Tag Archives: Internet Archive

Instructional, Safety

One Got Fat (1963)

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Institution: Internet Archive
Collection: Prelinger Archives

Running time: 15m 00s
Source film:  16mm; color; sound
Year: 1963
Director: Dale Jennings
Production: Interlude Films
Writer: Dale Jennings
Photography/Camera: Max Hutto
Art Director: Ralph Hulett
Narration: Edward Everett Horton

From late childhood through my early adolescence, my summers were marked by weeknight (BMX) bicycle rides with my best friend, Jim, that either extended to sundown or, more often, derailed and morphed into a Contra III gaming marathon in his living room. In lieu of sidewalks, our neighborhood streets had uneven white lines to demarcate the pedestrian walking space from the roadway, not that it would have mattered — we were too engrossed in conversation to observe the rules of the road and our neighborhood wasn’t a high-traffic area. We instead relied on a simple alert system for that rare approaching vehicle, and we otherwise kept to ourselves. There were no parental lectures about tune-ups, nary a hand signal, and I can count on one hand the number of times I wore a helmet. Continue reading One Got Fat (1963) →

Documentary, Educational

Teddy (1971)

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Institution: Internet Archive
Collection: Prelinger Archives

Running time: 16m 16s
Source film:  16mm; color; sound
Year: 1971
Director: Richard Wells
Production: Gary Schlosser; Peter Schniztler; University of California, Los Angeles – Extension Media Center;  National Institute of Mental Health
Photography/Camera: Robert Grant
Editor: Andrew Stein

The Social Seminar was a program sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and developed by the National Institute of Mental Health in the early 1970s that sought to provide a learning environment in which participants identified and established values and improved communication skills while participating in structured activities. From a cursory review of the resource manual provided to seminar facilitators (see: Related), it appears that much of the program was oriented around one of 19 short documentary films that were used as learning tools. They depicted all sorts of lives, from the acid-dropping California hippie to the television news reporter. At least six of the films were executive produced by Oscar-nominated short subject documentary filmmaker Gary Schlosser, so they had competent editing and camera-work that provided a coherent portrait of each film’s subject. Despite the program’s central aim of the prevention of drug abuse, not all of the films were strictly about drug consumption. 1971’s Teddy was one such film, focusing on a high school student in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Continue reading Teddy (1971) →

Educational, Health

Naturally, A Girl (1973)

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Institution: Internet Archive
Collection: Prelinger Archives

Running time: 13m 18s
Source film:  color; sound
Year: 1973
Production: Cinemakers, Inc; Johnson & Johnson

If you were a Texas kid growing up in the 1990s, approaching sexual maturity probably meant having music class canceled so that you and twenty other 4th graders could sit cross-legged on the floor to enjoy a bewildering puberty education video featuring a woman pouring pancake batter in the shape of a uterus. Although I cannot now recall vividly if that video was otherwise helpful, Naturally, A Girl – an informational short produced almost two decades earlier – feels like a more straightforward and progressive alternative that circumvents the confusing co-mingling of reproductive organs and breakfast foods.

Continue reading Naturally, A Girl (1973) →

Industrial, Occupational, Safety

Shake Hands with Danger (1980)

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Institution: Internet Archive
Collection: Prelinger Archives

Running time: 23m 8s
Source film:  16mm; color; sound
Year: 1980
Director: Herk Harvey
Production: Centron Corporation; Arthur H. Wolf; Russell A. Mosser
Writer: John Clifford
Cinematography: Bob Rose
Narrator: Charles Oldfather
Editor: Chuck Lacey

While I can’t say with 100% certainty that we won’t stumble upon another safety film that features chest wounds, a man on fire, or a titular country song, chances are that 1980’s Shake Hands with Danger is the only one containing all three. Helmed by Carnival of Souls director Herk Harvey and sponsored by Caterpillar Tractor Company, this film is among the more prolific safety films ever produced (it was even given the Rifftrax treatment).

Continue reading Shake Hands with Danger (1980) →

Industrial, Promotional

The Wonderful World of Tupperware (1959)

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Institution: Internet Archive
Collection: Prelinger Archives

Running time: 28m54s
Source film: 35mm; color; sound
Year: 1959 / ca. 1964
Director: George Yarbrough
Narrator: Russ Blair
Production: United Film Productions (Orlando, Florida)
Writers: Patrick E. Tahaney, Harry Whittington, George Yarbrough
Camera: Russ Blair

We’re fast-approaching the season of stuffed birds, holiday hams, and mountains of mashed root vegetables. Shortly thereafter comes the season of leftovers of every shape, species, and viscosity. The modern food preservation movement and virtually every brand of food storage container on the market can be traced back to Tupperware. As the plastics industry exploded following World War II, Tupperware rose from humble origins in Leominster, Massachusetts to dominate the home product market through an in-home “party” sales method.

Continue reading The Wonderful World of Tupperware (1959) →