing a go, and his
business bounces back. The story is punctuated with facts and figures demonstrating the effi-
cacy of advertising. NOTE: According to a report in Sales Management, I’ll Tell the World was
inspired by a George Sokolsky column, published in Macfadden’s Liberty magazine. The film
was produced in Hollywood and exhibited at half-hour intervals in the Macfadden Audito-
rium at the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair. Herbert Crooker was a staff writer at Liberty.
195. THE IMAGE OF A MAN (1958, sound, length unknown, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Esquire Magazine. PRODUCTION CO.: Unknown. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered. HOLDINGS:
MacDonald.
Film sponsored by Esquire to acquaint its sales force with new thinking about consumer
behavior as well as the work of Ernest Dichter, a pioneer in motivational research. The film
relates Esquire to its readership and includes sequences showing upper-middle-class family
life of the period.
197. IN OUR HANDS (1950; sound; 4 films, 11–21 min ea; b&w; 35mm)
SPONSORS: Inland Steel Co.; Borg-Warner Corp. PRODUCTION CO.: Wilding Picture Productions. DIRECTOR:
Jack Tilles. WRITER: James Prindle. CAMERA: J.J. LaFleur. EDITOR: Glen McGowan. RESOURCES: Copyright
1Dec50 LP573; “In Our Hands: Workers Talk Economics,” Mod Ind 22 (July 15, 1951): 40–45; “Public
Relations—Bold New Concept Pays Off,” Iron Age 168 (Aug. 23, 1951): 85; Selling, 83–84; Mental
Hygiene, 164. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
46
In Tune with Tomorrow
Four-part series crafted by large business interests to promote free enterprise and small gov-
ernment. Part 1: How We Got What We Have transports a young couple back to the Stone Age,
where they lack sophisticated tools and come to blows with another couple over resources.
Part 2: What We Have shows the public benefit of industry by illustrating the bounties enjoyed
by a typical housewife. In Part 3: How to Lose What We Have citizens vote for the big govern-
ment “Master Plan,” which ushers in forced collectivization, the mandatory relocation of
families, and the closure of churches. Part 4: How to Keep What We Have urges Americans
to oppose an expanded government role, a step that the film argues would lead to a planned
economy. More dramatic than most free-enterprise booster films, In Our Hands recognizes
little distinction between government planning and dictatorship. NOTE: The sponsors took
the films on a rail tour to five cities, showing it to workers aboard a special car equipped with
a meeting room and a theater. The sponsor also distributed an economic education course
for workers under the same title. Modern Industry reported that screening the film with this
discussion program “loosens even inarticulate tongues.” The series received a Freedoms
Foundation award in 1950. Also released in 16mm. Viewable online at Internet Archive,
www.archive.org/details/InOurHan1950.
Innovative stop-motion animation film. Produced for showing at the Chrysler pavilion at the
1939–40 New York World’s Fair, In Tune with Tomorrow illustrates the precision assembly
techniques used to make Plymouths. The assembly is synchronized to music and accompa-
nied by the narration of Edward “Major” Bowes, Chrysler’s familiar radio announcer. NOTE:
Produced in Technicolor and Polaroid 3-D, In Tune with Tomorrow is thought to be both the
first 3-D film in color and the first 3-D film with spoken word. Shooting consumed 36 days.
A revised version, New Dimensions, was shown at the fair in 1940 and seen by 1.5 million
people. The film was reissued in 1954 as Motor Rhythm.
47
In the Wake of the Storm
200. IN THE WAKE OF THE STORM (1925, silent, 1 reel, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR/PRODUCTION CO.: International Harvester Co. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; advertisement,
Ed Scrn 4 (June 1925): 324; unsigned review, Ed Scrn 4 (Sept. 1925): 422. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Report on the disaster response to the devastating tornado that swept across southern Indiana
on March 18, 1925, taking some 900 lives and leaving thousands homeless. Farm machinery
contributed by International Harvester helped revitalize damaged cropland and get inhabitants
back on their feet. NOTE: International Harvester loaned the film at no charge to community
and educational groups.
Series portraying the nation’s industrial sector during the 1950s. The films strove for a broad
representation of American enterprises and even included profiles of mom-and-pop operations.
NOTE: Industry on Parade was a key component of a public relations campaign to promote
the benefits of free enterprise. The series was produced by NBC until 1953, when it moved
to Arthur Lodge Productions. The National Association of Manufacturers supplied episodes
at no charge to television stations, which often aired them through the sponsorship of local
businesses. The NAM also loaned episodes at no charge to schools and community groups.
The series won a Peabody Award in 1954 for television national public service. Selections
are viewable online at Internet Archive.
Advocacy film sponsored by the leftist labor union to expose the plight of senior citizens shut
out of the postwar economic boom. Industry’s Disinherited shows the poverty and despair of
48
Inside Test City, U.S.A.
older Americans forced to rely on inadequate pension and social security payments, and
demands increased government benefits for seniors.
208. THE INNER MAN STEPS OUT (1951, sound, 32 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: General Electric Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Pathéscope Productions. DIRECTOR: Robert Wilmot.
PRODUCER: Henry Strauss. WRITER: Dun Roman. CAMERA: William Steiner. MUSIC: Morris Mamorsky. EDITOR:
Rogers Keene. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; Richard Rutter, “New Attitudes Made to Order,” NYT,
Dec. 31, 1955, 19; Nancy Lou Blitzen, “Looking into Pictures: Pros and Cons of the Psychological Trend in
Films,” Bus Scrn 18, no. 6 (1957): 28–30. HOLDINGS: AAFF, LC/Prelinger, UGA.
Management-training film for plant supervisors that avoids the usual platitudes. The Inner
Man Steps Out recommends that supervisors discover their “inner man” and empathize more
with workers. The producer believed his film helped to bring about changes to GE’s corpo-
rate culture. NOTE: Also distributed in 16mm.
209. INSIDE TEST CITY, U.S.A. (1959, sound, 15 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Reader’s Digest Association Inc. PRODUCTION CO.: United States Productions. RESOURCES: Copyright
not registered. HOLDINGS: Secret Cinema.
49
International Maple
Reader’s Digest promotional film publicizing the magazine’s test-marketing service for con-
sumer product manufacturers. “For the last two decades,” the narrator explains, “American
business has tested more of its products in Columbus [Ohio] than in any other major
American community. Through the years, industry has discovered that what happens in
Columbus today will be happening all over America tomorrow.” Inside Test City, U.S.A.
interviews local businessmen and consumers, all of whom are loyal Reader’s Digest readers.
Two comment that “most people read the Bible and the Digest.” The narrator points out
with pride that the Reader’s Digest has greater penetration in affluent areas than in poorer
ones. NOTE: Produced in Ektachrome.
213. JERRY PULLS THE STRINGS (1938, sound, 45 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: American Can Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Caravel Films Inc. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; “Jerry
Pulls the Strings,” Bus Scrn 1, no. 3 (1938): 22; EFC (1939), 199. HOLDINGS: MacDonald.
Advertisement for vacuum-packed canned coffee that was produced primarily for screening
at the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair. In the narrative a young puppeteer proves to his
prospective father-in-law, a coffee packer, that puppeteering is a viable occupation by using
50
Labor’s Reward
marionettes to tell the story of coffee. The young man uses 80 string puppets and deep,
dimensional sets to explain how coffee is grown, harvested, roasted, and packed in vacuum
cans to retain flavor. NOTE: Also distributed in 16mm. Written and supervised by National
Tie-Ins Inc. For more about Caravel Films, see “Opening of Production Center Marks
Caravel’s 37th Year,” Bus Scrn 18, no. 6 (1957): 20.
214. JIM STAYS ON THE FARM (1935, sound, 50 min, b&w, 16mm)
SPONSORS/PRODUCTION COS.: California-Oregon Power Co.; Mountain States Power Co. PRODUCER: C.J. Hurd.
CAMERA: H.D. Kem. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; H.D. Kem, “Visual Education Builds Agricultural
Load,” Electrical West 75 (July 1935): 28–29; “Staff Makes Movie,” Bus Wk, Mar. 21, 1936, 22–23. HOLDINGS:
Not reported.
Narrative made by two regional power companies to promote rural electrification and attract
new customers. Jim returns from college eager to bring power to his family’s farm. He over-
comes his father’s opposition by showing him the modernization achieved by electrified farms
in their area. NOTE: Produced in-house, the film was shown regularly in the region for more
than a year after release and reportedly helped boost power use by 19 percent. The California-
Oregon Power Company is now a division of PacifiCorp.
215. A JOLT FOR GENERAL GERM (1930, sound, 1 reel, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Lehn & Fink Inc. PRODUCTION CO.: Fleischer Studios. RESOURCES: Copyright 21May31 MP2566; Peter
B.B. Andrews, “The ‘Sponsored’ Movie,” Advertising & Selling 16 (Dec. 10, 1930): 36–38, 73; “Producers
Drop Sponsored Films,” Advertising Age, June 6, 1931, 6. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Animated advertisement for Lysol in which the disinfectant helps a boy win the war against
germs. NOTE: Shown in Paramount theaters to more than 5 million viewers in 1930.
216. JOURNEYS THROUGH THE VALLEY (1920, silent, 2 reels, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: San Jose Chamber of Commerce. PRODUCTION CO.: Unknown. RESOURCES: Copyrights 1Dec21
MP2074 and 15Dec21 MP2085; “Community Advertising by Means of Films,” Am City 26 (Mar. 1922):
265–67. HOLDINGS: NARA.
Annual report of Northern California’s San Jose Chamber of Commerce, purportedly the first
such report presented as a motion picture. NOTE: While originally created for locals, Journeys
Through the Valley was also distributed to a wider audience by Ford Motor Company. Some
100 distribution prints were made, 76 for Ford. The film was screened in 2,500 American
theaters under the title Journeys Through “the Valley of Earth’s Delight” and reached between
30 and 40 million viewers. It was also shown in nontheatrical venues and sent to India,
Australia, England, and South Africa.
51
Land of the Free
May 22, 1926, 14; Steven J. Ross, “Struggles for the Screen: Workers, Radicals, and the Political Uses of
Silent Film,” American Historical Review 96 (Apr. 1991): 353–55; Working-Class, 160–72; Steven J. Ross,
“Visualizing Ideology: Movies, Politics, and the Working Class,” Department of History, University of
Southern California, www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/history/hist225g/pages/text/II_i_1.html. HOLDINGS: UCLA.
Union narrative urging consumers to buy goods carrying the union label. Following a historical
prologue tracing the subjugation of labor from ancient times to the present, Labor’s Reward
introduces Mary, a young worker in an oppressive nonunion bookbindery, and Tom, who
works in a union shop. Mary collapses from overwork, and she and her coworkers strike,
organize a union with Tom as their American Federation of Labor representative, and win
the dispute. In one scene Tom, who has unthinkingly bought a nonunion-made hat, returns
it for a union one. The film portrays unions as respectable, service-oriented groups that help
workers. NOTE: Surviving are reel 3 and part of reel 1.
222. THE LAST CLEAR CHANCE (1959, sound, 26 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Union Pacific Railroad. PRODUCTION CO.: Wondsel, Carlisle & Dunphy Inc. DIRECTOR/PRODUCER:
Robert Carlisle. WRITER: Leland Baxter. CAMERA: Bert Spielvogel. EDITOR: Mort Fallick. CAST: Bill Boyett, Mr.
and Mrs. Harold Agee, Bill Agee. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; “That Last Clear Chance to Live
Safely,” Bus Scrn 21, no. 4 (1960): 37. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger, MacDonald.
52
Let My People Live
Safety film sponsored by a large railroad urging drivers to be more careful at railroad cross-
ings. The skillful drama tells the story of two brothers in an Idaho farm family, one of whom
is an experienced but reckless driver, the other a beginner. The Last Clear Chance ends with a
tragic accident. While covering the usual driving dos and don’ts, the film incorporates many
additional themes: a teen’s feeling of invulnerability, the police officer as authority figure,
and the train’s dual role as economic partner and potential killer. NOTE: The film draws its
scenario from a real-life family and was shot in Nampa and Meridian, Idaho. Distributed
only in western states served by the sponsor. Released in 16mm.
53
Let’s Go America!
who seek medical help and overcome the disease. Let My People Live has an all-black cast and
a sound track that includes African American spirituals. NOTE: The credits indicate that the
film was made “in cooperation with Tuskegee Institute, National Urban League, WPA, and
the Veterans Administration.” It was shot on location in Tuskegee, Alabama, and shown
at the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair. Also released in 16mm.
54
Living Unlimited
PRODUCER: Irving Jacoby. CAMERA: J.M.B. Churchill Jr., Robert H. Young. RESOURCES: Copyright not regis-
tered; advertisement, NYT, Mar. 23, 1958, SMA14; Howard Thompson, “New Fare in 16mm,” NYT, July 27
1958, X5; Howard Thompson, “Top 16mm Films,” NYT, Jan. 4, 1959, X12. HOLDINGS: AAFF, LC/Prelinger.
Applied science film sponsored by a manufacturer of antibiotics. Using time-lapse and
microphotography, Life of the Molds shows beneficial uses of molds as well as their destructive
qualities. Howard Thompson wrote, “Never before, at least on film, was the commonplace
mold so entrancingly X-rayed” (NYT, July 27, 1958).
55
Long Distance
235. LOOK TO LOCKHEED FOR LEADERSHIP (1940, sound, 31 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Lockheed Aircraft Corp. PRODUCTION CO.: Tradefilms Inc. DIRECTOR: Shirley C. Burden. WRITER:
Walter Wise. CAMERA: Floyd Crosby, Albert Wetzel. EDITOR: Gene Milford. NARRATOR: John Hiestand.
RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; Living Films, 41; EFC (1940–41), 104. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
One of many postwar titles made to promote consumer products that emerged from the
conversion of America’s war industries. Looking Ahead Through Rohm & Haas Plexiglas aims
to interest manufacturers and industrial designers in using Plexiglas. The film shows the trans-
formation of the aviation plastic into a glamorous material for furniture and finishes, a change
dramatized visually by the switch from black and white to color. The new design possibilities
are showcased in the “Dream Suite of Tomorrow.” NOTE: The black-and-white section of
the film was produced in 35mm and reduced to 16mm. It was then spliced together with the
16mm Kodachrome “Dream Suite” sequence. All release prints were in 16mm. Viewable on-
line at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/LookingAhead.
238. LOS ANGELES: “CITY OF DESTINY” (1948, sound, 32 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Standard of California. PRODUCTION CO.: Rodney Gilliam Productions. PRODUCER: Rodney Gilliam.
RESOURCES: Copyright not registered. HOLDINGS: PFA.
Petroleum company travelogue exploring the points of interest in Los Angeles. Los Angeles
56
The Magic Bond
shows local industries and includes a scene with Shirley Temple on a Hollywood set. NOTE:
Produced in Kodachrome.
240. LOVE HONOR AND OBEY (THE LAW) (1935, sound, 2 reels, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: B.F. Goodrich Tire & Rubber Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Audio Productions Inc. CAST: Harry Langdon.
RESOURCES: Copyright 29Apr35 and 23May35 LU5561; “Movie Merchandising,” Bus Wk, June 15, 1935,
18–19; “Leading Sales Films of 1934–35 and the Results Attained,” Sales Mgmt 37 (Oct. 10, 1935): 394.
HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Traffic safety film that makes its point through humor. NOTE: According to Business Week,
Goodrich salesmen passed out free tickets to screenings; after each show a prize was awarded
to the viewer who remembered the largest number of traffic violations that occurred in the
film. Also distributed in 16mm.
241. THE MACHINE: MASTER OR SLAVE? (1941, sound, 14 min, b&w, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. PRODUCTION CO.: Educational Film Institute, New York University.
DIRECTOR: Walter Niebuhr. WRITER: Charlton Ogburn Jr. CAMERA: Dan Cavelli, Frank Zucker. NARRATOR: Don
Goddard. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; EFC (1943), 94; Ec Ed, 25. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger, MacDonald.
Film exploring the employment implications of the introduction of new technology.
The Machine: Master or Slave? fears that as tasks are automated, workers could become
economically marginalized and less able to afford manufactured goods. Thus automation,
if thoughtlessly implemented, could diminish consumer demand and hurt the industries
using it. The film wonders if business, employee, and consumer interests can be reconciled.
Raising questions rather than answering them, The Machine encourages managers to be
aware of broader issues as they embrace new technology. NOTE: Viewable online at Internet
Archive, www.archive.org/details/machine-master_or_slave.
57
The Magic Cup
and maintained through the activities of the VFW. NOTE: The Magic Bond was one of several
films Robert Altman made for Calvin. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/-
details/MagicBon1955.
58
The Man in the Doorway
247. MAKING FILMS THAT TEACH (1954, sound, 18 min, b&w/color, 16mm)
SPONSOR/PRODUCTION CO.: Encyclopaedia Britannica Films. RESOURCES: Copyright 05Nov54 MP5858; EFG
(1954–58), 185. HOLDINGS: AAFF, LC/Prelinger.
Film celebrating the 25th anniversary of the educational film company. Making Films That
Teach illustrates the film production process, including location shooting in exotic locales,
and includes numerous clips from Encyclopaedia Britannica films. NOTE: The black-and-white
film ends with a color sequence. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/-
details/MakingFi1954.
251. THE MAN IN THE DOORWAY (1957, sound, 31 min, color, 35mm)
SPONSOR: American Cyanamid Co. PRODUCTION CO.: MPO Productions Inc. RESOURCES: Copyright not regis-
tered; “Chemistry and America’s Future—a Cyanamid Anniversary Theme,” Bus Scrn 18, no. 6 (1957): 41;
EFG (1954–58), 187. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Film made to celebrate the chemical company’s 50th anniversary and to promote the role of
chemistry in resource conservation and agriculture. A ghost from ancient times, a farmer, and
a scientist each stand before a gateway: the first, a crumbling Mediterranean farmhouse; the
59
Man to Man
second, a well-kept barn; the third, a modern research laboratory. Each represents an approach
to harnessing science for the good of humanity. The enigmatic film points out the imbalance
between diminishing natural resources and increasing consumption and argues that conserva-
tion should be seen as a business opportunity.
253. THE MAN WHO LEARNED (1910, silent, 11 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: New York Milk Committee. PRODUCTION CO.: Edison Manufacturing Co. DIRECTOR: Ashley Miller.
RESOURCES: Copyright J145147-50 2Sept1910; Boyd Fisher, “Motion Pictures to Make Good Citizens,” Am
City 7 (Sept. 1912): 236; “Preach Pure Milk by Moving Pictures,” NYT, Mar. 25, 1913, 15; Arthur Edwin Krows,
“Motion Pictures—Not for Theatres,” Ed Scrn 19 (Feb. 1939): 50; AFI 1893–1910, 647. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Public health film promoting the pasteurization of milk. NOTE: The New York Milk Com-
mittee, which was part of the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the
Poor, endorsed pasteurization in 1908.
254. MANAGING THE FAMILY INCOME (1941, sound, 38 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Household Finance Corp. PRODUCTION CO.: Jam Handy Organization. RESOURCES: Copyright 7Apr41
and 9Apr41 LU10375; EFC (1943), 245. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
Consumer education film stressing the importance of household budgeting. Sponsored by
the national loan company, Managing the Family Income illustrates how an ordinary family
can protect itself against financial emergencies by spending within its income and by making
regular savings deposits. NOTE: Shown to schools and women’s groups. Also distributed in
16mm. Supersedes a one-reel version made in 1934.
60
Meet King Joe
Film sponsored by the Key System, the interurban electric railway linking Bay Area cities via
the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. The March of Progress discusses the growing impor-
tance of mass transportation in the region and envisions new rapid transit possibilities. NOTE:
The Key System was eventually acquired by AC Transit. Also released in 16mm. Viewable
online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/MarchofP1945.
258. A MARTYR TO HIS CAUSE (1911, silent, length unknown, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: American Federation of Labor. PRODUCTION CO.: Seeley Studios. RESOURCES: Copyright not regis-
tered; Philip Foner, “A Martyr to His Cause : The Scenario of the First Labor Film in the United States,”
Labor History 24 (Winter 1983): 103–11; Working-Class, 93–95. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Labor-financed film produced to counter the open shop movement, which promoted
optional union membership in the workplace. A Martyr to His Cause defends John and
James McNamara, two labor activists accused of bombing the Los Angeles Times, a proponent
of the open shop. Considered by Steven Ross the “first major worker-made feature film,”
the film portrays “manufacturers, and corrupt courts as co-conspirators who try to crush the
spirit of democracy” (Working-Class). NOTE: The film was pulled from distribution after James
McNamara confessed to the bombing.
61
Memo to Mars
62
The Miracle of Corn
professionals, Mental Hospital shows daily life at the state facility, including hydrotherapy and
electroconvulsive therapy sessions. The film ends with the patient’s discharge. NOTE: Shot at
the Central State Hospital in Norman, Oklahoma. Since patients were not legally competent
to sign releases, the producer recruited crew and friends for the cast. Viewable online at Inter-
net Archive, www.archive.org/details/mental_hospital.
269. THE MIRACLE OF CORN (ca. 1934, sound, length unknown, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Kellogg Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Castle Films. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; “More Sales with
Business Films,” Pr Ink Mon 28 (June 1934): 58; EFC (1936), 51. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
63
Mobile Telephones
Film spotlighting the role of corn in American history and agriculture and the production
of Kellogg cereal products. NOTE: Printer’s Ink Monthly reported that more than 2 million
students saw the film.
Film introducing mobile radiotelephone service for users along major highways and in urban
areas. Mobile Telephones contrasts the path of calls made through regular ground-based equip-
ment with those sent via radio channels. NOTE: Also released in 16mm. The Bell System began
limited mobile telephone service the year this film was produced.
274. MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE (1952, sound, 15 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: CBS Radio Network, Columbia Broadcasting System. PRODUCTION CO.: United Productions of
America. DIRECTOR: John Hubley. NARRATOR: Robert Trout. RESOURCES: Copyright 28May52 MP2487; “‘But My
Business Is Different!’,” Mod Ind 24 (Aug. 15, 1952): 117; “CBS Network Presents Colorful Case,” Bus Scrn
13, no. 6 (1952): 31. HOLDINGS: LC.
64
The Nation at Your Fingertips
Film sponsored by the radio network to assert the continued relevance of radio advertising at
a time when television was emerging as a major broadcast medium. More Than Meets the Eye
visualizes sound through symbols and was lauded by Modern Industry as borrowing effectively
from abstract art. NOTE: For more information about the production company, see Bosley
Crowther, “McBoing Boing, Magoo and Bosustow,” NYT, Dec. 21, 1952, SM14.
275. A MOVIE TRIP THROUGH FILMLAND (1921, silent, 2 reels, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Eastman Kodak Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Bosworth, DeFrenes, and Felton. ANIMATION: Paul M. Felton.
RESOURCES: Copyright 17Dec21 MP2119; “How Films Are Made, Shown on the Screen, as Feature at Grand,”
Atlan Con, July 16, 1922, D4; “Stills from A Trip Through Filmland,” LAT, Aug. 27, 1922, VIII, 2; John E. Webber,
“Industrial Films as Advertising and Educational Mediums,” Ed Scrn 4 (Sept. 1925): 445–47. HOLDINGS: GEH.
Documentary illustrating the making of nitrate motion-picture film at the Kodak plant in
Rochester, New York. Celebrating movies as the universal human language, A Movie Trip
Through Filmland begins with an extraordinary animated sequence showing film in use around
the globe. At the time, Kodak produced nearly 150,000 miles of film annually, which the
documentary drives home by showing the same length of film wrapped around the earth six
times. NOTE: The film played in theaters for more than three years. Also known as A Trip
Through Filmland.
277. MR. PEANUT AND HIS FAMILY TREE (1939, sound, 3 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Planters Nut and Chocolate Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Ted Eshbaugh Studios. RESOURCES: Copyright not
registered; “Advertisers’ Films Draw Huge Crowds at Nation’s Two Big Fairs,” Sales Mgmt 45 (July 1, 1939):
34–47; “Exhibit Theatres at the Fair,” Bus Scrn 1, no. 6 (1939): 21. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Humorous animated advertisement showing how peanuts grow underground. NOTE: Thought
to be the first animated film produced in 16mm Kodachrome, Mr. Peanut and His Family Tree
was exhibited at the 1939–40 World’s Fairs in New York and San Francisco.
279. THE NATION AT YOUR FINGERTIPS (1951, sound, 10 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: American Telephone & Telegraph Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Audio Productions Inc. RESOURCES: Copyright
not registered. HOLDINGS: AAFF, LC/Prelinger, MacDonald.
Promotional film introducing self-service long-distance dialing. Showing the prototype service
in Englewood, New Jersey, The Nation at Your Fingertips demonstrates how direct dial and
the new area code system enable callers to make contact instantly without operator assistance.
65
National Cash Register Films
The film ends with a corporate promise to continue the AT&T tradition of technological
innovation. NOTE: Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/Nationat1951.
280. [NATIONAL CASH REGISTER FILMS] (1903; silent; 30 films, 1–3 min ea; b&w; 35mm)
SPONSOR: National Cash Register Co. PRODUCTION CO.: American Mutoscope & Biograph Co. CAMERA: Robert K.
Bonine. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; Emergence, 312; AFI 1893–1910, 413. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Series of 30 films showing the sponsor’s facilities in Dayton, Ohio, and the activities of execu-
tives, including founder John H. Patterson. Created to accompany company lectures, the series
included such titles as Girls in Physical Culture, Testing Jacks, and Visitors in Wheeling Chairs.
282. THE NEW AGE OF ARCHITECTURE (1958, sound, 42 min, b&w, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Architectural Forum Magazine. PRODUCTION CO.: Transfilm Inc. Director/Writer: Joseph Krumgold.
RESOURCES: Copyright 30Sep58 MP9738; Howard Thompson, “Newcomers to the Nontheatrical Film Field,”
NYT, Oct. 12, 1958, X9. HOLDINGS: LC.
Film commissioned by a leading architectural journal to discuss major trends in its field. Among
the 16 architects, planners, and builders appearing are Eero Saarinen, Edward Durell Stone,
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Frank Lloyd Wright. NOTE: Joseph Krumgold was an award-
winning children’s book writer.
285. NEW FORESTS FOR OLD (ca. 1932, silent, 10 min, b&w, 16mm)
SPONSOR/PRODUCTION CO.: Dept. of Forests and Waters, State of Pennsylvania. RESOURCES: Copyright not
registered. HOLDINGS: Penn.
Conservation film sponsored by a state agency to encourage reforestation. In the story a
forward-looking farmer and his son learn from a state forester about Pennsylvania’s program
66
Not by Books Alone
to sell tree seedlings for planting on unused acreage. The son takes delight in imagining his
father’s newly planted trees taking root and flourishing over the next 50 years.
67
Not One to Spare
Animated and live-action film explaining the proper handling of the desk telephone. In the
story a distracted and sleep-deprived businessman abuses his phone, which is rushed to the
hospital for emergency care. All is put right, and the ringing phone announces that the busi-
nessman is a new father. NOTE: Also known as Tale of the Upright Telephone. Viewable online
at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/now_youre_talking_1927.
