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Handy (Jam) OrganizationGeneral Motors Around the World (Part IV) (1927)

How one of the first multinational corporations organized itself to sell to the world under the leadership of Alfred R. Sloan. With excellent images of General Motors workers in offices and factories, and scenes of GM activity in Japan, Sweden, Australia, Egypt, Belgium, Peru, Spain, Brazil and other nations.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Handy (Jam) Organization
Sponsor: General Motors Export Corporation
Audio/Visual: Si, B&W
Keywords: Automobiles: Design and manufacturing; Globalization

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: Spuzz - - May 17, 2005
Subject: Getting your GM in Sao Paolo
In this movie, I was able to watch only Parts I and III. (Part II is unavailible, and part IV seems to be a duplicate of part III) anyways, In part I, We are shown that GM and it's many line brands (including the now defunct Portland) don't JUST operate in the US! Noooo, they have many branches, all over the world! We are then shown a map, where they have plants, warehouses and distributors. (It's sort of fun to "guess the location" here) From there, we go to the actual cities themselves, this is a nice tour as many of the towns appear to be quite modern (this is 1927 don't forget). That's generally where part I ends, we pick up Part III by going into some sales figures for GM for the rest of the world, and the general buying power of the public. I'm guessing now that this film was made for dealers? It's all mildly interesting. The film ends at that point. A bit of a nice time waster.

Shotlist

PA-3414: This 1927 reel contains shots of (among other cities):
Osaka, Japan; Stockholm, Sweden; Melbourne, Australia;
Brussels, Belgium; Alexandria, Egypt; ?Berlin; and Lima,
Peru.

PA-3415: This 1927 reel contains shots of (among other cities):
?Barcelona, Spain; highway construction in Spain; Sao
Paulo, Brazil; Port Elizabeth; Antwerp; Lima, Peru;
automobile dealerships worldwide; and gasoline stations.

PA-3416: Duplication of 1927 office workers & office scenes from
PA-2139 (see above).

PA-3417: Fisher Body Corporation Plant No. 1, at Flint, Michigan
(EXT shots); General Motors Canada plant, Oshawa, Ontario
(and automobile assembly line shots); boxed automobiles on
railroad cars ready for export; General Motors' proving
ground at Milford, Michigan: road test, slow motion of
1927 Buick plowing through water; blue tinted shot of GM
cars driving at night on test track, and driving through
snow / winter conditions; Canadian city in winter; City
in Brazil (?Sao Paulo?); boxing cars for export at
Bloomfield, New Jersey plant; loading boxed automobiles
onto railroad freight cars; boxed automobiles & trucks
being loaded onto cargo ships; harbors of faraway cities;
Sydney, Australia harbor & street scenes; more.

PA-2139:
0:29:01 VS TU New York City skyscraper. 1920s pedestrians on
city street outside office building; workers enter office
building. EXCELLENT scenes of 1920s office workers: at
their desks, typists (men & women), stenographers, men
talking on telephones, sorting papers; in superb quality.
0:29:59 ls Title card "The Master Controls, with which the New York
executives can 'feel the pulse' of any export operation,
at any time". Man inspecting papers or invoices tacked to
wall.
0:30:31 ls "The General Supply Department's inventory controls": men
in office, most writing at 2 large desks, 1 man standing
beside large manually-controlled panel (evidently
tabulating inventory of General Motors' exports).
0:33:52 vs Animated panels showing the chain of command at General
Motors Export, from the President, to Vice-President &
General Managers, on down to Sales Manager, Finance
Manager, et al.
PA-2151:
0:10:00 vs Consists merely of 4 minutes of outtakes (from PA-2139) of
ext (office building) shots of the massive granite General
Motors Building, and int shots of the General Supply Motors Building,
Department at GM. Not terribly interesting.



GENERAL MOTORS AUTOMOBILES SALES EXPORT FOREIGN TRADE ECONOMICS FOREIGN NATIONS COUNTRIES