Full text of "Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)"

See other formats

,lVL,;3iTY T

STAGE LABORATORY

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

One of a collection of
books purchased with a
part of the income of

THE MASQUE EUND

MUSEUM OF r:' ART

.CORNELL Ui'IIVEkEITY VilHA

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2017 with funding from
Media History Digital Library

uOaaN m fh.
UNiVERSiTV THEATR.,

https://archive.org/details/filmradioguideoc12unse

A scene in "The Southerner," notable Loew-Hokim production directed by
Jeon Renoir. Note how the hungry children eye the food os the family bow
heads in prayer — a Renoir touch reminiscent of the director's father, famous
for pictures of children.

AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS TO EDUCATION

Pass this copy to:

AUDIO-VISUAL DIRECTORY

National & International

INTERNATIONAL THEATRI-
CAL AND TELEVISION CORP.

I. T. & T. OF ILLINOIS, 100
Monroe St., Chicago 3.

I. T. & T. OF THE WEST, 3123
W. 8th St., Los Angeles 5.

I. T. & T. OF THE WEST, 4247
Piedmont Ave., Oakland II,
Calif.

DISTRIBUTOR'S GROUP, 756
W. Peachtree St., N. W., At-
lanta, Ga.

I. T. & T. OF MISSOURI, 3326
Olive St., St. Louis, Mo.

DISTRIBUTOR'S GROUP, 3021/2
Harwood St., Dallas I, Tex.

I. T. & T. OF NEW YORK, 25
W. 45th St., New York 1 9,
N. Y.

I. T. & T. OF NEW ENGLAND,
I I 5 Newbury St., Boston 1 6,
Mass.

I. T. & T. OF WASHINGTON,
51 H St., N.W., Washing-
ton 1 , D. C.

Bell & Howell Co., Dept. "G"
FILMOSOUND LIBRARY
I 834 Larchmont Ave., Chicago
30 Rockefeller Plaza, Nlew York
716 N. LaBrea Ave., Hollywood
1221 G. St., N. W., Washington

FILMS INCORPORATED

330 W. 42nd St., New York 18
64 E. Lake St., Chicago 1
101 Marietta St., Atlanta 3
109 N. Akard St., Dallas 1
314 S.W. 9th Ave., Portland 5
1709 W. 8 St., Los Angeles 14

ASTOR PICTURES CORPORATION
I 30 W. 46th Street
New York, N. Y.

BRANDON FILMS, Inc.
1 600 Broadway
New York, N. Y.

BAILEY FILM SERVICE

2044 No. Berendo St., Holly-
wood 27, Calif.; 404 No. Good-
win Ave., Urbana, III.

COMMONWEALTH PICTURES
CORPORATION, 729 Seventh
Avenue, New York, N. Y.

CORONET PRODUCTIONS
Instructional Films
Glenview, Illinois

EDUCATIONAL FILM GUIDE
H. W. Wilson Co., 950 Univer-
sity Ave., New York 52, N. Y.

EDUCATORS GUIDE TO FREE
FILMS, Educators Progress
Service, Randolph, Wis.

WILLIAM J. GANZ COMPANY
40 East 49th Street
New York, N. Y.

PAUL HOEFLER PRODUCTIONS
9538 Brighton Way
Beverly Hills, California

l-IOFFBERG PRODUCTIONS, Inc.
618-20 Ninth Avenue
New York 1 8, N. Y.

IDEAL PICTURES CORPORATION
28-34 E. 8th Street
Chicago, III.

Offices in principal cities.

INSTITUTIONAL CINEMA SERV-
ICE, Inc., 1560 Broadway
New York, N. Y.

MOTION PICTURE BUREAU —
YMCA, 347 Madison Avenue
New York, N. Y.

19 S. La Salle St., Chicago, III.
1 700 Patterson Av., Dallas, Tex.
351 Turk St., San Francisco, Cal.

NATIONAL FILM SERVICE

Raleigh, N. C. Richmond, Va.
424 Madison Ave., New York

NU-ART FILMS, Inc.

1 45 W. 45th Street
New York, N. Y.

POST PICTURES CORPORATION
723 Seventh Avenue
New York, N. Y.

SKIBO PRODUCTIONS, Inc.
165 West 46th St.

New York 19, N. Y.

New England

HARVARD FILM SERVICE

Graduate School of Education
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts

A. H. RICE & CO.

Rentals and Free Projection
Hollis, N. H.

The South

THE DISTRIBUTOR'S GROUP,
Inc., 756 W. Peachtree St.,
N.W., Atlanta, Ga. Exclusive
distributors of Monogram
products, I.T.&.T. films, Am-
pro and SVE equipment. Jam
Handy teaching films. Serv-
ing the South onl\

CALHOUN COMPANY
101 Marietta St., N.W.
Atlanta 3, Georgia

WILFRED NAYLOR

1907 Fifth Ave., North
Birmingham I, Alabamo

Indiana

DENNIS FILM BUREAU
29 E. Maple St.
Wabash, Ind.

Iowa

RYAN VISUAL AIDS SERVICE
409-1 1 Harrison St.

Davenport, Iowa

Michigan

COSMOPOLITAN FILMS
3248 Gratiot Avenue
Detroit, Mich.

CAPITAL FILM SERVICE, Film Li-
brary and Motion-Picture and
Visual-Aid Equipment, 1043 E.
Grand River Ave., East Lansing,
Mich.

Minnesota

HOWARD FILM DISTRIBUTORS
86 So. Sixth Street
Minneapolis 2, Minn.

Missouri

SWANK'S MOTION PICTURES
620 N. Skinker Blvd.

St. Louis, Mo.

New York

IDEAL MOTION PICTURE SERV-
ICE, 371 St. Johns Avenue
Yonkers, N. Y.

New Jersey

ART ZEILLER

120 Central Avenue
Glen Rock, New Jersey

Ohio

TWYMAN FILMS, Inc.
29 Central Ave.
Dayton, Ohio

West Virginia

E. B. SIMPSON

8 1 6 W. Virginia St.
Charleston 2, W. Va.

Schools Are Ordering
Filmosounds Now

We are filling school orders for
Filmosounds in the sequence of
their receipt as equipment be-
comes available. To avoid un-
necessary delay, anticipate your
needs and order now.

Yes ... or butterflies emerge from
cocoons. Or ant eggs incubate. Or
dozens of other interesting, edu-
cational events in Nature Study
come to real, thrilling life through
the medium of a B&H Filmosound
Projector.

No longer do field trips for your
classes wait for good days and
right seasons. Filmosound brings
them into the classroom. Zoology,
ichthyology, geology, biology,
and other classes in the sciences
and arts become more vivid, more
inspiring with motion pictures.
History becomes more alive.

Geography becomes like a visit.

There are many fine films on
almost every conceivable subject
in the Filmosound Library. Your
school can rent or buy them at
very moderate prices.

A Filmosound Projector will
reproduce any l6mm. sound-on-
film subject at its best. War-accel-
erated research has made Filmo-
sounds better than ever before.

For additional information send
the coupon. Bell & Howell Com-
pany, Chicago; New York; Holly-
wood; Washington, D. C.; London.
Established 1907.

BUY MORE VICTORY BONDS

OPTI-ONICS — products combining the sciences of CPTIcs • electrONics • mechanics

BELL & HOWELL COMPANY
7134 McCormick Road, Chicago 45

Please send information on: () Educa*
tional films; ( ) Filmosounds.

School

Address

Ideal 16mnn Photoplays for
Schools, Clubs, Churches

Send For a Free Copy of Our
1946 Catalog Supplement

THE ADVENTURES OF MICHAEL STROGOFF

(Anton Waibrook, Akim Tamiroff, Elizabeth Allan,

Fay Bainter)

Jules Verne's classic story of the courier of the
Czar, who carried out a dangerous mission in 1 870
and brought an important dispatch through Tartar
territory in spite of all obstacles. A timely and spec-
tacular RKO production, of pure entertainment
and without political implications of any kind. A
rousing, colorful melodrama for young folks.

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER

(Tommy Kelly, Ann Gillis, May Robson, Walter Brennan)

Technicolor version of the greatest American
novel of boy life, produced by David Seiznick for
United Artists. A "must" 16mm photoplay for
elementary and secondary schools. Illustrated 16-
page discussion guide on request.

SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON (Thomas Mitchell, Freddie Bartholomew). Notable RKO screen version of the charming
story of a family's adventures when an idealistic father takes his family to a tropical island to escape from a world
of war, hatred, and crumbling ideals. TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS (Cedric Hardwick, Freddie Bartholomew).
Absorbing screen version of the classic story of life at Rugby under the renowned headmaster. Dr. Arnold, who replaced
rowdyism with the honor system. LITTLE MEN (Kay Francis, Jack Oakie). Louisa Alcott's famous story is the basis
of a film combining hilarious comedy with dramatic adventure in a way that will delight youngsters. BEYOND TO-
MORROW (Charles Winninger, Harry Carey, C. Aubrey Smith). A warmly human story of three wealthy bachelors
who find happiness in befriending a boy and a girl and influencing their lives in entertaining ways. Rich in character
values.

IDEAL PICTURES CORPORATION

28 E. Eighth Street (Home Office) Chicago 5, Illinois

Bertram V/illoughby Pictures, Inc.
Suite 600, 1600 Broadway
New York, 19, N. Y.

Ideal-Southern 16mm Pictures Co.
9536 N.E. 2nd Avenue
Miami 38, Florida

Ideal Pictures Corporation
2408 W. 7th St.

Los Angeles 5, Calif.

Ideal Pictures Corp.

915 S.W. 10th Ave.
Portland 5, Oregon

Ideal Pictures
926 McGee St.
Kansas City 6, Mo.

Ideal Pictures Corp.
18 S. 3rd St.
Memphis 3, Tenn.

Stevens- 1 deal Pictures
101 V/alton St., N.W.
Atlanta 3, Georgia

Ideal Southern Pictures Co.
440 Audubon Bldg.

New Orleans 16, La.

Ideal Pictures Ideal Pictures Ideal Pictures

2024 Main St. 219 East Main St. 714 Eighteenth St.

Dallas 1, Texas Richmond 19, Va. Denver 2, Colo.

October, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDZ

ow 01 rom/

i^dventure that courses excitingly over strange lands and
mysterious ocean depths! Alive with the laughter and
thrills of a hundred delightful creatures
...a thousand amazing events! So
you’ve got to see it twice/

WONDERFUL ADVENTURES
OF

see"'-

r-swi

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. ^

..."IT IS WORTH ANY
DOZEN RUN-OF-THE
STUDIO ACADEMY
AWARD WINNERS"
—Time

"...A PICTURE OF
UNUSUAL QUALITY"
— Liberty

"IT IS ONE OF THE
MOST SENSITIVE
AND BEAUTIFUL
AMERICAN-MADE
PICTURES I HAVE
EVER SEEN"

—James Agee,
The Notion

"THE TREAT OF THE
WEEK"

— Heddo Hopper

PRODVCrtOiX

S T /% R R I IX O

BETTY

ZACHARY

SCOTT • FIELD

J. CARROL NAISH
Beulah Boudi • Percy Kilbride

Directed by JEAN RENOIR

\. Produced by .

DAVID L LOEW and ROBERT HAKIM

Released thru UNITED ARTISTS

THE p/cra RE THAT

HEVERLETSffO
OP YOUR heart/

October, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

ORDER CORONET VISUAL AIDS NOW!

THE FIRST THREE OF THE 1945-46 SERIES

"The Liberated"— the story of the liberated peo-
ples of the world.

"The Storm"— the life story (a cycle) of a storm.
"The German"— the story of the pre-war German
people and what may be expected
of them in the future.

Pmjeetom mm crgafii €t¥Qlhblm

WITH THE NEW
1945-46 SERIES OF

CORONET

"PICTURE STORY"

SLIDE FILMS

Informative, entertaining and thought-stimulating
— Coronet slidefilms will add interest to group
discussions of world events, personalities of the
moment, and vital social problems. Each slidefilm
contains approximately 30 pictures and captions
from the Picture Story section of Coronet maga-
zine. Each slidefilm is accompanied by a reprint
of the Picture Story from CORONET, to be used
as a manual. The slidefilms can be shown with
any standard 35 mm. single-frame slidefilm pro-
jector. Reprints of the CORONET Picture Stories
are available for individual use at $2.00 for a set
of twenty-five copies each month for eight months
(200 in all).

Thousands Used the 1944-45 Series

More than 5,000 school, discussion and educa-
tional groups, 1,000 churches, and 750 different
units of the 4 branches of the Armed forces used
Coronet slidefilms last year. The new series will
be even finer than those released in the past.

SOCIETY FOR VISUAL EDUCATION, Inc., Dept. 9 FRD
100 East Ohio Street, Chicago 11, Illinois

Please enter our order for the following:

Quantity

Subscriptions for the 8 Coronet slidefilms $4.00 for the entire

series. ORDERS NOT ACCEPTED FOR INDIVIDUAL SUBJECTS.

Sets of 25 copies of each of the 8 Picture Stories (200 in all) @ $2.00

a set. THIS IS THE MINIMUM ORDER FOR REPRINTS.

□ Please send Free Circular on the Coronet Visual Aid Service.

Name

Organization .

Address-- .

City Postal Zone No State

PICTORIAL

Films for the Visual Instructor

We of Pictorial in planning our productions for visual education are guided
by your thinking and your requirements. Accordingly, we present a most com-
prehensive selection of subjects, particularly well suited for various types of
classroom study. Our Schools Division will be glad to work with you toward
the solution of any of your film program problems. We list some of the sub-
jects we have available . . . write for complete catalogs.

THIS IS AMERICA

ima

Reflecting the many facets of AMER-

[ct’EacTfiTm for the’ educator in tnter-

preting current events. ^ ARCTIC PASSAGE

CHILDREN OF MARS * ^ NEWS FRONT

medicine onouar^^^^hero

26 Subjects in IFhole Senes

AMERICAN HISTORY

,vill a^vaken new of the outstand-

prominent a part.
events leading to

history.

••OI-R eoelslAM

a historical document of

..OCR MONROE DOCrmN^ years,

particular interest during

CANADIAN OOOO

Produced in art, health, nutrition,

deals with such su ) farsightedness of the ed-

These P7‘ljj;j";/o'ur Good Neighbors to the North,
ucat.onal efforts ^

CANADIAN LANDSCAPE^

VITAMIN WISE •

VITAMINS A. B. C AMU

plus others

WUSIC APPRKIATION ^

unusual films.

keyboard concert no. 1
keyboard concert No. 2
keyboard concert No. 1

0.r

petoons. Nature Studies.

PICTORIAI fllNlS, l"t

11.IC.O. »UltOIMG

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

EDUCATIONAL & RECREATIONAL GUIDES, Inc
172 RENNER AVENUE, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY

VOLUME XII, NUMBER 1

OCTOBER, 1945

IN THIS ISSUE

The World and the Classroom William Lewin 1 1

Hollywood's Interest in Classroom Films Gardner L. Hart 1 6

Who's Who in Audio-Visual Educotion — -No. 31:

Melvin Brodshaug- — No. 32: James A. Brill 19

Milton J. Salzburg and Harold Baumstone 22

16mm Exchange Practices — No. 16: Patrons' Complaints B. A. Aughinbaugh 24

Virginia Appropriates $1,112,000 for Visual Education J. M. Stackhouse 27

Northern Arizona Cooperative Film Library Grace Seiler 30

The 50 Most-Used Sets of Slides B. A. Aughinbaugh 31

New Cartoons Enliven the English Curriculum J. C. Tressler 32

Con Pictures Be Used Efficiently in Church Work? Rev. Charles J. Fisher 34

Visual Program ot Owensboro, Kentucky J. L. Foust 34

Educational Value of the Documentary Film Ralph Bond 35

Forthcoming Photoplays of Interest to Teachers and Students William Lewin 39

Recommended Photoplays Frederick H. Law and Others 42

What Ernie Pyle Himself Thought of the Screen Version of His

"Story of G.l. Joe" 50

Behind the Screen Credits Helen Colton 52

On the Battle of Soap Opera Kathleen Norris 54

Using Recordings in the Social Studies Classroom Wilbur F. Murra 55

Kind Words . . . More Than Coronets Correspondence 61

Less Than Five Subseripti^s

One Year $2.00 Each

Two Years 3.50 Each

Three Years 5.00 Each

Less Then One Year 35c a Copy

In Canada, add 50c a year; in foreign countries, add

Five or More Subscriptions

25% Discount on
Quantity Orders
to One Address

1 .00 a year.

"Course of Study in Radio Appreciation" or "What Shall We Read About the
Movies" Free with 2-Year Subscriptions.

WILLIAM LEWIN, Editor and Publisher RUTH M. LEWIN, Business Manager

FREDERICK HOUK LAW and B. A. AUGHINBAUGH, Contributing Editors
HELEN COLTON, Hollywood Editor

Copyright 19^5 by Eclucational and Recreational Guides, Inc. I^ublisliecl n.ine times a year, October to Jtnie. by^ Kduca-
tional and Recreation.'d (jtiides Tnc., 172 Renner Avenue, Xew.ark 8. N. J. Re-entered as second-class matter, October
12, 1942 at the post office at Newark, N. J, under the act of March .I, 1879. Printed in USA— .Ml Rights Reserved.

The NBC University of the Air continues its Absorbing Literary Course

'THE WORLD’S GREAT NOVELS”
... a series of 1 7 broadeasts . . . brilliantly
depicts the chronological develo|)inent of
the novel and offers dramatic studies of
the world’s great literature.

Presented each Friday from 11:30-
12:00 p.m. (E\\ T) by the N ational Broad-
casting Company and independent sta-
tions associated with the NBC Network,
these programs continue the colorful
journey into the field of great novels
begun in 1941. Each week in the current
series of “The World’s Great Novels,” a
distintruished literarv authoritv will dis-
cuss the hook and its place among literary
works of lasting worth.

Comprehensive handbooks w hich sup-

plement the broadcasts of ’’The World’s
Great Novels” are available at 25^ a
copy. Write to NBC. 30 Rockefeller
Plaza, New Aork 20, N. Y.

NBC . . . fully cognizant of its obliga-
tion to its vast listening audience . . .
pledges itself to continue to make its
educational and cultural contributions
the best on the air . . . programs that dis-
tinguish NBC as ’’The jMelivork Most
People Listen to Most.”

The NBC University of the Air also offers these three important courses

The Story of Music Ttiumdays, II:3()-t2 p.m. {EWT)

Home Is Vk h vt You Make It Saturdays, 9-0:30 a. at. (Ell'T)

Our Foreign Poi.icy Saturdays, 7-7:30 p.m. (Elf T)

ational iroadcasting Lompany

America’s No. 1 Network

A Service of Rodie
Corporation of America

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Ocl-ober, 1 945

Volume XII, No. 1

THE WORLD AND THE
CLASSROOM

The gap between the world
and the classroom became
measurably less with the an-
nouncement recently by Arthur
M. Loew,* head of Loew’s Inter-
national, that educational films
will be included in the plans of
a special division organized to
distribute features and shorts in
16mm to every corner of the
globe.

The film-appreciation move-
ment thus gains another acces-
sion of strength; for the news
means that MGM, the largest of
the eight major American film
companies, has taken the lead in
recognizing the possibilities of
the 16mm film. Mr. Loew has
profited from experiences gained
in the distribution of films in
16mm to armies of the United
Nations throughout the world.

Mr. Loew states:

“The war has given a tremendous
impetus to the improvement of 16mm
projectors, sound, and film, and to-
day narrow-gauge film approaches
35mm quality when projected before
audiences of less than 1,000.”

The new Loew unit will em-
ploy mobile projector units to
enable it to penetrate territory
which motion pictures have not

*One of the twin sons of the late
Marcus Loew, founder of the world-
wide Loew chain of theatres and co-
founder of MGM. The other son is
David L. Loew, independent producer,
whose latest picture is “The South-
erner,” directed by Jean Renoir, son
of the famous French painter.

BY WILLIAM LEWIN

Arthur M. Loew

touched. It will have a staff of
specialists trained in 16mm op-
erations. These experts, after
special training in the U. S., will
go overseas beginning about Jan-
uary 1. By that time, every MGM
release will have its 16mm coun-
terpart.

This plan illustrates the basic
distinction between theatrical
and non-theatrical films recently
pointed out by William F. Kruse
of Bell & Howell Company :

“In the case of the theatre, the audi-
ence must be drawn to the medium;
while in the case of the 16mm film,
the medium may be carried to the aud-
ience. Both are essential to our doing
a complete job with films.”

Although release of educa-
tional pictures in the U. S. is no
part of the plan of Loew’s In-

ternational, which is MGM’s for-
eign department, it is considered
likely that sooner or later the
big film companies will release
such pictures here. It is expected
that films other than those of
MGM will also be released to the
classrooms of the world by this
new division, and that all the
regular classroom subjects for
children and for adults will ul-
timately be included.

Officials of the U. S. State
Department and of other United
Nations governments recognize
now that education, like peace,
is indivisible ; that the two are
inseparable ; and that the motion
picture is the most powerful
means toward enlightenment,
peace, culture, and prosperity.
No one can doubt that the pro-
cess will be long and arduous,
with many pitfalls; but the re-
lationship of the world and the
classroom must be defined. The
implications of that definition
must be made clear.

James Shelley Hamilton of the
National Board of Review sum-
marized the situation recently :
“Everything points towards more and
moie recognition of the usefulness of
motion pictures, brought on by the ex-
perience of the war, and it does not
take long these days for a useful thing
to become a necessary thing. A branch
of the movies sure to grow into an in-
creasingly important industry is the
one that will provide teaching films,
not only for schools but for all sorts
of fields of special training.”

That another major Holly-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

wood studio may soon partici-
pate in the educational-film
movement is indicated by the
following excerpt from a letter
to this GUIDE by James Allen
of the Warner studio :

“This company’s interest in educa-
tional films grows out of a desire of
Harry Warner to see the motion pic-
ture developed for educational and
scientific purposes. It has always been
his belief that the medium of the mo-
tion picture would some day bring
great benefits to the public in dis-
seminating information and spreading-
education on a mass basis. This be-
lief has found its reflection in many
of the film biographies and other pic-
tures with educational themes which
Warner Bros, has produced, as well
as in our patriotic short subjects.

“The use of teaching films in
schools depends as much upon the at-
titude of the school systems of the
country as it does upon the production
of such films by the motion-picture in-
dustry. This is a development which
we are watching very carefully.”

The point of view of the for-
eign-relations committee of the
U. S. Senate is expressed by Sen-
ator Tom Connally of Texas :

“The American motion picture is an
ambassador of the United States. It
goes to all countries and serves as an
interpreter of American life. The
American motion picture has influ-
ence upon our foreign relations. Its
responsibilities and its opportunities
will increase.

“It is the responsibility of the film
industry to present to our own people
and to the world products of such a
high standard of merit as will stim-
ulate good-will and understanding
among the peoples of the world. In
a way our films are a mirror of
American life.”

How far may governments and
industries go in influencing the
trend of international relations
through propaganda films? The
Commission on IMotion Pictures
in Education, headed by Mark
A. May of Yale University and
operating through the American
Council on Education under a
grant of $100,000 from the
Hollywood studios, has flatly
warned us that “the time is rap-

idly approaching, if not already
at hand, when the nations of
the world, certainly the great
powers, must be either all dem-
ocratic or all totalitarian.” En-
cyclopaedia Britannica Films is
readying for release reels on
“Democracy” and on “Despot-
ism.” These are destined to be
seen and discussed by millions
of students in many countries.
The commentaries of these reels
are already being translated into
several languages.

Meanwhile, between the ed-
ucational isolationists of our
classrooms and the pedagogical
politicians of our boards of edu-
cation, world problems have to
fight to get into the classrooms.
As Mayor La Guardia reminds
us at the conclusion of each of
his notable radio talks, we must
have “patience and fortitude.”
When Edgar Dale, Ohio State
LIniversity’s educational trail-
blazer, makes such statements
as that “up to now, the develop-
ment of the motion picture has
been . . . prostituted in the en-
tertainment field,” {Film News,
May, 1945) , he naturally arouses
the ire of the film industry’s
best-informed spokesmen. In-
stead of winning the sympathy
of such brilliant trade-paper edi-
tors as Terry Ramsaye of the
Motion Picture Herald, Dale is
misunderstood as one of the
“glib advocates of a suddenly
contrived program of educating
the world and its people for
peace.” It is not enough to cpiote
H. G. Wells’s dictum that “civ-
ilization is a race between edu-
cation and catastrophe.” To fight
isolationism and despotism, we
mu.st first agree among our-
selves as to definitions of these
term s. Democracy, especially,
needs to be defined. Controver-
sialists cease to be enemies once
they bound their ideas east,
west, north, and south — and

agree on a critical vocabulary.
Just what do we mean, for in-
stance, by the term educational
picture? From the standpoint of
America’s 60,000 teachers of
“English,” screen versions of
Jane Eyre, David Copperfield,
A Tcde of Two Cities, The Good
Earth, and Mutiny on the
Bounty are of great educational
interest. They are films to be
discussed and appreciated. We
heighten our enjoyment of them,
indeed, through increasing our
understanding o f them. A s
16mm versions of these subjects
become available, they readily
find their way into our class-
rooms. Where does entertain-
ment leave off and where does
education begin?

Controversies such as arise
from the differing viewpoints
of Messrs. Ramsaye and Dale
would no doubt be resolved if
the opponents could agree on
definitions of critical words.

Impatient reformers must
learn that the road to freedom
should itself be free. We are per-
force “our own contemporaries.”
Half of our world cannot read
or write. Man’s history has been
one of bloody wars for ages.
Ramsaye points out that, “de-
spite the sorry record of the
race, the arts, literature, and re-
ligion have been doing their best
in that direction (toward peace)
for a long time.” Whether these
forces have always done their
“best,” lies in the realms of def-
inition, but the practical, con-
structive point of view so far as
the movies are concerned is
voiced by Samuel Goldwyn {New
York Times, April 22, 1945) :

“The schools could hardly ask for a
better partner than Hollywood has
been in many pictures — pictures that
were made first of all, remember, to
entertain, the way a newspaper is
published to give news. If I were
teaching history, I would be very glad
that my students had a chance to see

IF you put a value of 70% on the average learning of
■ your pupils without using instructional films — then
with instructional films your pupils will test up to 94%
—a gain of 35%!

Seeing instructional films causes pupils to read voluntarily
far more supplementary recommended material.

’• Learning is retained an average of 45% more by the use
of instructional films.

That IS the proven result of a continuing series of com-
prehensive and exhaustive tests made by the highest
authorities in the field of educational research!

Other significant results of these tests show:

1 • Average pupils with the aid of instructional films learn
as much as very bright pupils without them.

2» The use of instructional films vastly increases pupil par-
ticipation in classroom recitation. A larger percentage
volunteers to recite — and does so more frequently.

Instructional films enrich course of study by opening
related fields for pupils’ interest.

To help you enrich the quality of your pupils’ experience and
expedite their learning, the Instructional Films Division of
International Theatrical & Television Corp. offers an authorita-
tive film library from which you may make selections to
integrate successfully with your school curricula.

Upon request, we shall gladly mail to you the descriptive
catalogue of instructional films now available, and keep you
advised of new films as they are produced. Fill out and mail
coupon for your copy.

INSTRUCTIONAL FILMS DIVISION [

INTERNATIONAL THEATRICAL & TELEVISION CORP. \

^ ^a>tce JluUnif. *7lt/uuu^ i6 mm ■

25 West 45th Street New York 1 9, N. Y. \

INSTRUCTIONAL FILMS DIVISION
25 West 45fh Street, New York 19, N. Y.

Please send me, without obligation, your catalogue describing instruc-
tional films that integrate with my specific curriculum.

Name: -

I am particularly interested in:

Position:

Name of School :

Address of School;

WIN n0,000 FIRST PRIZE!

10 Big Additional Prizes!

For Best Amateur Motion Picture on any subject. Write contest director, Internaticnal Theatrical A Television Corp., for complete details.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

An ace Russian entertainment-film director, Sergei Vassillieff (left), introduces William Lewin, an American visual educator
(center), to Vladimir Nicolay, production chief in charge of propaganda and classroom films at Leningrad, in 1932.* Lewin
found that Russia was bringing the world into its classrooms, in terms of Soviet ideology, and using the power of the film for
purposes of notional security. Russia was the first country to utilize the film non-theatrically for government purposes; Britain
came next; and now the U. S. is organizing a program to interpret its aims.

films like ‘Woodrow Wilson,’ ‘North-
west Passage,’ ‘Gone With the Wind,’
‘Union Pacific’ and ‘Abe Lincoln in
Illinois.’ They would be better stu-
dents, and better future citizens and
leaders, after that experience. If I
taught science or literature, I would
be glad that boys and girls had their
interest stirred by movies like ‘Pas-
teur,’ ‘Mine. Curie,’ ‘Yellow Jack,’
‘Wuthering Heights,’ the Dickens and
Mark Twain novels, and a lot of
others.

*Lewin, after helping to launch the
Erpi educational program in the United
States, made a survey of British, French,
German, and Russian documentary and
educational film production during
1930-36. When this hitherto unpublished
photo was made in 1932, Nicolay told
Lewin that 25 percent of Soviet film
production was devoted to education and
propaganda, 75 percent to entertainment;
that Russian entertainment and docu-
mentary directors worked together; that
Vassillieff helped him (Nicolay) put en-
tertainment quality into educational
films, while he helped Vassillieff with
research work for "Chapeyev," a film
that has since become a screen classic.
Russia's film program, even in 1932, was
preparing Russians for the German on-
slaught.

“These were good, and the ones to
come will be better.”

The important thing educa-
tionally is that the film is the in-
strument pa)‘ excellence for
bringing the world into the class-
room. Teachers who neglect to
utilize films that are increas-
ingly democratized are, to that
extent, out of touch with the re-
alities of life. We need fewer
ivory towers in our schools, more
town-meeting-type discussions ;
fewer teachers who live in vacu-
ums, more who breathe the air of
freedom.

We must, for example, make
extensive revisions of texts,
films, slides, and other teaching
devices dealing with Latin
America. The American Council
on Education has completed a
study which challenges nearly
everything we have been teach-
ing about Latin America. We

must enlarge and visualize our
critical vocabularies regarding
India, China, Russia, Japan.
How shall we view such films,
for instance, as the screen ver-
sion of Madame Butterfly? A
class of high- school girls in
Los Angeles, discussing the ques-
tion of what a Japanese girl
should do if betrayed by a lieu-
tenant in the American Navy,
had no pity for the wife who
killed herself when she and her
child were deserted by the Amer-
ican lover. The class had only
disgust — even a dozen years ago
(on March 3, 1933) — for Lieu-
tenant Pinkerton (Cary Grant).
“It changed my opinion of lieu-
tenants and sailors in the Ameri-
can Navy,” said one of the girls.
Should such a film be discussed
in a class? Should the restraint
of brave little Cho-Cho-San be
compared with the pathos of

October, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Oenone, in Tennyson’s poem,
when she is deserted by Paris?
Or contrasted with the furious
passion of Dido when deserted
by Aeneas? Should life-problems
like these be discussed : should a
girl marry a man she loves, even
though he is of a different race,
with different ideas and cus-
toms? What should a girl do
when deserted by the man to
whom she has entrusted all her
happiness? How seriously should
a naval officer take his romance
with a Japanese girl? Are such
romances likely to occur during
America’s occupation of Japan?

Pictures, in any case, hurdle
the barriers of language. Our
films are shown and enjoyed
throughout the world. We, in
turn, see the films of foreign
countries. The greatest problem
of this postwar period, wherever
films are concerned, is the in-
ternational problem. The Film

Daily reports that the Soviet
Government has set up an all-
British film theatre in Moscow,
the first time such a thing has
been done since the Red Revolu-
tion in 1917. Russia, likewise,
has show-windows for its films
in the theatres of New York and
London. Brandon Films of New
York distributes a great many
Russian, French, and Spanish
films to the schools of America,
in 16mm. So long as the inter-
change of foreign films, espe-
cially for classroom use, is on a
free, democratic basis, without
subversive aim, they serve a
useful purpose. But such films
should be carefully scrutinized.
In preparation for World War
II, the Axis nations turned film
producers {The Hollywood Re-
porter, April 20, 1937). They
negotiated film treaties with
many other countries, and began
showing the world their “educa-

tional and cultural’’ films. This
sort of thing requires eternal
vigilance, and that vigilance is
the price of freedom, the respon-
sibility of the classroom, and the
basis of democracy.

Today the major Hollywood
studios face a strong rival in
the Soviet Government’s bid for
European and world-wide mar-
kets for its films. They face an
even stronger rival in the newly
strengthened British film indus-
try, which under the leadership
of J. Arthur Rank, is begin-
ning to offer the world such
multi-million-dollar productions
in Technicolor as the recently
finished screen versions of
Shakespeare’s Henry V and
Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra.
Furthermore, Rank has begun
the development of a program of
children’s films under the direc-
tion of Mary Field, a former
teacher of social studies in Eng-

Make Literature Live With Films i

FOLLOWING EXCELLENT TEACHING FILM CUSTODIAN (M-G-M) SUBJECTS
ARE NOW AVAILABLE WITH STUDY GUIDES FOR CLASSROOM USE:

"Treasure Island" (Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper)

"Tale of Two Cities" (Ronald Colman)

"Mutiny on the Bounty" (Clark Gable, Charles Laughton, Franchot Tone)

"Romeo and Juliet'' (Leslie Howard, Norma Shearer, John Barrymore)

Each subject — 4 reels — Rental $6.00

"The Good Earth" (Louise Rainer and Paul Muni)

3 reels — $4.50
(Special Series Rate)

OTHER SUBJECTS TO BE ADDED LATER

Other Feature Length Films:

As You Like It $17.50 Daniel Boone

Count ot Monte Cristo 17.50 Prisoner ot Zenda

Adventures ot Tom Sawyer 15.00 Last ot the Mohicans

(Special Series Rate)

Write for New Catalog of Selected Motion Pictures

YMCA MOTION PICTURE BUREAU

347 Madison Avenue 19 So. LaSalle Street 710 Burt Building 351 Turk Street

New York 17, N. Y. Chicago 3, III. Dallas 1, Texas San Francisco 2, Calit.

15.00

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

land and the leading expert on
the staff of Gaumont-British
Instructional Films. Her films
will bring to the schools of the
world an interpretation of Brit-
ish character and ideals in terms
of childhood. Such films will be
interchanged with, for example,
the American-made Forum Edi-
tion of The March of Time in
16mm, destined to bring world
problems into classrooms every-
where. Distributed also by The
March of Time will be a series
of nine reels visualizing the
meanings of the 800 words in the
Basic English vocabulary, a se-
ries with which Harvard Uni-
versity’s scholars will enter the
“little red schoolhouses’’ of for-
eign countries, as well as univer-
sity classrooms everywhere.

This upward trend in the ex-
tensiveness and intensiveness of
education will double and triple
the cost of education. The Re-
search Division of the National
Education Association says a
good educational program will
cost the United States nearly
five billions a year, or twice
what we are spending now.

If our government spent two
billion dollars on a laboratory to
develop a bomb that could win
the bloodiest war in history, is
it not conceivable that the same
government would contribute a
fraction of that sum to advance
the cause of peace? Democratic
procedures alone can bring the
truth about the world and its
people to the rising generation.
Those procedures, though expen-

sive, will be cheaper than a
Third World War.

Let us give sober thought to
the words of Winston Churchill,
who stated in a notable message
to Parliament:

“The future of the world is left to
highly educated races who alone can
handle the scientific apparatus neces-
sary for preeminence in peace or sur-
vival in war.”

The implication of these fate-
ful words is clear : we must ap-
ply scientific instruments to the
work of education, and the test
of our success must increasingly
be a measure of our ability to
make effective use of modern
a Kclio graphic* tools to build a
secure world.

*Word coined by Dr. Melvin Brod-
shaug of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Films, Inc.

Hollywood's Interest in Classroom Films

BY GARDNER L. HART

Director, Commission on Motion Pictures, American Council on Education

Never before has so much use
been made of audio-visual ma-
terials as during the recent
war. The armed forces of the
United States — the Army, Navy,
Coast Guard, and Marine Corps
— have produced and distributed
many thousands of miles of mo-
tion pictures as well as thou-
sands of filmstrips to give their
men, at home and in the far cor-
ners of the world, the benefit of
the most effective methods of
acquiring technical skills, gen-
eral information, and proper at-
titudes to assist them in solving
the complex problems of modern
warfare.

*Alice V. Keliher, New York Uni-
versity, “Human Relations Series.”

In addition to the tremendous
number of pictures produced by
the armed services, the United
States Office of Education has
produced approximately five
hundred training film units de-
signed to speed up the produc-
tion of war materials. Each of
these units consisted of a mo-
tion-picture film, a filmstrip,
and a teacher’s manual. A large
number of industries have also
made extensive use of motion-
picture films and other audio-
visual materials in their train-
ing programs. These agencies,
with almost unlimited resources
in personnel and finance, have
developed the production and
use of audio-visual materials to
a very high degree of efficiency.

Not only have they improved the
pre-war training films, but new
patterns and new uses for films
have been discovered.

Prior to 1942 some work had
been done in utilizing films in
developing attitudes.* During
the war, however, this kind of
film has been developed exten-
sively by the Army and Navy,
and it is quite probable that
schools can effectively use the
pattern of many of these atti-
tude films in their instructional
programs. Another kind of film
which has been developed dur-
ing the war is that which is de-
signed specifically to present a
problem. This type may be called
the provocative film. These films
have fine potentialities in cer-

October, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

tain phases of mathematics, sci-
ence, and other subjects where
problems can be presented pic-
torially to the class. These films
give no information. They pre-
sent a problem as it would occur
under actual conditions.

Today we face two major
problems : How can these new
methods and techniques be utili-
zed by educational institutions?
What films and other audio-
visual materials are most needed
by schools?

Early in 1944, the Commis-
sion on Motion Pictures was es-
tablished by the American Coun-
cil on Education through a grant
by the eight major Hollywood
producers to assist in finding the
answers to some of these com-
plex problems. The Commission
is composed of the following
members: Mark A. May (chair-
man), Director of the Institute
of Human Relations, Yale Uni-
versity; Wallace W. Atwood,
President of Clark University;
Mary D. Barnes, Principal of
William Livingston School No.
10, Elizabeth, New Jersey;
George S. Counts, Director of the
Division of the Foundations of
Education, Teachers College, Co-
lumbia University ; Edmund E.
Day, President of Cornell Uni-
versity; Willard E. Givens, Ex-
ecutive Secretary of the National
Education Association ; George
N. Shuster, President of Hunter
College; A. L. Threlkeld, Super-
intendent of Schools, Montclair,
New Jersey ; and George F. Zook
(ex officio). President of the
American Council on Education.

One of the first jobs under-
taken by this group of outstand-
ing educators was a careful eval-
uation and analysis of the re-
sults of various surveys which
had been made to determine
what audio-visual materials are
most needed by schools. One of
the best sources of informa-

Gordner L. Hart

tion was the recent unpublished
American Council Report by
Miss Helen Hardt Seaton en-
titled, “Report of the Study of
Teacher Opinion on Factors Im-
peding More Extensive and In-
tensive Use of Motion Pictures
in Schools.” In addition to an-
alyzing this and other surveys
already completed, the Commis-
sion conducted an extensive sur-
vey of its own, to be certain that
the subject-matter fields chosen
were those in which new pro-
ductions were most needed. The
conclusion reached was that
there is a great need for new
productions in the fields of
democracy, geography, English,
mathematics, art, and health.

Therefore, the Commission ap-
pointed a committee of special-
ists in the field of democracy to
study the problem carefully and
to recommend to the Commis-
sion specific topics which should
be developed into motion-picture
films and other audio-visual ma-
terials. Dr. Counts was ap-
pointed chairman of this com-
mittee and the following men
were asked to serve as members :
Roger N. Baldwin, Director of

the Civil Liberties Union; Lt.
Colonel William S. Briscoe of
the War Department; William
G. Carr of the National Educa-
tion Association; Robert Cush-
man of Cornell University; Er-
ling M. Hunt of Teachers Col-
lege, Columbia University; How-
ard E. Wilson of Harvard Uni-
versity ; and Dr. May. A series of
meetings were held in New York
City, and a comprehensive out-
line of needed productions re-
sulted. These recommendations
are grouped under the following
major headings: I. Freedom of
the Person ; II. Economic Free-
dom; III. Political Freedom; IV.
Freedom of the Mind; V. Social
Freedom ; VI. Freedom of Con-
science ; and VII. Freedom and
Justice for All.

After receiving the report of
the democracy committee, the
research staff of the Commis-
sion proceeded to work out: (1)
specifically what each film in the
series was to teach; (2) the top-
ics to be covered in each film ;
(3) a story which might serve as
the basis for a motion picture
scenario; and (4) selected refer-
ences to give a script writer the
necessary background needed to
prepare the material for a mo-
tion picture production. When
this phase of the work has been
completed, it is sent out for an-
alysis and evaluation. After the
necessary revisions are made, it
is turned over to a group of pro-
fessional script writers for de-
velopment into a motion picture
or filmstrip treatment. The
treatment is the stage of pro-
duction which precedes the writ-
ing of a formal scenario. It con-
sists of the film story in narra-
tive form. These treatments are
easy to read and understand and
also give a very specific idea as
to the scope, content and story
of the film. After the treatments
are received from the script

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

The Outstanding Splicer

for 16mm Film — the famous

GRISWOLD

FILM

SPLICER

GRISWOLD FUM SPUCER

juNKmMOoaie'ii. No

The QRISWOLD
“Junior Model”
for 1 6 mm and
8mm film is shown
here. Like all
Q R I SWO L U
models it splices
both sound and
silent films with
all widths of oi>er-
lap.

The superiority of GRISWOLD Film Splicers is
generally recognized. The 16mm models are no ex-
ception. All have the same exclusive features of
design that make ACCURATE film splicing a quick,
easy job for amateur or professional. All have the same
superior precision construction, quality of materials
and skilled workmanship. All are high-class instru-
ments in every respect. Every one assures satisfac-
tion to the purchaser from every angle — including
price.

Until recently the entire GRISWOLD production
has been going on top priority to the U. S. armed
services. Now, limited quantities are available with-
out priorities. Orders will be filled as rapidly as
conditions permit.

GRISWOLD MACHINE WORKS

PORT JEFFERSON, NEW YORK

writer, they are submitted to ex-
perts in the subject-matter field
covered by the proposed film.
Copies are also sent to a group
of specialists in the field of
audio-visual instruction for their
critical analysis. The sugges-
tions received from these sources
are then compiled and made
available with the treatment to
serve as a basis for a scenario.

Due to the great need for pro-
ductions in the field of geog-
raphy, the Commission, through
the collaboration of President
Atwood and F. Dean McClusky
of Scarborough School, has de-
veloped a new course in world
geography designed to give high-
school students a better under-
standing of postwar geography.
The film objectives have been

prepared to cover the various
phases of this new course en-
titled, “Widening Our Hori-
zons.” A script writer has been
engaged and is now developing
a scenario on each of these units.
This material will be checked,
evaluated, and revised before the
films go into production, accord-
ing to the same system used for
the democracy materials.

Preliminary work has been
done also in the fields of mathe-
matics, art, teacher training, and
health. The work of the Commis-
sion is to cover a five-year per-
iod, and the results of the study
are to be made available without
charge or obligation to anyone
interested in the production of
instructional films.

It is indicated that there will
be a tremendous increase in the
production and use of instruc-
tional films now that the war is
over. It is the earnest desire of
the Commission to assist not
only in the production of the best
and most effective type of audio-
visual materials but to assist in
making these materials readily
available to classes in which they
are needed.

600% Increase in 16mm

Eastman Kodak reports that
si.x times as much 16mm film
was used by the armed forces
each year during the war as was
used normally in an average pre-
war year.

Schools Get Army Films

New York City schools have
received a collection of 475 films
originally used in the army
training program.

Health Films

For a descriptive list of 219
films on health and medical sub-
jects, together with supplemen-
tary lists, send 25c to American
Film Center, Inc., 45 Rockefel-
ler Plaza, New York 20, N. Y.

October, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

WHO'S WHO IN AUDIO-VISUAL

EDUCATION

No. 31: Melvin Brodshaug

If there is one thing in connec-
tion with his work which, by his
own confession, Mel Brodshaug
regards with a feeling akin to
worship, it is “system.”

This high regard for being
systematic is reflected in Brod-
shaug’s work as Director of Re-
search for E.B. Films. It is pos-
sible that Mel learned the value
of system when as a farm youth
he ran a string of winter traps
up and down the valley of the
Red River of the North. Possibly
he learned that system was a vi-
tal part of life on a North Da-
kota wheat farm. It had become
a well ordered habit by the time
he arrived in New York in 1928
to work towards his doctor’s
degree, tutoring to defray ex-
penses.

As Director of Research with
• Erpi and later with its succes-
sor, E.B. Films, Brodshaug’s de-
partment has been a model of
system; and this is as it should
1 be, for to Mel is given, under the
overall direction of Dr. V. C.
Arnspiger, the task of develop-
ing the Britannica program of
j classroom films according to
I a well-ordered system. He must
ji maintain a systematic survey of
;! all educational offerings and
i trends as a basis for determining
ji what subjects should be de-
I veloped for film study by Britan-
nica Films. He must direct the
i.j activities of a staff of Research
1 Associates i n selecting the
I proper material for film devel-
I opment from the various sub-
ject-matter fields, and, finally,
I he must see these efforts even-
I tuate into authentic, well-poised
i scenario form ready for produc-

Melvin Brodshaug

tion. Along with this, he directs
the construction of the teacher’s
guide or handbook for use with
each film produced.

Brodshaug’s work does not
end here by any means. There
are the fields of utilization and
evaluation research which have
scarcely been tapped and in
which a start must be made
either through Britannica or
other organizations or individ-
uals competent to do the work;
for the classroom sound film
is still in its infancy, and labori-
ous as well as systematic re-
searches are vital to the progress
of instruction through the
sound-film medium.

Furthermore, there are other
instructional fields besides those
of the formal educational offer-
ing: such as the home, pre-
school training, adult education,
physiotherapy, and the whole
field of rehabilitation and re-
education. Brodshaug, along
with his associates, is systemat-

ically attacking problems of
these newer fields.

Like many others of Britan-
nica Films’ research and produc-
tion staff, Mel came from the
West. He was born in Davenport,
North Dakota, in 1900 and ma-
triculated in a one-room rural
schoolhouse as soon as the local
authorities would allow him to
start his formal education. Be-
fore leaving North Dakota, he
graduated from Fargo High
School, received his Bachelor of
Science degree at North Dakota
Agricultural College in 1923,
and thereafter served as Prin-
cipal and as Superintendent of
Schools in various parts of the
state until 1928. Meanwhile,
courses at the University of Chi-
cago had netted him his Master’s
degree in 1927. The following
year he entered Columbia Uni-
versity in New York City, from
which institution he received his
Ph.D. degree in 1931.

As evidence of a part of Mel’s
system, that of overlapping his
activities, he joined forces with
Erpi in the middle of 1930, tak-
ing over the assignment of Re-
search Associate in charge of
Erpi’s science subjects. After
employing his pen in designing
films at the elementary level,
Brodshaug was sent by Arns-
piger to the University of Chi-
cago to initiate collaboration be-
tween the two institutions in the
way of science productions at
the college level. These had a
great deal to do with Chicago’s
later decision to acquire the
Erpi interests in classroom
films.

In the course of producing
certain of these subjects, Brod-
shaug became interested in the

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

possibilities of animated draw-
ings as a significant part of in-
structional films. Since that
time, animated drawings, usu-
ally under his direction, have
formed an increasingly import-
ant part of the content of Brit-
annica’s films. Brodshaug is
perhaps one of the best-informed
authorities in this country on the
subject of animation.

When he has a little time to
spare, he usually spends it lec-
turing or teaching in the audio-
visual field. His engagements for
summer sessions have included
Syracuse University and the
University of British Columbia.

Since Mel’s work occupies him
so fully, he has little time for
hobbies. One of these, however,
is the collection of literature on
all phases of motion pictures.
With his usual persistence and
systematic effort, he has ac-
quired an enviable collection of
books in this field. A second
hobby is to try out the content
of projected films in the primary
grades on his daughter, Joan, or
later on his other daughter,
Karin. Mel exercises a third
hobby : while on annual vacation
he usually goes to a Maine or
New Hampshire beach and does
absolutely nothing but lie in the
sun and gaze at the rolling sea,
which probably reminds him of
his waving North Dakota fields
of grain. And these, incidentally,
are a fourth hobby, characteris-
tic of Mel’s application of sys-
tem to every activity. One farm
lies in the relatively moist Red
River Valley, which always pro-
vides a crop, but in some years
excessive rains cut down the
number of bushels per acre, so
Mel has a second wheat farm in
the dry belt which on these oc-
casions produces a bumper crop.

No. 32: James A. Brill

According to Jim Brill, Direc-

James A. Brill

tor of Production for Encyclo-
paedia Britannica Films Inc.,
the one thing he has never been
able to resist is a challenge.

“And just when I thought I
was conquering this weakness,’’
he says, “along in 1929 came a
challenge from my old friend
and fellow teacher, V. C. Arns-
piger, asking me to help start
Erpi’s instructional sound film
venture in New York. This was
practically the only challenge
that could have lured me away
from the Southwest, where I
was having a wonderful time
teaching, mixing in civic affairs
and, of course, doing a lot of
hunting and fishing.”

Once in New York, the chal-
lenges came quickly and in great
variety. Part of the basis of
Brill’s choice for the position
was his somewhat unorthodox
teaching, his journalistic experi-
ence and his vivid imagination.
(To these, Arthur Edwin Krows,
writing last year in Educa-
tional Screen, added “a Will
Rogers-like sense of humor.”)
Brill claims this latter has been
completely worn out by the vicis-
situdes of the past sixteen years
in instructional sound films. It is
probable, however, that Arns-
piger had another qualification

of Brill’s in mind, namely, a
great breadth of experience —
professional music work, teach-
ing musico-dramatic groups in
schools and civic organizations,
news reporting and editing,
scout executive work, and suc-
cessful ventures into radio with
school talent programs as well
as his own professional groups.
All these qualities, along with an
eagerness to accept challenges,
would be needed of staff mem-
bers developing a classroom
motion-picture program from
“scratch.” From his original as-
signment of writing scripts for
Fine Arts films. Brill rose to the
position of Director of Produc-
tion for Erpi films in 1939, a
position he now holds with En-
cyclopaedia Britannica Films
Inc.

Brill was born in Buena Vista,
Ohio, January 22, 1891, third
son of a Methodist minister who
pioneered to Oklahoma in time
for Jim to graduate from Logan
County High School in Guthrie
in 1908. After two years in Ep-
worth University in Oklahoma
City, his developing musical tal-
ent took him into Lyceum and
Chautauqua work for four and
a half years, after which he re-
turned to school at the Univer-
sity of Oklahoma. Here he re-
ceived the degree of Bachelor of
Fine Arts, after having been ap-
pointed Scholar in Music and
Director of the University band.
He attended the School of In-
dustrial Art in Philadelphia for
a year at the suggestion of the
Fine Arts faculty of his Alma
Mater in preparation for joining
the Fine Arts staff at the Uni-
versity. World War I intervened
and Brill served for nearly two
years with the Rainbow Division
in France, participating in eight
engagements and serving with
the Army of Occupation. Re-
turning to the University of

October, 1 945

Oklahoma in 1919, he taught in
the Fine Arts Department for
one year and then took the posi-
tion of Director of High School
Music in Drumright, Oklahoma.
After six years he was called to
a similar position in the schools
of Oklahoma City, where he
served until Arnspiger invited
him to New York at the begin-
ning of the film venture. Shortly
thereafter, he completed the
work for his M.A. degree at
Teachers College, Columbia Uni-
versity, and had most of his
points worked out toward the
Doctor of Education degree
when Erpi’s business calls be-
came too heavy to permit his
continuing a formal educational
program.

Brill is a member of Beta
Theta Pi, Phi Mu Alpha (mu-
sic) , and Sigma Delta Chi (jour-
nalistic) fraternities.

Brill developed scripts run-
ning the whole gamut of instruc-
tion from “Adventures of Bunny
Rabbit” to “The Symphony Or-
chestra,” “The Nervous Sys-
tem,” and “Problems of Hous-
ing.” He wandered into the Erpi
recording studio in 1930 shortly
after his arrival in New York
and found that the narrator for
a film had failed to appear. Re-
calling his radio experience, he
took over the job of narration,
and Jim Brill’s voice today is
heard on all Erpi subjects save
one. He is known as “The Voice
of Erpi,” a voice heard daily by
hundreds of thousands of school
children.

Active interest in many fields
leaves Brill nowadays with a
host of hobbies. Archery comes
first at the moment, and many
Westchester County deer (Brill
lives in Yonkers, N. Y.) will
shudder at “near misses” this
autumn. Fishing ranks next, and
a cabin is being built on a favor-
ite Canadian lake. There’s wood-

FiLM AND RADIO GUIDE

working too — many charming
pieces grace the Brill home — and
most of the wall paintings are
his own. Then there’s the an-
nual school play at School 5,
which Jim has written and di-
rected for years. Having an
aversion to cities and crowds,
Jim bought an Arkansas farm to
which he vows to escape when-
ever the going gets too tough.

The high moment of Jim’s
career, to hear him tell it, how-
ever, may have come in a sum-
mer directing tour through his
beloved West, particularly the
Rocky Mountains, in connection
with a Geology film series. Or
might it have been the long days
and nights of fog, fog horns, and
fishing nets on the Atlantic
banks, photographing “The New
England Fishermen”? Or could
it have been his contact with a
rattlesnake in Nebraska while
directing the film, “Pioneers of
the Plains”? Or was it in Flor-
ida when he made his first air-
plane flight, directing the Erpi
flight training films? Or when
he achieved the impossible by
singing all four voices of a male
quartet for another Erpi film?
Or is it perhaps the challenge of
tomorrow, working with Clyde
Arnspiger and Mel Brodshaug
on the expanding research and
production program of Encyclo-
paedia Britannica Films? Since
the last named is the latest chal-
lenge, it is probable Jim Brill
would call it the most interest-
ing period of his career.

Ryan Represents EBF in
Eastern Iowa

Ryan Visual Aids Service,
409-11 Harrison St., Davenport,
Iowa, leading film library and
equipment dealer in Iowa, has
been given the franchise for En-
cyclopaedia Britannica Films in
the eastern part of the state.

E. A. Ryan, manager of the
company, is also school distribu-
tor for Victor projectors in the
69 counties of Eastern Iowa and
15 counties of Western Illinois.
He handles SVE and Golde slide
projectors, and Spencer Deline-
ascopes. He has one of the larg-
est lantern-slide libraries in the
world, which he purchased from
Victor Animatograph several
years ago and which includes re-
ligious subjects mainly. Mr.
Ryan “grew up with Victor,”
serving for 17 years as assistant
to Ernie Schroeder, general
sales manager.

Radiant's Notable Plan for Plac-
ing Veterans in the Audio-
Visual Field

A tabulation of the qualifica-
tions of men and women who
have served in Army and Navy
film libraries, exchanges, and
production units and who now
wish to enter the visual-educa-
tion field, printed on 86 sheets,
has been sent to every U. S. man-
ufacturer, dealer, distributor,
and producer in the audio-visual
field, as well as to those in allied
fields. More than 600 veterans
and their abilities, training, ex-
perience, and preferences as to
locations, types of work, and sal-
ary requirements are listed. Re-
ply blanks and simple, clear in-
structions accompany the data
sheets. Supervisor of the plan is
Adolph Wertheimer, vice presi-
dent of Radiant Maufacturing
Company, whose screens have
been used by the armed forces
of the Allies throughout the
world.

Released shortly before V-J
Day, the plan was eighteen
months in preparation. It is a
remarkably thorough analysis.
Hats off to Radiant for its en-
terprise, foresight, and generos-
ity!

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

Milton J. Salzburg and Harold Baumstone

A 16mm Success Story

Ten years ago Pictorial Films,
Inc., was established as a “stock-
shot” film library by Milton J.
Salzburg and Harold Baumstone,
supplying “stock” scenes to va-
rious commercial producers. Ac-
quiring a large library of such
films of every conceivable de-
scription, they augmented their
activities by producing short
subjects, making use of their
combined abilities.

With Milton Salzburg as edi-
tor and technician, Harold
Baumstone as script writer and
commentator, and their large
library at their finger-tips, they
had the prerequisites of a pro-
duction unit. Sports, documen-
taries, novelties and travel sub-
jects were soon rolling off the
“production line” and being dis-
tributed to independent theaters.
Two of the outstanding films
they produced were Thunder
Over the Orient and Sea of
Strife.

The 16mm industry was al-
most an unknown quantity, but
the demand for product soon be-
came evident. Salzburg and
Baumstone began to release their
product to the 16mm market.

As the 16mm field widened,
they found themselves devoting
their entire time to the new in-
dustry.

Burning bridges behind them,
they sold their “stock-shot” li-
brary and plunged into 16mm.

Soon they entered the growing
and highly competitive 16mm
feature-film market. They ac-
quired several good full-length
pictures and made them avail-
able to libraries and dealers
throughout the country. Their
production of shorts meanwhile
continued.

In 1940 they embarked upon
a series of dramatic two-reel
films on American History de-
signed for school use. They pro-
duced Our Constitution, Our
BUI of Rights, Our Declaration
of Independence, Our Louisiana
Purchase and Our Monroe Doc-
trine. At the same time, they se-
cured the 16mm rights to PRC
Pictures’ entire output, number-
ing forty pictures a year.

In 1943, they acquired from
David 0. Selznick the 16mm
rights to The Adventures of Tom
Saivyer and The Prisoner of
Zenda, paying the highest roy-
alty for such 16mm rights ever
paid up to that time.

By now Pictorial was one of
the leaders in the 16mm indus-
try. Further expansion was de-
manded by the rapid progress
of the industry.

The time was ripe to enter the
home-movie field. They went
into this field with the new
trade-name of Pictoreels, intro-
ducing a series of reels which
provided home entertainment
and which are now sold by photo
supply dealers everywhere.

Continuing their policy of ac-
quiring outstanding films, they
secured the exclusive 16mm dis-
tribution rights to RKO’s This Is
America series of documentar-
ies, which competes with The
March of Time; David Loew and
Albert Lewin’s So Ends Our
Night; and Sol Lesser’s Three’s
a Family.

In January, 1945, Pictorial
Films, Inc., became a subsidiary
of Pathe Industries, Inc., con-
tinuing under the enterprising
and intelligent guidance of Mil-
ton Salzburg, as president, and

Harold Baumstone, as vice-pres-
ident. The end of the war en-
ables the company to look for-
ward to a rapidly expanding or-
ganization in every phase of
16mm operations — home movies,
feature films, educational films,
and commercial films — all co-
ordinated by ten years of exper-
ience and growth. A host of
friends wish Milton and Harold
increasing success in their serv-
ice to a good cause.

Minnesota Visual Education
Service

Paul Wendt, Director of Vis-
ual Education at the University
of Minnesota, is conducting a
service which excels in two
fields :

(1) There is a central Visual
Education Service at Minnesota
for supplying the campus with
all types of visual aids. This
service is considered to be at
least ten times larger than any
comparable service at the college
level in the U. S.

(2) The University of Min-
nesota’s Visual Education Serv-
ice has also produced more than
eighty textfilms during the past
ten years.

Professor Wendt not only
manages the School-Film Li-
brary, but also teaches courses
in visual aids in the University’s
College of Education and a
course in the appreciation of mo-
tion pictures in the University’s
General College. Maintaining a
broad outlook on the whole field
of audio-visual education, he
controls a comprehensive series
of projects, covering every as-
pect of the field.

October, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

The Men Behind the Expansion of
Pictorial Films^ Inc.

Above — Milton Salzburg, president. Below — Salzburg and Horold Boumstone, vice-president of Pictorial Films.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDZ

October, 1945

16MM EXCHANGE PRACTICES

BY B. A. AUGHINBAUGH

EDITOR’S NOTE : This is the
sixteenth article in a valuable
series of monthly contributions
to the GUIDE by B. A. Aughin-
baugh, trail-blazing Director of
the Slide and Film Exchange of
Ohio’s State Department of
Education. Mr. Aughinbaugh’s
headquarters at Columbus em-
ploys 35 people and handles
800 shipments of slides and
films daily. Mr. Aughinbaugh,
therefore, knows whereof he

speaks. The present series con-
stitutes the first detailed and
pragmatic discussion of the ad-
ministration of visual education
on a state-wide basis. The next
article will offer suggestions to
teachers on selecting educational
films. Director Aughinbaugh
feels that the series will never be
complete, but when enough chap-
ters have been published, he
plans to make the material avail-
able in book form. — W. L.

No. 16. Patrons' Complaints

Complaints come mostly from
new patrons who are unin-
formed about exchange proce-
dures and the reasons for them.
Such complaints may readily be
classified. They follow recurring
patterns. A set of well-composed
form-letters, therefore, may be
employed to answer them. In
using such form-letters, how-
ever, one must be careful not to
commit the error that a rail-
road passenger-agent once made.
It seems that a patron of the
road wrote a severe letter bit-
terly complaining about finding
bedbugs in the road’s sleeping
cars. In due time he received
from the passenger agent a most
courteous and apologetic letter.
It was a form-letter, of course,
but the patron was not aware
of this fact ; his ego was greatly
flattered by such humbleness
shown him by so big a corpora-
tion. His elation was quashed,
however, when he chanced upon
a n inter-office memorandum
which, by mistake, had slipped
into the envelope along with the

B. A. Aughinbaugh

humble form-letter. The inter-
office memorandum read, “Send
this guy a bug letter.’’ If one
should ever let such a boner as
that slip by, he will be like Mark
Twain’s cat, which Mark says
sat down on a red-hot stove-lid.
Mark reports that the cat never
sat down on another red-hot
stove-lid and, moreover, it never
sat down on a cold one.

We are not able to say which

complaint is most frequently re-
ceived, but it is probably from a
group that exchange personnel
the world over have labeled the
“iddits.” This is a synthetic
word derived from the initials of
“I didn’t do it.’’ The genus “id-
dits’’ is peculiar. In the first
place, it seldom investigates a
reported damage or loss ; in the
second place, it usually takes
such reports as very personal af-
fronts. To meet the “iddits” ob-
jections aforehand, an exchange
must make it a rule that without
argument the first on the draw
wins the battle. Thus, if the pa-
tron notifies the exchange that
he has found a loss or damage
before the exchange notifies him
that it has discovered the loss or
damage, then the patron wins
and the exchange accepts the
responsibility. But if matters are
the other way round, then the
patron pays. The exchange
should wrap its films with one-
time inspection bands which, if
broken, decide that the item was
used, but the breaking of this
band should not forfeit the pa-
tron’s right to report that he

Ocfober, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

has discovered a damage which
was not noted on the wrapper-
band. The patron’s report, how-
ever, must be made immediately
and not delayed until the film
(or slide) returns to the ex-
change and the loss or damage
is noted there.

As to lost shipments, the “id-
dits” are safe enough when on
the receiving end but not on the
returning end. The exchange
holds itself responsible until the
patron takes a shipment from
the public carrier. Thereafter
the consignee is responsible un-
til the exchange receives it back
from the public carrier.

One favorite alibi of an “id-
dit” is the assertion that a
film which he has been accused
of damaging was shrunk or
stretched. After checking many
such claims with the Berndt-
Maurer film checking gauge, we
can report that although we
have never found a piece of per-
fect film (i.e., whose check
showed zero on the gauge), we
have found none that put the
gauge pointer below minus 1 or
above plus 1. This is the degree
of tolerance allowed by any prop-
erly constructed projector. In
view of our data, we would say
that more often than not the tol-
ercmce of the projector is at
fault when repeated tearing of
the film occurs. We assume of
course that the threading was
properly done, the film-track
was clean, and the film was not
so “green” as to stick. This tol-
erance of a projector, by the
way, is one of the most marvel-
ous features of the device. We
are amazed at the ability of
projectors to put a tooth of the
intermittent into the sprocket
hole of the film when the film
is moving a foot a second, start-
ing from rest, and stopping mo-
tionless 16 to 24 times in each
second ! That is precision. Doubt-
less there are few other mechan-

isms called upon for such accur-
acy in timing. But back to our
subject, “Patron Complaints.”

Next to the “iddits” come the
“tdmms” ( “that -doesn’t -mean-
me’s”). These members of the
species homo sapiens believe,
exchange patrons. They believe,
for example, that order forms
were made for the other fellow
but not them. Hence, they make
their own, or they disregard
the lines and columns on the
form provided for them. These
“tdmms” seldom obtain the most
out of the service offered them
because they apparently do not
like to read aything more pro-
found than a comic sheet or any-
thing printed in type smaller
than newspaper headlines. If
they are teachers, they may be-
long to that group to which the
principal most frequently re-
turns attendance and other re-
ports for correction. They may
become panicky, obstinate, or
listless when they encounter any
type of business form. Under
such conditions, the sooner they
are relieved of composing or-
ders, and the sooner the work is
assigned to a business clerk, the
sooner the school will achieve
desirable results.

Everyone of course encount-
ers the “idrs.” These are the
“I-don’t-r e a d s” or “I-didn’t-
reads.” No matter how carefully
or comprehensively regulations,
picture descriptions, or other es-
sential data are set forth, the
“idrs” will not know about it,
and hence must have special at-
tention. Even then they expect
that “full details” regarding a
dozen questions should be given
them in not over ten one-syllable
words. They refuse to “jump
with the common herd” or “dip
their porridge from the common
dish.” To them there is but one
patron. They never visualize
their order arriving at the ex-
change amid a hundred others.

preceded by hundreds more.
“Why waste time reading
through directions when a three-
cent stamp will bring special at-
tention?” seems to be their rea-
soning. Of course, the exchange
should give this special atten-
tion ungrudgingly ; but it would
do well to refer the writer to
the pages and paragraphs of the
printed regulations rather than
to give a specific reply. This may
(we say “may” with a degree of
pessimism) teach the question-
writer how to use the printed
material furnished for the bene-
fit of all. Specific answers may
tend only to increase his “idr”
habit. You can’t cure a habit by
catering to it.

If any exchange manager
reading this or other articles of
this series has supplemental
data or criticisms to offer at any
time, we shall be glad to give
space to him in our column.

The next article is entitled
Suggestions to Teachers on How
to Select Educational Motion
Pictures.

Colorado Bulletin Cautions
Against Film Damage

Recently Miss Delia Trolinger,
Director of the Bureau of Visual
Instruction in the Extension Di-
vision of the University of Col-
orado sent out a bulletin to her
patrons, some excerpts from
which we have her permission to
pass on to our readers :

Recently, in several cases of serious
film damage, the school official has
reported that “their projector” could
not have done the damage since “their
machine cannot damage films.” Frank-
ly so far as we have been able to dis-
cover, no such machine is made. It is
true that two or three types of pro-
jectors do have safety devices which
catch certain types of damage under
certain conditions; but no safety de-
vice takes the place of careful thread-
ing and constant supervision by the
operator. It is unfortunate that some

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

salesmen have stressed the safety de-
vice so strongly that the purchaser of
the machine has misunderstood about
danger under other conditions.

We inspect films carefully, inch by
inch, after they are returned to us fol-
lowing each booking. Sometimes the
tension on the rewind stands is not as
great as in the projector, and a patch
which held all right in the rewinding,
will separate in a machine.

Film damage is expensive and in
the great majority of cases (some say
100 percent of the cases) is avoidable.
It does require extreme care in thread-
ing the projector and corrstant super-
vision to avoid damage, but please do
not expect the machine to take the
place of a careful and experienced
operator.

Previous Articles in the Series
by Aughinbaugh

Following is a list of previ-
ous articles contributed to the
GUIDE by B. A. Aughinbaugh:

1. J a n., 1 9 4 4, “Unsatisfactory

Reels.”

2. Feb., 1944, “How to Stop Film
Deletion by Customers.”

3. March, 1944, “That Old Alibi: We
Didn’t Use It.”

4. April, 1944, “Inspection Records.”

5. May, 1944, “Film Inspection Pro-
cedures.”

6. June, 1944, “Booking.”

7. October, 1944, “Shipping Films.”

8. November, 1944, “Cataloging”
and “The Evolution of Visual Com-
munication.”

9. December, 1944, “Don’t Blame It
on the ‘Fillum,’ ” and “A Reply to a
Reply.”

10. January, 1945, “Patron Inquir-
ies.”

11. February, 1945, “Selecting Pic-
tures.”

12. March, 1945, “Transportation
Problems.”

13. April, 1945, “Lantern Slides.”

14. May, 1945, “Screens.”

15. June, 1945, “Damage Insurance
and How to Figiue Damage Assess-
ments.”

The Hollywood Quarterly

A professional quarterly, deal-
ing with technical and creative
problems of films, radio, and tel-

Jamison Handy, whose organization
has received an "E" award for ex-
cellence in the production of train-
ing films and filmstrips.

evision, as well as educational
potentialities of these media,
makes its bow this fall under the
joint sponsorship of the Univer-
sity of California and the
Hollywood Writers Mobilization.
Items of interest to readers of
Film and Radio Guide will be
reprinted in these pages. The
subscription price of the Quar-
terly is $4 a year.

Cartoons for Teaching
Grammar and Punctuation

J. S. Bierly, English instruc-
tor at the National Training
School for Boys, Washington,
U. C., was the first to submit to
this GUIDE cartoons as aids
in the teaching of English. His
rough sketches, done on sheets
of 4" X 6" paper, in ink and with
colored pencils, with typing in
red and black, were made for
use in an opaque projector. They
were suggested by Munro Leaf’s
Grammar Can Be Fun. Mr.
Bierly is expanding his series to
make several sets on Grammar,
Punctuation, Usage, and Word
Study. A free subscription goes
to Mr. Bierly, with the compli-
ments of the GUIDE.

Aughinbaugh's Articles

Widely Acclaimed

B. A. Aughinbaugh, Director
of the Ohio Slide & Film Ex-
change, is receiving many inter-
esting letters on his series of
articles in the GUIDE. Here
are excerpts from comments by
notable experts in the 16mm
field :

Paul Wendt, Director, Visual Edu-
cation Service, University of Minne-
sota, writes: “That series of articles
you are writing for Film & Radio
Guide on 16mm Exchange Practices
should certainly be published in book
form for the use of administrators
and consumers all over the country. I
sincerely hope you will find time to
carry this project out.”

C. R. Reagan, Associate Chief, U. S.
Bureau of Motion Pictures, Office of
War Information, writes: I am sure
I am one of many appreciating your
series of articles in Lewin’s maga-
zine. They are so good that I hope
when you have finished them you will
write a book and include in the book
a life-history of what an outstanding
pioneer has done in the film field.”

Merriman H. Holtz, President,
Screen Adettes Inc., Portland, Oregon,
writes: “Your articles appearing in
Film & Radio Guide have been very
helpful and very enlightening.”

W. W. Alexander, President, Dis-
tributor’s Group, Atlanta, Georgia,
writes: “You have given the 16mm
field the most concise and honest
statements regaiding exchange prac-
tices that I have read anywhere.”

John Flory, of Grant, Fiory & Wil-
liams Inc., New York City, writes:
“I have enjoyed your articles in Film
& Radio Guide on the subject of 16mm
Exchange Practices. It is the most
detailed and authoritative informa-
tion which has been published and
should be of very real help to all who
aie faced with similar, though more
modest, film-handling problems. If
these are ever printed in pamphlet
form, please have the publisher bill
me as a charter subscriber.”

Motion-Picture Study Group, Sar-
anac Lake, N. Y., write: “ We have
been studying your infoimative arti-
cles in Film & Radio Guide and find
them very valuable.

October, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Virginia Appropriates $1,112,000
For Visual Education

Reported by J*M Stackhouse of NAVED

The Virginia legislature has
appropriated $1,112,000.00 for
visual aids in the public schools.
The appropriation became avail-
able July 1, 1945, and the money
is allocated to each school divi-
sion in the state on the basis of
$2 per pupil enrolled for the pre-
ceding year.

The story behind this huge ap-
propriation involves two surveys
of Virginia’s public school sys-
tem, plus the intense interest of
Governor Colgate Darden in im-
proving public education in the
state.

About three years ago, the
Virginia State Chamber of Com-
merce, in cooperation with the
State Board of Education, em-
ployed research specialists to
make a survey of the public
school system. This survey re-
vealed that Virginia was near
the bottom in its financial sup-
port of public education, partic-
ularly in reference to Virginia’s
ability to pay. The survey also
revealed that Virginia’s high-
school graduates, taking stand-
ard achievement tests, fell much
below the median scores for the
country.

The deficiencies revealed by
the survey of the State Cham-
ber of Commerce aroused busi-
ness men. Newspapers demanded
that something be done to im-
prove the situation. This led to
another survey, authorized and
paid for by the state legislature.
This second survey was headed
by former Chancellor Denny of
the University of Alabama. Dr.
Denny’s committee submitted to
the legislature recommendations

covering a 10-year program of
increased financial support. The
recent appropriation of over a
million dollars for visual aids is
only one of the progressive and
aggressive steps taken by the
last legislature to improve public
education. The legislature also
appropriated $4,000,000 to in-
crease teachers’ salaries during
the next 12 months.

In spite of the two surveys, it
is doubtful whether any large
appropriation for visual aids
would have resulted in Virginia
had it not been for the personal
interest of Governor Darden in
public education, and particular-
ly in visual education. The Gov-
ernor recently told a group of
school superintendents that his
belief in the great value of mo-
tion pictures as instructional
tools was brought about mainly
by experiences in one of his
own business connections, where
training films were used to train
mechanics to do their work more
efficiently, and in far less time
than under previous training
methods. He also referred to the
experiences of the armed serv-
ices with visual materials, and
stated that the schools could not
afford to neglect these powerful
aids to instruction. The act
which appropriated this money
is so written that the Governor
and the State Department of Ed-
ucation will jointly decide how
the money is to be spent. The
Governor has frequently re-
ferred in public to the 2,000
school buildings in Virginia not
equipped with electric current,
and is trying to put electric cur-

rent in every building in the
state. Apparently, he also in-
tends to equip every school in
the state with a projector.

Aside from the projectors,
films, maps, slides, and other
visual materials which will be
purchased, the State Depart-
ment of Education is not neglect-
ing the training of teachers in
how to use these materials. The
professional staff of the state
department is being expanded.
Courses in audio-visual educa-
tion are now in operation in the
various state teachers’ colleges.
The eyes of the nation will watch
the expanding visual program in
Virginia with keen interest.

(Reprinted from "NAVED News")

Free Projection Service
in Northern New England

A. H. Rice and Co., Hollis,
N. H., supplies free projection
service for 16mm films, covering
Maine, New Hampshire, and
Vermont. The organization also
sells audio-visual equipment to
schools and colleges.

Indiana Film Service

Write to Dennis Film Bureau,
Inc., 29 East Maple St., Wabash,
Indiana, for a copy of the Bu-
reau’s new school catalog. This
lists titles and prices of hun-
dreds of the newest short films
in 16mm, as well as new 16mm
features, such as Siviss Family
Rohinsoyi, Tom Broivn’s School
Days, Little Men, The Duke of
West Point, Jacare, and Courag-
eous Mr. Penn.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

New Music Films in 16mm

Ideal Pictures Corporation, 28
E. Eighth Street, Chicago 5, Il-
linois, announces its exclusive
release in 16mm of three mu-
sic subjects, presenting the Na-
tional Philharmonic Orchestra,
conducted b y Dr. Frederick
Feher :

FIRST MOVEMENT (AL-
LEGRO) of Beethoven’s Violin
Concerto in D Major, with
Grisha Goluboff a s soloist.
Length, 3 reels.

SECOND MOVEMENT (AN-
DANTE) of Schubert’s Sym-
phony No. 8 in B Minor. Length,
1 reel.

SLAVINKA Tonpoem, com-
posed by Dr. Feher, in which the
orchestra is supported by the
National Philharmonic Chorus.
This subject is divided into two
parts, each 2 reels in length.

Films for Churches

Ideal Pictures Corporation has
produced a series of twenty
church hymns, in 16mm Koda-
chrome, released under the gen-
eral title of “Hymn-O-Screen.”
Ideal has also made a one-reel
film on the general subject of
Ethics. This is the first of a se-
ries and is entitled “Jimmy’s
Reward.’’

16mm Reel on Reading

A one-reel 16mm movie, “It’s
All Yours,’’ stressing the import-
ance of reading, is a part of the
Teen-Age Book Show program
being sponsored by Pocket
Books, Inc.

Wyllis Cooper is producing the
picture. The project, initiated by
Robert F. deGraff, president of
Pocket Books, Inc., is under the
direction of Martha Huddleston.

In addition to the film, the
project furnishes high schools
with colorful panels for a book
exhibit. Based on American
Weekly’s better-reading ad cam-
paign and designed by J. Walter

Thompson, these present books
to young people in relation to
their own interests in life. Each
student attending the exhibit
will receive a 32-page booklet
prepared by the Saturday Re-
view of Literature. A speaker,
pointing up the fun and value of
reading, will be supplied for as-
sembly programs by special ar-
rangement.

Ohio Film Service

L. C. Neufer, manager of the
Cineshop Film Service, 3483
Lee Road, Cleveland 20, invites
Ohio schools, colleges, churches,
clubs, and industries to send for
his attractive free catalog of
recreational, educational, and re-
ligious films. Mr. Neufer sells
and services almost every make
of sound and silent projector
equipment. He makes a specialty
of the DeVry line.

Ideal Motion-Picture Service

Mrs. Francys E. Hoffarth,
manager of Ideal Motion-Pic-
ture Service, 371 St. Johns Ave.,
Yonkers 4, N. Y., announces
that during the past year the
following 16mm features have
been in greatest demand: The
Last of the Mohicans, The Count
of Monte Cristo, A Prisoner of
Zencla, Silent Enemy, The Last
Days of Pompeii, Captain Fury,
and Elephant Boy. Those in the
metropolitan area are invited to
send for the new 1946 Ideal
li^t of subjects and rates for pro-
jection service.

1945 Castle Catalog

The U. S. Commissioner of
Education, J. W. Studebaker, in
a foreword to the valuable free
catalog published b y Castle
Films, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New
York 20, points out that of the
683 items listed and described
in this catalog, over 90 percent
deal with basic skills and under-
standings. These reels, which

the U. S. Government produced
for war-time education, now
have a permanent place in in-
dustry and education. Every
teacher should peruse this list
to select films and filmstrips
appropriate to his work.

Free 3-day Preview for Geography
Classes

A 16mm educational sound
film in color, running 12 min-
utes, showing the wonders of
the Sierras, with views along
140 miles of Death Valley, is be-
ing offered for free screening by
De Vry Films & Laboratories,
1111 Armitage Ave., Chicago.
The outright sale price of the
film is $100. It is entitled Death
Valley National Monument.

Films for English Classes

For a list of 25 silent 16mm
films based on classics of Eng-
lish and American literature,
write to Film Classic Exchange,
Fredonia, N. Y. These films were
produced during the period from
1909 to 1921 as 35mm silent
theatrical features, but are still
useful. Included among others
are Silas Marner, Ivanhoe, The
Vicar of Wakefield, The Pied
Piper, Hiawatha, and Robinson
Crusoe. The most notable item in
the list is probably Silas Marner,
aid in English classes at New-
which has been used as a visual
ark, for example, for many
years.

Free Guides to 16mm Feature,
"Courageous Mr. Penn"

Ask your 16mm library for a
free reprint of the illustrated
guide to “Courageous Mr. Penn.’’
This appeared in the February,
1945, issue of “Film and Radio
Discussion Guide.’’

Book the film from any film
library listed inside the front
cover of the present issue of the
GUIDE.

Film libraries without this

October, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

excellent educational feature
(running time 84 minutes) are
invited to address Allied 16MM
Distributors Corp., 1560 Broad-
ivay, Neiv York 19, Neiv York.

Free FM Film

The General Electric Com-
pany has a one reel Technicolor
film explaining the technical
mysteries and particular ad-
vantages of F-M. It can be bor-
rowed without charge. Write to
Mr. W. R. David, Electronics
Department, General Electric
Company, 1 River Road, Schen-
ectady, New York.

Rockefeller Subsidies for Film
Center and Drama Study

The latest annual report of the
Rockefeller Foundation, 49 West
49th St., New York 20, covers
its work during 1944. Among
the financial expenditures for
1944 were $75,000 for American
Film Center, Inc., New York,
covering general support for a
4-year period; $15,000 for a De-
partment of Educational Cine-
matography at the University of
Nanking, China, covering gen-
eral support for a 3-year period ;
and $9,750 for work in drama at
the University of Saskatche-
wan, Saskatoon, Canada, cover-
ing support for a 3-year period.
This is a report that all students
of educational progress should
peruse.

How Many Projectors in Our
Schools and Colleges?

No accurate report of the
number of film projectors in
U. S. schools and colleges is yet
available. However, since 1942
very few machines have been
available for purchase b y
schools. The survey of the U. S.
Department of Commerce, com-
piled in 1941 by Nathan D. Gol-
den, may therefore be taken as
a guide. Mr. Golden reported

that in the high schools and col-
leges there were 21,538 projec-
tors of all kinds — silent and
sound, 16mm and 35mm, owned,
borrowed and rented. Of 16mm
sound-film projectors, the most
important type, 6,059 were
owned and 2,788 were borrowed
or rented. These statistics, it
must be noted, do not include
projectors in elementary schools.
Paul Thornton, head of RCA
Victor’s educational department,
and other authorities, figure
that including all schools and col-
leges in the U. S. and posses-
sions, there are today approxi-
mately 15,000 16mm sound pro-
jectors in use. Edward J. Mal-
lin, of the New York State War
Council, estimates that during
the war there were 1400 16mm
sound projectors in use in New
York State. This would mean
that there were at least ten
times as many in the country as
a whole. Paul C. Reed, formerly
of OWI and USOE, now re-
turned to Rochester, N. Y., as
director of visual and radio ed-
ucation, forecasts that within
five years, there will be 100,000
projectors in the schools. His
estimate was announced, accord-
ing to The Film Daily, at the
summer session of the Univer-
sity of Iowa.