68
One World or None
progress” and cannot continue to break new ground. He is challenged by “the Spirit of Change,”
a seer who calls up images from the country’s past, present, and future to demonstrate the
continuum of technological achievement. The Spirit of Change caps his argument by show-
casing modern inventions—the television, the home facsimile machine, and plastics—and
the vision of the future presented by the New York World’s Fair “Futurama” exhibit. NOTE:
Also distributed in 16mm. On to Jupiter was shown at the dedication of GM’s exhibit at the
1939–40 New York World’s Fair and is said to have been inspired by the life story of inven-
tor Charles F. Kettering, GM’s research director.
69
One-Tenth of a Nation
1946), also available online at www.fas.org/oneworld. Producer Philip Ragan showed the film
during his failed run for Congress in 1950.
299. THE OPEN DOOR: THE STORY OF FOREMAN JIM BAXTER, HIS FAMILY, AND HIS JOB
(1945, sound, 44 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Public Relations Staff, General Motors Corp. PRODUCTION CO.: Jam Handy Organization. DIRECTOR:
Haford Kerbawy. PRODUCER: Esther Schrodel. WRITER: Gordon H. Miller. CAST: William Post Jr., Betty Kelley,
George Mathews, Harvey Stephens. RESOURCES: Copyright 3Dec45 MU16571; “Better Living,” 151–55, 271.
HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
Management training film commissioned by GM at a time when factory foremen were con-
sidering unionization. Machinist Jim Baxter is promoted and must decide whether to cast
his lot with management or with workers. He discusses the question in the workplace and
at home. Rather than permitting “third parties” to represent him, the new foreman decides
to work out problems by talking directly with the plant manager. NOTE: Also distributed in
16mm. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/OpenDoor1945.
Response to Operation Abolition, the House Un-American Activities Committee film criticiz-
ing the 1960 anti-HUAC demonstrations in San Francisco. Operation Correction takes the form
of a deconstruction of the original film and includes commentary from lawyers, journalists,
and civil libertarians. The executive director of the local ACLU chapter gives the narration.
NOTE: Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/Operatio1961.
70
Our Mr. Sun
dust from diesel engines. Howard Thompson considered this work from avant-garde film-
maker Alexander Hammid “as simple, precise and brilliant as a diamond.”
304. THE ORDEAL OF THOMAS MOON (1957, sound, 19 min, b&w, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Smith, Kline & French. PRODUCTION CO.: Gerald Productions Inc. DIRECTOR: Michael Nebbia. CAST:
Dominick “Dom” DeLuise. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; “The Ordeal of Thomas Moon,” Bus Scrn
18, no. 4 (1957): 35. HOLDINGS: AAFF.
Medical film sponsored by the Philadelphia-based pharmaceutical firm to illustrate how obe-
sity affects the performance of simple everyday tasks. This unusual short made for physicians
shows the struggle of an overweight traveler ascending the stairs at Pennsylvania station and
trying to enter a phone booth to make a call. Fed up and exhausted, the man seeks medical
advice. NOTE: The Ordeal of Thomas Moon was shot on location and used natural sound. The
film contains no direct advertising. Smith, Kline & French (now GlaxoSmithKline) produced
the obesity drug Dexedrine.
305. ORIGINAL FILMS OF FRANK B. GILBRETH (1945, silent, 32 min, b&w, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Chicago Chapter, Society for the Advancement of Management. PRODUCERS: James S. Perkins,
Lillian M. Gilbreth, Ralph M. Barnes. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; “Machine Measures Motion,”
Wash Post, Apr. 20, 1913, MS1. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger, SI/NMAH.
Footage drawn from Frank Gilbreth’s time and motion studies. The anthology includes a
clip of his family, who were often used in his work-efficiency experiments. NOTE: Also known
as Original Films of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth. The compilation was also issued in a 26-minute
version with narration by James S. Perkins. Other films by Gilbreth are held by Purdue Uni-
versity. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/OriginalFilm. For more
about Gilbreth’s use of films in research, see “Many Inventions,” The Outlook, Mar. 29,
1913, 736.
71
Over Sapphire Seas
LP9113 7Nov56; Jack Gould, “Television: Our Mr. Sun,” NYT, Nov. 20, 1956, 58; Richard Dyer MacCann,
“Use of Animated Cartoons to Expand TV Techniques,” CSM, Nov. 20, 1956, 9; “Industry Takes a Hand,” Bus
Scrn 18, no. 7 (1957): 38–39; James Gilbert, Redeeming Culture: American Religion in an Age of Science
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), 199–223. HOLDINGS: AAFF, GEH, LC, LC/Prelinger, UCLA.
Popular scientific film directed by Frank Capra that launched the Bell System Science series.
Combining animation and live action, Our Mr. Sun uses a scientist-writer team to present
information about the sun and its importance to humankind. NOTE: Produced in Technicolor,
the film was originally telecast in 1956 and 1957 to 9 million homes; some 600 16mm prints
were distributed to schools and community organizations through the Bell Telephone System
film libraries.
Travelogue presenting an ocean cruise aboard an all-electric liner en route to the West Coast
via the Panama Canal. Over Sapphire Seas shows ports of call, the onboard facilities, and pas-
senger activities.
310. THE PASSAIC TEXTILE STRIKE (1926, silent, 7 reels, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: International Workers Aid. PRODUCTION CO.: Passaic Strike Relief Committee. DIRECTOR: Sam
Russak. PRODUCER: Albert Wagenknecht. WRITER: Margaret Larkin. CAMERA: Lester Balog, Sam Brody,
William Schwartfeller. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; Steven J. Ross, “Struggles for the Screen:
Workers, Radicals, and the Political Uses of Silent Film,” American Historical Review 96 (Apr. 1991):
355–56; Behind the Mask, 498–508; Working-Class, 162; More Treasures, 151–56. HOLDINGS: LC.
Feature produced to tell labor’s side of the story in the bitter 1926 strike against wool mills
in Passaic, New Jersey. The two-reel “Prologue,” featuring real strikers in dramatic roles, serves
as an introduction to actuality footage of union meetings, picket lines, and rallies. NOTE:
Premiering at an open-air screening in September 1926, The Passaic Textile Strike was sent
on a national screening tour to raise money for worker relief. Two reels are lost.
311. THE PAYROLL DOLLAR (ca. 1926, silent, length unknown, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Regional Plan Association of San Francisco Bay Counties. PRODUCTION CO.: Alexander Productions.
72
Perversion for Profit
PRODUCER: Philip W. Alexander. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; R.V. Black, “Regional Plan for the
San Francisco Bay Counties,” Am City 33 (July 1925): 22–23; Guy Wilfrid Hayler, “Explaining City Planning
Through the Movies,” Am City 35 (July 1926): 39–40. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Film encouraging the building of planned cities in the West. Shot on location in northern
California, The Payroll Dollar illustrates the design, zoning, and beautification of the new city
by use of an impressively detailed miniature. The film argues that planned cities are good for
business and help circulate the “payroll dollar.”
Documentary celebrating the work of the Highlander Folk School, a progressive adult edu-
cation center founded in 1932 in the mountain community of Monteagle, Tennessee. People
of the Cumberland demonstrates how education and the labor movement can transform an
impoverished mining region and bring hope to its people. Made by activist filmmakers,
the movie ends with a call for a “new kind of America.” NOTE: Viewable online at Nicole
Huffman, “People of the Cumberland,” New Frontiers in American Documentary Film,
xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/Huffman/Frontier/people.html.
314. PERVERSION FOR PROFIT (ca. 1962, sound, 29 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Citizens for Decent Literature. PRODUCTION CO.: The Christophers. NARRATOR: George Putnam.
RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; Kay Sullivan, “Cincinnati vs. Pornography,” Catholic Digest 23 (June
1959): 12–19; Sid Bernstein, “Stricter State Laws Against Smut Asked,” LAT, Nov. 27, 1962, E8; Norman
Mark, “Censorship: Fanatics and Fallacies; The Anonymous Smut Hunters,” The Nation, July 5, 1965, 5–7;
Howard Junker, “Smut Hunters: The New Jurisprudery,” The Nation, Nov. 15, 1965, 358–60. HOLDINGS:
LC/Prelinger.
Film sponsored by a lay Catholic advocacy group to encourage local communities to enact
antipornography laws. In Perversion for Profit, an antipornography lecture by Los Angeles
broadcast personality George Putnam is illustrated with examples of indecent literature,
shown with red “censor bars” covering the objectionable sections. The film argues that por-
nography, especially homosexual erotica and material with violent content, distorts the moral
development of children and must be kept out of their hands. NOTE: CDL was founded in
1957 by Charles Keating and others in Cincinnati, Ohio. Released in 16mm Eastmancolor.
The film circulated in probably no more than a few dozen prints and was followed by CDL’s
Printed Poison and Pages of Death. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/-
details/Perversi1965.
73
Peter in Pruneland
316. PETE-ROLEUM AND HIS COUSINS (1939, sound, 16 min, color, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Petroleum Industry Exhibition Inc. PRODUCTION CO.: Loucks & Norling Studios. DIRECTOR/PRODUCER:
Joseph Losey. PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Howard Bay. MUSIC: Oscar Levant, Hanns Eisler. ANIMATION: Charles R.
Bowers. PUPPETRY: Lou Bunin. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; Bosley Crowther, “Films for the Fair,”
NYT, Mar. 5, 1939, X5; “Advertisers’ Films Draw Huge Crowds at Nation’s Two Big Fairs,” Sales Mgmt 45
(July 1, 1939): 34–47. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
World’s Fair film that playfully promotes the petroleum industry. With stop-motion animation
by silent comedian Charley Bowers, Pete-Roleum and His Cousins uses small rubber puppets
to represent a clan of oil drops and their leader, Pete. Annoyed by a heckler, they quit serving
humankind, shut down the world economy, and prove the importance of petroleum. The film
also weaves in the story of petroleum in America from the pioneer days to the present. NOTE:
Produced in Technicolor. The sponsor was a consortium organized by major petroleum com-
panies for the purpose of mounting an exhibit at the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair. The
film was Joseph Losey’s first screen credit.
74
The Power behind the Nation
323. THE POWER BEHIND THE NATION (1940, sound, 38 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Norfolk & Western Railway Co. PRODUCER: Waldo E. Austin. NARRATOR: Bob Trout. RESOURCES:
Copyright 1Nov40 MP10711; EFC (1940–41), 126. HOLDINGS: LC, UGA.
Overview of the bituminous coal industry sponsored by a major coal carrier. The Power behind
the Nation explores coal’s geological origins and its many uses as a fuel and a source of chemi-
cal by-products. The coal production process is traced from mining to transport and ends with
75
Power for Progress
a scene at the coal terminal at Lambert Point, Virginia. NOTE: This film includes what is said
to be the first color motion picture footage shot in a coal mine.
326. THE PREPARATION OF CONDENSED MILK (ca. 1915, silent, 3 reels, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Borden Condensed Milk Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Unknown. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; BCE,
23–24; “Productions Worth While,” Reel and Slide 1 (Dec. 1918): 29. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Detailed document of condensed milk production from the company that invented the pro-
cess. The film begins with the cows and ends with the sealed can. NOTE: Distributed by the
Bureau of Commercial Economics.
76
The Quiet Revolution
unfortunate results. NOTE: Produced in Eastmancolor. Also released in 16mm. The film pre-
miered at the 1955 meeting of the Public Relations Society of America and won a Freedoms
Foundation award in 1956. Also known as Prod. 5118. For more about Champion’s films,
see “A Champion among Sponsors,” Bus Scrn 19, no. 8 (1958): 31–34.
329. THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CARE OF INFANTS (1912, silent, 1 reel, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Department of Child-Helping, Russell Sage Foundation. PRODUCTION CO.: Thomas A. Edison Inc.
DIRECTORS: Carleton King, Charles M. Seay. RESOURCES: Copyright 6Dec12 LP159; advertisement, Atlan Con,
Dec. 15, 1912, B14. HOLDINGS: MoMA.
Early drama about child care. A young widow with twin infants must hire caregivers for her
children so she can work as a domestic. She places one child with a foster mother and the other
in an “asylum.” The institutionalized twin dies. “Many babies die in institutions who would
live if given family home care,” an intertitle argues. In the film’s coda, the young mother finds
a sympathetic female employer who allows child care at her home.
331. THE PURPLE MARTIN STORY (1966, sound, 13 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSORS: Griggsville Wild Bird Society; Trio Manufacturing Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Griggsville Wild Bird
Society. WRITER: George Mobus. CAMERA: Wayne Bradshaw. Narrator: Rex Davis. RESOURCES: Copyright
not registered; advertisement, CT, Mar. 20, 1966, A8. HOLDINGS: Nature.
Introduction to the purple martin, a type of migrating swallow that, because of its voracious
appetite for flying insects, was proposed as a mosquito-abatement alternative to dangerous
pesticides such as DDT. The Purple Martin Story advocates erecting special metal houses, made
by sponsor Trio Manufacturing, to attract and protect the birds. The short was cosponsored
by a grassroots community group with the help of the local Jaycees. NOTE: The Purple Martin
Story is still in circulation. J.L. Wade, who headed Trio, authored What You Should Know
about the Purple Martin (Griggsville, IL: J.L. Wade, 1966).
Film showing kindergarteners in art class. Unscripted and informal, The Purple Turtle is
narrated by the children and captures their excitement in expressing themselves through
painting and sculpture.
77
Red Asphalt
community of Levittown, Pennsylvania. The Quiet Revolution illustrates how Ford tractors
contributed to the 16,000-home project and helped the builders and landscapers achieve
unprecedented economies of scale. NOTE: Produced in Kodachrome. Viewable online at
Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/QuietRev1956.
