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Handy (Jam) OrganizationNew Neighbor (1953)

Building a steel mill from scratch and a city for its workers (Levittown, Pa.).


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Handy (Jam) Organization
Sponsor: U.S. Steel Co.
Audio/Visual: Sd, B&W
Keywords: Metals: Steel: Steel Industry; Suburbia; Infrastructure: Construction

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: Mr. Snout - - January 8, 2004
Subject: Glory days long gone
This could have used some editing! It's too long. The speech at the opening of the mill is particularly irritating.

There's a notable quote from the very end, where we're told that "This is a plant that will go on for 50 or perhaps 100 years to come, pouring steel into the ribs of our nation, and wealth into its economic veins"

Sorry, Mr. Fairless, it didn't happen like that. Here's part of a (Philadelphia?) Inquirer article from August 15, 2001:

Once-booming steel plant is reduced to 100 workers

The Fairless Works steel factory that helped give birth to Levittown, Pa., and raised thousands of Bucks County families into a middle-class lifestyle is all but closing its doors.
USX Corp ... said yesterday that it would
permanently lay off 600 of the last 700 workers at the plant by November. ...
Fairless Works opened in the early 1950s in Falls Township, and employed 8,000 people in its heyday in the mid-1970s. To many, it symbolized the Philadelphia region's economic might after World War II.
But the factory apparently will not survive in any substantial fashion the nation's unflinching economic slowdown and the flood of low-cost steel imports from the former Soviet Union and Asia.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - November 21, 2003
Subject: Hazel, start up your furnace!
Unexpectedly enjoyable film about the construction of a steel foundry in Pennsylvania. The MAIN reason what makes this so enjoyable is the fact that it doesnt bog down with any over-techical talk of the thing is built, or how it will work (which may actually invite criticism).It just pretty much sticks with the basic, where it's being built, a little bit of info of how it's being built, and so on. Some good construction footage is shown, and finally, the plant is opened by the person who it's named after, Benjamin Fairless. He invites his wife and granddaughter to christian the foundries named after them because, after all "They're all a bit temperamental".
This type of film just invites research. The Fairless plant is still there, along with the accompanying neighborhood, Fairless Hills. Reccomended! (the film, not the town lol)

Shotlist

Introduced with the Horatio Alger story of Benjamin Fairless, Chairman and CEO U.S. Steel, we hear about the steel mill which bears his name.
Building a steel mill from scratch. Film takes us through the process of engineering, design, site selection, groundbreaking ceremony; massive construction and the christening of the first furnace.
Fairless Works, mill located in Morrisville [Bucks County] in Pennsylvania on the Delaware River, "largest fully integrated steel mill built at one time." Pictured also are sign, aerials and longshots of Levittown / Fairless Hills, [four thousand homes] a residential community, designed by one of the nation's leading authorities on urban planning.
Being a good neighbor:
Importance of the mill's relationship with the surrounding community is stressed, cooperation and discussions with planning commissions, school boards, hospital committees etc.
There is an attempt to allay concerns about water treatment and air treatment at the plant.
Great shots: Hazel Fairless christens the first furnace, named after herself, with a bottle of champagne. Nancy, the eldest Fairless grandchild, was chosen to light up the furnace named after her. Mr. Fairless explains that blast furnaces are named after women because they are "inclined at best to be somewhat tempermental." The first pour of steel into the open hearth furnace. On December 11, 1952 (less than two years after ground was first broken) steelmaking began.
Stock shots: Artist's conception of how finished mill will look; steel mill; architect/engineer at drafting table. highway; groundbreaking ceremony; heavy earthmoving equipment; bulldozers; cranes; pile driver; concrete pouring; building furnaces; driving rivets; steel girders; welding; water treatment plant; high tension power lines; blueprints; many aerial shots of plants; school bus; family; residential development; bus tours of plant; job interviews;
Voiceovers: "It takes water to run a steel mill. Enough water is used in this mill to supply a city of one million, three hundred and seventy-five thousand people. It is cleaned as it comes from the Delaware River and purified again before it is returned. "
"Enough power is used here to supply a city of 450,000 people."
"The most modern smoke and gas cleaning equipment available had been installed on the open hearth furnaces to help keep the atmosphere clear for our neighbors."
"It took 10,000 men to build this steel mill. (on site)" Additionally, the narrator says that 3 million men and 100,000 companies were employed in some way in the building of the mill.
"This was land that once raised broccoli and spinach, but 20 months after ground was broken, a steel mill was rising."

07:45:40
Outside of steel plant. George Hicks in office takes off coat and talks to camera. "What does it take to build a steel mill?"
07:46:40
Man points to diagram on wall and talks to camera, smiling.
07:48:00
Aerial picture of industrial landscape. Arrows appear to indicate different points on picture
07:48:31
3 executives around desk. Man at drawing boards examine blueprints. Draftsmen at work.
07:49:34
Audience of middle-aged men at company conference.
07:49:50
Podium speaker addresses crowd and row of many microphones.
07:50:11
Man digs first spadeful of earth
07:50:30
Bulldozers in action. Earthmoving construction. Steam shovels.
07:51:21
Pile driver pounding and shooting steam. Good shot.
07:51:42
Hardhats directing operation of heavy machinery
07:52:43
VS steel plants being constructed
07:54:15
Railroad tracks being laid. Workers with hammers drive spikes.
07:56:15
Aerial of large newly-built suburban housing development. "Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania" VS suburbs.
07:57:04
VS spectators address community groups.
07:57:13
People boarding charter bus
07:57:40
Meetings of various sizes
07:58:00
People being interviewed for jobs
07:58:35
Giant crane inside steel mill
08:01:45
VS exteriors of steel mill.
08:02:30
Mrs. Benjamin S. Fairless christens the #2 blast furnace as "The Hazel Furnace"
08:04:02
Nancy Fairless lights her furnace
08:04:26
Mrs. Fairless gives speech at podium.
THE END

worth noting: some short but nice excavation shots.

¥ 11:23:00- 11:38:19
Stark black and white aerial pan across sprawling steel mill (in Pennsylvania, "Fairless Hills") which dissolves to aerial view of dozens of white, A-frame houses (Levittown, Pennsylvania) built near the mill.

¥ 15:56:10- 16:08:05
Nice aerial shot of large, dreary Pennsylvania steel mill (factories, smoke, a river).

¥ 24: 46:09- 25:06:12
Excellent semicircle pan of steel mill (smoke stacks, steel, factories, water, etc...).