March of Time's New 16mm
Series

March of Time’s Forum Edi-
tion— which now has over two
thousand subscribers — has ad-
ded eight new subjects for its
second year. These run about 20
minutes each :

(1) New Ways in Farming,
the question of big-scale, indus-
trialized farming versus the
small, family-sized farm. (2)
The New South, the story of a
dramatic change-over from a
cotton economy to the industrial
economy of today. (3) Men of

Medicine, the story of a great
vocation — the medical profession
— presented so that young and
old alike may comprehend what
it is to be a doctor. (4) Sweden,
an account of this Scandinavian
country, in peace and war. (5)
The Nation’s Capital, a very
graphic portrayal of Washing-
ton, D. C., with glimpses of the
President’s life and the work-
ings of various departments of
our government. (6) China, the
struggle of that nation to mod-
ernize and to protect herself
against Japan. (7) Russia at
War, a typical day in the life of
our ally during World War II,
as told by 160 Soviet camera-
men. (8) Ireland, the govern-
ment, religion, and social life of
the Emerald Isle, her charm and
her problems.

The first year’s series of eight
subjects is also available : Brazil,
New England, Portugal, Texas,
Cayiada, South Africa, India,
and Airivays of the Future.
Available also are two special
releases, Americans All and The
French Campaign.

Both series of 16mm sound
films are available on a subscrip-
tion basis : rental for one series
is $30; for both, $55. Each film
is shipped collect and should be
returned prepaid. Films may be
retained for a period of three
days, beyond which a rental of
fifty cents a day is in effect.
Ten days in advance of rental
date, a discussion outline on the
film is mailed to the subscriber,
to facilitate classroom discus-
sion. Individual subjects and the
two special releases may be
rented for $5 C.O.D.

{Editorial Note: It is to be
hoped that critical vocabularies,
defining all terms used in the
March of Time reels, will be in-
cluded in the discussion guides
accompanying these subjects.)

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

Northern Arizona Cooperative

Film Library

BY GRACE SEILER

Arizona State College, Flagstaff, Arizona

Audio-visual education took a
step forward in northern Ari-
zona when on May 5, 1945, rep-
resentatives of ri elementary
and high-school districts met at
the Arizona State College at
Flagstaff, Arizona, and organ-
ized the Northern Arizona Co-
operative Film Library. The
communities represented at this
meeting were Camp Verde,
Clarkdale, Cottonwood, F 1 a g-
staff, Holbrook, Jerome, King-
man, Prescott, Seligman, Wil-
liams, and Winslow.

In addition to the districts
represented, the state college at
Flagstaff and the College Ele-
mentary School each agreed
to purchase several educational
films at once for the film library.
Arizona State College at Flag-
staff will be the depository for
all films purchased.

The new film-library room, lo-
cated in the basement of Gam-
mage Library, is a tiny space.
One wall is equipped with pig-
eon holes where films are classi-
fied according to the Dewey dec-
imal system. The films are pro-
tected by stout poultry netting
and a carefully padlocked door.
Dr. Eldon Ardrey, Head of the
Department of Music and Direc-
tor of the Division of Public
Service, is in charge of the proj-
ect.

Already films worth approxi-
mately $10,000 have been pur-
chased by the member schools.
The reels are all 16mm Encyclo-
paedia Britannica productions, 8
to 11 minutes in length, compris-
ing a total of 151 classroom

Grace Seiler

films. Of these, 70 are on geog-
raphy and industrial education,
31 on animal life, 11 on biology,
10 on history, 10 on plant life,
5 each on art and music, 4 on
astronomy, 3 on home economics,
and 2 on teacher training. These
films are strictly instructional
films. Several may be profitably
used at all three levels : elemen-
tary, secondary, and college.
Other films will, of course, be
added to the library when there
is a demand for them.

In addition to the films owned
by the Northern Arizona Coop-
erative Film Library, many free
films have been I’eceived from
commercial distributors.

The library contains also a
very valuable collection of 54
army films, a loan from the Of-
fice of War Information. Among
these are several reels showing

the training received by cadets
in the Army Air Corps. Many of
these films show contributions
which industry and agriculture
were making to the war effort.
The OWI films may be borrowed
by students for special programs
or by service clubs.

In order to put the new library
into immediate circulation, a list
of the films available for the
first nine weeks of the fall term
of school has been sent to each
member. The schools select the
films desired and submit their
requests to the depository at
Flagstaff. It is the director’s
duty to chart these requests so
that every school will get the
films requested at some time
during the nine-week period, al-
though perhaps not on the ex-
act date requested. However, all
the bookings were arranged
before the opening of school in
September, thus enabling teach-
ers to plan their work most effi-
ciently. A service and insurance
fee of five cents a reel is being
charged.

Although the Northern Ari-
zona Cooperative Film Library
is new to northern Arizona, the
value of films as instructional
aids has long been recognized in
this section. For the past six
years the Arizona State College
at Flagstaff has used films reg-
ularly in the Department of Sci-
ence and in the College Elemen-
tary School. Most films have
been obtained from the Visual
Aids Department of the Univer-
sity of California Extension
Service.

October, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

In the Department of Science
at the Flagstaff State College,
pictures are shown weekly and
are booked for all courses on the
same day. As schedules normally
are made a year in advance,
teachers know approximately
when each film will be shown.
This planning has been gener-
ally satisfactory, but since the
college has had a Navy V-12
Unit, it has been impossible to
plan for more than a few months
in advance. While the serv-
ice program continues, several
naval training films are avail-
able to the college. Science in-
structors have made good use of
these, finding the films on mete-

orology particularly helpful.

True, it is not always possible
to present a film in the ideal
way. For example, it may be nec-
essary at times to show four
films of 11 minutes each in one
day. “But, in spite of their lim-
itations, films have added a
great deal to science study,” re-
ports Dr. Agnes Allen, Acting
Head of the Science Department.

The College Elementary
School has also made effective
use of films as teaching aids.
This year 9 pictures were shown,
most of them in the field of so-
cial science.

Ann Kell, fourth-grade critic,
is an enthusiast for audio-visual

The 50 Most-Used Sets

B. A. Aughinbaugh, Director
of Ohio’s Slide & Film Ex-
change, reports that the fifty
sets of slides in greatest de-
mand in Ohio are the following.
The list will interest not only di-
rectors of visual education, but
classroom teachers everywhere.
Note that 76 percent of the most-
wanted items are made by Key-
stone :

Keystone Slides

Native Wild Flowers

Wild Animals

Alaska

Philippines

India

Safety in the Air

Safety in Water Transporta-

tion

Health

Living Things — Animals

Living Things — Plants

Masterpieces of Painting Pt. II

Masterpieces of Sculpture

George Washington

Abraham Lincoln

K 47 Ancient Mariner
K 55 Birds
K 59 Evangeline
K 61 The Congo Region
K 62 The Land of the Nile
K 64 Switzerland Land of Mts.

K 71 Life in the Pacific States
K 72 Life in the N. Central States
K 74 Our Nation’s Capital
K 80 Our Mexican Neighbors
K 89 Air Transportation
K 91 Beauty in Nature and Art
K 102 Egyptian Architecture
K 104 Roman Architecture
K 105 English Medieval Arch.

K 117 Yellowstone Park
K 120 Grand Canyon
K 124 Primitive Indians
K 133 Rome

K 137 Children of Other Lands
K 145 Posture Unit
K 159 Public Helpers
K 171 Butterflies All of Us Should
Know

K 173 Insects All of Us Should Know

Eastman Educational Slides

EE 1 Roman Private Life

education. She gives this warn-
ing, however : teachers must se-
lect pictures suited to the child’s
level and appropriate to his
work. For example, showing of
pictures on Holland stimulated
discussion of what is being done
to make the Arizona desert till-
able.

Before long the State College
at Flagstaff expects to add, as
a member of the Department of
Education, an audio-visual-aids
instructor who will direct the
Cooperative Film Library, offer
courses in audio-visual aids for
teachers, and serve as an ad-
viser in the selection of pictures
for the film library.

of Slides

EE 8 Elizabeth and Her Times
EE 11 Silas Marner
EE 18 Roman Mythology

FitzPatrick Slides

X 1 Holland in Tulip Time
X 2 Switzerland
X 7 Mexico City
X 16 Indian

Yale Press Slides

Y 1 Story of the Indians

Y 3 Discovery and Exploration

Y 4 Thirteen Colonies

Y 13 Transportation Before 1860

Free Pictures of Colonial
Virginia

For a free folder containing
6 illustrations in color from the
16mm Kodachrome film, “Eight-
eenth Century Life in Williams-
burg, Virginia,” write to Infor-
mational Films Division, East-
man Kodak Company, 343 State
St., Rochester 4, N. Y.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

New Cartoo
English '

Reprinted from J. C. ^

Post these cartoons on yoi
bulletin board. Discuss thei
with your students. Better stil
cut them out, paste them (j
cards, enlarge them on yoi
classroom screen with an opaqi
projector. By omitting the ca]
tions, you can make these an
others the basis of a “Quiz Kid
or “Information Please” type (

When you want to eat the
waiters, bring the utensils.

When von want to eat, the
waiters bring the utensils.

October, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Enliven the
rriculum

! “English in Action”

ogram. Ask children to sug-
st ideas for more cartoons and
her visual aids. Send us an
ea. If we publish your idea, we
11 send you a dollar plus a free
bscription to Film & Radio
tide. For an extraordinary
ea, we will send you five dol-
jrs and a two-year subscription
|r yourself or a friend.

■I

I got the knife off of Jack.

Right: Won’t you have
some crackers and punch,
Bert?

Wrong: Won’t you have some
crackers and punch Bert?

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

Can Pictures Be Used Efficiently in

Church Work?

BY REV. CHARLES J. FISHER

Pastor of the Independent Fundamental Baptist Church, Detroit, Michigan

By way of introduction, I
would like to say I have been in
the Gospel ministry for 23 years
and remember when the church
in general tabooed any type of
motion picture. In fact, I was
one of the opposers. It wasn’t so
much the equipment that I op-
posed as it was the pictures. But
as time went on certain pro-
ducers began to get a vision of
the churches’ need and slowly
this field has been developed.
This is all a long story, and I
am not going to try to tell it,
but bring you up to date with
some practical ilkustrations.

We are a down-town church
in the heart of Detroit, Michi-
gan, where we have a transient
people, and child delinquency is
at an all-time high. We tried
earnestly to meet the challenge
by organizing a weekly Chil-
dren’s Bible Club. We went to
the public schools, invited the
children on the streets, and
called in the homes ; we gave
parties and used games and
many methods, but were unable

Rev. Charles J. Fisher

to hold the children from week
to week. Our average attendance
was about 24 children per week.

Then we borrowed a 16-milli-
meter sound projector and be-
gan a planned program. We used
C. O. Baptista’s films. Cathedral
Films, some news, educational,
and scenic films, and appropri-
ate comics for bait, and it sure-

ly brought results. Our attend-
ance last year averaged 115 chil-
dren per week.

We arranged our program and
previewed it after our regular
prayer meeting service, that the
adults might also see what we
were doing for the children. This
also increased the attendance at
the prayer meeting.

We also used our projector in
the open air by putting a screen
on the front of the building and
showing pictures, thus reaching
many strangers who were just
passing by.

I have found much advantage
in using films wisely. I say wise-
ly, because we are not trying to
compete with the motion-pic-
ture houses. Our programs are
planned in conjunction with the
objects of our church, which
are: first, to glorify God; sec-
ond, to edify Christians; third,
to win souls for Christ. This all
takes much prayer, common
sense, and the help of a good
man like Edward F. Knop of
Cosmopolitan Films of Detroit.

Visual Program at Owensboro, Kentucky

BY J. L. FOUST

Superintcndenf of Schools, Owensboro, Kentucky

The Owensboro Board of Ed-
ucation and the principals of the
various schools have become in-
creasingly interested in a visual-
education program of such a na-
ture that all of the children of

the schools will be benefited and
that the adults in the various
communities of the city will be
given the advantage of viewing
pictures that contain valuable
information and suggestions on

community life.

The system has thirteen
schools and it is the plan of each
school to own one or more film-
strip machines and the system
as a whole to possess one or more

October, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

large but transportable sound
projectors.

Each individual school will
have in its own library film
strips that are appropriate for
teaching purposes in the various
subjects taught in the school. By
this arrangement any teacher of
any school may use any film
strip belonging to the institution
or any film strip that may be in
the general film library of the
city system or obtained for a
special purpose from large dis-
tributors of film strips.

The large, transportable,
sound projector will remain in
the office of the Superintendent
or the Supervisor of Instruction
and will be used when the prin-
cipal and faculty of any school
want to present a sound-film to
the entire student body of their
school. These films may be partly

J. L. Foust

owned by the school system itself
but most of them will be ob-
tained as rentals from the Ex-
tension Department of the Uni-
versity of Kentucky and other
agencies of film distribution.

This program has already
been started in a small way. Five
of the individual schools ob-
tained during the last school
year a film-strip machine and
the beginning of a film library.
The Supervisor of Elementary
Instruction has at her disposal
a film-strip machine which she
takes from building to building
to present pictures that increase
interest in the subjects that are
being taught.

The Board of Education has
placed its order for the first
sound projector and the machine
will be delivered within a short
while.

Educational Value of the
Documentary Film

The term “documentary” has
been used to describe a very wide
range of films, from the simple
instructional film to the elab-
orate dramatic feature-length
type of subject, such as “West-
ern Approaches.” And yet it

Ralph Bond has directed many not-
able documentaries, including “Today
We Live,” “When We Build Again,”
“Big City,” “Oxford,” “Neighbors Un-
der Fire,” and is now producing for
the Ministry of Information through
Worldwide Pictures, Ltd. He has been
in this field since joining John Griei-
son at the Empire Marketing Board
(subsequently the G.P.O. Film Unit)
fifteen years ago. He founded a num-
ber of British film societies and is
vice-president of the Association of
Cinematicians.

BY RALPH BOND

Courtesy of British Broadcasting Corporation

would be a mistake to classify
any and every type of film which
records some aspect of reality as
a documentary.

For instance, the ordinary
travel film often seen in movie
houses could not be described as
documentary. The most popular
travel films are those made by
FitzPatrick. FitzPatrick travels
round the world photographing
towns and cities and beauty
spots. His shots are strung to-
gether, given music and a com-
mentary, and that is all. They
consist only of a collection of
beautiful photographs and pre-
sent nothing more than a surface
impression of various places.
There is no attempt at analysis

or interpretation, no attempt to
really show us the people or the
characteristics of the countries
he visits.

One has only to compare these
films with “Song of Ceylon ” to
see the difference between a
travelogue and a documentary
film. “Song of Ceylon” inter-
prets the customs, cultures, and
peoples of Ceylon, giving the
film a deep social and artistic
significance.

The mere photographing of
reality does not constitute doc-
umentary. Otherwise we should
have to describe newsreels as
documentary. The newsreels re-
cord events as they happen. Doc-
umentary interprets events, re-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

lating them to the wider social
and political scene.

We are getting nearer to the
documentary idea when we con-
sider “The March of Time.”
This exciting series, of interna-
tional repute, might be described
as “Newsreel Plus.” It is a form
of film journalism, reporting
world events and discussing
their reasons and causes. The
technique employed is slick and
dramatic and subtlety is avoided.
The commentator almost shouts
his words at the audience. Loud
music fills in any gaps. “The
March of Time” is more excit-
ing, and far more satisfying,
than the newsreel because it
takes a subject and discusses it
from several viewpoints. It lacks
the fundamental social analysis
of the best documentary films,
but it reports and interprets the
events of history in an intelli-
gent and stimulating way. I
think, however, that it is often
unsatisfying because it fails to
get at the real roots of events. It
digs below the surface but never
quite deep enough. Recently it
made a film on the Negro prob-
lem in America. So far as it
went, it was a courageous effort.
It unreservedly condemned race
hatred and quoted the views of
many people and organizations
fighting for equality between
Negroes and white people. But it
ignored completely the Ameri-
can trade unions, where there is
no color bar, and where Negroes,
who work side by side with white
workers in the factories, are
freely elected as union officials.
The film failed to show the eco-
nomic reasons underlying race
discrimination. In short, the
film was good reporting but
poor analysis.

Nevertheless, “The March of
Time” has done a consistently
good job in bringing alive world
events. It has exposed the rot-

Ralph Bond

tenness of the Fascist regime in
the countries to which it has
spread, recorded the democratic
achievements of countries like
Sweden, dramatized the resist-
ance movements in Europe, re-
ported and analyzed the naval
war in the Pacific and the land
war in Burma. It has taken the
routine events of Peace and War
and fashioned them into excit-
ing screen material.

I have described “The March
of Time” as something half-way
between the newsreel and the
documentary film. The word
documentary has been used to
describe many types of film —
for instance, the scientific, the
instructional, the educational.

The documentary technique
has been employed to make hun-
dreds of training and instruc-
tional films, designed to make
people, whether in civilian oc-
cupations or in the Army, more
efficient at their jobs. You may
think the making of these films
is simple and easy, but they re-
quire much skill and imagina-
tion. If, for instance, we are
asked to make a film showing
how to thatch a corn stack, we
must not be content to show only
the technique employed by the
thatcher. We must infuse into
the film the rhythm of work. It

is a quality that is never found
in textbooks because it cannot
be described in words. But it
can be shown on the screen, and
a film director must know how
to reveal this quality with his
camera. The great advantage of
the film over other means of ex-
pression is precisely this ability
to penetrate beyond its fore-
ground subject and reveal a new
and deeper dimension in an
event, a person, or a method of
work.

From its inception documen-
tary has been concerned with
education in the widest sense of
the word. Documentary produc-
ers are also propagandists, anx-
ious to use the film for progres-
sive purposes. They use the
phrase “bringing alive” not in
the sense of putting a series of
photographs on the screen, but
with the purpose of making our
audiences more aware of what
they must do to achieve changes
they desire. The real world and
real people are the raw material
of the documentary film.

I have just seen a film about
child delinquency in Scotland. It
is called “Children of the City.”
It shows what happens to a
group of children who are ar-
rested for breaking into a shop
and stealing. One of the children
is put under the care of a pro-
bation officer, another is sent to
a reformatory, and the third
to a child welfare clinic where
he receives expert psychological
treatment. What makes the film
“come alive” is its insistence
that such things as juvenile
crime will occur so long as we
have slums and housing condi-
tions not fit for human beings
to live in. No one seeing this film
could arrive at any other opin-
ion than that probation officers
and reformatories are not the
real solution to juvenile de-
linquencv, however sympathetic

October, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

SCENES IN THE BRITISH DOCUMENTARY, "BACK TO NORMAL"

Above — A one-armed billiard-player overcomes his handicap. Below — A one-
armed Britisher digs in his garden while his son watches.

they may be as individuals or
institutions. “Children of the
City” is an honest film and a
good documentary because it
goes deeper than its immediate
terms of reference. It argues
that children must have good
homes to live in and open spaces
to play in and that their parents
must have economic security.
But the argument is not imposed
on the film. It is implicit in the
story, so that the audience itself
will arrive at this conclusion by
the logic of what it is seeing.

For fifteen years now, Briti-
ish documentary has been de-
veloping these principles. Tak-
ing its stand firmly on objective
reality, believing that the very
essence of drama is to be found
in real life and real people, it has
refused to be side-tracked into
romanticism and illusion. Docu-
mentary principles and methods
are having a profound influence
on British films. British films
have moved out of the drawing
rooms and boudoirs of the idle
rich and into the lives of ordin-
ary people and their surround-
ings.

Before the war this tendency
was clearly discernible. In such
films as “T h e Stars Look
Down,” a film of great integrity
about coal miners, there was rec-
ognition that documentary had
something to offer to the feature
film of entertainment.

During the War the best Brit-
ish films have combined a strong
element of documentary realism
with the fictional element. Films
like “San Demetrio,” “Millions
Like Us,” “Waterloo Road,” “In
Which We Serve,” and “The
Way Ahead” — all great popular
successes — have achieved hon-
esty and authenticity through in-
terpretation of real life and real
people.

This welding together of the
documentary and fictional ele-

ments has created a British style
of film making which offers
great possibilities for the future.
Workers in the documentary

field will continue to perfect
their techniques and principles
in approaching the problems of
social reconstruction after the

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

NEW - 1946
Film Catalog

All subjects 16mm sound. A
post cord will bring you this
big catalog of SELECTED
school entertainment films in-
cluding

DANCING PIRATE
(in full color)

AS YOU LIKE IT
THE MELODY MASTER
THE DUKE OF WEST
POINT

COURAGEOUS MR. PENN
JACARE

and many others

You’ll like Dennis Friendly
Service!

DENNIS
FILM BUREAU

W abash f Indiana

war. If their influence continues
to be felt in the products of the
film industry, it will be all to the

good.

Although both sections of the
film industry have much to learn
from each other, the documen-
tary movement will never sub-
merge itself in the conventional
studio atmosphere. The war has
proved that there is a great pub-
lic ready to receive documentary
films outside the cinemas. In ad-
dition there are large sections of
the public for whom specialized
films must be made available —
school children, teachers, doc-
tors, farmers, students, scien-
tists, and so on. The constant de-
velopment of knowledge, new
practices and methods in the
realms of medicine, agriculture,
industry, and science — all come
within the scope of the documen-
tary film, which will explain and
interpret them in terms of soci-
ology. Whether the subject con-
cerns the elementary principles
of health, the teaching of his-
tory, the working of a piece of
machinery, the functions of mu-
nicipal government, the planning
of a new housing estate, the du-

ties of citizenship, or the eco-
nomic organization of industry,
the documentary film has its own
special contribution to make in
stimulating the thought and im-
agination of people everywhere.

The Lighf-er Side of Film Comment

Lieut. James W. Brown, discussing
the use of visual aids at a Wauke-
gan conference, reported: “We were
doing such a marvelous job with train-
ing films in the Navy, speeding up
the program so much, that Washing-
ton was afraid the war wouldn’t last
for the duration.”

Harry E. Erickson, of the Radio
Corporation of America, reports; “At
a demonstration of ‘The Adventures
of Bunny Rabbit,’ a teacher asked:
‘Don’t you think that when the chil-
dren see the squirrels cracking nuts
with their teeth, they will have a tend-
ency to crack nuts with their teeth?’
The demonstrator replied: ‘We have
shown pictures of frogs eating worms,
and we have never had any trouble
with children eating worms.”

Max Lief, reporting in the New
York Times on Hollywood trends:
“Republic’s westerns shine like a good
deed in an Autry world.”

Radio Problems in the High School

James F. Mac Andrew, Coordi-
nator of Radio Programs, Sta-
tion WNYE, Brooklyn Technical
High School, Brooklyn, N. Y.,
in an illuminating article on
“R a d i 0 In The High-School
Classroom,” which appeared in
the March, 1945, issue of High
Points, points out:

“You and I live and work in the
most ladio-minded city of the most
radio-minded country in the world.
Of the 108,000,000 civilian radios in
the world, some 56,000,000 are in the
United States. Four American homes
out of every five are radio equipped,
and in New York City 97 homes out
of every 100 have a radio of some
sort. Our students spend two hours

a day listening. Confronted with
the hypothetical problem of abolishing
either radio or the movies, children
have consistently voted to keep radio.”

Retarding the use of radio in
the schools, says Mr. Mac-
Andrew, are these difficulties :
(1) The high schools are not
equipped with adequate reception
facilities. (2) The bell schedules
are so varied as to preclude the
possibility of a single radio pro-
gram hitting the 54 high schools
during a period. (3) Classes
in a given subject meet at many
different periods of the day, so
that some meet during a broad-
cast period while others do not.

(4) The time of the term when
a radio broadcast is presented
does not always coincide with
the time when it would fit in
with appropriate curriculum
units. (5) Teachers are some-
times not fully aware of radio
schedules because they fail to
get necessary publicity bulletins.
(6) Teachers are often un-
familiar with discussion tech-
niques for utilizing radio. (7)
Teachers are in many cases too
well satisfied with their own
procedures to be willing to let
radio presentations by other
teachers aid them.

Ocfober, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Forthcoming Photoplays of Interest to
Teachers and Students

Are Shakespeare’s plays suit-
able screen fare for mass audi-
ences today? After its experi-
ence with A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, the Warner studio said
no. After its experience with
Romeo and Jnliet, MGM said no.
Both of these screen versions,
lavishly produced, imaginatively
directed, and widely publicized,
added to Hollywood’s prestige
but hardly to its income. Now
comes from England, for United
Artists release in America, a
$2,000,000 Technicolor version
of Shakespeare’s spectacular and
patriotic Henry V (V for Vic-
tory) , in which Laurence Oliv-
ier, producer, director, and star,
fulfills a cherished ambition.
Financed by J. Arthur Rank,
Britain’s new film magnate,
who is planning to give Holly-
wood some serious competi-
tion, the film is said by British

BY WILLIAM LEWIN

reviewers to have dispelled the
Shakespearean hoodoo. Cabled
reports call the production “su-
perb” and “masterly,” by no
means “boxoffice poison.”

Mr. Olivier’s wife, Vivien
Leigh, who made cinema history
in Go7ie With the Wind, will ap-
pear soon in another J. Arthur
Rank film, Bernard Shaw’s Cae-
sar and Cleopatra, recently pro-
duced in England by Gabriel
Pascal at a cost of some $3,000,-
000. The picture is in Techni-
color. Claude Rains plays Cae-
sar. Some of the scenes were
made on location in Egypt. As
production expenses mounted,
Mr. Rank is reported to have
philosophized: “We’re in for a
penny, in for a pound ; why spoil
the ship for a ha’porth of tar?”
All concerned are reported thor-
oughly satisfied with the film,
including the critical Mr. Shaw.

who now declares that “the
screen is the greatest dramatic
medium of our time.”

J. Arthur Rank has also un-
der way a series of eight experi-
mental films for children. Direc-
tor Mary Field, who has made
notable classroom films for GBI,
is in charge of the project. She
estimates that with Mr. Rank’s
organization of children’s movie
clubs in Britain, there is a Sat-
urday matinee audience of 200,-
000 in England and that the
world audience of children
should, with the development of
the children’s-theatre movement,
include millions.

Teachers of English will be
glad to learn that no less than
four of the novels of Charles
Dickens are promised on the
screen. Sir Alexander Korda
plans a screen version of Pick-
ivick Papers. A first-rate script

Laurence Olivier as Henry V in the Technicolor production of Shakespeare's play, recently releosed in England and soon to

be shown in America.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

A SCENE IN THE BRITISH TECHNICOLOR SCREEN VERSION OF HENRY V.

Authentic reconstruction of the period of Henry V is ill ustroted in this scene of pre-Elizobethon British bowmen

October, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

is said to have been completed.
Michael Balcon, seasoned Brit-
ish film expert, announces that
his leading production this sea-
son will be Nicholas Nickleby,
being directed by Cavalcanti,
noted for his documentaries, in-
cluding the powerful North Sea.
Cavalcanti is reproducing faith-
fully the Queen Victoria era and
the classic gallery of fantastic
Nickleby characters — S mike,
Noggs, Squeers, the Crummies,
the Mantalinis. Two producers
are vying for the right to screen
Bleak House. Mr. Pascal is plan-
ning to go sentimental with a
picturization of Old Curiosity
Shop, in which Vivien Leigh
would interpret Little Nell anew.

Korda has for some time been
planning to launch a specatcular
production of Tolstoy’s War and
Peace. He has also in prepara-
tion the screening of Arnold
Bennett’s Old Wives’ Tale.

A screen play dealing with the
life of Shakespeare and the lusty
and rowdy Elizabethan era has
been prepared by Ben Hecht in
this country for production by
Paul Soskin in England.

A Canterbury Tale, produced,
directed, and scripted by Mich-
ael Powell and Emeric Press-
burger, a notable team, is soon
to be shown here. It is a render-
ing into modern idiom of Chau-
cer’s classic tale of pilgrims
traveling England’s oldest road,
from London to Canterbury, to
do penance in springtime. In the
screen play there are only four
pilgrims instead of 29. One of
them is an American, whose pil-
grimage is an unwilling one. He
comes to understand the Eng-
lish character and to appreciate
the loveliness of the English
countryside. The part is played
by John Sweet, who in America
was a teacher and who went to
England as a sergeant in the
U. S. Army. He was chosen for
the role by a lucky chance and

is said to give the film’s great-
est performance.

A modern version of Hamlet
is to be directed by Alfred Hitch-
cock, master of melodrama, with
Cary Grant as the star. It will
be made in Hollywood as soon as
an unnamed professor at an
English university completes the
script. This Hamlet will be “a
modern man with Hamlet’s prob-
lems.” Students of film appre-
ciation will enjoy comparing the
film with the original play and
with Shakespeare’s sources.

MGM has completed a power-
ful screen version of W. L.
White’s They Were Expendable,
directed by John Ford, winner
of two Academy Awards (one
for How Green Was My Valley)
and erstwhile a commander in
the U. S. Navy. The part of Lieu-
tenant Brickley is played by
Robert Montgomery, who him-
self commanded torpedo boats
in the South Pacific.

Metro plans a Technicolor ver-
sion of Uncle Toni’s Cabin, with
Margaret O’Brien as Little Eva
and Lena Horne as Eliza. Two
previous versions have been
made, one by Paramount in 1917
and one by Universal in 1927.

W. H. Hudson’s hauntingly
beautiful fantasy. Green Man-
sions, will be brought to the
screen at last by MGM, under
the supervision of experienced
Pandro Berman. Some years ago,
RKO submitted two scripts of
this subject to a committee of
the National Council of Teachers
of English for comment. The
present writer, as chairman of
that committee, reported violent
differences of opinion as to the
suitability of the proposed treat-
ments. The project was aban-
doned, and RKO sold the screen
rights to James Cassidy for a
pittance. MGM, appreciating the
possibilities, is reported to have
paid Cassidy $150,000 for the
rights.

The autobiography of an art-
ist and actress. Silly Girl, by
Angna Enters, has been acquired
by MGM. The youthful period
of Miss Enters might well be
played by Margaret O’Brien.

Warner Bros, is planning a
film biography of Winston
Churchill, dealing with his early
life, to be made in England.
Warners is also readying a new
version of Somerset Maugham’s
Of Human Bondage, directed by
Edmund Goulding. Completed by
Warners, but not released, is
Devotion, a story of the Bronte
sisters in which Olivia de Hav-
illand plays Charlotte, Ida Lu-
pine plays Emily, and Nancy
Coleman plays Anne. Among
other notable parts is Sidney
Greenstreet’s Thackeray.

The Warner studio has on its
list of forthcoming subjects the
Rogers - Hart musical version
of Mark Twain’s Connecticut
Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,
Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome,
Henrik Ibsen’s Pillars of Soci-
ety, and Fanny Hurst’s Humor-
esque.

Walt Disney has in work car-
toon-and-live-action versions of
Joel Chandler Harris’s Uncle
Remus and Hans Christian An-
derson’s The Emperor and the
Nightingale. Marc Connelly is
doing the script for the latter.

The Republic studio is com-
pleting an ambitious picture
based on the life of Mozart, for
which Arthur Rubinstein made
notable sound tracks.

Paramount will soon release
Two Years Before the Mast,
based on the Richard Henry
Dana novel. Directed by John
Farrow, one of the best filmers
of sea stories (he has rendered
notable service in the British
Navy as a commander) , the film
sails pretty close to Dana’s yarn.
It has been livened up with
pointed climaxes along the 15,-
000 miles from Brazil, ’round

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

the Horn to San Francisco. The
saga was made entirely at the
studio, with synthetic seas and
painted cycloramas, a set de-
signer’s field day.

David L. Loew and Jerome
Kern have entered the 16mm

field with a series of twelve
shorts dramatizing well-known
musical selections, under the di-
rection of Werner Janssen, the
symphony conductor. The pic-
tures are in color and will be dis-
tributed to schools, colleges, and

clubs in the U. S. and through-
out the world. In the foreign
field it is likely that these 16mm
subjects will be handled by the
new units organized by Mr.
Loew’s brother Arthur, head
of Loew’s International.

RECOMMENDED PHOTOPLAYS

Reviewed by Dr* Frederick Houk LaWf Editor^
Educational Department ^ The Readers Digest

THE SOUTHERNER. A story of cotton
growing in the South. Loew-Hokim pro-
duction. Released through United Artists.
Jeon Renoir, Director.

The efforts of a tenant farmer
in the deep South to grow cot-
ton in spite of poverty, poor soil,
floods, and sickness make The
Southerner a moving story. Ob-
sessed by the same desire for in-
dependence that led early pio-
neers to take their wives and
children into hardships and dan-
gers, Zachary Scott, as the cen-
tral figure of the story, takes
his wife, children, and old
“Granny” to an abandoned cot-
ton farm and proposes to stand
upon his own feet, come what
will.

The novel by George Sessions
Perry, upon which the film is
based, may have given sufficient
motivation for the farmer’s will-
ingness to sacrifice his family
to his ambition, but the film
does not give him the heroic
stature that we ascribe to the pi-
oneers. It fails to elicit the com-
plete sympathy that would make
his story epic.

The Southerner far from typi-
fies the lives of cotton planters.
It presents an exceptional case

Assisted by Other Educators

Jean Renoir, Director of
"The Southerner"

and exceptional circumstances.

Beulah Bondi, as “Granny,”
the cantankerous old grand-
mother who rebelled at going to
live in a broken-down shacK in
a most uninviting region, pre-
sents one of the most notable of
recent motion-picture character-
izations.

The Southerner offers much
provocative material for discus-
sion, and it tells an interesting
story.

Many scenes are beautifully
photographed. The film abounds
in artistic directorial touches.

A BELL FOR ADANO. Allied govern-
menl- in Uoly. 20t'h Century-Fox. Henry
King, Director. Enthusiastically recom-
mended for all.

A deeply understanding, for-
ward-looking film-story, A Bell
for Adano puts into objective
and intensely dramatic form the
popular novel by John Hersey.
That novel made instant appeal
because it concerns many lines
of common human interest and
touches closely many points of
em.otional value especially appre-
ciated by the American people at
the present time. The motion
picture, through realistic as well
as romantic presentation, keeps
all the emotional values of the
novel and gives them added
emphasis. In many respects A
Bell for Adano is a motion-pic-
ture masterpiece.

Appeal to sense of sound is
notably strong and adds over-
tones to the story. The sound is
suggested rather than heard.

An American Major (John
Hodiak), with his hard-boiled
Sergeant (William B e n d i x) ,
takes command of administra-
tion in a mountain town in Sic-
ily. There he endeavors to work

October, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

for the common good and for all
that makes for the spirit of dem-
ocracy. The people need food, but
not food for the body alone ; they
need food for the spirit. The en-
emies of liberty had taken the
long-treasured town bell and had
melted it for war ; now they need
once again the sound of the
bell to signify the freedom and
the pleasure of their local life.
Through kindly help by Ameri-
can naval officers the Major
gives Adano an ancient bell, per-
haps better than the one they
had had before.

That is the simple outline of
the story. What the Major really
gives to Adano, however, is the
spirit of working and living to-
gether in local liberty.

Just the hint of romantic love
touches the story with a gentle-
ness that adds to the superb ef-
fect that the entire production
leaves upon the observer.

Strong realism, always kept
under control, serves as a back-
ground for the development of
the powerful theme: Hoiv best
can ive govern conqiiered peo-
ples and bring them to an under-
standing of the aims for ivhich
we have fought?

THE NEW U. S. FRONTIER. March of
Time, Vol. XI — No. 13. Enthusiastically
recommended.

The constructive power of the
United States, the vastness of
American resources and the en-
ergy that the American people
put into the war against Jap-
anese aggression are presented
in this March of Time concern-
ing United States work in the
far Pacific islands.

Principally the film shows
what American technical skill al-
ready has brought about in the
island of Guam — long miles of
hard, four-lane roads ; level, well-
constructed airfields ; vast sup-
plies of material ; great hospi-
tals; deep, excellent ports; and

well-manned military, naval, and
air headquarters.

The March of Time shows the
typical palm trees and island
scenes and enough of the past
to emphasize the astonishing
changes that our men have
brought about. It shows dredges
deepening the harbors and bull-
dozers and stone crushers at
work. It shows a giant asphalt
producer in full operation.

Those fortunate persons who
see this striking news picture
will gain increased respect for
American planning, skill and ac-
complishment; they will have
every reason to admire the artis-
tic photographic work of cam-
eraman Victor Jurgens and the
ability of March of Time editors
who prepared this important
lesson for the American people;
some, seeing all that we have
thus done in war may remember
Longfellow’s words :

“Were half the power that fills the
world with terror,

Were half the wealth bestowed on
camps and courts.

Given to redeem the human mind from
error.

There were no need of arsenals or
forts.”

YOU CAME ALONG. Social Comedy.
Hal B. Wallis production released through
Paramount. John Farrow, Director. Strong-
ly recommended.

Three rollicking musketeers of
the air, full of life and happi-
ness, set off under the guidance
of a representative of the United
States Treasury Department to
aid in a nation-wide tour in the
interests of the war. They are
even more slap-happy than Ara-
mis, Athos, Porthos, and D’Ar-
tagnan rolled together, and their
hilarity at the beginning of the
film story leads one to expect
little except farcical action. To
their amazement, the Treasury
representative, “1. V. Hotch-
kiss,” turns out to be a charm-
ing young woman (Lizabeth

Scott). Daniel in the lions’ den!
Sedate little Ivy in an airplane
with three “wolves”!

The first part of the action is
badinage, romp, and laughter.
Then, little by little, a serious
note begins to creep in. Slow-
ly the picture rises to self-effac-
ing thought of others and to the
pathos of broken lives.

Deftly did the scenario writ-
ers and the director make the
transition from lively farce to
inner tragedy. In this. You Came
Along differs from most other
picture plays.

One sequence shows the wed-
ding of one of the flyers (Rob-
ert Cummings) in the Fliers’
Chapel of the Mission Inn at
Riverside, California. Oddly
enough, in all fact, during the
filming of the action, Robert
Cummings actually took unto
himself a bride, although not the
one of the picture, in that very
Chapel.

Because of its unusual com-
bination of fun and seriousness,
and its difference from the usual
run of films. You Came Along
affords good entertainment.

CAPTAIN EDDIE. Biography of "Ed-
die" Rickenbacker. 20th Century-Fox.
Lloyd Bacon, Director. Strongly recom-
mended for all.

The dramatic present-day
story of that World War I “Ace
of Aces,” Eddie Rickenbacker
makes strong appeal in Captain
Eddie. Incidentally, the picture
calls to mind the progress made
in the development of the au-
tomobile and of the airplane
within the span of a lifetime.

The motion-picture story be-
gins with the wrecking of a
United States Army transport
plane somewhere on the Pacific
in 1942. Throughout the film we
see Captain Rickenbacker and
his seven companions floating
for twenty-one days in rubber
life-rafts, with almost no hope

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No.

of rescue. The story ends with
the coming of searching planes.
As in Lifeboat, we see human
beings reacting in different
ways to the slow closing in of
fate. We sense the anxiety, the
loneliness, and the horror that
increase as time goes on. Grim
but not excessive realism marks
the entire series of ocean scenes.

Through the medium of flash-
backs the picture broadens, and
little by little tells the entire
story of Eddie Rickenbacker’s
life up to the time when he set
out for the Pacific. We see him
as a small boy making a clumsy
“flying machine” and all but
killing himself, and then, a little
later, riding as a passenger in
one of the first crude biplanes.
We see him with some of the
first hard-tired “horseless car-
riages” that frighten horses on
the highways and leave many
persons skeptical of their value.
We catch glimpses of his ex-
ploits as an automobile racer,
and as combat pilot in World
War I.

In addition to the Pacific
story and the life-narrative, we
see intimate moments in the boy-
hood home and in the days of
courtship and marriage, all pre-
sented so appealingly that they
emphasize substantial values and
at the same time have motion-
picture interest and humor.

As Eddie Rickenbacker, Fred
IMacMurray plays with dignity
as well as high spirit and cre-
ates a pleasing sense of reality.
As “Adelaide Frost,” who be-
came Mrs. Eddie Rickenbacker,
Lynn Bari brings to the picture
colorful and lovely romance.

The photographic effects, no-
tably that of catching a seagull,
are managed with superb skill.

PRIDE OF THE MARINES. Warner
Bros. Romance and rehabilitation. Del-
mar Daves, Director. Strongly recom-
mended.

To millions of homes in the

United States and elsewhere at
the present time comes the prob-
lem of rehabilitation. At best
the transition from the enforced
savageries of war is difficult.
For the broken, the maimed, the
blinded the transition is peculi-
arly difficult. Those who return
from active service, and those
who welcome them at home, need
strong minds and stout hearts
in order to bridge the psycho-
logical chasms made by war.

Pride of the Marines, based
upon a recently published book
by Roger Butterfield, puts into
motion-picture story form the
case of a blinded soldier, fresh
from the horrors of .iungle fight-
ing in the Solomon Islands. The
various episodes show the re-
turning soldier’s desperate real-
ization of his own shattered con-
dition, and likewise how love,
tact, and the opportunities that
society offers for the aid of the
injured, combine to restore a
man to useful and happy life in
normal surroundings.

The high purpose of this mo-
tion picture does not obtrude it-
self upon the observer. Story in-
terest remains supreme through-
out. Nevertheless, anyone who
sees Pride of the Marines cer-
tainly will think sympatheti-
cally concerning the care of men
injured in the war.

John Garfield plays a high-
spirited young man who goes
with the United States Marines
to fight in the heat and tangles
of Pacific islands. Eleanor Par-
ker plays the girl whom he leaves
behind. Blinded in battle, the
young man hesitates to return
and be, perhaps, a burden upon
those who love him. Through a
Red Cross Nurse, and the devo-
tion of his sweetheart, he turns
at last toward happiness.

Several moments of strong
suspense, one without sound, and
one without even pictures, add
to the value of the production.

With a running time of 119 min-
utes, the picture story makes full
use of opportunities for the slow
development of powerful effect.

BACK TO BATAAN. Guerrilla war in
the Philippines. RKO. Edward Dmytryk,
Director. Recommended for all.

The devotion of Philippine na-
tives to the cause of liberty gains
strong emphasis in RKO’s new
story of jungle fighting. Back to
Bataan. John Wayne plays the
part of a United States Colonel
assigned to lead Philippine guer-
rillas in harassing Japanese
invaders, organizing resistance
and preparing for American
landing and attack. Beulah
Bondi, exotic in appearance and
effective in character presenta-
tion, carries the role of a cul-
tured Philippine woman who
pretends to serve the Japanese
while actually aiding the people
of her islands. Every principal
event of the motion-picture story
rests upon historic fact. The aid
of Army officers and others
familiar with the events gives
further verisimilitude. In effect.
Back to Bataan is an intensely
interesting chapter of recent
Philippine and United States
history.

Scenes in which Japanese of-
ficers and men appear have
great force, and show much con-
cerning Japanese mannerisms
and military methods.

Assigned to what at first ap-
pears to be an almost hopeless
task, that of leading native guer-
rillas against great numbers of
well-equipped Japanese, the hero
of the story makes his way into
mountain jungles and there
gathers about him a pitiable
band of patriotic fighters armed
with few weapons other than
bolos. From a rural school the
American officer takes a na-
tive boy and a devoted Ameri-
can teacher. The story of the
lad’s self-sacrificing faithfulness
brings in a deep note of pathos.

October, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

From the moment when the hid-
den guerrillas see “the march of
death” from Bataan, until at
last, directed by the booming of
native log-drums, the greatly in-
creased native force makes con-
tact with American submarines
at Leyte, the story moves with
powerful interest, revealing the
series of events that brought
United States aid for the people
of the Philippines.

The graphic realism of the
film makes clear the vast diffi-
culties that jungle fighting in
Pacific islands involves. Back to
Bataan is a strong film, well
worth seeing.

CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT. So-
cial comedy. Warner Bros. Peter God-
frey, Director. Recommended for all.

A brisk and lively social com-
edy, brim full of laughs and rich
in unexpected quips, Christmas
in Connecticut gives Barbara
Stanwyck opportunity for very
pleasant acting. In this she has
excellent support from Dennis
Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet,
John Alexander, and S. Z. Sa-
kall.

Based on a story by Aileen
Hamilton, Christmas in Connec-
ticut has a good deal of origin-
ality and freshness and in many
ways is pleasingly “different.”

Generally speaking, the com-
edy tells the story of a popular
writer about cooking and coun-
try life, caught in her own toils.
The heroine (Barbara Stan-
wyck) has a great following as
a writer for “Smart Housekeep-
ing.” Actually she lives in a city
apartment with an outlook over
laundry on the line and no ac-
quaintance with cows and rural
life. In her writing she has won
her public by her glowing ac-
counts of an entirely fictitious
country estate, husband, and
baby. So far as cooking is con-
cerned she can hardly boil water,
but she has a good friend, an
old Austrian chef (S. Z. Sakall)

who keeps a small restaurant.
Through him she gains all the
appetizing directions for amaz-
ing dishes. Those facts form the
basis for the humor that de-
velops when, suddenly and with-
out warning, she finds herself
obliged to pretend to have es-
tate, husband, baby, ability to
cook, and intimacy with cows.
Complication rises upon compli-
cation when, in her borrowed
country home, she entertains not
only a handsome Seaman First
Class (Dennis Morgan) but also
her demanding and truth-wor-
shipping publisher (Sydney
Greenstreet) .

Witty dialogue gives color to
farcical events. Quick action and
a pleasantly developing romance
hold interest steady. In the
course of events we see the hero-
ine boldly making love, and the
hero stoutly resisting all her ad-
vances. The old Austrian chef
is a fat and jolly Cupid, who
solves all difficulties.

As an original and highly
amusing story of contretemps
and triangle, Christmas in Con-
necticut will win many laughs.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Fantastic musical. 20th Century-Fox.
Gregory Ratoff, Director. Recommended
for all.

“Backward, turn backward, 0
Time in thy flight” finds ful-
fillment in the fantastic events
of Where Do We Go From Here,
in which the hero finds himself
making love several hundred
years before he was born. This
strange situation is brought
about when a rollicking, good-
natured young man (Fred Mac-
Murray) happens to rub an old
lamp that he found in his pile
of scrap metal, the lamp at once
producing a genie ready to sat-
isfy his master’s first three
wishes.

Unhappy because his two fa-
vorite young ladies (June Haver
and Joan Leslie) give themselves

into the company of men in uni-
form while he himself is merely
a 4-F, the young man wishes to
be a soldier — and instantly finds
himself back in 1776 with Wash-
ington’s army at Valley Forge.
Later, another flash sends him,
with all his memory of his-
tory, nearly three hundred years
further back, to the deck of one
of the ships of Columbus on the
waj^ to discover a new world.
Then he finds himself wander-
ing among the rocks and forests
of primitive Manhattan ; in an-
other moment among the Dutch
of New Amsterdam, and lastly,
after a ride over the clouds,
he marches away with United
States Marines down a street in
modern New York City. In every
situation, he finds his two be-
loved young women very much
creatures of the period repre-
sented, and there, too, he finds
dancing and singing, love and
laughter, adventure and escape,
a n d constant rescue by his
guarding genie.

This comic-opera, with Gil-
bert -and- Sullivan nonsense,
proves delightful because it
keeps the spirit of nonsense
throughout. Director Gregory
Ratoff made every episode click
with precision, bringing about
instant appeal, always keeping
close to the familiar and always
fantastic and unreal. Under
such circumstances it is natural
to see George Washington, Bene-
dict Arnold, Christopher Colum-
bus, and horses that gallop over
the clouds and change into auto-
mobiles.

Lively, musical, humorous, in-
teresting, with delightful group
scenes. Where Do We Go From
Here is excellent because it is
what it is — nonsense.

JOHNNY ANGEL. Mystery melodrama.
RKO. Edwin L. Marin, Director. Gener-
ally recommended.

Like the intriguing Five
Graves to Cairo, in which a Brit-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

ish tank rumbles across the des-
ert carrying only dead and un-
conscious men, and like the fa-
mous Beau. Geste, in which a
French force comes upon a des-
ert fort manned only by dead
soldiers, Johnny Angel tells a
story of mystery. A steamship
wallows across the sea but car-
ries no captain and no crew. The
vessel is undamaged, the water
cocks are not opened. What had
happened to a lumber-carrying
steamer to cause it to go un-
guided across the sea?

A long series of scenes with-
out spoken words intensifies the
mystery and suspense attendant
upon discovery of the lonely ves-
sel. Thereafter, as is to be ex-
pected, a series of flashbacks
slowly explains the situation but
leaves mystery to the very end.

Soft-s p 0 k e n, g r i m-faced
George Raft plays the part of
the Captain of the vessel that
discovers the derelict. Having
towed the vessel to port, he sets
himself resolutely to solve all
the mystery. Melodramatic ac-
tion follows melodramatic action
in swift succession. Fist fights,
shooting, stabbing, and new
mystery added to mystery, in-
crease the tempo of the story un-
til, at the very last, all becomes
clear.

One of the minor characters
of the story, a taxi driver named
Celestial O’Brien, played by
Hoagy Carmichael, has such
oddity and philosophy of the
quizzical. Will Rogers type, that
he attracts strong attention as
a thoroughly individual person-
age.

Three women (Signe Hasso
playing the leading feminine
role, and Claire Trevor and Mar-
garet Wycherly adding strong
support) provide the story with
a full supply of romantic inter-
est.

Under the direction of Edwin

L. Marin the sensational, high-
ly melodramatic, but rather im-
probable story gains atmos-
pheric values that add greatly
to the total effect. Director Mar-
in’s superb management of the
opening scenes arouses interest
that remains steady throughout
the action. The interest created
by those opening scenes at sea
suggests that there is room for
more motion pictures concern-
ing ships and the sea.

INCENDIARY BLONDE. Biographical
comedy. Paramount. Director, George
Marshall. Generally recommended.

Fast-moving, rapid-fire, stac-
cato episodes unfold in bois-
terous manner in Incendiary
Blonde, a highly fictionalized bi-
ography of Texas Guinan, sen-
sational proprietor o f a long-
gone New York City night club.

With immense verve and un-
flagging energy, Betty Hutton
presents the famous Texas Gui-
nan, playing opposite Arturo de
Cordova, a n d most uniquely
assisted by the incomparable
Barry Fitzgerald. The old cry,
“Come on, suckers !’’ rings out
again as the highly original
Texas makes her way to the fore-
front of night-club entertain-
ment. Very skilfully indeed the
makers of the film story have
avoided coarseness and vulgarity
and have placed every emphasis
upon fast acting and hilarious
effect. Done in Technicolor and
admirably acted for the kind of
story that it tells. Incendiary
Blonde will appeal to that pait
of the public that has slight in-
terest in thought-stimulating mo-
tion-picture stories.

According to the story, the fu-
ture night club proprietor began
life as a rough-and-tumble girl
in a small Texas town. Fascin-
ated by the arrival of a wander-
ing Wild West show she poses
as a man and accepts a chal-
lenge to ride a broncho that has

thrown all comers. (If Betty
Hutton, in person, did the wild
riding, all honor to Betty!) Then
away goes the impulsive girl to
follow the fortunes of the travel-
ling show, in which she becomes
star rider. A press agent leads
her to Broadway, first to the
chorus and then to a leading
part. Her ever-gambling father
(Barry Fitzgerald) follows her
to New York and all but ruins
her good fortune in trying to
improve his own lot. Love inter-
est? To be sure. Dramatic and
exciting events? Yes, with a hi-
jacking New York “mob.” Trag-
edy? Yes, oddly enough the rol-
licking picture story begins with
a funeral and ends with one
death and the suggestion of an-
other !

This potpourri of many ele-
ments has many kinds of inter-
est. Though one may scoff at it
as biography and deny that it is
“literary,” one must admit that
it has something of human inter-
est, and turns the page of New
York City back pleasantly to a
time that gave enterprising re-
porters something to write about
for the daily papers of the
period.

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE.
Mystery meladrama. 20th Century-Fax.
Rene Clair, Director. Recommended for
all.

And Then There Were None,
a novel by Agatha Christie, ap-
peals to many readers as a mys-
tery story that, until final ex-
planation is made, appears to
have no possible solution. Such
readers call the story “the per-
fect mystery.” The stage play
based on the novel bows to pop-
ular romantic tradition, intro-
duces the element of love, and
changes both plot and ending.
The film follows the stage-play.

Groups that study motion pic-
tures will find And Then There
Was None unusually good ma-

October, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

terial for discussion. From the
point of view of cinematographic
art, which is better — the book’s
plot and ending or the motion
picture’s plot and ending? Is it
necessary to have romantic love
in every motion-picture story?
To what extent should motion
pictures change material taken
directly from popular novels? If
you have read the book, have
seen the stage play, and have
seen the motion picture of And
Then There Were None which
gave you the greatest interest
and created the most powerful
suspense?

This much appears certain —
the book keeps a secret until the
very last ; the stage-play and the
motion picture show a charming
young man and a lovely young
woman. An observer naturally
says, “Oho ! A lover and his lass !
They will come out all right,
marry and live happily ever af-
ter.’’ Introducing such conven-
tional love interest satisfies
craving for passionate romance
but dissipates mystery.

A powerful cast makes Aud
Then There Were None a not-
able production. Here are Barry
Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Louis
Hayward, Roland Young, June
Duprez, C. Aubrey Smith, Ju-
dith Anderson, Mischa Auer,
Richard Haydn, and Queenie
Leonard — all in one picture !

A picturesque setting adds to
effect. Far out from land, waves
dash high upon the ledges of
a small rocky island. On this
island is a princely mansion to
which come ten individuals, each
one summoned by a “Mr. Owen’’
whom none of them knows. Each
person has committed an unpun-
ished crime. On that island, from
which no escape is possible, ven-
geance stalks each criminal.

Such a mystery story, with
such a cast, certainly will hold
any person’s interest.

NOB HILL. Romance of early San Fran-
cisco. 20th Century-Fox. Henry Hatha-
way, Director. Recommended for adults.

Nob Hill — Katie in the won-
derland of old San Francisco’s
Barbary Coast — tells the story
of a little girl (Peggy Ann Gar-
ner) whom fate sends straight
from Ireland into the wild ac-
tivities of one of San Francisco’s
liveliest dance halls. This Bret
Harte situation does not lead to
reform on the part of the hard-
fisted dance hall proprietor
(George Raft), but it does lead
to happiness for him and for one
of the two women who love him.

On the way across the Atlan-
tic little Katie Flanagan has be-
come acquainted with rich and
aristocratic Harriet Carruthers
(Joan Bennett) , who lives in one
of the ornate mansions on San
Francisco’s Nob Hill. Quite in-
nocently the child leads her
dance-hall protector into the
almost forbidden streets and
homes of Nob Hill, and into fa-
miliarity with the young woman
of wealth and fashion. The result
not only completely upsets the
peace and happiness of a very
beautiful and extremely red-
headed dance-hall star (Vivian
Blaine) , but also the success and
welfare of the Barbary Coast
itself, with all its glittering at-
tractions and luring pleasures.
Two young and beautiful women
face each other — and they do
much more than face each other,
for they engage in actual fisti-
cuffs, hair-pulling, and general
roll-and-tumble, with neither one
much hurt. Which one gets her
man? Not even the little Irish
girl could have foretold the win-
ner, but it was she who ended the
triangle — two women fighting
for one man !

Technicolor, strong use of
close-ups, numerous active group
scenes, some of the toughness
and roughness of old San Fran-
cisco, and a gi-eat deal of the

blare, music, gaiety, and dancing
of the Barbary Coast give the
production the slap-dash spirit
of the city destroyed by the great
earthquake and fire of 1906.

In and with all this, Peggy
Ann Garner presents the sim-
plicity and wistfulness of a child
to whom everything is new and
almost everything is worthy of
respect. Without her as a foil,
the picture would be merely a
kind of “western” ; with her, it
gains a background that lifts it
from crassness and crudity.

A n ordinary house mouse
plays a part in this picture story.
Look for the mouse! The only
“star mouse” of the movies I

BLITHE SPIRIT. Fantasy. In Techni-
color. Produced by Noel Coward from
his stage-play, for United Artists release.

This is a sophisticated, satiri-
cal comedy about a wife who has
died young and whose spirit
comes back to the house of her
re-married husband to get him
to join her in heaven. In the end,
he does, but not before Wife No.
2, in an accident intended by the
spirit of Wife No. 1 for the hus-
band 07ily, also becomes a ghost
— so that the Eternal Triangle
continues in spirit land! Of in-
terest to students of film appre-
ciation is the remarkably suc-
cessful use of makeup and light-
ing to create the effect of a liv-
ing spirit. In this. Technicolor
is a great advantage. It will be
interesting to compare some as-
pects of this film with compar-
able elements in Wo)ider Boy,
the Sam Goldwyn production.
English teachers will find the
Noel Coward theme reminiscent
of Rossetti’s Blessed Damozel,
though wholly different in treat-
ment. Here’s hoping that a
screen version of the Rosetti
poem may some day appear in
Technicolor as a romantic fan-
tasy in the mood of Smilin'
Through! Holly woutl, please
note. w. L.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XIL No. 1

Edward G. Robinson, with Jackie Jenkins and Margaret O'Brien, in

"Our Vines Have Tender Grapes."

OUR VINES HAVE TENDER GRAPES.
Sentimental drama of family life on a
Wisconsin farm. MGM. Directed by Roy
Rowland. Screen play by Dalton Trumbo.
Highly recommended.

Dalton Trumbo, editor of Hol-
lywood’s new magazine, The
Screen Writer, has fashioned a
notable screen play from George
V. Martin’s novel, so that it
comes to life on the screen with
great warmth and tenderness.
A saga of the commonplace, the
film may raise questions in some
minds as to the esthetic value

of an apotheosis of simplicity.
There can be no doubt as to the
power of the appeal of the
drama. By pointing up the long-
ings, the devotion, and the oc-
casional struggles with fire and
flood on lonely farms, the film
lifts the audience out of the or-
dinariness that besets simple
lives. Edward G. Robinson
proves his extraordinary versa-
tility by playing a part as dif-
ferent from his gangster roles
as day from night. Critics of

Hollywood’s “failure to depict
the American scene’’ will find
here a film that is truly down to
earth. w. L.

ORDERS FROM TOKYO. Technicolor
documentary film concerning Japanese
atrocities in the Philippine Islands. War-
ner Bros.

In the audience at the New
York preview of this Technicolor
documentary film produced in
cooperation with the Govern-
ment of the Philippines and the
Office of Strategic Services, sat

October, 1 945

Brigadier General Carlos Ro-
mulo, head of the Philippine del-
egation to the San Francisco
Conference ; Captain David C.
Griffin, USMCR, who filmed
and narrated the production ;
and a number of other distin-
guished military and naval per-
sons. Later, at an informal re-
ception at Hotel Astor, those in
attendance had opportunity to
talk with these officials, who
feel that the film should be evi-
dence enough to hang Hirohito.

From a great footage of film,
enough for only twenty minutes’
running time has been selected
— but that little, with its empha-
sis upon Japanese wanton de-
struction and brute savagery,
powerfully impressed all. At the
same time those present obtained
copies of a confidential booklet
of 114 pages, including 39 pic-
tures, accompanied by affida-
vits, entitled Report on the De-
struction of Manila and Japa-
nese Atrocities.

In order to spare the most
beautiful metropolis of the Ori-
ent, General MacArthur, beset
by overwhelming forces, de-
clared Manila an open city. Quite
to the contrary, the Japanese, at
the American re-conquest of
the Philippines, deliberately de-
stroyed all that they could and
mercilessly killed the citizens.
They murdered women and chil-
dren with fanatic savagery.

All this the twenty-minute
film shows in Technicolor. Cap-
tain Griffin many times risked
his life in filming actual events.
Such a presentation indicts the
Emperor of Japan. It brings the
nature of war in the East stark-
ly before us. Through this series
of documentary scenes we see
Manila as it once was, a queen-
city of the Pacific, with noble
buildings devoted to education
and religion; then we see the
destruction and rapine. We wit-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

ness street and hospital scenes
that show the agony that the
Japanese inflict upon non-com-
batants, the helpless, the old and
the young.

If the American people are to
take steps to prevent future
horrors of the same kind they
should see this, and similar au-
thentic pictures, in order to re-
alize to the full the task that lies
before them.

CAPTAIN KIDD. Historical melodrama.
Praduced by Benedict Bogeaus. United
Artists release. Directed by Rowland V.
Lee.

Choosing as his subject piracy
on the Spanish Main during the
reign of William and Mary, Rob-
ert N. Lee in an original script
provides the audience with a
story of mounting suspense and
Charles Laughton with a role
which one feels he keenly enjoys
depicting. He is as masterly as
ever as the arch-hypocrite and
ruffian who is as big a coward
as he is a bully. Laughton makes
the most of every bit of irony.
He deserves the gratitude of
author, producer, and director.

If only Stevenson’s practice in
Treasure Island had been fol-
lowed and the women left out!
It seemed to me that in Captain
Kidd as soon as the lady ap-
peared the picture cheapened
and became stereotyped. Seeing
Laughton as ship’s captain nat-
urally recalled Mutiny on the
Boimty, which was a more orig-
inal character study and had a
more thought-provoking treat-
ment of its theme.

CAROLYN HARROW

ANCHORS AWEIGH. Spectacular mu-
sical comedy. In Technicolor. MGM. Pro-
duced by Joe Pasternak. George Sidney,
Director. Highly recommended.

Of special interest to students
of photoplay appreciation are
the rhythmic elements of An-
chors Aweigh. Gene Kelly, given
scope by Producer Pasternak
and careful handling by Direc-

tor Sidney, does an inspired job
of dancing. It is the last word
in precision of timing and lusti-
ness of spirit. Gene runs the
gamut of versatility, excellent
in almost every type of rhyth-
mic movement. With Frank Sin-
atra as a foil, Kelly is the per-
sonification of the American
spirit. Fred Quimby’s cartoon
department at the MGM studio
has added an element of delight-
ful fantasy to the film. A car-
toon-and-live-action sequence, in
which Kelly’s dancing partner
is an animated mouse, out-Dis-
neys Disney. Kelly also shares a
dance with little Sharon Mc-
Manus, as a miniature senorita.
The singing of Kathryn Grayson
is beautifully recorded. Her
dancing with Kelly is alternate-
ly intimate and spectacular. Jose
Iturbi contributes musical ele-
ments that will please music
lovers everywhere. Here is an
escape picture par excellence. It
will pack up your troubles in
that old kit bag. w. l.

LOVE LETTERS. Romani-ic, psycholog-
ical drama. Paramount’. Hal Wallis pro-
duction, directed by William Dieterle,
from the novel by Chris Massie. Screen
play by Ayn Rand. Photography by Lee
Garmes.

If you are willing to accept
the sto7-y — a Cyranovated ver-
sion of the old Rostand theme —
this will prove a moving and
beautiful picture. You will fol-
low with tense absorption the
consequences of love-letter writ-
ing by proxy; the amnesia vic-
tim’s slow and perilous recov-
ery of memory; and — as in
Chris Massie’s novel — the rapid
revelations leading to the happy
ending. Lee Garmes’s photog-
raphy is particularly effective,
though the sets are often need-
lessly artificial. You may begin
soon to tire of Joseph Cotten’s
unmodulated voice and Jennifer
Jones’s saucer-eyed innocence.

M. M. Nagelberg

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

As to "A Bell for Adono"

Those who have been com-
plaining that for the past year
American movies have been of
an inferior quality will find the
picture version of “A Bell for
Adano” a welcome relief. Holly-
wood has made amends for pre-
vious shortcomings by produc-
ing this worthy interpretation
of that book, considered by many
the best novel to come out of the
European war.

At the very start, when you
see Major Joppollo’s car skim-
ming along the mountain road of
a vast, beautiful Sicilian pan-
orama, and then nearing the bat-
tered walls of the little town he
is to take over, you will realize
how much more can be shown in
a film than in a stage-play. Mass
action, showing the whole popu-
lation of Adano following their
American leader, or assembling

under his window, is impossible
except on the screen.

Pursuing a comparison of the
film and the play, I felt that, fine
as the work of Fredric March
was on the stage, I preferred
John Hodiak’s interpretation of
the Major. He substituted, for
the polish of Mr. March, a cer-
tain roughness which seemed
more in keeping with the part.
Both actors, however, brought
out the innate decency of the
hero.

There are many laughs in the
film. Marcel Dalio strikes the
note of high comedy in his con-
stant rush to be obsequious. The
Americans use slang that is
funny and baffling to the na-
tives.

The scene where Tina is told
of the manner of her lover’s
death, drags a little. It contrib-
utes nothing to the story or its
message. The picture as a whole

is a fine object-lesson in democ-
racy. CAROLYN HARROW

As to "Incendary Blonde"

Emily Freeman, a Ph.D. stu-
dent at Columbia University,
says that the appeal of Incendi-
ary Blonde will be greater to
older people than to students.
She was unable to follow the
many allusions and jokes that
were obviously current in Texas
Guinan’s day and that seemed to
be very interesting to older peo-
ple in the preview audience.
Miss Freeman felt that Betty
Hutton was progressing from a
cute jitterbug into a serious dra-
matic actress. Her performance
was the outstanding element of
the film. The screen play was
weak because it was over-
crowded with episodes. Miss
Freeman felt. The screen writer
should have done a better job of
selection and simplification.

What Ernie Pyle Himself Thought of the
Screen Version of His ''Story of G. I. Joe"

The late Ernie Pyle, on Feb-
ruary 15, 1945, just before he
left for the South Pacific, de-
voted one of his columns to the
movie which is partly based on
these columns from the war
fronts over the last two years.”
Following are excerpts :

It is a movie about the infanti’y-
There isn’t much of a story to it, and
there’s no conventional love interest

running through it.

The soldiers all grew beards, and
although they got awfully itchy, the
boys said the girls in Hollywood sure
do go for a soft, flossy beard. The
only tragedy was when one soldier’s
beard caught fire one day and he got
pretty badly burned. I don’t know

whether he got a Purple Heart for that
or not.

The six main soldier characters in
the picture were played by profes-
sional actors. But the run-of-the-mill
soldiers were played by real soldiers.
As was expected, a couple of the real
soldiers turned out to be finds as ac-
tors.

I spent a week in Hollywood nosing
into the picture in October, another
week in December, and Hollywood peo-
ple were dropping off every plane,
train, and stage coach that passed
through Albuquerque all the time I
was home.

We had Hollywood writers, direc-
tors, actors, producers, photographers
and research experts by the dozen at
our house. The only thing Hollywood
didn’t send over to Albuquerque in

search of enlightenment and advice
was beautiful girls, and I guess they
don’t need advice.

I still don’t know whether it will
be a good picture or not, but I think
it will. Certainly there are some mag-
nificent scenes in it, and certainly it
pulls no punches in showing the mud
and misery and fear of an infantry-
man’s life.

They have worked a year and a
half on it, and spent over a million
dollars. They’ve slaved to avoid Holly-
wooding it. They’ve sought, and lis-
tened to, advice from men who know
what war is.

They’ve had at least one veteran
war correspondent there all the time.
The Army has kept never less than
three overseas veterans of combat out
there constantly. As I left Hollywood,

October, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Burgess Meredith and Ernie Pyle during the filming of "The Story of G.l. Joe."

one of these veterans said, “I think
it’s going to be a good picture. At
least I think it will be the most au-
thentic war picture ever made.”

My own part in it is very minor, as
it should be, for this is a picture about
the infantry, not about me. My part
is played by Capt. Burgess Meredith.

The makeup men shaved his head
and wrinkled his face and made him
up so well that he’s even uglier than
I am, poor fellow.

The picture was directed by Wild
Bill Wellman, one of Hollywood’s top
men. Wellman is a picturesque direc-
tor, wild with enthusiasm, and every-
thing he sees is either the greatest
thing he ever saw in his life or the
worst thing.

The picture was produced by Lester
Cowan, a n independent, through
United Artists. If it’s a lousy picture,
poor Lester will have to face the wrath
of about two million irate soldiers. If
it isn’t a lousy picture, then he can
float on air for years.

An almost anonymous person whose

hand bore strongly on the picture is
an old Indiana school friend of mine
named Paige Cavanaugh. Being one
of my closest friends, he quit what-
ever he was doing last spring and went
to work for Lester Cowan, largely to
insure, as Lester puts it, that “Cowan
didn’t louse Pyle up.”

The theater manager in Dana has
volunteered to let my father and Aunt
Mary in free on opening night. They
think that’s sure mighty nice, and
they’ll probably take him up on it.

New Coronef Slidefilms

The 1945-46 series of slide-
films (or filmstrips) made from
Picture Stories in Coronet Mag-
azine is announced by the So-
ciety for Visual Education. The
series includes eight slidefilms,
one each month from October,
1945, through May, 1946. Each
slidefilm is accompanied by a
reprint of the Picture Story in

Coronet, which serves as a teach-
er’s manual. The slidefilms be-
come the permanent property of
those who receive them.

The October Picture Story is
The Liberated, a story of people
who have been freed all over the
world. It will be followed in No-
vember by The Storm, a docu-
mentary story of storms. The
German is the December sub-
ject, on the kind of people the
Germans were before the war
and what we may expect of them
now.

SVE also announces new slide-
films on Aviation (for lower
grades), on Air Transportation
Jobs for Yon, on National Parks,
and on Penmanship. Write for
the complete new SVE Picturol
Catalog, Dept. ERG, 100 East
Ohio St,, Chicago 11.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

BEHIND THE SCREEN CREDITS

BY HELEN COLTON

One of the most painstaking
jobs in the picture business is
the designing of screen clothes.
Most new movie personalities
are sold to the public on their
appearance, not their acting
ability, so you can see how im-
portant a screen wardrobe can
be to Gertie Glamour, who has
to look simply “out of this
world” to get sighs and fan mail
from an admiring public.

In all Hollywood, there are
only about a dozen or so top
clothes designers, people who ac-
tually get their names on the
screen. Theirs is a rather e.xclu-
sive, small circle into which ad-
mittance is gained only by res-
ignation of one of its members.
But working under this select
few are about 25 or 30 people
who are known as Associate
Designers, among whom are
undoubtedly the Irenes, Vera
Wests, Edith Heads, Travis Ban-
tons, Adrians, and Edward Ste-
vensons of the future.

One of these people is Eleanor
Behm, an outstanding young de-
signer, who came to Hollywood
from New York five years ago
to design for the screen. Like
most other young people who
come here from various parts of
the country, seeking jobs of one
sort or another, Eleanor didn’t
know a soul in Hollywood.

Letters to costume companies
— “make them brief and to the
point,” she advises — and follow-
up phone calls got her an ap-
pointment with a man at West-
ern Costume Company. No open-
ing there, but it got her an in-
troduction to Edward Steven-
son, head designer at RKO, who
recommended her to Vera West

Eleanor Behm

at Universal. There, she went to
work as a sketch artist.

The job of sketch artist exists
because many designers, whose
ideas are wonderful, can’t draw
even as well as a kindergarten
doodler. So they give their ideas
orally to a sketcher who inter-
prets those ideas on paper on an
actual figure.

While there aren’t many such
jobs, since each designer needs
only one sketch artist, and some
designers do their own sketch-
ing, it’s about the best way to
break into fashion designing.
The artist is in close touch with
everything that goes on in the
designing department. Several of
today’s head designers, like Ed-
die Stevenson of RKO and Edith
Head of Paramount, worked
their way up from sketching.

After a year, Eleanor Behm,
who had sold fashion designs to
wholesale dress manufacturers,
to department stores, and to syn-
dicated fashion columns in New
York, felt she had served enough

of an apprenticeship and knew
enough about the business to
strike out on her own.

Since then, she has worked as
a free-lance designer for MGM,
RKO, Universal, Arnold Press-
burger, Fritz Lang, and Andrew
Stone productions. Right now
she’s doing a big Technicolor
picture, “Concerto,” for Frank
Borzage (Republic). Her agent,
Joe Berger, who keeps in touch
with the requirements at vari-
ous studios, tells her where there
may be an opening and arranges
an interview for her with the
head designer or producer. Or
she may learn of an opening her-
self and follow it up.

When calling for an interview,
Eleanor takes along sketches of
her work, of course. She usually
shows some modern clothes, in-
cluding daytime dresses, suits,
and evening gowns, perhaps two
or three of each. Since she hap-
pens also to be good at histori-
cal and musical costumes, she in-
cludes some of those, too.

However, not all designers are
good at all types of clothes. Some
are known for modern clothes,
others for historical or musical
costumes. “If you don’t do all
three well,” Eleanor advises,
“take along samples only of
things you can do well. A lot of
mediocre designs can spoil the
impression of two or three good
ones.”

There are two rules she
stresses in relation to the inter-
view. “First, your own appear-
ance. Be an advertisement for
the kind of work you do,” she
says. “If the designer thinks you
look well-groomed and smart,
naturally, he gets the idea you
can make his stars look that way,
too.”

October, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Second, and this is a very val-
uable tip: “Study current pic-
tures. Stay away from subjects
the studio has been turning out
recently. If the designer has just
been through a spate of pictures
set in the period of 1849, she’s
probably bored with hoops and
bustles. You can’t blame her.
Show her something from an en-
tirely different period ; or don’t
show her historical things at
all.”

Let’s say you’ve had your in-
terview and have landed a job,
either as the head designer in
full charge of a picture being-
made by an independent com-
pany, or as assistant to the head
designer at one of the big stu-
dios. Here’s your schedule.

The head of the wardrobe de-
partment gets the final shooting
script and goes through it, scene
by scene, recording the kind of
outfit needed in each one. This
is called a “costume break-
down.” You get the break-down,
and start consultations with the
producer, the cameraman, and
the star who will wear your de-
signs.

What have cameramen got to
do with it? A great deal, actu-
ally. Some cameramen don’t like
white, especially near the face.
“It washes out all color,” they
say, and will request that some-
thing which is to come out white
on the screen actually be light
blue or pink or off-white, to give
a softer effect. Other camera-
men like white because they feel
it highlights the face. To get
black on the screen, some “lens-
ers” prefer navy blue; others
want pure black, which is a
bit harsher. Certain cameramen,
like some actresses and design-
ers, have phobias against cer-
tain colors. Eleanor, for in-
stance, dislikes doing anything
in dark red. Green is supposed to
be an unlucky color in show bus-

iness, and it is rarely used.

Assembling all the ideas that
have been bandied about, you
make two or three sketches for
each costume, keeping in mind
your star’s figure and the kind
of character she’s playing. Does
she have long or short legs, wide
or narrow shoulders, a large or
small waistline? Do you have to
hide a long, thin neck, fat arms,
heavy legs ? Is she playing a
naive country maiden or a chic
young New York executive or a
Russian peasant?

Satisfying all these people, all
these requirements, and your-
self, too, isn’t easy. Pretend, per-
haps, that a lady you know is an
actress playing the queen of a
mythical kingdom. Can you de-
sign a costume that would hide
her figure faults, not duplicate
the garments worn by the queen
of any real, identifiable king-
dom, and still give her a realis-
tic, queenly look?

If it’s a color picture you’re
doing, your sketches are in the
same colors as the finished
gowns will be. If it’s a black-
and-white film, your sketches
are in black and white.

Your first sketches are fin-
ished. Then come further con-
sultations, more sketches, a bow
taken off here or added there,
a rounded neckline becomes a
square neckline, and so on. Fi-
nally your designs have been
okayed by everyone concerned
and now are ready to be made
up into the materials you’ve
agreed on for them.

Here’s where the shopper
comes in. With your require-
ments in mind, she shops the lo-
cal stores, textile companies, and
costume companies, in search of
what you need. An efficient, in-
genious shopper can be of great
help, because she’ll go out of her
way to dig up just the right
cloth, like a strip of silver lame

to make a collar on a black vel-
vet dinner dress ; or to find
unique things like star-shaped,
rather than the usual round,
rhinestones or sequins, that will
give distinction to an otherwise
ordinary frock.

If your picture has a high
budget, you can afford to have
the costumes made up first in
muslin to test their fit and style
on the wearer. Once the final
costume is made up, you can also
afford to make a screen test of
it, to see how it’ll photograph.

Every studio has figure dum-
mies for its stars. This saves
lots of time in fittings. The last
fitting is usually on the star,
and everyone who has any say
about costumes is on hand for
the final once-over. A last-min-
ute tuck, dart, and stitch, and
it’s ready for the screen, a
month to six weeks from the day
it was just a gleam in your mind.

Supporting players and ex-
tras are costumed from the huge
stocks of wearing apparel every
studio has on hand. This in-
cludes gowns, historical and
musical costumes, shoes, hats,
purses, gloves, handkerchiefs,
costume jewelry, hosiery, skirts,
blouses ; tennis, swimming, rid-
ing, sleeping outfits, etc. All act-
resses, including the stars, pro-
vide their own underthings.
Everything else comes from
“wardrobe.”

Male actors, if they are ap-
pearing i n modern pictures,
wear their own suits. If the film
is a historical subject, the male
costumes come either from the
studio wardrobe department or
from one of the several costume
companies in Hollywood.

In the light of what she has
learned from her five years in
Hollywood, Eleanor urges the
would-be designer to attend a
school of fashion design, not
only to learn about fashion de-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

sign itself, but also to learn
about sewing and pattern-mak-
ing. The ideal educational back-
ground, she thinks, would con-
sist of a couple of years of fash-
ion schooling, a year or two of
training in commercial art, and
a year or two of pure art.
“Attractive, natural figures,
sketched in correct proportions,
help tremendously in ‘selling’
the costumes you put on them,”
she says.

She also urges those who

Kathleen

Kathleen Norris, author of 70
novels and 200 short stories, not
to mention many other writings,
is now turning out five soap
operas a week, Monday through
Friday, for the CBS morning se-
rial, A Woman’s Life, based on
experiences in her own life. Pro-
lific Mrs. Norris is finding it
no trouble at all to write 260
radio playlets a year. She finds
her fan mail “highly stimulat-
ing and somewhat terrifying.”
In the following letter to the ed-
itor of the GUIDE, Mrs. Norris
comments on the soap-opera bat-
tle, on the difference between
radio-writing and fiction-writ-
ing, and on her reaction to her
new work :

RENT 16MM FILMS

SOUND AND SILENT

For Teaching, Recess
and Entertainment

Most- of Our Films ore
Also For Sole

Write for Information

NU-ART FILMS, INC.

145 WEST 45th STREET
NEW YORK 19, Y

would design to study their
history. “Understanding why
certain types of costumes were
popular at various times in dif-
ferent countries is a requisite of
fashion work,” she insists.

“For instance,” she explains,
“nowadays, the comparative
freedom of women’s clothes is
a manifestation of our stage of
civilization. Just as women have
attained more freedom, so have
their clothes.

“In the days of King Arthur,

Norris on the
Soap Opera

Kathleen Norris

Dear Dr. Lewin:

I am a newcomer to the mysteries
of soap opera, but I’ve found myself
deeply interested in the little contro-
versy that has been going on about it.
I’ve been doing scripts for “A Wom-
an’s Life” only since April, but al-
ready I’ve learned some of the rea-
sons that make this sort of work dif-
ferent from magazine-serial and novel
writing, and when I say with all hu-
mility that I hope in time I can mas-
ter it, it is with recognition of a new
art, and I believe a very important
one.

In magazine and novel stories, one

men wore armor for a very good
reason — t o protect themselves
from the thrust of a sword. As
swords disappeared from daily
life, so did the armored cloth-
ing. Visored working caps came
into existence with the machine
age, to protect workers from
dust and scraps that might fly
off a machine in motion.

“By all means, study your his-
tory books if you want to be a
costume designer for the mov-
ies!”

Battle of

takes a chance on the reader’s fancy;
pel haps misses the point, disappoints
an ardent fan. In radio the fans leave
you in no doubt. “You keep Barbara
straight!” said more than forty let-
ters last week. I find this highly stim-
ulating and somewhat terrifying. I
will keep Barbara straight. In a novel
she might have wandered far from
paths of safety — not on the radio. It
touches me that listeners take these
stories seriously; it seems to me a
great advantage that they do not wait
for the leisure moment when they may
pick up a book — to some of those lis-
teners that moment never comes! —
but that I come to them instead. If
as an older woman I have learned hard
lessons, I can put those lessons into
serial radio-story form, and perhaps
reach some girl who is doubtful, or
worried about the same problem. And
if some day a busy, tired woman
glances at the clock and thinks with
pleasure, “in a few minutes ‘A Wom-
an’s life’ will come on,” I will have
my reward.

Because the much-abused “soaps”
have not always lived up to their un-
limited possibilities for influence and
good is not a reason why they may
not do so.

Best regards —

Cordially,

KATHLEEN NORRIS
Palo Alto, California
June 2, 1945

October, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

USING RECORDINGS IN THE
SOCIAL STUDIES CLASSROOM

Reprinted from "The Civic Leader," o publication of
the Civic Education Service, Washington, D. C., April 23, 1945.

BY WILBUR F. MURRA

Has the voice of Pi'esident
Roosevelt ever been heard in
your classroom? The voices of
Presidents McKinley and Wil-
son? Of Prime Minister Winston
Churchill and Madame Chiang
Kai-shek? Of William Ewart
Gladstone, William Jennings
Bryan, and Florence Nightin-
gale? All these are possible — on
easily obtainable, inexpensive
recordings.