Driving safety film made for screening in high schools and driver education programs. Red
Asphalt includes graphic scenes of road accidents on California highways. NOTE: Inspired by
Signal 30, filmed in Ohio by Highway Safety Films, Red Asphalt was made by the Reel Fellows,
a group of Hollywood cinematographers and technicians working pro bono. The CHP distrib-
uted the film to high schools and often sent an officer to lecture with the screening. Beginning
in 1979, several remakes were made on video.
338. RFD GREENWICH VILLAGE (ca. 1969, sound, 11 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Cotton Producers Association. PRODUCTION CO.: Unknown. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered.
HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
Trade association film promoting cotton clothing. Set in Greenwich Village, the film explores
neighborhood haunts and leisure activities, including a hip house party at which cast mem-
bers sport fashionable cotton outfits. The result is a humorous vision of affluent Bohemian
life. NOTE: RFD stands for “rural free delivery” and is a playful allusion to the neighborhood’s
relaxed “country” lifestyle. Produced in Eastmancolor. Viewable online at Internet Archive,
www.archive.org/details/RFDGreen1969.
78
The Romance of the Reaper
341. THE ROMANCE OF IRRIGATION (ca. 1917, silent, length unknown, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Burlington Railway. PRODUCTION CO.: Unknown. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; T.T. Maxey,
“The Film and the American Railroad,” Railway Age 63 (Aug. 31, 1917): 380; “American Railroads Perform
Advertising Wonders with Motion Pictures,” Current Opinion 63, no. 5 (Nov. 1917): 319. HOLDINGS: Not
reported.
Film promoting the irrigation of land in regions served by the railway company. The story
tells how a disgruntled schoolteacher from the East learns of federal programs to reclaim arid
lands and moves to an irrigated homestead in Wyoming, where she becomes prosperous and
satisfied with her life.
342. THE ROMANCE OF THE REAPER (1911, silent, 1 reel, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: International Harvester Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Unknown. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered;
“Moving Pictures of Educational Benefit,” Atlan Con, Nov. 7, 1912, A10; “Great Land Show Opens
Saturday,” CT, Nov. 17, 1912, 3; advertisement, CT, Nov. 23, 1912, 4; “More Sales with Business Films,”
Pr Ink Mon 28 (June 1934): 58. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Film tracing the invention and development of Cyrus McCormick’s reaper. Produced for
theatrical and educational showings in rural areas, The Romance of the Reaper describes how
the reaper revolutionized agriculture. NOTE: International Harvester reused the title for its first
sound film, made in 1930. For more about the sponsor’s films, see L.A. Hawkins, “59,367,000
See International Harvester Films Since 1911,” Sales Mgmt 47 (Nov. 15, 1940): 58–60.
79
Round and Round
Film explaining the workings of the market economy. Using stop-motion dolls to represent
farmers, workers, and consumers, Round and Round traces the evolution of a widget, from
raw agricultural product to transformation in the factory to purchase by the consumer. The
process shows that all participating economic players are both independent and interdependent.
The film was part of GM’s effort to rekindle faith in the free enterprise system in the late
1930s. NOTE: Also released in 16mm. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/-
details/Roundand1939.
344. SAINT PAUL POLICE DETECTIVES AND THEIR WORK: A COLOR CHARTOON
(ca. 1941, sound, 8 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Saint Paul Police Dept. PRODUCTION CO.: Unknown. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered. HOLDINGS:
LC/Prelinger.
Animated short from the progressive police department explaining its organization and activ-
ities. Distinctive for its homespun style, this film calls itself a “chartoon” to draw attention to
its use of animated charts and includes unusual visualizations such as stop-motion animation
of a revolver firing a bullet. NOTE: Produced in Kodachrome. Viewable online at Internet
Archive, www.archive.org/details/SaintPau1941.
80
Seed for Tomorrow
Copyright not registered; Howard Thompson, “The 16mm Circuit,” NYT, Apr. 15, 1962, X9; “John de Menil
Is a Trustee of Museum of Modern Art,” NYT, July 1, 1962, 45. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Modernist documentary presenting the capabilities of the oil field services company. Howard
Thompson wrote that the film demonstrates “man’s quest for oil as a fusion of hands, minds,
and scientific data.” He further praised the film as “proof, if any be needed, that producer
(and director) Van Dyke is the American documentary.” NOTE: Max Ernst was commissioned
to create the paintings shown in the film. John de Menil, chairman of Schlumberger, collected
modern art.
349. THE SEARCHING EYE (1964, sound, 22 min, color, 35mm and 70mm)
SPONSOR: Eastman Kodak Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Saul Bass & Associates. DIRECTORS: Saul Bass, Elaine Bass.
MUSIC: Elmer Bernstein. NARRATOR: Gary Merrill. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; Bosley Crowther,
“Moving Forward,” NYT, May 10, 1964, X1; Irving Desfor, “There Are Wonders in Everyday Things,” CSM,
June 9, 1964, 17; Bosley Crowther, “Once More to the Fair,” NYT, Sept. 5, 1965, X1. HOLDINGS: GEH.
Meditation on human sight that was shown at the 1964–65 New York World’s Fair. The
Searching Eye portrays the world through the eyes of a ten-year-old boy. Bosley Crowther
called it a “beautiful demonstration, on a three-panel flexible screen, of the multitude of sen-
sations and meanings that may be taken in by the human eye, which is the window of the
brain” (NYT, Sept. 5, 1965). NOTE: This pioneering movie appears to use three screens, an
effect produced by projecting a 35mm and a 70mm film side by side and subdividing the
latter through split-screen technology. At any one time viewers could see as many as three
images. Sy Wexler helped oversee production.
351. THE SECRET OF SELLING THE NEGRO (1954, sound, 20 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Johnson Publishing Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Sarra Inc. DIRECTOR: Wayne A. Langston. PRODUCERS:
Joseph G. Betzer, Harry W. Lange. WRITER: Helen A. Krupka. ART DIRECTOR: George DeDecker. NARRATOR:
Robert Trout. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; “Keys to a 15 Billion Dollar Market,” Bus Scrn 15, no. 4
(1954): 34; advertisement, Bus Scrn 15, no. 5 (1954): 31. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Film commissioned by the Chicago-based publisher of Negro Digest, Ebony, and Jet to encour-
age advertisers to reach out to African American consumers. The Secret of Selling the Negro
depicts the lives, activities, and consumer behavior of African American professionals, students,
and housewives. A Business Screen reviewer noted that the film focused on the “bright positive”
aspects of the “new Negro family.” NOTE: The sponsor issued a companion booklet offering
the “do’s and don’ts of selling to the Negro.”
Film showing how the hard work and economic sacrifice of family farmers and ranchers con-
tributes to American life. Seed for Tomorrow argues that education, organization, and political
81
Seminoles of the Everglades
involvement are necessary to protect rural communities and small farms. NOTE: Narrator Lee
Hays, a member of the Weavers, sings a song over the film’s opening sequence. Viewable on-
line at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/SeedforT1947.
355. SHAKE HANDS WITH DANGER (1975, sound, 23 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Caterpillar Tractor Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Centron Productions. DIRECTOR: Harold “Herk” Harvey.
MUSIC: Jim Stringer, John Clifford, Charles Oldfather Jr. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered. HOLDINGS:
AAFF, AV Geeks, LC/Prelinger.
Safety film for heavy equipment operators that was commissioned by the construction equip-
ment manufacturer. Reminding workers to follow procedures and stay alert, Shake Hands
with Danger features simulated accidents and a memorable title song. NOTE: “Herk” Harvey
directed the independent horror film Carnival of Souls. Viewable online at Internet Archive,
www.archive.org/details/ShakeHan1970.
82
The Sound of a Stone
Celebration of the American trucking industry, with poetic narration and a theme song sung
by a truck driver. The economic and social significance of trucking is suggested through strik-
ing montage sequences and scenes of New York City traffic. NOTE: Distributed in 16mm.
Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/SingingWheel.
Advertising film promoting Pan Am’s newly inaugurated jet clipper service to London and
Paris and illustrating its convenience and high-quality in-flight amenities. 6½ Magic Hours
shows behind-the-scenes airline operations, the departure from New York’s Idlewild (now
Kennedy) Airport, passenger service en route, and arrival in Europe. The title refers to the
duration of the flight. NOTE: Produced in Kodachrome. Viewable online at Internet Archive,
www.archive.org/details/612Magic1958.
83
Steel and America
Drama about the damage to a community caused by a witch hunt for communists. A high
school teacher finds himself at the center of controversy after he assigns a book purported to
be communist literature. At a PTA meeting he is called “a man who’s trying to poison the
minds of our children.” The teacher’s star pupil urges his father, who is the chief antagonist,
to read the inflammatory book. Although the father recants his accusations, several weeks later
a stone crashes through the teacher’s window, bearing a threatening message. NOTE: Also
released in black and white.
365. STEPPING ALONG WITH TELEVISION (1949, sound, 11 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Long Lines Information Dept., American Telephone & Telegraph Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Caravel
Films. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; “Networks Linked by AT&T Cable,” Bus Scrn 10, no. 1 (1949):
84
The Story of Menstruation
31; “Free General-Interest Movies from Bell,” Mod Ind 17 (Mar. 15, 1949): 98; “Teacher-Committee
Evaluation of New Films,” Ed Scrn 28 (Dec. 1949): 450; EFG (1951), 442. HOLDINGS: AAFF, MacDonald.
Film showing the role of AT&T in facilitating network television transmission in the years
before communications satellites. The live television broadcast of Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping
Beauty ballet is sent from New York City to Wisconsin via AT&T’s coaxial cable and
microwave relay system. NOTE: Also released in 16mm. According to a report in Business
Screen, excerpts from Stepping Along with Television were included in the first program
sent by AT&T’s relay system in 1949.
Training film for mental health workers that explores the strain of retirement and old age.
When a 62-year-old woman is forced to retire, both she and her family find it difficult to
cope with the change. The film argues that it’s best to accept old age and learn to adjust.
NOTE: Helen Levitt became a cameraperson on The Savage Eye and a television writer.
367. [STOCKYARDS SERIES] (1901; silent; approx 60 films, length unknown; b&w; 35mm)
SPONSOR: Armour & Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Selig Polyscope Co. RESOURCES: Emergence, 291; More Treasures,
118. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Film series shot for the meatpacking company at its Union Stock Yards in Chicago. Among
the titles are Entrance to Union Stock Yards, Koshering Cattle, and Cutting Beef. The films were
distributed individually and in sets. NOTE: For a list of the titles in the series, see the index
volume, AFI 1893–1910, 152. After the publication of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle in 1906,
Armour & Co. paid for the films’ rerelease in an effort to improve the industry’s image.
368. THE STORY OF BUBBLE GUM (1955, sound, 19 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Frank H. Fleer Corp. PRODUCTION CO.: Louis W. Kellman Productions. DIRECTORS/PRODUCERS: Wilbur
Stark, Jack McGowan. CAST: Kathi Norris. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered. HOLDINGS: Secret Cinema.
Promotional film by the first bubble gum manufacturer and maker of Dubble Bubble. Tele-
vision talk show hostess Kathi Norris receives a viewer’s letter asking about bubble gum. The
inquiry is answered through a tour of the Fleer plant in Philadelphia, where the manufactur-
ing and packaging processes are shown. In one section, test bubbles are measured by giant
calipers. NOTE: Produced in Kodachrome.
85
The Story of Television
History of television as told by the pioneering broadcasting company. The Story of Television
illustrates various television firsts, such as the first successful picture tube and the first experi-
mental station. RCA chairman David Sarnoff describes the company’s early research. The
polished film uses animation to explain how visual information is encoded and concludes
with a color sequence introducing RCA’s new color television equipment. Howard Thompson
called The Story of Television “a real surprise and a treat.” NOTE: Viewable online at Internet
Archive, www.archive.org/details/StoryofT1956. Also released in a 15-minute version.
Documentary about the discrepancies between black and white public schools in South
Carolina. Using charts and footage, A Study of Educational Inequities in South Carolina
provides an overview of the segregated school system from 1920 to 1933 and describes
the differences in treatment. In contrast, Clinton Normal and Industrial College and the
Friendship Baptist College, both founded by African American church groups, are presented
as successful models. NOTE: NARA also holds outtakes.
86
Target USA
Film inspired by Ford’s “Cycle of Production” exhibit at the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair.
“From the earth come materials to be transformed by Ford men, management, and machines,”
begins the narrator as animated purchase orders stream from the corporate headquarters.
Puppets transport raw materials to Ford’s Rouge plant, where the fantasy switches to live
action. The company’s 28-millionth car is built to Edwin Ludig’s Symphony in F, with “F”
standing for Ford. NOTE: Released in Technicolor. Also distributed in 16mm. For more infor-
mation on the Cycle of Production exhibit, see Corporate Soul, 298–301.
87
Technicolor for Industrial Films
379. TECHNICOLOR FOR INDUSTRIAL FILMS (ca. 1949, sound, 8 min, color, 35mm)
SPONSOR/PRODUCTION CO.: Technicolor Corp. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
Film introducing Technicolor services to the industrial film sector. The narrator explains
that although the company is known largely through its consulting, cinematography, and
laboratory work with Hollywood, it provides the same technical support to industrial clients.
Outdoor and indoor scenes, industrial processes, and product shots are all shown in Techni-
color. NOTE: Also released in 16mm. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/-
details/Technico1949.
Film promoting television sets and the broadcast of New York’s first regularly scheduled pro-
grams. The short shows RCA’s production studios in Rockefeller Center, television demon-
strations at the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair, RCA’s Empire State Building transmitter,
and remote mobile broadcast units. NOTE: Also released in 16mm. Viewable online at
Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/RCAPrese1939.
383. THE THINGS PEOPLE WANT (1948, sound, 20 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Chevrolet Div., General Motors Corp. PRODUCTION CO.: Jam Handy Organization. CAST: John Forsythe.
