I have recently discovered The Prelinger Archives. Mr. Prelinger is a collector of old films (many being of the 50’s “educational” type). He was the man who provided many of the shorts seen in Mystery Science Theater 3000 (and for that, I thank him).
I’ve downloaded a few of these and cringe at the messages they are trying to put out. Where’s Mike, Joel, and the Bots when you really need them?
My question is this: are there any Dopers who remember seeing these when they were originally distributed?
I remember going to see a film in the auditorium about once a week in elementary school (mid-to-late '60s), but I’ll be dog-gone if I can remember any of them. I just remember that even then we laughed at the flat-topped young men.
The only films that I actually remember now were the science films with Dr. Frank Baxter. Those I saw in the early '70s.
My elementary school years were in the 70’s, so I missed most of the classic 50’s educational films, but I have always wondered just what exactly was going on with educational theory in the 70’s that would explain some of the films we did see.
Several involved kids (boys, mostly) losing valued objects and then following the objects on the journey they took after they were lost. I remember one with a big stuffed animal (a dog, maybe?), one with a red balloon, and one with a violin. As I recall, the stuffed animal eventually made it home, but the balloon and the violin did not, and let me tell you, they were really very tragic little films to be inflicting on such a young audience.
I also remember a series of films with a main character called “Uncle Smiley”. All I remember about him was that he was some sort of rainbow hippy type character. We all really liked those films, though.
My elementary school days were in the early to mid 60’s, some of what I saw may possibly have been done in the 50’s, but I don’t really know. I do remember a film about the human circulatory system and the heart, titled Hemo the Magnificent. And there was one about weather, with two scientist guys in standard lab coats, and older one and a younger one. That film had an animated character as well, some type of Greek weather goddess, but I don’t remember the title.
Knock off about five years and make it once a month rather than once a week and you’ve got my grade-school experience. It was rare enough that it was a special treat and, looking back on it, I suspect it was so the teachers could get some grading done or something. The films were by Encyclopedia Britannica (I remember the EB logo) but whatever values they were trying to inculate didn’t stick – I can remember the contents of none of them either.
The Frank Baxter films, on the other hand, I can remember pretty well. There was Unchained Goddess (weather) and Hemo, the Magnificent (the circulatory system) plus a couple others the JD I’ve imbibed has driven out of my head for the moment. They were Bell System productions and presented on television a number of times in the early sixties IIRC. I remember them fondly and credit them with sparking an interest in science and technology that persists to this day.
Typical IMDB. Seven hours of silence, then a near-simulpost.
Okay, I’ve gone to the IMDb. Here is Frank Baxter’s page therein. Lookes like the films were:
[ul]
[li]*Our Mr. Sun *(1956)[/li][li]The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays (1957)[/li][li]The Unchained Goddess (1958)[/li][li]The Alphabet Conspiracy (1959)[/li][li]The Thread of Life (1960)[/li][li]About Time (1962)[/li][/ul] The first three I remember absolutely and were directed by Frank Capra. The fourth one I dunno for sure. It might have been The Thread of Life or it might have been About Time. Anyway, the commentary mentions that they were distributed free by Bell, so that would explain why the popularity. Turns out he was a professor of English. Guess they’re better actors than a real scientist would be.
Meteora, the Unchained Goddess. I remember it like it was yesterday, but it sure wasn’t. I saw it in middle school, which meant it couldn’t have been later than 1982. Can you believe they were still showing those things in 1982?
>>I’ve downloaded a few of these and cringe at the messages they are trying to put out. Where’s Mike, Joel, and the Bots when you really need them?
Our kids’ favorite “movie” is MST3K “SHORTS” with such gems as “A Date with your Family”:
(“Mom and Sis dress up as a special treat for the boys.”)
Definitely saw some in grammar school, but I don’t know if any were Prelinger or not. One I recall very vividly was supposed to encourage you to brush your teeth. It showed evil creatures living inside your mouth, and getting into your teeth, and mining away until they reached the gory inside, where they gave you a toothache to end everything. I was terrified.