For that matter, have you
ever used any recordings as
planned aids to teaching? Some
of you have, but most of you
haven’t. I am among those who
haven’t, so I cannot speak from
experience. But, from what I
have learned since, I wish I had
known more about the educa-
tional potentialities of auditory
aids when I was a classroom
teacher between 1931 and 1940.
To be sure, there were far few-
er recordings available at that
time than there are now, and
phonographs or other playback
machines were less frequently
found in school buildings then
than now.

What is now available, how-
ever, is slight indeed compared
with what we can expect to
have after this year. Ten years

Wilbur F. Murra, Editor of the
Civic Leader, taught high school in
Minnesota, 1932-35; was instructor
in education at Harvard University,
1937-39; and was executive secre-
tary of the National Council for the
Social Studies, 1940-43. He has a
bachelor’s degree from the Univer-
sity of Minnesota and a master’s
degree from Harvard.

Wilbur F. Murra, Editor of
"The Civic Leader"

from now teaching without the
use of recordings will be as rare
— and as outmoded — as teach-
ing without films is today,

I urge you to get acquainted
with this relatively new educa-
tional tool now — not only that
you can thereby enrich your
1946 instruction, but also as a
first step toward preparing
yourself for mastery of a teach-
ing technique that circum-
stances will eventually compel
you to learn anyhow.

Don’t think of recordings
merely as a substitute for, or
variation on, listening to radio
broadcasts. Radio listening is
an important means of learn-
ing, and some kinds of record-
ings— in some of their uses —
are closely related to it. But
radio education as such is a dif-
ferent story, and we are not at-
tempting to deal with it in this

article.

Don’t judge the value of us-
ing recordings simply by com-
paring it with reading material
or teacher telling or student
dramatization or seeing and
hearing a sound film. Each tech-
nique has its distinctive advan-
tage, and all should be used.

A recording may be played
in whole or in part to start dis-
cussion or to illustrate a social
or economic concept or to make
vivid a historical personage or
event. It can convey informa-
tion, and for purposes of inten-
sive study it can be played and
re-played. Recordings can be
used to teach, and test, student
ability to listen critically. (Ten
specific classroom uses of rec-
ordings are enumerated on pp.
7-9 of the New York University
Catalogue of Selected Educa-
tional Recordings, cited below.)

Recordings are of two main
types: 78 r.p.m. and 33^ r.p.m.
The latter are sometimes called
“transcriptions” to differentiate
them from the former; but this
distinction in terminology is not
universally followed.

The ordinary phonograph
record rotates at 78 revolutions
per minute and comes in sizes
varying from 6 to 12 inches in
diameter. Transcriptions, which
rotate at a speed of 33^ revolu-
tions per minute, are usually 16
inches in diameter but they also
come in 12-inch size. A half-
hour program can be carried on
the two sides of a single 16-
inch, 33^3 r.p.m. disc, while the

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

same program recorded at 78
r.p.m. requires six surfaces —
both sides of each of three 12-
inch discs.

The 33ys r.p.m. transcription
is increasing in relative popu
larity and appears destined to
monopolize the field in years to
come. For it has three advan-
tages over the ordinary phono-
graph record : ( 1 ) it requires
fewer program breaks for rec-
ord-changing; (2) it is more
economical because fewer discs
need to be purchased for a pro-
gram of any given length ; and
(3) it gives a smoother repro-
duction of sound. However, the
78 r.p.m. record has one prac-
tical advantage at present ;
equipment for playing it is
much more widely available.
But this advantage is bound to
diminish after this year, when
greatly increased numbers of
33y3 r.p.m. playbacks will be
purchased by schools. Only
about 6,000 of them are now in
school use throughout the coun-
try. New purchases were al-
most impossible because the
armed services needed virtually
the total output of new ma-
chines.

It should be clearly under-
stood that special playback
equipment is essential in order
to use 33y3 r.p.m. recordings,
which cannot be played on ordi-
nary phonographs. On the othe ■
hand, 33yi r.p.m. playbacks can
be used for playing either type
of disc.

To give you some idea of the
different types of recorded pro-
grams which you may buy, bor-
row, or rent for use in your so-
cial-studies classroom, we shall
cite a few representative ones

* The “Americans All — Immigrants
All” programs in standard phono-
graph-record edition are also avail-
able, at the same price, from the Lin-
guaphone Institute, dO Rockef(dler
Plaza, New York 20, N. Y.

available from some of the prin-
cipal distributors of educational
recordings.

U. S. OFFICE OF EDUCATION

The work of the United States
Office of Education in the field
of educational recordings was an
outgrowth of its interest in ra-
dio education. In 1938, in collab-
oration with the Federal Radio
Education Committee, the of-
fice established the Educational
Radio Script and Transcription
Exchange.

Decision to promote i^roduc-
tion and school use of transcrip-
tions resulted from the experi-
ence of workers in radio educa-
tion who recognized two limita-
tions of classroom listening to
radiobroadcasts: (1) inconven-
ience, and often impossibility,
of rearranging the class sched-
ule every time a radio program
was to be used, and (2) impos-
sibility of teachers’ pre-audit of
radio broadcasts.

During 1938-39 twenty-four
programs in the “Americans All
— Immigrants All” series were
broadcast by the Columbia
Broadcasting System under aus-
pices of the U. S. Office of Edu-
cation. Recordings of all twen-
ty-four programs were offered
for sale to schools by the Tran-
scription Exchange. For each
of these programs recordings
of both the 78-r.p.m. and 33^^-
r.p.m. types were made. School
purchases were unexpectedly
large from the first, and hun-
dreds of new pressings have had
to be made to keep up with the
demand.

Following that initial ven-
ture, two changes in policy have
governed the work of the Ex-
change. New programs are of-
fered on a free loan basis,
though some are also available
for purchase. And only 33y~
r.p.m. transcriptions are now
handletl (with the single excep-

tion of the 78-r.p.m. discs of the
original Americans All series).

Americans All — Immigrants
All consists of twenty-four 30-
minute programs presenting the
story of the contributions which
those who have immigrated to
this country have made to the
social, economic, and political
development of the United
States. The scripts were written
by Gilbert Seldes. For 33^3-
r.p.m. equipment, each program
is complete on one 16-inch disc,
recorded on both sides; price,
$3.75. F’or playing on an ordi-
nary phonograph, each program
requires a set of three 12-inch,
78-r.p.m., double-faced records;
jDrice $4.75 per set."' Titles of
some of the individual pro-
grams in this series are : Our
Hispanic Heritage, The Negro
in the United States, Irish in
the United States, Closing
Frontiers, Contributions in In-
dustry, A New Elngland Town,
and Grand Finale.

Unlike the foregoing, the fol-
lowing are available only in the
form of 33y3-r.\).m. transcrip-
tions and should be borrowed
only by schools having suitable
playback equipment. Each may
be borrowed on free loan ; in
addition, some may be pur-
chased, in which cases the price
is given.

Freedom’s People is a series of
eight 30-minute programs
dramatizing the Negro’s con-
tributions to American life.
The first program deals with
contributions to music, the
second with science and dis-
covery, the third with sports,
and so on. ($1.50 per pro-
gram copy) .

The Saga of the Forest and
America’s Vanishing Soils,
two conservation programs
on oiiposite sides of the same
disc. Each program, 15 min-
utes.

October, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

The Challenge and Way of Life,
two 15-minute programs on
opposite sides of the same
disc, presenting the issue of
democracy versus totalitar-
ianism.

President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt’s War Messages to
Congi'ess, the President’s
messages of December 8 and
11, 1941, exactly as they were
delivered ; combined on the
one side of one disc.

The Black Market and The Nazi
Occupation of Norway, two
15-minute programs on oppo-
site sides of the same disc.
Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s Ad-
dress Before Congress, a rec-
ording of the 22-minute ad-
dress of February 18, 1943,
exactly as it was delivered.
Wendell Willkie’s Report on His
United Nations Tour. Mr.
Willkie’s broadcast of Octo-
ber 26, 1942.

We Hold These Truths. A stir-
ring one-hour program^
which was originally broad-
cast over the major networks
on December 15, 1941, in
commemoration of the 150th
anniversary of the adoption
of the Bill of Rights of the
Federal Constitution. The
script, written by Norman
Corwin, features Lt. James
Stewart, Leopold Stokowski,
and other top-ranking artists
and musicians. The program
closes with a message by
President Roosevelt. Com-
plete on two 16-inch trans-
criptions, each recorded on
both sides. ($2.50 per pro-
gram copy.)

Teachers who have access to
33^ r.p.m. playback equipment
will probably want to borrow
one or more of the programs
here listed. If so, send your re-
quests to The Educational Rad-
io Script and Transcription Ex-

tion, Washington 25, D. C. Each
program may be borrowed for
two weeks at a time, and not
more than four programs may
be borrowed by one teacher at
any one time. There is no
charge, but the borrower is
obligated to pay for any dam-
age that may occur to a record-
ing while it is in his care and
he must also pay return ship-
ping costs.

If you are a prospective user
of 33^ r.p.m. recordings, write
to the Transcription Exchange
(address above) and ask for a
free copy of their complete cat-
alog.

N.Y.U. FILM LIBRARY

By a wide margin, the largest
two distributors of educational
recordings are the U. S. Office
of Education and the Record-
ings Division of the New York
University Film Library. The
latter agency has more than one
thousand recordings available
for sale (and it also has a few
for rent) . Most of them are
playable on an ordinary phono-
graph (78 r.p.m.), but a very
large number are of the 33>^-
r.p.m. variety. Here are some
samples, with sale price given
for each:

As a Man Thinketh, an episode
in the history of civil liber-
ties involving a challenge to
the Alien and Sedition Acts
of 1798. 25 minutes playing
time. In two sizes and speeds :
three 12-inch records at 78
r.pm., $4.50, or one 16-inch
record at SSys r.p.m., $3.50.
Drafting the Constitution, his-
torical dramatization. 18
minutes playing time. Two
12-inch records at 78 r.p.m.,
$4.00.

Abraham Lincoln, dramatiza-
tion of his presidential years,
recorded by Raymond Massey
and others. 25 minutes. In

two sizes and speeds : three
12-inch records at 78 r.p.m.,
$4.50, or one 16-inch record
at 331/3 r.p.m., $3.50.

For Us the Living — The Gettys-
burg Address, recorded by
Alexander Woollcott. 8 min-
utes. Two 10-inch records at
78 r.p.m., $4.50.

America Moves West, historical
dramatization, featuring the
gold rush, the pony express,
the telegraph, and railroad-
building. 15 minutes. One 16-
inch record at 33l^ r.p.m.,
$5.15.

The Sound of History — Then
Came War, the story of the
“long armistice,” from No-
vember 11, 1918, to Septem-
ber 1, 1939, narrated by El-
mer Davis. 25 minutes. Three
12-inch records at 78 r.p.m.,
$6.50.

Growth of Democracy, a series
of twenty episodes from Mag-
na Carta to the U. S. Consti-
tution. One hour and forty
minutes playing time. Ten 12-
inch records at 78 r.p.m.,
$25.00 per set, $2.75 per rec-
ord.

America Was Promises, written
and narrated by Archibald
MaeLeish. 18 minutes. Two
12-inch records at 78 r.p.m.,
$4.71.

Cooperatives, presenting argu-
ments for and against con-
sumer cooperatives. 15 min-
utes. In two sizes and speeds :
two 12-inch records at 78
r.p.m., $4.50, or one 16-inch
record at 33l^ r.p.m., $3.50.

New Jobs for a New Era, post-
war employment opportuni-
ties projected. 15 minutes.
One 16-inch record at SSyi,
r.p.m., $3.75.

The Challenge of the Four Free-
doms, a broadcast of the Uni-
versity of Chicago Round Ta-
ble. 30 minutes. In two sizes
and speeds : three 12-inch rec-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

ords at 78 r.p.m., $4.75, or
one 16-inch record at 33>^
r.p.m., $3.75.

Voices from History, a series of
recordings of the actual
voices of eminent historical
figures, each speaking in the
context of his time. There is
a separate 4-minute, 78 r.p.m.
record of each of the follow-
ing persons : Florence Night-
ingale, William E. Gladstone,
Theodore Roosevelt, P. T.
Barnum, William Jennings
Bryan, Woodrow Wilson, and
others. Each, $2.00.

For purchase of any of these
recordings or for a free copy
of the excellent Catalog of Se-
lected Educational Recordings,
write to Miss Emilie L. Haley,
Executive Secretary, Recordings
Division, New York University
Film Library, Washington
Square, New York 3, N. Y.

U. S. RECORDING COMPANY

The United States Recording-
Company is a private organiza-
tion that for many years has
been engaged in making and re-
pairing recording and playback
equipment. It has also special-
ized in producing made-to-order
recordings of radio broadcasts
from all major networks.

If you hear any particular
speech or discussion broadcast
over a nation-wide radio hook-
up, and if you would like to
have a recording of it for class-
room presentation, the chances
are that you can obtain a made-
to-order disc or set of discs con-
taining that progi'am if you
write to the U. S. Recording
Company (address below).
Rates for made-to-order record-
ings of this soi’t are $5 for 15
minutes at 33^3 r.p.m. or $4 for
8^2 minutes at 78 r.p.m.

Just a short time ago this
company entered the education-
al field by beginning produc-

tion of a series of educational
recordings, especially prepared
for classroom use and not pre-
viously heard over the radio.
The first number in this series
— on Compulsory Military
Training (33j4 r.p.m., 30 min.,
$5) — was reviewed in the March
12 issue of The Civic Leader.
Another one — on Pan-American
Day and Return to Manila
(33^ r.p.m., 30 min., $5) — was
similarly reviewed some months
ago. In addition, two others are
now available :

Surplus War Properties, a dis-
cussion by David L. Podell,
general counsel. Smaller War
Plants Corporation, Albert
H. Hall, director. National In-
stitute for Governmental
Purchasing, and Walter Mor-
row, president, American Re-
tail Federation. 33^? r.p.m.,
one double-faced, 16-inch
transcription, 30 min., $5.00.
Postwar Global Air Transport,
a discussion by S. Ralph Co-
hen and William Kroger, edi-
tors of National Aeronautics.
78 r.p.m., one double-faced
12-inch record, 8^ min.,
$2.25.

The USRC has been making
plans for an educational-record-
of-the-month arrangement for
the 1945-46 school year, where-
by a school could subscribe for
a ten-month service for $15.
Each subscriber would then be
assured of receiving each month
a new record (78 r.p.m., 8j/2
min.) on a timely topic chosen
by a committee of educators. In-
quiries and suggestions con-
cerning this projected service
are especially invited by Harry
J. Penn, educational director,
United States Recording Com-
pany, 1121 Vermont Avenue,
Washington 5, D. C.

JUNIOR LEAGUES

Thirteen books for children

and young people — fiction with
substantial social-studies con-
tent— have been very skillfully
adapted and transcribed on
33^ r.p.m. recordings by the
Association of Junior Leagues
of America, Inc., Waldorf-As-
toria Hotel, New York 22, N. Y.
The series is obtainable only as
a whole at a cost of $35 for
classroom use (a higher price is
charged if the transcriptions
are to be broadcast on local ra-
dio stations). Included among
the books in the series are:
Struggle Is Our Brother, by
Gregor Felsen ; When the Ty-
phoon Blows, by Elizabeth Lew-
is; The Singing Tree, by Kate
Seredy; On the Dark of the
Moon, by Don Lang; and In
Clean Hay, by Eric Kelly.

The last-named of these rec-
ordings (In Clean Hay, a story
of Christmas in Poland) is the
only one of the series separately
obtainable in a 78-r.p.m. edi-
tion— the set of two such dou-
ble-faced records costing $2.65.

INSTITUTE OF ORAL AND VISUAL
EDUCATION

An extensive collection of 15-
minute programs on American
history and the ideals of Amer-
ican democracy is maintained
by the Institute of Oral and Vis-
ual Education, 101 Park Ave-
nue, New York 17, N. Y. All
programs are recorded on 33^
transcriptions, two to a disc.
They may be borrowed by
schools without charge. The to-
tal collection is devoted to the
theme, “Lest We Forget,” con-
sisting of seven series with 26
programs (13 discs) in each.
Some of the series titles are *
Our Constitution, Democracy Is
Our Way of Life, A Better
World for Youth, America De-
termines Her Destiny, and
Eternal Vigilance Is the Price
of Liberty. For full informa-
tion, write to the Institute at

October, 1 945

the address given above.

NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY

The National Broadcasting
Company has given a great deal
of attention to the matter of
eaucational recordings, and it is
expected to undertake extensive
activity in this field after this
year. At present it is not origi-
nating any new programs ex-
clusively for classroom use; but
it has made duplicate pressings
at SSy^ r.p.m.) of a number of
transcriptions of its radio
broadcasts and these may be
purchased by schools. For full
information, write to the Rec-
ordings Division, National
Broadcasting Company, New
York 20, N. Y.

"BUILDING THE PEACE" SERIES

The radio series on “Our For-
eign Policy,” sponsored by the
U. S. Department of State and
recently heard at weekly inter-
vals is now available in re-
cordings {SSy r.p.m. discs
only) which can be purchased
from the National Broadcasting
Company or borrowed free,
from the Script and Transcrip-
tion Exchange of the U. S. Of-
fice of Education (Washington
25, D. C.)

REFERENCES ON RECORDINGS

A considerable amount of
very helpful material on selec-
tion and use of educational re-
cordings is to be found in the
front pages of each of the two
free catalogs — of the U. S. Of-
fice of Education’s Transcrip-
tion Exchange and of the N. Y.
U. Film Library’s Recordings
Division — which we have cited
above. In addition, here are two
other publications which you
may wish to purchase :

Recordings for School Use: A

Catalog of Appraisals, by J.

Robert Miles, 1942. 250

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

pages. World Book Company,
Yonkers, N. Y. $1.00.

Recordings for Classroom and
Discussion Groups: A Study
Guide. Recordings Division,
New York University Film
Library, Washington Square,
New York 3, N. Y. 15 cents.

School Sound Systems

The important place which
school sound systems hold in the
field of audio-visual education
is comprehensively described in
a 28-page free manual of infor-
mation published by the Educa-
tional Department of the RCA
Victor Division, Radio Corpora-
tion of America, Camden, N. J.
The new publication, titled
“School Sound Systems” reveals
how sound systems are being
utilized in elementary, junior,
and senior high schools, as pre-
sented in articles by experienced
educators in these fields.

The use of sound systems in
elementary school units in Chi-
cago suburban areas is cogently
presented by Emmet Morris,
Principal of the Irving School
of Maywood, Illinois, in a paper
which stresses the saving of ad-
ministrative and student time
through the use of two-way
communications facilities provi-
ded by the sound system. Other
points covered include the educa-
tional value of effective radio
listening in classrooms, and the
entertainment appeal of school
broadcasting.

Specific applications of the
sound system in the home-room
organization of a junior high
school, a social science depart-
ment, an English department,
an auditorium, a school cafe-
teria, and a music department
are set forth in an article con-
tributed by R. C. Johnson,
Principal of the Central Junior
High School, Kansas City, Kan-
sas. From four years of experi-

ence with the school sound
system, Mr. Johnson deals at
some length with the advantages
of a central broadcasting system
over the written bulletin plan,
and the “educational good” de-
rived from sound facilities in
the junior high school.

Twenty-four practical ways in
which the sound system has been
used in the Haldane Central
High School, Cold Spring, N. Y.,
during the past five years are
described by William J. Hageny,
Supervising Principal. As an
example of the application of
the system, Mr. Hageny speaks
of American Education Week
stage presentations which, he
says, “can be made far more
effective by using the public
address system, motion pictures,
sound effect record stereopticon
machine and stage technics wel-
ded into a program pattern of
the ‘living newspaper’ style.”

A list of Audio-Visual Aids
which RCA Victor will make
available to the educational field
is included in the new booklet.
These cover sound products,
broadcast equipment including
FM, AM, and television trans-
mitters, FM and AM radio re-
ceivers, phonographs, television
receivers, laboratory equipment
such as the RCA Electron Micro-
scope, and electron tubes. Also
included are Victor records,
which are now available for use
in music, speech and drama,
social studies, and foreign
languages.

A 48-page brochure of inter-
est to teachers of science, Eng-
lish and social studies, as well
as directors of audio-visual
education, is RCA : What It Is
and What It Does. This answers
many questions that are often
asked. It is handsomely illustra-
ted and carries a complete index.
Write to RCA at Camden, N. J.,
for it.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

M-G-M brings together the tiny
winsome miss and the screen's
No. 1 tough guy... in enthralling
drama filmed from a famed story!

JAMES

FRANCES

AGNES

MORRIS

GIFFORD • MOOREHEAD • CARNOVSKY
and JACKIE ‘BUTCH' JENKINS

Screen Play by Dalton Trumbo • Based on the Book, "For Our Vines
Have Tender Grapes", by George Victor Martin • Directed by
ROY ROWLAND • Produced by ROBERT SISK • An M-G-M Picture

KIND WORDS

. . . more than
coronets . . . ■

NEW 16inm SOUND

from BRITAIN

I value the fine work you are doing for a free
world in the GUIDE.

HOLLAND D. ROBERTS

Stanford University

A fine job! We have requested 15 subscriptions.

DONALD A. ELDRIDGE

New Haven, Conn.

You did a good job with my article. I am re-
ceiving fan mail.

GEORGE W. FOWLER

Syracuse, N. Y.

By all means renew my subscription to the
GUIDE. I can’t be without it.

MARY ACETl

Detroit

We all feel your effort has been the most valu-
able contribution to progressive education in
the last 25 years.

FRANCIS TUCKER
Louisiana Motion Picture Council

You are doing an excellent constructive job in
your film analysis. It should encourage Holly-
wood to do more work that has constructive
educational value.

H. V. KALTENBORN

Brooklyn, N. Y.

I must tell you how impressed I am by the
GUIDE. The contents are extremely interest-
ing. Congratulations.

JESSE GRUMETTE

Brooklyn, N. Y.

As far as school librarians are concerned, movie
magazines (like comic pulps) are taboo. This
one, however, is different, and that is why Mrs.
Trevillian has just taken a subscription.

BEAR TRACKS
Phoenix, Ariz., Junior College

Miss Healy’s copy of the GUIDE just came
across my desk. It is fjne 1 . . Again I am

reminded by its excellence that I cannot afford
to miss another number. I am enclosing a
check for $3.50 for a 2-year subscription.

GEORGE R. RANKIN

Milw'aukee, Wis.

I want to tell you how much benefit the Augh-
inbaugh articles are to us. Nowadays we are
training new personnel, and we appreciate the
answers Mr. Augliinbaugh gives to our mutual
questions. His tips on handling films are really
worth while. I wish these articles were as-
sembled in a form we could send out.

W. W. ALEXANDER
Distributor’s Group, Atlanta

Just a note of appreciation for Helen Colton’s
articles in the GUIDE. I enjoy both the style
and the content. The fact that she avoids large
and vague generalities and emphasizes example
and specific detail gives her articles at once
a zest that makes them ijleasant reading and a
concreteness that makes them useful in teach-
ing. I shall look forward to more of her articles.

CAROL HOVIOUS

AIR PLAN . . . . 3 reels — 28 minutes

This film shows how the work of the RAF fitted into the overall air strategy
of the European war, and how complex and far-seeing planning turned the
"blitzkrieg ■’ against its originator.

BAILEY BRIDGE . . . 1 reel — 8 minutes

One of the war’s most jealously guarded secrets is revealed in this film on
the construction and use of a portable pre-fabricated bridge made of inter-
changeable parts which keeps rivers from being effective lines of enemy
defense.

DAWN OVER CYRENAICA .... . 2 reels — 22 minutes

Cyrenaica. bordering on Egypt and the Mediterranean, was the first section
of North Africa to be freed from Italian fascist control. The liberating British
armies were followed by British Civil Affairs Officers who introduced modern
farming methods in helping the local Arabs raise their standard of living.

DOMINION STATUS . . 2 reels — 18 minutes

This film explains and demonstrates the meaning pf the "dominion status”
enjoyed by Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, and
Ireland, as defined by the Statute of Westminster enacted in 1931, and shows
the part played by the Dominions in the war.

FALL OF GERMANY (Act & Fact #7) . 1 reel — 12 minutes

After the Allies crossed the Rhine, they smashed deep into the heart of
Germany, winning surrender from army after army. The heavy pounding of
the Air Forces and the daring thrusts of the land armies brought Germany to
her knees and heralded the proclamation of V-E Day.

OPERATION FIDO ....... . . . 1 reel— 12 minutes

Fog is the greatest single menace to aircraft. Fog over British airfields
became more of a menace than flak over Germany, causing accidents, loss of
life, and often the complete cessation of operations. FIDO solved the problem
of fog by dispersing it with petroleum burners.

RHINE LINE (Act & Fact #6) . . . . . 1 reel— 10 minutes

The Allied line-up on the western bank of the Rhine and how the Allied
armies broke from their positions, made their spectacular crossings of the
Rhine and struck deep into the heart of Germany.

ROAD TO RUSSIA . . , 1 reel — 9 minutes

The story of the southern supply line of the Persia Iraq Command over
which British, American and Indian soldiers transported millions of tons of
war supplies for delivery to the Russian armies.

SOLDIER SAILOR . . . . 6 reels — 52 minutes

Early in the war British merchant ships were armed to defend themselves
against aerial and submarine attack. The force of gunners were called
D.E.M.S. (Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships) and this film records the
kind of work they did.

STRICKEN PENINSULA . . 2 reels — 16 minutes

Made before the end of the Italian campaign, this film shows scenes of the

devastation in Southern Italy and of the slow painful process of reconstruc-
tion started with the help of the Allied organizations.

TIME AND TIDE . . . . 2 reels— 16 minutes

The important and little known work of the men of the Admiralty Salvage
Department is shown as they clear a harbour of wrecked enemy vessels and
open it once again to Allied shipping.

UNRELENTING STRUGGLE . . . . . 2 reels — 18 minutes

Highlights from Churchill's radio speeches to the British people from the
beginning of the war to V-E Day against a background of action shots.

Write for fRBE Catalog — Address nearest office, or any British Consulate

British Information Services

An Agency of the British Government

30 RocMfeiler Plaza. New York 20, N. Y.

39] Sutter St,, ban Francisco 8. Calif.

1336 New York Avenue, N.W. Washington 5, D. C.

360 North Michigan Avenue. Chicago I, III.

.1005 Taft Bldg., 1680 North Vine St.. Hollywood 28, Califs
1309 First National Bank Bldg.. Atlanta 3, Ga.

Lus Angeles

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 1

EVERY ONE OF A
THOUSAND DREAMS
COME TRUE!

As THE incredible
panorama of his
amazing life unfolds
before your eyes . . .
you’ll realize life can
be more thrilling
than fiction . . . and this
man’s was!

20th CENTURY -FOX PRESENTS
A EUREKA PICTURES, INC. PRODUCTION

LYNN Bl-CHARLES BICKFORD-THOIYIAS MIICHELL-LLOYD NOLAN-JAMES GLEASON

and Mary Philips • Darryl Hickman • Spring Byington • Richard Conte
..»»„LL0YD BACON WINFIELD R. SHEEHAN Associate Producer CHRISTY WALSH * Screen Play by John Tucker Battle

VI CTO

VICTOR 16MM SOUND
MOVIE PROJECTORS

Invest in Victory Bonds
During the 8th Victory Drive

VICTOR

There is no practical projection feature or operating
convenience which the Animatophone lacks. Every
need of the user, and every conceivable operating
condition has been anticipated and provided for in
this, the greatest projector of them all.

In many schools, in homes, in churches, the young
folks set up, thread, run and re-wind the Animato-
phone. It’s easy . . . it’s foolproof. During the late
war, entirely untrained soldiers, sailors, WACs and
WAVEs found the Victor Animatophone the easiest
to operate, as well as affording the most faithful
sound projection and brilliant screen images.

these six simple operation
and maintenance features

ABUNDANT FINGER
ROOM — Easy accessi-
bility makes threading a
pleasure.

SWING OUT LENS
MOUNT — Exclusive Vic-
tor feature which adds to
ease of threading.

SINGLE OVERSIZE
SPROCKET — Simplifies
threading, protects film.
Less chance of film break-
age at splices.

REVERSE — One lever
puts film and machine in
reverse instantly.

REMOVABLE PARTS —

The removal for cleaning
of optical and sound parts
is accomplished instantly
without tools.

ALL OUTSIDE CON-
TROLS — Ready accessi-
bility of all controls makes
Victor easiest to operate.

NIMATOGRAPH CORPORATION

Home Office and Factory: Davenport, Iowa
New York (18) McGraw-Hill Building. 330 W. 42nd Street
Chicago 111 188 W, Randolph

MAKERS OF I6MM EQUIPMENT SINCE 1923

Out ^Democracy J^eeds Protecting

During the next few years our American way of life will face hard foes here
at home. Clever and able theorists will take full advantage of post-war
confusion to widen their plantings of doctrines and ideals alien to our code of
freedom. Naturally, they will seek the soil most fertile for such plantings —
young iiniuls.

^ ou teachers are chosen guides for these young minds; yours the right and privi-
lege to lead them to a clear understanding of the human values of our democracy;
and to awaken in them appreciation of its benefits, which “are not given free, but
must be earned through work and service,” according to Dr. Francis B. Haas,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, of the State of Pennsylvania.

“A good school is a community organ-
ized for learning,” he adds, in a recent
Statement. “As such, it should match as
nearly as possible, the purposes and pro-
cedures of a community organized for liv-
ing. It IS for lu'uig that we should tram
youth, and to do this at all adequately we
must adapt the course of studies to the
needs and responsibilities of citizenship
in a community.

‘‘One of the major needs is a means for
circulating knowledge of what is being
thought and done, not only in the imme-
diate community, but throughout the na-
tion and the world. This function is per-
formed by newspapers and magazines, and

the latter are of special importance, since
it is their major function to sift and corre-
late facts. For use in schools, a magazine
such as the Rwiifr’s Digest, which offers
accurate and interesting summaries of sig-
nificant events and achievements in the
social, scientific and economic fields, is of
high value. Its worth is increased by its
well-edited presentations.

‘‘Democracy offers as its political ideal
development of opportunity for the indi-
vidual. Its benefits are not given free, but
must be earned through work and service.
Here, again, good magazines aid in the
development and use of opportunity by
spurring the imagination.”

Pennsylvania, the birth-state of our freedom, was the second state to estab-
lish, in 1834, a tax-supported public school system. There, as elsewhere in the
nation, public schools have become our first line of defense against the foes of
democracy. They have proved their protective power, and so long as they stand
for free access to the facts on which knowledge is based, and to all sides of con-
troversial issues, they will continue to bulwark the brand of freedom we want
and need.

FILM & RADIO

GUIDE

IN THIS ISSUE

Con Radio Take It?

Who's Who in Radio Education
NBC's Broadcasting Courses
Classical Radio Music
Metropolitan Youth Council
Visual Aids in Reconditioning
FM for Education
Teaching Audience Behavior
Jules Verne Classic in 16mm
Mickey as Professor
Who's Who in Visual Education
Adventures of Michael Strogoff
Pinocchio
Seward's Folly

Cultural Week-End at Waldorf
Readings in Film Appreciation
Sources of "Free" 16mm Films
16mm Exchange Practices
Behind the Credits
Biography of a Radio Program
How to Use Griswold Splicer
Dr. La w Looks at the Movies
The USOE Film Program

COVER ILLUSTRATION

A Scene in the Notable
M-G-M Photoplay,

"The Last Chance"

Buy More
Victory Bonds

AUDIO-VISUAL DIRECTORY

National & International

INTERNATIONAL THEATRI-
CAL AND TELEVISION CORP.

I. T. & T. OF ILLINOIS, 100
Monroe St., Chicago 3.

I. T. & T. OF THE WEST, 3123
W. 8th St., Los Angeles 5.

I. T. & T. OF THE WEST, 4247
Piedmont Ave., Oakland 11,
Calif.

DISTRIBUTOR'S GROUP, 756
W. Peachtree St., N. W., At-
lanta, Ga.

I. T. & T. OF MISSOURI, 3326
Olive St., St. Louis, Mo.

DISTRIBUTOR'S GROUP, 3021/2
Harwood St., Dallas 1, Tex.

I. T. & T. OF NEW YORK, 25
W. 45th St., New York 19,
N. Y.

I. T. & T. OF NEW ENGLAND,
1 15 Newbury St., Boston 16,
Mass.

I. T. & T. OF WASHINGTON,
51 H St., N.W., Washing-
ton 1 , D. C.

Bell & Howell Co., Dept. "G"
FILMOSOUND LIBRARY
1 834 Larchmont Ave., Chicago
30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York
716 N. LoBrea Ave., Hollywood
1221 G. St., N. W., Washington

FILMS INCORPORATED

330 W. 42nd St., New York 18
64 E. Lake St., Chicago 1
101 Marietta St., Atlanta 3
109 N. Akard St., Dallas 1
314 S.W. 9th Ave., Portland 5
1709 W. 8 St., Los Angeles 14

ASTOR PICTURES CORPORATION
I 30 W. 46th Street
New York, N. Y.

BRANDON FILMS. Inc.
1 600 Broadway
New York, N. Y.

BAILEY FILM SERVICE

2044 No. Berendo St., Holly-
wood 27, Calif.; 404 No. Good-
win Ave., Urbana, III.

COMMONWEALTH PICTURES
CORPORATION, 729 Seventh
Avenue, New York, N. Y.

CORONET PRODUCTIONS
Instructional Films
Glenview, Illinois

EDUCATIONAL FILM GUIDE
H. W. Wilson Co., 950 Univer-
sity Ave., New York 52, N. Y.

EDUCATORS GUIDE TO FREE
FILMS, Educators Progress
Service, Randolph, Wis.

WILLIAM J. GANZ COMPANY
40 East 49th Street
New York, N. Y.

PAUL HOEFLER PRODUCTIONS
9538 Brighton Way
Beverly Hills, California

HOFFBERG PRODUCTIONS, Inc.
618-20 Ninth Avenue
New York 1 8, N. Y.

IDEAL PICTURES CORPORATION
28-34 E. 8th Street
Chicago, III.

Offices in principal cities.

INSTITUTIONAL CINEMA SERV-
ICE, Inc., 1560 Broadway
New York, N. Y.

MOTION PICTURE BUREAU—
YMCA, 347 Madison Avenue
New York, N. Y
1 9 S. La Salle St., Chicago, III.
1700 Patterson Av., Dallas, Tex.
351 Turk St., San Francisco, Cal

NATIONAL FILM SERVICE

Raleigh, N. C. Richmond, Va.
424 Madison Ave., New York

NU-ART FILMS, Inc.
145 W. 45th Street
New York, N. Y.

POST PICTURES CORPORATION
723 Seventh Avenue
New York, N. Y.

SKIBO PRODUCTIONS, Inc.
1 65 West 46th St.

New York 19, N. Y.

New England

HARVARD FILM SERVICE
Graduate School of Education
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts

A. H. RICE & CO.

Rentals and Free Projection
Hollis, N. H.

The South

THE DISTRIBUTOR'S GROUP,

Inc., 756 W. Peachtree St.,
N.W., Atlanta, Ga. Exclusive
distributors of Monogram
products, I.T.&.T. films, Am-
pro and SVE equipment. Jam
Handy teaching films. Serv-
ing the South onh

CALHOUN COMPANY
101 Marietta St., N.W.

Atlanta 3, Georgia

WILFRED NAYLOR

1907 Fifth Ave., North
Birmingham I, Alabama

SOUTHERN VISUAL FILMS
686 Shrine Building
Memphis, Tenn.

Indiana

DENNIS FILM BUREAU
29 E. Maple St.

Wabash, Ind.

Iowa

RYAN VISUAL AIDS SERVICE
409- 1 1 Harrison St.

Davenport, Iowa

Michigan

COSMOPOLITAN FILMS
3248 Gratiot Avenue
Detroit, Mich.

CAPITAL FILM SERVICE, Film Li-
brary and Motion-Picture and
Visual-Aid Equipment, 1043 E.
Grand River Ave., East Lansing,
^Mich.

Minnesota

HOWARD FILM DISTRIBUTORS
86 So. Sixth Street
Minneapolis 2, Minn.

Missouri

SWANK'S MOTION PICTURES
620 N. Skinker Blvd.

St. Louis, Mo.

New York

IDEAL MOTION PICTURE SERV-
ICE, 371 St. Johns Avenue
Yonkers, N. Y.

New Jersey

ART ZEILLER

I 20 Central Avenue
Glen Rock, New Jersey

Ohio

TWYMAN FILMS, !nc.

29 Central Ave.

Dayton, Ohio

West Virginia

E. B. SIMPSON
8 1 6 W. Virginia St.
Charleston 2, W. Va.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

EDUCATIONAL & RECREATIONAL GUIDES, Inc.

172 RENNER AVENUE, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY

VOLUME Xll, NUMBER 2

NOVEMBER, 1945

IN THIS ISSUE

Can Radio Take It? Bob Nichols

Who's Who in Radio Education — No. 6: Harrison B. Summers

No. 7: George Maynard — No. 8: Frank Popp

Continuing NBC's Brilliant Array of Broadcasting Courses.,,..

Clossical Radio Music for Children and Adults Mary Dingle

The Metropolitan Youth Council Frederick M. Thrasher

Audio-Visual Aids in Educational Reconditioning in an A.S.F. Hospital

James A. Hedrick and Joseph Mersand

FM for Education

Teaching Audience Behavior

Jules Verne Classic Made Available in 16mm

Mickey as Professor Walt Disney

Who's Who in Audio-Visual Education —

No. 33: Edward L. Munson, Jr. — No. 34: Horace Jones —

No. 35: Charles R. Crakes

The Adventures of Michael Strogoff Frances Taylor Patterson

Pinoeehio Dorothy McCuskey

Seward's Folly Howard E. Thompson

Cultural Week-End at the Waldorf Flora Rheta Schreiber

Readings in Photoplay Appreciation The Screen Writer

Sources of "Free" 16mm Films

16mm Exchange Pfaetices — -No. 17: How to Select Educational Motion Pictures

B. A, Aughinbaugh

Behind the Credits Helen Colton

The Biography of a Radio Program Saul Krieg

How to Use the Griswold Splicer

Dr. Law Looks ot the Movies Frederick Houk Law

Extolling the Execution — The USOi Film Program Paul Reed

9
1 1

24
26

40
43

55
60

Statement of the Ownership, Management,
Circulation, etc., itequired by the Acts ot
Congress of August 24, 1912, and March ,i,
1932, of Film and Radio Guide, published
monthly, October to June, at Newark, N. J..,
for Oct. 1, 1945. State of New Jersey, County
of Essex — ss. before me, a notary public m
and for the state and county aforesaid, pie,!'-
sonaily appeared William Lewin, who, having
been duly sworn according to law, deposes and
says that he is the publisher of the Film and
Radio Guide and that the following is, to the
best of his knowledge and belief, a true state-
ment of the ownership, management, etc., of
the aforesaid publication for the date shown in
the above, caption, required by the Act of Aug-
ust 24, 1912, as amended by the Act of March
3, 1933, embodied in section 537, Postal Laws
and Regulations, to wdt ; 1. That the names

and addresses of the publisher, editor, manag-
ing editor, and business manager are ; Publisher,
William Lewin; Editor, William Lewin; Busi-
ness Manager, Ruth M. Lewin, 172 Renner
Ave., Newark, N. J. 2. That the owner is:
Educational and Recreation Guides, Inc., 172
Renner Ave., Newark, N. J. Stockholders: Wil-
liam Lewin, 172 Renner Ave., Newark. N. J.,
Ruth M. Lewin, 172 Kenner Ave., Newark,
N. J., Samuel Daniels, 24 Commerce St., New-

ark, N. J. 3. That the known bondholders, mort-
gagees, and other security holders owning or-
holding 1 percent or more of total amount of
bonds, mortgages, or other securities are: None.
4. That the two paragraphs next above, giving
the names of the owners, stockholders, and
security holders, if any, contain not only the
list of stockh .'.Idei's and security holders as they
appear upon the books of the company but also,
in cases where the stockholder or security holder
appears upon the books of the company as
trustee or in any other fiduciary relation, the
name of the person or corporation for whom
such trustee is acting, is given ; also that the
said two paragraphs contain statements em-
bracing affiant’s full knowledge and belief as
to the circumstances and conditions under which
stockholders and security holders who do not
appear upon the books of the company as trus-
tees, hold stock and securities in a capacity
other than mat of a bona fide owner; and this
affiant has no reason to believe that any other
person, association, or corporation has any in-
terest direct or indirect in the said stock, bonds,
or other securities than as so stated by him.
William Lewin. Publisher. Sworn to and sub-
scribed before me this 17th day of September,
1945. Philip J. Frey, Notary Public of New
Jersey. My commission expires Feb. 5, 1947.

Copyright 1945 by Educational and Recreational Guides, Inc. Published nine times a year, October to June, by Educa-
tional and Recreational Guides Tnc.. 172 Renner Avenue, Newark 8. N. J. Re-entered as second-class matter. October
12. 1942 at the post office at Newark, N. J. under the act of JIarch 3, 1879. Printed in USA — .Ml Rights Re.served.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

<//////

irmTmTim mu / u

mwmm

HEADIXG YOUR WAY

...WITH HAPPINESS!

. . .with inimitable Bing at his best!
. . . with all the heart of incomparable Ingrid!
. . . made by the deft touches of Leo McCarey

who gave you ^^GOING MY WAYr

I I

November, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDH

mmmmmtnamnmaamamBsoBm

Rainbow Productions, Inc., presents

Crosby • Bergman

LEO McCAREY’S

with HENRY TRAVERS ‘WILLIAM GARGAN

Produced and Directed by LEO McCAREY
Screen play by DUDLEY NICHOLS • Story by Leo McCarey
Released through

R K O

For the first time in screen history Three Academy Award Winners in One Picture!

CROSBY
Best actor for
“Going My Way"

BERGMAN McCAREY
Best actress for Best story and

“Gaslight” best direction

“Going My Way’

WATCH FOR IT AT YOUR FAVORITE THEATRE

////////////////

Volume XII, No. 2

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

WILLIAM LEWIN, EDITOR

November, 1945 Volume XII, No. 2

CAN RADIO TAKE IT?

BY BOB NICHOLS

Can radio take it? Can the
broadcasting industry stand crit-
icism of its commercial policies,
given not in the comparative
privacy of trade convention or
trade paper, but over the air for
all the world to hear? Well, ra-
dio does take criticism on the
“Bob Nichols Radio Parade”
over the Western Division of the
American Broadcasting (Blue)
Network — it takes it and likes
it!

During recent months, in ad-
dition to presenting its usual
stories of radio programs and
personalities, the “Radio Par-
ade” has listed seven “signs of
the times” in an indictment of
over-commercialism i n radio ;
and it has proposed a “Will

“The Radio Parade” is a twenty-
station Pacific-Coast American Broad-
casting Company Network presenta-
tion, Monday through Friday, spon-
sored by the Fisher Flouring Mills
of Seattle. Material from the “Radio
Parade” is used by the Armed Forces
Radio Service for overseas broadcast.

Bob Nichols has spent twenty years
in commercial radio. He was an NBC
producer in the days when San Fran-
cisco was the origination point of
West Coast network programs, and
started with Carleton E. Morse, Tom
Breneman, A1 Pearce, Don McNeil,
and many others who are well-known
on the air today. During his twenty-
three years in radio, Mr. Nichols has
been everything from copy boy to
station manager. In addition to his
Blue Netwoi’k show, he operates a
Seattle Advertising Agency and has
two local across-the-lioard sponsorc'd
broadcasts.

Bob Nichols

Hays Office” to be set up by the
industry to clean the house of
radio. The seven points were :

1. Newspaper criticism of radio over-
commercialism.

2. FCC Chairman Paul Porter’s warn-
ing to radio to clean its own house
or Congress would do it for the in-
dustry.

3. Congressional proposals that part
of radio’s profits be siphoned off
to pay the cost of increased FCC
regulation.

4. The slowly but steadily decreas-
ing radio audience.

5. Sponsors’ greed for high listener-
survey ratings, which effectively
forces producers to seek quick pop-
ularity rather than quality in pro-
grams.

5. The sale of radio stations for many
times their physical-property and
good-will value — which means it is
the wave length that is being sold.

7. The complete failure of the indus-
try to encourage and aid the de-
velopment of young talent.

On the April 6 broadcast of
the “Radio Parade,” I called for
a Will Hays Office for radio as
a means of forcing radio to ac-
cept its public responsibilities. I
said, “Radio needs a very tough
‘Will Hays’ who will enforce his
decrees ; a man whose authority
is given him, not by the govern-
ment, but by an enlightened ra-
dio industry operating not only
for better radio, but to save ra-
dio as a commercial medium un-
fettered by government con-
trol.”

Fear compulsion in sales copy,
shouting, circus barking, repe-
titions, attention-compelling de-
vices, bad taste in selecting
types of commercials for partic-
ular types of shows, all came un-
der my direct criticism. Neither
did I overlook the blatant, tran-
scribed, singing - and - dialogue,
station-break commercials.

In making this series of stern
indictments of radio’s over-com-
mercialism I had the full consent
of the American Broadcasting
Company. Not once in scores of
instances of editorial criticism
was any attempt made to cen-
sor my scripts. My sponsor —
the Fisher Flouring Mills of Se-
attle— gave full approval, tell-
ing me to tell the truth as I saw
it.

Public reception of the editor-
ials was enthusiastic. Mail was

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

These were the
hunted . . . and this
their house of silent
terror! The story the
headlines didn’t dare
reveal about the pro-
tection of the atomic
bomb! A motion picture
of astounding suspense and
surging excitement!

THE

HOUSE ON 92nd STREET

ElIHE • [

mi LOCKHARI • L[0 G. CARROLL ■ LYOIA St, CLAIR • WILLIAM POSI, Jr.

Directed by HENRY HATHAWAY Produced by LOUIS de ROCHEMONT

Screen Play liy Barre Lyndon. Charles G. Booth and John Monks. Jr. - Based on a Story by Charles G. Booth

A 20/11 CENTURY-FOX PICTURE

iVho is Christopher .
fiend or phantom)

N o ve mber, T 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

heavy and it soon became evi-
dent that, while listeners were
grateful for high-budget com-
mercial shows, they were weary
of many coinmercial practices.
Listener after listener wrote

that he either tuned out com-
mercials or had trained his mind
not to hear them.

That radio will allow crticism
of its source of income is con-
vincing proof that radio at heart

is good. It is growing up, and
once through this period of ju-
venile delinquency, it will be-
come what it once promised to
be, one of the truly great gifts
of science to mankind.

WHO'S WHO IN RADIO
EDUCATION

No. 6: Harrison B. Summers

Harrison B. Summers, well-
known manager of the Public
Service Division of the Blue
Network (now the American
Broadcasting Company), is a
product of the Midwest. He was
born at Stanford, Illinois, March
19, 1894. He attended the public
schools at Paxton, Illinois, and
Wichita, Kansas. In 1917 he re-
ceived his A. B. degree at Fair-
mont College (now the Univer-
sity of Wichita) ; in 1921, his
A. M. from the University of
Oklahoma; in 1931, his Ph.D.
from the University of Missouri,
majoring in economics and
sociology.

During five years following
his college graduation in 1917,
Dr. Summers taught in various
midwestern high schools. During
the next eighteen years (1922-
40) he taught in midwestern
colleges. His special teaching
field was speech, with excur-
sions into journalism, history,
and economics. In 1931 Dr.
Summers organized one of the
first college-credit courses in
radio broadcasting at Kansas
State College, Manhattan, Kan-
sas. During the next decade
(1931-40) he continued his de-
velopment of courses in broad-

Harrison B. Summers

casting at Kansas State College
and served as a member of the
college committee which con-
ducted Station K S A C. His
activities from 1937 to 1941
included four annual radio-
listener surveys in Iowa and
Kansas, with single studies in
other states. His surveys sum-
m a r i z e d personal interviews
with more than 100,000 families
of the Midwest.

In the fall of 1 9 3 9, Dr.
Summers joined the National
Broadcasting Company as Direc-
tor of Public Service Programs,
Eastern Division. In February,
1941, he was appointed to his
present position, where he has

general supervision over educa-
tional, cultural, and religious
programs of the Blue Network.
His publications have blazed new
trails in the study of listener
attitudes and the analysis of
problems in radio. Dr. Summers
is widely consulted by school
and college executives interested
in utilizing radio in education.
Under his leadership, the cultu-
ral programs of the American
Broadcasting Company have be-
come of greater and greater in-
terest to teachers and students
everywhere.

No. 7: George Maynard

George Maynard, who teaches
the NBC-Columbia University
course in advanced production
of radio drama jointly with
Frank Papp, was born in New
York City in 1905. He has lived
in London, Paris, and Berlin, and
spent some time in Texas. He
was on General Eisenhower’s
staff in London as a Lieutenant
in Army Intelligence.

In his youth he served as
a correspondent in Berlin for
Musical America and as an
assistant stage manager for the
Metropolitan Opera Company
and for Paramount Pictures.

George Maynard

In 1928, at the age of 23, he
joined the National Broadcast-
ing Company and was assigned
to direct the Elgm Watch show.
In 1932 he left NBC to become
program director and manager
of Station WEVD, New York,
but returned to NBC in 1939.
He has since then directed or
produced many programs, in-
cluding NBC Symphony, the
Philip Morris program, the Or-
chestra of the Nations, and Ra-
dio Playhouse. He is a director in
the NBC production department
and initiated the NBC Welcome-
Home Auditions for talented
servicemen.

He has written many musical
scores for radio plays and has
composed many songs. One of
his symphonies was played at
the American Composers Con-
cert in Rochester under the di-
rection of Dr. Howard Hanson.
Students find Maynard’s person-
ality warm and kindly. They
say he is “fun to talk to,” that
he likes to help them and is in-
tensely fond of people.

No. 8: Frank Popp

Anyone visiting a class in the
production of radio drama
taught by Frank Papp, one of
NBC’s top-flight producers, will
note in him that rare combina-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

NEW - 1946
Film Catalog

All subjects 16mm sound. A
post cord will bring you this
big catalog of SELECTED
school entertainment films in-
cluding

DANCING PIRATE
(in full color)

AS YOU LIKE IT
THE MELODY MASTER
THE DUKE OF WEST
POINT

COURAGEOUS MR. PENN
JACARE

and many others

You’ll like Dennis Friendly
Service!

DENNIS
FILM BUREAU

Wabash, Indiana

tion of teaching skill and crea-
tive craftsmanship possible only
when an instructor is able to do
supremely well the thing that
students are trying to do accept-
ably. Like Morton Wishengrad
in the writing field and other
members of the NBC staff, who
can both do and teach others to
do, Papp is helping to raise radio
standards by combining his work
as a producer with the work of
building a whole new generation
of radio craftsmen.

Born in Chicago, August 14,
1909, of Hungarian parents,
Frank spoke French, Hunga-
rian, and German, but not a
word of English — until he be-
gan going to school. At the age
of eight he began staging plays
and has been at it ever since.
At Harrison High School in
Chicago he played the lead in
Booth Tarkington’s Clarence.
Upon graduating from high

Frank Papp

school in 1927, Frank organized
his own theatrical company and
traveled with it for a year. En-
tering the University of Chicago
in 1928, he made an academic
study of drama, studying there
at about the same time as Arch
Oboler. After two years at the
university, Papp worked as a
reader for a publisher, as a play
reader, and as a reviewer of
foreign productions for maga-
zines. Later he became an im-
porter and distributor of the
more artistic European films,
such as Cloistered.

In 1939, at the age of 30, Papp
joined the National Broadcasting
Company. He rose rapidly to
the top ranks of the producing
organization, taking his place
among the veterans. Among
the shows he has directed and
produced are the MacLeish
series, American Story; the
University of the Air series.
The World’s Great Novels; the
Old Testament series. The
Eternal Light; That They Might
Live; Here’s to Youth; and such
daytime serials as Vic and Sade
and Right to Happiness.

Personally, Frank is quiet,
modest, soft-spoken. He gets
his effects without apparent
effort. He is painstaking, pa-
tient, and always pleasant in the

Noyember, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

long rehearsals which occupy a
large part of the life of a radio
director-producer. Though he
rarely raises his voice, he is
respected by all those involved
in the complex organization
which a director must coordi-

nate with perfect t i m i n g —
actors, musicians, sound-effects
men, technicians.

Mrs. Papp is the beautiful
CBS featured player, Mary
Patton, whose fine performances
add to the success of such serials

as Road of Life and Kathleen
Norris’s A Wonum’s Life, and
the CBS School of the Air. Here’s
hoping that Frank and Mary
will some day offer a joint
course in radio producing, di-
recting, and acting.

Continuing NBC's Brilliant Array of
Broadcasting Courses

Columbia University, in coop-
eration with the National Broad-
casting Company, is repeating
and extending the brilliant ar-
ray of courses in radio inaug-
urated a year ago. Sterling
Fisher, Director of NBC’s Uni-
versity of the Air, and Russell
Potter, Chairman of Columbia
University’s Committee on Ra-
dio, are joint officers of admin-
istration. Sixteen members of
NBC’s technical, creative, and
business staffs conduct the
courses, plus a Teachers College
expert in speech. Following are
the instructors, in alphabetical
order :

Wade Arnold, Assistant Man-
ager, Script Division, National
Broadcasting Company. Former-
ly instructor in speech and radio
writing at Knox College; Chief
of Radio Section, OCD ; and
member of the council, Authors’
League of America.

Ross Filion. NBC production
director for Fim & Folly With
Ed East a)ul Polly, Atlantic
Spotlight, Robert St. .John and
Maggie McNellis. He served as
director, night manager and pro-
duction manager for WRC,
NBC’s Washington station. At-

tended the University of Detroit.
Erik Barnouw. Author of
Handbook of Radio Writing. Ed-
itor of Radio Drama in Action,
an anthology to be published in
the autumn of 1945. Member of
the Council, Authors’ League of
America. Supervisor of the Edu-
cation Unit, Armed Forces Ra-
dio Service, War Department.
Script writer for Cavalcade of
America and other network
shows. Formerly Assistant Man-
ager of the Script Division, Na-
tional Broadcasting Company.

William F. Brooks. Director of
News and Special Events for the
National Broadcasting Com-
pany. Formerly managing direc-
tor of the AP in Great Britain.
Has traveled extensively, most
recently visiting the war fronts
and South America.

Gilbert Chase. Supervisor of
the music series of the National
Broadcasting Company’s Uni-
versity of the Air ; music su-
pervisor of NBC’s Public
Service Department. Formerly
Latin-American Specialist in the
Music Division of the Library
of Congress. For six years mu-
sic critic for the continental edi-
tion of the Daily Mail in Paris.

Author of The Mnsic of Spain.

Sydney H. Eiges. Manager of
the National Broadcasting Com-
pany’s Press Department. For
eleven years with the Interna-
tional News Service as reporter
and editor. Member of Sigma
Delta Chi and the Association
of University Honor Students.

Charles P. Hammond. Director
of Advertising and Promotion
for the National Broadcasting
Company. Formerly on the edi-
torial staffs of the New York
World, New York Po.st, and Lit-
erary Digest. Formerly promo-
tion manager and assistant to
the research and promotion di-
rector of the Bureau of Ad-
vertising, American Newspaper
Publishers’ Association.

Patrick J. Kelly. Head of the
announcing staff. National
Broadcasting Company, since
1930. Formerly a singer and ac-
tor on the stage.

Frederick G. Knopfke. Man-
ager of the Sound Effects Di-
vision, National Broadcasting
Company. Formerly in charge of
all recording activities, Reichs-
rundfunkgesellschaft, B e r 1 i n.
Between 1932 and 1942 sound

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

Top — Charles P. Hammond, Jone Tiffany Wagner, Potrick J. Kelly. Middle — Sydney H. Eiges, Wade Arnold, William F. Brooks.

Boffom — Adolph Schneider, Walter McGrow, Ferdinand A. Wankel.

Some of NBC'S Experts Who Are Now Conducting
Courses in Broadcasting at Columbia University

November, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

technician, and then Assistant
Manager of the Sound Effects
Division, NBC.

Walter McGraw. A Production
Director at the National Broad-
casting Company. After receiv-
ing the A.M. degree at Wayne
University, he taught speech and
radio at Michigan State College.
He has been active in writing,
acting and producing both for
local stations and the networks.

George Maynard. An Assistant
Manager of the National Broad-
casting Company’s Production
Department. Formerly assistant
stage manager for the Metropol-
itan Opera Company, and also
for Paramount Pictures. For-
merly program manager o f
WEVD, New York. Studied mu-
sic in Paris for two years.
Served as correspondent in Ger-
many in 1927 for Musical Amer-
ica.

Frank Papp. Director, at the
National Broadcasting Company,
of the NBC University of the
Air program, The World’s Great
Novels, and the religious drama.
The Eternal Light. Was director
of the Archibald MacLeish se-
ries, The American Story, and of
Vic and Sade, That They Might
Live, Here’s to Youth, and Right
to Happiness. Formerly a direc-
tor of plays.

John F. Royal. Vice-President,
National Broadcasting Com-
pany, in charge of Television.
From Station WTAM, Cleveland,
he came to NBC as Program Di-
rector.

Adolph J. Schneider, Assistant
Manager of Operations of the
National Broadcasing Com-
pany’s News and Special Events
Department. After extensive
newspaper experience, became
editor, Station WHO, Des
Moines, for the first licensed fac-
simile broadcast in this country.

Jane Tiffany Wagner. Director
of Home Economics for the Na-

tional Broadcasting Company.
Graduate home economist and
instructor in home economics ed-
ucation. Now supervisor of
NBC’s network program. Home
is What You Make It.
Ferdinand A. Wankel. Eastern
Division Engineer of the Na-
tional Broadcasting Company.
For the past sixteen years, ac-
tively participating in all tech-
nical phases of radio broadcast
and television operations for this
company.

Jane Dorsey Zimmerman.
Author of Radio Pronunciations
of Ttvo Hundred Educated Non-
professional Radio Speakers. As-
sociate Editor 0 f American
Speech. Fellow, American
Speech Correction Association.
Assistant Professor of Speech in
Teachers College.

OUTLINE OF COURSES

Following is an outline of the
courses, now given in University
Extension, but likely to be made
eventually a part of regular
graduate and undergraduate cur-
ricula, leading to degrees for
students majoring in radio. Most
of the courses are conducted at
the NBC Studios in Radio City,
New York, world’s greatest ra-
dio center. Enrollment is lim-
ited to carefully selected stu-
dents possessing the requisites
for successful work:

Introduction to dramatic radio writ-
ing. Mr. Barnouw.

Detailed examination of current
theories and techniques in dramatic
radio writing emphasizing the half-
hour, single-shot script for U. S. sus-
taining and commercial markets. The
Winter Session is concerned chiefly
with elements of radio writing; nar-
ration, dialogue, music, and sound.
Adaptations from the novel and short
story will be stressed. The Spring Ses-
sion includes a study of the daytime
serial, children’s programs, the mys-
tery-suspense format, comedy (but
not gag writing), the documentary,
and the historical script form.
Advanced dramatic radio writing. Mr.
Arnold.

An advanced workshop course for
those interested in professional radio
writing as a career. The course pro-
cedure and topics covered will be
adapted to the individual interests
and background of the class members.
Extensive writing and special projects
with analytical criticism -and round
table discussion of plays written by
the class members. Consideration of
the current market for radio writing.
Recordings of past and current broad-
casts will be played and discussed in
class.

Script writing for radio and televi-
sion news services. Mr. Schneider.

The course offers practical training
in the specialized field of radio news
writing and editing with particular-
emphasis upon techniques employed
in news rooms of major radio net-
works. The course embraces discus-
sion of radio and newsroom produc-
tion problems, assignments afield, the
radio reporter at war, and network
and local station news.

Broadcasting of radio and television
news services. Mr. Brooks, assisted by
NBC Newsroom Staff.

The course deals with the theory
and practice of broadcasting news and
special events. Lectures on the history
of communications, growth of radio
news, public acceptance, development
of radio’s news coverage and plans
for covering the world by radio, fac-
simile and television. Students will re-
ceive practical experience in the de-
velopment and reporting of special
events and will be required to com-
plete supplementary assignments on
subjects of oral and visual television.

Radio publicity and promotion. Messrs.
Eiges and Hammond.

This course offers a practical pic-
ture of the relationships between the
network or station publicity depart-
ment and the radio editor, the gen-
eral newspaper and magazine press,
the sponsor, the production director,
and the advertising agency. It will
study the mechanics of radio public-
ity department operation. Discussion
will point out how the publicity de-
partment can aid in building audiences
for programs broadcast for educa-
tional, religious, and public service in-
stitutions as well as for commercial,
industrial, political, and economic or-
ganizations. Fundamentals of radio
station and network promotion, with
specific emphasis on sales promotion,
audience promotion and institutional
promotion.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

Speech for the radio. Professor Jane
Dorsey Zimmerman.

A course in voice and diction for
those who wish to prepare for speak-
ing, reading, and acting in radio. At-
tention will be directed (1) to the ac-
quisition of a good radio speaking
voice, through consideration of the vo-
cal factors of pitch, quality, volume,
and tempo, and (2) the development
of clear, intelligible diction and ac-
ceptable pronunciation of American
English. Instruction will involve the
use of the microphone, recordings, and
speaker system in the speech labora-
tory.

Radio announcing. Mr. Kelly.

A course dealing with the funda-
mentals of commercial and sustain-
ing copy for radio. Extensive labora-
tory work in microphone practice with
criticism and utilization of recordings
and playback equipment. Guest lec-
tures by leading announcers, news-
casters, narrators and sport analysts
with opportunity for discussion fol-
lowiirg the lectures.

Acting in radio. Mr. Filion

The techniques and special problenrs
of acting in radio. Lectures, demon-
strations, and practical nricrophone ex-
perience, with the emphasis through-
out on individual development.

Uses of broadcast and television
equipment. Mr. Wankel.

A course planned for the studeirt
who desires a general knowledge of
technical broadcast aird television
equipment. It is particularly designed
for prograirr prodircers, writers, an-
nourrcers, and others who will work
with broadcasting technicians and en-
gineers. Lectures are presented in
non-technical language, and demon-
strations are given using standard
equipment in NBC broadcasting and
television studios. Broadcast subjects
discussed include the technical operat-
ing organization and its functions,
microphones, transcription turn-tables,
control booth equipment, volume con-
trol, transcription equipment, master
control room operation and equipment,
network circuits, and “flash” studios.
Television subjects include television
cameras, boom microphones, lighting-
equipment, control booth equipment,
film and slide projectors, video effects,
and frequency allocations.

Sound effects. Dr. Knopfke.

A course designed, first, to familiar-
ize the student with the purpose and
use of sound effects and the prob-
lems connected with the work of the

sound effects technicians; second, to
familiarize the student with equipment
and operational problems using man-
ual, recorded, electronic, stylized, im-
aginative, and other sound effects em-
ployed currently in the professional
field. Class discussion, guest lecturers,
demonstrations by professional sound
technicians, studio observations, and
extensive laboratory work using sound
effects equipment under expert super-
vision.

Production of radio drama. Mr. Mc-
Graw.

A laboratory and lecture course in
radio production and direction. The
students have experience in the hand-
ling and directing of acting, sound,
and engineering. In addition, the writ-
ing and creating of diamatic shows,
the bases of radio criticism, and the
use of radio in the classroom will be
dealt with briefly in the Spring Ses-
sion. Workshop equipment is used pri-
marily. Field trips will be made to ob-
serve network equipment and meth-
ods.

Advanced production of radio drama.
Messrs. Maynard and Papp.

A practical workshop for students
who have had previous experience and
training in radio acting and produc-
ing. Each student is assigned an im-
portant element of production activ-
ity under the close supervision of the
instructor. Students are trained to
evaluate, define and interpret the
script, to analyze the characters, to
audition and select a cast from among
the members of the class, and to carry
the play through rehearsals to an ac-
tual production.

Television production problems. Mr.

Royal, assisted by members of NBC
Television Staff.

Lectures and demonstrations will
familiarize the student with the pro-
duction of television programs in the
studio, in the field, and from films.
The course deals with the problems of
selecting and editing material, clear-
ing rights, design of scenery, casting,
rehearsal, and final production. It is
conducted as a workshop and will give
students many opportunities to attend
actual rehearsals and broadcasts.
Home economics broadcasting. Miss
Wagner.

This course deals with the funda-
mentals of radio homemaking pro-
grams from the home economics ap-
proach. New techniques in the build-
ing of educational or commercial home
economics programs are discussed as

well as planning, research procedures,
script writing and production. A work-
shop is conducted for analysis and
discussion of material. Guest speakers
— script writers, producer-directors,
and educators in the field of radio —
will address the class from time to
time in order to give the students a
better understanding of radio require-
ments and procedures.

Music in radio. Mr. Chase in charge.

A sequence of lectures, discussions
and demonstrations by NBC experts
on music in relationship to radio pro-
giams. Aspects treated include: the
place of music in radio, planning mu-
sical programs, selection of personnel
and talent, production problems, clear-
ance and copyright, writing musical
continuity, arranging, composing, mu-
sicology for radio, and conducting.

Music in radio. Workshop course. Mr.

Chase in charge.

A practical workshop course in
which students will be required to
build musical programs, to write mu-
sical continuity, and to deal with prob-
lems of musical production.

Origin of Soap Opera

When the history of soap op-
era comes to be written, one of
its roots will be traced to the
6-party telephone line. Louise
Baker’s entertaining novel of
American village life, Party Line
(published by Whittlesey House,
condensed in the July issue of
The Reader’s Digest, and soon
to be released as a movie by 20th
Century-Fox) describes the days
when party lines, each serving
as many as 20 people, were op-
erated at a single local switch-
board :

The phones provided the women of
the town with the midmorning stimu-
lant that the radio now dishes out in
soapy drama.

Miniature audiences listened
surreptitiously to the conversa-
tions. The village telephone op-
erator was a goddess who knew
all and heard all :

Reputations were slain; clothing and
personal taste were slandei'ed; food
was retasted with discredit to the
cook.

November, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

CLASSICAL RADIO MUSIC FOR
CHILDREN AND ADULTS

BY MARY DINGLE
Dumont-, Colorado

On a Quiz Kids Program re-
cently John Stuart Curry ad-
vised that the talents and traits
of a child are carried to adult
life. The above-average or artis-
tic child will be the above-aver-
age or artistic adult. Grant
Wood drew chickens at the age
of three.

Even when confronted by dif-
ficulties, genius will find its way.
But what are the values of fine
music for children and amateur
adults who have little talent for
music?

A man who fed cattle on ocean
steamers and worked in gold
mines for some forty years tells
me he enjoys the Stradivarius
Violin Program. He has a sen-
timental heart under his “salty”
exterior. He knows the beauty
of ocean and of rugged divide;
why not of sound?

A Latin friend who sings
well without training listens to
the Metropolitan Opera Program
every Saturday.

The children in my school
were especially interested in the
Brahms Dances last winter. We
heard some Brahms music on
the radio. W e read about
Brahms. We have a portrait of
him. We sing the “Lullaby.”
They preferred the Second,
Fifth, and Sixth Dances. Some
of these were made familiar in
Music Appreciation Hour and
some by “incidental” acquaint-
ance as we played them on the
phonograph during Arts and
Crafts Hours.

Children who have never
cared for symphonic or classi-

cal music find that short peri-
ods of listening acquaint them
with strains of melody and with
patterns of rhythm until long
programs become significant.
Children recognize as friends
melodies that occur in popular
music and moving pictures.
Among these are “Hora Stac-
cato” from “One Hundred Men
and a Girl,” the Tschaikowsky
tunes from “The Fifth Sym-
phony,” “The Sixth Symphony,”
“The Piano Concerto,” the
“Waltz,” the “Serenade,” and
the Chopin melodies used in
popular music.

The association of story and
music in opera adds meaning to
music. Beautiful scenes in Dis-
ney musicals create “dream cas-
tles” which give musical hours
imaginative significance.

Associate story, painting, na-
ture, moving pictures and radio
listening if you wish to help
children grow to a fuller life and
achieve new peaks of enjoy-
ment. They will appreciate the
long symphony concerts and ac-
quire rich new interests.

SOME PROGRAMS WHICH PRESENT
CLASSICAL MUSIC

American School of the Air (CBS)
Adventures in Good Music
World’s Most Honored Music
John Charles Thomas (NBC)

New York Philharmonic (CBS)

The Pause That Refreshes (CBS)
The Family Hour (CBS)

NBC Symphony
Music America Loves
Hour of Charm
Firestone Concert (NBC)

Great Artist Series (NBC)

Portraits in Music
Army Band

Navy Band
Marine Band
Music You Want

Palmer House Concert Orchestra
(NBC)

Great Moments in Music (CBS)

Cities Service Concert (NBC)
Saturday Concert (Blue)

Metropolitan Opera (Blue)
Metropolitan Auditions
Boston Symphony (Blue)

Carnation Hour (NBC)

SOME BOOKS ON LISTENING TO
FINE MUSIC

Adventures i n Symphonic Music,
Downes. Farrar and Rinehart, $2.50.
Music for the Millions, Ewen. Arco
Publishing Company, $5.00.

What Is Music? John Erskine. Lip-
pincott, $2.75.

Music for the Man Who Enjoys Ham-
let, Haggin. Knopf, $2.75.

Evening with Music, Skolsky. Dutton,
$3.00.

Metropolitan Opera Milestones, Peltz.

Metropolitan Opera Guild, $1.00.
Psychology for Musicians, Oxford,
$2.50.

The Understanding of Music, Harper,
$2.00.

Music Appreciation for Children, RCA
Manufacturing Company, Inc., $1.25.
Victor Records for Elementary
Schools, RCA, 15c.

Skill in Listening, National Council
Teachers of English, 35c.

Music on the Air, Kinscella. Viking-
Press.

EMOTIONALIZED ATTITUDES AND
APPRECIATION OF FINE RADIO
MUSIC

There has been little experi-
ment or research in the field of
musical attitudes, but one feels it
is crucial. Music gives release
and self-realization. Fine music
is parallel to fine reading for
emotional maturity. It relieves

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

the routine futility and drab lim-
itations of life that cause frus-
tration. Properly utilized, music
is a constructive force for broth-
erhood, ethical behavior, inter-
national friendship.

My sixth-grade class gave
these responses to pieces heard
on phonograph and radio :

“Blue Danube.” Beautiful, spark-
ling; waltz of princes and princesses.

“Cdouds,” Debussy. Dreamy; a little
girl in a pink dress is sleeping on a
cloud; delicate, light.

“Anchors Away.” Patriotic, excit-
ing. This is fast.

“Overture to William Tell.” Excit-
ing. Reminds me of the Lone Ranger.
Fast. Loud. Tells about horses.

Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance No. 1.”
Dreamy.

Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance No. 5.”
Riding.

Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance No. 6.”
Fast.

A SAMPLE REPORT ON RADIO MUSIC
Firestone Progrom, Monday, April 23,
1945. NBC

The first selection was the ma-
jestic “Soldiers’ Chorus,’’ from
Faust, by Gounod. I was com-
pelled to hum this lilting well-
known chorus from the romance
of Marguerite and Faust. One
remembers Pelleas and Melis-
ande, Tristan and Isolde, Ro-
meo and Juliet, Dante and Bea-
trice, Petrarch and Laura, Ar-
thur and Guinevere, Lancelot
and Elaine, Eloise and Abelarde,
Siegfried and Brunhilde, Tann-
hauser and Elizabeth, Lohengrin
and Elsa, even Cinderella and
the Prince.

A Jamaican Rhumba conjures

magic of jungles, voodoo, na-
tives, black magic, zombies.

Joyce Kilmer’s “Trees,’’ sung
by the tenor, was purely lyrical,
idealistic, idyllic, pastoral. It
was timely for spring.

Tschaikowsky’s ‘‘Marche
Slav’’ highpointed Russia and
celebrated the San Francisco
Conference. Tschaikowsky used
Russian folk-themes skillfully,
presaging the current compos-
ers’ technique of adapting cow-
boy and back-country melodies
in classical composition.

The “Toreador Song,’’ from
“Carmen,” reminded me of that
Gypsy Negress (Carmen Jones),
captivating, exotic, alluring. It
recalled Rise Stevens in Going
My Way?

The Metropolitan Youth Council

Radio and movies are being
used for morale-building among
teen-age groups in the New York
metropolitan area. The program
is that of the Metropolitan Youth
Council, which grew out of a
youth conference at New York
University on March 17, 1945.

Sponsored jointly by the
N.Y.U. School of Education, the
National Recreation Association,
the Women’s City Club, the As-
sociated Youth-Serving Organi-
zations, the Metropolitan Mo-
tion-Picture Council, the Wom-
en’s National Radio Committee,
the National Board of Review of
Motion Pictures, the Permanent
Committee for the Prevention of

Frederic M. Thrasher is a Professor
of Education at New York University.
He is Piesident of Metropolitan Mo-
tion Pictui'e (’ouncil and Chairman of
the Organizing- Committee of the Met-
roimlitan Youth Council.

BY FREDERICK M. THRASHER

Juvenile Delinquency, and the
Action Committee for Delin-
quency Prevention, the Council
has enrolled nearly 300 teen-age
groups in the metropolitan New
York area, with a teen-age mem-
bership of 25,000. The program
is carried out by a series of
Wings, including Radio, Movies,
Theatre, Speakers, Press, Music,
Talent, Dance, Art, Civics, and
Trips. It offers its services free
to any teen-age group with an
adult sponsor in the area includ-
ing Northern New Jersey, Con-
necticut, Westchester County,
and Long Island, as well as the
five boroughs of New York City.

The cultural and civic head-
quarters of the Council are at
Town Hall, which is also partici-
pating in the program. This sea-
son, teen-age members of the
(’ouncil will be offered half-rates
to Town Hall events. The Town

Hall auditorium will be used by
the Council for special activities.

A monthly publication, named
MYC and Vieu's, an-

nounces the activities of teen-age
centers throughout the area ;
will list and classify radio pro-
grams and movies ; will consti-
tute a medium of exchange on
teen-age program activities ; will
report the results of the confer-
ences of the Council’s Teen Cen-
ter Considtants, a free service to
teen-centers; and will list teen-
age resources throughout the
Metropolitan area.

The Council’s official radio
program is Teen Canteen, which
was presented over WINS last
season and moves to WNYC this
fall. Each of these programs
salutes a different teen canteen
from various parts of the metro-
politan area. Some of tln^ can-
teens which have had their

November, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Left to right — Jeon Killian, 16, Bayside High School, and member of Doug-Inn, Douglaston, N. Y.; James Thorpe, 17, West-
ern High School, Washington, D. C.; Dr. Frederic M. Thrasher, Professor of Education, and Chairman, Adult Advisory Com-
mittee, Metropolitan Youth Council; Bill Slater, WOR, Moderaior, and Herbert Margolies, 16, Fieldston High School, New
York, conduct a ponel discussion following a professional dramatization on WOR's "It's Up To Youth" program. The Metro-
politan Youth Council is cooperating in the preparation of the program and in furnishing representative teen-age participants

in the panel. (WOR, Saturday, 12 noon EWT.)

young people appear on the pro-
gram are the White Plains Hi-
Spots, Mount Vernon Teen
Town, the Manhasset Youth
Council, and Doug-Inn of Doug-
laston.

The Talent Wing of the Coun-
cil provides teen-age talent for
this and other radio programs,
for dances, servicemen’s affairs,
and other meetings throughout
the area.

The Council is cooperating in
the presentation of a new pro-
gram, “It’s Up to Youth,’’ on
WOR Saturdays at noon. This
consists of the dramatization of
a youth problem by a profes-
sional cast and then a panel dis-
cussion conducted by Bill Slater
among a group of teen-age young
people from the Talent, Speak-
ers, and Civics Wings of the
Council.

The Council’s Movie Wing is
composed of teen-age young peo-
ple, including graduates of the
National Board o f Review’s

Young Reviewers and members
of the Four-Star Motion-Picture
Clubs. This Wing reviews films
and makes awards such as the
Award of Merit recently given
to Isobel Lennart for the script
of “Lost Angel.”

The first Wing meeting of the
Council was held in the Town
Hall auditorium June 16 and at-
tended by some 300 teen-agers
and 100 adult advisers. In addi-
tion to the award to Miss Len-
nart, the Movie Wing presented
a film produced by the Motion-
Picture Club of the Greenwich
High School. Professional and
commercial shorts were also
shown.

The organization of the Movie
Wing illustrates how the Council
is being developed. In addition
to the teen-age organization of
the Wing, there is an adult ad-
visory committee, headed by
Helen Cahill of the National
Board of Review and including
in its membership Capt. R. C.

Lewis, New Tools for Learning;
Albert R. Perkins, Look Maga-
zine; Phil Williams, March of
Thne; Max Brunstetter, Teach-
ers College, Columbia Univer-
sity; Ray Bingham, Y. M. C. A.
Motion Picture Bureau ; and
Carol Landis, Evelyn Ankers,
Ann Miller, Martha Scott,
Martha Tillton, Arleen Whelan,
Joe E. Brown, Chester Morris,
George Brent, Irving Cummings,
and Otto Preminger.

The chairman of the Radio
Wing is Marjorie Crampton of
the Teen Age Association of
Eastchester. The Adult Commit-
tee of the Radio Wing is headed
by Katheleen J. Norris, Director
of the Teen Age Bureau, Inc. It
includes Jay Jostyn, adult chair-
man of the Manhasset Youth
Council ; Dorothy Lewis, Coor-
dinator of Listeners’ Activities,
National Association of Broad-
casters; and Dick Willard, radio
commentator. Trip and Fashion
Wings are also being formed.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

Audio-Visual Aids in Educational
Reconditioning in an A. S. F. Hospital

BY JAMES A. HEDRICK
First Lieutenant, Signal Corps

and

JOSEPH MERSAND

Technical Sergeant, Detachment, Medical Department
A.S.F. Regional Hospital, Camp Crowder, Missouri

The Reconditioning Program
as practiced by the Medical De-
partment of the U. S. Army will
interest all proponents of the ex-
tensive use of audio-visual aids
in teaching. Its purpose is to
“accelerate the return to duty of
convalescent soldiers in the high-
est state of physical and mental
efficiency consistent with their
capacities and the type of duty
to which they will be assigned.
Or, if the soldier is disqualified
for further military service, the
Reconditioning Program must
provide for his return to civil-
ian life, conditioned to the high-
est possible degree of physical
fitness, well oriented in the re-
sponsibilities of citizenship, and
prepared to adjust successfully
to social and vocational pursuits.
The mission is accomplished by
a coordinated program of Edu-
cational Reconditioning, Physi-
cal Reconditioning, and Occupa-
tional Therapy.”^

Since Camp Crowder was es-
sentially a training camp for the
Signal Corps and recently for
the Medical Corps, the primary
aim of the Reconditioning Pro-
gram at this installation was to
get convalescents back to full
duty in the shortest possible
time.

^War Department Technical Manual
8-290, Advance Copy, December 1944,

p. 2.

"Ibid, p. 2.

Educational Reconditoning is
defined as “the process of excit-
ing, stimulating and activating
the minds of convalescent pa-
tients through education, orien-
tation, and information, thereby
encouraging mental attitudes
conducive to health and normal
activity.

Educational reconditioning
will refresh the soldier’s military
knowledge, add new military and
non-military education to his
store of knowledge, develop new
skills he has already acquired,
and in general, keep his mind
mentally alert.

In all phases of recondition-
ing, audio-visual aids are used
to a considerable extent. Some
of them as used in the A.S.F.
Regional Hospital, Camp Crow-
der, Missouri, one of the first
hospitals to have reconditioning
for A.S.F. personnel, will be de-
scribed in this article.

In the days before recondi-
tioning, the wounded, injured,
or sick soldier who was required
to spend a considerable time in
a hospital ward had few means
of relieving the boredom and
mental stagnation which inevit-
ably set in. To be sure, he might
buy a daily newspaper or maga-
zines, might listen to the radio,
or even borrow a book from the
hospital library. But for the
greater portion of the day there
was nothing for him to do but
stare at the blank walls or play

cards or doze. Small wonder that
he lost interest in soldiering,
that he forgot his basic or spe-
cialist training, that he began to
feel that he had “done his part”
and that now it was up to the
other guy.

These conditions represented a
challenge to the Education De-
partment of the Reconditioning
Service. Some of the methods
employed to meet the challenge
will now be mentioned. To keep
all soldiers aware of the global
war and of the swiftly moving
and shifting battle-lines, “News-
maps” were posted in every
ward in the hospital. These
maps were prepared by the In-
formation and Education Divi-
sion, Headquarters, Army Serv-
ice Forces, Washington, D. C.
and were published every two
weeks. On one side of these
sheets are maps of current activ-
ities. On the other side is in-
formation of more permanent
interest. It may be a picture of
the newest American battleship,
an analysis of costs of various
military items, or a slogan.
Sometimes Newsmaps are of
definite areas which can be con-
sulted for longer periods of time.
One is of Southeast Asia, an-
other of the Philippines, a third
of New Guinea, a fourth of Eur-
ope. The average ward in this
hospital has had a large-size
map, about 40 inches square, of
almost every theatre of action.

November, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

There is very little bare wall
space available. When D-Day
came, special maps of the French
invasion coast were distributed
as far as the supply lasted.
These were smaller in size, about
18" X 18", specially designed for
overseas distribution. The News-
maps are too large for overseas
distribution. A smaller type,
IIV2” by 17'/j" is used for that
purpose. These are more con-
venient for the bed patient who
would prefer to have a map on
his bed, rather than strain his
eyes trying to read what is on
the wall at the opposite side of
the ward.

In addition to the Newsmaps,
the walls of every ward have
had other visual materials that
kept the war ever-present :
color photographs of well-known
planes, a poster describing the
fabrication of Kaiser Liberty
Ships, armored vehicles, and
portraits of great military lead-
ers.