RESOURCES: Copyright 25Mar48 MU2909; “ The Things People Want,” Bus Scrn 9, no. 6 (1948): 32. HOLDINGS:
LC/Prelinger, MacDonald, UGA.
Film describing effective selling techniques and the importance of understanding the cus-
88
This Is Your Police Department
tomer. This unusual training film made for Chevrolet salesmen includes atmospheric, moody
music and scenes in which the protagonist encounters his double. NOTE: The Things People
Want was revised several times. Also released in 16mm. Viewable online at Internet Archive,
www.archive.org/details/ThingsPe1948.
387. THIS IS OUR CITY (1952, sound, length unknown, color, 16mm)
SPONSORS: Citizens’ Development Committee; Cincinnati Junior Chamber of Commerce. PRODUCTION CO.:
Bert Johnston Productions Inc. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; “Cincinnati Citizen’s Group Sponsors
Civic Promotion Film,” Bus Scrn 13, no. 5 (1952): 56; “Cincinnati Gets Movie on Civic Problems,” Am City 67
(Oct. 1952): 140. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Film encouraging citizens to work together to solve Cincinnati’s problems. This Is Our City
shows a range of troubling infrastructure issues, from traffic to slums, and draws attention
to the efficiency of providing some services on a regional rather than local basis. NOTE: The
Cincinnati Jaycees trained speakers to discuss the film at school screenings.
388. THIS IS YOUR POLICE DEPARTMENT (1951, sound, 23 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Field Day Committee, Detroit Police Dept. PRODUCTION CO.: Jam Handy Organization. RESOURCES:
Copyright 19Sep51 MU5344. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
89
Three Women
Public relations film showing the work of police officers. The first part documents the annual
Detroit Police Field Day, a parade, and the exhibition of police skills; the second part illustrates
cadet training and officers walking the beat, handling a robbery, and intervening in a domestic
dispute. NOTE: Released in 16mm. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/-
details/ThisIsYo1951.
390. THRILLS FOR YOU (1939, sound, length unknown, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Pennsylvania Railroad. PRODUCTION CO.: Loucks & Norling Studios. RESOURCES: Copyright not
registered; “Leading Sales Films of 1939–40 and the Results Attained,” Sales Mgmt 47 (Oct. 10, 1940): 70.
HOLDINGS: LC.
Promotional 3-D film about railroads made for exhibition at the 1939–40 San Francisco
World’s Fair. Thrills for You takes the viewer on a ride in the engineer’s cab and the passenger
car and shows the maintenance of giant locomotives at Pennsylvania Railroad’s Altoona
Works. NOTE: Thrills for You was seen by 175,000 fair goers over a five-month period.
90
To Each Other
registered; Rita Fitzpatrick, “Banker Tricks Nature to Make Flowers Dance,” CT, Feb. 9, 1947, 26; EFG (1953),
781; Edward McGrain, “He Unveils Nature’s Secrets,” Bus Scrn 15, no. 5 (1954): 42; Charles Collins and
John Ott, “His Magic Camera Makes Time Fly,” CT, Jan. 29, 1956, D20. HOLDINGS: AFANA, MacDonald.
Promotional film showing time-lapse expert John Ott at work in his specially designed studio
in Winnetka, Illinois. The filmmaker explains how time-lapse films are made and presents
his work recording flowers, Chicago River boat traffic, and an airplane landing. NOTE: While
Ott worked largely on his own, he did have corporate clients such as Walt Disney Productions.
Ott wrote about his work in My Ivory Cellar: The Story of Time-Lapse Photography (Chicago:
Twentieth Century Press, 1958).
394. TIME OUT FOR TROUBLE (1961, sound, 20 min, b&w, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Mental Hygiene Div., Oklahoma State Dept. of Health. PRODUCTION CO.: University of Oklahoma.
Director/Producer: David S. Glidden. WRITER: Dwight V. Swain. MUSIC: Baird Jones. NARRATOR: Alice Spann.
RESOURCES: Copyright not registered. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger, MacDonald.
Mental health film made to help people handle emotional stress. In the story an accident-
prone housewife has nightmares in which her grandfather clock plots to cause her mishaps.
When she learns that emotional stress can lead to unsafe behavior, she finds ways to manage
her feelings and the nightmares disappear. NOTE: Viewable online at Internet Archive,
www.archive.org/details/time_out_for_trouble.
91
To Fly!
Film produced in conjunction with the General Motors exhibit at the 1939–40 New York
World’s Fair. Part of an advertising campaign painting GM as a forward-thinking innovator,
the film begins with a prologue interweaving corporate philosophy with notions of Manifest
Destiny, freedom of the road, and a corporate-created utopian society. The last reel, shot in
Technicolor, shows “Futurama,” an elaborate moving diorama designed by Norman Bel Geddes
envisioning the “World of 1960” through thousands of miniature buildings, trees, and auto-
mobiles. In a tour de force, the film moves from the “Futurama” model to a life-size rendering
of the same street scene and then ends with a montage of neon celebrating industrial progress.
NOTE: Also distributed in 16mm. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/-
details/ToNewHor1940. For a detailed description of “Futurama,” see Norman Bel Geddes,
Magic Motorways (New York: Random House, 1940). For more information on the GM
exhibit, see Waldemar Kaempffert, “Science in the News,” NYT, Sept. 10, 1939, D8.
92
Trees and Men
401. TODAY’S NEWS, TOMORROW’S MEN (1946, sound, 20 min, b&w, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Knoxville News Sentinel. PRODUCTION CO.: Sam Orleans and Associates. RESOURCES: Copyright not
registered. HOLDINGS: ETSU.
Training film for Knoxville News Sentinel paperboys that features hometown actors and loca-
tion shooting in Knoxville, Tennessee. The story follows an energetic youngster as he builds a
successful paper route as an independent contractor participating in the newspaper’s “Little
Merchant Plan.” Paper routes, the film argues, give boys practical business experience.
93
Tribune-American Dream Picture
viewers. It was also released in 16mm and in a 10-minute version called Timber as a Crop.
Weyerhaeuser also sponsored a sequel, Trees and Homes.
409. A TUPPERWARE HOME PARTY (ca. 1952, sound, 42 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Tupperware Home Parties Inc. PRODUCTION CO.: Unknown. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered.
HOLDINGS: SI/NMAH.
Film from Tupperware explaining the technique for selling its plastic storage containers at
home parties. The film is introduced by Brownie Wise, the firm’s marketing genius who
refined the home party sales system, and features a demonstration by ace saleswoman Marge
Rogers as well as information on specific products.
94
Unfinished Business
95
Unfinished Rainbows
no. 4 (1948): 23; advertisement, Bus Scrn 9, no. 6 (1948): back cover; “Better Living,” 155–56, 273. HOLDINGS:
LC/Prelinger.
Film produced for stockholders to showcase U.S. Steel’s efforts to ease the transition of WWII
veterans returning to the workforce. In the docudrama a former employee is welcomed back
with warmth and appreciation. He receives job counseling, takes training to bring his skills up
to speed, and once again becomes a contributing member of civilian society. NOTE: Unfinished
Business was later shown theatrically in cities where U.S. Steel had plants. Also released in ver-
sions running 36 minutes, 20 minutes, and 10 minutes. Viewable online at Internet Archive,
www.archive.org/details/Unfinish1948.
418. UNITED ACTION MEANS VICTORY (1939, sound, 33 min, b&w, 16mm)
SPONSOR: United Auto Workers (CIO). PRODUCTION COS.: United Auto Workers; Frontier Films. DIRECTOR/CAMERA:
Michael Martini. WRITER: David Wolff [Ben Maddow]. MUSIC: Earl Robinson. RESOURCES: Copyright not regis-
tered; Living Films, 54; “Better Living,” 149, 274. HOLDINGS: MacDonald, UCLA.
Documentary about the 1938–39 Tool and Die Makers strike affecting eight General Motors
plants. Told from the point of view of the strikers, the film shows the picket lines and Detroit
police and ends with a question to Henry Ford: “Want to know who’s next?” NOTE: The UAW
called the strike to secure its position after it split from the American Federation of Labor. The
Tool and Die Makers were a key group because their work was necessary for the first phase of
production. The UAW claimed victory when GM signed a general wage agreement, thereby
recognizing the union. For more information on the strike, see Kevin Boyle, “Rite of Passage:
The 1939 General Motors Tool and Diemakers’ Strike,” Labor History 27 (1986): 188–203.
The film is also known as United Action and United Action for Victory.
96
Valley Town
Round Air Operation Shown in Color Movie,” CT, Oct. 7, 1951, F10; “Something Different in Air Line Pictures,”
Bus Scrn 12, no. 7 (1951): 38. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Promotional piece demonstrating United’s commitment to airline safety. United 6534 follows
a DC-6 Mainliner on a transcontinental flight from San Francisco to New York and shows
preventive maintenance, flight planning procedures, and in-flight operations.
97
The Vanishing Frontier
was reedited after the foundation objected to certain scenes. The original version is available
through MoMA’s Circulating Film Library. The film was shot in New Castle, Pennsylvania,
and used residents as actors. Marc Blitzstein is best known for his political opera The Cradle
Will Rock. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/ValleyTo1940.
424. THE VANISHING FRONTIER (1964, sound, 58 min, color unknown, 16mm)
SPONSOR: North Carolina Film Board. PRODUCTION CO.: WBTV (Charlotte, NC). RESOURCES: Copyright not
registered; Howard Thompson, “Carolina Board Shows 3 Films,” NYT, May 8, 1964, 40; Elmer Oettinger,
“The North Carolina Film Board: A Unique Program in Documentary and Educational Film Making,”
Journal of the Society of Cinematologists 4 (1964–65): 55–65. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Documentary showing the challenges faced by North Carolina’s mountain communities
in adapting to modern life. According to Elmer Oettinger, North Carolina author Wilma
Dykeman found that The Vanishing Frontier “explores, reveals, and interprets with cool intel-
ligence and a warm sympathy the paradoxes, problems, and promises of our mountain region.”
NOTE: The film brought to the screen information from a 1962 Ford Foundation survey.
Also known as The Dying Frontier.
98
Wheels of Tragedy
429. WE’LL NEVER TURN BACK (1963, sound, 31 min, b&w, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Harvey Richards. RESOURCES:
Copyright not registered. HOLDINGS: MacDonald, UCLA.
Advocacy film used by SNCC in its voter registration campaign in the South. Shot in Mis-
sissippi, the film includes interviews with black farmers about the harassment and violence
experienced when they attempted to register. Among the civil rights leaders featured are
Julian Bond and Fannie Lou Hamer. NOTE: We’ll Never Turn Back is a reedited version of
an earlier SNCC film, Freedom Bound. Distributed by Estuary Press, www.estuarypress.com.
430. WESTINGHOUSE WORKS (1904; silent; 29 films, 1–3 min ea; b&w; 35mm)
SPONSOR: Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co. PRODUCTION CO.: American Mutoscope & Biograph
Co. CAMERA: G.W. Bitzer. RESOURCES: Emergence, 359; Tom Gunning, “The World as Object Lesson: Cinema
Audiences, Visual Culture and the St. Louis World’s Fair, 1904,” Film History 6, no. 4 (1994): 422–44; AFI
1893–1910, 204; More Treasures, 117–21. HOLDINGS: LC, MoMA.
Series shot at Westinghouse Works, the Pittsburgh-area factory then reputed to be the largest
in the world. Titles include Coil Winding Section E, Girls Taking Time Checks, and Panorama
View: Street Car Motor Room. NOTE: The films were shown three times daily in the Westing-
house auditorium at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Selected for the National Film Registry.
431. WHEELS ACROSS AFRICA (ca. 1937, sound, 50 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Dodge Div., Chrysler Corp. PRODUCTION CO.: Wilding Picture Productions. PRODUCER: Armand Denis.
CAMERA: Leroy G. Phelps. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger, MacDonald, UCLA.
Account of Armand Denis and Leila Roosevelt’s expedition across Africa in Dodge automo-
biles. Wheels across Africa is both African travelogue and demonstration of the Dodge vehicle’s
capacity to perform under “terrific punishment.” NOTE: The trek was cosponsored by the auto-
maker and the Belgian government. Also released in 16mm. Viewable online at Internet
Archive, www.archive.org/details/WheelsAc1936. Denis and Roosevelt were professional ex-
plorers who toured Africa and Asia in the 1930s and created travelogues of their journeys.
99
Why Braceros?
The film was shot near Mansfield, Ohio, and followed the Highway Safety Foundation’s success-
ful Signal 30. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/Wheelsof Tragedy.
435. WINGS TO CUBA AND THE CARIBBEAN (1948, sound, 25 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Pan American World Airways. PRODUCTION CO.: Hartley Productions. PRODUCER: Irving Hartley.
RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; EFG (1949), 603; Raymond Spottiswoode, “Wings to Cuba and the
Caribbean,” in Ideas, 238. HOLDINGS: MacDonald.
Travelogue promoting air travel to the Caribbean. During a glamorous trip to Cuba, Jamaica,
and other islands, an animated figure periodically pops up with comments and praise for Pan
American’s service. NOTE: This is one of the many Wings To films sponsored by Pan Am. Irving
Hartley was one of the newsreel cameramen who shot the Hindenburg explosion. Produced
in Kodachrome.
100
The World Struggle for Oil
Partly animated technical film illustrating how radio works. After tracing the history of com-
munications, from smoke signals to the telephone, The Wizardry of Wireless explains the prin-
ciples of radio transmission and shows the operations of WGY, GE’s pioneering radio station
in Schenectady, New York.
Promotional film featuring activities at the Wohelo girls’ summer camp on Sebago Lake
in Raymond, Maine. NOTE: The name Wohelo stands for “WOrk, HEalth, and LOve.”
The camp was founded by Luther and Charlotte Gulick.
