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UnknownFrom the Ground Up (ca. 1954)

Promotional film for "Nutrilite," a 1950s-vintage food supplement.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Unknown
Sponsor: Mytinger & Casselberry, Inc.
Audio/Visual: Sd, C
Keywords: Agriculture: Food industry: Supplements; Nutrition

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: 2muchtv - - May 3, 2004
Subject: What you might not know...
Is that Nutrilite was the precursor to a little company called... Amway!

From:
http://www.mlmwatch.org/01General/mlmstart.html
"Carl Rehnborg's food supplement business, which began as the California Vitamin Corporation, changed its name to Nutrilite Products in 1939 when it moved to larger quarters."

"According to Federal District Court records, significant out-of-state distribution of Nutrilite supplements began in 1945 when a company operated by Lee S. Mytinger and William S. Casselberry became exclusive national distributor. Rehnborg acted as 'scientific advisor' in the distributional scheme."

All three of these men actually appear in this film - incredible!

"After Mytinger and Casselberry, Inc., was asked by the Government to show cause why a criminal proceeding for misbranding should not be started, the booklet was revised."

"Amway's founders Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel were friends who became Nutrilite distributors after high school graduation. They were extremely successful and built a sales organization with over 2,000 distributors."

"Fearing that Nutrilite Products might collapse, they formed a new company, the American Way Association, later renamed Amway."

This well produced film is a priceless treasure for it's historical value alone!

Reviewer: Spuzz - - June 22, 2003
Subject: Very interesting film, and it's good for you too!
While I was a bit leery of watching this, thinking I'd be bored silly of the constant vegan talk going on (which it does normally), this provided a fascinating account of the production of 'Nutralite" an additive supposedly made only with Alfafa, and other herbs and vitamins and lord only knows what else. But the production of Alfafa is featured here, it's grown, chopped, composted, dried and beaten into a pulp until it's mixed with other ingredients. (The exact combination is secret of course, as the narrator SHOWS where this is done, but we never go inside) soon, the stuff is mixed with minerals and then either put into pills or pulverized into a tablet format. Very interesting production shots shown here. Of course, what Nutralite is good for, is never really explained. Guess I'll have to talk to my Nutralite rep about it (after all, he is a member of my community!) Highly reccomended!

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