In addition to these, if the sol-
dier is confined to his bed be-
cause of a cast or because his
p 0 s t-operative treatment de-
mands bed-care, he can see sev-
eral types of movies from his
bedside. A projection machine
is wheeled into his ward, the
windows are darkened with a
few GI blankets, and the ward is
converted into a theatre. These
are the types of movies he may
see :

1. Training Films, usually the latest
issued, which he did not see before
he came into the hospital.

2. Combat Bulletins, which were
filmed on the spot in various com-
bat areas.

3. G.I. Movies, a weekly series con-
taining travelogs, educational nar-
ratives, Army-Navy Screen Maga-
zines, comedies. These are all 16mm
sound. They are supplied by the
War Department.

In addition to these educa-
tional movies, the Red Cross in
the hospital shows 16mm com-

UTILIZATION OF AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS IN THE U. S. ARMY'S
EDUCATIONAL RECONDITIONING PROGRAM AT CAMP CROWDER.

Above — Graphic portfolio being used in a class in military education in a ward
of the A.S.F. Regional Hospital at Camp Crowder. A patient is the instructor.

Below — Ward utilization of language guides for foreign-language instruction
at Camp Crowder. Displayed are an orientation map of the Pacific, an outline of
the construction of a Liberty Ship, and a Partolan chart.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

mercial movies twice a week.

A Vocational Guidance Pro-
gram has been formulated which
makes considerable use of voca-
tional films. An evaluation pro-
gram is being carried out in the
Office of the Surgeon General
to determine the best films avail-
able. Since almost 500,000 men
and women are being separated
from the service every month,
the need for vocational guidance
is great. Many of the discharged
soldiers had no vocations when
they entered the service. They
are sorely in need of informa-
tion and advice. Vocational films
will play an important part in
their adjustment to civilian life.

Another interesting use of
films is in the “Chaplain’s
Hour,’’ which is conducted every
Wednesday. A religious picture
is shown, usually a Biblical nar-
rative, in 16mm sound.

Thanks to Coronet, film strips
based on published picture-stor-
ies have been sent to this Serv-
ice, and these too, are shown to
the ward patients.

An excellent practice for
ouilding morale is group singing
through the use of the Balopti-
con. The words of songs are
flashed on a screen while the
tune is played on a piano which
is wheeled from ward to ward.
The Balopticon has long been a
standard aid in illustrated lec-
tures. Not only are the regu-
lar military subjects illustrated
with it, but original subjects as
well. For example, one of the
trainees in the Advanced Recon-
ditioning Section had taken pic-
tures while he had fought on
Guadalcanal. With the Balopti-
con he was able to project them
on the screen. He gave a most
thrilling account of his experi-
ences.

The Nationcd Geographic
Magazine in its June, 1943, is-
sue printed more than 1,000 in-

signia of the Armed Forces in
color, the most complete collec-
tion on record. These reproduc-
tions were mounted and used for
a most entertaining lecture on
“Insignia.” There is literally no
end to the possibilities of this
visual aid in the hands of imag-
inative teachers.

When the soldier-patients are
permitted to leave their wards,
they are required to come daily
except Sunday to the Red Cross
auditorium at 9 :30, where they
see films such as were described
above and in addition listen to
illustrated lectures on military
topics. To illustrate discussions
of progress in the war a large
map was built in three parti-
tions. This map is six feet high
and nine feet across and is vis-
ible everywhere in the auditor-
ium. It was not purchased but
drawn to scale by one of the
trainees in the Advanced Recon-
ditioning Section.

The Armed Forces of the
United States believe strongly
in the use of Graphic Training
aids for almost every subject
taught. “Graphic Portfolios”
containing pictures about a yard
square are available on topics
which include First Aid, Chemi-
cal Warfare, Map Reading,
Mines and Booby Traps, etc.
These pictures are also collected
in booklet form. One is called
Map Reading for the Soldier,
another Scouting and Patr<dling ,
a third How to Shoot the U. S.
Army Rifle. These are prepared
by the Training Division, Head-
quarters Army Services Forces.
These may be purchased from
The Infantry Journal, Washing-
ton, D. C. There are two ways of
using these booklets. The photo-
graphs and drawings may be cut
out, mounted, and used with the
Balopticon. The student can pur-
chase these and study them at
his leisure.

For a time the experiment was
tried of putting a Graphic Port-
folio in every ward, but it was
found that a Graphic Chart is
not a teaching device by itself.
It is a most useful adjunct to a
lecture. Few soldiers were curi-
ous enough to study the Graphic
Portfolios, but they expressed a
genuine interest when instruc-
tors came into the wards and
gave instruction in map-reading,
assembly and disassembly of
small arms, and camouflage.

When the patients are well on
their way to recovery, they are
transferred to the Advanced Re-
conditioning Section, where they
once again serve under strict
military discipline in their reg-
ular army uniforms. Two hours
of their eight-hour day are de-
voted to military education, by
a directive from the Surgeon
General. Here again training
films, graphic portfolios, and
other aforementioned visual aids
are employed. The weekly Bulle-
tins and G.I. movies which the
trainee saw while he was a ward
patient and an ambulatory pa-
tient are now shown to him in
the Advanced Reconditioning
Section’s movie theatres. In ad-
dition, film strips on every mili-
tary subject supplement other
aids. Special visual aids are util-
ized for certain subjects. For
example, in the classes in map
reading, every student gets a to-
pographic map of Camp Crow-
der, a photomap of the same
area, a lensatic compass for out-
door map problems, and a pro-
tractor. In addition, he is given
for permanent possession a spe-
cially prepared booklet contain-
ing ten map problems which he
solves partly in class and partly
on his own time. This booklet on
map-reading is one of a dozen
booklets prepared by the Edu-
cation Department to meet the
special needs of the students.

November, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

When camouflage is taught in
the spring and summer months,
classes are conducted out of
doors. A camouflage “flat-top”
is built by students and then ele-
vated and photographed from
above.

Another home-made visual aid
is a miniature landscape, show-
ing terrain. This is about five
feet long and a yard wide. It
demonstrates various landmarks
that may be recorded on a map.
A photomap was made of this
landscape and following that a
topographical map. Thus the
student can see what the terrain
is when it is seen with the naked
eye, how it appears on a photo-
map, and how it is represented
on a topographic map.

For learning aircraft identifi-
cation, models in black card-
board are supplied. Several thou-
sand of these are supplied to
army hospitals. Thirty-five dif-
ferent planes may be constructed
from these materials. Patients
may retain any models they con-
struct. Plastic models of eighty-
five different types of allied and
enemy planes have been on dis-
play in showcases.

Visual aids are not confined
to the wards, the Red Cross aud-
itorium, and the classroom. In
the dayroom there are numer-
ous examples. A Mercator pro-
jection of the globe is mounted
on a circular table in the center
of the room. Flags of the United
Nations, supplied by several con-
suls, are on display. Newsmaps
line the wall, as do photographs
of planes, posters from various
United Nations, and photo-
graphs of battle scenes.

All these are visual aids to in-
struction. A few words about the
audio aids for educational recon-
ditioning. A public address sys-
tem has loud speakers in every
ward in the hospital.

In addition to music during

each meal, the following pro-
grams of educational interest
are included :

1. Two 15-miiiute newscasts daily at
1:00 and 6:00 based on A.P. and
U.P. dispatches as they are de-
livered to the Post from the local
newspaper subscribing to the serv-
ices.

2. A fifteen-minute program daily on
an educational or orientational sub-
ject.

3. Dramatizations of timely interest.

4. Spot interviews with soldiers who
have interesting stories to tell.

The Armed Forces Radio In-
stitue supplies IS'/j hours of
transcribed programs on a week-
ly loan basis. These programs
run the gamut from Fritz Kreis-
ler to Tommy Dorsey. In Gen-
eral Hospitals a n d overseas,
V-Discs are distributed. These
are recordings made gratis by
many prominent musicians and
orchestras and may be retained.
A set of twenty records is sent
out each month. These services
make it possible to present the
finest of musical entertainment
at no cost at all to the hospital.
The value to morale is incalcu-
lable.

The United States Armed
Forces Institute has prepared
blitz record courses in about
forty foreign languages. These
are in the form of statements in
English and the foreign lan-
guage and are designed to give
a slight speaking and under-
standing knowledge after listen-
ing to a set of four records six
or seven times. These records are
accompanied by language guides
which contain the statements
made in the records. No teacher
is needed if the student will
faithfully follow instructions. He
is told to listen to the statement
in English, then to its equivalent
in the foreign language, and then
to repeat the foreign idiom. This
is purely an imitative method of
learning the simplest rudiments

of a language and no more.

For those who wish to acquire
real fluency in French, Italian,
Chinese, and Turkish, there are
sets of thirty records in each
language, which require about
300 hours for mastery. Personal
experience in teaching classes in
German, Spanish, Japanese, and
Italian by this method, justifies
the contention that but a few
hours are required for a speak-
ing knowledge of even the
strangest language. There are
four record-players available for
the use of small self-study
groups or individual study. For
those who wish to read the for-
eign language also, the library
has grammars and readers in
thirty-eight different languages.

In addition to the foreign-
language records and the music
collection, there are other audio-
educational aids. Over 100 tran-
scriptions have been sent from
various governmental and pri-
vate agencies. For example. Sta-
tion KDKA has sent almost a
complete series of “Adventures
in Research.” These are dia-
logues about various topics of
scientific interest. The War
Manpower Commission sent a
series of ten transcriptions on
“Arms for Victory,” each of
which describes the history of
one weapon, such as the submar-
ine, the camera, the parachute.
Through the U. S. Office of Ed-
ucation, hundreds of transcrip-
tions may be borrowed for a
period of four weeks. A script
service is also available for those
who like to perform with live
casts.

From an examination of the
information presented, one can
grasp the importance of audio-
visual aids in the training of the
soldier, and specifically in the
reconditioning of the sick and
wounded. What influence will
this have upon the returned sol-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

dier’s attitude to these aids?
From the first day of his en-
trance into the Army the soldier
is exposed to these aids. He usu-
ally sees a movie on his first day
in the Reception Center. Hardly
a day goes by without a movie
during his training period. Even
when he finally leaves the serv-
ice at the Separation-Classifica-
tion Center, he will see a movie
on the services of that center.
To some films, like oft-repeated
training films, he may develop
a negative attitude. Others, like
the remarkable Orientation Se-
ries on “Why We Fight” or the
weekly Combat Bulletins that
came direct from the fronts and
were filmed under most severe
of battle conditions, are master-
pieces of the documentary film.
The “Snafu” films, which are

modifications of the animated
cartoon, are very popular. They
tell in an amusing way the facts
about Malaria Control, Safe-
guarding Military Information,
and other facts the soldier has
already learned in Basic Train-
ing.

It is inconceivable that this re-
liance upon films to train our
soldiers will not influence in-
struction in peace time. This
much we observed from experi-
ence in reconditioning:

1. Patients showed a decided interest
in Combat Bulletins.

2. A new training- film would always
“draw a big house.”

3. The “Why We Fight” Series, which
consists of a set of seven films,
can be seen time and time again
and will still have a powerful im-
pact. Films like the “Battle of Rus-
sia,” the “Battle of China,” and the

“Battle of Britain” are unforget-
table.

The audio aids are likewise of
tremendous importance. Experi-
ments are now being made in
dramatizing military instruc-
tion.

The sick or wounded soldier
today, thanks to the audio-vis-
ual aids used in the Educational
Reconditioning Program, leaves
the hospital not only stronger in
body, but — if he is going back
to duty — firm in his determina-
tion to continue his job. If he is
discharged, he is prepared in
some way for the problems of
readjustment. Throughout h i s
convalescence he has been kept
informed of current happenings.
His mind was kept alert and
stimulated. He returns better
equipped to assume his civilian
responsibilities.

FM For Education

800 Stations to Blanket U, S. A.

Some 800 EM educational ra-
dio stations, blanketing every
square mile of the U.S.A., can be
a reality, as a result of the de-
cision of the Federal Communi-
cations Commission.

The FCC has allocated 20
channels for the exclusive use of
school systems and educational
institutions. The channels lie be-
tween 88 and 92 megacycles, said
to be “a good spot” by FM engi-
neers. Because the educational
channels are continuous with the
commercial FM band, school FM
radios can tune in on commer-
cial broadcasts also.

Next step for educators: to
apply for licenses to operate FM

stations. But, cautions FM spe-
cialist R. R. Lowdermilk of the
Office of Education :

(a) Educators should not ap-
ply for licenses unless they are
prepared to go ahead immediate-
ly with plans to transmit pro-
grams. To do so would delay the
approval of applications of those
who can begin broadcasting
right away.

(b) School systems would do
well to check with their State
Departments of Education be-
f 0 r e applying. Twenty - nine
Departments have carefully
worked-out plans for FM net-
works.

November, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Teaching Audience

The old problem of audience
behavior is receiving new atten-
tion from the General Federa-
tion of Women’s Clubs. Mrs.
Arretus Franklyn Burt of St.
Louis, chairman of the Federa-
tion’s motion-picture committee,
is developing a “youth-guidance
program” which will include,
among other activities, a drive
against juvenile vandalism in
theatres. Ed Kuykendall, presi-
dent of the Motion-Picture The-
atre Owners of America, has
suggested that managers enlist
the aid of Boy Scouts in the
drive against noise, rowdyism,
and destructiveness in movie
houses. In some situations youth-
ful movie patrons slash seats,
defile walls, and raise disturb-
ances that require police atten-
tion. However, in most situa-
tions the trouble is simply one of
bad manners. The notable MGM
short film. Movie Pests, dealing
with offenders of good taste, will
no doubt be shown in schools
and colleges everywhere, as a
phase of the 16mm movement.

Describing the notable new
program of the women’s organ-
izations, Mrs. Burt says :

“The new day of rapid progress has
wrought havoc with our established
notions of American home life. The
teaching of behavior and attitudes
must undergo a change in keeping
with the times.

“The organization of Youth Guid-
ance Clubs will therefore constitute
the major effort in this year’s pro-
gram of the motion-picture commit-
tee of the General Federation of
Women’s Clubs. The clubs will be
known as Youth Cinema Clubs of the
Americas. What we can do in the the-
aters of the U. S., we feel we can do
also in the theaters of Latin-America.

“Civic, patriotic, and educational
groups have offered their coojjeration.
The Departments of State and Com-
merce and the U. S. Office of Educa-

Martha Ann Burt

tion have endorsed the program.

“The purpose of the clubs is to de-
velop citizens who have a wholesome
outlook on life, sound views of hu-
man relationships, belief in the Amer-
ican heritage of opportunity to aspire
to anything one wishes. The clubs will
provide youth with a greater sense of
responsibility.

“Through the medium of motion
pictures, we can stimulate a desire
for self-improvement; show that life
can be interesting, whether on the
farm, in the village, or in the city. We
can show that the American home is
something that youth will want to
preserve. We can stimulate among our
youth constructive thinking about mo-
tion pictures.

“The program committee for each
club will be composed of an adult di-
rector, a junior member, and a the-
ater manager. Each club will be self-
governed. Leadership and responsibil-
ity will be developed through the
work of eight committees. Members
will sell tickets at the box office with
the adult director, act as doormen,
serve as ushers, police regular movie
programs, arrange lectures on the-
ater behavior, conduct film analysis
classes, arrange auditions for talent,
and conduct annual film awards.”

Mrs. Burt’s committee may be
interested in the “decalogs” of
audience behavior developed by

students in English classes at
Weequahic High School in New-
ark, where photoplay apprecia-
tion is a regular part of the cur-
riculum. Here is a sample in
lighter vein. It was read by
Gladys Liebman at a meeting of
the Finer Films Federation of
New Jersey :

1. He who cheers and jeers shall
not be.

2. He who masticates his candy or
gum aloud shall chew no more.

3. He who foretells the coming
events shall be muzzled.

4. He who disturbs his neighbor un-
duly by walking in and out shall walk
his last mile.

5. He who squirms in his seat shall
squirm no longer.

6. He who gossips shall be silent
evermore.

7. He who rattles candy paper shall
be annihilated.

8. She who bears excess plumage
shall be decapitated.

9. She who brings her whining child
to the movies shall know there is no
place like home.

10. They who exhibit their affec-
tions publicly shall find a more suit-
able place.

Here is a decalog in more se-
rious vein :

1. Remember that a student movie-
goer represents his school and that,
by his behavior, he can build or break
down the good name of the school.

2. Remember, when responding to
the appeals made by a picture, to keep
your enthusiasm within reasonable
bounds.

3. Remember, if you wish to show
disapproval of a film, that the decent
thing to do is to remain silent and to
reserve your comments until you can
speak or write to the manager of the
theatre. Careful expression of opin-
ion will prove more effective than acts
of disturbance at a pei'formance.

4. Remember that you can best ex-
press your disapproval of unruly be-
havior on the pail of youi' friends in
the theatre by firmly refusing to join
in their acts of disturbance. Speak

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

quietly to those who are boisterous.
By being quiet of voice you will ac-
complish more than by being aggres-
sive.

5. Remember that there are other
people in a movie audience besides
yourself and your friends, that they
have paid to see and hear the program
just as you have, and that they are
entitled to peace, quiet, and respect
during the performance.

6. Remember this golden rule of fair
play in the treatment of furniture and
equipment in a theatre: Treat chairs.

rugs, and other furnishings as you
would have your own treated by visi-
tors in your home. Vandalism is one
of the lowest forms of behavior.

7. Remember that, in case of danger
of fire, self-contiol is of prime im-
portance. The danger is not so much
from fire as from injury due to panic
and rushing to get out.

8. Remember that, once you are out-
side of the theatre, an expression of
opinion regarding pictures that you
have seen is much to be desired. Make
your comments on as high a plane of

thought as possible.

9. Remember that, in discussing pic-
tures, you should listen closely to the
comments of others, for the art of
conversation depends on attentive lis-
tening.

10. In general, remember that the
success of our American democracy
depends on independent critical think-
ing, on self-restraint in crowds, on the
exercise of imagination regarding the
consequences of the mob spirit, and
on adherence to the highest ideals of
fair play in public conduct.

Jules Verne Classic Made Available in 16mm

Another of the classics of
literature, The Adventures of
Michael Strogoff, by Jules
Verne, conies to the school screen
in IGmm, through the Bell &
Howell Filmosound Library and
its branches, dealers, and asso-
ciated independent film distrib-
utors. The picture was produced
in English, French, and Span-
ish versions, by the noted Rus-
sian producer, Joseph N. Ermo-
lieff. It features an outstanding
cast and embodies exceptionally
lavish production values, even
measured by the highest Holly-
wood standards.

At the time the picture was
released theatrically (by RKO,
under the title. The Soldier and
the Lady), a study guide was
published by Educational and
Recreational Guides, Inc., to en-
courage cultural group support
and discussion. This guide, writ-
ten by Frances Taylor Patter-
son, instructor in motion pic-
tures at Columbia University, is
republished here in condensed
form. Parts that dealt with mat-
ters applicable primarily to dis-
cussion based on theater show-
ing have been eliminated in this
revision. The original guide is

out of print, but re-prints of the
condensed guide are available at
5c a copy or 25 for $1.

The function of the 16mm
film library in effecting the res-
cue of worthwhile theatrical
films from oblivion was never
better illustrated than in this
case. Here is a deathless story,
retold on celluloid and projected
in light, sound, and motion. In
the theater it delighted millions
with its story of vigorous, ro-
mantic adventure. Now, in thou-
sands of schools, clubs, homes,
churches, and other centers of
community life, it will entertain,
stimulate, and educate millions
more, and for many years to
come. The theatrical film pro-
duction impelled the publication
of two low-priced versions of the
book, one by Grosset & Dunlap,
the other by A. L. Burt & Co.
The non-theatrical release is cre-
ating a new demand for these
volumes.

The role of the 16mm film-
release was recently likened to
that of the “standard” or “clas-
sic” music republication. The
similarity o f function was
pointed out by Wayne King, one
of the country’s famous band

leaders, who is an educational
film enthusiast. Selecting films
for his family recently from the
new Bell & Howell 112-page cat-
alog of educational films, he is
reported to have remarked that
relatively few outstanding num-
bers in the annual crop of
popular tunes warranted re-ar-
rangement into “standard” pres-
entation. It is the test of time
that makes a classic — whether
of music or of film. In the case
of The Adventures of Michael
Strogoff, the story is a minor
classic to start with. The selec-
tion of such a film as meeting
non-theatrical standards, after
its normal theatrical life has
been fully exploited, notably ex-
tends its cultural usefulness.

It is equally the concern of
theatrical a n d non-theatrical
film sources to see to it that only
the best — and all of the best —
of the 35mm films become avail-
able, in proper time, for com-
munity use in 16mm. Too many
big films of the “Strogoff” type
lie idle in the vaults long after
their theater role has ended. For
example, why does not MGM
make David Copperfield avail-
able in 16mm?

FniiAMENIAIS

lhal help you gel
Ihe mosl from
insirucifonal lilms!

(Preview the iiistruelioiial film! To insure thorough
familiarity with the contents and proper integration
with your curriculum! This helps you organize your
units of instructional film material and enables you to
check in advance any point not completely clear
to you.

2 Set the proper classroom atmosphere! In Order
that your students (a) realize the difference between
education and entertainment, (b) recognize their re-
sponsibility in learning from the film, and (c) are
prepared for the particular instructional film to be
shown!

Such proper preparation arouses your students’ inter-
est and increases their anticipation.

3 Show instructional films at least twice! The first
presentation should be run without interruption. Dur-
ing this introductory showing questions that arise in
your students’ minds should not be permitted to be
expressed or answered. But upon completion of the

presentation your students should be given ample
opportunity to state their reactions, ask questions and
discuss freely.

4 Encourage sliidenls to ask questions! On repeated
presentations, all your students’ questions should be
answered or discussed immediately. This serves to
clarify meanings and correct misunderstandings when
it is most timely and easiest to do so.

5 Use follow-up activities to capitalize on interest
aroused hy film! Follow-up activities should include
teacher and student questions and explanations, dis-
cussions, dramatization, written reports and supple-
mentary readings — that capitalize the points made
by the film.

6 Evaluate the worth of each film in terms of pupil
growth! Through both subjective and objective tests,
determine the film’s contribution to your students’
knowledge, ideals and habits.

CATALOGUE NOW AVAILABLE SENT VOU WTTHOUT CHARGE OB OBLIGATION

To get the most from instructional films, you must
select films to integrate into the framework of your
curriculum which youVe created with full realization of
the needs of your students.

The Instructional Films Division's catalogue de>
scribes many subjects from which you may make
selections that will help you enrich the quality of your
pupils' experience and expedite their learning.

Write for your copy today. In addition to this de-
scriptive catalogue of instructional films now available,
we will keep you advised of new films as they are pro-
duced. Fill out and mail coupon now.

INSTRUCTIONAL FILMS DIV.

25 West 45(h Street, New York 19

Please send me, without obligation, your in-
structional films catalogue.

Name;

I am particularly interested in:

lIVSTRUCTIOIVilL FILMS DIVISION

INTERNATIONAL THEATRICAL & TELEVISION CORP.

Position:

Name of School:

25 WEST 45lh STREET • NEW YORK 19, N. Y. I Address of School:

Branch Office* Throughout The U. S, \

WIN $10,000 FIRST PRIZE!

10 Big Additional Prizes!

For Best Amateur Motion Picture on any subject. Write contest director, International Theatrical A Television Corp., for complete details.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

MICKEY AS PROFESSOR

BY WALT DISNEY

Condensed, with Permission, from The Public Opinion Quarterly, Summer Issue, 1945

Like other American homes,
the home of Mickey Mouse and
Donald Duck went to war. From
the Disney Studios poured train-
ing films for the Armed Forces
and animated cartoons prodding
cuid instructing the home front.

In this article Wcdt Disney en-
thusiastically supports Mickey’s
prof essioncd possibilities. But he
cdso describes the obstacles in
the way of the educational film.

The pressure of the past four
years has forced us to put on
trial the things we do, the way
we do them, and the reason we
do them. Under national crisis,
we have been compelled to re-
ject any move that had no pur-
pose, any method that was slow,
any means that could not guar-
antee results. The watchword
was to retain whatever was effi-
cient and to cast off whatever
was not effective.

The physical sciences — chem-
istry, aviation, electronics, radio,
medicine — have taken enormous
steps forward to meet the urgent
needs of war. Necessity has
forced us to adopt techniques
that, until the war, had been con-
sidered visionary. Scientists who
knew theories had to learn ap-
plication ; the public had to learn
use; industry had to learn the
techniques to meet the demands
of volume and quality.

The motion picture took a
leading part in wartime educa-
tion— propaganda as well as
training. It explained ideas, it
showed events, it made hidden

phenomena visible, and it dem-
onstrated the way to control
them. So successful was the mo-
tion picture in this task of edu-
cation for war that close atten-
tion was once more given to its
capacity as a means for enlight-
enment in the work of peace.
Educators, scientists, statesmen
and prelates have led a chorus
of enthusiastic interest in the
use of motion pictures for in-
struction.

ANIMATION POTENTIALITIES

The Disney Studios have en-
joyed a vantage point from
which to observe the currents of
opinion on motion pictures as
educational aids. This was due
to the circumstance that our fa-
cilities, at one time, were almost
exclusively dedicated to film
training programs for the Army,
Navy, and Air Force. Moreover,
the character of our output, as
well as the personalities who
carried out this work, led us
toward attitudes that are edu-
cational although expressed in
entertainment.

We had been preparing for
this task for a long time. We had
improved our technique to the
point where it knew practically
no limitations of picturization.
The animated cartoon could with
equal clarity depict the birth of
a continent, the rhythm of a stel-
lar system, the structure of an
atom, or the anatomy of a mi-
crobe. What is hidden to the eye
could not escape the drawing
board. The animated cartoon can
show the movement of winds

over a continent and the next
moment demonstrate the flow of
an electric current.

The versatility of the ani-
mated cartoon is obvious. What
is not so apparent is that its na-
ture demands a delicate adjust-
ment of what are called “story
values.” The argument must be
condensed and continuity so ar-
ranged that clarity and interest
are never lost.

The virtues of the animated
cartoon do not exclude the
equally great virtues of direct
photography. This fact has led
the Disney Studios to develop
the technique of combining ani-
mation with direct photography.
In educational films all techni-
cal devices should be employed.

WAR EXPERIENCE

We learned much from the
films we produced for the Co-
ordinator of Inter-American Af-
fairs on health subjects, and
from projects we have under-
taken for private industry.
There has been no limit to the
variety of content. It ranged
from mechanics to medicine, nu-
trition to inflation, language to
geology, anatomy to infant feed-
ing.

Reports from instructors and
trainees were unanimous in cred-
iting our films with speeding up
learning, increasing retention,
and compelling interest. These
films, however, have been every
one an experiment. We could not
pretend to have reached definite
conclusions, or to have discov-
ered unfailing formulas. The
success of these films, while flat-

November, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

tering, forced our attention
toward what can be done as we
gain experience.

THREE FOLD PROBLEM

The problem resolves itself
into three main parts : what con-
cerns the film maker, what con-
cerns the educator, and what
concerns finance and promotion.

The motion-picture producer
can vouch for his technical com-
petence but cannot pretend to a
command of subject matter or
pedagogical method. The sub-
ject expert is not necessarily a
teacher, nor the teacher neces-
sarily a subject expert. Neither
possesses the skill to produce mo-
tion pictures. Hence all three
need each other if the result is
to meet the requirements which
educational films should fulfill.
These are authenticity, complete-
ness, interest, and motivation.

In other words, the educa-
tional film must be true, it must
give a rounded view of the sub-
ject, it must hold the interest of
the student, and it must impel
the student to apply his new
knowledge. It only remains to
assure the distribution and use
of the films, which is an eco-
nomic and social matter.

EDUCATIONAL PRIORITY

One of the things most often
asked of the educators who visit
the Disney Studios is : what pic-
tures are most needed, what pic-
tures should first be produced?
So far we have not received an
answer that could be regarded
as predominant.

There are those who believe
that the first objective in edu-
cation is training in character,
in moral and ethical living.
There are those who emphasize
training in knowledge and skills,
in mathematics, biology, chemis-
try, arts and crafts. There are
proponents of beginning with
history or geography. The choice
of subject-area naturally is dic-

tated by the interest of the par-
ticular educator. We find also
much divergence of opinion as
to the admissibility of music,
color, comedy, and idiomatic
speech to educational films.

SUPPLEMENT NOT SUBSTITUTE

Challenging is the occasional
evidence of academic tradition-
alism, and sometimes prejudice,
that regards teaching films as
distracting novelties, and, in sig-
nificant cases, as attempts to dis-
place books, lectures, laborator-
ies, and perhaps the teacher him-
self. Fortunately, even the ed-
ucator who is most orthodox
in his attitude still preserves
enough intellectual curiosity to
admit, after demonstration and
discussion, the potentialities of
the teaching film.

There can be no presumption
that the film can replace the
textbook, the laboratory, or the
lecture. As education acquires
new instruments, each must be
assigned the function that is best
suited to its capacities. And as
the equipment grows in variety
and power, the operator must
also increase his versatility and
skill. That is why we are inclined
to reject the term “visual edu-
cation” as misleading. Instead
we like to think of one dynamic
process that is “education” and
to consider all the devices and
methods connected with it as
technical aids to its progress. It
follows that since education is
the one and only end, any facil-
ity used to accomplish it is justi-
fied to the extent that it proves
effective.

Pictures, of course, can be
made on any subject. The edu-
cational film can be the closest
approximation to actual experi-
ence and practice. But it would
be idle to expect that films alone
can do the whole job. No one
ever learned to i)lay a piano, re-
pair an engine, or conduct him-

self as a responsible member of
society merely through passive
observation. The student must
work, he must apply, he must
fit himself to meet problems and
solve them through his own in-
genuity and self-command. The
function of the educational film
hence is stimulative and inform-
ative like that of the textbook
or the lecture.

The film commands a higher
degree of attention and reten-
tion. Its physical nature, how-
ever, prevents the ease of refer-
ence that is inherent in the text-
book. Hence the need for a com-
bination of film and book is
clearly indicated. Similarly, in
the laboratory, the film can pre-
pare the student much more
quickly than any manual, but
it cannot substitute practice.
The need for both film and ex-
periment is clearly indicated.

ACCEPTANCE OF A NEW TOOL

So far, these notes have dealt
only with the educational picture
and some of the elements that
should be incorporated in it, as
if all that were necessary were
to unite the teacher and the pro-
ducer and turn out a truly edu-
cational film. But production is
only the beginning. Once an ed-
ucational film is made that
meets all pedagogic require-
ments, the task remains to make
it as available to education as
the textbook is now. This ap-
pears to be by far the most dif-
ficult problem.

Education in America is al-
most entirely regulated by local
government and supported by
tax moneys. School administra-
tors must justify to their boards,
which are elected by popular
vote, not only their exi)enditures
and management but also the
tendency and content of their
work. Boards of education are
obliged to show taxpayers that
public funds are not being

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

wasted on personnel and equip-
ment that do not carry out the
wishes of the community in the
training of youth. Educators, in
turn, strive to lead the way pro-
gressively in a vital social activ-
ity which they, as professionals,
feel they understand better than
the public. Thus we have a bal-
ance of three forces, exercising
healthy restraint on each other.

Motion pictures are generally
regarded as an expensive com-
modity as compared with other
educational paraphernalia. The
expense, however, refers only to
initial cost. By standards of dur-
ability and by what we might
call lesson-per-student measure,
films are just as cheap as text-
books and infinitely cheaper
than laboratories. Our grand-
fathers looked askance at the
cost of free books and materials,
public school buildings, sports
fields, libraries, and laborator-
ies, but we accept these things
as essential expense.

During the past century the
cost of education per pupil per
year has multiplied in the ma-
jority of our school systems. Ed-
ucators have demanded greater
facilities, school boards have rec-
ognized the need, and taxpayers
in turn have paid the bills. When
the public becomes better aware
of the advantages in learning
that the motion picture has
proved able to give, the cost not
only of films but also of projec-
tors and suitable housing for
their use will be accepted as a
matter of course. At such a time,
no school will be considered ef-
ficient unless it is properly
equipped for showing films.

A recent survey shows that
budgets of school systems have
continued this upward trend and
that funds allocated to audio-
visual aids, mainly for motion
pictures, have increased at a still

sharper rate. One county in Cen-
tral California, which contains
a small city and a number of
small agricultural centers, re-
ported an expenditure of $34,000
a year on visual aids. Previous
allotments in this county were
only in hundreds of dollars. This
is an extraordinary case, but it
emphasizes the rising curve.

Our state universities conduct
film-lending libraries, and pri-
vate film exchanges supply in-
dividual schools with rented
films. There is a noticeable trend
in school systems to establish
film libraries of their own. One
might say that this is a general
but not yet coordinated move-
ment, led by educational enthu-
siasts. It awaits only the solution
of economic problems to become
as much an accepted facility as
book libraries are today.

The Disney Studios have
watched and pondered the fac-
tors outlined here, with sympa-
thetic interest and with the de-
sire to participate in develop-
ments. The problems are natural
ones for the talents and tech-
niques which raised the ani-
mated picture from a peep-show
curiosity to a major art-form.

It is natural also that the ed-
ucational world should be anx-
ious to make use of a powerful
facility. Gradually, through trial
and error, the teacher, the pro-
ducer, and the administrator are
converging on ground where
practical cooperation is possible.
At the same time, the public is
showing an amazing interest in
new educational techniques. The
generation that used the motion
picture to help train its fighters
and industrial workers into the
mightiest force in history is not
apt to ignore the motion picture
as an essential tool in the labor
of enlightenment, civilization,
and peace.

Donald Nelson Foresees
Film Industry Expansion

Donald M. Nelson, president
of the newly organized SIMPP
(Society of Independent Motion-
Picture Producers) , is an expan-
sionist. He believes this country
must expand at home and
abroad. He says :

“I see in the motion picture the
best medium of carrying to the peo-
ple of all nations the story of the
American way of life. . . By educating
other peoples to a better living stand-
ard, we are creating better custom-
ers for the output of American indus-
try.”

Study Guide to "North West

Mounted Police," Paramount
Film, Re-issued

Paramount has re-issued Ce-
cil B. cleMille’s Technicolor fea-
ture, North West Mounted Po-
lice. A complete, illustrated
guide to the discussion of this
picture is available from ERGI,
172 Renner Ave., Newark 8, at
15c for single copies, or 5c a
copy in sets of 30.

33 ACOE Filmstrips

The American Council on Ed-
ucation, 744 Jackson Place,
Washington 6, D. C., is offering
for free preview filmstrips of
about 50 frames each on aspects
of Life in the U. S., purchasable
at $1.50 a strip, or any 7 for
$10. The complete set of 33 sells
for $45. A limited number of
accompanying scripts, useful in
language classes, are available
at 10c a copy, in addition to
the English descriptive scripts.
Teachers of the social studies
and Spanish teachers are invited
to examine these materials as
examples of the work of the Of-
fice of Inter-American Affairs
in cooperation with the Council.

November, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

WHO'S WHO IN AUDIO-VISUAL

EDUCATION

No. 33: Edword L. Munson, Jr.

Edward Lyman Munson, Jr.,
Chief, Army Pictorial Service,
Signal Corps., who taught Eng-
lish at West Point from 1937 to
1941, was promoted to the grade
of Brigadier General on June 27,
1945.

The 40-year-old West Point
graduate was born at Fort Bay-
ard, New Mexico, the son of
Brigadier General and Mrs. Ed-
ward Lyman Munson. He at-
tended schools at various Army
installations both here and
abroad until his graduation from
Western High School, Washing-
ton, D. C., in 1921. He was
awarded a Bachelor of Science
degree at the United States Mili-
tary Academy and was commis-
sioned a second lieutenant of In-
fantry in June, 1926.

General Munson was promoted
to first lieutenant in March,
1932; to captain in June, 1936;
to major (temporary) in Janu-
ary, 1941 ; to lieutenant colonel
(temporary) in February, 1942;
and to colonel (temporary) in
August, 1942.

His first assignment was to
the Presidio of San Francisco,
California, for duty with the
30th Infantry. In August, 1928,
he was ordered to Headquarters,
Hawaiian Department, Fort
Shatter, Hawaii, where he joined
the 35th Infantry. He also served
with this regiment at Schofield
Barracks and Fort Armstrong,
Hawaii, from February, 1929 to
December, 1930, when he sailed
for the United States.

Then a first lieutenant, he

Edward Lyman Munson, Jr.

proceeded to Fort Benning,
Georgia, with the 24th Infantry,
and in September, 1931, he was
detailed to the Infantry School
at Fort Benning as a student of-
ficer. Upon graduation in 1932,
he remained at that station and
rejoined the 24th Infantry. He
then completed the Tank Course
at the Infantry School in May,
1933, and was assigned to Civil-
ian Conservation Corps duty at
Redding, California. From June,
1934 until May, 1935 he served
with the 30th Infantry at the
Presidio of San Francisco, and
was again ordered to Schofield
Barracks, Hawaii, for duty with
the 19th Infantry.

Returning to the United
States, he went to West Point,
New York, in 1937, where he
was assigned as instructor in the
Department of English, later
heading the course in Freshman
English. He served in this ca-
pacity until June, 1941, when he
was ordered to Washington and
assigned to the Morale Branch.

He organized and operated the
Army Research Branch of the
present Information and Educa-
tion Division, and later organ-
ized and supervised the Army
Information Branch of the In-
formation and Education Divi-
sion. Operations included the or-
ganization and establishment of
“Yank,” the Army Weekly;
Army News Service, Armed
Forces Radio Service, and Camp
Newspaper Service. He also es-
tablished and operated a Motion-
Picture Production Unit for the
purpose of producing orienta-
tion and information films. This
Unit was later transferred to
the Signal Corps’ Army Pictor-
ial Service. He was transferred
to the Signal Corps in April,
1944, as Chief of the Army Pic-
torial Service, which he has op-
erated from that date.

His foreign service in this war
includes various overseas mis-
sions, with temporary duty in
the European, North African,
Middle-East, and China-Burma-
India theatres in 1943, as well
as a mission to the Pacific Ocean
Areas in 1944.

General Munson has been a
frequent contributor to military
publications. He served on a
committee of the National Re-
search Council in compiling
“Psychology for the Fighting
Man” and “Psychology for the
Returning Soldier.” His book,
“Leadership for the American
Soldier,” of which 200,000 cop-
ies have been printed, was lauded
by Major General E. F. Harding
as “the most practical, sanely
balanced, and usable treatise

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume Xll, No. 2

available on the subject . . . the
most important literary contri-
bution to national defense that
has come off the press since
America began to arm.”

No. 34: Horace O. Jones

Horace 0. Jones, popular pres-
ident of the Allied Non-Theatri-
cal Film Association, was born
in Jamaica, New York, August
31, 1895. At the conclusion of his
second term as head of ANFA
and the completion of his part in
the Eighth War-Loan Drive,
Horace may be able to devote full
time again to his regular work
as Eastern Director and Assist-
ant Treasurer of the Victor An-
imatograph Corporation.

He is familiar with war-time
interruptions, however, and has
re-adjusted his life during three
of America’s wars. In 1915,
when Horace had completed his
high-school course and was
about to enroll at Cornell, the
IMexican War broke out. He en-
rolled in the U. S. Cavalry in-
stead. Fighting with Pershing
in Mexico, he was able to put
to good use some early training
in horsemanship. His father pos-
sessed a stable of saddle horses.
Horace during his high-school
days had been an amateur polo
player.

In 1917, on completing an ex-
citing experience in Pershing’s
Expeditionary Forces across the
Rio Grande, Horace tried to en-
roll at Cornell again. But the
world was in a mess, and Uncle
Sam had to help set it right.
Horace enlisted again in the Cav-
alry and embarked on World
War I. Upon the dissemination
of his regiment, he was trans-
ferred to the Army Signal Corps
Officers’ Training School in
France. He was wounded in
Belgium, near where his own
son Robert was destined to be
severely wounded in a second

Horace O. Jones

World War. Horace returned
from France with the rank of
1st Lieutenant.

A veteran, and by this time
old enough to be a college grad-
uate, Horace on his discharge
from the Army continued to
pursue his education. He stud-
ied at Columbia University, at
N.Y.U., and later at the In-
ternational Business Machines
School. He was graduated from
the latter as a trained salesman,
but his old wound was bother-
ing him. He resigned from his
salesman’s job. For two years,
while his wound healed, he held
a desk job with an insurance
company.

Jones then joined the Q.R.S.
Music Company. This company
was merged with the DeVry
Corporation. As a result, Jones
was associated with that corpor-
ation for the next decade. Jones
resigned to become Branch Man-
ager of the Non-Theatrical Div-
ision of the National Theatre
Supply Company, a subsidiary
of Fox Film Company. This firm
distributed Victor Animato-
graph products. When, sixteen
years ago, the 16mm division of
National Theatre Supply was
dissolved, Jones was appointed
to liquidate National Theatre
Supply Company’s stock. This

was completed the following
year. It was then that he was
appointed Director of Sales for
the Eastern Division of the Vic-
tor Animatograph Corporation.
He has held this position ever
since.

Jones served as chairman of
the National 16mm War Loan
Committee for the 5th, 6th, and
7th War-Loan Drives. His ef-
forts helped the committee
achieve 141,000 screenings of
16mm films, seen by an unprece-
dented total of 33,000,000 per-
sons during the 7th Loan Drive.
In 1944 Horace was elected head
of ANFA. In 1945 he was re-
elected. He is an active member
of every organization in the
16mm industry. He is especially
interested in audio-visual educa-
tion because of the vital part it
has played in World War 11.

His son, now recovering from
wounds, has been awarded the
Croix de Guerre, the Purple
Heart, a Presidential citation,
and three battle stars. On his
return, he hopes to continue
at Dartmouth College. Jones’s
daughter Penny, a college fresh-
man, will keep her dad posted
on the upward trend of visual
education at the college level.

Meanwhile Horace manages to
find time for the Nassau County
Mounted Guard. He is Captain
of this troop and rides once a
week near his home at Rockville
Center, L. 1.

No. 35: Charles R. Crakes

Charles R. Crakes, DeVry
Corporation’s educational con-
sultant, has been doing a job of
field service for audio-visual
teaching altogether without
parallel for distances covered,
meetings addressed, contacts
made, and new trails blazed.
Crakes has been conducting
workshops in utilization of
audio-visual materials at lead-

November, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

ing colleges and universities,
helping schools in the develop-
ment of clinics and conferences
devoted to visual education,
giving aid and advice to teachers
from coast to coast, by mail, by
phone, and by personal visits.
During 1945, Crakes has traveled
through Washington, Oregon,
California, Utah, Colorado, Illi-
nois, New York, Delaware,
Maryland, and other states,
serving as a speaker and as a
consultant on problems related
to the use of films, slides, charts,
maps, and other tools of instruc-
tion. His workshop at Stanford
University last summer included
200 students. In line with the
policy of leading manufacturers
of visual equipment, Crakes
serves the whole visual move-
ment as well as his own firm.
In this he is carrying out the
aims of the late Dr. Herman A.
DeVry, whose sons are continu-
ing the development of the De-
Vry projector.

Crakes was born January 26,
1894 at Chamberlin, South Da-
kota; was graduated from high
school at Howard City, Michi-
gan, in 1913; received his A. B.
degree at Northwestern Uni-
versity in 1930 and his A. M.

Charles R. Crakes

degree there in 1941. Before
joining DeVry, he was Superin-
tendent of Schools at Moline,
Illinois. He progressed to the su-
perintendency through service as
a teacher and as principal of el-
ementary and secondary schools.
During 25 years of teaching
and administrative work in the
schools. Crakes did much to
foster the development of visual
methods. He knows the problems
of the schools and the answers
to the questions asked by
teachers.

MOGULL'S allows the

Highest

Prices^

on your 8 and 16mm Home Movie Film
towards the purchase of new subjects
of your choice. Choose from the latest
CASTLE, OFFICIAL, PICTOREEL and other

Standard subjects

Reg.

You

For Your Used /

Al lowance

Price

Pay

3mm - 1 80-200'

$3.50

$5.50

$2.00

16mm - 360-400'

5.00

8.75

3.75

SOUND -

16mm - 360-400'

9.50

17,50

8.00

COLOR PRORATA - IMMEDIATE DELIVERY
PREPAID

FREE MEMBERSHIP in one of America's
Leading Libraries, 8 & 16mm Silent and
Sound.

Write us for Screens, Continuous 3x4 Slide
Projectors, Cameras, Rewinds, Cans, Stere-
opticons, Sound Machines (new & used).
TRADES ACCEPTED.

MOGULL'S

FILM & CAMERA EXCHANGE

68 West 48th St. (Dept. FR) New York 19

Any school planning a work-
shop, a clinic, or a conference
devoted to the audio-visual
movement may have the free
services of Mr. Crakes. He may
be addressed at the Educational
Department of the DeVry Cor-
poration, 1111 Armitage
Avenue, Chicago 14.

Charles R. Crakes conducts a class at Northwestern University.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

A GUIDE TO THE STUDY OF
THE 16MM SCREEN VERSION OF JULES VERNE'S

THE ADVENTURES OF MICHAEL STROGOFF

Available Through Bell & Hotvell Company and Associated Distributors

BY FRANCES TAYLOR PATTERSON
Instructor in Motion Pictures, Columbia University

EDITOR'S NOTE

Most stories fall into two classes
— stories of decision and stories of
achievement. The novels of Jules
Verne belong in the latter class. The
titles of the stories of this noted
Flench author, who lived from 1828
to 1905, reveal at once that they deal
with men of action and imagination,
whose achievements are so extraordin-
ary that they amaze you: “20,000
Leagues Under the Sea,” “A Journey
to the Center of the Earth,” “From
the Earth to the Moon,” “Five Weeks
in a Balloon,” “Captain of the Pole
Star.” Even his “Around the World
in Eighty Days” was as thrilling in
its time as “Around the Earth in a
Single Day” would be now.

Verne’s 19th-century tales of im-
aginary voyages, fantastic adventures,
and marvelous inventions anticipated
the submarine, the airplane, jet pro-
pulsion, television. His heroes are
perfect prototypes of the Superman
of today. To the one end of manly ac-
tion, Verne subordinates love elements
and social comment. He interweaves no
satire, such as permeates “Gulliver’s
Travels” and “Alice in Wonderland.”
Accordingly, Michael Strogoff, Cour-
ier of the Czar, is purely and simply
a man of heroic action, for whose suc-
cess we find ourselves rooting and
cheering. Devoid of political, philo-
sophical, or ideological implications,
the story is pure entertainment, an
example of colorful melodrama as
such from start to finish. The film
version is true to the type of the orig-
inal story and its Russian setting. In
adapting it to the screen, the pro-
ducer captured the sparkle and dash
of its style. Students will find it fas-
cinating to compare the film and the
book, to note the episodes that pro-
vide the basis for brilliant flashes of
cinematic melodrama, and to find an-
swers to the interesting questions in
Mrs. Patterson’s Guide.

Michael Strogoff, Courier of the Czar,
receives despatches from Alexander II
to the Grand Duke Vladimir.

THE STORY

In the year 1870 the Tartar hordes
of Siberia revolt against Russian rule.
They are led by the traitor, Ivan Og-
areff, formerly a colonel in the Rus-
sian army. The Tartars have cut the
telegraph line, leaving the forces of
the Grand Duke isolated at Irkutsk.
Military orders must be sent him by
courier. Michael Strogoff, a captain
of the Imperial Guard, is chosen to
carry the despatches under the name
of Nicholas Korpanoff, merchant. A
traitor in the palace immediately sets
a woman spy, Zangarra, to follow him.
On the train to Nijni-Novgorod, Mich-
ael finds Zangarra; Cyril Blount, a
British war correspondent; Eddie
Packer, an American correspondent;
and Nadia, a young Russian girl trav-
eling alone. Zangarra makes an ef-
fort to attract Strogoff, but he is
more interested in Nadia. At Nijni-
Novgorod Zangarra meets Ogareff at
a gypsy camp. Summarily Ogareff
sends Zangarra back with his aide,
Vassily, to take the boat to Omsk and
to get Strogoff’s papers.

At the government bureau Strogoff
finds Nadia in tears. She must get to

her father, who is ill at Omsk, but
officials have denied her a passport.
Strogoff arranges with the police to
allow his “sister” to accompany him.

On the boat Strogoff rescues Zan-
garra from a bear which has escaped
from a troupe of entertainers. Zan-
garra sends for him to come to her
cabin in order to thank him. Vassily
wants to assassinate him to get the
papers, but the woman spy hesitates
to kill the man who has just saved
her life. She will get the plans later
by strategy.

Strogoff, suspicious, slips off the
boat with Nadia at the next landing
and pioceeds by carriage. At a post-
house a traveler, Ogareff, disputes
Strogoff’s right to the only available
horses. Neither knows the identity of
the other. For the safety of his mis-
sion, Strogoff refuses to fight over
the horses — or over a cut from Ogar-
eff’s whip.

Strogoff and Nadia, continuing
their journey in a peasant cart, are
being ferried across the river near
Omsk when a Tartar band attacks
them. Strogoff, badly wounded, is
knocked overboard. Nadia is taken
prisoner. A sheepherder pulls Strogoff
unconscious from the river. When he
comes to, after several days, he starts
feverishly for Omsk.

At Omsk, now in the hands of the
Tartars, Ogareff, furious at Zangarra
and Vassily for letting Strogoff es-
cape them, orders a thorough seai’ch
of the city. Strogoff, going to an inn
to secure a horse, is joyfully recog-
nized by his mother, who lives in the
town. He denies he is her son. But
soldiers try to seize him. He escapes.
The Tartars take his mother prisoner.
His pursuers gain on Strogoff. He
burns the military plans and keeps
only the letter to the Grand Duke.
He is captured just as he is about to
reach a Russian relief army. The re-
inforcements are overwhelmed by the
Tartars in a full-scale pitched battle.

Ogareff gives Zangarra a beautiful
string of pearls, telling her she must

November, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

identify Strogoff among the prison-
ers. She denies that he is there. Ogar-
eff oiders Strogoff ’s mother to be
flogged. Strogoff, unable to witness
this sight, rushes to her defense.

Ogareff puts Zangarra on a horse.
In ten minutes his soldiers will have
orders to shoot her on sight. She de-
lays to find that Ogareff intends to
blind Michael. She gives the execu-
tioner the pearls as a bribe to feign
executing the sentence.

Thinking him blinded, Ogareff sets
Strogoff free. Zangarra overtakes him
as Nadia leads him away. She has se-
cured two horses for them. After they
have gone, she attempts to mount her
own horse, but falls, shot by Vassily.

Ogareff presents himself to the
Grand Duke at Irkutsk as Michael
Strogoff. He gives false information
as to the Tartar plans. He has ar-
ranged to ignite the oil which the
Tartars have poured on the river as
a signal for the attack. As the flames
burst forth, Nadia, separated from
Michael, arrives at the Palace and
confronts Ogareff. He is about to kill
her when Strogoff leaps upon him,
and, after a frantic fight, kills him.
Strogoff establishes his identity for
the Grand Duke, leads out the army
and routs the Tartars just as their
victory over the besieged city seems
assured. He marries Nadia and is hon-
ored by the Czar.

THE PLOT

1. If you have read the book on
which the film is based, list some of
the changes luade in adapting the
story to the screen.

2. Were there any points in the plot
as filmed which you felt were not well
motivated ?

3. Do you think some explanation
should have been given as to why
Strogoff allowed Nadia to consider
him blind? We know why he told his
mother he was not blind. Should we
have been told why he told Nadia he
was blind? Did you think he was blind,
or did you think he was not blind,
when he confronted Ogareff in the
palace? Do you think the point was
left obscure in order that the audi-
ence might be surprised, with Ogar-
eff, when he sees? Was the surprise
worth the sacrifice of plot clarity?

4. In the book it was the tears which
rose in Michael’s eyes at seeing his
mother for the last time that saved
his sight by causing a protective va-
por to form between the optic nerve

and the white heat of the metal. On
the screen his sight is saved by Zan-
garia’s bribe to the executioner. Dis-
cuss this change. Which plot device
do you think is the stronger? Which
the more cinematic?

5. Jules Verne did not have Strog-
off’s mother die when her son is
blinded. Can you assign any reason
for the change that is made in the
film version? Has her death dramatic
or emotional value ? Or does it, per-
haps, simplify the plot? Would you
prefer to have her live?

6. In the book it was Nadia whom
Michael rescued from the bear, and
the background was the Ural Moun-
tains, not the boat. Can you see good
plot reasons for these changes?

THE CHARACTER VALUES

1. What qualities in the character
of Michael Strogoff do you especially
admire ?

2. Can you name scenes in which
he best displays these qualities?

3. Would you say that this is a
story which shows growth of charac-
ter, or the testing of virtues already
possessed?

4. Does Nadia change in any way,
either for better or for worse?

5. Would you say that Nadia re-
mains as steadfastly good throughout
the story as Ogareff remains stead-
fastly evil?

6. Does the character of Zangarra
improve or deteriorate?

7. Can you name three motives
which might explain Zangarra’s con-
duct in shielding Strogoff?

8. What elements in the scene
where Ogareff strikes Strogoff with
the whip convince you that Strogoff
is no coward? What pictorial means
explain away his seeming cowardice?

9. What qualities did Strogoff show
in his relation to his mother?

THE CAST

1. If possible, read the description
of Michael Strogoff given by Jules
Verne at the beginning of Chapter
III. Does Anton Walbrook fit this de-
scription? If you cannot, or have not,
read the book, do you consider Wal-
brook a good choice for what, in your
opinion, a courier should be?

2. Do you consider that an actor
speaking broken English creates the

Can you name these two characters?
For whom does the one on the left
mean death?

What property in this scene influ-
ences Strogoff in his determination
not to quarrel?

What is the effect of the answer
of Strogoff's mother on Ogareff?
On Zangarra?

illusion of a foreigner? Actually if
the story were taking place in Russia,
all of the characters would be speak-
ing Russian.

3. What qualities did Fay Bainter
bring to the delineation of Strogoff’s
mother? Have you seen her in other
characterizations ?

4. Are the roles of Eric Blore and
Eddie Brophy always comic? Can you

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

What does this close-up accomplish
that could not be accomplished in a
medium shot?

What does this character — in real
life once a Russian wrestler — do to
advance the plot?

J N. Ermolieff, who created this film
in English, French, and Spanish,
chats with Elizabeth Allan.

name any other picture in which they
appear ?

5. Which of the so-called character
actors would you consider most effec-
tive? Would you say that the casting
of Akim Tamiroff added strength and
realism to the film ?

6. Are there any other screen per-
sonalities that you would have pre-
ferred to see playing the parts in this
film?

THE HISTORY

1. Can you give any facts about
Czar Alexander II for whom Michael
Strogoff carried his despatches?

2. Can you tell anything about af-

fairs in the other countries at the time
when the events in the picture were
taking place ? In France ? In Ger-
many ?

d. Who was President of the United
States ?

4. To what flag do the Tartars hold
allegiance today?

THE GEOGRAPHY

1. Are you clear about the relative
positions of Russia, Siberia, Tartary,
and Turkestan? If possible, read
Chapter II of the book “Russians and
Tartars.”

2. What mountain range did Mich-
ael Strogoff cross in going from Rus-
sia in Europe to Siberia? Do you
remember what Verne says the name
signifies? If possible, read Chapter X.

3. In 1870, when the action of the
story takes place, one travelled to Si-
beria by post-chaise. How does one
get there today?

4. Did the picture arouse in you
any desire to travel in these lands?

THE VOCABULARY

1. Were there any words in the dia-
logue of the photoplay which were
new to you?

2. Can you define emir, ruble, ko-
peck, vodka, verst, samovar, steppes?

THE PLAYERS

Michael Strogoff Anton Walbrook

Ogareff Akim Tamiroff

Zangarra Margot Grahame

Nadia Elizabeth Allan

Strogoff ’s Mother Fay Bainter

Cyril Blount Eric Blore

Vassily Paul Guilfoyle

Czar Alexander II Paul Harvey

Grand Duke Vladimir.... William Stack

Eddie Packer Edward Brophy

Innkeeper Michael Visaroff

THE CREDITS

Author Jules Verne

Producer Pandro Berman

Associate Producer J. N. Ermolieff

Director George Nicholls, Jr.

Cinematographer Joseph August

Producing Company RKO Radio

Additional copies of
this study guide, 5c a
copy or 25 for $1.00

Films For Teaching
English Composition

“I recently tried with success the
experiment of teacning composition in
a ninth-grade class with the aid of
one-reel motion pictures. I stressed
classroom work and minimized home-
work. I used movies that enabled me
to emphasize the life-career motive
thioughout the term of tnree months.
The pupils studied every film from
occupational angles. Their object was
to gain vocational information and
to point out the requirements, the ad-
vantages, and the disadvantages of
many occupations. The pictures were
mainly industrial, geographical, and
scientific. Some of them were not so
good, but generally they were valu-
able in showing men and women at
work, often in interesting settings
thioughout the working world.

“What the experiment demonstrated
forcefully to me was that a one-reel
picture requiring fifteen minutes for
projection and allowing fifteen min-
utes for preparation and fifteen min-
utes for immediate reaction, greatly
enhanced the interest of the children
in their composition work. So well ap-
preciated were these films by the boys
and girls in the class that they worked
with unflagging enthusiasm through-
out the term. Their problem was no
longer to go home and ponder how
to fill up a page of composition pa-
per on the topic assigned, but rather
how to say in a fifteen-minute theme
all they would like to say on the sub-
ject. For films frequently gave them
so much vicarious experience that they
had many ideas to express. At the
end of the term all agreed that the
one-reel picture told them more in
fifteen minutes than anything they
could have heard or read in the same
space of time. Added to the advant-
age of the speed with which the films
imparted information was frequently
the advantage of dramatic suspense —
the interest of a story. Then, indeed,
was the film ideal from the child’s
point of view.”

Does this read like something
new? It is an excerpt from an
article by the publisher of the
present GUIDE, which appeared
in Edvcational Screen in Decem-
ber, 1927. We’ll be glad to get
your reactions to these ideas of
eighteen years ago.

November, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A GUIDE TO THE SCREEN VERSION OF THE WONDERFUL ADVENTURES OF

PINOCCHIO

Walt Disney* s Technicolor Cartoon Fantasy

PREPARED AT NEW HAVEN STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE, UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF DOROTHY McCUSKEY

THE WONDERFUL ADVENTURES OF
PINOCCHIO. Cartoon production by Walt
Disney. RKO Radio. Highly recommended
for all ages.

Pinocchio, (pin-oke-io), the story of
the mischievous marionette who l)e-
came a boy, has been a folklore clas-
sic of Italian literature for hundreds
of years. In the 1890’s Carlo Lorenzini,
under the pen name of C. Collodi,
wrote the story in a version illustrated
by Attilio Massino, who gave the
wooden boy the physical form we have
come to associate with Pinocchio.

When Walt Disney and his staff be-
gan to plan their treatment of the
legend, two chief problems faced them.
One was the physical form of Pin-
occhio himself, and the other was how
they would adapt the story. The an-
swers to these problems had to be not
in terms of readers, but of “see-ers,”
for the animated cartoon is primarily
visual.

There were two schools of thought
in the studio, one favoring the gro-
tesque type of character and the other
leaning toward roundness and cute-
ness. Pinocchio staited out with a
long nose, a peaked cap, ungloved
hands, and dwarf shoes. Then he ac-
quired regular shoes; lines became
bolder, and details simpler. The shoe-
string necktie became a big round one,
and the hat evolved to one like a
child’s. Finally the new round Pinoc-
chio appeared with button nose, bulgy
cheeks, big eyes, large ears, four-fin-
gered, gloved hands, Tyrolean hat
(very jaunty) — a lovable marionette
ready to become a real boy.

The story underwent similar
changes. Unnecessary characters dis-
appeared, and incidents kept were
chosen because they had possibilities
of humor and because they would ani-
mate well. Characters became individ-
ualized, like the Fox, who is now J.
Worthington Foulfellow, alias “Honest
John.” The Cricket, too, who spent
much of his time as a mere voice in
the original, now emerges as Jiminy
Cricket, the “Official Conscience.”

Geppetto joins our gallery of
favorite charocters.

Pinocchio has emerged from the chil-
dren’s classes and the juvenile book
where he has hidden for many years,
and now proves his universal appeal.

HOW WALT DISNEY'S
PINOCCHIO WAS MADE

Can you imagine how many draw-
ings two million are ? That’s how
many individual drawings went into
the making of the final 300,000 draw-
ings that appear on the screen in
Walt Disney’s “Wonderful Adventures
of Pinocchio.” What we see as a flash
on the screen is really a foot of film
made from sixteen drawings. The
story of the making of a Disney fea-
ture film is thus one of infinite pa-
tience and amazing technical knowl-
edge and skill.

When “The Wonderful Adventures
of Pinocchio” was chosen as the next
feature-length Disney production, the
story crew went into action and, after
months of conferences, a rough script
was prepared. Adapters broke it down
into sequences, animators made figure
drawings illustrating the story from
beginning to end, and dialogue was
prepared. Then the sequences were di-
vided up among five directors who
made a rough timing of the picture,
and began to work with the musical
director about what kind of music

was suitable for each part. Then the
scenic artists began to work, and the
dialogue was recorded. Walt Disney
and the director went over all steps
of the work, and finally it was put
together on one big time-chart.

Meanwhile, the character men were
busy. They drew and consulted, drew
and consulted, until finally even the
goldfish and sea-horses had person-
ality. Figaro, the cat, held up the pro-
duction a while. First, he was just a
plain garden variety of cat, and then
one day an animator produced the
lovely, fluffy kitten that everybody
knew was just right. Monstro the
Whale was quite a problem for the
animators, too, because nothing so
large had ever been used. His size
was finally emphasized by very care-
ful perspective. He was drawn to the
scale of a three-story building and
everything else was in proportion.
Did you notice Jiminy Cricket on the
whale’s eyelash?

To help the animators, there is also
the model department which makes
real, working models of all the prop-
erties drawn by the artists. They made
the toys in Geppetto’s shop, and a
tiny coach complete with lights. More
than that, they ran it over a road
with bumps (made of sponges) so that
they could see just how it rocked over
bumps. The model department made
a miniature whale skeleton five feet
long that the artists could twist and
turn, and even fashioned a rib cage
and lungs that could be pumped to
look as if the whale were really
breathing.

When the backgrounds are finished,
the music, dialogue, and sound effects
recorded; then the animator is ready
to begin drawing the sequences of ac-
tion. The cutting department prepares
for him a chart which shows, in terms
of a single frame of film, the length
of each word, the intervals between
words, the vowel and consonant
sounds, accents, inhalations, and ex-
halations. The animator draws from
this pattern. If the character says
“hello,” and the cutting department

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

S<^romboli has moss and bulk, a
requisite of figure drawing.

fr-

it's interesting to personalize animals.

See the dynamic line direction of the
arms os opposed by the legs.

has said that this word, recorded,
takes eight frames of film, then the
animator must produce eight drawings
in which the lips of the character
move to form the word, plus what-
ever bodily actions have been decided
upon by the animator, the director,
or Walt Disney himself. General sound
effects are charted the same way.

The animators work on illuminated
drawing boards, so that after one
drawing is completed, another sheet
can be placed on top and the new
drawing be varied just enough to
make the action smooth and natural-
looking. Experienced animators draw
the difficult and important pieces of
action, their assistants follow this
action, and finally, less experienced
artists, called “inbetweeners,” do the
finely-graded changes completing the
action. As soon as a series of draw-
ings is completed, it is photographed
and returned to the animator who
runs ic on his own little projection
machine to see if the action is smooth.
This rough test must then be ap-
proved by the director and the pro-
duction supervisor.

When the drawings are approved,
they are sent to the inking and paint-
ing department. Here the drawings
are first transferred to sheets of trans-
parent celluloid and inked so skillfully
that they lose none of the charm of
!ie originals. Next, paint is applied
to the reverse side. Color for each bit
of the picture has previously been
chosen from the 2,000 colors and
shades of paint specially ground and
mixed in the studio paint factory.

After the celluloids are fimshed,
they are sent to the camera depart-
ment, where each is placed over the
proper background and photographed.
Here again, many technical improve-
ments have been made. A new $75,000
multiplane camera is now used that
photographs simultaneously the char-
acter and a background placed at a
distance from it. Instead of being ver-
tical, as former ones were, this cam-
era is arranged on a crane so that it
can be run into a scene or away from
it. The backgrounds that can be used
with this camera are twice as large as
the previous ones. (Very handy when
working with whales.) The operation
of the camera is quite complex, re-
quiring a detailed control sheet and
a special periscope finder with which
the operator can check before taking
the picture. The camera is said to add
both depth and vitality to the picture,

MUSICAL ELEMENTS

Six songs, each furthering the plot
in Disney’s reconstruction of the story,
feature the musical treatment of “The
WondeiTul Adventures of Pinocchio.”
The following synopsis indicates how
the six songs are introduced and pro-
vides a basis for discussion of the in-
terweaving of song and story.

SYNOPSIS OF THE SCREEN VERSION

The picture opens with little Jiminy
Cricket singing a melodious ballad,
“When You Wish Upon a Star.” As
Jiminy completes his song, he offers
to give the audience an example of a
wish come true, which leads into the
actual story of Pinocchio’s wonderful
adventures.

The story concerns a kindly old
woodcarver who creates a particularly
engaging puppet, which he names Pin-
occhio. As he finishes painting a face
on Pinocchio, he tries out the mari-
onette to see how successful it is. He
winds up his music boxes and, to the
tinkling tunes, he manipulates Pin-
occhio’s strings so that the latter does
a dance, as Geppetto sings a quaint
song, “Little Woodenhead.” Another
song in this sequence is “Turn on the
Old Music Box.”

That night, the Blue Fairy gives
Pinocchio life because Geppetto, who
always wanted a son, has brought so
much happiness to others. Jiminy
Cricket, a little vagabond, becomes in-
volved in the situation to the extent
that the fairy dubs him Pinocchio’s
conscience. Jiminy sings the lively
song, “Give a Little Whistle,” in which
he tells Pinocchio that the puppet
should always whistle for the Con-
science when getting into trouble.

Geppetto sends Pinocchio to school,
but a Fox and a Cat, a pair of slick
villains, spirit him away to the rollick-
ing tune of “Hi-diddle-dee-dee, an Ac-
tor’s Life for Me,” selling him to
Stromboli, an unscrupulous puppet
master. In the puppet show the little
marionette sings a spirited song, “Got
No Strings.”

The picture ends on a joyous note,
with Jiminy reprising the song, “When
You Wish Upon a Star,” for the Blue
Fairy has made Pinocchio a real boy
because he has proven himself worthy
of the honor by almost losing his life
to rescue Geppetto from the villainous
Monstro the Whale.

November, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

“The Wonderful Adventures of Pin-
occhio” offers manifold possibilities
for the introduction of integrated
projects involving many elementary
and secondary subjects. There come to
mind at once oral and written com-
position in many forms, spelling, study
of other lands, drawing, and hand-
work. There are excellent possibilities
for general science, and the material
for discussions of good and bad con-
duct is unparalleled. The motion pic-
ture as an art form should not be
neglected, of course. The following
questions and suggested activities are
merely indications of many possible
classroom uses of the film.

1. What is the special province of
the animated cartoon? That is,
what effects can be obtained here
that cannot be achieved in any
other type of film?

2. How does Walt Disney make you
laugh? Is it the way the charac-
ters look? Or what they say? Or
what they do? Does the music
contribute to the humorous effect?
How?

3. Is the film notable for being like
real life, or for the way in which
it is different from things as they
are ? What type of story does it
present?

4. Does Disney use distortion of line
and sound as much here as he does
in the short films?

5. Can you find a difference in the
use of color in Pinocchio and in
the shorts ?

6. Is the tempo of the film fast or
slow? What sets the tempo?

7. In what ways does the music con-
tribute to your enjoyment or un-
derstanding of the film? What
different kinds of music does Dis-
ney use?

8. Are the songs particularly appro-
priate to the people who sing
them ?

9. Does the plot run smoothly?

10. Does each character stand for
something in particular? If so,

what? Is he consistent all the way
through ?

11. If you have read any of the trans-
lations of Collodi’s version of the
Pinocchio story, try to answer
these questions:

a. What characters did Disney
leave out of the Collodi story?
What did he add ?

b. Can you find reasons for his
leaving them out, or adding
others ?

c. What effect does this have on
the story?

d. How is the treatment of the
cricket different in the Collodi
and in the Disney versions?

e. How has Disney changed the
character of Pinocchio ?

12. Why does Pinocchio need a special
conscience ?

13. Why is Jiminy Cricket doubtful if
Pinocchio needs a conscience when
he is a success among the pup-
pets ?

14. Why were the little boys turned
into donkeys?

15. How did Pinocchio finally get to
be a real boy?

The following references contain
useful information and pictures:

Time, January 10, 1938; Science
News Letter, May 14, 1938; New York
Herald Tribune, October 1, 1939; New
York Times Magazine Section, Octo-
ber 1, 1939; St. Nicholas, April, 1939;
Good Housekeeping, October and No-
vember, 1939; Coronet, November,
1939; Scholastic, December 18, 1939;
AVilson Library Bulletin, December,
1939; Life, December 25, 1939; Look,
December 19, 1939; Hollywood, Janu-
ary, 1940; McCall’s, January, 1940;
Popular Mechanics Magazine, Janu-
ary, 1940 and May, 1938; Screen Ro-
mances, January, 1940; Better Homes
and Gardens, January, 1940; A Short
History of Animation: The Cartoon,
The Museum of Modern Art Library;
Photoplay, January, 1940; School
Arts, January, 1939; Edgar Dale,
How To Appreciate Motion Pictures,
pp. 54-56; Screen Guide, January,
1940; Silver Screen, January, 1940;
Movie Life, January, 1940.

Additional copies of this Quide, 5c a copy or
25 for $1. Address Educational & Recreational
Quides, 172 Renner Avenue, Newark 8, N. J.

How dees Jiminy Cricket act os
Pinocchio's conscience?

How did the animator get the
glamor-girl effect?

Children like to draw animals. Give
them plenty of opportunity to leorn.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

A Guide to the Classroom Utilization of the 16MM
Documentary Film on Alaska

SEWARD'S FOLLY

BY HOWARD E. THOMPSON
Consultant' in Projection, Mount Airy, Maryland.

SEWARD'S FOLLY. Documentary film
on Alaska. Produced by Charles Diltz.
Distributed in 16mm sound, black and
white, by Nu-Art Films, Inc., 145 West
45th St., New York 19, N. Y. Running
time, 12 minutes. Recommended for ele-
mentary and secondary schools.

Documentary films may serve
both as introductions and as
summaries. Background infor-
mation is necessary before pre-
senting such a film as this. To
help the teacher ( 1 ) develop that
background and (2) stimulate a
desire for research and follow-
up reading are the purposes of
the guide.

This reel pictures the re-
sources and wealth of Alaska,
disproving the charge that Wil-
liam Henry Seward (1801-72)
had committed a “folly” when,
as U. S. Secretary of State
(1861-69), he purchased Alaska
from Russia for .$7,200,000 for
the United States Government.

In grades 4 to 6, Seivco'd's
FoUi/ may be used to vitalize the
study of Eskimo life and ani-
mal life in the North.

In grades 7 and 8, Setrard's
Folly will correlate with units in
geography and history.

In the high school, Setrard’s
Folly will clarify the importance
of Alaska in U. S. History. It
will also prove valuable in biol-
ogy classes. In English classes,
it can serve as the basis of exer-
cises in composition.

BEFORE PRESENTING THE FILM

A. The alert teacher will
arouse interest by announcing
that the film on Alaska is to be
shown and asking the children

themselves to suggest what may
be expected in a film on Alaska.
Children enjoy selecting and list-
ing topics they would like to
study. Encourage them to de-
velop their ideas into illustrated
scrapbooks which may be later
turned over to the school library.
Include an analysis of the im-
portance of Alaska in the pres-
ent air age, especially in the high
school.

B. For older groups of stu-
dents post lists of magazine arti-
cles on Alaska ; for example.
Click, .January 1945 — “Alaskan
Opportunity”: Life, October 18,
1943 — “Alaska Highway.” Bring
to the classroom also a number
of books on Alaska, such as
Gitide to Alaska — Last Ameri-
can Frontier (Federal Writers’
Project, The Macmillan Co,,
1939) . Keep the books on display
until the film is reviewed.

C. Have the class secretary
write to Department of Interior,
Washington, I). C., for a copy of
the booklet The Alaska. Railroad,
with schedules and tours of
Alaska.

AFTER PRESENTING THE FILM

A. Discuss the icebergs which
the children have seen. Assign
research questions: 1. How are
icebergs formed? 2. What por-
tion of an iceberg is under
water? 3. Do icebergs cause fog?
4. Why are icebergs such a haz-
ard to navigation? 5. Tell about
the Titanic disaster. (Answers
may be found in various chil-
dren’s encyclopedias.)

B. Discuss mining. Assign re-

search questions: 1. What are
the small round pebbles of gold
called? 2. What is the current
price of gold? 3. Where is most
of the gold in the world now
stored? 4. When was gold dis-
covered in Alaska? 5. Relate the
circumstances.

C. Discuss the scenes of scd-
mon jumping over the falls on
the way to their spawning
grounds. Research questions to
be assigned: 1. In what season
do salmon spawn? 2. What is
meant by “spawning”? 3. How
many eggs does a salmon lay?
4. Are salmon caught before or
after spawning? Explain. 5.
How are salmon caught? 6.
What is the value of the yearly
salmon catch? How does this
amount compare with the cost of
Alaska? 8. How high can salmon
jump? 9. What gives the salmon
power for the high jump? 10.
What are the food values of sal-
mon?

D. Discuss the scene of the
train puffing through the hill-
side forest. Short though the
scene is, it may be utilized to en-
courage a pupil to look up the
story of the Alaska Railroad.

E. Discuss the scene of the
native dance, which gives a good
view of Eskimo costume. It may
serve to motivate research and
analysis of the effect of the
white man’s coming on the liv-
ing conditions of the Eskimos.

F. Discuss the scenes along
the Yukon River. Research ques-
tions to be assigned: 1. During
which season are the rivers of

November, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Alaska most turbulent? Why? 2.
To what depth are they frozen
in winter? 3. During what sea-
son are they of most use to man ?

4. Into what bodies of water do
they empty? 5. Unscramble these
ten misspelled names of rivers :
aedme, knaota, loilevlc, okkub,
oyokkku, kuncy, wuskikokm, at-
naan, niprepoue, precpo. (Key:
Meade, Noatak, Colville, Kobuk,
Koykuk, Yukon, Kuskokwim,
Tanana, Porcupine, Copper.)

G. Discuss the animals shown
in the reel (reindeer, bear, cari-
bou. moose, seals). Dictate this

true-false test; then discuss the
results of the test: 1. (T) Young
bears are called cubs. 2. (F)
Reindeer hibernate in the win-
ter. 3. (T) A bull moose has
broad flat antlers. 4. (T) Bear
cubs can catch fish with their
paws. 5. (F) Venison is the flesh
of seals. 6. (T) The skin of seals
is used for clothing.

BRIEF OBJECTIVE TEST OF GENERAL
INFORMATION ON ALASKA

1. Alaska is in the northwestern
part of (2)

(1) United States (2) North
America (3) Canada

2. Alaska’s most profitable in-
dustry is (3)

(1) mining (2) lumbering (3)
fishing (4) agriculture

3. A glacier is a (3)

(1) highway (2) fjord (3) river
of ice (4) strait

4. Inside Passage is (3)

(1) highway (2) railroad (3)
waterway

5. Point Barrow is 62 degrees
north (1)

(1) latitude (2) longitude

6. Japan current is (1)

(1) an ocean stream (2) a river
(3) electric power

7. Mention the title of a book
about Alaska.

Cultural Week-End at the Waldorf

BY FLORA RHETA SCHREIBER

In this age of crucial confer-
ence on the diplomatic front it
is heartening to find the cultural
front conferring, too. Under
the auspices of the Independent
Citizens’ Committee of the Arts,
Sciences, and Professions, a
series of meetings was held June
22-23 at the Waldorf in New
York.

There were sessions on science and
technology, national health and wel-
fare, new perspectives in education,
writing and publishing, architecture
and design, art, commercial art, ad-
vertising and public relations. Lillian
Heilman, the playwright; Margaret
Webster, the producer; Walter Greaza,
Asst. Exec. Sec. of Actors Equity;
and Abram Hill, director of the Ameri-
can Negro Theatre, spoke for the
theatre. Marc Connelly, the writer,
John Grierson of the Canadian Film
Board, and Bosley Crowther of the
New York Times took up the cudgels
for films. Radio’s spokesmen were
William S. Gailmor, the commenta-
tor; Paul Porter, the new chairman

of the FCC; Robert Sweazy, Vice-Pres.
of the Mutual Broadcasting System;
George Heller, Exec. Sec. of AFRA;
Peter Lyon, Pres, of the Radio
Writers’ Guild; Anton M. Leader,
Vice-Pres. of the Radio Directors’
Guild; and Gilbert Seldes, Director
of CBS Television Programming.

Discussing television’s role in
creating jobs, Mr. Seldes said:

“If television lives up to one-tenth
of its promises, there will be careers
in plenty, not to mention jobs. Basi-
cally, the number of people engaged
in creating television will be deter-
mined by the number of people who
want to see television. This means
two things: good programs, good
seeing. Seeing television must be-
come as simple and pleasurable as
listening to radio before television
fulfills its possibilities, both as en-
tertainment and as a social force.
In the very high frequencies, far
above the range of pre-war television,
there can be many more stations,
each delivering perfectly a picture
so pleasing to the eye that it can
carry all kinds of programs. The

fact that color is capturing the movie
screen and the advertising page makes
it imperative that television shall be
launched in color.’’

Highlights of the radio panel
were the discussion of the Nor-
man Corwin proposal for an
Academy of Radio Arts and
Sciences ; the cry for increased
attention to regional broadcast-
ing; the concern regarding the
struggle for control of the FM
stations, the radio director’s
battle for full recognition, the
radio writer’s fight against
anonymity, the limitations of
the Crossley and Hooper ratings,
the social responsibilty of I’adio,
the employment promise of
television.

An interested audience heckled
insistently. Although the an-
swers to many questions belong
to the future, their ventilation at
the Waldorf was helpful.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

Readings in Photoplay Appreciation

Introducing ^^The Screen Writer^^

A new monthly magazine of
special interest to all teachers
and students of English, includ-
ing dramatics, speech, literature,
and composition, as well as ad-
visers of photoplay clubs, made
its appearance in June. 1945.
This is The Screen Writer, pub-
lished by the Screen Writers
Guild, with Dalton Trumbo
(scenarist of Our Vines Have
Tender Grapes) as editor. The
Guild includes all the Hollywood
scriptwriters, great and small.
The organization has 1275 mem-
bers of whom 360 were employed
in the eight major studios as of
June 15, 1945. Of these, only 171
were on term contracts. Some
275 of the Hollywood writei’s
have been in the armed services.

Hollywood’s writers are a
hard-working lot, and a major-
ity of them earn less than $200
a week. Of 649 active members
in 1944-45, only 54, or 8 percent,
received $1000 a week or more;
only 269, or about 40 percent, re-
ceived between $200 and $900 a
week. Although the salaries of
the few elite writers give the im-
pression that all Hollywood writ-
ers earn fabulous salaries, the
fact is that the median salary
for writers is $150 a week. The
Guild is today an articulate
group, keenly aware of Holly-
wood’s shortcomings and poten-
tialities. Compelled to please the
world rather than themselves,
they often fasten their hands
upon their hearts.

We reprint here excerpts from
the first two issues of The
Screen Writer. If these interest
you, you may wish to enter a
subscription to the new maga-

zine. The price is $2.50 a year;
the address, 1655 N. Cherokee
Ave., Hollywood 28.

In the first issue, Theodore
Strauss, former New York
Times movie critic, now a Holly-
wood scenarist, discusses his for-
mer fellow-reviewers in New
York. He says:

Because most writers feel that the
reviewers are neither informed nor
consistent in their standards of ap-
praisal, they have perforce come to
look for support and guidance from
the box office alone. As a result, an
ever-widening schism has opened be-
tween the reviewers and the one body
of film craftsmen in Hollywood which
at present is most intent on raising
the level of films to a maturity com-
mensurate with the greatest respon-
sibilities any art has ever faced.

At present the New York critical
fraternity might reasonably be di-
vided into the low, middle, and high-
brow elements, with the tabloids and
Hearst press at the bottom of the
scale, the reviewers of the major dail-
ies in the center, and the gentlemen
of the New Republic, The Nation,
Time, and The New Yorker in the lat-
ter category. Among them they reach
a metropolitan and outlying audience
exceeding ten million readers and to
an undetermined degree influence re-
viewing elsewhere about the country.
And like the vast range of their read-
ing public’s tastes, the reviewers run
the gamut from the sob-sister effu-
sions of the tabloids, hardly less star-
struck than the fan magazines, to
the pontifical and frequently absurd
musings of the longhairs.

The reviewer commanding by far-
the largest single audience in America
is the News’s Kate Cameron. . . Miss
Camer-on’s reviews are not far above
the level of advice-to-the-lovelorn col-
umns.

Like Miss Cameron, the reviewers of
the Mirror and .Journal-American,
both Hearst papers, keep their essays

on a level with the lowest common de-
nominator of Hollywood films. Of nec-
essity they follow the patterns of Mr.
Hearst’s ideas on journalism. For the
most part their reviews are little more
than brief synopses. . .