439. WORKING AND PLAYING TO HEALTH (1953, sound, 34 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSORS: Mental Health Film Board; Illinois Dept. of Public Welfare. PRODUCTION CO.: Affiliated Film Pro-
ducers. DIRECTOR: Willard Van Dyke. CAMERA: Kevin Smith. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; unsigned
review, Physical Education and Rehabilitation 26 (Feb. 1955): 52; EFG (1954–58), 349. HOLDINGS: AAFF,
LC/Prelinger, MacDonald.
Institutional profile of Manteno State Hospital in Illinois. Produced for health care workers,
Working and Playing to Health shows the mental hospital’s occupational, recreational, and
industrial therapy programs. One of the largest facilities of its kind in the United States, in
1953 it treated some 7,900 patients with illnesses ranging from schizophrenia to Parkinson’s
disease. NOTE: Received a Golden Reel Award from the American Film Assembly in 1954.
For more about the hospital, see the Manteno Project, www.mantenostatehospital.com.
440. WORKING FOR DEAR LIFE (ca. 1923, silent, 15 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Unknown. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered;
“New Health Film Available,” Am City 30 (Mar. 1924): 310; “More Sales with Business Films,” Pr Ink Mon
28 (June 1934): 56–78; EFC (1936), 35. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Health education film sponsored by the insurance company to encourage regular medical
checkups. Made in conjunction with a National Health Council campaign, the film makes
its point by comparing the human body with an automobile and suggesting that people
require periodic medical examinations to keep themselves in good working order. NOTE:
Also released in 16mm.
442. THE WORLD STRUGGLE FOR OIL (1923, silent, 7 reels, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Sinclair Consolidated Oil Corp. PRODUCTION CO.: Unknown. RESOURCES: Copyright 23Aug23 MP2313;
“The Screen: The Romance of Oil,” NYT, Apr. 22, 1924, 19; Robert E. Sherwood, “Oil and Trouble,” Life,
May 22, 1924, 24; “Says Sinclair Film Has Federal Aid,” NYT, Oct. 4, 1924, 2; Arthur Edwin Krows, “Motion
Pictures—Not for Theaters,” Ed Scrn 21 (Jan. 1942): 16. HOLDINGS: NARA.
101
The World That Nature Forgot
Film celebrating America’s initiative in oil exploration and production. It dramatizes the 1859
discovery of oil in Pennsylvania that launched the American industry and illustrates the devel-
opment of drilling and pipeline construction. Using maps and charts, The World Struggle for
Oil depicts the industry’s growth over the previous 80 years and shows that American oil con-
sumption was then more than twice that of the rest of the world. A New York Times reviewer
pronounced the film “the best of its kind yet put forth.” NOTE: Distributed through the United
States Bureau of Mines. The film received attention during the Teapot Dome scandal when
the Democratic National Committee charged that Sinclair had improperly used the Bureau
of Mines to distribute corporate propaganda.
443. THE WORLD THAT NATURE FORGOT (1955, sound, 30 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Monsanto Chemical Co. PRODUCTION CO.: MPO Productions Inc. DIRECTOR: Lewis Jacobs.
PRODUCER/CAMERA: Lawrence E. Madison. WRITER: Robert Campbell. MUSIC: Benjamin Frankel. NARRATOR:
Westbrook Van Voorhis. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; Howard Thompson, “Entries in the 16mm
Film Field,” NYT, Dec. 11, 1955, 153; Mildred Weiler, “Monsanto’s 50 Films Soft-Pedal and Sell,” Industrial
Marketing 41 (Mar. 1956): 96. HOLDINGS: MacDonald.
Film exploring the role of plastics in modern life. The World That Nature Forgot uses animation
to depict plastic molecules and includes scenes showing the use of plastics in kitchens, offices,
and the “city of tomorrow.” NOTE: The sponsor made chemicals used in plastic manufacturing.
Lewis Jacobs, a Film and Photo League member in the 1930s, later compiled The Documentary
Tradition, from Nanook to Woodstock (New York: Hopkinson and Blake, 1971).
444. YANKEE DOODLE GOES TO TOWN (1938, sound, 1 reel, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Collier’s Magazine. PRODUCTION CO.: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. DIRECTOR: Jacques Tourneur. WRITERS:
Richard Goldstone, Alvan Sommerfield, Joseph Sherman. MUSIC: David Snell. EDITOR: Harry Komer. NARRATOR:
John Nesbitt. RESOURCES: Copyright LP9048 15Jun39; Nelson B. Bell, “‘Maisie’ Causes Sharp Rise in Star’s
Stock,” Wash Post, June 28, 1939, 16; “Films Sell Other Media…,” Bus Scrn 1, no. 6 (1939): 11. HOLDINGS:
Not reported.
Promotional film demonstrating the advantages of magazine advertising. The film recounts
the evolving role of advertising in America and contextualizes it as an integral (and patriotic)
component of national life. Yankee Doodle Goes to Town suggests that advertising is an engine
of recovery from economic depression. NOTE: Shown at the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair.
Also distributed in 16mm.
445. THE YANKS ARE COMING (1918, silent, length unknown, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Dayton-Wright Airplane Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Universal Film Manufacturing Co. PRODUCER: Carlyle
Ellis. CAMERA: W.W. Flanders. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; “Written on the Screen,” NYT, June 23,
1918, 36; “War Film Stopped: Hearst Influence on Creel Blamed,” NYT, June 24, 1918, 1; “Call Truce in Fight
over Suppressed Film,” NYT, June 25, 1918, 24; Arthur Edwin Krows, “Motion Pictures—Not for Theaters,”
Ed Scrn 18 (Mar. 1939): 88; Arthur Edwin Krows, “Motion Pictures—Not for Theaters,” Ed Scrn 18 (Apr. 1939):
121; AFI 1911–1920, entry F1.5134. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Feature-length production documenting the manufacture of the de Havilland DH-4, America’s
first bomber and the only American-built aircraft used by the U.S. Army Air Service in World
War I. Tracing the history of aircraft development, The Yanks Are Coming includes footage of
the plane on combat maneuvers. Orville Wright appears in the film. NOTE: Arthur Edwin
Krows reported that the film was considered “commercial propaganda” by the World War I
Committee on Public Information and its distribution halted (Ed Scrn 18, Mar. 1939).
102
The Your Name Here Story
“Films Interpret the Annual Stockholder’s Report,” Bus Scrn 3, no. 1 (1940): 11; Wesley Smith, “The
March of Finance,” LAT, Oct. 26, 1940, 13; Living Films, 56. HOLDINGS: Not reported.
Annual report to stockholders highlighting General Mills’s accomplishments of the past year.
Integrating animation, live-action footage, and narrative, The Year’s Work intercuts financial
statistics with images of consumers, General Mills workers, and farmers. NOTE: Company
chairman James F. Bell took the film to stockholder meetings in seven American cities.
447. YOU CAN TAKE IT WITH YOU (1952, sound, 27 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Trailer Coach Manufacturers Association. PRODUCTION CO.: Paragon Pictures. RESOURCES: Copy-
right not registered; “Reel Briefs,” Mod Ind 23 (Apr. 15, 1952): 150. HOLDINGS: AAFF.
Film promoting mobile homes as a workable solution to the postwar housing shortage. You Can
Take It with You argues that modern trailer coaches provide comfort and independence.
Instructional film sponsored by the manufacturer of glass jars and canning equipment to
encourage Americans to preserve their own foods and support the war effort. In the film a
home economics teacher demonstrates how to can tomatoes, green beans, and peaches and
encourages the use of the Ball Eclipse pressure cooker to ensure food safety. She reminds
viewers: “These are rough times.... I’m going to do my part to keep the nation fed well.”
NOTE: You Can, Too was issued with a home canning booklet. Macy’s in New York City
screened the film four times daily for a week.
Trade association film encouraging the use of home electrical appliances. In the narrative a
teenage girl falls for her brother’s friend, an engineering student who constantly speaks of
machines, time studies, and “the rhythm of great generators.” She finally wins his attention
with a home-cooked dinner prepared with electrical appliances. NOTE: Edison Electric Institute
represented investor-owned electric utilities. Produced in Kodachrome. Viewable online at
Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/YoungMan1952.
450. THE YOUR NAME HERE STORY (ca. 1962, sound, 10 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR/PRODUCTION CO.: Calvin Communications. PRODUCER: Frank Barhydt. RESOURCES: Copyright not
registered. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
Industrial film spoof produced at one of Calvin’s annual corporate communications work-
shops. Each year participants made a short film on the business of sponsored filmmaking.
This example pokes fun at the clichéd approach of industrial films by pretending to be a
generic presentation in which a client can insert its own name and product. Intertitles read-
ing YOUR NAME HERE or YOUR PRODUCT HERE interrupt the hackneyed scenes promoting
patriotism, the company’s research, and the role of the product in supporting the American
way of life. NOTE: At least 20 “Calvin Workshop” films, often humorous, were produced
in the 1950s and 1960s. For more about Calvin, see Ken Hufford, “Missouri Film Firm
Aids U.S. Industry,” CSM, Oct. 21, 1957, 13. Viewable online at Internet Archive,
www.archive.org/details/YourName1960.
103
Your Share in Tomorrow
452. YOUR TOWN: A STORY OF AMERICA (1940, sound, 11 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: National Association of Manufacturers. PRODUCTION CO.: Audio Productions Inc. DIRECTOR: Robert
Snody. MUSIC: Edwin E. Ludig. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; “NAM Favors Defense, Free Enterprise,”
CSM, May 18, 1940, 15; EFC (1940–41), 136–37; Selling, 40–41. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger, UCLA.
Economic education film commissioned by the industrial association. In the story a teenager
passing by an anticapitalist demonstration at his hometown factory is stopped by a policeman
and taken home to safety. The teen’s grandfather then lectures him about the factory and what
it means to their town. The message is that the townsfolk have an important stake in the fac-
tory’s success and that workers and manufacturers should cooperate. NOTE: Also distributed
in 16mm. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/YourTown1940.
104
APPENDIX 1: WORKS FREQUENTLY CITED
AFI 1893–1910 Savada, Eli, comp. The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion
Pictures Produced in the United States: Film Beginnings, 1893–1910.
Metuchen, NJ, and London: Scarecrow Press, 1995.
AFI 1911–1920 Hanson, Patricia, and Alan Gevinson, eds. The American Film Institute
Catalog of Motion Picture Films Produced in the United States: Feature
Films, 1911–1920. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988.
Before Video Slide, Anthony. Before Video: A History of the Non-Theatrical Film.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992.
Behind the Mask Brownlow, Kevin. Behind the Mask of Innocence: Sex, Violence, Crime;
Films of Conscience in the Silent Era. Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press, 1992.
“Better Living” Bird, William L., Jr. “Better Living”: Advertising, Media, and the New
Vocabulary of Business Leadership, 1935–1955. Evanston, IL: North-
western University Press, 1999.
Corporate Soul Marchand, Roland. Creating the Corporate Soul: The Rise of Public
Relations and Corporate Imagery in American Big Business. Berkeley,
CA: University of California Press, 1998.
CT Chicago Tribune.
EFC Cook, Dorothy E., and Eva Rahbek-Smith, comps. Educational Film
Catalog. 5 vols. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1936–43.
EFG Educational Film Guide. 10 vols. New York: H.W. Wilson Co.,
1945–62.
105
Works Frequently Cited
Ideas Starr, Cecile, ed. Ideas on Film. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1951.
Lovers Jan-Christopher Horak, ed. Lovers of Cinema: The First American Film
Avant-Garde, 1919–1945. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press,
1995.
Mental Hygiene Smith, Ken. Mental Hygiene: Classroom Films, 1945–1970. New York:
Blast Books, 1999.
More Treasures Simmon, Scott, and Martin Marks. Program Notes. In National Film
Preservation Foundation, More Treasures from American Film Archives:
1894–1931. 3-DVD set. San Francisco: National Film Preservation
Foundation, 2004.
Negro Year Guzman, Jessie Parkhurst, ed. Negro Year Book: A Review of Events
Affecting Negro Life, 1941–1946. Tuskegee, AL: Department of Records
and Research, Tuskegee Institute, 1947.
1954 Catalog Center for Mass Communication. 1954 Sales and Rental Catalog.
New York: Center for Mass Communication, Columbia University
Press, 1954.
106
Sources of Copyright Data
Secret Century Prelinger, Rick. Our Secret Century: Archival Films from the Darker Side
of the American Dream. 10-vol. CD-ROM. New York: Voyager Co.,
1995–97.
Sex Ed Eberwein, Robert. Sex Ed: Film, Video, and the Framework of Desire.
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1999.
Treasures Simmon, Scott, and Martin Marks. Program Notes. In National Film
Preservation Foundation, Treasures from American Film Archives: 50
Preserved Films. 4-DVD set. San Francisco: National Film Preservation
Foundation, 2000.
Unseen Cinema Posner, Bruce, ed. Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film,
1893–1941; A Retrospective of Restored and Preserved Films Detailing
the Unknown Accomplishments of American Pioneer Filmmakers. New
York: Black Thistle Press and Anthology Film Archives, 2001.
Working-Class Ross, Steven J. Working-Class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping
of Class in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998.
Walls, Howard Lamarr. Motion Pictures, 1894–1912: Identified from the Records of the
United States Copyright Office. Washington, DC: Copyright Office, Library of
Congress, 1953.
107
APPENDIX 3: REPOSITORIES CITED
Shown in bold are the repository names as they appear in the entries. Holdings data were
either contributed by the repository or taken from a secondary source, such as a published
catalog or scholarly monograph. Data derived from secondary sources are noted below.
Most of the organizations provide some level of public access to their collections. Appoint-
ments are generally required for on-site research.
AAFF GMMA
American Archive of Factual Film General Motors Media Archives
Currently unavailable to the public 2479 Elliott Ave.
