7 More Movies Join the Online Field Guide to Sponsored Films
We’re happy to announce seven recent additions to the Online Field Guide to Sponsored Films, the free screening room featuring movies from The Field Guide to Sponsored Films, written by Rick Prelinger and published by the NFPF in 2006. All seven additions are derived from HD scans created by the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center of the Library of Congress.
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A wedding is one of the many joys of everyday existence celebrated on three screens in To Be Alive! (1964).
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These films in were produced for a richly varied set of reasons. Some titles were commissioned by charities highlighting their good works, as with On the Firing Line (1936). Sponsored by the National Tuberculosis Association, this public health travelogue highlights cross-country locations that have played a part in the struggle against tuberculosis and discusses modern treatment methods.
Other sponsored films were bankrolled by commercial organizations seeking to influence the behavior of employees or the greater public. The Open Door: The Story of Foreman Jim Baxter, His Family, and His Job (1945), produced by Jam Handy for the Public Relations Staff of General Motors, is a management training film commissioned to dissuade GM’s factory foremen from unionization; it shows a machinist trying to decide whether to cast his lot with management or workers. The David Hall Story (1963), was sponsored by an insurance company, Employers Mutual of Wausau, and intended to be cautionary tale for teenage drivers. It documents and reconstructs the 1955 automobile accident that crippled David Hall, named “Handicapped American of the Year” by President Kennedy in 1963. Hall appears onscreen and narrates his story of his treatment and rehabilitation.
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The cutting-edge of computer graphics, as demonstrated in Incredible Machine (1968).
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Sponsored films were also made to influence public opinion. This Is Your Police Department (1951) was made by Jam Handy as a public relations exercise for the Field Day Committee of the Detroit Police Dept. The first half shows the police demonstrating their skills at the annual Detroit Police Field Day, while the second shows cadet training and officers on the beat. Frontiers of the Future: A Screen Editorial with Lowell Thomas (1937) was sponsored by the National Industrial Council, comprised of representatives of state manufacturers associations, and enlists the famous broadcaster to improve the public image of industry during the Great Depression, by having him predict economic revitalization through future industrial research.
And of course, sponsored films promoted corporations. Incredible Machine (1968), funded by AT&T, promotes cutting-edge communications technology developed at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, including computer graphics, computer-synthesized speech, and computer-generated movies and music. To Be Alive! (1964), sponsored by the home cleaning products manufacturer S.C. Johnson & Son, was produced by Francis Thompson Productions and screened at the 1964–65 New York World’s Fair. Directors Francis Thompson and Alexander Hammid shot the film, which eschews product placement and celebrates the wonders of everyday life, simultaneously with three cameras. The triptych image was then shown on three adjacent 18-foot screens, where it was seen by more than 5 million fairgoers. To Be Alive! won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject in 1965. Our online presentation unites scans of three prints to present the film in its original triptych format.