Reviewing at these levels is hardly
reviewing at all, but at least as deadly
to healthy film criticism are the solil-
oquies of Messrs. James Agee and
Manny Farber. While the tabloid and
Hearst reviewers over-simplify, these
two gentlemen consistently over-com-
plicate. . . Mr. Farber of the New Re-
public has at least one advantage over
his colleague — he has moments of
lucidity.

* sjs *

Mr. Agee, reviewer for The Nation
and more tempered as anonymous
pundit for Time, has acquired note as
the first critic to combine the Aris-
totelian precepts with Euclidian ge-
ometry to arrive at a method of judg-
ment. In a recent and, we hope, con-
tinuing exchange with The New
Yorker, Mr. Agee has defended his
right to review shows without seeing
them.

As for Mr. Walcott Gibbs, the New
Yorker’s reluctant film reviewer whom
we meanly include among the long-
hairs, he hardly aspires to review
films at all. He merely tolerates them
with as much forbearance as he can
muster.

* * ^

Of all the reviewers functioning in
New York today, Bosley Crowther of
the Times is probably the most bal-
anced, the most consistent, the most
penetrating. Although he writes in the
didactic, unexciting tones of a New
England schoolmaster, he approaches
his task of evaluating films with seri-
ousness and conscience.

It is curious that although England,
France, the Soviet Union and pre-
Nazi Gel many produced a consider-
able body of critical essays on films
at all levels, America — the country
where movies were invented — has yet
produced no similar literature to an

November, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

equal extent. Lewis Jacobs and Terry
Rainsaye, these have been primarily
historians. Leo Rosten wrote a book
which could have established closely
the integial relation of Hollywood to
the United States; instead he con-
tented himself with emphasizing its
special characteristics, documented
with statistical tables. Actually Holly-
wood has been best understood by
such a writer of fiction as F. Scott
Fitzgerald, whose “The Last Tycoon”
was a penetrating study of the indus-
try’s internal nature. But not yet has
there been a man to write of movies
as, for example. Van Wyck Brooks
has written of New England and the
Puritan tradition. Not yet has anyone
tried to explore — it would be an enor-
mous task — the relation of Hollywood
and its product to the patterns of our
national life.

% * :{{

At present any close liaison between
the critics and Hollywood must inev-
itably establish a tie between critics
and screen writers — almost by default
of other groups. Among those who
actually make the films, the actors,
most publicized and most paid, neither
determine or greatly influence the
content of the films in which they
appear; their influence is limited to
the extent that vehicles are provided
for their talent and/or personalities,
but there it ends. The directors, still
secure in the out-dated niche which
the silent era gave them, have re-
mained the rugged individualists of
the industry. They have felt little need
to initiate group action toward estab-
lishing new patterns or standards
save as the accidents of their personal
talents allow. Today directors influ-
ence content greatly and sometimes
even more than the producers them-
selves, but it is always on the basis
of individual taste. Even those who
have done work of great stature have
remained essentially isolated figures.

The screen writers are singular in
that they alone have created a solid
core of craftsmen, closely bound, ar-
ticulate and aggressive in trying to
establish higher and more worthy pat-
terns for the industry as a whole.

One of the other articles in the
June Screen Writer, Harold
Medford’s “Report from a GI
Typewriter,’’ will interest audio-
visual educators. It deals with
the production of training films
and documentaries. What Mr.

Medford might well have made
clearer in his otherwise able ar-
ticle, however, is that in any
producing organization making
documentary and educational
films, the writer plays relatively
a much more important part
than in a Hollywood studio.
America’s leading textfilm pro-
ducing organization. Encyclo-
paedia Britannica Films, Inc.,
reports that thus far 75 percent
of its production costs have gone
into the preparation of scripts.
Fact-film scripts require a great
amount of research work. Tech-
nical production in such films is
a relatively simple matter. The
director and the actor are less
important than the writer. But
in Hollywood the good director
is the sme qua non of success-
ful production. A poor script in
the hands of a good Hollywood
director will make at least a
fairly entertaining film; a good
script in the hands of a poor di-
rector, however, will make a
poor film. No entertainment
film can rise above the imagina-
tive power of the director. On
the other hand, in the fact film,
the director is controlled by his
script. An outstanding script,
even with routine direction, will
make a satisfactory fact film;
but a poor script, no matter how
clever the director may be, will
not result in a good film.

The July issue of The Screen
Writer features an article by
Richard J. Collins on the filming
of the San Francisco Conference
of the United Nations. He states :

The Conference is filmically the
best and most widely covered single
event in history. The roving Eyeino
cameras picked up some wonderful
material on the floor. For example,
there are several shots of Stettinius
and Rockefeller on the day of the
memorable Argentina debate. Stettin-
ius sits puzzled while behind him
Rockefeller gesticulates vigorously,
explaining his position. The camera
returns to them a few moments later.

Rockefeller continues to plead his
case and finally Stettinius, still not
completely convinced, nods his head.

At least thirty cameras covered
every speech.

* ❖ ♦

The influx of Nazi film experts into
Spain will have a decided effect on
the postwar Latin-American film mar-
ket. The Nazi technicians bring not
only a reactionary political point of
view to Spanish films (which under
Franco they have always had) but
more importantly from a commercial
viewpoint, they bring great technical
facility. Whether Spain remains fas-
cist or not appears therefore to be a
legitimate matter of concern for us in
Hollywood.

Included also is an excerpt
from Frank Butler’s notable
screenplay version of the Stein-
beck story, A Medal For Benny.
The scene comprises about a
dozen shots in which is depicted
the reaction of Charlie Martin
when he finds that the local Pop-
sters have removed him from
his dilapidated home to a pre-
tentious mansion only for the
period of the festivities at which
Charlie is to receive the Con-
gressional Medal of Honor. Mr.
Butler, as co-author with Frank
Cavett of the screen play of Go-
ing My Way, was the 1945 win-
ner of the Academy award for
screen writing.

Ring Lardner, Jr., co-author
of the screenplay version of To-
morroiv the World, in “Tomor-
row a New Germany,’’ states :

Fundamentally, the pessimists in re-
gard to Germany are also pessimists
about democracy. They do not see that
the very success of the Nazis in their
educational process should give us
hope for ours, and that the more un-
sound an educational structure, the
more easily it can be toppled. Surely
we must believe that it would take
longer to Nazify a soundly-educated
American boy than it would to re-
generate the character of Emil Bruck-
ner in “Tomorrow The World!”

A direction that horror films
may take is suggested by Henry
Myers, scenarist, who believes
that the same horror world may

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

contain a Dracula and a Hitler :

If I may make a wild guess about
the nature of the postwar Weirdy, I
should say it will be about things that
really will scare us then because they
will reflect society’s deepest concerns.
What greater fear will there be than
the fear of Fascism’s return? Think
of a furtive, malevolent, underground
organization of Nazis, worshipping a
dead Hitler with pagan rites. Some-
where in the Black Forest, they plan
the day when they may return to
earth. They are ghouls who would
prey on their fellows, so there is a
horrid suggestion of cannibalism as a
ritualistic symbol, and their swastika
is a talisman of ill portent, whose
spell would drag us all back to medi-
aeval times. Over all broods the spirit
of a dead yesterday; that is, of 194.5.

Pat Uuggan, story editor for
Samuel Goldwyn Productions,
pleading for higher standards of
screen writing, says :

The motion picture production bus-
iness, spending millions yearly to cre-
ate its product, has learned over the
years to utilize fully every element
concerned with the making of a pic-
ture— except the writer. The quantity
and quality of original writing de-
veloped by this medium is shockingly
inadequate. For thirty yeai's the pic-
ture industry has been using the best
writers the world has had to offer,
yet only half-explored their talents.

❖ >it

The producer must be one who
knows and understands that strange
animal, the writer. He must have read
enough to be familiar with all styles
of writing and he must be on speak-
ing terms with the literature of all
periods.

❖ * ❖

Lack of understanding of the func-
tion of a writer has enabled us to
grow a bumper crop of the most ex-
pensive hacks in the world. With their
disappeaiance, the talented and cap-
able screen playwright will be en-
abled to assume the position in the
industry of which he is worthy.

Discussing credit arbitration,
a procedure necessitated when
several writers contribute to the
final result on the .screen, Mau-
rice Rapf, head of the Guild’s
arbitration committee, states :

RENT 16MM FILMS

SOUND AND SILENT

For Teaching, Recess
and Entertainment

Most of Our Films ore
Also For Sole

Write for Information

NU-ART FILMS, INC.

145 WEST 45, h SlREEI
NEW YORK 19, N Y

Unlike the author of a novel, short
story, or play, the screen writer is an
employee in a mass production indus-
try. His talents are contracted for
and his work is directed toward a fin-
ished product over which he has, ex-
cept in rare instances, little or no
control.

It is the producer who decides how,
when and, presumably, why a script
is ultimately ready to go before the
cameras. Before this time and fre-
quently after — even as the picture is
being made — it is this individual who
hires and fires writers to achieve
whatever objective he has in mind.

Int-er-Racial Film and
Radio Guild

Social-science teachers will be
interested in the newly organ-
ized Inter-Racial Film and Ra-
dio Guild, which is setting up a
research bureau and library at
Hollywood. The IFRG seeks to
abolish group sterotyping in
films and radio on the basis of
race, religion, or nationality ; to
include, as a counter-balance to
traditional portrayals of Ne-
groes, Indians, Chinese, and oth-
ers as servants, comics, drudges,
and “inferiors,” the casting of
these as professional, business,
and artistic figures ; to encour-
age the production of films and
radio programs giving a truer
concept of Latin- America; in
general, to stimulate world unity
through screen and radio. The
Guild has presented awards to
Bette Davis, Orson Wells, James

Wong Howe, Eddie Anderson,
Bob Burns, Pandro Berman,
Norman Corwin, Bing Crosby,
CBS, WMCA, and many other
organizations and individuals
for constructive Avork in this
field.

Postwar Audio-Visual Education

Alvin B. Roberts, principal of
H a w Creek Township High
School at Gilson, Illinois, has
made a survey of audio-visual
problems which has been pub-
lished in Educational Screen.
Mr. Gilson considers the “lease-
to-sale” plan adopted by Ency-
clopaedia Britannica Films, Inc.,
of great aid in encouraging
schools or groups of schools to
have their own film libraries.
He also considers the EBF Cor-
relation Service Department of
great help to schools in correlat-
ing films with the curriculum.
“Teacher training,” he says,
“has been and still is the major
problem that must be worked
out before any great progress
can be made.” In this connection
he praises the University of Chi-
cago’s Center for the Study of
Audio-Visual Instructional Ma-
terials, which is being developed
by Stephen M. Corey. It may well
be asked whether teacher train-
ing is the major problem of
audio-visual education. There
are some authorities who believe
that textfilms, like textbooks,
will be properly utilized as soon
as such films become more gen-
erally available. The basic prob-
lem, perhaps, is production of
good films in generous quanti-
ties. When EBF has moved the
decimal point of its production
schedule, the utilization problem
and the problem of democratiz-
ing the distribution of projec-
tion equipment will more readily
be solved.

November, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Sources Of '"Free" 16mnn Films

Write to these companies and organi-
zations for descriptions of tneir free doc-
umentary, propaganda, industrial, and in-
formational films. In most instances you
will be expected to pay transportation
charges; in some cases, a small service
charge. For a directory of leading sources
of regular educational and recreational
films, 16mm sound and silent, see the
inside of the front cover of this GUIDE.
Catalogs of free films may be purchased
from Educators Progress Service, Ran-
dolph, Wis., and from H. W. Wilson Co.,
950 University Ave., New York 52. The
latter publishes an annotated list of 3540
educational films, including the best free
films.

Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., Hart-
ford, Conn.

Alexander Smith & Sons Carpet Co.,
595 Fifth Ave., New York 20, N. Y.
Motion Picture Dept., Aluminum Co.,
of Amer., 801 Gulf Bldg., Pittsburgh
19, Pa.

Amer. Can Co., 230 Park Ave., New
York 17, N. Y.

Amer. Cancer Society, 350 Madison
Ave., New York 17, N. Y.

Amer. Dental Assn., 212 E. Superior
St., Chicago, 111.

Amer. Humane Assn., 135 Washington
Ave., Albany 6, N. Y.

Amer. Institute of Baking, 10 Rocke-
feller Plaza, New York 20, N. Y.
Amer. Institute of Steel Construction,
101 Park Ave., New York, N. Y.
Amer. Iron & Steel Institute, 350
Fifth Ave., New York 17, N. Y.
Amer. League of Professional Base-
ball, 310 S. Michigan Bldg., Chi-
cago, 111.

Amer. Museum of Natural History,
77th St. and Central Park W., New
York 24, N. Y.

Amer. Potash Institute, 1155 16th St.,
N.W., Washington, D. C.

Amer. Red Cross, 19 E. 47th St., New
York 20, N. Y.

Amer. Social Hygiene Assn., 1790
Broadway, New York 19, N. Y.
Amer. Society for Metals, 7301 Euclid
Ave., Cleveland 3, Ohio
Amer. Viscose Corp., 350 Fifth Ave.,
New York 17, N. Y.

Armstrong Cork Co., 295 Fifth Ave.,
New York 17, N. Y.

Australian Information Bureau, 610
Fifth Ave., New York 20, N. Y.
Automobile Mfrs. Assn., Transpoita-
tion Bldg., Washington, D. C.

Director of Public Relations, Balti-
more & Ohio R. R., Baltimore, Md.

Bates Mfg. Co., 30 Vesey St., New
York, N. Y.

Belgian Information Center, 630 Fifth
Ave., New York 20, N. Y.

Bell Airciaft Corp., 2050 Elmwood
Ave., Buffalo, N. Y.

Bell Telephone Co., Philadelphia, Pa.

Better Homes & Gardens, Des Moines,
Iowa

Better Vision Institute, 630 Fifth Ave.,
New York 20, N. Y.

Boonton Molding Co., 122 East 42nd
St., New York 18, N. Y.

British Information Services, 30
Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20,
N. Y.

Bureau of Reclamation, Dept, of In-
terior, Washington 25, D. C.

Educational Bureau, By-Product Am-
monia, 50 W. Broad St., Columbus
15, Ohio

California-Grown Sugar Group, De
Young Bldg., San Francisco, Calif.

Canadian National Railways, 673 Fifth
Ave., New York 20, N. Y.

Castle Films, Dept. FRG, 30 Rocke-
feller Plaza, New York 20, N. Y.

Caterpillar Tractor Co., Peoria 8, 111.

Celanese Corp., 180 Madison Ave.,
New York 16, N. Y.

Chamber of Commerce, Austin, Tex.

Children’s Bureau, Dept, of Labor,
Washington, D. C.

Chinese News Service, 30 Rockefeller
Plaza, New York 20, N. Y.

Dept, of Information, Commonwealth
of the Philippines, 1617 Massachu-
setts Ave., N.W., Washington 6,
D. C.

Czechoslovak Information Service,
1790 Broadway, New York 19, N. Y.

Dairy Council of St. Louis, 4030 Chat-
eau Ave., St. Louis, Mo.

Davey Tree Expert Co., Kent, Ohio

Dept, of Conservation & Development,
Box 231, Raleigh, N. C.

Dept, of Public Health, Springfield,

111.

Douglas Fir Plywood Assn., Tacoma
Bldg., Tacoma, Wash.

DuPont de Nemours & Co., 10th &
Market Sts., Wilmington, Del.

DuPont Rayon Division, Empire State
Bldg., New York 16, N. Y.

Eberhard Faber Pencil Co., 37 Green-
point Ave., Brooklyn 22, N. Y.

Ethyl Corporation, 405 Lexington
Ave., New York 17, N. Y.

Fairchild Engine & Airplane Coi'ir.,
30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20,

N. Y.

Farm Credit Administration, Kansas
City, Mo.

Federal Housing Authority, 1201
Longfellow Bldg., Washington, D. C.

Freeport Sulphur Co., American Bank
Bldg., New Orleans, La.

French Information Service, 723 Sev-
enth Ave., New York 19, N. Y.

Friends of Denmark, Inc., 116 Broad
St., New York, N. Y.

Frosted Foods Sales Corp., 250 Park
Ave., New York 17, N. Y.

William J. Ganz Co., 40 E. 49th St.,
New York 20, N. Y.

Visual Instruction Section, General
Electric Co., 1 River Road, Schen-
ectady, N. Y.

G. E. X-Ray Corp., 2012 Jackson Blvd.,
Chicago, 111.

Public Relations Dept., General Mo-
tors Corp., 1775 Broadway, New
York 19, N. Y.

Girl Scouts, 155 E. 44th St., New
York, N. Y.

Good Housekeeping, 959 Eighth Ave.,
New York, N. Y.

Motion Picture Dept., Goodyear Tire
& Rubber Co., Akion, Ohio

Information Services, Govt, of India,
2633 Sixteenth St., N.W., Washing-
ton 9, D. C.

Graphic Section, Bureau of Mines,
4800 Forbes St., Pittsburgh 13, Pa.

Greek Office of Information, 30
Rockef elder Plaza, New York 20,

N. Y.

Gregg Publishing Co., 270 Madison
Ave., New York 16, N. Y.

Hart, Schaffner & Marx, 36 S. Frank-
lin St., Chicago, 111.

H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.

Horse and Mule Assn, of Amer., 407

S. Dearborn St., Chicago, 111.

Hydro-Electric Commission, 620 Uni-
versity Ave., Toronto 2, Ont., Can-
ada

Ideal Baby Shoe Co., Danvers, Mass.

Illuminating Engineering Society, 51
Madison Ave., New York 10, N. Y.

Institute of Life Insurance, 60 E. 42nd
St., New York, N. Y.

International Harvester Co., 180 N.
Micliigan Ave., Chicago, 111.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

Iver Johnson Sporting Goods Co., 155
Washington St., Boston, Mass.

Jam Handy Picture Service, 2900 E.
Grand Blvd., Detroit 11, Mich.

Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick,
N. J.

King Cole’s Sound Service, Dept.
FPvG, 20J E. 26th St., New York,
N. Y.

Lilly Co., Indianapolis, Ind.

Linde Air Products Co., 205 E. 42nd
St., New York, N. Y.

Lockheed Aii’craft Corp., Burbank,
Calif.

Mahogany Assn., 75 E. Wacker Drive,
Chicago 1, 111.

Mead, Johnson & Co., Evansville, Ind.

Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., 1
Madison Ave., New York, N. Y.

Milk Industry Foundation, Chrysler
Bldg., New York, N. Y.

Minnesota Valley Canning Co., Le-
Seur, Minn.

iMotion-Pictui e Service, Dept, of Ag-
riculture, Washington, D. C.

Natl. Assn, of Audubon Societies, 1775
Broadway, New York 19, N. Y.

Natl. Assn, of Mfrs., 14 W. 49th St.,
New York 20, N. Y.

Natl. Better Light Bureau, 420 Lex-
ington Ave., New York 17, N. Y.

Natl. Fertilizer Assn., Investment
Bldg., Washington 5, D. C.

Natl. Film Board of Canada, Ottawa,
Ont., Canada

Natl. File Protection Assn., 60 Bat-
terymarch St., Boston, Mass.

Natl. Foundation for Infantile Paraly-
sis, 120 Broadway, New York, N. Y.

Natl. Parks Bureau, Ottawa, Ont.,
Canada

Natl. Safety Council, 20 N. Wacker
Drive, Chicago 6, 111.

Natl. Society for the Prevention of
Blindness, 1790 Broadway, New
York 19, N. Y.

Natl. Tuberculosis Assn., 1790 Broad-
way, New York 19, N. Y.

Newark Safety Council, 24 Branford
Place, Newark, N. J.

New Mexico Tourist Bureau, Santa
Fe, New Mex.

New York Central Railroad System,
466 Lexington Ave., New York 17,

N. Y.

New Zealand Legation, 19 Observatory
Circle, N.W. Washington 8, D. C.

Office of Inter- American Affairs, 444
Ma'dison Ave., New York 22, N. Y.

Oregon-Washington-Calif. Pear Bu-
reau, 6)05 Union St., Seattle, Wash.

Owen-Illinois Glass Co., Toledo 1,
Ohio

Pan-American U n i o n, Washington,
D. C.

Pan-American World Aiiways, 135 E.
42nd St., New York 17, N. Y.

Pepperell Mfg. Co., 160 State St., Bos-
ton, Mass.

Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co., 632 Du-
quesne Way, Pittsburgh 22, Pa.

Plomb Tool Co., Box 3519 Terminal
Anne.x, Los Angeles 54, Calif.

Polish Information Center, 745 Fifth
Ave., New York 22, N. Y.

Portland Cement Assn., 33 W. Grand
Ave., Chicago, 111.

Princeton Film Center, 410 Nassau
St., Princeton, N. J.

Pullman Co., Adv. Dept., 79 E. Adams
St., Chicago, 111.

Pyrene Mfg. Co., 560 Belmont Ave.,
Newark, N. J.

Quebec Tourist Bureau, 48 Rockefeller
Plaza, New York 20, N. Y.

Ray-Bell Films, 2269 Ford Road, St.
Paul, Minn.

Republic Steel Corp., Extension Bu-
reau, Cleveland, Ohio

Douglas D. Rothacker, 729 Seventh
Ave., New York 19, N. Y.

Royal Norwegian Information Serv-
ices, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New
York 20, N. Y.

Santa Fe Railway, Adv. Dept., 80 E.
Jackson Blvd., Chicago, 111.

Savings Bank Assn, of N. Y., Movie
Div., no E. 42nd St., New York
17, N. Y.

Shell Oil Co., 50 W. 50th St., New
York 20, N. Y.

Sinclair Refining Co., 10 W. 51st St.,
New York 20, N. Y.

Social Security Board, 11 W. 42nd St.,
New York 18, N. Y.

Sound Masters, 165 W. 46th St.. New
York 19, N. Y.

South Bend Lathe Works, South Bend,
Ind.

Sperry Gyroscope, Motion Picture
Dept., Manhattan Bridge Plaza,
Brooklyn, N. Y.

Spalding & Bros., 19 Beekman St.,
New York, N. Y.

Spot Film Productions, Inc., 339 E.
48th St., New York, N. Y.

Stark Films, Howard & Centre Sts.,
Baltimore, Md.

State Board of Health, Indianapolis,
Ind.

State College of Agriculture, Cornell
LTniversity, Ithaca, N. Y.

State Conserwation Commission, Rich-
mond 19, Va.

State Conservation Dept., Broadway
Arcade Bldg., Albany 7, N. Y.

State Conservation Dept., Madison,
Wis.

State Dept, of Health, Des Moines,
Iowa

State Dept, of Health, Boston, Mass.

State Dept, of Health, Trenton, N. J.

State Dept, of Health, 152 Washing-
ton Ave., Albany 6, N. Y.

Sun Oil Co., 1608 Walnut St., Phila-
delphia, Pa.

Swift & Co., Union Stock Yards, Chi-
cago, 111.

Talon, Inc., 350 Fifth Ave., New York
17, N. Y.

Tanners’ Council of Amer., 100 Gold
St., New York, N. Y.

Tennessee Valley Authority, Informa-
tion Off., Knoxville, Tenn.

Te.xas Co., 135 E. 42nd St., New York
17, N. Y.

Thompson Products Co., Cleveland 3,
Ohio

Ti’anscontinental & Western Air, Inc.,
80 E. 42nd St., New York 17, N. Y.

United Fruit Co., Edn. Dept., Pier 3,
North River, New York, N. Y.

United Nations Information Office,
610 Fifth Ave., New York 20, N. Y.

U. S. Coast Guard, 42 Broadway, New
Yor-k 4, N. Y.

U. S. Public Health Service, Wash-
ington 14, D. C.

U. S. Rubber Co., 1230 Sixth Ave.,
New York 20, N. Y.

U. S. Secret Service, Treasury Bldg.,
Washington, D. C.

U. S. Steel Corp., 438 Severrth Ave.,
Pittsburgh 30, Pa.

U. S. Weather Bureau, Dept, of Com-
merce, Washington 25, D. C.

Venard Organization, Dept. FRG,
Peoria, 111.

Veneer Assn., 61 (i S. Michigan Ave.,
Chicago 5, 111.

Verrnorrt Mar'ble Co., 61 Main St.,
Proctor, Vt.

West Coast Sound Studios, Inc., 510
W. 57th St., New York, N. Y.

Western Electric Co., 195 Broadway,
New York, N. Y.

Westinghouse Elec. & Mfg. Co., 246 E.
Fourth St., Mansfield, Ohio

Weyerhauser Lumber Co., First Natl.
Bank Bldg., St. Paul, Minn.

Wilding Picture Sales Corp., 4925
Cadieux Rd., Detroit, Mich.

YMCA IMotion Picture Bureau, Dept.
FRG, 347 Madisoir Ave., New York
17, N. Y.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

November, 1945

16MM EXCHANGE PRACTICES

BY B. A. AUGHINBAUGH

Direcl-or, Slide & Film Exchange, Stare Department of Education, Columbus, Ohio

No. 17: Suggestions to Teachers

on How to Select Educational
Motion Pictures

This series of articles deals
primarily with the operational
practices of slide and film ex-
changes. The series is therefore
of special interest to persons, em-
ployed by schools or school
systems, whose duties pertain to
the operation of such exchanges.
The number of such persons is
rapidly increasing, but there
exists no organized presentation
of information of the nature of
these articles for the guidance
of exchange employes. The in-
formation given in these articles
has been collected during a
period of thirty-five years of
constant contact with slide-and-
film-exchange activities. The
writer served eighteen years on
the teachers’ side of that fence
which divides the teaching field
from the exchange field. He has
served nineteen years on the ex-
change side. But while his ex-
perience extends into both fields,
he has tried to stay on the ex-
change side of the fence in these
articles. At the suggestion of
the editor of the GUIDE he now
crosses the fence temporarily
and advises teachers.

What we offer in this article
must therefore be regarded
merely as the viewpoint of an
erstwhile exchange patron.

We have wasted no time in
degree wool-gathering in so-
called, but misnamed, “audio-
visual education’’ because it is
not within the realms of possi-
bility to be both the hen that

laid the egg and the egg itself.
Judging from what we know of
these special-degree courses the
neophyte swims around for so
many “fish-eats” (apologies to
that estimable treatise. The
Saber-Tooth Curriculum, pub-
lished by McGraw-Hill) and
comes out crowned with a “de-
gree” of something or other
granted by someone who knows
less about the motion picture,
its evolution, and significance,
and its place in communication
than the layman knew about the
atomic bomb the day before it
exploded. One may receive a
course in almost anything today
if he spends his money and frit-
ters away a sufficient amount
of his productive life in listening
to pure bunk. The teacher’s
salvation is through acquiring
real and usable knowledge. The
situation reminds one of a con-
dition known to travelers in the
Holy Land where the dragomen
(guides) class all sites and
sights as either “traditional” or
“authenic.” There wouldn’t be
much to see if one restricted his
a c t i V i ti e s to the “authenic”
places. We encountered one
guide who was a master of his
art and also of diplomacy, when
put on the spot about one of his
“authentic” sights. He was
showing a sword which he de-
clared to be the one with which
Balaam slew the ass. We took
exception to his statement, point-
ing out that Balaam didn’t have
a sword because the Bible states,
“and Balaam said unto the ass,
‘Because thou hast mocked me :
I would there were a sword in
mine hand, for now I would

kill thee.’ ” Confronted with
this evidence, the dragoman
quickly offered in rebuttal “Oh,
that’s all right — this is the sword
he should have had.” and im-
mediately turned to another
“interesting object.” With these
introductory remarks we step
out of “character” and cross
the “fence.”

One might expect to find se-
lecting of educational pictures
much the same as selecting text-
books. It is, and it isn’t. It is,
partly because patrons’ tastes
for given types of educational
pictures usually parallel their
tastes for textbooks. It isn’t,
because textbooks perforce must
cover a more specific area than
can be forced upon any motion
picture, and also because at pre-
sent there are fewer educational
motion pictures to choose from
than there are textbooks. To
clarify our first pronouncement,
consider a motion picture on
Rome. Such a picture relates to
the geography, history, art,
architecture, industry, civilian
activities and a multitude of
other matters concerning Rome,
whereas a book on Rome deals
ordinarily with only one, or at
most two, of the aforementioned
items. As to our assertion that
educational pictures are not
plentiful, the reader will dis-
cover for himself that there
exists, for example, one educa-
tional motion picture on the
discovery of America ; only two
portraying the founding of
American colonies. These are
not special but typical instances.
To quote from Patrick Henry’s
famous speech, “There is no

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

choice” — period. This fact de-
valuates all the criteria and
selection methods one may have
absorbed anywhere at any time.
The raw, brutal fact is that in
eighty percent of all attempts
at obtaining educational pictures
one is faced with the harsh rule
of “take it or leave it.”

In those rare cases where there
is a choice, there is little likeli-
hood that one will have the op-
portunity of seeing (previewing)
the several similar pictures be-
fore booking (reserving) them
for his use. This is because ex-
changes do not dispose of pic-
tures outright but only rent or
loan them. Time is all a rental
exchange “sells” or a free ex-
change “loans.” A patron may
not shop around until he picks
up what suits him, as he does
with books. The borrower of
motion pictures does his shop-
ping vicariously after the
m a n n e r of the patrons of
Sears Roebuck and Montgomery
Ward; that is, he catalog-shops.

If one’s city or state provides
educational pictures for its
schools, the teacher should ob-
tain the catalog of this local
exchange. It is also advisable
for those who may obtain local
service, as well as those who
can not receive such service, to
procure catalogs from the fol-
lowing sources :

(a) Educational F’ilm Catalog ($4.
Price includes Supplements).

(b) 1001 Films (75c)

Educational Screen, (54 E. Lake
Street, Chicago, 111. (75c)

Write Castle Films, .30 Rockefel-
ler Plaza, New York 20 (Free)

(d) Film and Slide Lists (Free)

U. S. Departments of Agriculture,
Interior, Buieau of Mines, Labor,
Navy, and U. S. Office of Educa-
tion, Washington, D. C.

(e) Slide and Film Exchange Cata-
logs (Free)

Universities of Arizona, Califor-
nia, Colorado, Florida, Georgia,

Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas,
Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michi-
gan, Minnesota, Missouri, Syra-
cuse, North Carolina, Ohio, Okla-
homa, Oregon, Pennsylvania Col-
lege for Women, South Dakota,
Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont,
Wisconsin.

(f) There are a number of commer-
cial concerns which issue free cat-
alogs listing films which they
rent or sell. Among them are:
American Trading Association,
723 Seventh Ave., New York
Bell and Howell Co., 1801 Larch-
mont Ave., Chicago
Bray Pictures Corp., Educational
Dept., 729 Seventh Ave., New
York

Burton Holmes Films, Inc., 7510
N. Ashland Ave., Chicago
Castle Films, RCA Bldg,, New
York

Commonwealth Pictures Corp.,

729 Seventh Ave., New York
DeVry Corporation, 1111 Armi-
tage Ave., Chicago

Edited Pictures System, Inc., 330
W. 42nd St., New York
Encyclopaedia Britannica Films,
1841 Broadway, New York
Films Incorporated, 330 W. 42nd
St., New York

Films of Commerce Co., Inc., 21
W. 46th St., New York

Ganz, William J., Co., 19 E. 47th
St., New York

Garrison Film Distiibutors, Inc.,

730 Seventh Ave., New York
General Electric Co., Visual In-
struction Section, Schenectady,

N. Y.

Gutlohn, Walter O., Inc., 35 W.
45th St., New York City
Handy, Jam, Picture Service, Inc.,
2900 E. Grand Blvd., Detroit,
Mich.

Harmon Foundation, Inc., Div. of
Visual Experiment, 140 Nassau
St., New York

Hoffberg, J. H., Co., Inc., 729 Sev-
enth Avenue, New York
Ideal Pictuies Corp., 30 E. Eighth
St., Chicago

International Film Bureau, 59 E.
Van Buren St., Chicago
Modern Talking Picture Service,
9 Rockefeller Plaza, New York
Nu-Art Films, Inc., 145 W. 45th
St., New York City
Pictorial Film Library, Inc., 130

W. 46th St., New York
Teaching Film Custodians, 25 W.
43rd St., New York
Victor Animatograph Corporation,
Film Division, 330 W. 42nd St.,
New York

Wholesome Films Service, Inc.,
48 Melrose St., Boston, Mass.
World Pictures Corp., 729 Sev-
enth Ave., New York City
Y.M.C.A. Motion Picture Bureau,
19 S. LaSalle St., Chicago, or,
347 Madison Avenue, New York
Yale University Press Film Serv-
ice, 386 Fourth Avenue, New
York

Note; See a fuller list in the back of
“1001 Films.” Catalog mentioned
above in (b).

Having obtained the catalogs,
located the subjects desired, and
discovered a choice of two or
three pictures (a rare coinci-
dence) , always select the one
made or distributed by the out-
standing firm.

In those rare cases where one
encounters two or more pictures
relating to the same topic, each
made by an outstanding pro-
ducer— and where a preview is
permitted — select the picture
which (1) best covers the sub-
ject, (2) has the best photog-
raphy, and (3) has the best
sound, if it is a sound picture.
The year when the picture was
made may give some indication
of its photographic quality, since
photography has naturally im-
proved with the years. But we
can not say that this date is a
very safe guide. Dates can be
changed. Moreover, there were
very good pictures made in past
years — witness some of the mo-
tion pictures made by Yale and
by the Society for Visual Edu-
cation, which were probably the
earliest educationals made. We
continue to buy them in Ohio
because our school patrons re-
book them year after year.

One should carefully check
sound pictures which have the
narration spoken by British com-

November, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

mentators. The ordinary Brit-
ish accent just isn’t understood
in American school rooms.

Catalogers can greatly help
their patrons by discarding the
hip-hooray style of picture des-
cription for the more prosaic
but more useful type of “blow-
by-blow” depiction. Here are
some examples of what we con-
sider reasonably satisfactory
catalog descriptions:

PERU — Animated map, sea lions, Gu-
ano Island, sacking Guano, oil regions,
cotton picking, Taita, rice harvesting
and threshing, sugar culture. Andes
Mountains, Cerro de Pasco, world fa-
mous central railway (21 switchbacks,
61 tunnels in 106 miles). Lake Moro-
choca, mining center, mine interior,
gold mining, Inca ruins, native indus-
tries, llama. Train journeying through
mountains, Araquappa, Mount Isti,
Molendo, transporting ship passengers
in chair derrick, Callac, Lima, Riman
River. 1 Reel.

YORKTOWN — The progress of the
War of Independence between January
and October, 1781; the hardships and
suffering of the American troops; the
problems confronting General Wash-
ington; the international aspect of the
campaign of 1781; the aid rendered by
the French leaders; the march of the
American Army south to Yorktown;
the arrival of the French Fleet; the
complete outwitting of Clinton and
Cornwallis; the battle of Yorktown,
and the surrender of Cornwallis. 3
Reels.

HOW NATURE PROTECTS ANI-
MALS — Landscape scene of open
country, rabbit biding by crouching,
several racoons by side of a pool, gi-
raffe in cluster of trees, tiger stalking
in tall grass, lion crouching in the
underbrush, zebra in the open, horse
and young colt, mountain goats on a
crag, mother kangaroo with baby in
pouch, spiny anteater curling up for
protection, young magpies, magpie
nest hidden in branches of tree, young
warbles in a well protected home,
woodpecker tapping a tree, bark re-
moved to show woodpecker’s nest, fe-
male woodpecker feeding young, tree
creeper and nest, removing shear
water from her nest in burrow, nest
of waterhen and cut in of young, pro-
tective coloration of young pheasants,
protective coloration of young grouse,
protective coloration of adult grouse,
protective coloration of chameleon,

caterpillar resembling a curled leaf,
protective device of hawkmoth cater-
pillar, protective device of lobster
moth caterpillar, mimicry of beehawk
moth, comparison of beehawk moth
and bee, close-up of looper caterpil-
lar, looper caterpillars imitating twigs,
landscape. 1 Reel.

We consider the following an
example of unsatisfactory cata-
log description :

THE NORTHERN LIGHTS— An op-
tical, scoptical, phantasmagoric divul-

gation of that paragon phenomenon,
the aurora borealis.

The above may be an exag-
geration, but here are some from
“real life” selected at random.
We omit the picture titles to
avoid embarrassment to our-
selves or others. Note the vague,
general statements :

(a) “The inspiring screen story of the
American family on the job of salvag-
ing for victory. Presenting the prob-

PERFECTION

—that’s the kind of projec-
tion you get with your new

DeVRY

16mm. SOUND-ON-FILM
PROJECTOR

TRUE ARTISTS know that the
"sweet singing” tone qualities of
a Stradivarius are not produced
by the musician’s skill alone...
that it is the designing genius,
the superb tvorkmanship and the
master craftsmanship of Antonio
Stradivari that makes this violin
the perfect instrument — that en-
dows it with completeness of tone
and finish never since excelled.

Like that of Antonio Stradi-
vari, DeVRY’s goal is a unit of
complete performance — a motion
picture SOUND projector ''built
from the ground up” to blend
high-frequency sound and clear-
cut imagery into a complete
oneness ot what vou see and
what you hear.

Your NEW DeVRY l6mm.
sound-on-film projector is a pre-
cision electronic device, built by Illustrated is Stradivarius "Duke of Edinburgh” (1722)

the same master craftsmen who courtesy Lyon & Healy

build 35 mm. equipment for the world’s finest theatres... the projector that is built for
years of day-in, day-out, economical, dependable, trouble-free service... the projector
that is so simple to thread, focus and maintain that a 12-year old student can operate it.

The NEW DeVRY is a 3-purpose projector that SAFELY projects BOTH sound
and silent films; (2) that shows BOTH black-and-white and color film without extra
equipment; and (3) whose separately housed 25-watt amplifier and sturdy 12-inch
electro-dynamic speaker afford portable Public Address facilities — indoors and out.

Make DeVRY your source of 16 mm. classroom films — for sale or rent.

Only 5-TIME WINNER of Army-Navy "E” for the
production of motion picture sound equipment

DeVRY CORPORATION

1111 Armitage Avenue, Chicago 14, Illinois

PJease mail me catalog of Auilio-Visual Teaching
E«iuipment. Also your new 1945 Film Catalog.

•hool_

City-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

lem with facts in a warm, human, ex-
citing dramatization.”

(b) “Suitable for classes in chemis-
try and physics from grade 11 thi'ough
college. Also for general science and
non-school use to stimulate interest in
scientific method and individual exper-
imentation. Widely acclaimed as a
magnificent instruction film. . . .”

(c) “Things are first shown as they
naturally are and then through a mag-
nifying glass. The film is mor'e of an
incentive to investigation than defi-
nitely educational in itself.”

(d) “Significant events in geologic
history peitaining to mountains and
movements of earth’s crust — anima-
tion and models.”

We must not end these sug-
gestions without warning the
teacher against placing too great
reliance on so-called picture
“evaluations.” Bear in mind
that what is one man’s food is
another’s poison and what one
rates high in value another may
rate low. “Evaluation” is large-
ly a matter of immediate person-
al reaction — we say “immediate”
since personal reactions vary,
and even reverse themselves,

from day to day. Most of this
“evaluation” has been mere
“busy-work” on the university
level. Courses in “visual edu-
cation” must be drawn out as
long as possible and “evaluation”
is a splendid time-killer. When
you begin criticizing pictures,
bear in mind that p i c t u r e-
making is so costly that produ-
cers do months of “evaluating”
before beginning work ; hence
the evaluations made by ama-
teur degree-seeking students
are mere postmortems and are
valueless from a practical stand-
point. The teacher who can not
evaluate for herself is indeed a
poor specimen of her art. So
we advise teachers to “be them-
selves” literally, and, when
judging books or motion pic-
tures, to judge them solely in
terms of how they satisfy them
individually without relation to
ready-to-wear mental folderol.

Our next topic will be : So
You Are Going To Buy A Pro-
jector.

WHAT
SHALL WE
READ
about the
MOVIES?

A Guide to the Many Books
about Motion Pictures; Their
History, Science, Industry, Art.
Future — Compiled as an Aid
to Photoplay Appreciation.

By WILLIAM LFWIN, Ph. D.

Chairman, Department of
English, Weequahic High
School, Newark, New
Jersey

25)z^ a Copy

Free With Two-Year Subscrip-
tions to "Film & Radio
Guide.”

BEHIND THE CREDITS

BY HELEN COLTON

Not long ago Variety, the
show-business trade paper, set
up a front-page howl instigated
by Eddie Cantor. The yelping
was to the effect that radio was
dying a slow but sure death by
not training new people who
could qualify to continue radio’s
tasks — it had no new generation
to carry on for it when the pre-
sent one died off.

By now, this complaint from
Variety and assorted radio big-

gies has become an annual thing.
And certainly a justified one.
But nothing ever seemed to be
done about it, beyond the lip-
service of calling attention to
this need.

Next year. Variety may be
able to change that story. If
so, it may be due, in part, to
the pioneer spirit of Station
KFI in Los Angeles which, in
cooperation with University of
California Extension, began last

January to render more than
lip-service by setting up a radio
workshop which provides train-
ing for radio aspirants.

The whole thing started with
a course in the theory of radio
at University of California Ex-
tension. When it came to giving
actual practice in radio to the
students of the course. Univer-
sity of California Extension en-
listed the aid of KFI, which
donates its facilities and the

November, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Bob Purcell and members of his University of California Extension-KFI Advanced Radio Workshop

services of one of its producers,
Bob Purcell.

In the hope that you can get
one of your local radio stations
to cooperate in such a program
and do its share in keeping its
own industry alive and well-fed
with fresh, energetic talent,
here’s the set-up of the Univer-
sity of California Extension-KFI
Advanced Radio Workshop.

Before the course started, Bob
Purcell had the applicants fill
out questionnaires in which they
were asked to state what speci-
fic things they wanted to get out
of the workshop. One girl, for
instance, had done odd jobs in
a radio station and aspired to
producing. She felt that her
weak point was timing, and so
that was the phase of radio that
interested her the most. An-
other girl was concerned only
with improving her radio acting
technique. One fellow, who had
a minor job in pictures, wanted
to study radio as a preliminary
to learning about television, his
eventual goal. His wife took the
course, too, not out of prolessioii-
al, but out of marital, interest.

She wanted to be able to discuss
her husband’s work intelligently
with him.

“I always try to get a varied
and yet a compatible group,”
Purcell says. “Anyone who
looks as though he is a sour-
puss, or might go snooty, or
temperamental, is out.

“I also like to get people with
as many different backgrounds
as possible, so we can each profit
from the other fellow’s experi-
ences and the knowledge he can
bring to us.”

Purcell’s current company of
thirty, the second one since the
plan started, runs in age from
19 to 60. Half of the group
are teachers who want to be
able to pass on what they learn
to their radio-appreciation stu-
dents ; several are college
students taking the course for
academic credits (they get two
credits for the course from Uni-
versity of California Exten-
sion) ; and several want to get
professional r a d i o, television,
and recording jobs.

Versatility is something Pur-
cell rates high on his list of

qualifications for the workshop.
For example, he feels that a
radio director ought to be able
to pinch-hit for an actor who
may be taken ill or arrive late ;
and an actor ought to know
something about the way sound-
effects are achieved.

So that it doesn’t take most
of the sessions for each member
to get to know all the other
members and their backgrounds,
Purcell hit on the wonderful idea
of mimeographing a “directory,”
with all this information, and
distributes a copy to each one.
This is a practical, time-saving
device which does away with
a situation that frequently exists
in such groups — finding out,
when the course is over, that
another member had the same
specific interests you did and
that, if you had known about
it before, you might have had
some i)rofitable discussions with
him.

The group meets every Wed-
nesday and Friday evening,
from 8 to 10, at KFI. The first
session is usually devoted to
learning some basic things like

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

“hand signals” and “cueing a
script.”

Since a director cannot issue
oral instructions while on the
air, obviously he must issue them
in pantomine, and these signals
are pretty well standardized all
over the country. Pulling the
hands apart, as if one were
stretching taffy, means to
“stretch it out,” that someone
has gone too fast and unless you
slow down, the program will
end before it’s supposed to. A
finger on the nose means literal-
ly “on the nose,” the timing is
just right. Circling in the air
with an outstretched finger
means “hurry it up,” or you’ll
run over your time.

“Cueing a script” consists of
marking it with different colored
crayons, a few speeches in ad-
vance, as a warning cue for mu-
sic or sound-effects.

There is always someone who
has some radio scripts at home,
and by the second session, Pur-
cell is usually able to get a few
scripts with which the students
start their actual work. He di-
vides the group of thirty into
three units of ten each. Within
each unit, he appoints a pro-
ducer, who also directs, a sound-
effects man, a sound engineer,
and an acting cast. From then
on, the unit is completely on its
own. It must go ahead with
the production of its fifteen-
minute program exactly as it
would under professional con-
ditions. The “producer-direc-
tor” of the unit must decide
what music, if any, he wishes
to use. The “sound-effects man”
must figure out how to achieve
the noises he wants. The “sound
engineer” must set the controls
so the voices come over as dul-
cetly as possible. They may con-
sult Purcell, but the final de-
cisions must be their own.

The two hours, or the 120
minutes, each Wednesday and

Friday, are divided into three
sessions of forty minutes each.
Each unit gets one forty-minute
period on a “live” stage with
an actual mike and sound-control
booth and sound-effects machine.
The other two forty-minute per-
iods are spent in rehearsing.

These evenings end with a bull
session in the auditorium, du-
ring which all the aches, pains,
and boners of the evening’s work
are brought to light, examined,
discussed, a n d remedied. Oc-
casionally, Purcell brings in a
professional radio artist to talk
to the group and answer
questions.

Three such evenings are de-
voted to one script : two pre-
liminary evenings and one final
evening, during which each
group records its fifteen-minute
program. This is done exactly
as if they were on the air. If
they lose a minute and start
their program, say, at 8:16 in-
stead of at 8:15, they must still
be finished on the button at
8:30, even if they have to end
abruptly before the last page.
There is no going back and say-
ing: “Wait a minute, I skipped
a line,” as happens in rehearsal.

It’s from this fifteen-minute
waxing that the radio-workshop
students learn the most. The re-
cord made by each unit is played
back in the presence of the en-
tire group so that they can
all benefit from each other’s
mistakes.

“On one occasion,” Purcell
recalls, “I pointed out that when
a character was awakened in
the middle of the night and had
to answer the doorbell, they
could have gotten in a good
characterizing touch by having
him come downstairs yawning
and saying ‘Who it it?’ in a
sleepy voice. Instead, they had
him sound unrealistically alive
and snappy at 4 in the morning!

“Another time, a script start-

ed out with a character speaking
aloud as he wrote a letter, but
they had him going along at the
normal speaking rate, and no
one on earth can write in long-
hand as fast as he can speak.
I also told the group how they
could have added to the realism
by having the character’s pen
scratch and have the scratching
stop occasionally as if he were
dipping his pen into an inkwell.”

Just how valuable these ses-
sions can be is indicated by the
fact that, in subsequent record-
ings, the mistakes become fewer
and fewer and the programs take
on a more professional air.

The whole process is gone
through twice more, with a shift-
ing of the people in each unit of
ten so that everyone gets a
chance to work with different
people.

The last few weeks of the
course are spent in preparing
two fifteen-minute shows — one
comedy and one mystery — in
which everyone takes part.
These go “on the air” in a half-
hour broadcast. These “finals,”
as they are called during the
15 weeks of the workshop, pro-
vide the professional touch that
entitles a student, in search of
a job, to say: “Yes, I have had
professional radio experience.”

During the first session of each
workshop, Purcell is almost sure
to hear this question : “How
long does it take to write a
fifteen-minute program?”

It gratifies him no end that
at the close of the workshop, the
students .an answer this glibly
with : “Let’s see, now, 12 min-
utes of story; 2 minutes for
opening and closing commercials,
30 seconds for middle station-
break ; 30 seconds for closing
station-break. That’s how long
it takes to write a fifteen-minute
program.”

November, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

THE BIOGRAPHY OF A RADIO

PROGRAM

BY SAUL KRIEG

One of radio’s most notable
figures is Phillips H. Lord,
formerly principal of Plainville
(Connecticut) High School,
creator and producer of Gcmg
Busters. He originated the idea
ten years ago while returning
from a world cruise. Before that
time, this former schoolman had
created several other famous
shows, notably the Seth Parker
series, in which he played the
part of Seth. Phil, the son of
a Vermont minister. Reverend
Albert J. Lord, received his edu-
cation at the Phillips Andover
Academy and at Bowdoin Col-
lege. He had spent his summers
in Maine, and from his know-
ledge of the “Down Easters’’
had come his stories of rural
life and the homely philosophy
of Seth Parker.

But Lord, who had given up
his work as an educational ad-
ministrator in Connecticut to
come to New York, felt that
crime was being glamorized and
little was being done to show
honest citizens the real truth
about criminals and their doings.
The flourishing gang life of
the thirties suggested that more
powerful admonitions were
necesssary. Developing the theme
that “crime does not pay,” Lord
returned to radio with Gang
Busters.

Gang Busters presented the
cases of actual criminals who
were caught by the law. It gave
real names and told true stories.
In order to do this, it was neces-
sary to maintain close contact
with police officers and court
reporters throughout the
country. Lord’s sources included

Phillips H. Lord

hundreds of police chiefs, special
agents. Federal agents, and in-
surance investigators.

Today, when a Gang Busters
script goes on the air, it is the
result of months of preparation.
A criminal is caught in some
American community. Lord is
notified by a police reporter.
From the vast files on criminals,
come pictures of the man, his
fingerprints, h i s description,
lists of his former crimes and
sentences served, his addresses,
his friends and their addresses.
The Lord organization recon-
structs the childhood of the
criminal, pieces together the
reasons for his choice of life.
So complete is this material that
often Lord obliges the district
attorney who is to try the crimi-
nal by sending him copies of
his data.

Lord makes still further in-
vestigations about the criminal,
getting, if he can, statements
from the criminal himself. He
also has members of his organi-

zation trace details of the crimes
committed by interviewing vic-
tims, bank attendants, a mur-
dered victim’s family, and
witnesses. If a family are held
up and their car is taken by the
criminal. Lord’s investigators
talk with the family.

From all this research ma-
terial, a resume is written. This
resume goes to the Ga^ig Busters
editor. The editor calls in a
writer. Together they study the
research material, discuss the
approach to the case, and decide
what scenes should be included
in the radio program.

The writer dramatizes those
scenes. When his script is com-
plete, he turns it back to the
editor. The script is then dis-
cussed by a committee of five,
and the writer takes it for a
re-write. There are usually
several re-writes before the de-
cision comes that the story is
the best that can be done.

The next step is strictly legal.
All people whose names are used
are asked to sign a release. Al-
most without exception, the
people have been willing to sign
such a release, for they feel that
the factual details help to drive
home to criminals that crime
does not pay.

When names have been re-
leased, the script is cast by the
supervisor, the editor, and the
director. Sound rehearsal is
called. Sound effects for each
particular script are carefully
developed for the greatest pos-
sible realism. Lord insists, for
example, that the sound of a
falling body in a Gang Busters
script is really that of a falling

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

Sound effects ore realistic and perfectly timed in Phillips H. Lord's "Gong Busters."

body. The actors are called for
a first rehearsal lasting from
four to five hours. A second re-
hearsal irons out changes and
additions to script and cast. The
cast then goes through a “dress”
rehearsal, which is practically
the same as the actual broad-
cast, and a recording is made.

Lord was the first producer
to insist on rehearsals well in
advance of performance, so that
correction, re-writing, and re-
casting might eliminate errors.
He was the first producer to
have a specially-built recording-
machine for his own office, so
that he might hear the rehearsal
recordings and perfect the radio
presentations still further. The

recording of the dress rehearsal
is played for the committee,
which again discusses the script,
the direction, the sound effects,
and the acting.

From this discussion come de-
cisions as to highlighting scenes
or playing them faster or play-
ing them with greater emphasis.
There is a four-hour rehearsal
on the day of the broadcast and
a dress rehearsal an hour and
a half before air time. Even at
the last minute, some changes
may be made by the committee
of five who judge interpreta-
tions of lines, characterizations,
accents, clarity of script, and
many other details. When the
green light flashes “On the Air,”

the actors go through their per-
formance of the Gang Busters
script with an ease which could
be the product only of careful
supervision.

While the average listener sits
at home enjoying the story, the
members of Lord’s organization
are also seated by their radios.
They are requested to give the
reactions of friends and family
to the show, to make critical
comments. These criticisms offer
suggestions to be incorporated
in subsequent shows.

Such is the planning of Phil
Lord. He has insisted that the
“guesswork be taken out of
radio.” Although Lord has many

(Continued on Page 59)

November, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A lenie moment in o "Gong Butters" rehearsal.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

How to Use

For speed and accuracy in re-
pairing or editing film, a pre-
cision instrument is necessary,
such as the Griswold Junior
Splicer.* Watching an expert
using one of these splicers, one
sees that the job of making a
perfect splice takes but a few
moments — a minute or so — but
the expert goes through ten steps
for each splice.

With proper care, good spli-
cers last a long time, and they
are well worth the slight addi-
tional cost for high-quality
machine-tooling. Used originally
in theatres and in 35mm ex-
changes throughout the world,
before the development of 16mm
projection, the Griswold has
come to be regarded by many
users as the No. 1 device of its
kind. Its leading competitor is
the Craig splicer.

IMPORTANCE OF THE EMULSION
SCRAPER

The manner of using the emulsion
scraper is important. Before inserting
the blade in the scraper holder, see
that the blade and the slot for receiv-
ing the blade are perfectly clean, so
that the blade will go back against the
stop. Any foreign substance will cause
the blade to protrude, thereby causing
the blade to remove too much emul-
sion. This will leave a transparent
line beyond the splice. The emulsion
scraper blade should be held firmly
against the stop when adjusting the
screw which holds it.

There are eight positions in which
to place the emulsion scraper blade in
the holder, each position presenting a
new scraping edge.

Usually a very thin film cement
does not work so well as a cement
having a little body. If trouble is ex-
perienced in making splices hold, try
thickening the cement by dissolving
a small quantity of celluloid film in the

"Manufactured by Gi'iswold Machine
Works, Port Jefferson, New York, and
sold by photographic supply stores.

the Griswold 16mnn Splicer

r Griswold film splicer

JUNIOR MODEL 16% No.

PATENTED IN THE U.S-A. AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES

LMANUrACTURED BY

GRISWOLD MACHINE WORKS PORT JEFFERSON. N Y. ,

cement to bring it up to the best work-
ing consistency.

Do not attempt to change any ad-
justments on a new splicer. Each spli-
cer is in proper operative condition
when shipped.

The cement guai'd attached to the
upper left jaw should not protrude
below the lower face of the jaw and
should be spaced fully a 1 from
the left edge of the lower shear blade.
This guard is to prevent applying ce-
ment where not needed.

TEN STEPS REQUIRED TO MAKE A
PERFECT SPLICE

1. Swing the upper jaw of the right
clamp up against the stop. Swing the
left film clamp (comprising upper and
lower jaws) back against the stop.

2. Placing the film, emulsion side
up, on the lower right jaw, with the
dividing line over the center of the
lower shear blade, bring the upper jaw
down on the film.

3. Bring down the left film clamp,
cutting the film, and raise the right
film clamp with the film.

4. Swing the upper jaw of the left
film clamp back against the stop.
Place the other section of the film,
emulsion side up, on the lower left
jaw. With the dividing line over the
center of the lower shear , blade, bring
the upper left jaw down on the film.

5. Bring down the right clanq) to
cut the film and swing it back again
to the stop.

6. With a dampened felt disc, mois-
ten the emulsion on the film held by
the left film clamp, overlapping the
lower shear blade. (This is not abso-
lutely necessary but is especially ad-
visable on old film.)

7. WITH THE BRUSH END OF
THE SCRAPER DOWNWARD, insert
the lip between the guide and the
lower shear blade, incline the scraper
in the direction of travel, scrape the
emulsion from the center of the film
off the edge each way. (The brush on
the scraper is for use in removing any
particles of emulsion which may re-
main on the film after sci aping.)

8. With the left hand, raise the left
clamp with the film so that the film
is about 14" above the lower shear
blade. While the film is being held in
this position, apply the cement with
one stroke of the brush, then bring the
left clamp down on the stop and im-
mediately bring the right film clamp,
carrying the other section of film,
down on the stop.

9. After allowing a few seconds for
the initial set of the cement, raise the
upper jaws of the right and left film
clamps and wipe off the surplus ce-
ment with a dry cloth.

10. The film is now spliced and may
be removed and wound in the i-eel.

CAUTION: Do not allow the splicer
to become rusty or allow cement to
accumulate upon the steel parts. Ce-
ment is easily I'emoved by painting it
with film cement and wiping it off
with a dry cloth.

November, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

DR. LAW LOOKS AT THE MOVIES

Frederick Houk Law, Famous
Educator, Reviews Current Films

THE HOUSE ON 92ND STREET. Re-
olisl’ic spy melodrama. 20th Century-
Fox. Henry Hathaway, Director. Well
recommended.

A new kind of motion picture
realism appears in The House on
92nd Street, the story itself
being true, the scenes being the
scenes of actual events, but the
characters “merely actors,” as
Shakespeare says. The result is
a gripping narrative of the work
of the Federal Bureau of In-
vestigation in hunting German
spies and saboteurs during the
period just before the United
States entered the Second World

i War.

Realism of presentation is so

i intense that at times one won-

I ders if what one sees is really
a kind of newsreel account of

j actual events. In fact, the pic-
ture almost is a newsreel. With
! its plot, personages and places
j of action based directly and

- intimately upon F. B. I, records
Ij now on file, and with the actors

ii simulating real persons. The

! House on 92nd Street is realism
, itself.

In brief, the narrative tells of
the work of a patriotic young
American who joins the German
secret service and becomes an
agent in the United States, all
with the direction of the F. B. I.
and the intent of counteracting
German plots. Needless to say,
in his work the counter-agent
meets enough difficulties and
dangers to provide a series of
melodramatic thrills.

As one of the leading German
secret agents in New York, Signe

Hasso gives her part not only
reality but also startling and
passionate force. William Eythe
simply and clearly enacts the
patriotic American who risks
his life among German agents.
Lloyd Nolan presents Inspector
Briggs of the F. B, I.

From scenes actually photo-
graphed at F. B. I. Headquarters
in Washington, the observer
learns a great deal about the
amazing methods of the F. B. I.,
an organization that arrested
more than 16,000 German agents
and saboteurs. The observer
sees the F. B. I. fingerprint file-
rooms, the methods of photo-
graphic, chemical, and spectro-
scopic examination, the use of
mirrors through which one may
look without being seen, the
method of lipstick identification,
the method of solving cipher
codes, and all the persistent,
patient work that makes the
F. B. I. so effective.

A great many elements make
The House on 92nd Street pe-
culiarly interesting.

— F. H. L.

MILDRED PIERCE. Domestic melo-
drama. Warner Bros. Michael Curtiz, Di-
rector. Strongly recommended.

“Who knows what may hap-
pen ?” says one of the characters
in Warner Brothers’ strong dom-
estic melodrama, Mildred Pierce,
in which Joan Crawford plays
the star part. The gripping
events of unfortunate family
affairs and the mystery of “Who
done it?” hold observers in sus-
pense throughout the production.

Joan Crawford herself makes
a most realistic and deeply ap-
pealing presentation of an ordi-
nary woman of middle-class
American life who finds herself
suddenly thrown into perplexi-
ties and difficulties almost too
great to bear. Capable as Joan
Crawford has shown herself in
the past, she never before de-
served such high credit as she
now deserves for her under-
standing and sympathetic por-
trayal of a modern American
wife, mother, and business
woman who finds herself beset
by troubles and who rises to
willing sacrifices for the sake
of another.

A young actress, Ann Blyth,
accomplishes the difficult feat
of making an intensely dis-
agreeable and offensive person-
ality not only interesting but
also a key character in the story.

Events open with a mysterious
shooting, a rainy night, a des-
perate attempt at suicide, and an
evident attempt to inveigle an
innocent person into blame for
a crime. Skillfully managed
flash-backs tell the story of a
married life that runs upon the
rocks of jealousy and lack of
money. Other flashbacks show
all the events that led to com-
plete disaster.

Three parts of that story stand
out in high emphasis. One is
the story of a young girl’s love
of society, money, display, and
tawdry life, and her disgust at
the thought of earning one’s
daily bread. The second is the
story of a woman who has the

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

courage to begin at the bottom
of the ladder and the ability to
make a high success. The third
is the story of a man who de-
pends wholly upon name and
social rank.

The motion picture Mildred
Pierce, based upon a popular
novel by James M. Cain, has
so many differing presentations
of today’s American life, and so
many dramatizations of differing
ideals in life, that it has a
breadth and depth, as well as
interest, above the common run
of motion pictures.

— F. H. L.

DUFFY'S TAVERN. Farce-comedy.
Paramount. Hal Walker, Director. Rec-
ommended for those who like to laugh.

Mrs. Malaprop is totally out-
done by “Archie” in Duffy’s
Tavern, who malapropizes most
laughably during all the ninety-
seven minutes of running time
of the film-story. A kind of
natural originality combined
with serious intention makes
bombshell after bombshell of
misused English fall with sudden
success.

The mere list of players in
Duffy’s Tavern is enough to
guarantee interest, for who will
not find some favored “star” in
such a brilliant list as this : Bing
Crosby, Betty Hutton, Paulette
Goddard, Alan Ladd, Dorothy
Lamour, Eddie Bracken, Brian
Donlevy, Sonny Tufts, Veronica
Lake, Arturo De Cordova, Barry
Fitzgerald, Diana Lynn, Victor
Moore, Marjorie Reynolds, Bar-
ry Sullivan, Ed Gardner, Charles
Cantor, Eddie Green, Ann
Thomas, Robert Benchley, Wil-
liam Demarest, Howard de Silva,
and others, not to speak of Bing
Crosby’s four small sons — Gary,
Philip, Dennis and Lyn?

All this provides more than
the typical three-ring circus —
it is a veritable constellation
of glowing stars.

The best of it is that each

and every one of these notable
motion-picture persons does
something typical, interesting,
and unusually entertaining. The
entire combination makes a ga-
laxy that outshines almost every
similar combination.

One who would not find some-
thing in this brilliance to delight
him would have little pleasure
in motion pictures or would be
very, very serious-minded,
indeed.

Strangely enough, in spite of
numerous individual sketches by
so many different motion-pic-
ture actors, Duffy’s Tavern has
a good plot and moves surely
toward a conclusion that brings
happiness even to Victor Moore.
The story concern the love affairs
of Archie, who manages the
Tavern, the business affairs of
Old Man O’Malley (Victor
Moore) and the career of O’Mal-
ley’s daughter (Marjorie Rey-
nolds). Farce and slap-stick
though it may be, D u f f y ’ s
Tavern is happy entertainment.

Flora R. Schreiber, Radio Expert,
Looks at "Duffy's Tavern"

Duffy’s Tavern is an engaging
film. This is mainly because of
Ed Gardner, just as it has been
an engaging radio show because
of Ed Gardner. Credit his de-
lightful malapropisms, as Dr.
Law points out. Credit again
the famous I’efrigerator scene.
How does Gardner know the
light goes off when the refrigera-
tor door is locked unless he’s
inside to see for himself? And
when he’s inside, how is he to
get out if there’s no one outside
to perform the miracle of open-
ing the door? A fine comic
dilemma which leaves the audi-
ence holding both its sides.

The film, however, includes
many scenes-within-scenes in
which Bing Crosby, Dorothy
Lamour, Robert Benchley, et al,
perform. While some of these

scenes are entertaining in them-
selves, their presence is a sign
of weakness. Such scenes — en-
tertainment within entertain-
ment— always seem to say : “Not
enough plot to go around.” The
producers, I expect, in screening
a radio show regard themselves
as midwives officiating at the
birth of television. “How will
radio shows look?” they are
asking. Well, Duffy’s Tavern
looks as good as it sounds, and it
has sounded good. But there
is a danger that the weakness
here mentioned will be a weak-
ness of television itself — the fil-
ling in of visual voids with
miscellaneous acts that are re-
garded as sure-fire. Such a
tendency, if unchecked and if
it should become common, would
result in a hybrid art and would
delay television’s indigenous
development.

— F. R. S.

THE LOST WEEKEND. Melodrama.
Paramount. Billy Wilder, Director. Not
recommended.

A story of delirium tremens
hardly makes fascinating ma-
terial for public amusement. For
some reason Charles Jackson’s
novel, upon which the motion-
picture play is based, became a
“best seller,” but it seems im-
possible that the screen version
of the story will gain listing as
a “best movie.”

A young man, possessed of
some natural ability and more
or less pleasing personality, has
led an idle life and has become
a confirmed alcoholic. A devoted
brother tries every means to
restore him to decency. A young
woman, merely a chance ac-
quaintance, falls in love with the
dipsomaniac. The brother’s
efforts, the young woman’s
pleading, and finally even the
horrors of delirium tremens, all
leave the victim of drink as much
a prey to his craving as ever.

November, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

In actual life we have the
stories of John B. Gough and of
hundreds of others who suddenly
reformed and became useful
citizens. In fiction we have the
story of Sidney Carton in
Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two
Cities, who gave his life in self-
sacrifice because of a great love.
In all these cases great and
overwhelming forces changed
men’s lives.

The motion-picture story ap-
pears to violate good taste,
verisimilitude, and dramatic art
because of lack of motivation.
The story is decidedly un-
pleasant, constantly emphasizing
gross love of drink, personal
degradation, and then the actual
horrors of delirium tremens.
Such dwelling upon the merely
physical leaves no time to em-
phasize the coming of something
better. The episodes do not
make it reasonable that a young
woman who has known a man
for a short time only should
cling to him when she sees him
sinking lower and lower and
becoming repulsive in appear-
ance as well as actions. The
events foreshadow no slowly de-
veloping power sufficient to bring
about reformation. The man
reforms because he wishes to
write a book! This hardly ac-
cords with accounts in Harold
Begbie’s Twice-Born Men or
William James’s essay on The
Sick Soul.

Ray Milland and Jane Wyman,
as the central characters, act
their parts so well that it is a
pity the script gave them less
opportunity for the development
of real power.

— F. H. L.

PALESTINE PROBLEM. Produced by
The March of Time. Released by 20th
Century-Fox. Recommended.

The amazing developments in
Palestine, brought about by Jews
who, in comparatively recent
years, have sought refuge in that

land will astonish anyone who
sees them presented in the
October March of Time issue,
Palestine Problem. Tel Aviv is
shown to be a flourishing city
of tall buildings and busy streets.
The barren wastes of the an-
cient land have been irrigated
and made to “blossom as the rose
of Sharon.’’ Altogether, a num-
erous and happy people have
made modern Palestine a land
of prosperity.

This very prosperity has
brought not only a great increase
in the Jewish population but
also a great increase in the Arab
population, drawn to Palestine
by new opportunities for labor
and profit. The new March of
Time issue shows the Arabs,
their ways of living, and their
military power, and thus sets
before the public the conflict of
two races, doing this without
favor or bias.

Such a film presentation gives
a vast amount of information
and provides rich material for
thought.

— F. H. L.

THE DOLLY SISTERS. Musical-extrav-
aganza biography. 20th Century-Fox.
Irving Cummings, Director. Recommended
for the lighthearted.

Thirty-three years ago this re-
viewer enjoyed the antics of the
popular Dolly Sisters, a charm-
ing team of Hungarian dancers.
Much less than thirty-three
years ago he conducted a uni-
versity course in short-story
writing in which Marian Spit-
zer, one of the authors of the
screen play. The Dolly Sisters,
was a leading student. Little did
he think that those two events
would come together in 1945 in
the form of a Technicolor mo-
tion-picture biography of the
stars of yesteryear.

Marian Spitzer and her co-
author, John Larkin, wove con-
siderable plot into the story of

the Hungarian sisters who, at
about the age of eighteen, rose
to the bright lights of Broadway,
and later to marriage, one of
them to an English duke.

The old songs of years ago.
Pm Always Chasing Rainbows,
Dear Old Pal of Mme, East Side,
West Side, Smiles, Mademoiselle
from A'lmientiers , again come
from Oscar Hammerstein’s Vic-
toria Theatre in New York. In
the picture play we again see
Oscar Hammerstein and catch
something of the spirit of long-
past days.

In the course of the production
we see half a dozen or more
exquisite Technicolor scenes in
different parts of the United
States and Europe, and also
realistic views of the Folies Ber-
gere in Paris, the Parisian home
of the Dolly Sisters at the height
of their fortunes, and the Zieg-
field Midnight Roof. With 79
different sets and with 5,000
players helping in the filming,
the production is lavish, with
all the spectacular qualities of
costume (and lack-of-costume)
revues.

Betty Grable and June Haver
make ultra-blonde presentations
of the Dolly Sisters, Roszicka
and Jancsi. John Payne carries
the leading male role and helps
to weld together the plot of a
deathless love that lasted from
a chance meeting near Elmira,
New York, through all the va-
garies of stardom and divorce.
For the light of heart, the lovers
of the bright lights, this story
of the Dolly Sisters has the glit-
tering interest of the revue
stage.

A Note as to "The Dolly Sisters,"
by Mary Jane Hungerford, Asso-
ciate Editor, "Educational Dance."

The Dolly Sisters is a routine
backstage story with the usual
glamour, shallowness, and un-
reality. Conflict between a

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

“show-must-go-on” loyalty and
a Great Love is the theme. This
is used to jerk a good many tears
and ring in some fancy pro-
duction numbers. The war angle
is a double-barrelled play for
the emotions of veterans of both
world conflicts and their sweet-
hearts and wives.

Some of the facts are straight,
but the whole impression is dis-
torted. Contemporaries of the
sisters will find it a highly rose-
tinted view which can doubtless
improve upon their private mem-
ories. The staging, costuming,
and lighting of the production
numbers are up to m o d e r n
Hollywood standards, which
means that they are too elab-
orate, too gorgeous, and too
expensive to be authentic. The
songs are crooned in 1945 radio
style, the dances are 1945 Fox
movie style — neither too close to
the Broadway song-and-dance
style of the second decade of this
century. M. J. H.

THE GAY SENORITA. Musical ro-
mance. Columbia. Arthur Dreifuss, Di-
rector. Recommended for all.

A charmingly fantastic pro-
duction, The Gan Senorifa tells
a comic-opera type of story that
contrasts modern business me-
thods and the happy, carefree —
but wholly imaginary — life rem-
iniscent of Spanish days in
southern California.

Old-time costumes, castanets,
dancing, song, proud aristocrats,
the ancient courtesies and the
spirit of clinging to the past
come into clash with the vigo-
rous present in the shape of an
effort to tear down an old sec-
tion of a California city and
to build there a great warehouse.

The aristocratic young lady
of ancient descent. Jinx Falken-
berg, the gay senorita, quickly
converts the young real-estate
agent sent to procure the deeds
to the property.

With its lightness, gaiety, and
old-time charm, the story will
interest young people.

FIRST YANK INTO TOKYO. Tapical
secret-agent melodrama. RKO. Gordon
Douglas, Director. Recommended only
for interest in topic.

In this day and age we say
much against encouragement of
racial hatreds, and at the same
time show public favor to what-
ever encourages hatred of the
Japanese. We showed the same
narrow-minded attitude toward
the Germans at the time of the
First World War. First Yank
Into Tokyo stimulates strong
hatred of the Japanese, without
presenting any redeeming cha-
racteristics. As such, the film
does harm, for all racial hatred
of a sweeping nature does harm.
As Edmund Burke said long
ago, we can not justly indict a
whole people. The melodrama-
tic film would be better if it
showed some Japanese, at least,
whom we might respect.

The highly sensational story
tells the adventures of an Ameri-
can Major who disguised himself
by submitting to surgical face-
lifting and then made his way
to Japan to confer with an
American prisoner there, who
held one of the keys to the suc-
cessful making of the atomic
bomb. Having been born and
brought up in Japan, Major Ross
(Tom Neal) speaks Japanese
fluently and knows Japanese
mannerisms. Having joined the
Japanese army. Major Ross not
only finds the scientist whom he
sought but also finds his sup-
posedly dead sweetheart, an
Army Nurse. Such coincidences
and events challenge one’s sense
of reality. One wonders why
a scientist of such importance
should risk capture by the
enemy. Improbabilities continue
to pile up. The secret investiga-
tor finds himself in a camj) com-

manded by his former roommate
in an American college, a shrewd
and cruel Japanese. Then melo-
drama begins in earnest until
at last the heroic Major brings
about the escape of his sweet-
heart (Barbara Hale) and the
wandering man of science.

At the same time, the picture
has the gripping interest of the
moment when Japanese atroci-
ties have come to the fore, an
interest that gains strength from
much local-color realism and the
strong acting of Richard Loo,
who portrays the American-
educated Japanese officer. In its
timely use of strong emotions,
however bad those emotions may
be, the picture will interest
American audiences.

— F. H. L.

THE STORK CLUB. Musical comedy.
Paramount release of B. G. deSylva pro-
duction. Hal Walker, Director. Generally
recommended.

From the time of the Arabian
Nights down to If I Were King
and Kismet, writers have a-
mused themselves and the public
by imagining what some poor
and obscure person would do if
suddenly placed in a position of
immense wealth and power. The
Stork Club tells a similar story.

Betty Hutton, as a hat-check
girl at the Stork Club, saves an
eccentric multi - millionaire
(Barry Fitzgerald) from drown-
ing. Thinking the man is nothing
more than a homeless derelict,
she endeavors to help him. The
millionaire employs his worldly-
wise lawyer (Robert Benchley)
to “make the girl perfectly
happy.” Now what would make
a hat-check girl “perfectly
happy?” The lawyer thinks of
clothes and style, and without
telling the young woman any-
thing about her benefactor, he
provides unlimited accounts and
all luxury.

Barry Fitzgerald’s inimltabh'
personality, Betty Hutton’s viva-

November, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

city, Robert Benchley’s droll-
eries, and the surprising com-
plications that follow the ac-
quisition of wealth, unite in
making a motion-picture play
that satisfies persons who are
looking around for unexpected
and friendly millionaires.

RADIO STARS ON PARACE wifh
"Truth or Consequences." Force. RKO.
Leslie Goodwins, Director.

Radio’s Truth or Consequen-
ces has won such outstanding
popularity that everyone who
likes slap-stick and sophomoric
tomfoolery has the wish to see
the action as well as to hear
about it. That opportunity RKO
now presents to everyone, with
Ralph Edwards and Company
using the age-old pie-in-the-face
and push-into-the-mud methods
that amuse those who like farce
in heavy doses.

Such satisfying of a kind of
national curiosity excuses Radio
Stars on Parade with Truth or
Consequences, which otherwise
has little to recommend it.

The title promises somewhat
more than the presentation ful-
fills, for one sees few “radio
stars on parade” other than
Skinnay Ennis and His Band,
the Gappy Barra Boys, Frances
Langford and, of course, Ralph
Edwards and Company. Possibly
that is enough for a “parade”
and certainly some of the actors
suffer enough physical indig-
nities to satisfy the most ardent
lovers of “philopena” or friendly
penalty.

The thread of plot tells the
adventures of an impoverished
comedy team that comes sudden-
ly into management of a radio
agency. To that agency comes
a soloist from a gangster night-
club. After her come the chief
gangster and his henchmen.
Such results follow that only
the eccentricities of a Truth or

Consequences radio program
save the pretended radio agents
from utter disaster.

At least, one feels that one
has seen Truth or Consequences
— and that is something.

KITTY. Romontic comedy of 1780.
Paramount', Mitchell Leisen, Director.
For adults.

A striking pageant of the Lon-
don of 1780, the period of George
III, appears in the romantic
story of Kitty, a girl who, like
the heroine of G. B. Shaw’s
Pygmcdion, rose from the slums
to become a leader in fashion-
able society.

The story somewhat parallels
the story of Forever Amber,
for it tells how an ignorant
and unschooled girl rose through
a succession of husbands to
wealth and high title but at the
same time kept her heart fixed
on a more or less worthless
gambler and spendthrift.

Paulette Goddard plays ii.e
part of the dirty-faced, ragged,
mistreated girl of Houndsditch
who became a duchess and owner
of estates and castles. She plays
the part with spirit and under-
standing and makes a convincing
presentation.

Research and property men
went to infinite pains to make
this motion picture present out-
standing details of the Lon-
don of 1780. We find ourselves
in narrow streets and lanes, with
mud splashing across narrow
sidewalks. We see the rank
poverty and the wasteful wealth
of the period. Here the great
artist, Thomas Gainsborough
exhibits his Blue Boy and quar-
rels with deaf, old Sir Joshua
Reynolds. Sir This and Sir That,
the Earl of Campton, the Duke
of Malmunster, The Duchess of
Gloucester, the Prince of Wales,
move among crowds of great
folk. From the humble people

on the streets and from the rich
and titled in their palaces, we
learn the ways and costumes
of the period. The details are
superbly put together and make
as convincing a picture of the
past as one could wish.

The story is sordid, but not
too sordid. It avoids the animal-
ism of Forever Amber and leads
one to think of Oliver Twist and
Becky Sharp of a later period,
but most of all of the girl of
Shaw’s Pygmalion.

Dramatic episodes full of hu-
man interest show that pains-
taking care made them as well
as the rich details of the setting.

Certainly Kitty is a motion
picture that presents vivid scenes
of other days, a full canvas with
much human-interest appeal.

Biography of a Radio
Program

(Continued from Page 52)

other top shows to his credit —
We, the People, Mr. District
Attorney, Counterspy — G a. n g
Busters is, perhaps, his most
famous. His infinite care as to
detail is not only proof of what
craftsmanlike radio can produce,
but it has been rewarding in
other ways. Through the pre-
sentation of the “clues” at the
end of each broadcast, Gayig
Busters has helped to bring 300
“wanted” criminals to justice.
Thousands of letters and testi-
monials from law enforcement
officers all over the country,
show that the program has de-
terred many other criminals.
Converted criminals have ex-
pressed their thanks to Lord
for his campaign against vice.
Juvenile delinquents constantly
write to tell Lord that he has
convinced them that “crime does
not pay.”

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No,

EXTOLLING THE EXECUTION

Some Contributions of the USOE Film Production Program

BY PAUL C. REED

Formerly Visual Specialist, U. S. Office of Education
Reprinted from "Film News," June, 1945

The completion by the U. S.
Office of Education of more than
four hundred fifty visual aid
units for training is no mean
execution. Yet the magnitude
of the accomplishment becomes
even more pronounced when it
is considered that each unit con-
sists of a sound motion picture,
a filmstrip, and an instructor’s
manual ; that the whole program
was completed in fifty-three
months and that the average size
of the professional staff respon-
sible for the program was less
than ten persons.

More than fifty thousand prints of
USOE motion pictures and filmstrips
have been distributed and used in the
training of workers for war industries
during the past four years. Thousands
more will be distributed for the con-
tinued training of woikers and in the
rehabilitation training of veterans.
The values of this wartime visual pro-
gram will extend far into the post-
war future. It has been a tremendous
program — well executed.

Such words of praise coming from
one who has actively participated in
the program would seem inappropri-
ate it it were not recognized that the
results were achieved through the co-
operation of hundreds of people. The
training philosophy and experience of
educators and industrial trainers, the
practical working experience of men
in shops, the film-making skills of
commercial film producers were suc-
cessfully coordinated by the visual
and technical specialists of the Divi-
sion of Visual Aids operating under
the guidance of Commissioner John
W. Studebaker, his assistant. Dr. C.
F. Klinefelter, and Floyde E. Brooker,
Director of the Division.

Along with praise there should be
some attempt at objective appraisal
of the contributions of this visual aids
program. Differing perspectives will
produce different appraisals, but from
my point of view, as one who has

Paul C. Reed

spent twenty-two months on the “in-
side,” the program has made impor-
tant contributions both to education
and to visual education.

Education, and more particularly
vocational education, now has avail-
able an extensive and diverse list of
training pictures from which intelli-
gent selection can be made in terms
of training and curricular needs. Fur-
thermore, these pictures have been
thoughtfully prepared in series and
sequence so that visual training can
be planned and continuous. Not the
least contribution to education is the
distributional policy which makes
these materials available for pui chase
by schools at a cost they can afford.
Yet this purchase price includes a re-
turn to the Government to amortize
the production cost. The films are
ready and will soon be available for
use.

The concept and implications of a
“visual aid unit” seem to me to be a
most valuable contribution to the field
of visual education. Complete accept-
ance and continued advancement of
visual education are dependent upon
the intelligent coordinated use of many
and all teaching materials.

Controversies concerning the superi-
ority of one kind of teaching material

over another must be displaced by
mature thought and effort in deter-
mining how ail available media can
be used to best advantage. The USOE
concept and execution of a broad vis-
ual training program with motion pic-
tuie, still picture, and printed manual
planned and produced as a coordinated
unit has been a great stride forward
in the advance of visual education.
Best teachers have always coordinated
teaching materials at the point of use.
Here was coordination at the point of
production.

Another noteworthy contribution to
visual education is one that has been
made to those who can piofit from
a clear-cut, successful demonstration
of how educator and film producer
can pool experiences and abilities and
work together. Each unit was under
the supervision of a team of visual
specialist and technical specialist,
each with practical teaching experi-
ence. Theirs was a creative job of
blending their own knowledge, ex-
perience, and abilities with those of
the contracting producers, and check-
ing and double checking every single
phase of production from first synop-
sis to final approved print. Educators
and film producers can work together
when there is mutual respect and
joint endeavor.

Considering the speed and size of
the program, the degree of accuracy
and authenticity of the films is un-
believably high. But its achievement
was no miracle. It resulted from
sound policy and hard work. For each
film there was the technical specialist
of the Office of Education and usually
a technical consultant on the pro-
ducer’s staff. In addition, there was a
Technical Advisory Committee made
up of practical workers whose ad-
vice was earnestly sought and freely
given. These committees were not
“window dressing”; they advised.
They consisted of teachers from vo-
cational schools and expert crafts-
men and technicians from industry
who gave from their experience and
knowledge final approval to script,
rough-cut pictures, and commentaries

November, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Make Literature Live With Films!