Troy, MI 48083
AFANA www.media.gm.com
Academic Film Archive of North America Data drawn from published list
245 S. 15th St.
San Jose, CA 95112 Iowa State
www.afana.org Iowa State University
Data drawn from repository’s online catalog Special Collections Department
403 Parks Library
AV Geeks Ames, IA 50011
AV Geeks (stock footage house) www.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/index.html
714 Tyler Rd.
Raleigh, NC 27604 LC
www.avgeeks.com Library of Congress
Motion Picture, Broadcasting,
Bessemer and Recorded Sound Division
Bessemer Historical Society Washington, DC 20540
1612 E. Abriendo Ave. www.loc.gov
Pueblo, CO 81004
www.cfisteel.org LC/Prelinger
Library of Congress
ETSU Motion Picture, Broadcasting,
East Tennessee State University and Recorded Sound Division
Archives of Appalachia Prelinger Collection
P.O. Box 70295 Washington, DC 20540
Johnson City, TN 37614 www.loc.gov
www.etsu.edu/cass/Archives
MacDonald
GEH MacDonald and Associates
George Eastman House (stock footage house)
Department of Film 5660 N. Jersey Ave.
900 East Ave. Chicago, IL 60659
Rochester, NY 14607 www.macfilms.com
www.eastman.org
Mariners
Getty Images Mariners’ Museum
Getty Images (stock footage house) Research Library and Archives
75 Varick St., 5th Fl. 100 Museum Dr.
New York, NY 10013 Newport News, VA 23606
www.gettyimages.com www.mariner.org
Data drawn from secondary sources Data drawn from secondary sources
108
Repositories Cited
Maryland NYPL
Maryland Historical Society New York Public Library
201 W. Monument St. Donnell Media Center
Baltimore, MD 21201 20 W. 53rd St.
www.mdhs.org New York, NY 10019
Data drawn from secondary sources www.nypl.org/branch/central/dlc/dmc
Data drawn from secondary sources
MoMA
Museum of Modern Art NYU
Department of Film and Media New York University
11 W. 53rd St. Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
New York, NY 10019 Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
www.moma.org 70 Washington Sq. South
Data drawn from secondary sources New York, NY 10012
www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam
NARA Data drawn from secondary sources
National Archives
Special Media Archives Services Orgone
8601 Adelphi Rd. Orgone Archives (private collection)
College Park, MD 20740 3312 Ward St.
www.archives.gov Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Data drawn from repository’s online catalog
Penn
Nature Pennsylvania State Archives
Nature Society 350 North St.
P.O. Box 390 Harrisburg, PA 17120
Griggsville, IL 62340 www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam
www.naturesociety.org
PFA
Nebraska Pacific Film Archive/Berkeley Art Museum
Nebraska State Historical Society University of California
1500 R St. 2621 Durant Ave.
P.O. Box 82554 Berkeley, CA 94720
Lincoln, NE 68501 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/pfa_library
www.nebraskahistory.org Data drawn from secondary sources
NHF Pittsburgh
Northeast Historic Film Pittsburgh Filmmakers
85 Main St. 477 Melwood Ave.
P.O. Box 900 Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bucksport, ME 04416 www.pghfilmmakers.org
www.oldfilm.org
Prelinger
NLM Prelinger Collection (private collection)
National Library of Medicine P.O. Box 590622
History of Medicine Division San Francisco, CA 94159
8600 Rockville Pike www.prelinger.com
Bldg. 38, Rm. 1E-21
Bethesda, MD 20894 Rockefeller
www.nlm.nih.gov Rockefeller Archive Center
Data drawn from repository’s online catalog 15 Dayton Ave.
Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591
archive.rockefeller.edu
Data drawn from published catalog
109
Repositories Cited
Sabucat UCLA
Sabucat Productions (stock footage house) UCLA Film and Television Archive
P.O. Box 902875 302 East Melnitz Hall
Palmdale, CA 93590 Box 951323
www.sabucat.com Los Angeles, CA 90095
www.cinema.ucla.edu
Secret Cinema
Secret Cinema (private collection) UGA
1724 Loney St. University of Georgia
Philadelphia, PA 19111 Media Archives
www.thesecretcinema.com Main Library
325 S. Jackson St., 7th Fl.
Sierra Athens, GA 30602
Sierra Club www.libs.uga.edu/media
85 Second St., 2nd Fl.
San Francisco, CA 94105 UKansas
www.sierraclub.org University of Kansas
Data drawn from repository’s Web site Kenneth Spencer Research Library
1450 Poplar Ln.
SI/NASM Lawrence, KS 66045
Smithsonian Institution spencer.lib.ku.edu
National Air and Space Museum Data drawn from secondary sources
Archives Division
Rm. 3100, MRC 322 USC
P.O. Box 37012 University of Southern California
Washington, DC 20013 Moving Image Archive
www.nasm.si.edu/research/arch/collections/- University Park
filmarchives.cfm Los Angeles, CA 90089
cinema-tv.usc.edu/archives
SI/NMAH
Smithsonian Institution Wallowa
National Museum of American History Wallowa County Museum
Archives Center MRC 601 P.O. Box 430
P.O. Box 37012 Joseph, OR 97846
Washington, DC 20013 www.co.wallowa.or.us/museum/
americanhistory.si.edu/archives/home.htm Data drawn from secondary sources
Swarthmore Weyerhaeuser
Swarthmore College Weyerhaeuser Company Archives
Peace Collection Library and Information Resources
500 College Ave. NP-190, P.O. Box 9777
Swarthmore, PA 19081 Federal Way, WA 98063
www.swarthmore.edu/Library/peace
Data drawn from secondary sources
110
APPENDIX 4: FILMS BY DATE
1897 Admiral Cigarette, 4 1919 The End of the Road, 126
[Columbia Bicycles Advertising Film], 89 Heads Win, 176
Hotel Del Monte, 188 Wohelo, 438
1901 [Stockyards Series], 367 1920s The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 88
Tribune-American Dream Picture, 406
1903 [National Cash Register Films], 280
1920 Gift of Life, 161
1904 Westinghouse Works, 430 Journeys Through the Valley, 216
The Making of an American, 249
1910 The Man Who Learned, 253 Slidertown, 360
The Stenographer’s Friend: Striking Tires, 371
or, What Was Accomplished Unhooking the Hookworm, 418
by an Edison Business Phonograph, 364
1921 From Trees to Tribunes, 157
1911 The Awakening of John Bond, 36 A Movie Trip Through Filmland, 275
Boil Your Water, 54
A Martyr to His Cause, 258 1923 Ask Daddy, 30
The Romance of the Reaper, 342 The Wizardry of Wireless, 437
Working for Dear Life, 440
1912 Back to the Old Farm, 38 The World Struggle for Oil, 442
Children Who Labor, 76
The Crime of Carelessness, 99 1924 It Works, 211
Hope, a Red Cross Seal Story, 187
The Public and Private Care of Infants, 1925 The Hungry Dragon, 193
329 In the Wake of the Storm, 200
The Usurer’s Grip, 422 Labor’s Reward, 218
1913 An American in the Making, 16 1926 The Passaic Textile Strike, 310
The Payroll Dollar, 311
1914 The Reward of Thrift, 337
1927 General Motors around the World, 160
1914–16 Ford Animated Weekly, 146 Now You’re Talking, 291
1916–21 Ford Educational Weekly, 147 1930 The Art of Ship Building in 1930, 28
The Eyes of Science, 130
1917 The Benefactor, 47 A Jolt for General Germ, 215
The Romance of Irrigation, 341
The Troubles of a Merchant and 1931 The Forgotten Frontier, 149
How to Stop Them, 408 In My Merry Oldsmobile, 196
A Modern Knight, 271
1918 The Golden Eaglet, 165 Not One to Spare, 290
Increasing Farm Efficiency, U.S.S. Akron, 421
or Delco Farm Lighting, 201
The Yanks Are Coming, 445
111
Films by Date
1932 The Goodall Summertime: The Story Highlights and Shadows, 182
of Warm Weather Profits, 168 Jerry Pulls the Strings, 213
Man Against Microbe, 250 Let My People Live, 225
New Forests for Old, 285 Round and Round, 343
Steel: Man’s Servant, 363
1933 Conquest of Diphtheria, 93 Trees and Men, 405
Golden Years of Progress, 167 Yankee Doodle Goes to Town, 444
112
Films by Date
1941 The Co-ops Are Comin’, 96 1947 Behind Your Radio Dial, 46
Hampton Institute Presents Its Program Brotherhood of Man, 65
of Education for Life, 174 Candy and Nutrition, 70
Listen: It’s FM, 230 Crossroads for America, 100
The Machine: Master or Slave?, 241 Death to Weeds, 111
Managing the Family Income, 254 Florida: Wealth or Waste?, 141
A Place to Live, 319 Just Imagine, 217
Saint Paul Police Detectives and Their Work: Looking Ahead Through
A Color Chartoon, 344 Rohm & Haas Plexiglas, 237
This Amazing America, 384 Party Lines, 309
Unfinished Rainbows, 416 Pueblo Boy, 330
United We Are Invincible, 420 Seed for Tomorrow, 352
Table Manners, 376
1942 A Child Went Forth, 74
Close Harmony, 81 1948 Democracy’s Diary, 113
Command Performance, 90 Enterprise, 127
A Great Railroad at Work, 171 Feeling All Right, 136
New York Calling, 287 Food Freezing in Tennessee, 142
To Market, to Market, 398 The Great Swindle, 172
A Letter from America, 227
1943 As the Twig Is Bent, 29 Letter to a Rebel, 228
Sightseeing at Home, 356 Los Angeles: “City of Destiny,” 238
Teen Togs, 380 Louisiana Story, 239
To Each Other, 396 Make Mine Freedom, 246
Turn of the Tide, 410 The New California, 284
You Can, Too, 448 The Things People Want, 383
Unfinished Business, 415
1944 The Bridge, 62 Wings to Cuba and the Caribbean, 435
Hidden Harvest, 180
1949 Adventure in Telezonia, 5
1945 Clean Waters, 80 An Equal Chance, 128
The Dawn of Better Living, 105 For Some Must Watch, 145
The House I Live In, 189 For the Living, 143
The March of Progress, 257 Industry’s Disinherited, 204
Not by Books Alone, 289 Meet King Joe, 260
The Open Door: The Story of Foreman Mobile Telephones, 270
Jim Baxter, His Family, and His Job, 299 Palmour Street, 308
Original Films of Frank B. Gilbreth, 305 The Price of Freedom, 327
17 Days: The Story of Newspaper History Seminoles of the Everglades, 353
in the Making, 354 Stepping Along with Television, 365
Technicolor for Industrial Films, 379
1946 America Sails the Seas, 12
The Color of a Man, 86 1950s Industry on Parade, 203
Deadline for Action, 110 Trisonic Design, 407
The Doctor in Industry: The Story
of Kenneth W. Randall, M.D., 118 1950 Activity Group Therapy, 3
For the Record, 144 Albert in Blunderland, 10
Long Distance, 234 The American Cowboy, 13
Mainline U.S.A., 245 And Then There Were Four, 24
An Old Chinese Proverb: One Picture Is Angry Boy, 26
Worth 10,000 Words, 292 Breast Self-Examination, 61
One World or None, 297 Fallen Eagle, 132
The Story of Menstruation, 369 Give Us This Day, 162
Time Is Life, 392 In Our Hands, 197
Today’s News, Tomorrow’s Men, 401 Last Date, 223
The Magic Key, 244
113
Films by Date
114
Films by Date
115
INDEX OF SUBJECTS, PLACES, AND ORGANIZATIONS
This index covers all sponsors and production companies cited in the credits section of the
film entries. Corporate names based on a personal name are listed surname first. For exam-
ple, the productions by Saul Bass & Associates are grouped under “Bass (Saul) & Associates.”
Most films are also indexed by the industrial or business sector of the sponsor as well as by
the subject matter or theme. In addition, some titles are indexed by film type. The general
heading “industries” brings together most of the manufacturing and business areas repre-
sented in The Field Guide. Thus, users are directed to the entry for On the Firing Line (entry
293) by the heading “industries—railroad” as well as by such other headings as “African
Americans—health issues”; “public health”; “railroads”; “travelogues—1930s”; and “tuber-
culosis.” Numbers refer to the entry numbers.
Cities and towns are included when they figure prominently in the film. Such localities are
grouped under the state name. Case studies of civil engineering projects, hospitals, parks, or
schools are listed directly under the name of the entity being profiled. Films known to have
been shown at World’s Fairs are brought together under the heading “World’s Fairs” and
subdivided by the date and city of the exposition. Some alternate titles are also indexed.
For key word access, the reader can search the PDF file of The Field Guide available online
at the National Film Preservation Foundation Web site, www.filmpreservation.org.
