“Am I Normal?”
That wins the Grand High Bull Moose Award for Silliest Educational Film.
It was sung by Robert Preston (star of The Music Man) for the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, IIRC. Do a web search on “Chicken Fat Robert Preston” and you’ll find a few links.
Why do I remember things most people never even knew?
I remember the OP movie. Maybe it was an area specific thing. I was in 9th or 10th grade in Southern California in 1980-1 when I saw it.
It was indeed as described and was about supply and demand only I don’t think it was a silent movie. I seem to recall that the grandmother figure would speak to the surfer dudes and beach bunnies (offering them lemonade and such.)
It must have had some impact on me because I went on to get a degree in economics. Hmmmm…maybe all this time it was the beach movie that has been a driving force in my life.
Good luck with the title though. About the only one I remember is “Donald Duck in Mathmagicland” and that is because I still use the priciples they showed Donald to make a bank shot in pool. It has come in handy many times for me. Who says educational films aren’t educational?
Ooh, I’ve heard of Donald Duck in Mathmagicland but never seen it. I don’t remember many films from school, and most of mine were shown with a vcr anyway. But I do remember Chicken Fat (unfortunately). The book The Real Me which is a pretty cool kid’s book mentions the song, since the main character has to endure it as well.
“Give that chicken fat back to the chicken, go you chicken fat go” shudder
Chicken Fat is available on CD. We sell it at my school supply store.
There’s a guy in North Carolina who collects these old educational filmstrips. He has something like 8,000 of the things. Once a month or so, he’ll gather 5 or so of them that have to do with a certain theme, and air them in front of a crowd. It’s kinda like MST3K, where folks just scream out comments whenever they’re appropriate. Total blast.
He has a website where you can buy videos of the shows he puts together.
You black-hearted MONSTER! That song has brought me nothing but Nightmares and Hatred. I had almost forgotten how much I hated State Sponsored Studies in Humiliating Pain, aka ‘Gym’.
“Hi! I’m actor Troy MacLure! You might remember me from such educational films as Lead Paint–Delicious but Deadly and Two Minus Three Equals Negative Fun.”
I can remember seeing (sometime in the mid-70’s I am Robert’s Penis (or something very like) in boys’ gym class. There was a companion film shown to the girls, I am Jane’s Vagina.
I saw the ping-pong ball movie I think when I was in the third grade. I identified deeply with the high-flying ball.
The “Chicken Fat” record is incontrovertible proof that phys-ed teachers are sadistic sons of bitches and their mothers who hate kids and will use any means at their disposal to humiliate them.
To RobotArm: YES, I remember “Hemo the Magnificent”!!! Remember the scene where the animated goddess looks at the one doctor and visualizes him dressed up as Caesar, complete with laurel wreath? And I remember Chicken Fat too, in gym class. Our instructor, Mr. Kellogg, used to play it. God, my age is showing.
“Hemo the Magnificent!” Yes, yes, yes! You wonderful people; I was wondering if I was alone in the memory.
And “Our Mr. Sun”, produced by Bell Labs (I think). Great shots of solar flares. That and Hemo were the default films when the teacher didn’t have lesson plans made. We saw these endlessly; groaned and quoted the dialogue along w/ the flick. (That’s when an alert “hood” slouching in back of the class didn’t manage to kick the plug out of the socket in time. A NEW teacher would diligently try to rethread the projector, while the class imperfectly muffled laughter.) Supposedly we were Learning Science, to keep up with The Russians.
Sorry for the sidetrack; the movie in the OP rings a bell, but since I didn’t have to suffer through it as often…
Veb
The only educational film that I remember is only a little clip. I saw it in chemistry class and it was about this experiment that some guy did with gold foil and how neutrons sometimes go through and sometimes they dont. I dont remember what it was trying to prove, but I remember a friend of mine and i saying “boing” every time that one bounced off. The same exact thing played over and over. One or two went through straight. A few went through and got deflected. And then…“BOOOOIINNG!” It was endlessly amusing (for a while). Does anyone remember this, and/or what it was trying to prove? Tasha, you should know this, it was in Dwaine-o’s class.
“Hemo”, etc: ah, yes, the bell sciece videos, now available on VHS. I’ve got the weather one. I actually thought/think they are pretty damn good, and a lot better than some of the other 'educational" junk they have put out?
hey, what was the one about measurements, where the water turned to OJ, and back again?
Oh we had square dancing in my high school Grade 9 PE class too. Now I’m going to have a nightmare tonight where I’m stuck doing the Tennessee Wigwalk again…Noooo!
People, please, I beg of you. Somebody out there PLEASE tell me that you’ve seen this educational film:
“You can do it, Duffy Moon!”
I swear that absolutely nobody remembers this, but my God, it was the weirdest thing ever. This kid, Duffy Moon, was basically shiftless and lazy. “But I just can’t do it!” he’d whine about any given task. Then one day, some kindly stranger (I think) took him aside (Now that’s a good educational film - go away and talk to strangers)He told him that he could do anything that he put his mind to, he just had to repeat “You can do it, Duffy Moon!” over and over again while he was doing it. Uh-huh.
Anyway, Duffy takes this to heart and helps out his octagenarian neighbour move boulders out of her front yard. (Why were there boulders in her yard? Don’t ask. Spit out that gum and sit up straight. Because I said so.) After a day of toiling in the sun like a prison labourer, she smiles and gives him a quarter. Wow. The end.
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
I don’t care why they were there. I want to know how he moved them! Backhoe? Crane? Sledgehammer? Super-human will? Telekinesis? His sister, Sailor Moon? Don’t keep us in suspense…
It’s funny… I don’t remember very many of the films they showed us. I do remember the time I got the biology teacher to show us my parent’s copy of The Hellstrom Chronicle. Heh heh… I wonder if any of my classmates are paranoid about insects taking over the world now…
The two films I remember best are one (obviously) about reproduction: My Mom’s Having a Baby, which explained how babies are made and arrive in the world. One of the misconceptions of the kid in the movie was how you “got” a baby. He seemed to think you went to a fast food-type restaurant and ordered it. There was a little cartoon of people at this “restaurant” going, “Hmm…I think I’ll take a little girl…blonde hair, blue eyes…hold the freckles.”
The other one, I believe was called The Red Balloon. Either it was silent (with musical accompianment) or it was in a foreign language. Anyway, this kid sees a red balloon and basically chases it all over town. I have no idea what the point of that one was.
It’s a very surreal French film. I haven’t watched it in years, though it was a favorite of ours in college.
I remember, “You can do it Duffy Moon”, and Square Dancing was a unit we had in gym from 1-12 grade, with two exceptions, we had African stick dancing one year and ballroom dancing a different year.