FOLLOWING EXCELLENT TEACHING FILM CUSTODIAN (M-G-M) SUBJECTS
ARE NOW AVAILABLE FOR CLASSROOM USE:

"Mutiny on tKe Bounty"

Clark Gable Charles Laughton
Franchot Tone

"Romeo and Juliet"

Leslie Howard Norma Shearer
John Barrymore

"David Copperfield, the Boy"

"David Copperfield, the Man"

Lionel Barrymore Maureen O'Sullivan

W. C. Fields Freddie Bartholomew

Other Subjects To Be Added Later

"Treasure Island"

Lionel Barrymore Wallace Beery
Jackie Cooper

"Tale of Two Cities"

Ronald Colman

OTHER FEATURE-LENQTH FILMS:

Swiss Family Robinson
Little Men

Count of Monte Cristo
Adventures of Tom Sawyer

$17.50 Tom Brown's Schooldays

17.50 Courageaus Mr. Penn

20.00 Little Lord Fauntleroy

15.00 Last of the Mohicans
(Special Series Rate)

Write for Neiv Free Catalog of Selected Motion Pictures

$17.50

17.50

YMCA MOTION PICTURE BUREAU

347 Madison Avenue 19 So. LaSalle Street 710 Burt Building 351 Turk Street
New York 17, N. Y. Chicago 3, III. Dallas 1, Texas San Francisca 2, Calif.

only after painstaking and detailed
consideration. In a twelve month per-
iod I participated in more than forty-
five “after-hour” evening committee
meetings that lasted anywhere from
four to eight houis each. I can state
enthusiastically from this experience
that the idea of having subject mat-
ter committees made up of practical
experts and letting them advise is
eminently sound and pays dividends
in terms of better visual materials.

There is another important kind of
contribution which I believe has been
made by the USOE program. A piice-
less resource in techniques of visual
communication exists in the wide va-
riety of the films. It still remains to
be analyzed thoroughly — not in this
brief report, but by the objective an-
alysis of other film producers and
visual educators, by the experience of
classroom teachers, and by experi-
mental studies. Although there were
basic policies guiding the audio-visual
treatment and organization of subject
matter in USOE films, visual special-
ists and producers were permitted
wide latitude. The four hundred and
fifty units lepresent a wide range of
exploratory experimental technique

both in picture and sound treatment.

There are pictures presenting
demonstrations completely from
the "operator’s viewpoint” and
with abundant close-ups. There
are others that consider the
viewer a spectator. There are
fast-paced and slow-paced pic-
tures. There are pictures with
and without animation ; with and
without concluding recapitula-
tions ; with and without intro-
ductory orientation. There are
single-voice, two-voice, and mul-
tiple-voice sound tracks. There
are all-dialog pictures. There are
first person, second person, and
third person commentaries ; ac-
tive and passive voice. There are
authoritative lectures, pedanti-
cally expounded ; and there
are fantastic dream sequences.
Which are the best? Which will
do their teaching job most effec-
tively? What can we learn from
these pictures about effective

film presentation? All the an-
swers to such questions are not
yet known. They can be found;
but not by the USOE Division
of Visual Aids for War Training.

In June, 1944, Congress, with words
of praise and a small appropriation
for administrative expenses, decreed
that the visual aid production pro-
gram of the U. S. Office of Education
should be completely executed by July
1, 1945. It has been done. The bell has
tolled and these words have extolled.

DR. LAW LOOKS
AT THE MOVIES

( Continued from Page 59 )

SUNBONNET SUE. Musical comedy.
Monogram. Ralph Murphy, Director. For
adults.

A saloon on the lower Bowery
forty or fifty years ago forms
the principal setting of Sun-
honnet Sue. In the saloon we
see a typical Bowery stage-show,
and a bar that has constant

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 2

support of thirsty patrons. Boun-
cers perform their work with
muscular efficiency. A rival
brings about general fisticuffs
that wreck the place. Political
picnics supporting opposing
candidates for office end in a
general “grand fight” started by
small boys, developed by angry
women and ended by hard-hit-
ting men. Such is the ensemble
of Smibonnet Sue.

This is a story of the Bowery
as it used to be, the New York
street that the motion-picture
play calls producer of men of
genius, home of great men, and

mother of Governors. To create
the atmosphere of the past, the
motion picture brings in most
effectively such well-known
songs as The Bowery, School
Days, By the Light of the Silvery
Moon, and Yip-I-Acldy-I-Ay.

Contrasted with the sordid
setting are one or two scenes
of idyllic love-making upon the
waters of a park lake.

The plot is sufficiently pre-
posterous. A saloon keeper on
the lower Bowery has a sister-
in-law who owns a Fifth Avenue
mansion and aspires to lead the
cotillion at Newport! Her effort

to take her niece from the Bow-
ery drinking-hall stage succeeds
to the extent of introducing the
young lady into the most fash-
ionable society, only to discover
that the chief guests, the Gover-
nor and his wife, both came from
the Bowery, and have every wish
to go back to it.

As the charming niece. Gale
Storm is altogether winsome and
plays her part with pleasing
vivacity.

If you wish to go slumming
and also to renew memories of
the New York of long ago, see
Sunhonnet Sue.

ONE REASON FOR BUYING MORE VICTORY BONDS

A scene in "Voyage to Recovery," U. S. Navy film on rehabilitation of those injured by Jap kamikaze attacks.

come home, too...

VICTOR has served long and well;
x\ Victor wants to come home to again
serve Schools, Churches, Industries and the home user. ^ ^

Thousands of letters ask, "How soon ? When can we have
the Animatophone.^” As you know, we’ve been working

for Uncle Sam; his demands for VICTOR have been of
gigantic proportion . . . for both military and industrial
training. Meanwhile the VICTOR dealer has patriotically waited. Today it’s
natural to ask: "When.?’’ reply.? "Soon, we

hope!” Even now, we are delivering to Uncle Sam

who still thinks VICTOR best for his boys, on land and sea and air.

Meanwhile, civilian ship-
ments are being made in limited

amounts. It won’t be long before VICTOR, heaped with the honors

of war, will be available for any and all requirements.

VICTOR

ANIMATOGRAPH CORPORATION

Home Office and Facfory: Davenport, Iowa
New York (18)— McGrow Hill Bldg., 330 W. 42nd Street
Chicago (D— 188 W. Randolph
MAKERS OF I6MM EQUIPMENT SINCE 1923

“Living Backgrounds" for Class Discussion

Nearly sixty-five years ago, in the busy little river town of Prescott,
Wisconsin, seven high school boys pioneered, for those parts, in a way of
keeping pace with happenings in history and American government. At the sug'
gestion of their teacher, each of them subscribed for the weekly edition of the
New York Tribune, and for three years they used it as supplemental study
material.

One of these boys, John Callahan, himself took to teaching, and now is
Wisconsin’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction, an office he has held for
twenty'hve years. In the long stretch since his graduation he never has forgotten
what that New York newspaper meant to him and his classmates.

“It widened our view of what was going on in our own and other lands,”
said Dr. Callahan recently. “It gave us a sort of ‘head start’ on events, achieve'
ments and discoveries which, however important, couldn’t be included in text'
books for several years, at least. It supplied a lot of good reading, and no end of
material for hard-fought debates.

“Of course, we had to dig out for ourselves the articles that would best serve
as live aids m classroom and forum. That’s where today’s students have a decided
advantage. In the Reader’s Digest intelligently sifted reapings from all helds of
human endeavor are presented in a manner which makes them almost ‘living back-
grounds’ for classroom discussion of affairs and trends. Brieffy, clearly and in
admirable English, these varied subjects are so entertainingly handled that they
not only hold one’s interest, but prompt a desire to learn more about them.

“The Digest is a continuing and impartial ‘diary’ of the American way of
life and the actual workings of our democracy. At a time when world welfare is
to be so influenced by our course here at home, its value as an aid to the teaching
of good citizenship increases the need for its use in our schools. The next few
years will call for high loyalty to the ideals for which so many of our youth have
suffered and died, and I feel that teachers will find this little magazine most
helpful in guiding their classes to the kind of citizenship these heroes have so
nobly typified.”

December, 1945
Vol. XII, No. 3
35c - $2 a Year

FILM & RADIO

GUIDE

AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS TO EDUCATION

AUDIO-VISUAL DIRECTORY

Notional & International

INTERNATIONAL THEATRI-
CAL AND TELEVISION CORP.

ITTCO OF ILLINOIS, 100 W.
Monroe St., Chicago 3.

ITTCO OF THE WEST, 3123
W. 8th St., Los Angeles 5.
ITTCO OF THE WEST, 4247
Piedmont Ave., Oakland 11,
Calif.

ITTCO OF THE SOUTH, 756 W.
Peachtree St., N. W., Atlanta,
Ga.

ITTCO OF MISSOURI, 3326
Olive St., St. Louis, Mo.

ITTCO OF THE SOUTH, 302 '/2
So. Harwood St., Dallas 1, Tex.

ITTCO OF NEW YORK, 25 W.
45th St., New York 19, N. Y.

ITTCO OF NEW ENGLAND,
1 1 5 Newbury St., Boston 1 6,
Mass.

ITTCO OF WASHINGTON, 51
H St., N.W., Washington 1,
D. C.

ITTCO OF NEW ORLEANS, 815
Poydras St., New Orleans 1 3,
La.

ITTCO OF CANADA, 21 Dun-
das Square, Toronto, Canada

Bell & Howell Co., Dept. "G"
FILMOSOUND LIBRARY
1 834 Larchmont Ave., Chicago
30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York
716 N. LoBrea Ave., Hollywood
1221 G. St., N. W., Washington

FILMS INCORPORATED

330 W. 42nd St., New York 1 8
64 E. Lake St., Chicago 1
101 Marietta St., Atlanta 3
109 N. Akard St., Dallas 1
314 S.W. 9th Ave., Portland 5
1709 W. 8 St., Los Angeles 14

ASTOR PICTURES CORPORATION
130 W. 46th Street
New York, N. Y.

BRANDON FILMS. Inc.
I 600 Broadway
New York, N. Y.

BAILEY FILM SERVICE

2044 No. Berendo St., Holly-
wood 27, Calif.; 404 No. Good-
win Ave., Urbana, III.

COMMONWEALTH PICTURES
CORPORATION, 729 Seventh
Avenue, New York, N. Y.

CORONET PRODUCTIONS
Instructional Films
Glenview, Illinois

EDUCATIONAL FILM GUIDE
H. W. Wilson Co., 950 Univer-
sity Ave., New York 52, N. Y.

EDUCATORS GUIDE TO FREE
FILMS, Educators Progress
Service, Randolph, Wis.

WILLIAM J. GANZ COMPANY
40 East 49th Street
New York, N. Y.

PAUL HOEFLER PRODUCTIONS
9538 Brighton Way
Beverly Hills, California

I lOFFBERG PRODUCTIONS, Inc.
618-20 Ninth Avenue
New York 1 8, N. Y.

IDEAL PICTURES CORPORATION
28-34 E. 8th Street
Chicago, III.

Offices in principal cities.

INSTITUTIONAL CINEMA SERV-
ICE, Inc., 1560 Broadway
New York, N. Y.

MOTION PICTURE BUREAU —
YMCA, 347 Madison Avenue
New York, N. Y.

1 9 S. La Salle St., Chicago, III.
1700 Patterson Av., Dallas, Tex.
351 Turk St., San Francisco, Col.

NATIONAL FILM SERVICE

Raleigh, N. C. Richmond, Va.
424 Madison Ave., New York

NU-ART FILMS, Inc.

I 45 W. 45th Street
New York, N. Y.

POST PICTURES CORPORATION
723 Seventh Avenue
New York, N. Y.

SKISO PRODUCTIONS, Inc.
165 West 46th St.

New York 1 9, N. Y.

New England

HARVARD FILM SERVICE

Graduate School of Education
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts

A. H. RICE & CO.

Rentals and Projection Service
Hollis, N. H.

The West Coast

THE SCREEN ADETTE EQUIP-
MENT CORP., RCA Audio-Visual
Equipment.

314 S.W. 9th, Portland, Ore.
1709 W. 8th, Los Angeles.

68 Post St., San Francisco.

The South

ITTCO OF THE SOUTH, 756

Peachtree St., N.W., Atlanta,
Ga., and 3021/2 S. Harwood St.,
Dallas, Texas. Exclusive distrib-
utors of Monogram products,
ITTCO films, Ampro and SVE
equipment. Jam Handy teaching
films. Serving the South only.

CALHOUN COMPANY
101 Marietta St., N.W.

Atlanta 3, Georgia

WILFRED NAYLOR

1 907 Fifth Ave., North
Birmingham 1, Alabama

SOUTHERN VISUAL FILMS
686 Shrine Building
Memphis, Tenn.

Indiana

DENNIS FILM BUREAU
29 E. Maple St.

Wabash, Ind.

lowo

RYAN VISUAL AIDS SERVICE
409- 1 1 Harrison St.
Davenport, Iowa

Michigan

COSMOPOLITAN FILMS
3248 Gratiot Avenue
Detroit, Mich.

CAPITAL FILM SERVICE, Film Li-
brary and Motion-Picture and
Visual-Aid Equipment, 1043 E.
Grand River Ave., East Lansing,
Mich.

Minnesota

HOWARD FILM DISTRIBUTORS
86 So. Sixth Street
Minneapolis 2, Minn.

Missouri

SWANK'S MOTION PICTURES
620 N. Skinker Blvd.

St. Louis, Mo.

New York

IDEAL MOTION PICTURE SERV-
ICE, 371 St. Johns Avenue
Yonkers, N. Y.

New Jersey

ART ZEILLER, Visual and Audio-
Visual Aids, Victor Distributor,
Complete Factory Service. 'Enter-
tainment. 868 Broad St., Newark
2, N. J.

Ohio

TWYMAN FILMS, Inc.

29 Central Ave.

Dayton, Ohio

West Virginia

E. B. SIMPSON

8 1 6 W. Virginia St.

Charleston 2, W. Va.

Hollywobd's Greatest Spectacle
i/ "The Adventures of

This show has everything! A lit-
erary masterpiece . . . blazing
super-spectacles . . . spine-tin-
gling suspense . . . dazzling splen-
dor . . . breath-taking thrills . , .
sparkling comedy . . , high ro-
mance!

It’s Hollywood at its spectac-
ular best— matching a great story
with great acting and enthrall-
ing action.

In the mysterious vastness of

Latest '^Unrestricted** Major and
Independent Releases — Now Avail-
able Through Filmosound Library!
Major and leading “Independent" fea-
ture films . . . not requiring specific prior
location approval . . . are now available
— ideal for holiday entertainment. In-
cluding such hits as:

North Star

Swiss Family Robinson
Tom Brown’s School Days
“Scattergood Baines’’ (Series)

It Happened Tomorrow
So Ends Our Night
Little Men
Beyond Tomorrow
Jack London
Courageous Mr. Penn
Also All Current 16mm. Universal Films
Available on Location-Approval Basis

Siberia, in the days of the Czars,
the Tartars revolt. In far-off St.
Petersburg, 2 500 miles away,
the Czar orders Michael Stro-
goff to race for Siberia with or-
ders for reinforcements to rescue
the beleaguered Imperial forces.

Thus begins such high adven-
ture as the screen has rarely seen.
Passion, treachery, torture, furi-
ous battle, tender romance . . .
all march before you in brilliant
pageantry. Stars and featured
artists are backed by a mammoth
cast of 10,000!

Once more Filmosound Li-
brary brings you superb movie-
making, superb l6mm. entertain-
ment— Hollywood’s great spec-
tacle, "The Adventures of Mi-
chael Strogoff!”

Bell & Howell Company, Chicago;
New York; Hollywood; Wash-
ington, D. C.; London.

Typical of all the new, refined Bell
& Howell motion picture equip-
ment is the improved Filmosound
179 . . . the sound-on-film pro-
jector that is cooler and easier
than ever to operate. Pictures are
uniformly brilliant without flicker
or unsteadiness; sound reproduc-
tion is clear and free of distortion.
Precision-built by the makers of
Hollywood’s preferred studio
equipment.

B&H Nation-Wide Service
for Your Convenience

Bell & Howell maintains a com-
plete nation-wide service for your
greatest convenience, in cities from
coast to coast. Filmosound Library
branches are ready to supply your
needs promptly and efficiently. And
all Filmosound Library films are
always in first-class condition.
They come to you in metal cans,
always clean, always ready for
satisfying use.

OPTI-ONICS — products combining the sciences of OPTIcs • electrONics • mechanics

HELL & HOWELL COMPANY
7134 McCormick Road
Chicago 45, Illinois

Please send, without cost or obligation:
( ) Latest Recreational Film Supplements;
( ) Complete Educational Film Catalog.

We ( ) own ( ) use a

make of 16mm. sound projector.

City Zone. , . .State

F(S.RDG 12-45

PRECISION-MADE BY

SINCE 1907 THE LARGEST MANUFACTURER OF PRECISION EQUIPMENT FOR MOTION PICTURE STUDIOS OF HOLLYWOOD AND THE WORLD

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

IlUir, THE
SCIEEN HIS
UPIUHED
THE

OF THE

6IEII HOVEL!

:i . /yBEMAMBmUJAMS a

UaveHer
^ ti;Heaven

t&^^edvefi

IN TECHNICOLOR

Starring

GENE CORNEL JEANNE

TIERNEY • WILDE • CRAIN

CENTURY-FOX

PICTURE

Directed by JOHN M. STAHL
Produced by WILLIAM A. BACHER

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

EDUCATIONAL & RECREATIONAL GUIDES, Inc.

172 RENNER AVENUE, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY

VOLUME XII, NUMBER 3 DECEMBER, 1945

IN THIS ISSUE

16mm Exchange Practices — No. 18: So You Are Going to Buy A Projector

Behind the Screen Credits Helen Colton

The Play's the Thing Flora Rheta Schreiber

Visual Program of Michigan Summer Workshop Mary Aceti

Whot We Can Learn From Army-Navy Training

Secretary Wallace's Views on Education

Recommended Photoplays Frederick Houk Low

Variety's Miniature Reviews of Films

The Story of New York's All-City High-School

Radio Workshop Von Rensselaer Brokhahne

New NEA Audio-Visual Instructional Service Division Vernon G. Dameron

A Quarter of a Century of Visual Aids in the Geneseo

Township High School Arthur L. White

The Use of Films in the Church Program Rev. Charles W. Dobbertin

A County Audio-Visual Center James McPherson

Audio-Visual Who's Whc —

No. 36: Arthur Stenius — No. 37: Doris Louiso Lynn —

No. 38: E. H. Powell — -No. 39: Jock C. Coffey —

No. 40: Stephen M. Corey

The York Film Library

Who's Who in Radio Education — No. 9: George Jennings

The Screen Writer

Cooperation Between Broadcasters and Educational FM Stations

"The Bells of St. Mary's": A Discussion Guide William Lewin

"Dovid Copperfield" Now in 16mm

20
24

34
37

47
50
53
56
60

Less Thon Five Subscriptions Five or More Subscriptions

One Year $2.00 Each 25% Discount on

Two Years 3.50 Each Quantity Orders

Three Years 5.00 Each to One Address

Less Than One Year 35c a Copy

In Canada, add 50c a year; in foreign countries, add $1.00 a year.

"Course of Study in Radio Appreciation" or "What Shall We Read About the
Movies" Free with 2-Year Subscriptions.

WILLIAM LEWIN, Editor and Publisher RUTH M. LEWIN, Business Manager

FREDERICK HOUK LAW and B. A. AUGHINBAUGH, Contributing Editors
HELEN COLTON, Hollywood Editor

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

COMING

'The Biography of a
Classroom Film''

BY WILLIAM LEWIN

Of special Interest to
All Visual Educators

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

WILLIAM LEWIN, EDITOR

December, 1945 Volume XII, No. 3

16MM EXCHANGE PRACTICES

BY B. A. AUGHINBAUGH

Oirecl’or, Slide & Film Exchange, Sfai-e Deportment' of Education, Columbus, Ohio

No. 18: So You Are Going to
Buy a Projector

We presume that all exchanges
handling educational motion pic-
tures and lantern slides are fre-
quently asked by patrons and
prospective patrons, “What pro-
jector shall we buy?” This is es-
pecially true of exchanges oper-
ated by states and state institu-
tions. It has been our policy in
Ohio never to answer that ques-
tion by naming the product of
a particular manufacturer. We
base this policy on the fact that
an exchange distributes slides
and films; and if it selects pro-
jectors for its patrons, it is very
apt to be justly held jointly re-
sponsible by these patrons for
damage done to its slides or
films by the recommended pro-
jector. We do not believe that
a publicly-supported exchange
which does not itself buy the
projectors has any right to put
itself in this possibly embarrass-
ing position. There may sooner
or later arise questions of non-
feasance, misfeasance, and even
malfeasance, all of which any
public exchange will do well to
avoid.

But there are certain general
guide-rules which an exchange
may and should provide, and we
here set forth some of those
guides. Write to each of the
following firms and request lit-
erature and a demonstration.
The arrangement is alphabetical.

Ampi'O Corporation, 2839-51 North
Western Ave., Chicago, 111.

Bell and Howell Company, 7134 Mc-
Cormick Road, Chicago 45, 111.
DeVry Corporation, 1111 Armitage
Ave., Chicago 14, 111.

Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester,
New York.

Holmes Projector Company, 1815 Or-
chard Street, Chicago, 111.
International Projector Corporation,
88-96 Gold Street, N. Y.

Keystone Projector Company, 288 “A”
Street, Boston, Mass.

Natco, Young America, 32 E. 57th
Street, New York, N. Y.

RCA Manufacturing Co., Camden,
New Jersey.

Universal Projector Company, Phila-
delphia, PaP.

Victor Animatograph Coi'poration,
Davenport, Iowa.

The following companies make
3kt X 4 lantern-slide projectors;

(a) Bausch & Lomb Co., Rochester,

N. Y.

(b) DeVry Corporation, 1111 Ar-
mitage Ave., Chicago 14, 111.

(d) Spencer Lens Co., Buffalo,

N. Y.

(e) Victor Animatograph Co., Dav-
enport, Iowa.

In addition to 3^4 x 4 lantern-
slide projectors of the previous-
ly-listed companies, (a) and (cl)
also make 2x2 and filmslide or
filmstrip projectors. Such out-
fits are also made by the Society
for Visual Education, 100 E.
Ohio Street, Chicago, Illinois.
Opaque projectors are made by

(a) and (cl). These companies
also make combination outfits
which will project opaque pic-

tures, 314 X 4 slides, 2x2 slides,
and filmstrips. Keystone and
Spencer Lens make lanterns
with forced air coolers.

In general, 16mm sound mo-
tion-picture projectors sell for
around $300 to $450; x 4
lantern-slide projectors sell for
$70 to $100; 2x2 outfits with-
out motors, at $50 to $75; film-
strip outfits at $50 to $75; and
combination opaque, 3^ x 4
slide projectors at $140.

At present the demand for
projectors is exceeding the sup-
ply; but when this abnormal
condition subsides, the follow-
ing suggestions may be helpful
in making a proper choice of
what is on the market ;

(a) Have all demonstrations
made at your school on the same
clay and at about the same hour.
This will assure you that the
daylight conditions have nothing
to do with the results. If differ-
ent days are used, one may be
bright and one dark.

(b) Use the same screen for
all demonstrations. This will
eliminate the screen as a factor
in the differences you may find
in the brightness of the picture.

(c) Procure a clear, well-
made film from any convenient
source and require all agents to
use this and this only in their
demonstrations. Check the film
yourself after each use. Some
photography has a greater den-
sity (darkness) than others;

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

hence all do not give screen-re-
sults of equal brilliancy. Procure
a sound film (if it is a sound
projector you want) preferably
with variable-area recording.
This type of recording often re-
quires more precision in projec-
tors than variable-density be-
cause the film must run truer in
the projector. If the film sways
from side to side, it will throw
the exciter-beam off the sound
track. This will result in poor
sound-reproduction.

(d) Require each agent to
make his first demonstration in
the presence of the others. This
will assure you against such
sales tricks as :

(1) Using an under-voltage projec-
tion lamp (90-volt lamps on 110-volt
current look bright but last but a
short time).

(2) Using a lens which gives a pic-
ture with a bright center but dim
edges.

(3) Claiming projectors have de-
vices which will stop the projector
“when anything goes wrong.” (Such
devices work only when the film
breaks or when loops are lost.)

(4) Claiming that stop-on-film de-
vices will not permit blistering of
films.

(5) Enlarging sprocket holes or
tampering with splices to cause the
next salesman trouble in his demon-
stration.

(e) After the group-demon-
stration, send the agents from
the room and then call them
back, one by one, for individual
demonstrations and discussions.
Use the same room and have the
same number of people in it for
all sound-projector demonstra-
tions. Different rooms and dif-
ferent numbers of people in the
room will produce different
acou-stical qualities, which will
alter the quality and intensity of
the sound reproduction.

(f) A competitive demonstra-
tion will not reveal the wearing
quality of a projector and such
quality is important. To discover

this factor, “ask the man who
owns one.” Price is not a factor
in selecting any commodity
where competition is as keen as
in the projector field. Here, more
than in any other commodity,
you get what you pay for. A
cheap outfit can make up a
price-difference by damaging a
hundred dollars’ worth of film.

It must be borne in mind that
the intermittent gear is the
heart of any motion-picture pro-
jector. On the precision with
which this movement engages
and disengages the sprocket-
slits of the film depends the ac-
curacy of the projector’s opera-
tion. When one realizes that this
intermittent gear, on a sound
projector, must start from com-
plete rest; reach full activity in-
stantaneously; engage its teeth
in the sprocket-slots of the film
precisely ; move the film up one
frame; withdraw the teeth from
the film sprocket-slots and come
to a full stop — and do this twen-
ty-four times in every second —
one may faintly realize the
strain set up on this mechanism.
If one adds to these require-
ments the handicap that no piece
of film is ever perfect and that
hence the intermittent mechan-
ism must be so designed that it
will allow a tolerance of plus one
to minus one unit in making
contact with the film sprocket-
slots, one may see why projec-
tors sell for the prices they do.
A projector must have the pre-
cision of the finest jeweled
watch combined with the rugged
strength of a mowing machine.
If the intermittent movement
could be removed from projec-
tors they might be sold for much
less than their present cost. It is
this intermittent movement, in
combination with the “persist-
ence of vision” of our sight, that
changes a series of still pictures
into pictures that to

move !

Since the intermittent gear,
like all other gears, can only
“approach” perfection, and since
its particular requirements are
so severe, this “approach” is de-
termined by various tests which
the manufacturer sets up to de-
termine the degree of perfection
his projector must attain. He
does this by discarding parts
that do not reach the degree of
perfection he decrees. The
higher his standards the more
parts he discards, and the more
parts he discards, the more he
must ultimately charge for his
projector.

From what we have now
pointed out it may be seen that
price and quality do go together
in projectors. Perhaps it would
be better if we said should in-
stead of do. We mention this be-
cause not only competition en-
ters into the situation, but also
ignorance of the prospective
buyers relative to projectors.
The latter factor is becoming
less important with the years.
The day is past when, as one
projector salesman told us, the
salesman delivered his outfit,
collected payment, and then ran
like you-know-what to get as far
away as possible before the thing
fell to i)ieces. Purchasers have
become numerous enough to
compare notes and to demand
equipment which will give serv-
ice. Fortunately the greatly in-
creased size of the market for
the standard-off-standard pro-
jector has })ermitted the lower-
ing of prices through increased
production.

As with any other manufac-
tured product, the financial
standing of the firm, the size of
its plant, the quantity of its pro-
duction, and the level of its man-
ufacturing ethics should all be
investigated by the wary buyer.
Don’t succumb to the hypnotic
effect of a smooth sales-talk. Of
course, people are apt to favor

December, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

projectors as they favor autos.
Some swear by one make while
others swear at it. But by and
large, remember that just as
you cannot buy a low-priced car
and expect the performance and
luxury of a high-priced one, you
cannot buy a cheap projector
and get the perfection and dur-
ability of a costlier one. Do not
be taken in too much by Navy
or Army “E’s” as a sign of dis-
tinction. All the major compan-
ies received these “E’s” — they
were as common as Ph.D.’s, and
we know how plentiful they are.

Many schools are awaiting
the opportunity to buy a good
projector from an Army or
Navy surplus-property distribu-
tor. It is our understanding that
there will be few such projec-
tors declared surplus and that
hospitals will have first priority
on them. Army and Navy pro-
jectors have had hard service.
Some were made with zinc in-
stead of aluminum frame-work.
These zinc outfits are movable
but hardly portable.

We are often asked: “Which
type of projection equipment
should be bought first?” We
have just as often stated in these
articles that a sound-film pro-
jector is, in ninety-nine cases
out of a hundred, that “first.”
No matter what other pieces you
buy, you will continue to long
for a sound projector. The more
other pieces you buy, the greater
your longing will be. It is there-
fore our advice to get the sound
projector first and then buy all
the other pieces when, and if,
you find them necessary or de-
sirable. This plan will save you
money, except in special cases.

Future Projectors

We look for a great revolu-
tion in the projector field. Pro-
jector evolution has gone by
easy stages from 35 mm to 16 mm

FILMS OF MERIT

16MM SOUND - SILENT - 8MM

For Teaching, Recess
and Entertainment

Write for Listing

Nu-Art Films, Inc.

145 WEST 45th STREET
NEW YORK 19, N, Y.

RENT SALE

to 8mm. But we want something
more personal than a projector
provides. Projectors immediate-
ly suggest a “show” and an
“audience.” What the world is
waiting for is a device — perhaps
4mm — which will be so simple in
operation, so free from electric
connections, and so low in cost
that one may be owned by each
member of the family to serve
his individual requirements. It
must be a device which one can
use at any place and at any time
as conveniently as one uses a
book or a newspaper. It must
be small enough to fit in the
pocket or purse along with films.
The viewing must be done di-
rectly without resorting to pro-
jection or electricity, except such
as small dry-cells can supply.

To take its rightful place as
the great tool of communication
that it is, the motion picture
must be free from the use of
screens. It must be given direct-
ly and personally to the individ-
ual, just as books were un-
chained from church pillars in
the Middle Ages and given to
the individual. This will come —
it must come to make the mo-
tion picture of fullest value for
enjoyment— both for entertain-
ment and for instruction. De-
vices are now on the market
which accomplish this after a
fashion, bLit they are rather
cumbersome affairs, suitable for
film-editing work, and are aid
to produce eye-strain. Here is a

challenge to inventors who are
looking for multi-billion-dollar
returns for their work. We have
every reason to believe it can
be done.

The Slide & Film Exchange of
the State Department of Educa-
tion of Ohio stands ready to buy
the first device of this nature,
even though it costs as much as
the present sound-on-film 16mm
projectors. So here is a challenge
to inventors.

The mass viewing of pictures
by means of a screen is harmful
in education because viewing
and learning rates vary with in-
dividuals. This same mass view-
ing for entertainment leaves
eight percent of the public not
using the motion picture at all.
In spite of the appeal of the
moving picture, only twenty per-
cent care to surrender all per-
sonal convenience as to time,
place, and climatic conditions
demanded by mass-showing in
theaters. So the theaters are
filled with the young and the
hearty, those with an average
age of less than twenty-two.
That sector of the people which
stays at home reads newspapers
and magazine digests, or listens
disconcertedly to radio pro-
grams. As to the most numerous
sector, we find it searching for
first-hand experiences via the
automobile, or other outdoor
conveyances the year round. The
motion picture must conform to
personal conveniences to be com-
pletely popular. Then indeed will
the film achieve its destiny as
an effective, universal medium
of communication, transending
that of the printed word.

Our next article will consider
the question of Free Films.

Coming: ^^What
Makes Confusion in
the English FielcC”

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume Xll, No. 3

BEHIND THE SCREEN CREDITS

Only God can make a tree, but
at MGM Studios He gets won-
derful assistance from Walter
Fabel and his crew of 38 men
who have been known to “plant
and grow” a giant eucalyptus or
a Sequoia redwood overnight.
Fabel and his “greenmen” are
experts in the art of “naturiz-
ing” movie sets so they look as
if Mother Nature herself had
been on the job.

Sometimes these men have to
go Nature one better. Give them
an order for a set requiring
gaunt winter oaks, adrip with
plaster icicles, and they can pro-
duce it before you can say Jack
F'rost, on one of the year’s hot-
test days, as they did for Anna
Karenina, set in snowbound Rus-
sia. Or ask them during the Cali-
fornia rainy season for an arid
desert, abloom with wild shrub
and cacti, as required for Billn
the Kid, and they’d have it be-
fore you can remember that the
plural of cactus is cacti.

From their stockpile of 1,000
different kinds of plants, shrubs,
vines, branches, tree stumps,
limbs, and grass, plus ten acres
of growing things that they tend
near the studio, they dress the
sets, inside and out, of the 40 to
.50 pictures made by MGM every
year. This may and does include
anjdhing from ivying Mrs. Min-
iver’s house in England to grow-
ing rice in terraces on Wang’s
farm in The Good Earth.

One of greenery’s biggest jobs
in recent years was to dress the
sets for The Yearling, recreating
the lush, tropical, thickly vege-
tated terrain of the Florida
Everglades. Part of the picture
was shot on location there, and

BY HELEN COLTON

the camera crew sent back pic-
tures to Fabel, whose men repro-
duced almost all of the vegeta-
tion for studio scenes.

For the ground around young
Jody’s house, they had to grow
corn (in three different stages,
to denote the passage of time) ,
tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and
cow peas. Seeds were planted
and nurtured in 40,000 individ-
ual jars and cans, which were
hidden behind low walls and in
sod when the picture was shot.
Not all of these are used at one
time; some are replacements for
plants close to the camera, which
become dry and sere after sev-
eral days of “acting.”

For the greenmen, many of
whom used to be gardeners or
farmers, tending Jody’s crops
was a pleasant change from tree-
planting, and they gave them as
much care and devotion as a ten-
ement resident might give to a
single rose bud in a window-
box.

Fabel’s recipe for How To
Make A Tree goes :

Take one telephone pole, and
fasten it to a square, wooden
stand so it can be moved around
and “planted” at will. Call in
the plaster department and tell
them what kind of tree it is to
be. They will then plaster around
the pole, making ridges to look
like bark, making it long and
thin, or short and stumpy, ac-
cording to your specifications.
Pick out branches, and nail them
on in realistic positions. If it’s
a winter scene, your job in done.

If it’s a spring or summer
scene, find out from research
what this tree looks like in
bloom. Will it have leaves?

Buds? Berries? Are they pink,
blue, white, lavender, green,
peach, red, yellow? Are they
round, oval, curled, or flat? Wire
on the proper artificial leaves or
buds. Is the picture in Techni-
color? If so, colors should be
deeper than the real hues. Nat-
ural colors would fade to pale-
ness under the Technicolor cam-
era. Spray the whole with a thin
varnish mixture to gloss it up.

Not all of Metro’s trees hide
hearts of telephone poles. Many
of them, especially for close-ups
like the Central Park scene in
The Clock, are the real thing
bought from green vendors in
California or from privately-
owned acreage. The studio also
has its own little forest of sev-
eral hundred oak, pine, cypress,
hemlock, pepper, joshua, and
maple trees on a back lot. This
“forest” serves several purposes.
It provides extra trees when
green vendor supplies are low
occasionally because of fires. It
is also a standing set for forest
scenes. And it blocks out the ugly
oil wells not far from the studio.

At least two men on the green
staff never objected to tending
the family lawn when they were
kids. That’s all they do, six days
a week, in a big square where
they grow oblong patches of five
different kinds of grass.

Why different kinds? As Fa-
bel explains, “The grass in a
poor neighborhood looks differ-
ent from the grass, say, on the
well-kept lawn of the rich Lord
family in Philadelphia Story.
The swanky Lord stuff is dif-
ferent from the grass on a golf
course, which gets walked on
more often.”

December, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Henry Barbier, M-G-M studio florist, purveys photogenic flowers and fruits.

Comes the call for a particu-
lar type of grass, and the men
go to work with a machine which
goes down two or three inches
into the sod and slices off a nice
green strip with the ease and
dispatch with which you’d slice a
piece of bread.

To supplement this real stuff,
there are several thousand mats
of artificial grass in assorted
conditions and shades of green
which, laid out 20 feet from the
camera, could never be detected
on the screen from the real
thing.

Now worth $100,000, the
green department started about
25 years ago as a 50-x-50-foot
patch, where Stage 18 now
stands. Fabel’s late father was

head greenman, with two assist-
ants. Not until the studio made
its first Tarzan picture, set en-
tirely in jungle, did it build up
a large stock of horticultural
commodities. Many of these, like
long-lived p alms and tree
stumps, are still being used.

From Stage 18, the green de-
partment grew to a larger area,
now occupied by Stage 23. Later,
and until a half-dozen years ago,
it occupied the territory now
taken over by the standing set
of a modern New York street.

During many of those years,
artificial flowers and foliage
were part of greenery. But as the
studio expanded and made more
films with bigger budgets, all
those details in one set-up were

too much for a single depart-
ment head to handle. So now
there’s a separate artificial
flower section, headed by Henry
Barbier, whose two assistants
do nothing but make flowers,
wreaths, bouquets, and corsages
full-time. Perversely, when they
want flowers to wear in their
hair, they buy them in the five-
and-ten !

Their workshop looks like the
hothouse of the world’s most gi-
gantic florist. The only thing
lacking is the fragrance. We
shall undoubtedly have that, too,
when the time comes, in the cre-
ative evolution of movies.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

THE PLAY'S THE THING

Br FLORA RHETA SCHREIBER

EDITOR'S NOTE

We have received numerous requests
to let a drama expert guide the the-
atre-going of our readers.

Successful stage plays often become
the literary sources of photoplays and
radio plays. To appreciate films and
iddio programs, it is therefore desir-
able to see the best current plays —
either in New York or in key towns
when these plays are roadshown
throughout the country. Because of
the interrelation of stage, screen, and
radio, we present here the beginning
of a drama department in the GUIDE.

Floia Rheta Schreiber, a member of
the speech department at Brooklyn
College, was for four years drama
critic of “The Players Magazine.” She
is a contributor to a wide range of
magazines, including such scholarly
journals as “Poet Lore” and “The
Quarterly Journal of Speech” and such
popular magazines as “Collier’s” and
“Mademoiselle.” Miss Schreiber has
published critical articles on radio
in the New York Times and has been
a notable contributor of radio articles
to this GUIDE. Her article on “The
Battle of Soap Opera” has been re-
printed and widely circulated.

Miss Schreiber received her A.M.
degree in drama at Columbia Univer-
sity. She won the Cornelia Otis Skin-
ner Scholar-hip of the Drama League
of America. This took her to the Uni-
versity of London, where she studied
with Elsie Fogarty and E. Martin
Browne at the Central School of
Speech Training and Dranratic Art.
Miss Schreiber is also an alumna of
the N.Y.U. Summer Radio Workshop.

Teachers and students of drama will
find Miss Schreiber’s analyses of cur-
rent plays not only enjoyable, but use-
ful in building critical vocabularies.

— W. L.

"YOU TOUCHED ME"

The theater’s n e \v white-
haired boy is Tennessee Wil-
liams, whose The Glass Menag-
erie won him the Critics’ Circle
prize and also the Sidney How-
ard Memorial Prize. Mr. Wil-
liams’s second play, in collabora-
tion with Donald Windham and

Edmund Gwenn as the old toper, in
Tennessee WiKioms's new play, "You
Touched Me," is just plain wonderful,
says Miss Schreiber.

(Sketch by Lilly Rossi)

with the shade of D. H. Law-
rence, is Yo// Touched Me, pre-
sented by Guthrie McClintic in
association with Lee Shubert.

And now for a dash of heresy.
I like You Touched Me better
than The Glass Menagerie. Al-
though The Glass Menagerie is
better wrought and sharper in
its over-all effect, it often de-
pends on hokum to achieve its
ends. And its style is frequently
pretentious. There is, on the
other hand, in the newer play
literateness sans pretension, gen-
uine humor, natural efferves-
cence, and dialogue which is
earthy, salty, and to the point.

The point of the play, a point
that the crusading Lawrence
made again and again, is that
women, in this case English
women, obsessed with self-right-
eousness a n d self-martyrdom.

destroy whomever their lives
touch. It is the same point that
Philip Wylie makes in A Gen-
eration of Vipers, in which he
shouts down the American ma-
triarchy.

The self-righteous lady in the
case is a spinster with a dream
of marrying a parson described
as “an ecclesiastical capon.”
Meantime, however, though she
is living on her brother’s in-
come, she rules his house, dic-
tates to his daughter, whom she
has turned into a lonely, fragile
recluse, and keeps her brother
perpetually drunk by making his
conscious life dismally neuter.

There is dynamite let loose
in the house when the brother’s
adopted son returns home on
furlough and falls in love with
the niece. It is this love, tenta-
tive, frightened, uncertain how
to proceed, that fires the father
to declare independence. The
father had once been a skipper,
but, having foundered his ship,
was deprived of his skipper’s
certificate. Consigned to the
shore — boredom for him — he
has become a Rabelaisian char-
acter. Sharp, erotic images fly
from his tongue as he goads his
pink-tea daughter into defying
her aunt and into facing love.

Catherine Willard, who last
season gave a commanding per-
formance in The Deep Mrs.
Sykes, is terrifying as the spin-
ster. Occasionally her perform-
ance verges on caricature, but
don’t caricature and nightmare
merge somewhere in the realm
of fear? Montgomery Clift, last
season seen in The Searching
Wind, underplays the part of the
adopted boy. Marianne Stewart
is the baffled ingenue. Till the
end hers is an anemic role, and

December, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

she plays it with knowing bland-
ness.

Edmund Gwenn as the old
toper is just plain wonderful.
One can complain, perhaps, that
the Gwenn style is always the
same, always predictable. Yet it
is always engaging. Here it is at
its best — broad yet wry, aban-
doned yet full of quiet pathos.

The play as a whole is not so
good as its parts — as its sharp
moments of psychological revel-
ation or its vivid vignettes. The
parts, however, are imaginative
gems.

"DEEP ARE THE ROOTS"

Arnaud D’Usseau and James
Gow, the team that two seasons
ago gave us the anti-Nazi To-
morroiv the World, now pack a
fresh wallop in Deep Are The
Roots, produced b y Kermit
Bloomgarden and George Heller.

Newspapermen before they be-
came playwrights, the Messrs.
D’Usseau and Gow have a keen
sense of the topical. In both plays
they have presented slices of
contemporary life with earnest-
ness, vigor, and at times even
passion.

The slice of life of the new
play is cut from below the Ma-
son and Dixon line, but it is meat
for the whole nation. “What
happens,” the playwrights ask
in effect, “when a Negro soldier
who has risen to a lieutenancy,
has been decorated for bravery,
and above all has been accepted
as an equal by Europeans, re-
turns home, and finds that home
is the same South he used to
know, seething with the same
prejudices he now sees in a new
perspective?”

Brett Charles, the young sol-
dier, returning to the home of
the retired Southern senator,
where his mother is a servant
and where he has grown up,
faces the bigotry of the senator,
the pseudo-friendship of Alice,

the senator’s elder daughter,
and the unquestioning love of
Nevy, the younger daughter.
The roots of prejudice are deep
in the senator, who, brooding on
the Negro threat to white secur-
ity, fancies that the soldier has
stolen his watch, and orders
Alice to have him arrested. In
Alice prejudice is more complex.
Always she has posed as an en-
lightened liberal. She has been
interested in Brett because of
his ability; has even helped him
get a job as the principal of the
Negro school. But hers has been
benevolence on a pedestal. When
the pedestal is threatened, ben-
evolence turns venemous. When
her father orders her to call the
police to arrest Brett, she fol-
lows his orders — follows them
even though she knows Brett did
not steal the watch. But she
wants him out of the way be-
cause she knows what her father
doesn’t know — that her sister
Nevy and he are in love with
each other and have been seen
together.

Questions are posed, but no
answers follow. The only answer
to the dilemma, given by Alice’s
future husband, a Northerner
and a writer, is that daring to
face confusion is itself an an-
swer.

As a whole, the play is good
theater; the second act is par-
ticularly absorbing. It is too pat,
however, and too self-conscious.
At times one can almost hear the
authors conferring ; “Let’s bring
a Yankee in; he can talk for us.
Let’s have one of the daughters
pure-in-heart, so that we don’t
paint all the Southerners as
evil.” In the end, Brett is re-
leased from prison and Alice
makes peace with him. This met-
aphorical handclasp is theatrical
rather than real, stated rather
than achieved.

Elia Kazan, who has directed

major assignments like The Eve
of St. Mark and The Skin of Our
Teeth, brings his customary in-
cisiveness to the direction. Gor-
don Heath gives a subdued but
moving performance as Brett.
Charles Waldron successfully
combines physical frailty with
psychological cruelty in his por-
trait of the senator. Lloyd Gough
plays the Yankee writer with
quiet intensity. Carol Goodner,
in the last few years saddled
with a succession of roles as a
tough woman which she played
vividly, now brings assurance to
the role of the genteel Alice, not
tough enough to fight down the
prejudice she has inherited.

Above all, it is Barbara Bel
Geddes who rates a paragraph
all her own. Her growth in the
last few years is incredible.
From an obscure juvenile, she
has become an actress of great
assurance, sensitivity, and emo-
tional power. The maturity she
showed in playing Nevy is as-
tounding in one so young. I don’t
think I shall ever quite forget
the poignancy with which Nevy
tells of the lynching she saw as
a child and the cruel, warped
faces of the crowd which stayed
with her even after the image of
the man lynched had faded. Miss
Bel Geddes’s portrait of Nevy
will, in fact, remain an unfor-
gettable characterization in my
mental theatre files.

"THE RYAN GIRL"

The Ryan Girl, presented by
the Messrs. Shubert in associa-
tion with Albert De Courville, is,
to be perfectly frank and admit-
tedly trite, a good evening in the
theatre. There is plenty of corn
to be gathered on the stage of
The Plymouth, but there are also
a few thrills.

Edmund Goulding, last repre-
sented on Broadway by Doncinf)
Mothers in 1924, is the author.
His play is well-made and, as is

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

often the way with well-made
plays, artificial. It is intense at
moments, but, for melodrama, it
lacks incident. It borders on psy-
chological melodrama, but it
never rises above theatrical arti-
fice. Most of the dialogue is
cliched, but now and then there
is a witty line. “This is so legit,”
says the gangster (more of him
later), “that it’s not on the
level.”

The story? This is a venerable
plot about a mother’s sacrifice
for a son unaware that she ex-
ists. The mother is an ex-Follies
girl, and the son, now a returned
war hero, had been adopted in
infancy by wealthy friends of
his mother. His real father, also
unknown to him, a gangster
wanted on a murder charge, who
has escaped to South America,
gets the idea that he can now
return to New York, establish
his claim to his son, and count
on the clemency of a jiu’y be-
cause his son is a hero. The
father arrives and announces his
intention to the boy’s mother.
Though separated from them,
she still loves both father and
son. Because she loves them, she
sees only one solution — to kill
the father before he can shatter
their son’s peace of mind and
tranquil life with the parents he
believes his own. Hers is a thrill-
ing, though easily predicted, mo-
ment of decision.

June Havoc, who here makes
her debut as a straight dramatic
actress, gives a lively though ob-
vious performance as the ex-
Follies girl. Neither her body
nor her voice, however, is yet
attuned to dramatic nuances.
Edmund Lowe, returning to
Broadway after a 23-year tru-
ancy, is vivid as the gangster
even though he is at times aloof
from his own performance, look-
ing on as it were and saying: “I
don’t believe in this tough guy.”
Una O’Connor, one of Dublin’s

distinguished Abbey Players,
gives a remarkable performance
as a faithful old servant, a Cas-
sandra-like figure who hovers
in the background from which
she protects those whom she
serves.

"THE ASSASSIN"

Some ten years ago Irwin
Shaw wrote a play called Burij
The Dead, a one-acter in which
he cried out passionately against
war. It was clear that the new
playwright’s idiom was strong.
Expectations rose high. Full-
length plays followed, and the
idiom continued vigorous, but
the earlier promise was never
quite realized. In no three-acter
could Shaw sustain the intensity
he showed in his first play. Re-
peatedly the structure was
faulty. Shaw showed greater
strength in his short stories,
which are sharp vignettes of
contemporary life.

All this is by way of pream-
ble to the fact that The Assas-
si)), Irwin Shaw’s new play pre-
sented by Carly Wharton and
Martin Gabel in association with
Alfred Bloomingdale is one more
example of the frustrating of
first promise.

The new play deals with the
historically as yet unexplained
motives of the young zealot who
murdered Admiral Darlan and
with the factional fights in
France among the De Gaulists,
the Blumites, the Bourbons, the
Bonapartists, the Communists,
and the Croix De Feu. Shaw’s
message — and he has always
been a moralistic writer — is that
the quality of a man is more im-
portant than what he believes.
The hero, a royalist, assassinates
Admiral Marcel Vespery, the
stage Darlan, partly in the hope
of thus helping a king to the
throne, but also because, by so
doing, he can secure the release
from prison of a small group of
his friends of all political faiths.

This hero is one who dies, want-
ing to live, and who commits the
murder in the certainty that his
own escape is assured. The plot
to save him miscarries, and he is
executed. His last gesture, be-
fore he is led out of the prison
cell, is to chalk the date of his
birth and the date of his death
on the prison wall. This cine-
matic touch is the final, lugubri-
ous bravado of the romantic
young man.

There is a love story, too. An
attachment sprouts spontaneous-
ly between the hero and a girl
who considered herself dead ever
since her husband was killed at
the front. She finds that the liv-
ing do not die with the dead.
When her lover is executed, she
wishes she had in fact been able
to remain dead to love.

This is the stuff of poetic
tragedy, but Mr. Shaw muffs
his opportunity. Except for mov-
ing moments toward the end of
the second act and in the third
act, the play is pallid, diffuse,
and structurally weak. The ac-
tion starts too quickly, before
the audience cares anything
about the characters, and the
characters who wander around
are stereotypes. Likewise, Mar-
tin Gabel’s direction is chaotic.
Except for Frank Sundstrom,
the gifted Swedish actor, who
makes his debut as the assassin,
and for Harold Huber, who
plays a sinister aid of the Ves-
pery forces, the acting is unin-
spired. These two, however, give
first-rate performances.

"THERESE"

Victor Payne-Jennings and
Bernard Klawans have assem-
bled a distinguished cast headed
by Eva Le Gallienne, Victor
Jory, and Dame May Whitty,
and engaged Margaret Web-
ster to wield the directorial ba-
ton for Therese, Thomas Job’s
adaptatioii of Zola’s Therese Ra-
qidn. But keep your expectations

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

December, 1945

in check. The blunt fact is that
Therese turns out to be a parade
of competence, but, as with par-
ades, the impulse when it is over
is to ask : why all the trouble in
the first place?

The failure of this melodrama
to stir the emotions or move
the heart is theoretical and ax-
iomatic. The lovers-murderers —
Therese and Laurent — drown
Camille, Therese’s husband,
without conflict and without
emotion. You might say they
drop him in the cold water in
cold blood. Precisely because
they are lacking in feeling, we
feel no pity. We see that their
crime brings them no happi-
ness; for, once it is committed,
there are daily reminders of it
that destroy their peace, and in
the end the mother of the dead
husband spells out with domin-
oes the truth about the murder-
ers. But we care nothing about
the fate that overtakes them,
just as we cared nothing about
Camille’s death. This sordid be-
havior Zola called naturalism,
but, ironically, naturalism here
seems curiously artificial.

There could have been pity in
the story. The hypochondriac
Camille turned Therese into a
shrew, and the murder could
have been presented as the final
expression of her struggle to es-
cape from a miserable life with
a lover who promised to restore
her to her normal self. But if
this struggle is implicit in the
story, it is nowhere manifest in
the play or in the acting.

Eva Le Gallienne’s Therese is
a faded photostat of the role she
played in Uticle Harry. Victor
Jory, as Laurent, rises to the oc-
casion in the self-chastisement
of the final scenes, but his love
scenes are wooden. The comedy
of the callers at Madame Ra-
quin’s home is a bright spot, for
John F. Hamilton, Averell Har-
ris, Annette Sorell, and Doris

Patston are amusing in these
minor roles.

Dame May Whitty captures
the honors of the evening. She
plays Camille’s mother. Her
performance is a masterpiece
of sheer technical brilliance,
achieved through under-empha-
sis. When she learns that her
too-well loved but neurotic son
is dead, she barely changes her
stance or her tone of voice, but
there is something in the look
of her eye which betrays her
sorrow. Overhearing the self-
reproaching of the guilty lovers,
she blends into the sinister back-
ground. Stricken with apoplexy,
her helplessness is life-like.
When she sits on a wheel chair,
dumbly watching the murderers
carry on their sordid daily life,
the accusation in her silent body
is remarkable. Finally, there is
a moment of electric theatre

Notable Radio Course On
"Our Foreign Policy"

Teachers and students of the
social studies are finding in-
creasing interest in the non-
partisan series of weekly pro-
grams on American foreign pol-
icy, presented Saturdays at 7
p. m. as one of the notable
courses in the NBC University
of the Air, under the direction
of Sterling Fisher, who also acts
as moderator.

The program brings to the
microphone leading members of
both houses of Congress, spokes-
men of the Department of State,
and other public figures, as a
sustaining feature.

Every school and college will
do well to keep a file of the 20-
page weekly transcripts of this
program, available at 10c a copy,
or 13 for $1. Payment should be
made in U. S. coin or check and
mailed to “Our Foreign Policy,”
The National Broadcasting Com-

w h e n she musters enough
strength to spell out her accu-
sation.

Dame May is the evening, but
the evening needs more than
just Dame May to make her
gifted daughter’s direction
worthwhile.

Deep Are The Roots is suited
to high-school or college produc-
tion. It combines a serious theme
with youthful characters. The
character of Nevy, played by the
youthful Barbara Bel Ceddes, is
a particular challenge to the stu-
dent actress. The play also has
the advantage of having a sin-
glet set. You Touched Me, also
with a youthful heroine and a
single set, is likewise a possible
school production, though its
Rabelaisian touches might alien-
ate timid directors.

pany, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New
York 20, N. Y.

Elmer Davis on the Air

Elmer Davis, OWI director
for three years, is back on the
air as a commentator for Ameri-
can Broadcasting Company
(Blue) network stations. The
time is Sundays, 3 p. m., and
Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8:15
p. m. EST. His return to radio
was launched December 2 on a
sustaining basis, but by the time
this appears in print the pro-
gram may have a sponsor. Davis
devotees welcome his restrained
style, his homey twang, and his
habit of clear statement. Radio
needs commentators of the com-
petence of Davis, whose level-
headed, neighborly analysis of
current events will serve to re-
inforce the more pyrotechnical
showmanship of the Winchell
type.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

Visual Program of Michigan
Summer Workshop

BY MARY ACETI

The Michigan Working Con-
ference is a one-week summer
workshop on general curricu-
lum problems. It has been held
annually for the past six years.
Since the Office of Defense
Transportation limited the size
of group meetings to 50, the
Sixth Annual Workshop was
held first at Clear Lake Camp,
Dowling, Michigan, and then re-
peated the following week at the
Michigan State Conservation
Training Camp at Higgins Lake.
Each of these workshops was at-
tended by 50 administrators,
classroom teachers, college rep-
resentatives, and state consult-
ants.

Since the Michigan Working
Conference is planned around
the problems of the participants
as surveyed on the first night of
the Conference, the selection of
visual materials was made by
myselL^ from visual aids used at
Denby High School, Detroit
(where I direct the Visual Edu-
cation Program) and some of
the latest releases in our State
Film Library (University of
Michigan) and other sources.

At the beginning of the week,
a mimeographed sheet was dis-
tributed to participants, listing
all visual aids available for their
use during the week. These im-
portant tools served three main
purposes :

1. At the request of small working-
groups, to supplement and stimu-
late interest in the problem being
considered. For example, the
group on Intel-cultural Relations
asked for a showing of Negro Col-
leges in War Time; the Guidance
group, Challenge to Crime, That

*Mr. Helge Hansen helped prepare
this summary.

Boy Joe, and a sound slidefilm. We
Choose Retailing; still another
group used Challenge to Democracy
and My Japan for discussion.

2. To introduce evening panel discus-
sions, which were the outgrowth of
the small group meetings. For ex-
ample, Military Training was
shown to iirepare the aiulience for
a panel on “What Can We Learn
From G. I. Methods?” Watchtower
Over Tomorrow was very effec-
tively used to introduce another
panel on “Education for Peace.”

A field trip to the Kellogg Bird
Sanctuary and three conservation
films (Michigan Canoe Trails,
Michigan Timber Harvest, and
Michigan Beaver) were used to
stimulate interest for another eve-
ning meeting on “How Can We
Improve C o m m unity Living
Through the Wise Use of Natural
and Human Resources?” (These
films were shown before the noon
meal and the trip was taken in
the afternoon, with the panel fol-
lowing in the evening.)

3. Believing that an important func-
tion of a visual program should be
to acquaint teachers with the con-
tent of the latest visual mateiials,
every opportunity was used to
screen as many films as we pos-
sibly could. Films for previewing
were shown immediately following
the noon meal and before and after
evening sessions. It is interesting
to note that the Clear Lake parti-
cipants each previewed an average
of 11 V2 films or about 27 reels,
spending an average time of about
5V2 hours per person. This be-
comes even more significant when
one considers the very close sched-
ule followed during the week and
the fact that the previewing of
films received keen competition
for the participants’ leisure mo-
ments from the camp environment,
craft activities, and organized rec-
reational programs.

A display of current maga-
zines, books, pamphlets, and
film catalogs was made avail-
able to the conference members.
Sketches made by an art class

at Denby High School while
viewing the film Amazon Awak-
ens were also exhibited.

At the request of participants,
discussions were held on the
techniques of using visual aids in
the classroom and how to organ-
ize a high-school visual educa-
tion program.

An interesting evening was
devoted to the discussion of the
so-called G. I. Methods, by a
group of administrators who
had the opportunity to visit 26
Armed Forces training centers.
It was brought out that in spite
of the fact that traditional
school procedures lean heavily
on hearing alone, studies show
that 85 percent of all learning
occurs through the sense of
sight. The Navy, it was re-
ported, found that by the use of
visual-training aids, the student
learned up to 35 percent more in
a given time and remembered
ideas and facts up to 55 percent
longer.

During the closing session of
the Clear Lake Conference, an
evaluation sheet was distributed
to 20 members of the original
group to evaluate the visual pro-
gram of the week and help im-
prove it for the following year.
The participants felt that the
best features of this year’s pro-
gram were: its variety and
quantity, its opportunity to pre-
view the most recent films, the
practical planning and flexibil-
ity of the schedule, and its gear-
ing to group and individual in-
terests. They were unanimous in
feeling that they had been stim-
ulated to make greater use of
visual aids. The group stated
that they wanted to know still

December, 1 945

more about visual materials and
also felt a need for more time
for preview and group discus-
sion at the Conference.

Films Made Available for Use at
Clear Lake and Higgins Lake
Conferences, August 12-25,
1945

FROM UNIVERSITY OF MICHI-
GAN:

Defense Against Invasion (Spanish
Spoken), 12 min., Sound, 50c, CIAA.
Walt Disney, through animation and
actual photography, explains in sim-
ple and entertaining fashion how vac-
cination makes the body immune from
disease. An excellent health film of
interest to adults as well as children.

Amazon Awakens, The, 48 min.,
Sound, Color, 50c, CIAA. This Disney
production combines live-action pho-
tography and animation to tell the
story of the Amazon River Basin, its
history, its industrial progress, its
richness of natural resources, and the
possibilities for its future.

Back To Normal, 24 min., Sound,
$1.00, BIS. This shows not only sol-
diers who have lost limbs and been
brought back to normal with the use
of artificial limbs, but also men,
women, and children of civilian life
who lost limbs in the blitz. These
people are pictured carrying on reg-
ular activities in their old occupations
or at work in new trades taught them
at Government Training Centers.

Gracias Amigos, 24 min., Sound,
50c, CIAA. Narrated by Lowell
Thomas, this explains the important
contributions our southern-republic
neighbors made toward winning
World War II by furnishing us with
raw materials when other sources
were cut off. Such products as rub-
ber, nitrates, quartz, sisal, tin, and
manganese are shown.

My Japan, 24 irrin., Sound, 50c,
OWL By use of captured Japanese
footage, a Japanese narrator rips
aside the curtain of our over-optim-
ism and shows us what confronted r...;
as we drew near Japan.

Peace Builders, The, 12 min., Soutrd,
$1.50, Brandon. This factual and stim-
ulating film summarizes the historic
world conferences of the Allied lead-
ers from the Atlantic Charter Meet-
ing through Ottawa, Cairo, Moscow,
Teheran, Hot Springs, Bretton Woods,
Dumbarton Oaks, and the Criirrean
Conference.

Devil Is A Sissy, The (Juvenile Se-
quence), 24 min., Sound, $3, TFC.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

This film deals with parerrt-child re-
lations and gives three contrasting
irrethods of handling children — trust-
ful support, physical punishirrerrt,
helpless inadequacy.

Story With Two Endings, 12 mirr.,
Soutrd, 50c, OWL With inflation as
its thenre, this film portrays what
happened at the end of the last war
with high biddiirg for new, peace-
time goods. Points out that we have
a choice now of creating the same
ending for the present story or avoid-
ing the catastrophe of runaway
prices.

Watchtower Over Tomorrow, 18
min., Sound, 50c, OWL The Dunrbar-
ton Oaks plan for an interiratioiral se-
curity organization. Growth of the
United Nations plan, step by step,
from the Atlantic Charter and Moscow
Cotrference to Brettoir Woods and
Dumbarton Oaks is traced.

Re-Creation, 36 min., Sound, 25c,
USD A. Beneficial effects of a camp-
ing trip in a rratiorral forest upon a
tired office-worker. Activities of the
forest service.

Negro Colleges in Wartime, 12 nrin.,
Sound, 50c, OWL Wartime activities
of four colleges — Tuskegee Institute,
in Alabama; Prairie View College, in
Texas; Howard University, in Wash-
ington, D. C.; and Hampton Institute,
in Virginia.

Here Is China, 36 min., Sound, 50c,
OWL The China that existed before
the Japs attacked, showing the peas-
airt, the laborer, the builder, the fish-
erman, the school-child — the China
that we cair expect to see when the
war is over.

Kids Must Eat, 24 irrin., Sound, 25c,
USDA. Quiz Kids Joel Kupperman,
Ruth Duskin, David Davis, and Pat
Conlon, with Quiz Master Joe Kelly
in a typical quiz session, entirely un-
rehearsed. Details of the U. S. Dept,
of Agriculture sponsored community
school-lunch program.

FROM WARREN’S MOTION PIC-
TURES, BOX 107, DAYTON 1,
OHIO:

Charm and Personality, Plus Char-
acter, 40 min., Sound, Color, $12. Ta-
ble, social, and business etiquette.
PROM VENARD ORGANIZATION,

PEORIA 2, ILLINOIS:

National Farm Oddities, 20 min.,
Sourrd, Free. Ideas, inventions, and
accomplishments of farm folks.

FROM Y.M.C.A. MOTION PICTURE

BUREAU, 19 SO. LaSALLE, CHI-
CAGO 3, ILL.:

Tale of Two Cities, 48 min., Sound,

$6, TFC. A coirdensed version of the
feature produced by Metro-Goldwyn-
Mayer based on the Dickens novel of
the sanre name.

Challenge to Democracy, 24 min.,
Sound, 50c, OWL The story of 110,000
displaced people of Japanese descent
and how our government is handling
their problenrs.

Hometown, USA, 24 min., Sound,
Color, $3 B & W, $5 in Color. A sur-
vey, in beautiful color, of day-to-day
life in an average American commun-
ity.

Challenge to Crime, 12 min., Sound,
$1.50. A discussion of juvenile delin-
quency, starring Ruth Clifton, orig-
inator of the “Moline Plan.”

FROM WESTINGHOUSE CORPOR-
ATION, 306 FOURTH AVENUE,
PITTSBURGH 30, PA.:

Music in the Sky, 18 min., Sound,
Free. One of America’s radio pio-
grams, with John Charles Thomas,
Metropolitan star, and John Nesbitt,
story teller, at the studio.

FROM WAR DEPARTMENT,
HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT NO.
1, SIXTH SERVICE COMMAND,
FEDERAL BUILDING, DETROIT
26, MICHIGAN:

Enemy Booby Traps, Sound, Free.
How To Get Killed In One Easy
Lesson, Sound, Free.

FROM MICHIGAN EDUCATION AS-
SOCIATION, LANSING 2, MICHI-
GAN:

Better Schools Make Better Citi-
zens.

FROM BRITISH CONSULATE, 1574
FIRST NATIONAL BANK BLDG.,
DETROIT 26:

Psychiatry In Action, 72 min.,
Sound. Rehabilitation of patients
suffering from war neuroses.

Children Of The City, 36 min.,
Sound, $2.00. British approach to the
treatment of delinquency.

Personnel Selection. Recommended
for guidance teachers.

ONE FILM FROM PHILIPPINE LE-
GATION IN WASHINGTON.

Also: 3 films from Michigan Dept,
of conservation: Michigan Canoe
Trails, 11 min., Sound, Color, Free.
Michigan Timber Harvest, 11 min.,
Sound, Color, free. Michigan Beaver,
Sound, Black and White, Free.

Also: 1 slidefilm (sound), 40 min-
utes: We Choose Retailing.

Also: Military ’I’raining (Signal
Corps film).

Also That Boy Joe, Sound, Y.M.C.A

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

What We Can Learn From
Army -Navy Training

Into the melee of pro and con
over the educational revolution
ushered in by Army and Navy
use of training aids now comes
the clear, cool voice of the U. S.
Office of Education.

Following are highlights from
Use of Training Aids in the
Armed Services, Bulletin 1945,
No. 9 (10 cents) comprising the
report of the Committee on Mili-
tary Training Aids and Instruc-
tional Materials:

On Films: “The Armed Forces dur-
ing the past 4 years have produced
more than six-fold as great a number
of moton pictures and filmstrips as
had ever been produced before for
strictly educational purposes. Films
were used literally with the entire
Army and Navy. It can be said that
more people have been subjected to
training films as a regular instruc-
tional tool than ever before in the
history of this country.”

Training Aids Included in Curricu-
lum Planning: “In general in the
Services, planning of basic curricu-
lum includes planning for the train-
ing aids needed. Courses of study are,
for example, frequently planned in
the Navy by special committees cre-
ated for the purpose. On these com-
mittees serve representatives of the
Navy bureau involved, representa-
tives of manufacturers of training
equipment, and subjectmatter special-
ists from schools and colleges. Cur-
ricula include not only nature, scope,
and sequence of subjectmatter, but
hourly class breakdowns, with lists of
training aids in detail for each class
period.”

Training Aids Development Cen-
ter: “The Committee does feel, how-
ever, that consideration might well be
given to the creation, in appropriate
institutions, of centers where initial
research would be carried on, through
which recognition could be given to
individual and local research and
through which stimulation could be
given to more extended and effective
use of appropriate training aids and

devices.”

Education Can Learn from Adver-
tisers: “The Services have been quick
to see, however, that the techniques
used in advertising and other promo-
tional activities comprehend a sure
grasp of the nature of human motiva-
tlbn and that these techniques are
equally applicable to creating incen-
tives for training.”

Putting Humor into Education:
“The use of humor has received a
gieat deal of attention in thought and
practice in the training program of
the Services. Especially does it (the
Committee) feel that the use of hu-
mor may be productive of value for
civilian education. Traditionally in ci-
vilian education we have felt that the
use of humor in instruction is incom-
patible with seriousness of purpose.
Perhaps the Services may be able to
show us that we have excluded a most
important motivating factor in ab-
staining from the use of humor in
teaching.”

Even the Pin Ball Machine: “There
are numerous applications of all sys-
tems, such as films, filmstrips, slides,
flash cards, posters, pictures, scale
models — both still and actuated —
filmstrips in stereopticons, and shad-
owgraphs. Even the pin ball machine
has been adapted to this purpose.”

Realism in Education: “A course is
laid out, usually several hundred
yards in length. Machine guns with
fixed angles of fire are set to fire
from 3 to 6 feet over the ground
level. The soldier is required to crawl
over the course while the guns fiie
over his head. Needless to say a high
degree of realism is achieved.

“The problem of creating realism in
the learning situation has not been
overlooked in civilian programs. How-
ever, this Committee believes that the
experience of the Services in the use
of devices, especially the so-called
‘synthetic’ devices, has definite value
for professional, technical, and voca-
tional education.”

Learning by Doing: “In many areas
in civilian education the pupil or stu-
dent is never called upon to put to-
gether in supervised practice all the
separate things he has learned, and

it is not enough to say that he learned
these individual items on an experi-
ence basis.

“The Committee believes that we
in civilian education may find import-
ant values in the emphasis of the
Services upon complete and integrated
programs of ‘learning by doing,’ and
upon qualifications of trainees by
practice tests.”

Army-Navy: Spare Those Films

When the news got abroad
that the Army and Navy were
burning surplus prints of war-
time training films, loud protests
arrived in Washington. Con-
gressional and other pressure in-
duced the services to stay the
hand that held the torch. Hur-
riedly, the U. S. Office of Edu-
cation called a meeting October
15-18. Representatives of vari-
ous subject fields and visual ed-
ucation met with armed forces
and surplus property officials.
Tentative result : Educators will
li.st films they believe useful to
civilian education. Services will
make films available for distri
bution through the Department
of Commerce. Choices can be
made from lists to be circulated.
Office of Education will publi-
cize film subjects and how to get
them through its newly organ-
ized surplus property nation-
wide, liaison officer network.

6 Recordings Free

The Interior Department has
announced “one of the few truly
documentary series especially
prepared for schools,” and the
only transcription series ever
made about Puerto Rico — This
Is Puerto Rico. The series com-
prises six documentary repoi'ts
on our island possession in the

December, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Caribbean. The Insular Govern-
ment of Puerto Rico paid for
production costs.

Each program is 15 minutes
in length and occupies one side
of a 16-inch transcription. A
manual accompanies the series,
containing suggestions for the
teacher, and including back-
ground material and room for
notes. This vras prepared by
Mrs. Joyce Bartell, Assistant
Director, Wisconsin School of
the Air.

The dramatizations are en-
titled “The Island,” “The Con-
trasts,” “The People,” “The Cus-
toms,” “The Land,” and “Past,
Present, and Future.” Record-
ings of sound effects and the na-
tive music used are authentic
and were recorded on the spot.

Teachers of social studies, ge-
ography, history, American civi-
lization, and related courses may
borrow the transcriptions free.
Address : U. S. Office of Educa-
tion Transcription Exchange,
Washington 25, D. C.

NEA Presents a Fine New

Documentary Film

Teachers, would you like to
see a movie about you ? And your
work? You have that chance now
for the first time. Assign m-ent :
Tomorrow is about you and
more than 800,000 teachers in
this country. The cast of charac-
ters consists of typical American
children and their teachers —
teachers like yourself, real teach-
ers working at the job of edu-
cation for a better America.

Teaching is an exciting job
and second to no other in im-
portance. Assignniefit : Tonioi'-
row brings this home in force-
ful and touching manner. It will
make you prouder than ever of
your job. It will encourage cap-
able young people to consider
teaching as a career. It will im-
press laymen with the signifi-

cance of education in our na-
tion’s life.

Assignment: Tomorrow is a
new 25-minute, 16mm, black-
and-white, documentary film
produced by the National Edu-
cation Association. For showing
to professional audiences this
feature film is followed by a 7-
minute movie trailer describing
in animation and real-life pic-
tures the work of the National
Education Association.

There will be no charge for
this film. It has been produced
as a service of the National Ed-
ucation Association and is being

“From any long-run point of
view education is, therefore, the
most important single activity of
civilized man.”

Henry A. Wallace, Secretary
of Commerce, says this in Sixty
Million Jobs. Among his other
observations are these :

Education for the General
Welfare

“We must educate our children not
only to make a success in life as com-
petitive individuals — but also, and
even more important, to work together
in the service of the general welfare.
In recent years, education has placed
so much emphasis on the individual,
and so little on the general welfare,
that both government and business
have become more and more a battle-
ground of selfish pressure groups.”

Federal Aid

“This is a shocking statement to
make, I know — but the United States,
considering her material wealth, is
one of the most backward nations in
education in the world. True it is
that in certain states we spend 125
dollars of state and local funds a
year to educate a child. But in other-
states the local communities are so
poverty-ridden that they find it hard
to sperrd even 25 dollars a year. The

distributed in cooperation with
state and local education associa-
tions.

Most state education associa-
tions have made arrangements
for the distribution of this film.
Address booking requests to
your state education association.
In some states there will be a
nominal booking and service fee.
In case your state association is
unable to take care of your re-
quest, it will be forwarded to the
National Education Association.
The NEA will endeavor to take
care of requests which cannot be
handled by state associations.

poor education received by the chil-
dren born into these backward areas
is both a national disgrace and a na-
tional peril. Before the war state and
local governments spent $3,000,000,000
of which the state and local authori-
ties might furnish $2,700,000,000 and
the Federal government $300,000,000.
The cost of World War II to the Fed-
eral government has averaged around
$300,000,000 a day. Surely, it can
spend as much in a year to support
our public school system — which, after
all, is a front line of defense of our
national liberties.”

Adult Education
“As a nation, we would have a
much broader knowledge of interna-
tional affairs if more of us learned
another language. None of us is too
old to learn something new. It is just
a question of wanting to learn with
the whole intensity of our being. I
put in enough spare time to learn a
little Spanish at fifty — a little Rus-
sian at fifty-five — and, at fifty-six,
enough about flying so I could solo
and land a plane by myself. And I
have known of others who learned to
fly at seventy. Moreover, the older
folks, by learning new things, often
stimulate their children. I’m sure that
if I hadn’t learned Spanish, my
daughter and one of my sons would
never have studied the language.”

Secretary Wallace's Views
On Education

Volume XII, No. 3

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

RECOMMENDED PHOTOPLAYS

Reviewed by Dr. Frederick Houk LaWf Editor,
Educational Department, The Readers Digest

18 MILLION ORPHANS. The March of
Time. Strongly recommended.

Why do the millions of Asia
eagerly watch the ways of the
United States in the Philip-
pines? What have we done for
the Philippines ? What more
should we — and can we — do?
Those thought-provoking ques-
tions come to mind when one
sees the latest issue of The
March of Time, 18 Million Or-
phans, a series of wonderfully
well chosen, well edited pictures
of the Philippines as they were
before the war and as they are
today.

March of Time cameramen
made such striking pictures that
they come close to what news-
paper men call “scoops.” How
close to today’s news interests
are the pictures of General Mac-
Arthur in his office as Com-
mander of American forces in
the Philippines, with General
Eisenhower standing at his side,
and the picture of General Mac-
Arthur addressing the Philip-
pine Congress! How pat to pre-
sent conditions are the pictures
of the pre-war training of an
army of Filipinos ! In fact, see-
ing this issue of The March of
Time is like journeying to the
Philippines before the war and
again today, like moving about
among all kinds of peoples in
those islands and seeing all con-
ditions.

For camera work alone, and
for remarkably effective editing
and presentation of the shots.
The March of Time’s 18 Million
Orphans is worth seeing. For
thought-provoking nature it is
worthy of high praise.

FALLEN ANGEL. 20th Century-Fox.
Mystery melodrama. Otto Preminger, Di-
rector. Generally recommended.

“Love alone can make the Fallen
Angel rise.

For only two together can enter
Paradise.”

That is about all that the mo-
tion picture. Fallen Angel, has
to say about angels. The narra-
tive tells about a very hard-
boiled, brazen, and masterful
young man (Dana Andrews)
who finds his way into a small
California village. There he falls
in love with a wilful waitress in
a roadside diner (Linda Dar-
nell), thrusts himself upon a
wandering spirit-raising faker,
and shows that person how real-
ly to make money by playing
upon the emotions of grief-
stricken person s. Finding a
young woman who is about to
inherit a small fortune (Alice
Faye), he wheedles her into be-
coming his wife, although he
continues to love the waitress.

Such a personage and such
events make Fallen A^igel a ras-
cal story — picaresque, if you
prefer the term. Other events
that give pitch and point to the
series of happenings make the
story a mystery story — and a
good one, too, that holds the aud-
ience guessing and wondering
until the end. The mystery
creeps up on one, as it were, and
changes an ordinary rascal
story into a story of crime de-
tection.

Perhaps one of the reasons
why the events move along so
surely and, in rather surprising
manner, lead to a strong climax,
is that the plot comes from a
novel by Marty Holland.

The producer-director, Otto
Preminger, made the most of
the material that he had, built
up a goodly amount of realism,
and developed events with skill.
Just as Mark Twain did in tell-
ing about the King and the Duke
in Huckleberry Finn, he soft-
ened the rough parts of the story
and thereby made them even
more interesting and emphatic.

One may question whether the
“fallen angel” remained perma-
nently raised or whether he re-
turned to his brazen, self-reli-
ant method of life, but the Hol-
lywood ending at least gives a
pleasant flip to the story.

A WALK IN THE SUN. Realistic pic-
ture of war in Italy. 20th Century-Fox.
Lewis Milestone, Director. Recommended.

Perhaps you would like to go
to war, to feel the frightful anx-
iety of coming battle, to know
the interminable waiting, to feel
lost and helpless, to feel doubt
about the wisdom of orders, to
see your friends die miserably,
to wonder why you should suf-
fer so much for so little gain, to
feel gripped and crushed by fate.
If so, you can come close to hav-
ing all these experiences by see-
ing A Walk In the Sun, one of
the most realistic and agonizing
pictures of war, a film story so
intensely real that it exhausts
you with its emotional effects,
a picture that grows upon you
long hours after you have seen
it.

Here there are no romance,
no false heroics, no love affair,
no one outstanding hero, no
plot, no glimpses of beauty, no
touches of humor. Here there is
only the stark reality of war.

December, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

That does not mean that you see
charging squadrons and realize
the glory of winning a great
battle. It means war as G.I. Joe
saw it when separated from
commissioned officers and clear
directions and left dazed and
wondering, to carry on and do
d,s well as possible.

Events are simple but epic. A
platoon commanded by a lieuten-
ant moves across the water to
the beach at Salerno in 1943.
The lieutenant meets death be-
fore the platoon reaches the
shore. The two sergeants take
command. The men move a hun-
dred yards up the sand and dig
in. After desperate waiting, they
go ahead, trying to follow or-
ders. They destroy an enemy
tank, blow up a bridge, and take
a small farm house, strongly de-
fended by machine guns. That
is all, but the motion picture tells
the whole human-interest story
of what the men did, how they
acted, what they thought. One
who sees the picture seems to
share in the events.

You may not like it — but it is
war. Shall we picture w^ar as it
is not, or as it is? Shall we blind
ourselves or shall we see the
hard reality?

Director Milestone left out of
the screen story everything that
did not belong in it, and he in-
cluded all that did belong. Here
is superbly honest directing, a
completely artistic presentation,
even though the realism of war
may displease many. Without
the help of men who took part
in such landings and such events
no director could have made
such a picture. It is gripping
reality itself, a factual record of
the landing at Salerno.

SPELLBOUND. A study of psychoanaly-
sis. David 0. Seiznick production, released
through United Artists. Alfred Hitchcock,
Director. For Adults.

“The mind of a woman in love
is on the lowest level,” says one

of the leading persons in Spell-
bound. The motion-picture play
apparently proves the point, for
highly intellectual and young
Dr. Constance Peterson (Ingrid
Bergman) falls madly in love
with “J.B.” (Gregory Peck), a
man who doesn’t know who he
is, who says that he has commit-
ted murder, who prowls around
dangerously and threatens to
commit still further murder.
The infatuated young woman,
who is supposed to be sane
enough to cure the insane, runs
away with the man-who-doesn’t-
know-himself, and then skis
down a mountainside straight
toward a frightful precipice.

The motion-picture play an-
nounces itself as a study of psy-
choanalysis. The story intro-
duces us to a group of psycho-
analysts in a private hospital,
but it shows these supposedly
learned persons as themselves so
peculiar, s o unbalanced, that
they might well be patients
themselves.

The story, based upon a novel,
The House of Dr. Edwardes, by
Hilary St. George Saunders and
Leslie Palmer, is morbid, un-
wholesome and lacking in ap-
peal to one’s sense of reality. Or-
dinarily, one does not think of
highly trained women physi-
cians as persons quick to elope
with patients that they know to
be mentally deranged and even
dangerous to life. Members of
any audience are not likely to
fall in love with such persons,
and therefore they lack sym-
pathy with any psychoanalyst
who runs away with a mental
patient.

In some respects seeing Spell-
bound, in spite of all the beauty
and charm of Ingrid Bergman
and the excellent acting of Greg-
ory Peck, is much like spending
two hours alone with patients in
ail insane asylum.

Alfred Hitchcock knows how

to direct motion-picture plays
in ways that bring out the best
that they have to give, and he
directed SpellbowHl with all his
vigor. He showed many of the
methods of psychoanalysis,
showed various types of pa-
tients, and pictured a gripping
skiing scene on a wild mountain
slope.

“Women make the best psy-
choanalysts,” says a person in
the play, but when they fall in
love they make the best pa-
tients.”