116
Index of Subjects, Places, and Organizations
American Iron and Steel Institute, 362 art, 6, 27, 332, 373
American Lead Pencil Co., 441 Associated Exposition Designers, 315
American League of Professional Baseball Assn. of American Medical Colleges, 11
Clubs, 175 Assn. of American Railroads, 245
American Meat Institute, 386 Assn. of National Advertisers, 167
American Missionary Assn., 86 astronomy, 306, 325
American Mutoscope & Biograph Co., 280, AT&T. See American Telephone &
430 Telegraph Co.
American Oil Corp. (AMOCO), 264 Atlas Educational Film Co., 448
American Petroleum Institute Atlas Film Corp., 139
Agriculture Comm., 134 atomic power. See nuclear power
Oil Industry Information Comm., 14, Audio Cinema, 250
116, 411 Audio Productions, 61, 148, 159, 167, 226,
American Red Cross, 187, 378 240, 263, 267, 279, 296, 339, 350, 375,
American Security Council Foundation, 34 452
American Social Hygiene Assn., 126, 161 Automatic Voting Machine Co., 44
American Society for the Prevention of automobile companies
Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), 107 animated advertisements, 72, 83, 119,
American Society of Industrial Designers, 196, 199
17 design, manufacturing, and operations,
American Telephone & Telegraph Co. (AT&T), 17, 114, 118, 148, 154, 160, 199,
5, 73, 95, 178, 202, 217, 234, 279, 291, 259, 339, 375, 383
295, 302, 306, 309, 350, 365 driver education and highway advocacy,
American Theatre, 406 18, 152, 163, 402, 427
American Transit Assn., 312 economic perspective of, 15, 154, 343
Americanization, 16, 227, 249 future, vision of, 114, 224, 294, 399
And a Voice Shall Be Heard, 425 isolationism, 219
Animal Checkers, 180 news and travelogue sponsorship, 146,
animated films 147, 183, 330, 431
pre-1930, 133, 138, 146, 161, 193, 275, relations with labor, 154, 299, 418
291, 371 truck and heavy equipment, 333, 357
1930s, 58, 83, 119, 191, 196, 199, 215, war mobilization, 81
266, 277, 296, 315, 316, 339, 343, 427 Automobile Manufacturers Assn., Motor Truck
1940s, 60, 65, 72, 105, 169, 217, 246, Comm., 357
260, 261, 344, 369, 375, 446 automobile racing, 206, 264
1950s, 1, 10, 40, 116, 178, 192, 205, 212, aviation, 159, 235, 397, 407, 421, 428, 445
231, 233, 273, 303, 306, 340, 443 See also airlines; airports
1960s, 362
See also puppets
annual report (on film), 49, 216, 446 Babcock & Wilcox Co., 56
antibiotics, 229 Baden Street Settlement, 281
anticommunism, 20, 34, 35, 50, 92, 100, Bakelite Co., 140
231, 300, 327, 361 Ball Brothers Co., 448
Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, 181, Baltimore Redevelopment Commission, 39
189 bananas, 40, 231
Anti-Narcotic League of America, 374 Bank of America, 284
Apex Film Corp., 327 banking, securities, and financial services, 9,
Appalachia, 22, 75, 149, 313, 424 254, 284, 337, 422, 451
apparel industry, 127, 168, 207, 338, 436 baseball, 41, 175
Architectural Forum, 282 Bass (Saul) & Associates, 155, 349, 434
architecture, 17, 282, 283 Bausch and Lomb Optical Co., 130
Arizona, Phoenix, 402 Bay State Film Productions, 32
Armour & Co., 79, 367 Bell & Howell Co., 191
Arrow shirts, 127 Bethlehem Steel Co., 359
117
Index of Subjects, Places, and Organizations
118
Index of Subjects, Places, and Organizations
colleges and universities, 27, 64, 92, 115, 173, Detroit Philharmonic Orchestra, 259
174, 185, 380 Detroit Police Dept., 388
Collier’s, 444 Dial soap, 79
Colorado, 13 Dialfilms, 106
Mesa County, 87 dictation equipment, 364
Pueblo, 88 diesel engines, 301
Colorado Fuel and Iron Co., 88 Dinosaur National Monument, 412
Colorado State Dept. of Public Health, 87 diphtheria, 93, 250
Columbia Bicycles, 89 dirigibles, 421
Columbia Broadcasting System, 274 disaster relief, 200
Columbia Foundation, 181 Disney (Walt) Productions, 105, 192, 266,
communications, workplace, 124, 328 362, 369
computers and computing, 202, 205, 273, Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line,
288, 325. See also factory automation 350
confection and nut industry, 70, 277, 368 doctors, 93, 118, 169, 304, 336, 413
Congregational Christian Churches, 86 Documentary Film Productions, 62, 75, 319,
Conn (C.G.) Ltd., 276 423, 446
Connecticut (State of ) Dept. of Dodge. See Chrysler Corp—Dodge Div.
Americanization, 249 Dow Chemical Co., 48, 111, 184
Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Co., 32 Dowling and Brownell, 56, 405
Conoco, 397 drug abuse, 374
conservation, 141, 179, 236, 251, 285, 331, Dudley Pictures Corp., 59, 109, 245
335, 346, 412 DuPont (E.I.) deNemours & Co., 212
Consolidated Edison Co. of New York, 123 Dying Frontier, The, 424
construction industry, 56, 333, 355, 359 Dynamic Films, 183, 243
consumer behavior, 195, 209, 303, 351
cookies, 266
Cooperative League of the United States of Eames Studio, 205, 325
America, 96, 410 East Harlem Health Center, 211
co-operatives, 96, 173, 210, 410, 422 Eastin 16mm Pictures, 121
corn, 269 Eastman Kodak Co., 182, 275, 349
Cornell Films Co., 378 Eastman School of Music Symphony
Coronet Pictures, 417 Orchestra, 182
correspondence schools, 176 Echo Park Dam, 412
Cotton Producers Assn., 338 economic education films, 10, 15, 50, 116,
Council of California Growers, 433 154, 172, 197, 212, 244, 246, 260, 263,
Courier Productions, 293 337, 343, 357, 411, 422, 451, 452
cowboys, 13 economic redevelopment, 120, 127, 317, 318.
Craftsman Motion Picture Co., 255 See also urban renewal
creativity, 6, 74, 332, 434 Edison Electric Institute, 98, 449
crime, 29, 271, 344, 374. See also juvenile Edison General Electric Appliance Co., 53
delinquency Edison (Thomas A.) Inc., 4, 36, 76, 99, 187,
Cummins Engine Co., 301 188, 248, 253, 329, 364, 422
Curtis Publishing Co., 256 education
customer service, 117, 234 adult and vocational, 16, 67, 173, 313
at summer camps, 68, 74, 438
economic improvement through, 16, 22,
Davis (Sid) Productions, 206 67, 75, 176, 249
Dayton-Wright Airplane Co., 445 higher, 27, 115, 173, 174, 185
DeFrenes Studios, 169 in the South, 67, 75, 298, 313, 372
Delco, 201 K–12, 78, 101, 332, 347, 361, 402
Democratic National Comm., 442 See also colleges and universities
Depression, Great, 290 Educational Films Assn., 377
business response to, 159, 226, 343, 444 electric lighting, 47, 105, 201
119
Index of Subjects, Places, and Organizations
120
Index of Subjects, Places, and Organizations
121
Index of Subjects, Places, and Organizations
122
Index of Subjects, Places, and Organizations
123
Index of Subjects, Places, and Organizations
124
Index of Subjects, Places, and Organizations
North American Air Defense Command peace movement, 221, 297, 426
(NORAD), 350 criticism of, 92
North American Aviation, 407 peanuts, 277
North Carolina, 424 Pennsylvania
North Carolina Film Board, 424 Levittown, 286, 333
North Dakota, 14 New Castle, 423
Norwood Studios, 19 Philadelphia, 317, 319
nuclear power, 1, 32, 33 Pittsburgh, 152, 318
nuclear weapons, 190, 297, 378 Pennsylvania Railroad, 390
nursing, 106, 149 Pennsylvania (State of ) Dept. of Forests and
nutrition, 70, 386 Waters, 285
personal care products, 58, 272, 369
Personal Products Corp., 272
Oakland Tribune, 406 petroleum companies
obesity, 304 campaign against litter, 179
office equipment, 17, 364 economic perspective of, 116, 316, 411
Ohio exploration and production, 14, 239, 348,
Cincinnati, 387 442
Columbus, 209 IMAX sponsorship, 397
Dayton, 280, 360 safety film sponsorship, 24, 134
Ohio State Highway Patrol, 432 travelogue sponsorship, 238, 264, 268
oil. See petroleum industry Petroleum Industry Exhibition, 316
Oklahoma, 262 Pfizer (Charles) & Co., 229, 336
Norman, 265 P.G.L. Productions, 264
Oklahoma State Dept. of Health, 135, 265 pharmaceutical industry, 58, 229, 304, 336, 414
Mental Hygiene Div., 394, 413 Philadelphia Commercial Museum, 317
Oklahoma State Dept. of Mental Health, Philadelphia Housing Assn., 319
265 Philco-Ford Corp., 288
Olds Motor Works, 196 Photo & Sound Productions, 272
On Film, 85, 198, 318, 336 photographic and optical equipment industry,
Oregon, 162 69, 130, 182, 275, 349
Enterprise, 66 photography
Portland, 278 micro-, 54, 229
Oregon Wheat Growers League, 162 time-lapse, 111, 162, 393
Oreo cookies, 266 Pittsburgh Bicentennial Assn., 318
Orleans (Sam) and Associates, 142, 401 Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, 318, 340
Osborne (Agnes) Fund, 322 Planters Nut and Chocolate Co., 277
Ott (John) Pictures, 393 plastics, 140, 237, 409, 443
playgrounds, 320
Plexiglas, 237
PacifiCorp, 214 Plymouth. See Chrysler Corp.—Plymouth Div.
paint, 190 polio, 414
“Palm Beach Suits,” 168 pollution, 80, 318
Palmer Pictures, 12 pornography, 64, 314
Pan American World Airways, 117, 358, 435 Port of New York Authority, 94
Panama-Pacific Steamship Co., 307 Portland (City of ), 278
paper industry, 124, 328 Post (Emily) Institute, 376
Paragon Pictures, 447 pregnancy and childbirth, 11, 51, 149
parent-teacher associations, 101, 361 price controls, 172
Passaic Strike Relief Comm., 310 probation system, 57
pasteurization, 253 Progressive Education Assn., 347
Pathé Frères, 54, 320 Promotional Films Co., 436
Pathéscope Productions, 107, 208 prunes, 315
Peabody Awards, 203 psychiatry. See mental health
125
Index of Subjects, Places, and Organizations
126
Index of Subjects, Places, and Organizations
127
Index of Subjects, Places, and Organizations
128
Index of Subjects, Places, and Organizations
Westinghouse Electric Corp., 105, 125, 267, Workers’ Children’s Camp Assn., 68
430 World War I, home front, 126, 445
Westinghouse Elevator Co., 359 World War II, home front, 29, 74, 81, 171,
Weyerhaeuser Timber Co., 405 380, 396, 448
wheat, 162 World’s Fairs
Wheaties cereal, 41 1904 St. Louis, 430
White Alice Communications System, 220 1915 San Francisco, 248
Whitney Museum of American Art, 373 1933–34 Chicago, 167, 339
Wilding Picture Productions, 50, 53, 124, 1939–40 New York, 77, 129, 199, 213,
197, 219, 223, 227, 261, 268, 328, 356, 224, 225, 255, 266, 267, 277, 294,
357, 384, 416, 431, 433 316, 375, 382, 399, 444
Willard Pictures, 57, 70 1939–40 San Francisco, 43, 266, 277,
Winter Garden Freeze Co., 142 315, 390
Wohelo Camp, 438 1958 Brussels, 137, 205
Wolff (Raphael G.) Studios, 80, 150, 244, 1962 Seattle, 73
321, 324, 386 1964 New York, 155, 349, 395, 400
women 1967 Montreal, 395
as workers, 2, 11, 106, 158, 218, 234,
279, 302, 329, 364, 436
films for, 32, 48, 61, 71, 79, 105, 126, York Air Conditioning, 359
165, 185, 254, 272, 369, 380, 448 Yosemite National Park, 412
See also gender roles; women’s health youth culture, 7, 84, 276, 302
Women’s City Club of New York, 320 criticism of, 64, 92
women’s health, 11, 51, 61, 126, 272, 369
Wondsel, Carlisle & Dunphy, 222
Worcester Film Corp., 249 Zeiss (Carl) Inc., 69
129
INDEX OF PERSONAL NAMES
This index covers all individuals cited in the credits section of the film entries. The founders
of production companies are not listed unless they receive a personal credit. Thus, films in
which John Sutherland is a credited writer are indexed below. Motion pictures made by his
company, John Sutherland Productions, are included in the Index of Subjects, Places, and
Organizations. Numbers refer to entry numbers.
130
Index of Personal Names
131
Index of Personal Names
132
Index of Personal Names
133
Index of Personal Names
134
Index of Personal Names
135
Index of Personal Names
136
Index of Personal Names
137
Index of Personal Names
138
Index of Personal Names
139
ABOUT THE NATIONAL FILM PRESERVATION FOUNDATION
The National Film Preservation Foundation (www.filmpreservation.org) is the independent,
nonprofit organization created by the U.S. Congress to help save America’s film heritage.
Growing from a national planning effort led by the Library of Congress, the NFPF began
operations in 1997, thanks to contributions from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences, The Film Foundation, and others in the entertainment community. We work
directly with archives to rescue endangered films that will not survive without public
support.
The NFPF raises money, awards grants, and organizes cooperative projects that enable
archives, libraries, museums, historical societies, and universities to work together to save
American films not preserved by commercial interests. Since opening our doors, we have
helped preserve more than 950 films and collections and assisted archives in 38 states, the
District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Among recent publications are the award-winning
DVD set More Treasures from American Film Archives, 1894–1931 (2004) and The Film
Preservation Guide: The Basics for Archives, Libraries, and Museums (2004).
The NFPF is a public charity incorporated in the District of Columbia and affiliated with
the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress. We depend entirely on
private contributions to support operations.
Board of Directors
Roger L. Mayer, Chairman
Charles Benton
Laurence Fishburne
Leonard Maltin
Scott M. Martin
Cecilia deMille Presley
John Ptak
Robert G. Rehme
Eric J. Schwartz
Martin Scorsese
The Honorable Fred Thompson
Paula Wagner
Dr. James H. Billington, The Librarian of Congress (ex officio)
Staff
Annette Melville, Executive Director
Jeff Lambert, Assistant Director
David Wells, Programs Manager
Rebecca Payne Collins, Office Manager
140