Sponsored Films

To Each Other (1943)
Sponsor: U.S. Steel Corp. Production Co. Production Co.: Jam Handy Organization. Cast: Walter Brennan. Transfer Note: Scanned from a 16mm print held by the Library of Congress. Running Time: 10 minutes.

Film urging retired workers to rejoin the industrial workforce during World War II. In the narrative an elderly steel man (Walter Brennan) sits on a hillside overlooking U.S. Steel’s Homestead works in Pennsylvania, reading a letter from his son overseas. Responding in voice-over, the father talks about his return to work to support the war effort. His monologue is accompanied by images of wartime factory production and innovation.

Note: The original version of To Each Other was 30 minutes long and in 35mm. Also distributed was a 10-minute version in 16mm, the source of this video.

Resources
“U.S. Steel Shows Film,” New York Times, June 17, 1943, 19; William L. Bird Jr., “Better Living”: Advertising, Media, and the New Vocabulary of Business Leadership, 1935–1955 (Evanston, IL: North­western University Press, 1999), 147–48, 273.