Nevertheless, one must admit
that Spellbound has high narra-
tive interest. In a sense, it is a
mystery story, with the “who-
dunit” mystery well kept to the
last. Interest in its story, in its
pseudo-science, and particularly
in Ingrid Bergman, will carry
the play to popularity — but “It’s
a mad world, my masters !”

THE HOUSE I LIVE IN. RKO. A Frank
Sinafra short. Highly recommended for
schools.

In The House I Live In Frank
Sinatra presents in song a
strongly appealing dramatiza-
tion of the need for freeing our
land from all forms of racial and
religious prejudices. RKO Radio
Pictures joins the suggestors of
the picture, Frank Ross, Mervyn
LeRoy, and Frank Sinatra in do-
nating their services in making
the film on a non-profit basis.
The action strikes home to all
young people who see the film.

LEASE ON LIFE. National Tuberculo-
sis Association. Emerson Yorke Studio.
Emerson Yorke, Director. Effective health
film.

With interesting family epi-
sodes, strongly individualized
characterization and a thread of
humorous narrative. Lease on
Life tells a story that focuses
interest upon a somewhat can-
tankerous “Granny.” At the
same time the film sets forward
the purposes and methods of
health tests of many kinds.

As a kindly old horse-ancl-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

buggy doctor, Gene Lockhart
rides out of the life-beyond to
look once again at patients
whom he had treated when in
life.

Character and story interests
so combine in this presentation
that they make Lease on Life
one of the most effective of all
health films.

THEY WERE EXPENDABLE. Our voin
defense of the Philippines. M-G-M. John
Ford, Director. Strongly recommended.

William L. White’s best-sell-
ing book, They Were Expend-
able, forms the basis for the
scenes that the motion picture
of the same title presents. For-
tunately, the motion picture re-
tains and even emphasizes all
the high points and notable
characteristics of the book.

Presented as fiction, the film
story nevertheless forms a de-
tailed, personalized history of
the series of events that oc-
curred in the Philippines im-
mediately before the Japanese
overwhelmed the islands. With-
out developing any strong plot
concerning one or two principal
characters, the story throws
strongest light upon the fortuiies
of an entire group of American
soldiers and their helpers and
friends. We notice the different
individualities, the differing
personal reactions, and we sense
the coming of disaster just as
did the persons who took part
in those sad days. At the same
time we share in the bantering
and jokes of the soldiers, in the
social life with its dances and
warm friendships, and in that
undefined American spirit that
insists upon individuality, how-
ever great any danger may be.

The pictures throughout show
unusually expert camera work,
every shot well chosen and every
picture sharp and clear, almost
l)roducing third dimensional ef-
fect.

Pobert Montgomery, John

Wayne, and Donna Reed enact
the leading parts. A note says
that A)iy siniilarity to actual
persons living or dead, is purely
coincidental, but Robert Barrat,
as an unnamed “General” looks
remarkably like a certain great
personality who flew from the
Philippines to Australia.

They Were Expendable is a
good presentation of a great his-
toric moment, and as such, and
not for any interest in the char-
acters of the story, or in their
intimately personal affairs, it is
worth the seeing.

COLONEL EFFINGHAM'S RAID. So-
cial comedy. 201-11 Ceni-ury-Fox. Irving
Pichel, Direct-or. Recommended.

A stock-character, preposter-
ous United States Army Colonel
who had spent much of his life
in service, especially in helping
to make the Panama Canal, re-
tires to what he hopes will be the
peace and quiet of his Georgia
town. There he finds that local
politicians are playing fast and
loose with civic affairs and en-
riching themselves at the ex-
pense of the taxpayers. The
fiery Colonel (Charles Coburn)
throws himself with all his mili-
tary vigor into battle against
corruption in office. Two young
reporters on the local newspaper
(William Eythe and Joan Ben-
nett) aid him in his attack upon
the Mayor, the chief political
leader (Thurston Hall).

Director Irving Pichel appar-
ently had no intention of mak-
ing either action or characteri-
zation realistic. For the purpose
of humor he develops a great
deal of exaggeration, but in so
doing he makes caricatures that
have sufficient resemblance to
reality to give amusement and
to produce pleasant satire of
easy-going American political
life. He centers all interest upon
the completely military-minded
old Colonel and the completely
hypocritical, conniving Mayor.

Students who see Colonel Ef-
fingham’s Raid will enjoy read-
ing Colonel Carter of Carters-
ville, by F. Hopkinson Smith,
and then noticing the differing
methods of presenting a peculiar
old Colonel.

The very fact that Colonel Ef-
fingham's Raid has so great ob-
jectivity, so much caricature,
and so little subtlety will make
it pleasing to the mass of peo-
ple, if not to the more literary
minded. Happy-go-lucky young-
sters will enjoy the contest be-
tween the spirited old veteran
and the gang of looting politi-
cians and office holders.

JUSTICE COMES TO GERMANY. The
March of Time. Produced by Richard de
Rochemont for 20t-h Century-Fox release.
Strongly recommended.

The first time sound motion-
picture cameras have been al-
lowed to operate inside an actual
military court was at the trial
of Franz Strasser in Germany
for the murder of an American
airman, a prisoner of war. The
March of Time shows all the out-
standing moments of the trial,
from its beginning to the time
when the death sentence is pro-
nounced. Coming at the present
time, this significant step in
motion-picture reporting will
awaken unusual interest. It
shows the dignity and the calm
deliberation of American jus-
tice. In particular it shows the
present attitude toward atroci-
ties in war.

The March of Time shows the
prisoner hearing the charges.
We hear him speak in German,
and we hear the interpreter
translating what he says and
what witnesses say. With the
court we hear the slow building
up of direct evidence, and we
ourselves seem to serve as mem-
bers of the jury.

This is one of the strongest
and best of March of Time re-
leases.

December, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

John Ford Directs a Realistic Scene in "They Were Expendable"

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

Variety's Miniature Reviews

Of Films

Varietii, the most widely cir-
culated trade paper of show
business, includes each week, in
addition to full reviews, brief
evaluations of c u r rent and
forthcoming photoplays f r o m
the box-office viewpoint.

Inasmuch as every ticket pur-
chased at the box office is a vote
for more pictures of the type
patronized, and inasmuch as the
criteria of educators are often
at variance with the criteria of
the box office, it is interesting
to compare the two viewpoints.
As Dr. Johnson said in the 18th
century, so it must be said to-
day :

The drama’s laws the drama’s pa-
troiis give.

For those who live to please must
please to live.

If standards of public taste
are rising, to what extent is this
due to the democratization of
education’? Fifteen years ago,
scarcely a school or college any-
where taught its students stand-
ards of photoplay appreciation.
Today some 11,000 groups in
schools a n d colleges discuss
films. Such groups will be inter-
ested in noting Varietii’s con-
cise, colorful descriptions of the
cui’rent screen offerings from
the practical viewpoint of the
showman. Serious students of
the photoplay will enjoy express-
ing their independent, critical
opinions after seeing the films.
At the same time they may be
guided in the development of
critical vocabularies by the re-
views of such famous educators
as Dr. Frederick Houk Law, ed-
itor of the Educational Depart-
ment of The Reader’s: Digest,
whose opinions on some of these

films are expressed from month
to month in this GL'IDE — W. L.

Variety's Miniature Reviews of October

17, 1945:

“Yolanda and the Thief” (Color;
Musical); (M-C). F’red Astaire, Lu-
cille Bremer and Frank Morgan in
moderate b.o. musical.

"People Are Funny" (Par). Secon-
dary comedy kidding the radio indus-
try.

"She M'ent 'I’o 'the Races” (M-G).
James Craig and Frances Gifford in
screwball comedy; okay as support on
duals.

"George While’s Scandals” (Musi-
cal) (RKO). Slow musical; running
time too long.

“Senorita From The West” (Songs)
(U). Pallid radio romance, with Allan
Jones. Mild b.o.

“Journey Together” (RKO). R.A.F.-
U.S. Film Service thriller of Eng-
land’s triumph via air power. Looks
sturdy for U.S. b.o.

“Divorce" (Mono). Kay Francis’
fiist independent production an okay
dualer.

“Marie La .Mirerc” (Radio-Cinema).
Odd French-made picture means little
for U. S. audiences.

"Le Mystere de Saint-Val” (CCFS).
Fernandel in French spook comedy
may do fairly well in arty American
houses despite age of film.

Variety's Miniature Reviews of October

24, 1945:

"Fallen Angel" (One Song) (2()th).
Alice Faye, Dana Andrews and Linda
Darnell in okay h.o. murder meller.

"This Love of Ours” (U). Merle
Oberon, Charles Korvin and Claude
Rains starred in good boxoffice
drama.

“Don’t Fence Me In” (Songs)
(Rep). Roy Rogers in ultra musical
western.

“Strange Holiday” (Elite). Fair
Arch Oboler item, about American
people’s lethargy.

“L ’Ext r a V a g a ti ( e .Mission”
(French). Weak French language!-.

Variety's Miniature Reviews of October

31, 1945:

"Spellbound” ( Selznick-UA) . Psy-
chological mystery drama, starring
Bergman, Peck, directed hy Hitchcock,
good b.o.

“Pursuit to Algiers” (Songs) (U).
This OK Sherlock Holmeser further
distinguished by four songs.

“The Seventh Veil” (British). Ann
Todd and James Mason in British-
made boxoffice click; okay for U. S.

“Latin (Quarter” (British). British-
made drama that’ll go only in Eng-
land, if there; no names for U. S.

“Skeppar Jansson (Swedish). Good
Svensk film; should do well in arty
houses.

Variety's Miniature Reviews of November

7, 1945:

“Confidential Agent’’ (WB).
Charles Boyer-Lauren Bacall will
have to carry this one.

“Crimson Canary” (Songs) (U).
Fair murder thriller.

“Dakota” (Rep). Action melodrama
witli okay prospects. John Wayne
name will aid.

Variety's Miniature Reviews of November

14, 1945:

“Danger Signal” (WB). Average
melodiama with modestly good b.o.
possibilities.

“Hold 'I'hat Blonde” (Par). Eddie
Bracken and Veronica Lake in fair
comedy, despite too much slapstick.

“Cornered” (RKO). Firstrate thril-
ler. Packs plenty of suspense. B. o.
outlook substantial.

“Strange Confession” (U). Routine
murder mystery.

“My Name is Julia Ross” (Col).
No-name cast hut tense melodrama
should do okay.

“Sing Your Way Home” (Songs)
(RKO). Fair musical romance. Jack
Haley’s name may life out of routine
biz.

“Marie - Louise” (Praesens). Excel-
lent Swiss film should do well at U. S.
l)ox-offices.

“Outhnvs of (he Rockies” (Songs)
(Col). Charles Stai'reH in a roidine
western.

December, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

“I Know Where I’m Going” (GFD-
British). British-made, sock b.o.
drama with Wendy Hiller and Roger
Livesey; made by Powell-Pressburger.

“Girls of the Big House” (Rep).
Prison meller will do for dual houses.

Variety's Miniature Reviews of Novem-
ber 21, 1945:

“Saratoga Trunk” (WB). Gary
Cooper - Ingrid Bergman - Edna Fer-
ber a surefire boxoffice parlay for
buffo biz.

“They Were Expendable’ (M-G).
High-budget war film, marking re-
turn to films of Robert Montgomery;
big b.o.

“What Next, Corporal Hargrove?”
(M-G). Hilarious box-office comedy
sequel depicting a soldier’s adventures
in Europe.

“Too Young to Know” (WB). Ap-
pealing story of young love against
war background that carries general
interest.

“San Antonio” (Color; Songs)
(WB). Lavishly produced western
built along traditionally-hoary lines;
will probably sell.

“Mexicana” (musical) (Rep). Mild-
ly diverting tune film with Latin
background; will do okay biz.

“The Daltons Ride Again” (U).
Solid boxoffice western.

“The Last Chance” (Swiss-made)
(Metro-Praesens). Excellent foreign
film should do well at all U. S. b.o.’s.

“Border Badmen” (PRC). Routine
Buster Crabbe western.

“Dangerous Intruder” (PRC). Fair
thriller item for the dual market.

“Shadow of Terror” (PRC). Well-
paced meller about the atomic bomb.

Variety's Miniature Reviews of Novem-
ber 28, 1945:

“Bells of St. Mary’s” (RKO-Rain-
bow). Boff boxoffice, with Bing Crosby
and Ingrid Bergman.

“A Walk in the Sun” (20th) (one

song). Dana Andrews is lone name in
GI war yarn.

“Vacation from Marriage” (M-G).
Expert English-made comedy tlrama
with excellent prospects for American
market.

“Getting Gertie’s Garter” (UA).
Mild farce that shapes okay for dou-
ble-bill situations.

“A Game of Death” (RKO). A chil-
lerdiller for horror film fans, geared
for double bills.

“The Lost Trail” (Mono). Johnny
Mack Brown, Raymond Hatton in a
so-so western.

“The Wicked Lady” (Eagle-Lion).
Margaret Lockwood, James Mason,
Patricia Roc in vivid English pic-
ture; costume meller not rated strong-
enough for American first-rmrs.

“Sensation Hunters” (Mono). Weak
melodrama.

“Brief Encounter” ( Eagle-Lion ) .
Noel Coward playlet and production
effort make this a top-bracket British
vehicle; a likely U. S. entry.

FOR PROPER UTILIZATION

Order Guides to 16 mm Photoplays

A TALE OF TWO CITIES (MGM)

MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (MGM)

THE GOOD EARTH (MGM)

CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS (MGM)

SERVANT OE THE PEOPLE (MGM)

GUNGA DIN (RKO Radio)

STAGE DOOR (RKO Radio)

MUSIC FOR MADAME (RKO Radio)

DAMSEL IN DISTRESS (RKO Radio)

ALLEGHENY UPRISING (RKO Radio)

Single Copies, 10c Packet of 25, $1.00

Hundred Lots, $3.00 Thousand Lots, $25.

EDUCATIONAL & RECREATIONAL GUIDES, Inc.

172 Renner Avenue, Newark 5, New Jersey

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume Xll, No. 3

The Story of New York's All-City
High-School Radio Workshop

BY VAN RENSSELAER BROKHAHNE

It all happened with amazing
simplicity — I mean, of course,
the arrival of the news. Jim
Macandrew was in Columbus at
the Annual Institute for Educa-
tion by Radio, and I was at
home trying to recover from the
dual responsibilities of the radio
station. I was just leaving the
house to inspect a leaky garden
hose when the phone rang. I had
just called back, “You take it,”
when someone in the house re-
plied, “It’s for you, and it’s a
telegram !”

Well, you know how that
works in the suburbs — they read
you the telegram over the phone
and send you the original by
mail two days later. So when I
picked up the receiver, a young
woman at the other end asked,
“Are you Mr. V. R. Brokhahne?”
When I assured her I was, she
replied in a disinterested voice,
“I have a telegram for you.”

“All right,” I replied still
thinking of the rubber hose,
“let’s have it,” and so she did.
A n d here’s what I heard :
'‘Johnny Quinyi named best
American high-school broadcast
of year. (Signed) Jim.”

I must admit that the signifi-
cance of the message didn’t
dawn on me at first, and so I
said, “Will you please read that
over again — more slowly.”

Well, there it was, just like
that : national recognition for
the All-City-High-School Radio
Workshop! After successive
screenings by competent judges
at Columbus, the Workshop’s

Reprinted from “High Points,” May,
1945

Van Rensselaer Brokhahne, Production
Manager of New York City Board of
Education Radio Station, WNYE.

production of Johnny Quinn,
U.S.N. was declared to be the
finest high-school radio broad-
cast throughout the entire coun-
try for 1943!

Flash-Back

Perhaps you are wondering
why we at WNYE felt so elated,
even perhaps triumphant, over
the pronouncement of a simple
telegram. Well, suppose we at-
tempt a flash-back, four years
before the award but actually
five years from today.

Then, the quality of our dra-
matic programs was, well, to be
honest, not so good ! And there
were reasons, good and suffi-
cient. But through nobody’s
fault. In the first place, there
were mighty few good scripts
available ; that is, royalty free.
Secondly, we had few sound ef-
fects and less than few to handle
what we had. Thirdly, we had a
musical library that you could
tuck under your tea table. And

lastly, to omit a few other items,
we sorely lacked dramatic abil-
ity. That was our most vital
need.

And that was a strange thing,
too, because if there was one ed-
ucational system in the country
that teemed with talent, it was
ours. But we didn’t get it!

The young people who ap-
peared at the studio for rehear-
sal were brilliant and enthusi-
astic, but their voices just didn’t
create the characters required
by the script. The lad who was
going to do John Paul Jones
sounded like “Johnny now re-
turning to store windows and
counters,” and Betsy Ross was
a “dead ringer” for Margaret
O’Brien. I think we would have
been highly enthusiastic in those
days if anyone of them had had
the voice of Henry Aldrich. At
least we could have written him
into the script. Although these
young people were clever and
competent in their studies, they
lacked dramatic talent.

In those pioneering days the
problem of casting was really
a heartbreak, especially so be-
cause, while we were blazing the
trail with tenderfoot talent and
limited provisions, commercial
stations with experienced trav-
elers and ample supplies had
long before created highways of
progress. To be trite, compari-
sons were odious. And it was
true with us. We just couldn’t
compete.

Whether or not we approve of
the type of commercial pro-
grams leveled at our children to-
day, at least we’ll have to admit
that Dick Tracy sounds like Dick

December, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A tense moment for the sound-effects boys in the radio studio of the New York City Board of Education — Station WNYE, located
at Brooklyn Technical High School, America's No. 1 FM educational project, winning new honors os we go to press.

Tracy and Captain Midnight
acts like Captain Midnight. The
reasons, of course, are obvious.
When you have a wealth of
trained and experienced talent,
limitless funds, and an eager
sponsor, you can get quality per-
formance.

Main Problem

This, then, was our main prob-
lem : If we were going to be suc-
cessful in broadcasting effec-
tive educational programs, how
could we make them as realistic
and impressive to New York
City students as those offered to
them by well-established net-
work systems? After all, in the
eyes of our young people (and
they are able critics) commercial
standards were the ones we had
to meet.

This dilemma was a much
more serious one for us in radio

than it would have been in other
established entertainment fields.
Let us look at the stage or
screen, for example. Talent,
here, is a mighty important fac-
tor, but, as you know from your
own experience, if the artistry
of the performers is slightly un-
equal to the task, colorful scen-
ery, appropriate costumes, clever
make-up, and atmospheric light-
ing compensate for the actor’s
deficiencies.

But not so in radio! In radio
the play is not the thing, but the
voice is. The voice makes the
play. The voice of the radio ac-
tor must indicate clearly to the
unseen audience whether he is
French or Polish, whether he
lives in the seventeenth or twen-
tieth century, whether he is a
diplomat or a vintner, whether
he is rich or poor, whether he is
forgiving or vindictive. Thus,

with the critical listening of to-
day, the director has no subter-
fuge for the inadequate radio
voice, especially in front of a
velocity mike.

The problem narrowed itself
down to something like this :
How could we find “the diplo-
mat” or “the vintner,” or, in a
more general sense, how were
we to locate the splendid talent
we knew to exist in our public
high schools ? How could we help
them to inspire the vast audi-
ence of “all our children”?

The Plan

Well, the situation came to a
head mighty soon, and subse-
quently the solution. It occurred
in a matter of minutes after a
very difficult dramatic broad-
cast. As I recall, Mr. Macandrew
had been watching the levels in
the control room, and I had been

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

directing in the studio. It had
all been a rather trying experi-
ence, but fortunately our desper-
ation at the time was such that
it demanded an immediate rem-
edy— and an effective one! So
right then and there we got our
heads together (there were then
only two of us) and decided on
on a three-fold plan to begin
functioning the moment we had
the mechanics worked out. Brief-
ly, this was it :

First, we had to enlist the co-
operation of “radio representa-
tives” in as many high schools
as possible.

Second, we had to create a
system for auditioning and class-
ifying student talent.

Third, we had to establish a
standard procedure for casting
and rehearsing all broadcasts.

The rest of the story is really
a denouement and can be dis-
pensed with in a short time. In
the first place, both of us real-
ized that the one person who
was really acquainted with the
most promising students in each
high school and the most quali-
fied to select them was the fac-
ulty adviser of either a speech
club or a dramatic society. So,
insofar as we were able, by vir-
tue of acquaintance or reputa-
tion, we approached as many of
these directors as we could and
asked them if they would serve
as radio representatives in their
particular schools. Gradually,
through these contacts and other
helpful suggestions, w e were
able to enlarge o u r member-
ship so that today practically
every high school in the New
York City school system has its
radio representative.

When we had worked out the
mechanics of our auditioning
system (which will be described
shortly) , we sent to our “radio
reps” a letter in which we asked
them to send us, at a specified
time, their three most talented

James F. Macandrew, New York City
Schools Radio Coordinator.

students for studio auditions. We
suggested that each applicant
should provide himself with
three or four one-minute mono-
logues best fitted to bring to
light the most realistic charac-
terizations he or she had to of-
fer.

Anticipating a rather indif-
ferent response to such a radi-
cal proposal, Mr. Macandrew
and I allotted about three days
for the auditions and contrived
a schedule whereby we could re-
lieve each other at regular inter-
vals until four or four-thirty in
the afternoon. But what with
the wholehearted cooperation of
the radio representatives and
the tireless enthusiasm of the
candidates, we found ourselves
working double-shifts until
seven o’clock of the early eve-
ning. Though we urged them,
the students just wouldn’t go
home. And what talent was re-
vealed ! Too often we found our-
selves so spellbound by the char-
acterization of an inspired youth
that by the time he had finished
his monologue, we had not made
a single entry on his card.

Sesame ! This was the artistry
we had sought so long, but now
that we had identified it, how
were we to catalogue such ab-

stractions, classify them, and
produce them as occasion re-
quired?

Auditioning

The answer to these problems
brings us to the second phase of
our plan, which we had formu-
lated sometime prior to that of
the auditions. Suppose we glance
back for a minute and see how
it all happened. Because of for-
tunate friendships in the radio
industry, I had been able to se-
cure some invaluable aid in solv-
ing our casting problems. From
an assistant casting director of
a key station in New York City
I had received sample audition
cards and some sound personal
advice, both of which contrib-
uted largely to laying the foun-
dation of the audition forms we
finally adopted. These became
indispensable in simplifying the
complications of auditioning and
classifying the various types of
voices we so urgently needed.

These audition cards, designed
to identify the qualifications of
each candidate, contain such
questions as the following : What
language or languages can you
speak fluently? What dialects
can you do? What are your best
impersonations? What experi-
ence have you had in dramatics?
Some of the typical items
checked by the auditioning di-
rector are classified under such
headings as these: Voice Qual-
ity, Character Interpretation,
Sense of Pace, Speech Defects,
and the like.

At the bottom of the card,
space is provided where the di-
rector can summarize his opin-
ions of the candidate. These im-
pressions are extremely import-
ant. They represent the particu-
lar characterizations for which
the student is best adapted. Let
us take four cards out the files
at random and glance at the
terse remarks entered at the hot-

December, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

tom of each card.

Case I: “Splendid for impassioned
young woman — perhaps bitter at her
fate.”

Case II: “Promising announcer —
needs experience in foreign place-
names.”

Case III: “Nazi soldier — fair — dia-
lect not sustained — good only for bit
parts.”

Case IV: “Does a good, exagger-
ated, southern drawl — perhaps for
comedy relief — woman about 45.”
And thus it goes on, card after
card. Each one’s dramatic spe-
cialties are recorded and classi-
fied in such a manner that when
the script requires a particular
characterization, the director
knows immediately just who is
most likely to provide it.

How the Workshop Works

Now let us see how the All-
City High-School Radio Work-
shop goes into action. A direc-
tor has in his hand the produc-
tion copy of a script entitled The
Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto and
has noted on the cover sheet
the types of characters he will
require to produce a realistic
story. Among several other play-
ers of lesser importance he real-
izes that he needs the following
four leads:

1. A mature Polish man for male
lead and narrator — stoic from hard-
ship but still understanding — with
slight accent.

2. A Polish woman (his wife) —
seriously ill but still gentle — with
slight accent.

3. A little Polish boy about seven
(their son) — tries to be brave but
must be able to “break down” emo-
tionally.

4. Another Polish woman (middle-
aged) — disillusioned by starvation and
cruelty but unbeaten — with strong ac-
cent.

Supplied with these specifica-
tions, the director starts search-
ing through the audition cards
until he has located about two
or three students capable of
playing the first of the four es-
sential roles. He repeats this
process for the other three.

This means that he will request,
through the various radio repre-
sentatives, that about eight or
ten candidates appear to try out
for his four major parts.

At the appointed time, these
students will present themselves
at the studio and will be pro-
vided with scripts to read and
study before the actual casting
begins. As soon as he gets the
services of an engineer, the di-
rector will ask each candidate to
read, over mike, certain signifi-
cant passages, sometimes several
times, until he is fully satisfied
with the casting of his leading
roles. In most cases he is able to
assign minor parts to the other
applicants, so that none is dis-
appointed.

Now with the problem of cast-
ing settled, our director will
have either a “line reading,”
which means without mikes, or
a rough rehearsal with them. A
rough rehearsal is just what the
words imply. The director takes
this opportunity to iron out the
ragged spots in the presentation.
He helps the narrator improve
his pace. He smooths out the dia-
lect of the feminine lead. He
helps the seven-year-old boy re-
duce the passion of his crying.
If he is working with sound and
music, he may suggest to his
sound department how to work
out a more realistic impression
of a flower box being placed
upon a window sill, or he may
stop the rehearsal to select a bet-
ter spot on the record for a mu-
sical bridge. When all this rough
rehearsing is done, he will prob-
ably call for a complete run-
through to check his timing.

The dress rehearsal takes
place about an hour or so before
the actual broadcast, and the
procedure is essentially the same
as that followed in the rough re-
hearsal, with these exceptions.
By this time the director has
perfected his sound effects and

improved the selection of his
music. He has previously deter-
mined his “cuts” in the script
(if necessary) and now an-
nounces them to the cast. The
rest of the work, which is per-
formed after each run-through,
is devoted to refinement of char-
acter interpretation, to polish in
reading, to synchronization of
sound, music, and acting, and to
exact timing.

Several final suggestions and
cautions, a few minutes of re-
laxation, and “We’re on the
air!”

Achievements

So there it is in brief: the
story of the All-City High-School
Radio Workshop. What has it
achieved, you may ask. Well,
suppose we take inventory in
the form of a tabulation:

1. Professional radio quality in big'll
and elementary school dramatic
programs. (See Columbus Award
for “Johnny Quinn, U.S.N.”)

2. Additional training and experience
in speech and acting for students
from any high school in the sys-
tem. (In each series of dramatic
programs 40-50 students partici-
pate, and 15 high schools are rep-
resented.)

3. The invaluable experience gained
through the medium of radio audi-
tions. (We audition more than 300
students each school year.)

4. A marked increase in the growth
of script-writing clubs and radio
workshops throughout the city high
schools, resulting in better scripts
and superior acting. (The number
of schools now engaged in these ac-
tivities has risen from 5 to 25.)

5. Through their participation in
workshop activities, outstanding
members have found interesting
and profitable careers. (Four ex-
amples: Andre Wallace, at the
present writing, is playing with
Ethel Barrymore in the radio serial,
“Miss Hattie.” Michael Dreyfus
left the workshop to take the part
of John in “Life with Father.”
George Fisher has just finished a
coast-to-coast tour with “Porgy and
Bess.” Mario Siletti recently joined
the sound staff of a major New
York station. And there are many

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

others who have gone on to pro-
fessional woik.)

We have deliberately withheld
for the last item those abstract
qualities which workshop mem-
bers gradually acquire through
active participation in radio per-
formances. Success stories like
those mentioned above are high-
ly impressive, to be sure ; but it
has been our experience at
WNYE that whether a student
aspires to a career in radio or
not, he slowly but surely devel-
ops new social conce])ts and a
greater sense of his responsibil-
ities. He learns, for instance, the
practical value of instant com-
pliance with a direction and the

necessity of being punctual. He
realizes that failure to respond
to direction can ruin the best-
planned show ; and that when it
comes to timing, only stop-watch
precision can produce an ac-
ceptable broadcast. If he misses
his cue, he loses caste with him-
self. Further than this, he soon
gets to recognize and appreciate
a fine performance on the part
of another member of the cast.
He doesn’t ask who the student’s
forebears were or what his creed
may be. His one impulse is to
admire anyone who can do a
splendid job for the good of the
whole company.

Finally, while he has a nat-

ural ambition to star, he soon
learns to take lesser parts with
good grace because by now he
understands that we are not all
born with the same specialized
talents and, further, that in a
radio broadcast even the most
minor role becomes an essential
part of the whole. Only complete
cooperation by every member of
the cast can achieve success.

If he takes these lessons along
with him in life, no matter what
his career may be, his experience
in radio will not have been in
vain, and our faith in the educa-
tional value of the All-City Ra-
dio Workshop will have been
well rewarded.

10-Point Program of DVI

Boyd B. Rakestraw of the
University of California, presi-
dent of the NBA Department of
Visual Instruction, has an-
nounced the following 10-point
program :

1. To bring together the miinifold
organizations engaged in this field
at a meeting, with the object of
finding out precisely what each is
doing or i)lanning to do, to sur-
vey the fiehl of needed activity,
and to draw up an overall pro-
gram, coordinating the activities
engaged in by these many or-
ganizations. This unified program
should provide a concerted attack,
and eliminate duplicating and ri-
val activities.

2. To assist in developing strong lo-
cal organizations to satisfy local
needs, and to make provision for
knitting and coordinating these lo-
cal organizations into the national
organization of DVI. It is import-
ant to keep the overall visual-ed-
ucation program under the imme-
diate direction of the people who
are doing the work in the field to
guide the enthusiasts and those
intensely interested in this field,
especially with funds for invest-
ments; to dii'ect energy to those
tasks which need to be done to
those who best can do them.

.3. To convert to the use of education

that personnel which has Iieen in-
tensely trained in war work in
the aimed forces, or in industry
in the field of audio-visual in-
struction.

4. To encourage the evaluation by
educators of the audio-visual aids
developed during the war, rescu-
ing for educational purposes the
valuable material and equipment,
and to make these available for
educational use.

5. To assist in the development of
the Educational Screen as the pub-
lication of the DVI.

6. To make arrangements for a per-
manent national headquarters.

7. To work with producers of films
and manufacturers of equipment
in developing those facilities which
will further educational progress.

8. The DVI represents piimarily the
consumer in the audio-visual field.
All other factors, valualde as they
may be in single instances, repre-
sent service groups which are de-
signed to serve this consumer;
therefore, their activities should
be centered on furthering the
ideals and activities of the con-
sumer group. The DVI, therefore,
must become more articulate and
demanding to take advantage of
the resources of the service
groups.

9. The DVI expects that education
will pay for service, and that the
service organizations will be com-
pensated in direct relation to their

effectiveness in carrying out the
ideals of educators. Cooperative
exchange of ideas on a responsible
basis will take advantage of the
interest stirred up by the effec-
tiveness of the audio-visual train-
ing program.

10. As the antewar development in
this field was tine to cooperative
effort Itetween the service and
the educational groups, thus lay-
ing a foundation on which during
the war the intensive training
program was built, so should we
now go forwaul with the same
cooperation, not depending on
Government subsidies or controls.

McGraw-Hill's Visual-Aids
Editor

The first publisher to appoint
a visual-aids editor to coordin-
ate textbooks with textfilms is
the McGraw-Hill Book Com-
pany. The trail-blazing editor is
Albert J. Rosenberg, one-time
teacher of mathematics at Johns
Hopkins, who served on the pro-
duction staff of the USOE un-
der Floyde Brooker as a special-
ist in the development of 65
training films, with accompany-
ing filmstrips a n d manuals,
mainly in the field of aviation
industries.

December, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

New NEA Audio-Visual Instructional

Service Division

BY VERNON G. DAMERON, Director
Condensed from The Journal of the NEA, December, 1945

Audio-visual instruction final-
ly has been accorded wide recog-
nition as a remarkably effective
medium of instruction. This rec-
ognition was afforded great im-
petus by the armed forces. The
widely-acclaimed “GI method of
teaching” is primarily charac-
terized b y the extensive use
of motion pictures, filmstrips,
slides, recordings, models, mock-
ups, and other types of aids to
learning.

There are great expectations
for audio-visual instruction in
this postwar period. It is only
natural that the NEA should be
interested in taking active part
in the expansion and develop-

Vernon G. Dameron, Director of the
recently-established NEA Division of
Audio-Visual Instructional Service,
majoi’ed in physical sciences and so-
cial studies at Marshall College, in
education at West Virginia Univer-
sity, and in audio-visual instruction
for his doctorate at Harvard Univei-
sity. He has had five years of experi-
ence in public-school work, including
a directorship of audio-visual instruc-
tion. He has also had considerable ex-
perience in still and motion-picture
photography, recording, ladio com-
munication (W8HGA), and instru-
mental music. For the past three
years, he served as Dii’ector of the
Planning Department and Coordina-
tor of the Army Air Forces Training-
Film Preparation Unit, located at
Chanute Field, Illinois. The work of
the Unit consisted of producing, pro-
cessing, and printing sound motion
pictures, sound filmstrips, and silent
filmstrips, and distributing them to
the Allied nations throughout the
world.

The Executive Committee of the
NEA Department of Visual Instruc-
tion recently appointed him Execu-
tive Secretary of the Department.

Vernon G. Dameron, NEA
Audio-Visual Coordinator
Washington, D. C.

ment of audio-visual instruction
in the schools of the nation.

The program of the new NEA
Division of Audio-Visual In-
structional Service will deal with
all of the many types of audio-
visual aids, including radio and
television, on all levels of edu-
cation. Details of the program
will be based upon a survey of
the present status and trends of
audio-visual instruction. The fol-
lowing general aspects of the
field will receive consideration :

Means bij which audio-visual
instructum can be made less ex-
pensive — Financial limitations
constitute a great impediment to
expansion o f audio-visual in-
struction.

Intensive efforts are now be-
ing exerted to effect the release
of surplus audio-visual equip-
ment and materials from the
armed forces for distribution to
the public schools on the basis of
need and financial inability to

purchase such equipment and
materials. All the equipment is
suited to school use and many
of the films and other audio-
visual aids produced by or for
the armed forces have perma-
nent educational value.

Schools — especially those
which have photography or art
courses or camera clubs — will
be encouraged to produce the
more simple types of audio-vis-
ual aids. Textbook publishers
will be encouraged to produce
audio-visual aids to accompany
their textbooks.

Criteria for more effective se-
lection and evaluation of audio-
visual aids — As the quantity and
quality of audio-visual aids in-
crease, criteria must become
more exacting because of the
wider range of selection. The
most serious obstacle to the for-
mulation of criteria is the lack
of definite, detailed purposes of
the units of study in the various
courses.

Methods a n d techniques for
more effective integration and
utilization of audio-visual aids
— More work probably needs to
be done in this phase of the pro-
gram than in any other. The
function of audio-visual instruc-
tion is now considered merely
supplementary in nature, just an
“aid,” as implied by the desig-
nation, “audio-visual aid.” It
should be considered more basic
— an integral part of the “core”
of educational procedure.

A comprehensive program
may extend the horizons of our
courses of study by making it

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume Xll, No. 3

Every maker and user of

MOTION PICTURES NEEDS A

GRISWOLD

FILM SPLICER

GRISWOLD Model R-2 for 35mm. film or
Model R-3 for 16mm.

A GOOD splicer is on essential port of mo-
tion picture equipment for editing and re-
pairing film. The GRISWOLD Splicer fills the bill
in every respect. It is a high quality, precision-
built instrument with exclusive features which
make splicing a quick, easy operation and as-
sure a clean splice in the right place every
time. GRISWOLD Splicers come in models for
all film sizes and splice both sound and silent
film. They are sold by Photo Supply Dealers.
If your dealer does not have them on hand,
order from us direct.

GRISWOLD MACHINE WORKS
PORT JEFFERSON, N. Y.

possible to show material now
slighted because of the difficulty
of effective verbal treatment.

Provision for closer coUabora-
twi between educators and pro-
ducers of audio-visual materials
— The needs of the student must
be recognized as the basic deter-
minant of the content of audio-
visual materials. This goal can-
not be attained unless educators
and producers work closely to-
gether. The need for closer col-
laboration is clearly indicated
by the large number of avail-
able audio-visual materials not
adapted for any conventional
unit of study.

Methods for more coordi-
nated and expedient distribution
0 f audio-visual materials — An
ideal program of audio-visual in-
struction would involve little
distribution from a center out-
side the school system. However,
distribution is a major factor at
present. The problem of obtain-
ing the best materials for the
jiarticular purpose on a definite
date is of considerable conse-
quence, especially in the case of
a small school which depends al-
most entirely upon rentals from
a distant or inadequately stocked
distributing center.

Encouragement of ividespread
adoption, of audio-visual instruc-
tion— T h e vast majority of
schools have no organized pro-
grams of audio-visual instruc-
tion. This condition is sometimes
due to lack of sufficient inter-
est on the part of school offi-
cials. Many otherwise well-in-
formed teachers fail to realize
the significance and advantages
of audio-visual instruction.

Promotion of audio-visual in-
struction for instilling desirable
attitudes a n d appreciations —
The more dynamic types of
audio-visual materials provide
for emotionally-derived learning
which may be the most effective
means of inculcating such ex-

tremely hard-to-teach but none-
theless extremely important
concepts as tolerance, ethical
conduct, democratic ideals, and
international understanding.

Research — Much remains to
be learned about this instruc-
tional medium. The field is per-
meated with hazy standards.
This Division will encourage the

research of colleges, universities,
and other professional agencies.
The immediate future is of cru-
cial consequence to the stabiliza-
tion of audio-visual instruction.
Its elevation to a universally re-
spected place in the halls of
learning must be predicated
upon the most objective data
available.

December, 1 943

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A Quarter of a Century of Visual Aids
In the Geneseo Township High School

BY ARTHUR L. WHITE
Director of Visual Aids, Geneseo, Illinois

In 1919 the township high
school at Geneseo, Illinois, pur-
chased a 35mm silent motion-
picture projector, which was in-
stalled in a fire-proof booth in
the rear of the student assembly.
The only films were of an enter-
tainment nature, although an at-
tempt was made to secure films
based on literature, such as
Vanity Fair, Julms Caesar, and
travel shorts. This was an ini-
tial step in making the school
visual-minded. In time the down-
town movie house supplied the
need for this type of movie, and
the school went in the direction
of educational films.

In 1931, the Science Club
raised part of the funds for the
purchase of a 16mm DeVry si-
lent projector. Films available
were largely industrial, which,
for example, gave pupils an in-
sight into the manufacture of
paper and other items. These
films filled a definite need, since
pupils had previously only a
vague idea of such processes.

The program has grown until
at present there is a steady use
of 35mm film strips, an opaque
projector, two 16mm silent pro-
jectors, and two 16mm sound
projectors. Student operators
have been trained to operate
machines in their own classes.
All teachers have been trained
in the operation of machines
also. This leads to a minimum of
confusion when visual aids are
planned for class use.

The teachers are selecting
their films with a great deal of
thought and care. A film is not
selected because it is rent free

Arthur L. White, Director of Visual
Aids, Geneseo, Illinois.

but because of the value to the
particular unit with which it is
being used.

The visual director places cat-
alogs in a drawer of the reading
table in the faculty lounge.
These include lists from film li-
braries of various universities,
as well as the Educators Guide
to Free Films, published by Ed-
ucators Progress Service, Ran-
dolph, Wisconsin, and 1000
and 1, published by Educational
Screen. Teachers thumb through
these at their leisure during the
school year in order to have in
mind films which will best suit
their work. About February 1
they hand in film requisition
slips for the following year.

TEACHER’S FILM REQUISITION

Date wanted

Teacher

Class

Film

Sound n Silent □ Color □

Time min.

Source

Catalog page if convenient

The school, with an enrollment
of 400 students, has not felt it
wise to build up its own library
of films. Teachers are given a
supply of these slips near the be-
ginning of the school year. They
can fill these in as they use films
and thus reorder for the proper
date, if the film is desirable,
while the film is fresh in mind.

When the requisitions are
given the director on February
1, he first arranges them accord-
ing to date to determine whether
too many films have been or-
dered for any one day to be
shown on the machines avail-
able. With the permission of the
teacher, he shifts dates when
necessary. He then arranges the
requisition cards according to
“source of film” and orders for
the following year. As confirma-
tions are returned, he checks the
available films on the cards.
When all orders are recognized
by film libraries, he arranges
the cards by dates and makes a
list of the booked films. This is
placed in the office and is avail-
able to the teachers. The teach-
ers watch this list and write the
films into their plan books.

It is the duty of the director
to see that film, machine, and
operator are in the classroom at
the beginning of the period
ready for the showing. By as-
signment, teachers have pre-
pared their classes for the film,
and they are ready for a discus-
sion of the subject to be pic-
tured. In most cases no notes are
taken during the showing. A
class discussion, after the run-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

ning, brings out the high points
which apply to the unit with
which it is being used. One does
not realize the enthusiasm of the
teachers for visual aids until a
picture fails to arrive because
another user has not returned it
on time. When this happens, the
director would reach out a Paul
Bunyan arm to the state library
and pick up the film if this were
possible.

The superintendent of schools,
James D. Darnall, is the most
visual-minded member of the
faculty. When a visual confer-
ence is held within a reasonable
radius of Geneseo, he insists that
the entire faculty attend. It is

gratifying to find so many new
ideas arising as the result of
such a meeting. There is always
an upswing in requests for film
strips as well as for movies.
For example, following a recent
meeting, the math teacher asked
for a strip on positive and neg-
ative numbers. She had also as-
signed the preparation of graphs
to be shown the class. They were
unsuccessfully being demon-
strated, so she used the opaque
projector, displayed the graphs,
and asked the students to clar-
ify them, using the projections.
These are only a few of the uses
of visual aids in the Geneseo
Township High School.

The Use of Films in
Church Program

Only recently has there been
any concerted and united effort
to put into the church curricu-
lum and program the use of
films and slides. This has come
about mainly because religious
educators have realized with
other educators the possibilities
in this medium of education. The
use of the film and the slide in
the church, as in many public-
school systems, has not been
given adequate guidance and im-
portance. The Army and Navy
have proved through their use
of visual aids what can be done
in the educational pi'ocess. Now
the church, like the schools, is
realizing the importance of the
film and moving into a practi-
cal educational program.

The fact that there are many
producers in the religious field
has given new impetus to the
use of the film in the church

BY REV. CHARLES W. DOBBERTIN
Minister, The Methodist Church,
Allegan, Michigan

program. Many excellent films —
documentry, educational, and in-
spirational— are coming to the
church market. Much can be ac-
complished in the local church
already through the proper use
of materials that are available.
Denominations are working to-
gether to give proper guidance
in the use of films. Church pro-
grams are thus increasingly be-
ing vitalized through the use of
the motion picture and slide.

Manufacturers of projection
equipment are interested in the
church field as a potential mar-
ket. For years, many of these
manufacturers have been trying
to encourage churches to use the
motion picture. Now the church
has at last awakened to the po-
tentialities of the film.

Some of the films now distrib-
uted for church use do not win
a strong response from those

This school is looking forward
to the time when a greater num-
ber of projectors will be avail-
able. There will be a screen in
each classroom, and the room
will be easily and quickly dark-
ened. A film-strip projector is
desirable for a maximum of
three rooms. A teacher may then
show a projection with the least
possible fuss of running over
the building to collect material.
The interest of teachers in pro-
jection of pictures rises in direct
proportion to the availability of
materials. Teachers realize that
“visuals” are aids and not an-
other load to their already over-
burdened classroom backs.

the

who use them. One of the rea-
sons for this is that these films
are not adequate for the educa-
tional program of the church. It
must be said, however, that no
film is so poor that it cannot
do some good. Every film, good
or bad, is only a medium, an aid,
in the educational task of the
church. When the poor film is
used as this kind of tool, the
proper guidance of those view-
ing the film will assist them in
utilizing only the useful por-
tions.

One of the difficulties con-
fronting the use of the film in
the church program is that of
distribution. The Religious Film
Association, composed of some
22 d i f f e r e n t denominational
groups, has done much to allevi-
ate some of the distribution dif-
ficulties.

There is sufficient material

December, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

available today for any church
to launch an extensive program
of projected visual aids, includ-
ing features to coordinate in
such a program as a Religion-
and-Life Film Series.

The church-school curriculum,
furthermore, lends itself well to
the use of films and slides. Films
can be used to stimulate discus-
sion for older groups, to inter-
pret Bible study for younger
children, and also for review
purposes. Even films that may
not be “A-1” in photography and
content can be used to empha-
size some significant lesson.

Most churches have a Vaca-
tion Church School as part of
the church activity. Here again,
there are many excellent films
that have a strong appeal to chil-
dren. The films used should, ob-
viously enough, be integrated
with the unit of study. For ex-
ample, a unit on The World’s
Children, makes possible the use
of such films as Navajo Chil-
dren, Eskimo Children, and oth-
ers. Though these films are not
religious in content, yet they
have a place in the church cur-
riculum— for they bring to chil-
dren an appreciation of people
of other races. That is a signifi-
cant aspect of religious educa-
tion.

In the field of missionary ed-
ucation, many silent films have
a wide use. Films taken at mis-
sion stations bring back to local
churches pictures of life as it is
lived on missions. Through the
use of such films of missionary
education in the church, there
will inevitably result a renewed
interest and understanding of
the world mission of the church.
We can read about the work of
the church in the various parts
of the world, but when we have
before us pictures that were
taken of the actual work in those
areas, the mission interest takes
on new vitality. A School of Mis-

Rev. Chorles W. Dobbertin, Minister
of the Methodist Church at Allegan,
Michigan.

sions lends itself well to the use
of films, both silent and sound.
Such a school is usually held for
a period of 4 weeks, meeting one
night a week with a motion pic-
ture as the basis of each lesson.

Young people find in the mo-
tion picture and the slide an ap-
peal that makes their meetings
interesting. It is easier to “put
across” the lesson, and the young
people leave the meeting with
more lasting impressions of the
topic. Film strips as well as mo-
tion pictures can be used here to
stimulate discussion. There are
many fine films which should be
used in youth meetings of local
church programs.

The motion picture can also be
used in the social life of the
church. Here, usually, the pri-
mary purpose is that of fellow-
ship. There are many excellent
films which can be used in the
church for family-night gather-
ings, men’s meetings, and simi-
lar occasions. Because people for
the most part are “motion-pic-
ture conscious,” the right kind
of entertainment films will have
an appeal that will make a meet-
ing an interesting and memor-
able event.

Films thus have a variety of
uses in the program of the
church. As the churches put to
use the films that are now avail-
able, more and more educational,
inspirational, and promotional
films will be produced.

Films, to be used effectively
and to fulfill their purpose in
the work of the church, cannot
be used as “fill-in” material
when the program scheduled has
fallen through. The proper use
of films requires patience, time,
and hard work. But every ef-
fort is well worth while, for the
church that uses films will find
its teachings more impressive
and its ministry more effective
and vital.

Dedicot'ion Service for Sound
Projector to Be Used in the
Church Program.

The following dedication
service was prepared by Rev.
Charles W. Dobbertin, who may
b e addressed a t 228 Cutler
Street, Allegan, Michigan, for
copies :

Prelude : Sound film : Ave
Maria

Hymn by Congregation: The
Hymnalogue, My Faith Looks
up to Thee

Leader: That we may increase
our knowledge of our Lord
and his ministry and to know
the true meaning of disciple-
ship ;

People: We dedicate this sound
projector.

Leader: That we may come to
a better understanding of the
world and its peoples and lay
the foundations for Peace;
People: We dedicate this sound
projector.

Leader : That we may become
aware of the beauties of God’s
world which we are unable to
visit;

People: We dedicate this sound
projector.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

Leader : That we may come to
a better understanding of the
total missionary program of
our church and be more will-
ing to give ;

People : We dedicate this sound
projector.

Leader: That we may come to
know the truths by which men
shall be free ;

People : We dedicate this sound
projector.

Leader : That we may enhance
the spirit of fellowship by the
use of this equipment in the
social life of the church ;

People : We dedicate this sound
projector.

Leader : That through the di-
rected use of this equipment
we may be led to a better
vision of the lives we can live

and the world that can be;

People: We dedicate this equip-
ment to the glory of God and
the ministry of our church.
Dedication prayer:

Almighty God, we pray for
thy guidance in the use of this
equipment that through our
lives consecrated to thy King-
dom’s cause it shall serve thee
and thy people. May we be en-
dowed with new power of
righteousness in its use. May
we come to a better under-
standing of thy Word, of our
Lord and His ministry to a
needy world ; of thy world
and thy people everywhere.
May we be knit closer together
in fellowship as we dedicate
this equipment to thy glory
and honor. Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer : Sound

film : This is Ohv Earth
Suggestions for use of this

SERVICE :

In front of the screen, yet not
obstructing the image on the
screen, place an altar. This is
optional, depending on the tradi-
tions of local churches.

The front row of the congre-
gation should not be closer than
twice the width of the screen
used. Make sure that the per-
sons in the congregation are
within the area of a 40-degree
angle on either side of the pro-
jection axis. This will make it
possible for all participants to
gain the fullest value of the pro-
jected images.

Maintain a true spirit of wor-
ship at all times. This equipment
is being dedicated to the use of
the church for the glory of God.

FOR PROPER UTILIZATION

Order Guides to 16 mm Photoplays

A TALE OF TWO CITIES (MGM)

MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (MGM)

THE GOOD EARTH (MGM)

CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS (MGM)

SERVANT OF THE PEOPLE (MGM)

GUNGA DIN (RKO Radio)

•STAGE DOOR (RKO Radio)

MUSIC FOR MADAME (RKO Radio)

DAMSEL IN DISTRESS (RKO Radio)

ALLEGHENY UPRISING (RKO Radio)

Single Copies, lOc Packet of 25, $1.00

Hundred Lots, $3.00 Thousand Lots, $25.

EDUCATIONAL 6t RECREATIONAL GUIDES. Inc.

172 Renner Avenue, Newark 5, New Jersey

December, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A County Audio-Visual Center

BY JAMES McPherson

Director, Kern County Film Library, Bakersfield, California

In Kern County, California,
we have been working on a four-
point program of audio-visual
development :

1. First, we have emphasized
the creation of an understand-
ing among the teachers and ad-
ministrators of the county of
the educational values to be
found in the use of audio-visual
materials. This understanding
of the value of these newer ma-
terials is the chief ingredient of
our in-service training program
because it must exist before
teachers will want to learn how
to use audio-visual equipment
and will plan their teaching in
terms of audio-visual presenta-
tions.

2. Second, we have attempted
to get a wide selection of audio-
visual materials that will be
helpful to teachers and to secure
them in sufficient quantity to en-
able each teacher to get what
she wants, when she wants it.
During the past school year our
county teachers were able to get
an average of 96.4 percent of the
items they ordered, when they
ordered them. This has enabled
teachers to plan for the use of
audio-visual materials with a
great certainty that they will re-
ceive the materials to use accord-
ing to their plans. In addition to
materials that must be pur-
chased, the audio-visual center
serves as a year-long depository
for numerous loan films and
other materials. Thus, all county
schools are enabled to get the
materials they need from one
place and with one order. This
has saved the schools endless
correspondence and has also en-

James McPherson, Kern County
Film Library Director, Bakersfield,
California.

abled the center to protect the
schools from some of the unde-
sirable “free materials” that
flood the country and still to
give them the use of materials in
this class that have real educa-
tional merit.

3. Third, we have placed a
guide to all materials in the
hands of each teacher. This
guide is published anew each
school year and is so organized
that materials may be selected
according to the unit being
taught, according to the topic
being taught, or from an alpha-
betical list. Each item is briefly
described as to content and pos-
sible uses. Grade levels on which
the item is apt to be of the great-
est value are also given. In ad-
dition, full information concern-
ing available equipment a n d
services is included, together
with instructions for ordering
materials, equipment, and serv-

ices. Although the publication
of this guide is expensive, each
costing about $1.50, its import-
ance as a means of keeping
teachers informed about cur-
rently available materials is so
great that a complete yearly re-
vision is justified.

4. Fourth, we work in every
possible way to encourage
schools in the county to main-
tain all equipment needed for
the convenient and easy use
of audio-visual materials. A 1 1
schools are urged to pur-
chase needed equipment. Where
schools are too small to afford
some types of equipment, the
audio-visual center circulates
this equipment both as a means
of providing teachers with
equipment needed now and also
as a means of demonstrating to
schools what their needs in the
way of equipment are. Thus, nu-
merous schools that began by
using loan equipment have found
it desirable to buy their own
equipment in order to meet a de-
mand by their teachers for more
frequent use of this equipment.
The audio-visual center main-
tains an equipment maintenance
center that adjusts, cleans, and
repairs all equipment at no cost
to the schools beyond a propor-
tionate sum paid by schools for
the services of the cooperative
audio-visual library.

Every effort is being made to
convince individual school dis-
tricts that the materials placed
in the audio-visual center are ac-
tually a part of the curriculum
materials of the schools although
they may be housed in a central
library. This point of view is

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

necessary where the materials
must be paid for by contribu-
tions from the districts. As a re-
sult of the general acceptance of
this thought, the great majority
of districts of the county partici-
pate in the cooperative audio-
visual library to such an extent
that the circulation of materials
is nine times greater now than
it was during the 1942-43 school

year in spite of the fact that
equipment purchases have been
reduced greatly because of pres-
ent scarcities.

A great deal of the ci’edit
for the expansion of the Kern
County program must go to
Leo B. Hart, superintendent of
schools, for his progressive and
generous support of the audio-
visual center. Without the strong

backing of the chief administra-
tor, no audio-visual program can
succeed. And the efficient man-
agement of the library services
are largely a result of the skill
and energy of Miss Dorothy
Dickinson, a librarian with much
experience in county libraries,
and Mrs. Emma Narramore, a
film custodian of ability and
patience.

Audio-Visual Who's Who

No. 36: Arthur Stenius

Arthur Stenius, Coordinator
of Visual, Radio, and Safety Ed-
ucation in Detroit, was born De-
cember 10, 1904. He was gradu-
ated from Detroit’s Central
High School and received his
A.B. degree from the University
of Notre Dame, his A.M. degree
from the University of Detroit,
and his Ph.D. from Ohio State
University, where he specialized
in radio education.

In 1939 he spent nine months
abroad studying audio-visual
programs in ten European coun-
tries. Although his research was
mainly in the field of radio in
education, in Sweden and Ger-
many he studied visual materi-
als. He returned to the United
States just before the war broke
out. His dissertation on Radio
Education in Europe was prob-
ably the last comprehensive sur-
vey made of this field.

Dr. Stenius has been connected
with the Detroit Public Schools
since graduation from Notre
Dame in 1928. Until 1935 he was
a high-school teacher. From 1935
to 1943 he was in secondary-
school administration and stu-
dent i)ersonnel work. In 1943 he
was appointed co-ordinator of

Arthur Stenius, Detroit Schools
Audio-Visual Coordinator

visual, radio, and safety educa-
tion in the Detroit public schools.

Since 1940 he has also been a
member of the faculty of Wayne
University, offering courses
both in student personnel work
and in audio-visual methods and
materials.

Other members of the Stenius
family have chosen other phases
of film work. Arthur’s sister,
Ruth Roberts, is a dramatic and
language coach with Hollywood
studios. She has worked with
Ingrid Bergman in each of her

pictures, and also with other for-
eign stars, such as Hedy La-
Marr, Rose Stradner and Tilly
L o s c h. Arthur’s brother is
George Seaton, Twentieth Cen-
tury-Fox director, whose last
two productions were Diamond
Horseshoe and Junior Miss.

The coordinated efforts of
three separate departments
make possible a well-rounded
audio-visual program for teach-
ers of the Detroit public schools.
These departments are the Chil-
dren’s Museum, and the Depart-
ments of Visual and Radio Ed-
ucation.

Each department is directly
administered by a supervisor in
charge. Dr. Stenius is responsi-
ble for coordinating these de-
partments.

Together, the three depart-
ments offer a single and com-
plete fund of teaching tools and
materials for the teachers. The
Children’s Museum provides a
full program at the building, as
well as making available to the
schools three-dimensional ma-
terials such as models, speci-
mens, and realia, complete ex-
hil)its for case and board dis-
play, and flat pictures for study

December, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

1 iHj

f h

Eii^f

PP|i

S fiW! p

plfll

WiW

One of the film vaults in the Audio-Visual Service Department of the Detroit schools. Thomas Roberts,
technical assistant, selects prints to be sent to o school.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

purposes. Radio programs, rec-
ords, transcriptions, and scripts
are offered the schools by the
Department of Radio Education.
The Department of Visual Edu-
cation limits its service to pro-
jected visuals.

The Children’s Museum, a
unit entirely supported and run
by the Board of Education, of-
fers an extension service for the
schools, as well as providing ex-
hibits and organized activities
for individuals coming to the
building. Approximately 20,000
persons visited the museum dur-
ing the past year. Although war-
time transportation restrictions
have reduced class visits to the
museum, such field trips were
at one time a significant portion
of the department’s service to
teachers and will become so
again. Only two of the eight
rooms of exhibits are permanent
in nature. The others are
changed periodically throughout
the school year, offering exhib-
its correlating closely with cer-
tain phases of the curriculum of
the schools.

Care of the building and pro-
vision of materials for schools is
the full-time job of the museum’s
staff of thirteen. The extent
of the lending service can be
judged by the fact that during
the school year 1944-45, over
325,000 items were sent to
schools to meet the more than
11,500 requests from teachers
for exhibits and materials.

The Department of Radio Ed-
ucation is responsible for the
production of five programs
weekly, one of which is broad-
cast from each of the commer-
cial stations in Detroit. The De-
partment is also in charge of the
auditory-aids library, which at
present lists in excess of 4,700
records, albums, and transcrip-
tions. A script library also has
been developed by the Depart-
ment, so that teachers may re-

ceive sets of scripts for school
productions. This newest unit
of materials in the Depart-
ment now circulates more than
1,700 scripts, which range from
fourth-grade level to productions
suitable for adults. Practically
all of these scripts have been
written by Department staff
writers and correlate closely
with the curriculum.

The types of projected visuals
circulated by the Department of
Visual Education are silent and
sound motion pictures, slides,
slidefilms, and demonstration
kits. Although it is probable that
the Department will continue to
circulate motion-picture films
from a central library, experi-
mentation is now being carried
out to test the advisability of
individual school libraries of
basic sets of slides and slide-
films. In one of the larger high
schools, also, an individual
school library of motion pictures
has been developed to determine
the increased benefits accruing
from such an arrangement.

Service routines concerned
with equipment, repair, booking,
inspection, shipping, and deliv-
ery are the responsibility of the
Department o f Audio-Visual
Service, a unit of the Business
Department of the Board of Ed-
ucation. The other three de-
partments mentioned are units
within the Division of Instruc-
tion.

Delivery of audio-visual ma-
terials is made to all schools four
times each week. An additional
day will soon be added, so that
Detroit teachers may again re-
ceive materials on any and every
school day.

During the 1944-45 school
year, the daily average of audio-
visual items delivered to schools
was 2,835. The broadcasts of the
Department of Radio Education,
of course, are not counted in this
figure, even though one might

argue that each of the 254 public
schools in Detroit receive them
each day. Nor does the figure in-
clude those persons and groups
who come to the Children’s Mu-
seum each day. But quantity is
often a poor standard of evalu-
ation, and circulation figures
alone are not to be stressed. De-
troit administrators strive to
make effectiveness of use match
breadth of utilization.

No. 37: Doris Louisa Lynn

Doris Louisa Lynn, Director
of Visual Education at Indianap-
olis, was born October 6, 1903
in Indianapolis. She is the great-
grand-daughter of one of the pi-
oneer judges and lawmakers of
Indiana. She was graduated
from Shortridge High School in
Indianapolis in 1921. She re-
ceived the A.B. and A.M. de-
grees from Butler University
and has done graduate work at
Chicago, Columbia, and Indiana
Universities. She taught first
in suburban Chicago and was
made an elementary-school prin-
cipal at the end of her fourth
year there. After serving as
principal for seven years. Miss
Lynn returned to Indianapolis
to teach. In 1940 she was as-
signed by the Board of School
Commissioners to be the Teacher
in Charge of Group Instruction
Service at the Children’s Mu-
seum, where for two years thou-
sands of children were brought
for class instruction utilizing
museum exhibits. In 1942, upon
the retirement of Miss Carrie
Francis, Director of Visual Ed-
ucation for the public schools.
Miss Lynn was appointed to
take over that work.

Visitations to the Children’s
Museum have been limited in re-
cent years by transportation
curtailments, but Miss Lynn is
again stimulating out-of-school
visitations to it and to the John
Herron Museum of Art. Wilbur

December, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Part of the daily shipment of motion-picture films to Detroit public schools. James Hume, shipping clerk, gives each

tag a final check.

FlUA AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

Peat, Director of the Art Mu-
seum, has prepared a set of Lit-
tle Jonrneijs, which are being
circulated by the Visual Educa-
tion Department as part of a
plan to coordinate the com-
munity’s agencies for visual ed-
ucation. The Public Library has
cooperated with the schools in
providing community groups
with films. At present. Miss
Lynn is greatly interested in
film utilization and is slowly ac-
quiring much-needed equipment.

Along with her profession,
]\Iiss Lynn’s greatest interest is
in travel. She has visited all but
four states, Puerto Rico, the Vir-
gin and Hawaiian Islands, Can-
ada, and Mexico. In 1934 she
visited England and traveled by
motor through Belgium, Hol-
land, France, Switzerland, and
Germany. Prior to the outbreak
of the war, the World Federa-
tion Cruise took her to Carib-
bean ports and to Venezuela,
Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina.

No. 38: E. H. Powell

A’hen the Encyclopaedia Bri-
tannica acquired Erpi Classroom
Films in 1943, and Eastman
Teaching Films in 1944, E. H.
Powell had been president of
Britannica for ten years. Dur-
ing those ten years he had com-
pleted six remarkable enter-
prises— his first, coaxing the
revered though unprofitable Bri-
tannica out of the red. That
took three years. He devised the
plan for continuous revision,
providing for review and revi-
sion, if necessary, of every arti-
cle in the Britannica at least
twice in every ten-year period.

To supplement the annual
printings of the Britannica,
Powell introduced the Encyclo-
paedia Britannica Book of the
Year, a record of each year’s po-
litical, scientific, and cultural
developments. Then he organ-

Doris Lynn, Director of Visual
Education, Indianapolis, Indiana.

ized the Britannica Library Re-
search bureau to make intensive
investigations for Britannica
owners. Next he launched the
Britannica Junior for children —
Junior now outsells Britannica.
And in 1942 he directed the pub-
lication of the annual Britannica
World Atlas, the latest, most
comprehensive atlas available.

After these extraordinary ac-
complishments, and in addition
to his regular duties as head of
the Britannica itself, he became
president of Encyclopaedia Bri-
tannica Films, attacking the new
project with characteristic en-
ergy and a unique combination
of abilities. After ten years with
the Britannica he knew how to
make education attractive and
accessible, and his hobby — art —
gives him an edge in the special-
ized field of visual educatioin
Since his college days at the Uni-
versity of Chicago, Powell has
been a vigorous art enthusiast,
studying at the Art Institute of
Chicago and the Chicago Acad-
emy of Fine Arts. He has been
president of Associated Arts and
Industries and still paints pic-
tures, designs houses, experi-
ments with photography — for
the fun of it.

All this adds up to a practical

familiarity with the potentiali-
ties of pictorial expression which
is paying dividends in the de-
velopment of Encyclopaedia Bri-
tannica Films, now offering over
450 classroom films covering 24
area of study.

For the advancement of the
field as a whole, however, his
philosophy of the function of
visual education is as valuable
as his knowledge of production
and salesmanship. He believes
that students handicapped by
poverty or slow reading compre-
hension can, through motion-
picture education, keep pace
with luckier schoolmates who
have the advantages of books,
special training, and first-hand
observation. He feels that voca-
tional, recreational, and social
aims of education can be reached
more effectively by audio-visual
means. Films, says Powell, will
equalize opportunity of learning,
especially by making it possible
and interesting, even exciting,
for adults to study their eco-
nomic, political, and social prob-
lems long after their formal
schooling is over. Furthermore,
Powell says :

“More than two thousand films
were used in Army and Navy
cdasses. The results of teaching-
for-war should he an Incentive to
every public and private school to
adopt new ways. Advances in sci-
ence and technology have created
a world with new dimensions. All
the peoples of the world are
neighbors. Resources on an un-
dreamed-of scale are within the
reach of all if we set new fron-
tiers for teaching. We must have
education for everyone on an un-
precedented scale.”

But, pointing out that there
are only about 17,000 projectors
in an estimated 12,000 school
systems in the 250,000 schools
of the United States, Powell sug-
gests :

“It may take the returning
servicemen to encourage school
hoards, school administrators, and
the teachers themselves to give

December, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

their children the best tools for
learning.”

Meanwhile, Powell a n d the
Bi’itannica have been giving the
country still another kind of vis-
ual education. Powell, with Wal-
ter Yust, editor of the Britan-
nica, and Grace Pagano, direc-
tor of fine arts, made up a com-
mittee to choose representative
paintings by the best American
artists to form the Encyclopae-
dia Britannica Collection of Con-
temporary American Painting.
Exhibitions have been held in
Chicago, New York, Boston,
Washington, D. C., and Dayton;
the collection is booked solid
through the spring of 1947.
Commenting on the collection of
135 canvases, Powell says:

“Britannica has always been
interested in education and broad
CLiltuial movements, and showing
American painting to the Ameri-
can people seems to us to fit into
this picture very well.”

The collection has dovetailed
with Encyclopaedia Britannica
Films in providing pictures to be
reproduced as standard slides,
and 116 canvases are being put
on 2x2 kodachromes for this
purpose. Full-color slides will be
sold in a portable case with a
set of lecture suggestions and a
copy of Co)itemporary American
Painting, a book on the Bri-
tannica Collection, bj^ Grace
Pagano. Recently the Chicago
schools used planographed re-
productions of five of the paint-
ings to illustrate the Chicago Ra-
dio Council’s broadcast on the
rivers of America. Powell is
gratified by such examples of
one educational agency reinforc-
ing the work of another.

When the Britannica Collec-
tion was hung in the corridors of
Britannica’s Chicago offices, be-
fore going on tour, Powell
watched for its impact on the
employees. One result has been
the first Employee’s Art Show,
for which Britannica employees

E. H. Powell, President- of Britonnico
and of Britannica Films, Corporations
controlled by the University of Chicogo.

submitted 100 original draw-
ings, water colors, pieces of
sculpture, and oil paintings —
three of them portraits of
Powell !

One of these showed him in
cowboy costume, an allusion to
his ranching hobby. His own
contest entry was a striking Col-
orado landscape done in unusual
tones of deep green.

Powell’s sociable nature de-
veloped in an “enormous Early
General Grant house overflow-
ing with relatives,’’ where he
was born in Upper Sandusky,
Ohio, in 1888. H i s parents
named him Elkan, but the name
has been overlooked since he won
the nickname “Buck” on the
football team.

The story of his rise to the
presidency of Britannica has a
strong Horatio Alger flavor. He
started work in the shipping
room at Sears, Roebuck and
Co., progressed to the position
of advertising manager, then to
the office of secretary and treas-
urer. At that time Sears owned
the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
later given to the University of
Chicago, and Powell was ap-
pointed president on the basis of
his record as a Sears executive.

In addition to his two presi-
dencies, he is a director of a
number of subsidiary compan-
ies and the Chicago Better Busi-
ness Bureau. He and his wife,
Ethel Corbet Powell, celebrated
their thirtieth wedding anniver-
sary this year. They have three
children, whose questions, it is
fabled, drove their desperate
father to introduce the Britan-
nica Junior.

No. 39: Jock C. Coffey

“There is a design to life. The
perfect pattern is rarely appar-
ent to the young man, but as the
years pass, the pieces fall into
their proper place and the pic-
ture takes form.” So says Jack
C. Coffey, Director of School
Relations for Encyclopaedia Bri-
tannica Films Inc., an “evangel-
ist” insofar as pictures are con-
cerned. The use of teaching films
in the classroom affords him an
opportunity to crusade for this
idea.

Born February 5, 1901, at
Caddo Mills, Texas, Jack recalls
that at the age of eighteen, when
he was a cadet at Wentworth
Military Academy, Lexington,
Missouri, his interest in learning
history was aroused through
chalk talks by his teacher. His-
tory to young Coffey at that
time was a vague subject until
a faculty officer vitalized his
lectures with quickly drawn
blackboard sketches. Important
dates in history became realistic.
Military maneuvers became a
fascinating game. In the recesses
of his mind was stored the idea
that pictures made things plain.

After his graduation from
Wentworth in 1919, Coffey en-
tered the University of Missouri,
majoring in advertising in Mis-
souri’s famous School of Jour-
nalism founded by Walter Wil-
liams. During his junior and
senior years there, he relates
that his funds became too low

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

for comfort and he augmented
his finances by making layouts
of advertisements for local mer-
chants. These layouts were a
“p i c t u r e method” of selling
ideas. The deal was purely a
speculative enterprise. If the ad-
vertising manager was success-
ful in selling the ad as a result
of the layout, Coffey netted ten
percent. Here he applied the pic-
ture idea to his own needs.

Mr. Coffey’s first position af-
ter receiving his Bachelor of
Journalism degree in 1925 was
with the Jahn & Ollier Engrav-
ing Company, Chicago. His work
was selling photo-engraving con-
tracts to schools and colleges.
Here again he was concerned
with pictures.

A year later he was offered a
job as advertising and publicity
manager of the Coronado Hotel,
St. Louis. His father had been
in the hotel business, and Jack
thought he could make good.
When he was interviewed by the
managing director, he was
asked, “What do you know about
the hotel business?” His reply
was, “All I know about the ho-
tel business is how to register
and go up to my room.” To that
his prospective employer said,
“Young man, I think you will do
all right in this job.” There had
been no such job at the Coron-
ado ; no precedents to follow. The
day after he went to work, his
new boss left town on an ex-
tended business t r i p. Three
months later he had his first on-
the-job conference with his boss.
By that time he knew a lot more
about the hotel business. One of
his activities in publicizing the
hotel was the collection of auto-
graphed pictures of famous peo-
ple who stopped there. Queen
Marie of Roumania and Charles
Lindbergh are in the collection
started by Coffey. The collection
now includes thousands of great
and near-great, forming one of

Jock C. CofJey, Director of School
Relotions for Encyclopoedio Britonnico
Films Inc.

the famous collections of its
kind.

The late twenties were partic-
ularly memorable years for Mr.
Coffey. He was married shortly
after he went to work at the
Coronado to Miss Dorothy Kirk
of Neosho, Missouri, who had
been a teacher in a government
school on Maui, Territory of
Hawaii. He has twin daughters,
age 10, to whom he is showing
the complete list of 500 Encyclo-
paedia Britannica Eilms. Many
times their teacher is astounded
by the remarks the twins make
as a result of seeing these films
on such a wide variety of sub-
jects. He wonders about the ef-
fect this will have on their ed-
ucational program. “Any edu-
cator or child psychologist’s com-
ment on this would be most wel-
come,” Mr. Coffey remarked.

The fateful October, 1929, was
still in the future. Money was
abundant ; prosperity hadn’t dis-
appeared around the corner.
Success was that dazzling star
just touching the horizon. Mr.
Coffey was restless. He wanted
to get into the “big time” in his
chosen field, but where?

One day while scanning the
advertisements in the Saturday
Evening Post, he saw an ad of a

new household refrigerator, one
that made its own ice ; no ice
man needed. Was that some-
thing! “That’s it,” he exclaimed.

Soon a letter was off to Delco-
Light Company, which then was
making and marketing Erigi-
daire Electric Refrigerators.
General Motors had become that
constellation and Frigidaire that
dazzling star. A few weeks later
he found himself a member of
the advertising and sales promo-
tion department.

When a sales training depart-
ment was established, his inter-
est in the use of slidefilms and
motion pictures for teaching
purposes was recognized. He
soon handled a major portion of
this work. Frigidaire was one of
the early pioneers in the use of
visual-instruction material for
business purposes.

Practically all of Frigidaire’s
film production was handled by
The Jam Handy Organization.
Eight years after joining Frig-
idaire, Coffey switched to Jam
Handy in 1935.

Here, he says, he did a little
of almost everything in the in-
dustrial-film business excepting
the technical work, including
sales promotion and advertising
for the company, sales contact
work, and scenario writing of
talking slidefilms and sound mo-
tion pictures and the develop-
ment of the teaching-slidefilm
distribution program to schools.
The latter he pioneered in prac-
tically every state in the Union
among visual-education deal-
ers, school administrators, and
teachers. He was in his element
when he was showing films on
the screen to teachers and stu-
dents in the classroom. Mr. Cof-
fey has been on the Board of Di-
rectors of The Jam Handy Or-
ganization since 1941.

In 1943, he took over a spe-
cial post-war-sales-planning as-
signment for Eureka Vacuum

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

December, 1945

Cleaner Company. While this
was interesting, he had deviated
— it was a piece that didn’t fit
the picture. One day while riding
to work with a friend at Eureka,
he was discussing films and the
fact that Encyclopaedia Britan-
nica Inc. had taken over Erpi
Classroom Films and Eastman
Teaching Films. Unknown to
Coffey, this friend was a part-
time Encyclopaedia Britannica
salesman. The salesman liked
some of Coffey’s ideas concern-
ing films and books. He passed
along these thoughts to officials
0 f Encyclopaedia Britannica
Inc. Upshot of it was that within
a few months Coffey joined En-
cyclopaedia Britannica Films
Inc. The pattern of his life’s pic-
ture came back into focus.

M r. Coffey’s avocation or
hobby is getting people jobs, a
private placement service, if you
please, without monetary award.
Right now he has a vice-presi-
dent of a large electric refriger-
ator manufacturing company,
two advertising agency account
executives, one commercial-film
script-writer, a n advertising
manager with a food manufac-
turing background, a magazine-
space representative, a proof-
reader, an appliance-dealer-de-
velopment man, and an indus-
trial-film salesman on his list.

No. 40: Stephen M. Corey

Stephen Maxwell (“Max”)
Corey, Professor of Educational
Psychology at the University of
Chicago and Educational Ad-
viser of Britannica Publications
and Encyclopaedia Britannica
Films, was born at Rochester,
New York, July 21, 1904, the
son of a clergyman. He received
his B.S. degree at Eureka Col-
lege, in Illinois, in 1926; his
M.A. at the University of Illinois
in 1927 ; his Ph.D. at that uni-
versity in 1930. While working
for his doctorate, he served dur-

Stepben M. Corey, Educational Adviser
of Encyclopaedia Britannica Films and
Director of University of Chicago
Audio-Visual Center.

ing 1928-30 as instructor in edu-
cational psychology at the Uni-
versity of Illinois.

Thereafter he held the posi-
tions of Associate Professor of
Psychology, DePauw University,
1930-31 ; Professor of Educa-
tional Psychology, University of
Nebraska, 1931-36 ; Assistant
Dean of the Graduate School
and Professor of Education,
University of Wisconsin, 1936-
40 ; Superintendent, Laboratory
Schools, University of Chicago,
1940-44.

His present position estab-
lishes him as one of America’s
leading consultants in the gen-
eral development of classroom
films. His work with EBF in-
volves acting as Chairman of the
Educational Advisory Commit-
tee, which meets once a month
in New York City. The other
members of the committee are
Paul Mort of Columbia Univer-
sity, N. L. Engelhardt of the
New York City school system,
and A. J. Stoddard, Superintend-
ent of Schools at Philadelphia.

Professor Corey is Director of
the University of Chicago’s Cen-
ter for the Study of Audio-Vis-
ual Instructional Materials, lo-
cated in the Graduate Educa-
tion Building, 5835 Kimbark

Avenue in Chicago. The Center
provides facilities and guidance
for persons interested in under-
taking research investigations of
audio-visual mediums. It offers
schools and individuals consulta-
tive service regarding audio-
visual materials. The Center also
conducts demonstrations of the
use of audio-visual materials in
connection with the training of
teachers for elementary and sec-
ondary schools. It also enables
teachers, supervisors, and ad-
ministrators to make critical
studies of audio-visual materials.

The Center houses a non-ren-
tal library of 600 instructional
films, both silent and sound. It
maintains a library of books,
monographs, research reports,
catalogs of audio-visual instruc-
tional materials. It includes a
small projection theatre, with
recording, playback, storage,
and projection equipment. This
audio-visual headquarters is en-
deavoring to establish new
standards in the utilization of
radio programs, transcriptions,
motion pictures, film-strips,
slides, flat pictures, school jour-
neys, three-dimensional objects,
and the like.

Among Professor Corey’s re-
cent articles on audio-visual ed-
ucation are the following:

“Teacher Evaluation of Class-
room Motion Pictures,” Elemen-
tary School Journal, February,
1945, pp. 324-327.

“Classroom Use of Motion Pic-
tures,” School Review, March,
1945, Vol. LIII, No. 3, pp. 127-
140.

“Teaching Communication
Skills Through Use of Sound
Films,” (with Helen Flynn)
School Review, June, 1945, Vol.
LIII, No. 6, pp. 348-352.

“What are Classroom Motion
Pictures?” Libra r y Journal,
(with V. C. Arnspiger) June 1,
1945, Vol. LXX, No. 11, pp. 516-
518.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

“A u d i o-Visual Aids and
Teacher Training Institutions,”
Educational Screen, June, 1945,
Vol. XXIV, No. 6, pp. 226-227.

Professor Corey is co-author
of Remedial Reading in High
School and Workbook in Educa-
tional Psychology. He is contrib-
uting author of Readings in Ed-
ucational Psychology and Gen-
eral Education in the American
High School; contributor to the
Encyclopaedia of Educational
Research; contributing editor.
The Journal of Experimental
Educatum and Child Life; asso-
ciate editor. The Journal of Edu-
cational Psychology and The
School Review. He contributed

to the following yearbooks : 1944
National Society for the Study
of Education ; 1944, 1945 De-
partment of Supervisors and
Curriculum Directors ; 19 4 5

John Dewey Society; 1947
American Association of School
Administrators. He is the author
of numerous experimental and
theoretical articles in psycholog-
ical and educational journals.

At a conference on visual
teaching aids last summer Pro-
fessor Corey warned against
movies labeled “educational,”
but which are covertly propa-
gandist in nature. Pointing out
that many kinds of semi-educa-
tional organizations, including

government, philanthropic, and
commercial offices, purvey films
that are designed to give the
impression of “disinterestedness
and objectivity,” he urged teach-
ers to be on the watch for dis-
tortions of fact through omis-
sion, selection, or downright fab-
rication. He also urged a careful
distinction between entertain-
ment films and educational
films. We look forward to some
of his researches in which these
differences will be defined. Per-
haps Professor Corey will tell us
whether the new 16mm version
of part of David Copper field, for
example, is educational or enter-
tainment material.

The York Film Library

Behind the York Film Li-
brary, in York, Pennsylvania,
lies an unusual story of educa-
tional initiative. Here is a li-
brary carrying more than 400
prints of sound and silent 16mm
films, 35mm film-strips, 2x2
slides, and a collection of pro-
jectors for opaque pictures, film-
strips, and slides, established by
a local professional club of ele-
mentary principals through its
own resources and ivithout tax
support of any kind. A dozen
years ago, scarcely a school in
York used films. Today, through
the enterprise of the Elementary
Principals Professional Club, 17
of the 21 elementary schools at
York have been equipped with
16mm sound projectors. This is
a story hardly to be matched
elsewhere.

The York Film Library, which
now serves both the York City
Schools and the York County
Schools, was organized during

Jesse D. Brown, York Film Library
Director, York, Pennsylvania

the academic year 1940-41. Now
in its sixth year, the library is
administered by a committee
under the leadership of Jesse
Brown, who serves as managing
director. Four women elemen-
tary principals serve on the com-
mittee with Mr. Brown : Flor-

ence Gross, Principal of Betsy
Ross School ; Mary Heiges, Prin-
cipal of Garfield School; Belle
Anthony, Principal of Central
School ; and Fern E. Rumpf,
who serves as treasurer. The li-
brary has been incidentally a
depository for OWI, OIAA, and
Cathedral films.

Born in 1902 on a farm in
York County, Mr. Brown re-
ceived his B. S. in Education
from State Teachers College at
Millersville, Pennsylvania. He
began teaching in a one-room
country school in York County.
After three years, Mr. Brown
was transferred to graded school
work. For the past eighteen
years, he has been an elemen-
tary principal. During the war,
Mr. Brown was chairman of the
York County War Finance Com-
mittee. He is president of the
Audio-Visual Aids Round Table
of the Pennsylvania State Edu-
cation Association.

December, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

The York Film Library makes
its headquarters in the Hartley
Building, which, as far back
as the early thirties, housed an
elementary children’s museum,
while the schools were just be-
ginning to use classroom films.

On October 4 and 5, 1945, the
Elementary Principals Profes-
sional Club of York sponsored
a notable Audio-Visual Aids
Conference a nd Demonstra-
tion, which was conducted with
the cooperation of Charles R.
Crakes, Educational Consultant
of the DeVry organization, as-
sisted by Norma Barts, DeVry
Visual-Aids Counselor. Miss

Barts demonstrated the utiliza-
tion of the film Robin Red-
breast for teachers of Grades 1
and 2; Eskimo Children for
teachers of Grades 3 and 4 ;
Early Settlers of Neiv England
for teachers of Grades 5 and 6 ;
The Airplane Changes O u r
World Map for Junior High
School teachers; and Aerody-
namics for Senior High School
teachers. The demonstrations
were followed by question-and-
answer periods. The meetings
were held on the morning, after-
noon, and evening of October 4
and again on the morning, af-
ternoon, and evening of October

5, at the Noell School, the Han-
nah Penn Junior High School,
the Mount Rose Junior High
School, and the West York High
School. This two-day county-
wide conference included a din-
ner meeting at the Hotel York-
towne, with addresses by Miss
Gross, Mr. Crakes, Miss Barts,
Dr. Edward Glatfelter, Princi-
pal of the William Penn Senior
High School, and Harvey E.
Swartz, County Superintendent
of Schools. Mr. Jones was toast-
master. The dinner meeting was
also the occasion of a preview of
the Victory Loan film. Objec-
tive: Security.