Adding to the terror was that I’d actually had bad toothaches. In those ancient days, there was no such thing as dental insurance, believe it or not, and a dentist had convinced my parents that no work was necessary on certain molars that were due to become loose and fall out within months anyway. Of course they didn’t, and I ended up with abscesses and needed extraction of all those teeth. Most traumatic. After about the 3rd time the school showed that film, and I would get awful nightmares about it, my mom called the school and asked that in the future I be excused if that film was going to be shown.
We were watching filmstrips in my elementary school (private, high-tuition, mind you) as late as 1994 or 1995. I remember watching one on the daily life of colonial Americans. They brushed their teeth with brushes made from twigs, or something.
The best part is when the film broke and melted in the projector, and then the teachers tried to splice it together with scotch tape… good times.
I recall those. Went to elementary school in the early 80’s. The objects I remember were…a toy tugboat and, I believe, a wooden indian in a canoe of some sort.
Come to think of it, we saw a lot of those older educational movies. We very rarely had anything that was made later than the early 70’s.
“Mental Hygene: Educational Films of 1945-1870” by Ken Smith cataloges many of these films, and the production companies that made them. Dick York, the original Darren on Bewitched, appeared in many of them, BTW.
Kids who watched these films in school later recieved exposure to a similar dose of cinema if they enlisted in the armed forces. One of the most horrific was a VD film made by Capt. John Ford, USNR (who also made “Stagecoach,” “The Searchers,” etc.)
Yesterday, I downloaded about 12Gb of these films.
One that stands out (in a very bad way) is called “Boys Beware”. It’s supposed to show teenage boys how to avoid homosexuals. In the short, the homosexuals are called “mentally ill” and “sick”.
Most homosexuals, apparently, are homicidal and would think nothing of taking a young boy away, having his way with them, and killing them.
This film was produced in 1951 and the scary thing is that there are people who still think this way.
Creepy and sad at the same time.
A lot of the shorts about how teens are supposed to act and incredible. As if to prove a theory, there were no black people in the 50’s. All the white kids are REALLY white. One short was about how to throw a party. Who to invite, what food to serve, and what games to play. Of course, the girls HAD to make sure the boys’ needs were met.
Do yourself a favor and download a few of these. It works best if you use an FTP client. Some of the files can hit 500-660Mb each.
Seriously. I don’t mean in the so-bad-it’s-good way.
Yes, there was some cheesiness (EG a cheerful group of animated woodland creatures saying ‘Yay! Hemo! He’s our king!’). But there was also alot of information conveyed clearly and memorably. The bit where the stereotypically Italian guy shows how the heart pumps blood is marvellous.
There’s even a fascinating segment on evolution.
IIRC
“No, Brother Poet. I know you understand me. But, before you can continue, Brother Scientist must prove that he does as well. Brother Scientist, what are the words that best describe me?”
“Hemo, the two words that best describe you are- sea water.”
“What?!”
“Wait, Brother Poet. Brother Scientist is correct.”
Then a great animated sequence on how single-celled creatures needed no blood. But once organisms got more then two cells thick, they needed blood.
Seriously. I don’t mean in the so-bad-it’s-good way.
Yes, there was some cheesiness (EG a cheerful group of animated woodland creatures saying ‘Yay! Hemo! He’s our king!’). But there was also alot of information conveyed clearly and memorably. The bit where the stereotypically Italian guy shows how the heart pumps blood is marvellous.
There’s even a fascinating segment on evolution.
IIRC
“No, Brother Poet. I know you understand me. But, before you can continue, Brother Scientist must prove that he does as well. Brother Scientist, what are the words that best describe me?”
“Hemo, the two words that best describe you are- sea water.”
“What?!”
“Wait, Brother Poet. Brother Scientist is correct.”
Then a great animated sequence on how single-celled creatures needed no blood. But once organisms got more then two cells thick, they needed blood.
