From its millions of feet of rare historical
films, may we suggest the following as TEN of the most
interesting films in our archive.
I.
A FABLE OF THE NEW DEAL:
From 1936, this is a rare black-and-white
animated cartoon mocking the "jackass New Dealers"
of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It lauds the
old-fashioned Democrats symbolized by a donkey, not a
cantankerous jackass that is the revisionist New Deal. Good
Uncle Sam and Miss Liberty are the heroes who use Republican
common sense to thwart the rascalish New Dealers. This is a
presidential campaign cartoon that ends with color sequence
showing Uncle Sam hitching together a Republican elephant and
that old-fashioned Democratic donkey and plowing the field of
Prosperity. The film ends with a colored rainbow proclaiming
the candidacy of Alfred M. Landon and his vice-presidential
running mate Frank Knox. 
II.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA:
This is a gorgeous Kodachrome color film
intended by Santa Fe Railroad to lure tourists to the Los
Angeles area in 1941. The 40-minute film is filled with
montages of Hollywood movie studios, nightclubs, hotels,
beaches, highways, and other sights of Los Angeles as well as
Palm Springs and San Diego. In all, it presents a fascinating
picture of the pristine beauty that helped attract millions
of Americans to the West Coast beginning in the 1940s.
III.
GENERAL ELECTRIC APPLIANCES:
This reel contains three GE shorts in
gorgeous Kodachrome color introducing the latest in household
appliances in 1955:
A) FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY: concerns electric
dishwashers and garbage disposals as the latest development
for health and social respect (no unsightly slop cans)
B) THE BIG STORY: about GE water heaters for washing dishes
in really hot water
C) BE MODERN COOK ELECTRICALLY: GE all-electric kitchen with
special emphasis on the new electric range.
IV.
ONE-TENTH OF A NATION:
NEWSMAKERS This is a rare
10-minute newsreel from 1953 produced by All American News
for its One-Tenth of a Nation series. Intended specifically
for African-American audiences, this newsreel look at the
black minority and its accomplishments. We hold eight
different issues of One-Tenth of a Nation. The NEWSMAKERS
installment offers an overview of black achievers as follows:
* MAUDE CALLEN is nurse-midwife in rural South Carolina and
now has a clinic
* GENERAL BENJAMIN O. DAVIS in Army uniform with Harry Truman
at time of retirement
* Dr. F.D. PATTERSON of the Phelps-Scopes Fund Patterson
invented United Negro College Fund- he visits Nigeria
* JOE LOUIS seen in World War II era sparring now with
Eleanor Roosevelt and the Mile o' Dimes [March of Dimes] in
Washington in retirement playing ping-pong professionally
* PHILIPPA SCHYLER is emerging opera singer
* THURGOOD MARSHALL at banquet being honored
* W. C. HANDY marries at age 80
* Ex-boxing champ HENRY ARMSTRONG greeted on church steps by
Barney Ross he is now an ordained minister
* GEORGE W. CRAWFORD is Corporation Counsel for Hartford
* NAT KING COLE wedding in 1945 wedding shots he goes on
vacation with bride at Savoy Ballroom
* JUANO HERNANDEZ at his resort in Puerto Rico
* MATTHEW HENSON looks at Eskimo pictures at New York Customs
Office greeted now by mayor of Philadelphia
* RALPH BUNCHE returns in 1949 from Near Eastgood shots of
him at Howard University as professor testimonial banquet in
New York City, Eleanor Roosevelt is there as Bunch speaks
* CLIFFORD ALEXANDER is still a junior class leader at
Harvard film predicts bright accomplishments in his future .
V. SHOWDOWN:
This is a 10-minute promotional film for
the 1962 Chevrolet Corvair automobile. It is presented as a
B-Western with the good-guys and bad-guys represented by
compact cars. The "good guy" Corvair is chased out
of a town by "bad guy" cars from Ford, American
Motors and Chrysler. But the Corvair, made by General Motors,
has no trouble outmaneuvering these baddies because it
performs better than any of them.
VI. WILD WEST:
From Walter Futter's theatrical Travelaughs
series: superficially this is a mocking of Native Americans.
The narrator jokes insensitively about Indians and their
customs. However, if you disregard the offensive narration,
this film contains wonderful footage of Native American
customs about 1930. Of particular interest is film of a Hopi
snake dance.
VII.
CHICAGO AND ALL THAT JAZZ:
An installment of DuPONT SHOW OF THE WEEK,
this musical special from 1961 is a salute to the Jazz music
that was produced in Chicago in the 1920s. This kinescope
features live performance from many jazz greats who actually
did make music in "Roaring Twenties" Chicago. Among
those appearing are the following jazz and blues performers:
| Gene Krupa |
Bud Freeman |
Kid Orey |
| PeeWee Russell |
Zutty Singleton |
Joe Sullivan |
| Jimmy McPartland |
Meade Lux Lewis |
Mae Barnes |
| Johnny St. Cyr |
Blossom Seeley |
Milt Hilton |
| Lil Armstrong |
Red Allen |
Eddie Condon |
| Buster Bailey |
Jack Teagarden |
|
VIII.
I ACCUSE MY PARENTS:
Now-campy feature film from 1945 stars Mary
Beth Hughes in a story about juvenile delinquency. From PRC,
the story concerns a mother and father accused of bad
parenting by a teenaged son who has just been convicted of a
crime. As well as providing insight into parent-child
relationships, the film shows the stark sexism that pervaded
U.S. society in the late Depression era.
IX.
AFGHANISTAN:
This is a Soviet film showing the militant,
industrious, and progressive realities of Kabul, Afghanistan
in a time of civil war. From about 1980, this color film is a
propaganda piece from the USSR that was distributed globally.
This print has a narration in Danish.
X. HOME
MOVIES 72
This is a compilation of home movies of
commercial deep-sea fishing in the late 1930s. Filmed in New
Bedford, Massachusetts, these 16mm films (in black and white
and in color) offer scenes of pre-mechanized sword fishing, a
method that had existed for centuries. Scenes are as follows:
* New Bedford small fishing
boat at seagood wave action as boat speeds through the
choppy ocean with lookouts seeking fishmeet man in dingy
with swordfish he has landedshots of other boats at sea and
in dock
* fishermen shooting craps on land
* back at seaanding swordfish, shark
* harbor shotsthen back to
sealand three more
swordfishNOTE: men are using harpoons, not rods and reels
or fishing nets
* U.S. flag--then swordfish and fishermen--headless and
gutted fish are weighed
* several more swordfish and boats
* butchering swordfish
* good close-up of fishing sailing boat similar to the one on
which these films are being made
* drag the swordfish into the small boat
* return to harborboats filled with small
fishonly a few
houses and automobiles to be seenout to sea then back to
New Bedford--gorgeous sunset seen .
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