Who's Who in Radio Education

No. 9: George Jennings

A colorful saga lies behind the
career of George Jennings, Act-
ing Director of the Radio Coun-
cil of the Chicago Public Schools
and EM Station WBEZ. One of
America’s most dynamic and
enterprising administrators of
public-school radio programs, he
was born September 4, 1905, on
a 2,000-acre wheat ranch in the
Big Bend country of Washing-
ton. “The wind blew the seed
wheat out of the ground as fast
as it was seeded,” says Jennings.
“Most of this country today is
used for running turkeys — huge
flocks of them, with chuck wag-
ons and men on horseback herd-
ing them much as cattle are
herded.”

When George was four, his
family moved t o Mansfield,
Washington, where Jennings,
pere, became the village drug-
gist and undertaker. The under-

taking establishment was lo-
cated in the former schoolhouse
of the town. Here among the
coffins George “played school”
with h i s older sister. When
George’s mother found him at-
tempting to read one of his fath-
er’s college textbooks at the age
of four and a half, she decided it
was time for him to start school.

When it became hopelessly
difficult to make a living in the
Big Bend because of bad crops,
George’s family moved to Spo-
kane, where his father entered
the wholesale drug business.
George, along with the five other
Jennings children, attended the
Emerson Elementary School. In
1924 George was graduated
from the North Central High
School. Among his recollections
of Spokane is his youthful inter-
est in science and his hope of
entering a medical school. His
l)iology teacher, Thomas A. Bon-
sor, took a special interest in

George and contrived to get the
janitor’s cat for him to dissect.
George recalls that when he was
studying the embryology of the
chick, somebody stole his incu-
bating eggs and put them in the
desk of another science teacher.
When the drawer was closed,
the eggs broke. George spent a
week in Principal Kennedy’s of-
fice. This, however, was as noth-
ing compared to the 120 days
George spent in the hospital
with a wrenched back as a result
of a scissors hold applied by his
chum Ed Craney, now owner of
the Z-Bar Net and other stations
in Montana. In spite of his
wrestling experiences, George
almost failed to graduate when
Principal Kennedy, two days be-
fore commencement, found that
George did not have quite
enough gym credits! His pleas-
antest recollection of North Cen-
tral is the successful campaign
he conducted to elect one of his

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

friends president of his class.

At nineteen, Jennings matric-
ulated in the pre-medical course
at the University of Idaho, but
left the campus at the end of
what he terms an “undistin-
guished six months.” His chem-
istry professor had an assistant
who prodded the students with
a stick to keep them awake dur-
ing lectures. George was pledged
to Beta Theta Pi, but left before
he was initiated. Before leaving,
George put in considerable time
in the soils laboratory, where he
had a messy job grinding up
rocks, sand, and earthworms for
soil analysis. He also dissected
his second cat at this time, the
property of his house manager.

From the campus at Moscow,
Idaho, Jennings returned to
Spokane, where he resumed a
job that he had held in a clini-
cal laboratory during his senior
year at North Central High
School. A friend suggested driv-
ing to Seattle for a job selling
Pictorial Review as a means of
working through college. George
was sent on a three-weeks’ col-
lection trip, not knowing he was
to send in a daily report. The
Washington State Police picked
him up at Chehalis after he had
been gone two weeks. As soon as
the manager got George’s re-
port, however, he wired, “All is
forgiven. Go back to work.”

The following summer George
worked in a drug store. In the
fall he entered Washington State
College at Pullman. There he
took a job as manager of the
fountain and lunch department
of the college bookstore, but he
spent most of his time in the
monk’s-cloth-draped studios of
KWSC, where he made his first
broadcast. About this time Jen-
nings thought he might become
a writer. H e began writing
lengthy, esoteric essays and
poems, some of which appeared
in print but without benefit of

fee. He took several correspon-
dence courses in literature, con-
cerning which he often argued
with his instructors in the b^oth
back of the soda fountain. The
State College proved very dull
for the energetic spirit of Jen-
nings. After two years, he left
Pullman and took up his resi-
dence at Portland, Oregon,
where he got a job on The Ore-
gonian and where he entered
Reed College, majoring in liter-
ature and languages. Here he
spent f 0 u r years, combining
newspaper work with his col-
lege course and receiving the
B.A. degree in 1931. While on
T h e Oregonian, Jennings
worked on KGW, “just for the
fun of it.” Later he moved over
to the now defunct Portland
News as “night-wire” editor. He
went to work usually at one
o’clock in the morning and pro-
ceeded thence direct to an eight-
o’clock class. Only once did he
fail to arrive at the News office
to “open the wire” as scheduled,
but once was enough. The city
editor’s name was Lemmon.
Thereafter Jennings moved over
to the Oregon State Medical So-
ciety for six months as editor of
the society’s monthly publication
and its director of public rela-
tions.

While studying at Reed Col-
lege, Jennings worked occasion-
ally as an extra or super in
road-show companies coming to
Portland. He also joined the col-
lege weekly as business man-
ager. Once his literature profes-
sor got wind of a forthcoming
editorial that he considered so
offensive that he threatened to
sue if the paragraph appeared.
Rather than risk financial loss,
Jennings ordered the printer to
kill the offending paragraph.
The student editor was wild, but
Jennings won out. During the
summer vacation between his
junior and senior years, George

drove to Hollywood to look the
place over. “It was a mutual
brush-off,” he says.

After graduating from Reed,
George and his friend Frank
Griffin, now on the staff of the
Prudential Insurance Company
in Newark, drove to New York
in an eight-year-old Ford road-
ster. The trip took only two
weeks each way. Despite the
condition of the roads at that
time, the boys never changed a
tire. In other respects they were
not so lucky. It was a time of
deep financial depression. They
failed to land jobs.

Returning to the Pacific
Coast, George went on the road
as a salesman for his father’s
drug firm. He traveled the en-
tire length of the West Coast in
an old Dodge coupe, living in
tourist camps and spending long
hours waiting to see physicians
who were his prospects. In one
office, picking up a copy of The-
atre Arts, he saw an advertise-
ment of Barclay Leathern’s new
graduate school in dramatic arts
at Western Reserve University.
He wrote Mr. Leathern and was
promptly accepted as a student.
Arriving in Cleveland after a
cross-country bus trip, George
immediately went to work at the
University Theatre as assistant
to Gerard Gentile, set designer
and scene builder. To support
himself in those depression days,
George also served on the jani-
torial staff. His assignment dur-
ing his year at Western Reserve
was to sweep out the common
room of one of the girls’ dormi-
tories. He did this work after
curtain time at the Eldred or the
Cleveland Playhouse, finishing
usually about seven in the morn-
ing.

After receiving his M.A. de-
gree in theatre arts in 1934, Jen-
nings found that the financial
depression was so bad that there
were no theatre jobs to be had,

December, 1 945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

and few teaching jobs. He re-
turned to the West Coast and
got a job stevedoring on an old
river-boat, The Northivestern, a
stern-wheeler that ran to a pa-
per mill at Salem, about fifty
miles up the Willamette River
from Portland. “It was a good
job,” says Jennings, “with five
meals a day if we were loading
or unloading. After two or three
weeks, the manager put me on
the Salem dock. Eventually I be-
came a biller and dispatcher in
the Portland office.”

In 1936 an opening developed
at Station KOAC, owned and
operated by the Oregon State
Board of Higher Education at
Corvallis. Luke Roberts, the sta-
tion manager, was going east for
further study. James Morris
was assuming the management
temporarily, and Jennings was
assigned to take over Morris’s
work as staff writer and an-
nouncer. He continued in this
position for eight months, until
Luke returned. Meanwhile he
had been corresponding with ed-
ucational stations that were de-
veloping. Fortunately he landed
at the University of Illinois sta-
tion, WILL, where Joseph
Wright and Frank Schooley
were (and still are) in charge.
At Station WILL, Jennings had
an opportunity to do what all
educational station staff people
have to do — a little bit of every-
thing. He wrote programs, an-
nounced, produced, directed the
Freshman Radio Group (a tal-
ent nucleus) , and acquainted the
journalism students with some
of the mysteries of radio writ-
ing.

The academic year 1936-37,
which Jennings spent at the
University of Illinois, proved a
notable one for him. The Gen-
eral Education Board of the
Rockefeller Foundation ar-
ranged a fellowship, giving him
six months’ training in radio

with Franklin Dunham and oth-
ers at the headquarters of the
National Broadcasting Company
in New York. “This,” says Jen-
nings, “was a most profitable
experience, not only in the ac-
tual writing and production of
radio programs, but in the con-
tacts I made. Many of the
friends in network broadcasting
I have today are those who be-
friended me when I was a rookie
at NBC in New York. The stim-
ulating associations with both
the network people and the staff
of the General Education Board,
particularly John Marshall, have
proved invaluable ever since.”

At the termination of this
New York fellowship, the Gen-
eral Education Board sent Jen-
nings to San Francisco. Here he
spent some time in the offices
and studios of NBC. Thence he
went to Seattle as director of ra-
dio and public relations for the
Cornish School, ultimately be-
coming program director of the
Tacoma-Seattle station, KVI.

In the summer of 1938 Jen-
nings came to Chicago, primar-
ily to write one series of pro-
grams for the Radio Council, of
which Harold W. Kent was di-
rector. Jennings has been in
Chicago ever since. He was made
Continuity Editor, Director of
the Central Radio High-School
Workshop, and Program Direc-
tor. When Kent was given leave
to go into military service, Jen-
nings was made Acting Direc-
tor. A great deal has happened
in educational radio circles since
1938. These years have seen
the organization of the School
Broadcast Conference, the or-
ganization of the Association for
Education by Radio, the estab-
lishment of Station WBEZ, the
growth of the Radio Council
from a small outfit with a sin-
gle desk in the Chicago Board of
Education Library to the out-
standing production group of its

kind in the country.

“We are constantly increas-
ing our service to the schools,”
says Jennings, “and to the gen-
eral FM audience. We are now
developing late afternoon and
evening hours for home listen-
ing. The Radio Council and
Television Station WBKB have
been doing experimental video
broadcasts. Regularly scheduled
television programs for use
in experimental classrooms are
now being planned.”

Jennings has found time for
the writing of many professional
articles ; for teaching classes at
Lewis Institute, Mundelein Col-
lege, and Rosary College; and
for participation in conferences
a n d summer institutes. Last
summer Jennings taught at the
institute arranged by the Uni-
versity of Kansas City and Sta-
tion KMBC, and at the Dramatic
Workshop of Louisiana State
University at Baton Rouge. He
attended the FM institutes con-
ducted by the University of Wis-
consin and by Ohio State Uni-
versity.

Jennings has also found time
meanwhile for free-lancing a
number of series of an educa-
tional nature, for the Illinois
State Historical Society and the
Illinois State Board of Health,
as well as the writing and pres-
entation of two series and a
number of special broadcasts on
WBEZ and other Chicago sta-
tions. He is also completing a
workshop manual for high-
school radio students and a
Notebook for Radio Educators.
He has in preparation two sup-
plementary geographical read-
ers.

In spite of his extraordinary
present activity, Jennings is de-
voted to his daughters Barbara,
aged ten, and Baby Gregory,
aged one, not to mention “Java,”
the cat. “Trilby,” a dachshund,
became too much of a problem

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

in the city, but there is still
“Shadrach,” a 75-pound English
bulldog on the little ranch in
Oregon where the Jennings fam-
ily spends each summer and
which George manages to visit
for a week or two each year.

The Jennings library includes

a notable collection of Western
Americana ; a collection of maps,
particularly a set of U. S. rail-
way maps which were in the of-
fice of the President of the Illi-
nois Central Railway for almost
forty years ; and a collection of
recorded music, with emphasis

on Bach and Beethoven — “the
greatest musical purist and the
greatest musical romanticist.”

Such is the unusual saga of
George Jennings, a popular fig-
ure among his friends and head
of a household which is very
much a home.

THE SCREEN WRITER

Readings in Photoplay Appreciation

John Aitken, who has written
and produced films both in Eng-
land and America, and who is
the author of a book on film
technique as well as numerous
magazine articles, says in the
August, 1945, issue of The
Screen Writer, official organ of
the Screen Writers’ Guild :

A Question of Rank
“To understand the power of
J. Arthur Rank, one must begin
with addition and multiplication
tables. Consider for a moment
the simple arithmetic of an em-
pire that includes ;

“Half the total number of
British shooting stages under
financial control and 56 percent
of the total floor space ; 620 the-
atres (out of 2,000 first-run
houses) with a seating capacity
of three-quarters of a million,
and a weekly audience almost

The Screen Writer is the official
publication of the Screen Writers’
Guild, Inc., 1655 North Cherokee Av-
enue, Hollywood 28, California. It is
published monthly at 25c a copy. The
subscription rate is $2.50 a year for
12 issues. Teachers and students of
literature, composition, speech, and
drama, as well as members of photo-
play clubs, who find these excerpts of
interest will do well to read the com-
plete issues of this aggressive new
magazine.

one-third of Britain’s total ; chil-
dren’s movie clubs with a mem-
bership of 300,000 : an equip-
ment firm building 90 percent of
the domestic output of projec-
tors ; a finance corporation with
5 million dollars paid-up capital
to support production ; 24 Brit-
ish production companies ; a 25
percent interest in America’s
Universal Pictures ; a 50 percent
interest in Canada’s lengthening
chain of Odeon theatres ; and
grandiose distribution jilans for
South America, India, the Mid-
dle East and Soviet Russia.”

Lester Koenig, who was at-
tached to the First Motion Pic-
ture Unit, AAF, from the time
he left the ranks of Hollywood
writers in 1942 until the end of
the war, wrote the scri])t of the
famous documentary. The Mem-
phis Belle, which was directed
by William Wyler, head of
Koenig’s outfit. Mr. Koenig
writes in the August issue of
The Screen Writer:

Back from the Wars

“There is a notion held by
some Hollywood people, who are
concerned with the future of the
American film, that the writer-
veterans will have a strong in-
fluence on post-war pictures. It

is expected that more realism,
an honest approach to current
life and its problems, a new
maturity and understanding, a
world’s-eye view of things, will
come to the industry in one
startling gust, like a breath of
fresh air in Giro’s. It is difficult
to say whether this great expec-
tation of their influence on post-
war films will be fulfilled. There
are no statistics ; no graphs or
charts of our screenwriters’ de-
velopment during the war. But it
is true that for a number of
writers the war has offered an
opportunity to make pictures in
a way they are rarely made in
Hollywood.”

Ranald MacDougall, who es-
tablished his reputation in radio
before becoming a screen writer,
and who is therefore equipped
with an expert knowledge of
sound as an intrinsic part of
drama, says in an article on
Sound — and Fury in the Septem-
ber, 1945, issue of The Screen
Writer:

“The motion picture industry
for many years has been trying
to remove the one dimension of
the screen. By lighting, with
lenses of inexplicable complex-
ity, through movement, camera
angles, and a variety of other

December, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

techniques, the flatness of the
screen has largely been over-
come. Visually, a motion picture
is usually extremely pleasant to
behold, and the actors, if not
‘round’, are at least palatably
curved.

“Theoretically, this should be
true of motion pictures in an
auditory sense. It is not, how-
ever, although motion pictures
are favored with the highest
fidelity recording and reproduc-
tion facilities in existence. Close
your eyes at the next movie you
go to see, and merely listen. If
you consider your ears the gate-
way to your soul, or merely take
pleasure in such simple sounds
as bird noises, you will be
shocked by the stale and unprof-
itable flow of noises from the
screen. Within the eustachian
tubes of the movie-goer the
screen is as flat as ever.

“The reasons for this are man-
ifold; many of them stemming
from the production techniques
of silent days, some of them be-
ing the fault of the producer to
whom sound is unimportant and
music a mystery, and still others
being lack of interest or knowl-
edge on the part of the director.
Most of all, however, the fault
lies with the writers of screen-
plays. It is rare indeed that a
screenplay writer cues in sound
as a dramatic effect, and almost
never does the average writer
make use of the great dramatic
potentialities of music by sup-
plying proper a n d rhythmic
cues.

“For more protracted study
in the uses of sound as a dra-
matic device, read the many ra-
dio plays of Corwin, Oboler, and
others. For concrete illustration
of what an important part writ-
ten sound-patterns can play in
motion pictures, see any of Val
Lewton’s so-called horror films,
and recall such memorable mo-

ments as occurred in Hitchcock’s
Thirty-Nme Steps, where the
charwoman discovers a dead
body and lets out a shriek that
cross-fades to the whistle of a
train in motion. That transition
didn’t just happen. It was writ-
ten.’’

Robert R. Presnell, author,
playwright, produce r, and
screen writer, has done notable
work in making films for the
Signal Corps. His duties as a
Lieutenant Colonel took him to
battle fronts all over the world.
Discussing The Great Pare7ithe-
sis in the September, 1945, issue
of The Screeti Writer, he says:

“The army used Hollywood
credits as a yardstick. Have any
story editors or producers con-
sidered army credits? Of course
not. Because the army works
anonymously. There are no press
agents or screen credits to say,
‘This man wrote a film that
trained five million men to use
weapons in half the estimated
time. That one wrote a film that
made the landing in Normandy
possible. Joe Doakes saved
countless lives by his dramati-
zation of malaria prevention.
Another trained pilots for the
B-29’s.’

“A story editor of one of the
major studios epitomized the
studios’ attitude the other day.
He was talking to a few return-
ing servicemen, writers all.

“ ‘You fellows have been
away quite a while,’ he said.
Then he snapped his fingers a
few times. ‘You’ll have to bring
yourselves up to date . . . get
back on the balk’

“It took a few minutes to show
the story editor that the shoe
was on the other foot. Those
writers were decidedly on the
ball. But it still did not correct
a studio attitude. So let’s be
done with sentimental mouth-

ings about returning service-
men. Let these men go back to
work, wherever and whenever
they can. And let them, with
with quiet dignity, stand toe to
toe with any producer or story
editor, and slug it out to the
best of their ability.

“0. Henry wrote a story once,
about a man who had returned
each night to the same wife,
cooking dinner in the same
apartment with the same smell
of onions in the hall, for twenty
years. One night, on his way
home, he detoured into a saloon
and had a few drinks. He woke
up on board a ship. During the
next few years he was ship-
wrecked, became a general in a
revolution, rode a white horse
at the head of an army, fought
a dozen battles, won and lost a
fortune. At last, he was able to
get back home. It was evening.
As he entered the hall uf his
apartment house, there was the
distinct smell of onions again.
Thus, he knew that nothing was
changed.

“Perhaps I am wrong, but it
seemed to me the other evening
as I stood at the corner of Holly-
wood and Vine, that there was a
very faint odor of onions on the
breeze that blew in from the
sea.”

Robert Shaw, who has been
on the editorial staffs of Hearst
and other newspapers, discusses
Hearstian Criteria for Movie
Critics in the September, 1945,
issue of The Screen Writer:

“The average American news-
paper’s approach to the motion
picture review is both commer-
cial and snobbish. Film reviews
are considered in large measure
mere editorial gratuities to ad-
vertisers. Almost incidentally
they are considered as conces-
sions to a newspaper-reading
public whose intelligence level is

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

regarded with persistent cynic-
ism by editors and publishers.
Movies are the greatest mass en-
tertainment medium. Since the
human mass is inherently rather
stupid, in the opinion of most
newspaper entrepreneurs, there
is not much sense in trying to be
intelligent about the favorite
mass diversion.

“When you get your first as-
signment to review a movie for
a Hearst newspaper, for in-
stance, you are probably not a
regular member of the theatre-
page staff. You are more likely
a copy boy, or a cub reporter, or
a space writer for the sports de-
partment. The tired drama edi-
tor, who may be also the aviation
editor and the home-garden edi-
tor, has given you a pass to the
Elite Theatre, and said : ‘Take
your girl to the show tonight,
kid — and say, write a couple of
sticks about it for the page to-
morrow, will you ?’ ”

James Wong Howe, one of
the finest cameramen in Holly-
wood, takes issue with Stephen
Longstreet’s assertion that
Hollywood places too much em-
phasis on technical values in
production, such as camera
work, and not enough on intrin-
sic values, which are inherent in
the writing. In a brilliant and
restrained article entitled The
Cameraman Talks Back, in the
October, 1945, issue of The
Screen Writer, Mr. Howe says:

“The trouble with many critics
and ex-critics is that for all their
skillful talk they don’t under-
stand the techniques of motion
pictures. They still criticize mov-
ies from the viewpoint of the
stage. This results in any num-
ber of false appraisals, but the
one with which I am concerned
here is that this approach leaves
out the cameraman entirely. For
the stage, there is the audience

eye. For movies, with their
wider scope and moving ability,
there is the camera eye. If these
two were one and the same kind
of production, the cameraman’s
part would merely be to set his
camera up in front of the action
as a static recorder, press a but-
ton and go fishing. Let the
lights and shadows fall as they
will, or better still, paint them
on some old sets. The director,
the actors, the writer, the pro-
ducer, the bank, and the audi-
ence and critic, would object to
this, but there you have the
recipe for making movies with
a dumb, or inanimate, camera-
man.

“The cameraman confers with
the director on : (a) composition
of shots for action, since some
scenes require definite composi-
tion for their best dramatic ef-
fect, while others require the
utmost fluidity, or freedom from
any strict definition or styliza-
tion; (b) atmosphere; (c) the
dramatic mood of the story,
which they plan together from
beginning to end; (d) the action
of the piece. Because of the
mechanics of the camera and the
optical illusion of lenses, the
cameraman may often suggest
changes of action which will bet-
ter attain the effect desired by
the director. Many times, a di-
rector is confronted with speci-
fic problems of accomplishing
action. The cameraman may pro-
pose a use of the camera un-
known to the director, which
will achieve the same realism.

“Here is an example : an actor
who was required in the story
to slap a woman brutally, re-
fused to do this through the
many takes the director would
likely make. The woman, fur-
thermore, could not have en-
dured it, her face having already
swollen after the first action.
The scene was a very important

one. Omission was not possi-
ble, since playing it down des-
troyed the dramatic effect the
director wanted. By use of the
camera, I was able to show how
this action could be made to
appear on the screen in all its
reality, without the actuality of
blows. These things may amount
to no more than ingenuity and a
technical trick, but they carry
over into the dramatic quality
of a scene. There are many
studio workers behind the scenes
whose contributions towards the
excellence of a motion picture
never receive credit because out-
siders have no way of discover-
ing where one leaves off and
another begins.’’

James Hilton, a past vice-
president of the Screen Writers’
Guild, in a notable article en-
titled A Novelist Looks at the
Screen, in the November, 1945,
issue of The Screen Writer,
says :

“T h e potential of contact
between films and books has
hardly yet been figured out,
though there are signs already
in the publishing world that
something revolutionary is on
foot. These signs include the
vast sale of cheap editions which
is springing up all over the
country, paralleling film-releases
whenever possible ; and especial-
ly the innovation of selling mod-
ern unabridged and good-quality
books for twenty-five cents in
markets and drug stores.

“One more point that con-
cerns Hollywood and the writer
jointly; the postwar world re-
quires more, better, broader, and
more constant education, and
one of the quiet events of the
war, not perhaps fully realized
by those whom it most con-
cerned, was the development of
technique in teaching by film.
I said just now that the

December,

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

centuries-old bottleneck of the
printed word has been broken,
but that does not mean that the
bottlers are going out of busi-
ness. On the contrary, the liai-
son between Hollywood and the
book world has put the latter on
its toes, and I would not be sur-
prised if certain publishers were
to enter the educational film
business, the more so if Holly-

wood tends to leave it alone.

“In such an event, a vast new
development of the motion pic-
ture would be centered in the
east while to Hollywood would
be left the gilt, the girls, the
glamor, and the goofiness. But
are the four G’s going to be
enough in a postwar world dedi-
cated to the Four Freedoms? I
personally think not. Such a

separation of functions would be
as bad for Hollywood’s soul as
it might be ultimately for its
pocket. Perhaps writers can do
something to convince Holly-
wood of this. At any rate, it is
on them that responsibility will
largely devolve for selling the
new world to Hollywood as
strenuously as Hollywood to the
new world.”

Cooperation Between Broadcasters and
Educational FM Stations

A. D. Willard, Jr., executive
vice-president of the National
Association of Broadcasters,
said at the School Broadcast
Conference in Chicago, October
23, 1945:

“By cooperative arrangements
with commercial broadcasters it
will be possible for selected pro-
grams, both commercial and sus-
taining, to be re-broadcast to
schools through their FM sta-
tions. In other words, instead of
compiling a list of recommended
programs for school listening,
the FM station staff will actual-
ly collect them from the air and
channel them into school FM re-
ceivers. In order than none will
be missed, and to be certain that
they reach a school audience
at the right time, the school
station will make off-the-air re-
cordings for broadcast later.

“There is still another way in
which a commercial station can
continue to render valuable ser-
vice to an educational institu-
tion, even though it has its own
FM station. Programming most
of the day for classroom audi-
ences, no matter how well it is
done, will not attract and hold

a general audience such as that
which listens, day after day, to
the more varied offerings of a
commercial station. Consequent-
ly, when a school wishes to tell
its story to the general public —
in other words, do a public
relations job in its community —
the ready-made audience of the
commercial station is the one
it will want. Such programs
generally should be broadcast
over the commercial station to
do the best job, and the com-
mercial broadcaster will con-
tinue to devote time, money, and
talent to the needs of education-
al institutions which he supports
as a loyal citizen.

“If doubt still remains that
commercial broadcasters will
continue their programming act-
ivities on behalf of education,
once the schools have stations of
their own, let me give you the
most conclusive reason of all,
which has not yet been advanced
by anyone to my knowledge. The
obligation of a commercial licen-
see, under the Communications
Act, is to operate “in the public
interest, convenience and neces-
sity.” An important justification

for the renewal of this license
is the showing which the licensee
makes in the field of educational
programming. There can be no
well-rounded station operation
without it.”

Defining the Local Educational
Radio Problem

Tracy F. Tyler, of the Univer-
sity of Minnesota, editor of the
AER Journal, in an article in
the December, 1945, issue of the
Jouryial, entitled “Radio Writ-
ing Needs Recognition,” says :

“The dearth of trained, practi-
cing radio writers is the great-
est bottleneck in most communi-
ties. No matter how many
embryo writers are trained in
the colleges and universities,
there is little if any commercial
demand for their product even
in some of the larger cities. The
Twin Cities of Minneapolis and
St. Paul, for example, offer no
outlet (for pay) for dramatic
writing. The same situation
exists throughout the entire
nation.

“The only locally-produced,
dramatic programs are those
broadcast on behalf of educa-

Volume XM, No. 3

tional, civic, and cultural groups.
Sometimes the stations may use,
in such productions, the services
of staff announcers or actors,
but never, so far as this author
is aware, do the stations make
any cash payment for the script.
What incentive, as a conse-
quence, is there for a potential
writer to perfect his talent ? And
if he does, why should he stay
at home? Who is to feed him
if he writes scripts gratis? His
only hope of gaining experience
and recognition and getting paid
for it is to go to New York or
Hollywood,”

Using Radio and Photoplay

Experiences in on Elementary
School

The year 1945-1946 has much
to offer our elementary school
in radio and motion pictures.

We started with an approach
to literature via the films that
our children had seen. Among
those discussed in our literature
class were Tom Sawyer, Pinoc-
chio, Stiow White and the Seven
Dwarfs, Captain E d d i e, Dr.
Wassell, The Wizard of Oz,
David Copperfield, The Call of
the Wild, Bambi, Lassie, Laddie,
Flicka, Thunderhead, The Keys
of the Kingdom, and National
Velvet.

We read some of these, read
others of similar theme, wrote
outlines, reviews, and character
sketches. We discussed ways of
choosing good films. In Art we
have painted some charming
scenes or characters.

The music year in radio in-
cludes some periods of listening
for us. Sometimes we discuss
composers, artists, or composi-
tions that have been or will be
featured on the radio.

Columbia Broadcasting Sys-
tem features the Biggs Organ
Recital, New York Symphony,
Salt Lake Tabernacle Choir,

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Stradivari Orchestra, Great Mo-
ments in Music, Invitation to
Music, Music of Andre Kostel-
anetz, and Eileen Farrell. CBS
has the important American
School of the Air.

NBC has “The Story of Mu-
sic” on the University of the
Air. Other valuable programs
are NBC Symphony, Firestone
Hour, Carnation Hour, Bell Tel-
ephone Hour, Metropolitan Aud-
itions, and Metropolitan Opera.

We have records, pictures,
sheet music, and stories to assist
us in learning more about Amer-
ican Folk Music or Classical
Music.

Some of our helpful books on
radio for children are Children
and Radio Programs, by Azriel
L. Eisenberg, 1936; Radio and
Reading, Josette Frank {What
Books for Children?) , 1941; All
Children Listen, Dorothy Gor-
don, 1942.

— Mary W. Dingle
Dumont, Colorado

New Catalog of Films
For Schools

Ideal Pictures Corporation,
28 East 8th St., Chicago 5, has
issued a new 100-page catalog
of films for the classroom. Film-
strips and 2x2 slides are also
listed.

Byron Price Joins Film
Industry

Byron Price, formerly head of
the Associated Press editorial
staff and America’s war-time
news censor, has been placed in
charge of West Coast activities
of the Johnston-Hays organiza-
tion. One of his aims is the “ex-
tension of the use of motion pic-
tures in education and training,”
with a view to achieving the
“full dramatic and cultural real-
ization of the screen.” Surely
Mr. Price has the be.st wishes of
America’s 800,000 teachers.

RADIO

COURSE

“A Course of
Study in Radio
Appreciation"

BY ALICE P. STERNER

Barringer High School
Newark, N. J.

22 Curriculum Units

— Free Listening
— Listening Processes
— Music Programs
— Popular Programs
— News Broadcasts
— Radio Comedy
— Radio Drama
— Sports Broadcasts
— Radio Discussions
— Radio Speeches
— Literary Programs
— Radio Censorship
— Radio Advertising
— The Radio Industry
— Foreign Broadcasting
— Planning Our Listening
— Radio and the Home
— Political Programs
— Radio and Propaganda
— The History of Radio
— Radio Technicalities
— Influence of Radio

bOt?

Free With 2-year Subscriptions to
"Film and Radio Guide"

EDUCATIONAL AND
RECREATIONAL GUIDES, Inc.

172 Renner Avenue Newark 8, N. J.

WILLIAM LEWIN, Editor

December, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

PHOTOPLAY GUIDES

MUSIC ASSORTMENT; Beethoven, The Mikado,
Have Music (Jasba Heifetz), Saludos Amigos.

FRENCH-SPANISH ASSORTMENT: Beethoven
French), Les Miserables (Hugo), Marie Antoinette
Amigos.

Moonlight Sonata (With Paderewski),
5 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 50c

They Shall

(French Musical Photoplay), Harvest (Guide in
(French Revolution), A Tale of Two Cities, Saludos
5 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 50c 255^

ART ASSORTMENT: Pinocchio (Walt Disney), Saludos Amigos (Disney Artists Visit South Amer-
ica), Snow White (Disney), Captains Courageous, Good Earth.

5 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 50c 25^

ELEMENTARY ASSORTMENT: Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Captains Courageous, Edison the Man,
Robin Hood, Tom Sawyer Detective, The Wizard of Oz, Twenty-Three and a Half Hours’ Leave, Pin-
occhio, Snow White, Union Pacific, 10 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly |1.00

DRAMA ASSORTMENT: Hollywood Cavalcade CHistory of the Movies), A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
The Mikado, As You Like It, W interset (Maxwell Anderson), Pygmalion (Shaw), Stage Door (Kauf-
man and Ferber), The Plough and the Stars, Anne of Green Gables (With Radio Play).

9 Illustrated Booklets, Regularlv 90c 50$^^

BIOGRAPHICAL ASSORTMENT: Conquest (Charles Boyer as Napoleon), Edison the Man, The Life
of Emile Zola, Man of Conquest (Sam Houston), Marie Antionette, Moonlight Sonata (Paderewski),
Queen of Destiny (Victoria), Stanley and Livingstone, Victoria the Great, Toast of New York, North-
west Passage. 11 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $1.10

AUDITORIUM ASSORTMENT (16MM. FEATURES): Harvest, In His Steps, Moonlight Sonata,
23% Hours Leave, Union Pacific, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Stanley & Livingstone, Give Me Liberty,
A Tale of Two Cities, Mutiny on the Bounty, Servant of the People, Captains Courageous, The Good
Earth, Men with Wings, As You Like It, Gunga Din, Vivacious Lady, Music for Madame, Damsel in
Distress, Courageous Mr. Penn (William Penn). 19 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $1.90 $1.00

LITERATURE ASSORTMENT: As You Like It (Screen Version of the Play), Adventures of Tom
Sawyer, Captains Courageous (Including Still Sheets), The Citadel (Cronin), Goodbye Mr. Chips,
The Good Earth, Gunga Din, Kidnapped (Stevenson), Mutiny on the Bounty, A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, Robin Hood, Les Miserables, Human Comedy, Pygmalion, Tom Sawyer Detective.

i5 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $1.50 $1.00

INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING ASSORTMENT; As You Like It, Captains Courageous,
Courageous William Penn, The Citadel, Conquest, Drums, Goodbye, Mr. Chips; Edison the Man, The
Good Earth, Gunga Din, The Life of Emile Zola, Marie Antoinette, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The
Mikado, Moonlight Sonata (Paderewski), Music for Madame, Mutiny on the Bounty, Northwest
Mounted, Pinocchio, The Plough and the Stars, Pygmalion, Queen of Destiny, Victoria the Great, The
Real Glory, Robin Hood, Saludos Amigos, A Christmas Carol, Servant of the People, Snow White,
Stanley and Livingstone, They Shall Have Music. 30 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $3.00 $1.20

SOCIAL STUDIES ASSORTMENT; Allegheny Uprising, Boys Town, Courageous William Penn, Con-
quest (Charles Boyer as Napoleon), Drums (India), Give Me Liberty (Patrick Henry), The Good
Earth (China), The Life of Emile Zola, Man of Conquest (Story of Sam Houston), Marie Antoinette,
Men With Wings (History of Aviation). Mutiny on the Bounty (British History), Northwest Pas-
sage, The Plough and the Stars (Irish Rebellion), Queen of Destiny (Biography of Victoria), The
Real Glory (Philippine Constabulary), Servant of the People (Adoption of the U. S. Constitution),
Stanley and Livingstone, Toast of New York (Wall Street Financial History), Union Pacific (First
Transcontinental Railroad), Victoria the Great (Biography of Queen Victoria), North West Mounted
Police. (Canada), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Les Miserables, The Citadel, Captains Courageous,
Kidnapped, Robin Hood, In Old Oklahoma, Tale of Two Cities, Saludos Amigos, Winterset, Gunga Din.

32 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $3.20 J”!

ORDER BLANK

TO: EDUCATIONAL & RECREATIONAL GUIDES, INC., 172 Renner Avenue., Newark 8, N. J.

□ SEND the assortment checked above. Enclosed is

□ SEND COMBINATION ORDER of all these assortments, Regularly $15.40 $6.90

□ ENTER or RENEW subscription to “Film & Radio Guide,” $2.00 a year.

NAME

ADDRESS

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

A GUIDE TO THE DISCUSSION OF

THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S

THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S. Comedy
drama with music and songs. Produced
and directed by Leo McCarey. RKO Ra-
dio Pictures. Highly recommended for
students and teachers, as well as parents.

Father O’Malley arrives at
St. Mary’s to take up his ap-
pointment as parish priest. His
carefree approach to problems
at first disconcerts the nuns
headed by Sister Superior Bene-
dict and her aide, Sister Michael,
but they gradually get used to
it. Father O’Malley finds the
school in a bad state of repair
and with no money.

Next door, a big office build-
ing is being erected by the
wealthy and excitable Horace
Bogardus, who wants the school
property for a parking lot.
Father O’Malley learns from
Sister Benedict that she and the
nuns pray night and day that
Bogardus may give them the
building for a new school, and
the priest thinks it is putting a
heavy strain on the power of
prayer.

Another problem crops up
when Father O’Malley enrolls
Patsy Gallagher, a 14-year-old
girl whose mother has been de-
serted by her husband, Joe.
Father O’Malley helps Patsy
with an essay, and finishes off
his talk with a song. Aren’t You
Glad You’re You?

While O’Malley is rehearsing
the choir in Adeste Fidelis,
Sister Benedict enters and in-
vites him to a rehearsal of the
kindergarten children’s Nativity
Play, conceived and put on
entirely by the children. The
Christmas music floating into
Bogardus’s office is beginning
to get him down, especially when

BY WILLIAM LEWIN

Father O’Malley sings O Souc-
tissima in his office while Bo-
gardus is trying to get the
Father to surrender the school
property.

O’Malley traces Joe Galla-
gher, and to seal the reconcilia-
tion which ensues, sings a fa-
vorite old song of the Galla-
ghers,’ In the Land of Beginning
Again. Patsy takes her gradua-
tion dress to show to her mother,
and sees her in Joe’s arms say-
ing goodbye. Not knowing Joe is
her father, she leaves, miserable.
She deliberately flunks her ex-
amination. Sister Benedict, in
spite of Father O’Malley’s plead-
ing, won’t pass her.

Father O’Malley impresses
Dr. McKay, Bogardus’s physi-
cian, with the idea that if a man
does enough good in the world,
it strengthens his heart. Having
sown that seed, the priest awaits
developments. These are not
long in coming. Bogardus goes
around feverishly doing good.
He even goes to church, where
he is discovered by Sister Bene-
dict. He tells her he is giving his
wonderful new building to St.
Mary’s.

But this is followed by bad
news. Sister Benedict’s health
fails. Dr. McKay tells Father
O’Malley that it is a serious ail-
ment in its early stages, but that
complete rest will clear it up.
However, she busies herself
moving into the new bidding,
and O’Malley comes upon her
singing a Swedish folksong to
the nuns. He is prevailed upon
to sing the school song. The
Bells of St. Mary’s. Then he tells
her he has arranged to have her
transferred. She is grief -strick-

en, thinking that their differ-
ences of opinion have prompted
him to take such a step.

Sister Benedict meanwhile
finds out the real reason for
Patsy’s flunking, and lets the
girl graduate. Patsy goes home
happily with her parents.

Just as Sister Benedict is
leaving. Father O’Malley tells
her the truth. She leaves St.
Mary’s knowing that one day she
will be returning to her beloved
school.

The Director

Leo McCarey, who won the
Academy Award for his direc-
tion of Goifig My Way last year,
purveys the same type of film
fare this year in The Bells of
St. Mary’s. Bing Crosby again
plays the same type of parish
priest. He re-lives the same, in-
timate comedy-drama of paro-
chial life. Director McCarey tells
his tale in the same leisurely
way, lingering over richly hu-
man episodes with the same lov-
ing care. He handles his relig-
ious theme with the same sim-
plicity, combining again a rare
sense of showmanship with the
dignity appropriate to the
church.

McCarey creates again the im-
pression that he has something
sincere to say in the picture.
As before, he is genuinely inter-
ested in his characters. When
they believe in the efficacy of
prayer as a solution of economic
problems, he believes along with
them. After all, what multi-mil-
lionaire would not respond to an
appeal for sweet charity’s sake
if charming Ingrid Bergman is
the petitioner? Neighbor Bogar-
dus gives, not till it hurts, but

December, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Above — Father O'Malley does not take the fighting among the boys too seriously, but Sister Superior Benedict disopproves.
Below — Director Leo McCorey is calm ond cheerful during a rehearsal of the children's Christmas play.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

till it feels good! With one foot
in the grave, Bogarclus takes a
new lease on life and at the
same time buys a ticket to
heaven, as it were, through his
new-born, inspired generosity.
This is true to the Christmas
spirit. It is in the tradition of
Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.

Much of the charm of Leo
McCarey’s work as a director
lies in his ability to do old things
in new ways. Thus in The Bells
of St. Mary’s he has recaptured
the mood and atmosphere of
Going My Way. All our success-
ful playwrights from Shakes-
peare to Walt Disney have done
this ; thei’ein lies the genius of
their showmanship.

McCarey was born in Califor-
nia in 1898 and attended the
University of Southern Califor-
nia. He entered the picture bus-
iness at the age of twenty. He
early showed his imagination as
a director of Laurel-Hardy and
Charlie Chase comedies in the
days of the silent films. He has
made such notable films as Bag-
gies of Red Gap, Duck Sovp,
Make Way for Tomorrow, The
Aivfnl Trnth (which won him
the 1937 Academy Award), and
Love Affair. Today he ranks as
one of the best directors in the
business.

Type of Story

Is The Bells of St. Mary’s
mainly a story of decision or of
achievement? If you have seen
Going My Way, tell in what re-
spects the stories are similar.
Does wish-fulfillment play a
part in both films? What ele-
ments did you like in each?
What elements, if any, did you
dislike?

Character Study

Which characters did you like
the best? What qualities did you
admire in them? Did you dislike
any character? Are the charac-
ters all true to life? Why did

Patsy deliberately flunk her
final examination? Why did Mr.
Bogardus give his new building
to the school? How does moti-
vation reveal character? Can
you mention any interesting bits
of cinematic “business” which
serve to show changes in char-
acter or attitude; such, for ex-
ample, as when a dog is used to
show how Mr. Bogardus’s char-
acter has changed for the bet-
ter? How does Director Mc-
Carey use a cat to secure a hu-
morous effect? Do animals make
good movie actors? Why or why
not?

Photog raphy

Are the costumes of the sis-
ters photographically effective?
How do the costumes enable the
cameraman to secure pleasing
contrasts of light and dark?
In a comedy, most scenes are
brightly lighted. Were there any
shadowy scenes in The Bells of
St. Mary’s? Show how lighting
contributes to the atmosphere of
a scene. Were the faces of the
nuns usually well lighted? Do
you suppose that the light re-
flected from the white collars of
the nuns into their faces made
the cameraman’s job easier or
harder? Is a well-lighted face
more likable than one with
strong shadows? Why? What is
the effect of casting shadows
over a face? Can you mention
any examples of striking camera
effects in this film? For exam-
ple, when Mr. Bogardus speaks
of needing the site of the old
playground for a parking place,
we see the school-house dissolve
into a parking place filled with
cars. Can you mention another
example of the use of the dis-
solve in a photoplay? What is
gained by this device? Mention
a striking close-up in this film.

Children as Actors

Did you enjoy the Christmas
play within the play? What

makes the Christmas play so
appealing to an audience? Is it
creative? Imaginative? How?
Was the child who played Jesus
appealingly natural to you?
Would you say that small chil-
dren are usually more imagina-
tive than adults? Can you give
any examples from your own
experience or observation? Do
children make good actors? Are
they more natural, or less nat-
ural, than adults? What audi-
ence reaction usually results
when a close-up of a baby is
shown on the screen? Would you
say that Director McCarey was
notably successful in handling
the children in The Bells of St.
Mary’s? How, do you suppose,
did he secure humorously touch-
ing effects in his direction of
children?

Striking Bits of Dialog

1. Sister Benedict, discussing
the possibility of an answer to
her prayer, says : “0 thou of lit-
tle faith! We have reason to
know that more things are
wrought by prayer than this
world dreams of. Therefore let
thy voice rise like a fountain
day and night.”

In dramatic story-constrnc-
tio'n, is the answei' to prayer
dramatically effective? Memtion
an example f )‘oni another' movie.
Do you personally helieve in the
efficacy of prayer? Why or why
yiot?

2. Discussing her educational
standards with Father O’Malley,
Sister Benedict asks: “Do you
believe in just passing every-
body, father?” Father O’Malley
replies: “Maybe — maybe I do.”
Sister B. : “I can’t believe you
mean it.” Father: “Well, it’s
easier for some children to make
the grade than for others. They
don’t have to study. But I’ve
known some who got the best
marks in school and never made
much of a mark afterwards. 1
knew a fellow once — Elmer

December, 1 945

Hathaway, who went to school
with me. Elmer was a dreamer.
Sometimes he’d even forget the
day it was and come to school
on Saturday. The kids used to
make fun of him. But he was
good with his hands. He built a
sailboat and for a time he dis-
appeared. Finally they let him
graduate from school, out of
pity. Today he is head of the
great Hathaway Shipyards.
Some of the ones who used to
get 99 and 100 are out of a job.

. . . By the way, what is passing,
anyhow?” Sister B. : “Seventy-
five, you know.” Father : “Yes,

I know. But who started it?”
Sister B. : “Why, our school is
based on it. Every school is. If
we don’t have standards — ”
Father : “Are we here to give
the children a helping hand or
to measure their brains with a
yardstick? Why do they have to
have 75 to pass?” Sister B. :
“You would put the standard at
65, father?” Father: Why not?”
Sister B. : “Then why not 55?
Why any grades at all ? Why
don’t we close the school and let
them run wild?” Father: “May-
be. That would be better than
breaking their hearts.” Sister
B. : “That’s unfair. My heart
aches for Patsy — but I must up-
hold our standards. If you order
me to pass her, I shall do so, but
her marks will be the same.”

Do you agree with Sister Ben-
edict’s point of view or Father
O’Malley’ s?

3. Did you enjoy Luther’s
composition on The Five Senses?
Did you approve his likes and
dislikes? What did Sister Bene-
dict mean when she said that
Luther’s paper was written with
honesty a7id imagination? Did
you enjoy Patricia’s paper on
the same subject? What “sixth
sense” did she mention?

4. Sister B. : “If Eddie con-
tinues to pick fights, we may
have to send him to another

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

school.” Father : “But aren’t we
supposed to be educators? In-
stead of sending him away, let’s
try to correct him . . . Naturally
I like to see a lad who can take
care of himself. On the outside,
it is a man’s world.” Sister B. :
( Referring to the mess the
ivorld is in) : “How are they do-
ing, Father?” Father: “Well,
they’re not doing so well. Some-
times a man has to fight his
way through.” Sister B. :
“Wouldn’t it be better to think
your way through?”

After this dialog. Sister Ben-
edict has a remarkable change
of heart. When Eddie tells her
that turning the other cheek re-
sulted only in his being beaten
up, she decides to study the
manly art of self-defense and to
teach the boy a few things about
it. She buys Gene Tunney’s man-
ual on boxing. Soon she is able
to give the boy some pointers :
“Now the four most valuable
punches are the straight left,
the right cross, the left hook,
and the right uppercut.” She
teaches him footwork. She ex-
plains how one must protect
one’s chin. She adds : “Keep your
mouth closed. The man devoted

Educational Film Guide

In last month’s article on
16mm. Exchange Practices, by
B. A. Aughinbaugh, which in-
cluded a list of sources of cata-
logs of educational films, we in-
advertently omitted the address
of H. W. Wilson Co., publishers
of Educational Film Guide and
of other catalogs of current ma-
terials, including the famous
Reader’s Guide to Periodical
Literature. The address is 950
University Avenue, New York
52, N. Y. The Y/ilson Educa-
tional Film Guide is an indis-
pensable cumulative catalog for
audio-visual educators.

two whole pages to that, and all
he meant was that if you don’t,
you’ll be sorry. Keep your mouth
closed tight.” The conclusion of
the attempt to teach Eddie how
to use his fists is an ironical
payoff — she gets hoist with her
own petard — struck on the chin
by her pupil, who apparently has
learned how to deliver the up-
percut. The result of this ex-
traordinary sequence, beautiful-
ly played by Ingrid Bergman, is
that Eddie beats the bully of the
school at the next encounter.

Do you agree ivith Sister Ben-
edict in her decision to substi-
tute self-defense for self-sacri-
fice ?

Use of Irony for Humorous
Effect

Mr. Bogardus, at considerable
expense and after some embar-
rassment, replaces a broken win-
dow in his office with a new
pane of glass, only to break the
glass again when he closes the
window. This is called dramatic
irony. How does it differ from
verbal irony? Can you mention
another example of dramatic
irony for humorous effect in
The Bells of St. Mai'y’s or an-
other film?

Princeton Film Center

Gordon Knox, Executive Di-
rector of The Princeton Film
Center, Princeton, New Jersey,
has just announced a program
for expansion of the Film Cen-
ter’s motion-picture production
and distribution facilities. Com-
menting on the program, Knox
said :

“We are now opening a New York
office at 625 Madison Avenue. The
new accommodations will be occu-
pied only until the larger quarters
called for in our plans become avail-
able. Hollywood facilities will also
be opened the early part of next year,
and later in 1946 we plan further ex-
tensions of our operations to Chicago,
Dallas, and Atlanta.”

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

M-G-M's Notable Screen Version of "David Copperfield" Now ot Last Available in 16mni for

Classroom Use

December, 1945

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Make Literature Live

In The Classroom!

"TREASURE ISLAM D"

Ha ve the famouft characters created
by Robert Louis Stevenson step out of
his book and onto the screen of your
own classrooni! Re-edited from the
feature M-G-M motion picture of the
same name

Starring

Lionel Barrymore Wallace Beery

Jackie Cooper

Other Teaching Film Custodians (M-G-M)

Subjects on English Literary Masterpieces Ideally Suited to Classroom Study:

"Mutiny on the Bounty"

Clark Gable Charles Laughton
Franchot Tone

'Romeo and Juliet"

Leslie Howard Norma Shearer
John Barrymore

"David Copperfield, the Boy" Lionel Barrymore Maureen O'Sullivan
"David Copperfield, the Mon" W. C. Fields Freddie Bartholomew

"A Tole of Two Cities"

Ronald Colman

Each Subject — 4 reels — Rental $6.00 (Special Series Rate)

The following feature-length films ore suitable for showings to English classes
whenever extra periods are available:

Swiss Family Robinson
Little Men

Count of Monte Cristo
Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Melody Master

$17.50

17.50

20.00

15.00

17.50

Tom Brown's Schooldays
Courageous Mr. Penn
Little Lord Fauntleroy
Last of the Mohicans
Beyond Tomorrow

(Special Series Rate)

$17.50

17.50

Write for Our Free Catalog "Y" of Selected Motion Pictures

YMCA MOTION PICTURE BUREAU

New York 17, N. Y. Chicago 3, Ml. Dallas 1, Texas San Francisco 2, Colif.

347 Madison Avenue 19 So. LaSalle Street 1700 Patterson Ave. 351 Turk Street

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 3

A 64-Page Illustrated Magazine for

MOVIES

Audio-Visual Educators

FILM & RADIO

WHAT

GUIDE

SHALL WE

READ

FILM & RADIO GUIDE is o 64-page illustrated magazine for audio-visual educators

and for teachers of film and radio appreciation. It is an outgrowth of pioneer com-
mittee activities in the N.E.A. Department of Secondary Teachers, the National

Council of Teachers of English, and the American Educational Theatre Association.

about the

Less Than Five Subscriptions Five or More Subscriptions

One Year 2.00 Each 25% Discount on

Two Years 3.50 Each Quantity Orders

Three Years 5.00 Each to One Address

MOVIES?

Less Than One Year 35c a Copy

In Canada, add 50c a year; in foreign countries, add $1.00 a year.

A Guide to the Many Books about

"Course of Study in Radio Appreciation" or "What Shall We Read About the

Movies" Free with 2-Year Subscriptions. Both Free with 3-Year Subscriptions.

Motion Pictures — Their History,

ORDER BLANK

Science, Industry, Art, Future.

Educational 6l Recreational Guides, Inc.

172 RENNER AVENUE NEWARK 8, NEW JERSEY

By WILLIAM LEWIN, Ph D

□ Enter (or renew) my (our) order for subscription(s) to FILM & RADIO

Chairman, Department of

English, Weequahic High

School, Nework, New

GUIDE, for year(s), beginning

(Radio Course or "What Shall We Read About the Movies" Free with 2-year Subs.

Jersey

Bath Free with 3-year Subscriptions.)

□ Send current issue of "Film and Radio Guide," 35c.

□ Send annotated bibliography, "What Shall We Read About the Movies," 25c.

□ Send "Course of Study in Radio Appreciation," 22 units, 50c.

25c a Copy

□ Send "Get-Acquainted" Assortment of older Photoplay Guides, $1.00.

Free With Two-Year Subscrip-

NAME

tions to "Film & Radio

Guide."

POSITION

ADDRESS

victor 16mm
sound proiectors

Your Animatophone — home from the fighting and production
fronts with the honors of war — is now again available.

the animatophone
masterpiece of
16mm craftsmen

Ever increasing production and plant expansion is endeavoring to meet
the tremendous demands of schools, churches, industry and homes — in this new era of

better teaching, training, selling and entertainment, through l6mm sound motion
pictures. Animat ophones are being delivered according to date sequence.
Get in line by ordering yours now. Victor Cine Cameras will
soon return to serve discriminating movie makers.

VICTOJt

Home Office and Factory: Davenport, Iowa
New York 18— McGrow Hill Bldg., 330 W. 42nd St. • Chicago 1—188 W. Randolph

MAKERS OF I6MM EQUIPMENT

19 2 3

SINCE

MESSAGES

TO AMERICAN
y SCHOOL TEACHERS

Ho- 11

From the Eagle’s Flest

George Grey Barnard, the American sculptor, used always to speak of the
fertile prairies and riverdands of the Middle West as “the eagle’s nest of
our democracy.” There Abraham Lincoln was born and raised, and there became
the great champion of the kind of freedom that has brought us to world leadership.

He knew the value of education because he was denied its advantages. All told
he figured that between his eighth and fifteenth birthdays he had twelve months
of schooling, and that primitive. And he, as few others, knew the value of reading,
for his thoughtful perusal of a few good books laid the foundation for his supreme
service in saving our form of government.

“One of the first, and certainly one of the most important duties of every
school teacher today is the planting of Lincoln’s sort of Americanism in the hearts
and minds of our youth,” says Dr. Vernon L. Nickell, State Superintendent of
Public Instruction in Illinois, adopted state of the Great Emancipator. “As guides
to the understanding anci appreciation of his concept of government of, by and for
the people, our teachers — whether in one-room or high schools and colleges —
carry a responsibility second to none. Now, in the confusion of war’s aftermath,
they must sense as never before the need for their leadership in classroom develop-
ment of good citizenship.

“1 feel that the School Edition of The Reader’s Digest should be classed
among the valuable mediums for aiding this vital task allotted them. It is, in effect,
a bridge between textbook information and the actual working-out of our prin-
ciples and ideals in everyday life. It presents so many phases of our republican
form of government in action, and so clearly sets forth the soundest of our social
and political ideals that it helps to prepare our youth not only for support of
these, but for protecting them against the efforts of subversive groups to take
advantage of inevitable postwar confusion.”

FILM & RADIO

GUIDE

Perfect 16mm
Sound Pictures

FROM PERFECT PROJECTION

Brighter projection is achieved on the Animatophone by
Victor’s direct optical system. All elements permanently
aligned at the factory . , . nothing to get out of order.

Spira-draft Lamp House means longer lamp life . . .
means brighter image for a longer time . . . means mi
fewer lamp replacements. Standard, pre-focused lamps obtain-
able anywhere, at no extra cost.

THE ANIMATOPHONE

MASTERPIECE OF I6MM CRAFTSMANSHIP!

Other exclusive features — for brighter illumina-
tion — are: Coated Projection Lens, Conza
Condenser Lens, Special Shutter Design and Instant

Accessibility to entire optical system for cleaning.

Can you afford to use other than the finest l6mm equipment?

MM I ^ V D ANIMATOGRAPH

W IW I Im CORPORATION

Home Office and Factory: Davenport, Iowa
New York 1181 McGraw-Hill Bldg., 330 W. 42nd Street
Chicago 111 188 W. Randolph

MAKERS OF I6MM EQUIPMENT SINCE 1923

January, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Projectors are again available

WITH THE NEW
1945-46 SERIES OF

CORONET

"PICTURE STORY"

SLIDE FILMS

Informative, entertaining anti thought-stimulating
— Coronet slidehims will add interest to group
discussions of world events, personalities of the
moment, and vital social problems. Each slidefilm
contains approximately 30 pictures and captions
from the Picture Story section of Coronet maga-
zine. Each slidefilm is accompanied by a reprint
of the Picture Story from coronet, to be used
as a manual. The slidefilms can be shown with
any standard 35 mm. single-frame slidefilm pro-
jector. Reprints of the CORONET Picture Stories
are available for individual use at S2.0() for a set
of twenty-five copies each month for eight months
(200 in all).

Thousands Used the 1944-45 Series

More than 5,000 school, discussion and educa-
tional groups, 1,000 churches, and 750 different
units of the 4 branches of the Armed forces used
Coronet slidehims last year. The new series will
be even finer than those released in the past.

THE FIRST THREE OF THE 1945-46 SERIES

"The Liberated"— the story of the liberated peo-
ples of the world.

"The Storm"— the life story (a cycle) of a storm.
"The German"— the story of the pre-war German
people and what may be expected
of them in the future.

ORDER CORONET VISUAL AIDS NOW!

I SOCIETY FOR VISUAL EDUCATION, Inc., Depf. 9 FRD
I 100 East Ohio Street, Chicago 11, Illinois

I Please enter our order for the following:
j Quantity

i Subscriptions for the 8 Coronet slidefilms '5' S4.00 for the entire

I series. ORDERS NOT ACCEPIED EOR INDIVIDUAL SUBJECTS.

I . Sets of 25 copies of each of the 8 Picture Stories (200 in all) i(i’ S2.00

j a set. THIS IS THE MINIMUM ORDER EOR REPRINTS,

j □ Please send Free Circular on the Coronet Visual Aid Service.

I Name ...

I Organization

I Address

I City Postal /.one No State .

OH! THOSE HARVET OIRES*.

The^ know the way to a man^s heart!

!§ee them woo the West from the
wicked can > can dancing girls!

It‘s lovely, lyrical Judy and
a gorgeous bevy of beauty...

fARI®F Gims”

with

JOHN HODIAK • RAY BOLRER • ANGELA LANSBURY

and PRESTON FOSTER • VIRGINIA O’RRIEN • KENNY RAKER
MARJORIE MAIN • CHILL WILLS

Screen Play by Edmund Beloin, Nathaniel Curtis, Harry Crane, James O’Hanlon and Samson
Raphaelson • Additional Dialogue by Kay Van Riper • Based on the Book by Samuel Hopkins
Adams • Words and Music by JOHNNY MERCER and HARRY WARREN • Directedby
George Sidney • Produced by Arthur Freed • A Metro-Goldwyn*M4yer Picture

January, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

JUST FINISHED A BIG PICTURE)

Robert Montgomery (don't you feel
like shaking his hand and saying;
"Welcome home, Bob!") plays "Brick.”
He’s in love with a couple of tons of
wood and steel, a PT boat. John Wayne
is "Rusty”. . .afraid of only one thing in
the world, losing Sandy. Lovely Donna
Reed is Sandy, the nurse who heals

heroes’ wounds, and steals their hearts.

Here’s the thrilling picturization of
the terrific best-seller that has taken
America by storm, "They Were Ex-
pendable.” Acclaimed by the reading
public as a Reader's Digest classic.

then as a Book-of-the-Month . . . and
now as an M-G-M film destined to be
called the Picture of the Year. Here’s
roaring action . . . suspense with a
wallop . . . flaming romance as real as.
flesh and blood can make it. The
screen can offer no greater thrill than
"They Were Expendable."

THEY WERE EXFENDABLE
ROSm MOimOMEW- JOHN WAYNE

WITH DONNA REED . jack holt • ward bond

A JOHN FORD PRODUCTION • BASED ON THE BOOK BY WILLIAM L. WHITE
Screen Play by FRANK WEAD, COMDR. U. S. N. (RET.) • Associate Producer CLIFF REID
DIRECTED BY JOHN FORD, CAPTAIN, U. S. N. R.

A METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER PICTURE

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

EDUCATIONAL & RECREATIONAL GUIDES, Inc.

172 RENNER AVENUE, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY

VOLUME XII, NUMBER 4 JANUARY, 1946

IN THIS ISSUE

16mm Exchange Practices — No. 19: Free Films B. A. Aughinbaugh 9

Behind the Screen Credits Helen Colton 10

Audio-Visual Who's Who — No. 41: Francis W. Noe! — No. 42: George A.

Hirlimon — No. 43: Victor Roudin — No. 44: Godfrey M. Elliott 13

Young America Films 1 8

Whot Shall We Read About the Movies? William Lewin 19

Who's Who in Radio Education — No. 10: I. Keith Tyler 31

Is Radio Educational? I Keith Tyler 32

Recommended Photoplays.

Frederick Houk Law 33

"Variety's" Miniature Reviews

The Play's the Thing Flora Rheta Schreiber 40

Educating the Emotions Roger W. Babson 42

How Writers Perpetuate Stereotypes Writers War Board 46

Hollywood Trends Evaluated Hollywood Quarterly 50

An Elementary Film Script on Good Manners Pictorial Films 54

Less Thon Five Subscripticms Five or More Subscriptions

One Year $2.00 Each 25% Discount on

Two Years 3.50 Each Quantity Orders

Three Years 5.00 Each to One Address

Less Than One Yeor 35c a Copy

In Canada, add 50c a year; in foreign countries, add $1.00 a year.

"Course of Study in Radio Appreciotion" or "What Sholl We Read About the
Movies" Free with 2-Ycar Subscriptions.

WILLIAM LEWIN, Editor and Publisher RUTH M. LEWIN, Business Manager

FREDERICK HOUK LAW and B. A. AUGHINBAUGH, Contributing Editors
HELEN COLTON, Hollywood Editor

Copyright H46 by Educational and Recreational Guides. Inc. Published nine times a year. October to June, by Educa-
tional and Recreational Guides Inc.. 172 Renner .Avenue, Newark 8, N. J. Re-entered as second-class matter, October
12, 1942 at the post office at Newark, N. J. under the act of March 3, 1879. Printed in USA — All Rights Reserved.

from

NBC

... for listening pleasure

Today, tonight — every day and night — IN HC brings to your
home the thrilling genius and finesse of its own most talented
artists. You who revel in the great classic com})Ositions . . .
who are stirred hy romantic and colorfid music ... or who
prefer light selections — all hear an impressive array of such
superb j>rograms as . . .

THE )M5C SYMI'IIO.W

Sundiiw, 5:(H) to biiH) p.m. IIST

GEOHCE CKOOKS, Gr-anisr

Sunday, 8:00 Ut 8:3(t a.ni. EST

NEC STIU.NG TKK)

Sunday, 9:80 la I0:0(t a.m. KST

NBC CONCKBT GKClIESTH V

Sunday, 12:80 to l:(fO p.m. ES'f

DAYTIME CLASSICS

MUSIC BY SHKEDNIK

iM<mday, ]:(H) to 1:80 /t.m. ESI'

SKETCIILS IN MELDDY

Monday, (t:l5 to t):80 p.m. E.S7'

I'uvsday and riiursday. I to 1:80 p.m. EST
It rdfu’sday, l:8(t to 1:15 p.m. I'^ST

ECHOES FKOM THE TBOPICS
I uesday thru I 'riday, 0: 15 to 0:80 f>.m. EST

THE STOKY OI MUSIC

IMonday thru Friday, 9:80 to 10 a.m. l‘^S'l' ^ liursday. 1 1:80 to 12:00 mid. hS'l

THE I KED WAKING SHOW OKCHESTKAS OF THE NATION

Monday thru Friday, 11 to 1 1:80 a.m. I’^S f Saturday, 8:00 to 4:00 j).m. EST

NBC broadcasts these musical programs as a public service.
It offers nianv other outstanding productions in the fields
of drama, religion, literature, public affairs and homemaking
to provide the utmost in entertainment and inspiration for
you and for all America’s listening millions.

ational Broadcasting Company

America’s No. 1 Network

A Service of Radio
Corporation ol America

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

DEMOCRACY

Collaborator :

HAROLD D. LASSWELL.Ph. D.,
Yale University, and others

i' ^

PRODUCTION
OF FOODS

Collaborator :

O. E. BAKER, Ph. D.,
University of Maryland

^ J

DISTRIBUTION
OF FOODS

Collaborator :

O. E. BAKER, Ph.D.,
University of Maryland

^ y

r ^

CONSUMPTION
OF FOODS

Collaborator :

O. E. BAKER, Ph.D.,
University of Maryland

s y

. \

MILK

Collaborator :

K. G. WECKEL, Ph. D.,
University of Wisconsin

f' \

THE FOOD STORE

Collaborator :

MARJORIE D. SHARPE,
Principal, the Tenocre School,
Wellesley, Mass.

V /

THE BUS DRIVER

Collaborator :

PAUL R. HANNA, Ph. D.,
Stanford University

V y

BREAD

Collaborator :

B. E. PROCTOR, Ph. D.,
Massachusetts Institute
of Technology

\ y

PLAY IN THE SNOW

Collaborator ;

LAURENCE E. BRIGGS, M. S.,
Massachusetts State College

V J

f y

DESPOTISM

PROPERTY TAXATION

DISTRIBUTING
AMERICA’S GOODS

Collaborator :

HAROLD D. LASSWELL.Ph.D.,
Yole University, and others

Collaborator :

H. F. ALDERFER, Ph.D.,
Pennsylvania State College

Collaborator :

J. FREDERIC DEWHURST,
Ph.D.,

The Twentieth Century Fund

TWELVE NEW ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA
CLASSROOM SOUND FILMS PRESENT SOCIAL,
ECONOMIC CONCEPTS!

"Know Thyself! " How many of today’s
w orld problems w oidd he solved if we really
knew ourselves— ami our fellow men! Teach-
ers umlerslaud this lack of knowledge: they
know the im])ortance of ijresenting the basic
jtrohlems of toda\ —without bias or preju-
dice— so that tomorrow s leaders mav better
know themselves— and their world.

In the group of twelve new Encyclopae-
dia Britannica Classroom Films (sound i
just released, major emphasis has been
given to the examination of man’s social,
political and economic structures. In “De-
mocraev ’ and “Despot ism” teachers w ill find
authentic definition and description of these

conflicting tvays of life. In the new series on
Foods, authentic material is presented to
show' the fundamental importance of food-
stuffs in the world’s economy.

Encyclopaedia Britannica Classroom
Films are professionally created for teachers
to use as an integral part of the regular
school curriculum. That’s why teachers and
educators acclaim them as the foremost col-
lection of teaching films anywhere. Today,
thanks to such plans as the Cooperative
film Library, our “Lease -to -OWN” and
others, even those schools w ith small audio-
visual education budgets can use these im-
portant tools to aid in the war on ignorance
and misunderstanding. For complete in-
formation, write Encyclopaedia Britanniea
Films, Inc., Dept. 23 A, 20 North Wacker
Drive. Chicago 6. Illinois.

“USING THE CLASSROOM FILM”- a text film on
teaching witli films is nuv\ available. Shows the six
steps in typical utilization of a classroom film.
Write for details.

TEACHER'S HANDBOOK

with every film

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA FILMS INC.

FILM

January, 1946

16MM

Director, Slide &

No. 19; Free Films

We thought we had disposed
of this subject so far as this page
was concerned, but from evi-
dence coming our way it seems
that the hydra has some heads
remaining, at which we can not
resist making a thrust. We note
that a newcomer to this field has
taken up this subject of “free”
films and tells us there are two
kinds of “free” films, namely
those that are “recreational” and
those which deserve to be classed
as “text films.” Does not this
rather naive classification apply
also to pictures which are not
“free”?

Apparently we have been la-
boring under the erroneous im-
pression that “free” films were
those which did not cause the
borrower financial outlay, with
much emphasis on the word
“financial.” But it seems we
were born a doubting Thomas,
who believes one does not obtain
something for nothing. To us
such “deals” void all natural
laws and the Bard might well
have altered his famous state-
ment to read : “He who steals my
purse steals trash, but he who
steals my unsuspecting and con-
fiding mind steals that which no
one can return.” For a teacher
to permit the theft of the unsus-
pecting and confiding minds
of school children under his
charge, foi‘ a tax-supported ed-
ucational institution to tolerate

AND RADIO GUIDE

WILLIAM LEWIN, EDITOR

Volume XII, No. 4

EXCHANGE PRACTICES

BY B. A. AUGHINBAUGH

Film Exchange, State Department of Education, Columbus, Ohio

B. A. Aughinbaugh

his doing this, or for a state in-
stitution not only to tolerate but
actually to advocate such proce-
dure through its publications is
to go beyond the limitations of
moral law. We inherently love
children too much to sell them
out directly or indirectly to com-
mercial interests, and we charge
that any publicly-owned film ex-
change which accepts for distri-
bution, or any school which uses,
a sponsored film whose direct
or hidden purpose is to promote
a privately-owned commodity,
or a private business, is guilty
of moral corruption and should
be branded as guilty of malfeas-
ance, misfeasance, and nonfeas-
ance.

We further outlaw under our
classification all films that are
released by the public-relations

department of any business con-
cern, since such departments ex-
ist solely for the warping of pub-
lic opinion to their private view-
point. While this may be con-
doned in the commercial battle
for public adult-attention which
applies the “adult discount” to
exaggerated claims, it can in
no way be condoned in public
schools, where every child has
a right to believe that what is
taught him there is free from
selfish aims. The school pupil
must be guaranteed that not one
but all sides of any proposition
will be given him. This guaran-
tee is the safeguard which will
assure him that what is taught
him in school is at least an hon-
est attempt at accuracy and is
not the exploitation of a private
wolf masquerading as a public
sheep. How many children are
being taught today, in public
schools, through certain promo-
tional films, that “coil” springs
are the only proper type of
springs for automobiles; that
the construction of a telephone
is so intricate and that its main-
tenance is so costly that it would
be contrary to the laws of both
God and man for a city council
to demand a lowering of utility
rates; that the great Mogul Oil
Company makes gasoline better
than any other company; that
the Greater Mogul Sulphur Com-
])any has the only genuine sul-
I)hur, a brand so good that it is
employed even in the fires of

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

hell ; that Hersay says her cho-
colate will out-bake the Other-
her’s chocolate two to one ; that
if you eat raisins you will go
straight to heaven when you die ;
but why die when you can fol-
low the advice of Meetthepolic-
ician Insurance Company and
live to help it profit by your
policy?

Some 0 f these promotional
motion pictures, which are made
to train the young mind how to
shoot (for, not at, the producer) ,
have their propaganda so clev-
erly masked that it is only by
careful analysis, and long exper-
ience in watching their wily
ways, that one can detect the
“sleepers.” But as sure as the
sun arose this morning, the
“sleepers” are there, and the
more carefully they are hidden
the more poisonous and danger-
ous they are.

And to you, Mr. Promoter,
who cunningly advise newcom-
ers to this field, even those who
have reached high places, that
it was only because of these

“free(?)” (what - price - free-
dom!) pictures that schools were
able to purchase projectors, and
through these purchases encour-
age the production of regular,
educational films, we say : if
ever there was a Simon-pure
sausage - argument (baloney),
this is it. As one who has been
active in this field for thirty
years, let me say that nothing
has held back, nor is anything
now holding back, the produc-
tion and sale of legitimate, ed-
ucational motion pictures more
than the best (and I emphasize
“best”) of these promotional
films, because the better they are
the more their competition hin-
ders the sale and distribution of
bona-fide educational pictures!

And to you teachers, supervi-
sors, and anyone else who con-
dones their use, let me say that
to be honest in your philosophy,
you should at least charge these
advertisers for their graft (and
it is a graft) instead of allow-
ing them to enter your classroom
in their free, unfettered way.

The “hardhearted” theater man
is better than you are, for he
took these ads from his screen
years ago on the ground that his
patrons paid their way into his
theater to be amused and not to
be “sold” a bill of goods. And
you, Mr. and Miss Teacher, who
are allowing the helpless young-
sters under your charge to be
sold a “bill of goods,” without
paying a cent, in a tax-supported
public school, to which your
charges are compelled to go by
law, are like the Judas-sheep in
the slaughter pens, and if the
Powers That Be do not punish
you, you deserve to meet with
hot-feet hereafter. We believe
there is no argument you may
present which will condone this
betrayal of your trust! If there
is, or if you think there is, with
the permission of the editor of
this publication, we shall give
you space in our columns to pre-
sent your case, reserving the
right to our own rebuttal.

BEHIND THE SCREEN CREDITS

Like two-legged human actors,
four-legged horse actors must
learn how to act before they can
appear before the movie cam-
eras. Many acting horses are put
through their dramatic paces at
Jack “Swede” Lindell’s ranch in
San Fernando Valley, which is
unofficially known as “The
Equine Academy of Dramatic
Arts.”

Officially, the school is known
as the Blanch-Lin Ranch, and
its entrance requirements are
snootier than those of the most

BY HELEN COLTON

exclusive finishing school. Each
pupil gets Swede’s personal tu-
toring. Since he can handle only
about 16 pupils at one time, he
admits only those animals which
are registered thoroughbreds of
blooded lines like the Arab,
American Standard-bred, Per-
cheron, and Morgan lines of
horsebreeding.

The curriculum is an easy one.
No poring over ancient history,
foreign languages, civics, or eco-
nomics. All a pupil at this school
needs to learn is how to register

surprise, fear, interest, rage,
and affection, and to charge for-
ward, walk forward, and rear up
on hind legs.

It’s an acknowledged fact that
movie acting is done almost en-
tirely with the eyes, which mir-
ror the actor’s emotions. This is
just as true of animals as it is of
humans, and so Swede has to
evoke in the eyes of his horses
expressions which are most
closely akin to the expressions
which convey certain emotions
in human eyes. It’s all done by

Jonuary, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

hand signals and body move-
ments.

Told to register fear, you open
your eyes wide and stare. Swede
gets a horse to do the same thing
by making what might be called
a threatening gesture with a
buggy whip or a lash whip. A
sudden, unexpected lunge of his
body brings a look of surprise to
the horse’s eyes.

Actually, these animals, hav-
ing good plain horse sense, know
that they’re play-acting, and
that a devoted guy like Swede
wouldn’t frighten them for the
world. With the same good horse
sense, they also probably realize
that he’s an active member of
the Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals.

Sensitive, delicate creatures,
20 minutes of training at a time

is all they get. A deed well done
wins them the reward of a bite
of carrot. Most of the time they
loaf around the barn or the cor-
ral with nary a line of homework
to worry about. They’re fed on
a diet of oats, hay, and corn.
The feed bag goes on twice a
day, at 7 in the morning and 7
at night. They get an hour’s ex-
ercise a day, either with a rider
or at the end of a “lunge line,’’ a
long rope held by someone in
the center of the corral as they
run around in circles till they
feel just tired enough to settle
down for a little siesta. They’re
almost always in perfect health.
The first whinny of “ow, my
achin’ back,’’ or the first sneeze
foretelling “a code in the node,’’
and a horse is rushed off to his
stall to await a veterinarian’s

soothing ministrations.

Occasionally a pupil has to
learn an extra-curricular trick
for a specific part. Smoky, the
hero of Will James’s story now
being filmed, had to be taught
to grab hold of a man’s body and
pull him gently, for a scene
where he discovers a fellow with
a broken leg out on the plains,
without human help nearby, and
saves his life by pulling him back
to camp. For the first several
sessions, a dummy was used for
the man’s body. Finally, so
Smoky could get used to the
weight of a real person, he
pulled one of Lindell’s five as-
sistants around. He was letter-
perfect when he did it for the
camera.

Most of the horse pictures of
the past few years, like Kch-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

tucky, Maryland, Home in Indi-
ana, My Friend Flicka, Thun-
derhead, and Smoky, have been
made by Twentieth Century-
Fox Studios, whose accounting
department figures they save
$100,000 a picture by giving the
horses such detailed training be-
forehand.

They learned their expensive

lesson with an untrained horse
when they made My Friend
Flicka. While out on location,
the original Flicka got tempera-
mental and frequently wandered
off into the mountains. Even
when they did get him in front
of the camera, he was just a bad
actor. After a week’s shooting,
they had to scrap costly Techni-

color footage and start anew
with a more docile animal.

Lindell himself owns all his
students. He rents them out un-
der contract by the week for the
duration of a picture in which
they appear. The day that one
of his horses is “on call,” he
drives him to the studio in a
large truck and stays with him

JonuorV/ 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

all day, so he can give the acting
cues out of camera range. He
starts training an animal for a
role about three months before
production. When planning a
picture which will need horse
actors, a studio sends him its
casting requirements. If Swede
doesn’t have the kind of animal
they need, he goes out and buys
it. Stallions are called for most
often ; they’re the smartest,
most spirited, most photogenic.

Although Smoky rates pretty
high in Lindell’s opinion, he still
remembers Rex, King of Wild
Horses, daring hero of several
movies in the 20’s, as the smart-
est animal he ever met. Swede
himself discovered Rex while
talent - scouting through the
western horse country. A wild,
coal-black stallion, he was a Phi
Beta Kappa of horse intelligence
whenever he could be brought
under control long enough to
take instruction. Having han-
dled the whirlwind King of Wild
Horses, Swede feels that any

animal he handles now is a mere
breeze by comparison.

But nothing connected with
horses could ever be hard or un-
pleasant for Jack Lindell. When
he was a kid reading western
pulp stories in Sweden, he ate,
slept, and lived horses. At 16 he
came to America on his own
and headed straight for Texas,
where he became a cowboy and
got to live with the horses he
loved so well. After a few years
he came to California, did some
trick riding with the A1 G.
Barnes Circus, and then drifted
into stunting and riding in pic-
tures. He began to train horses
for the movies in 1922, when he
was 25, and is now considered
the top man in his field.

One of the most magnificent
horse scenes ever filmed, the vi-
cious, snarling, fight-to-the-
death sequence between Thun-
derhead and the wild albino in
Thunderhead, Son of Flicka,
didn’t require much training or
rehearsal. “Let two stallions out

loose together, and they’ll just
naturally start going at each
other,’’ Swede says.

Oddly enough, one of the
toughest things to do is to get
two horses to kiss and nuzzle.
Stallions (male horses which are
uncastrated) are the “wolves”
of the horse family. Let one come
within sniffing distance of a
lady horse, and his passions run
unchecked. To get a stallion to
nuzzle, Swede has to have him
under such control that he will
kiss the mare like a gentleman,
long enough for the camera to
record it, and then wander off
without making any more ad-
vances towards the gal. If you’re
a stallion’s trainer, that means
hard work. Swede’s got it, and
he loves it. He’s the fellow, as
a friend describes him, who
knows horses so well that he
knows what they’re going to do
before they know themselves !

Audio-Visual Who's Who

No. 41: Francis W. Noel

Francis W. Noel, recently ap-
pointed Chief of the Division of
Audio-Visual Education, Cali-
fornia State Department of Ed-
ucation, brings to his new posi-
tion not only a practical, work-
ing knowledge of audio-visual
education, but also a sound ed-
ucational philosophy concerning
the place of audio-visual mater-
ials in the curriculum. Perhaps
his practical working knowledge
stems from that day he pur-
chased a De-Vry suitcase 35mni
projector and started u s i n g

films during his first year as a
classroom teacher in a small,
rural, California high school.
That was in 1924. But his in-
terest did not end there. Later,
as an amateur photographer and
teacher he served the Santa Bar-
bara City schools by pictorializ-
ing the educational program to
the community. Many of his pic-
tures were also used to illustrate
educational texts. Noel under-
stood and believed in the power
of the visual presentation.

Born at Marinette, Wisconsin,
on January 21, 1901, Noel was
graduated from Orosi Union

High School, Orosi, California,
in 1920. His father, now retired,
was a newspaper editor, lumber-
man, and manufacturer. From
1924 to 1927, Noel headed the
industrial arts department at
Orosi California Union High
School. From 1927 to 1936 he
taught industrial arts and social
science at La Cumbre Junior
High School in Santa Barbara.
Meanwhile, in 1931, he received
his A.B. degree at the University
of California, Santa Barbara
Branch, in 1931, and his M.S. de-
gree at the University of South-
ern California, Los Angeles, in

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

1936. He has completed some
work toward the doctorate. Hav-
ing served as chairman of the
Santa Barbara Schools Audio-
Visual Education Committee
from 1930 on, he became Direc-
tor of Audio-Visual Education
of the Santa Barbara City
Schools in 1936 and, in 1939, of
the Santa Barbara County
Schools as well.

As the first Director of Audio-
Visual Education in Santa Bar-
bara, his was the job of planning
and administering the depart-
ment from the paper stage to ac-
tual operation. Administration
of the department required set-
ting up budget requirements,
evaluating equipment and ma-
terials, purchasing supplies, pro-
viding proper housing, and de-
veloping a distribution system,
as well as producing visual ma-
terials to meet special school
needs. But he was not just a
“keeper of things” ; the biggest
part of his job involved working
with supervisors and curriculum
co-ordinators to analyze school
needs f o r audio-visual aids ;
helping teachers to use films,
slides, flat pictures, recordings,
and other aids effectively as
part of their regular classroom
instruction ; and planning with
them the charts, graphs, dio-
ramas, and models that had to
be constructed. A continuous in-
service training program for
teachers was begun and special
courses were given under the
auspices of the Santa Barbara
State College, with Mr. Noel as
instructor.

Santa Barbara became a
study center for the American
Council on Education Motion
Picture Project. Evaluation of
motion pictures as instructional
materials and an analysis of the
factors involved in their curric-
ular uses were two of its objec-
tives. As a consultant on this
study (1927-39), Mr. Noel as-

sisted in the many experiments
which were conducted. He is the
author of one of the Council’s
publications, P}'(>jecti)ig Motion
Pictures in the Classroom, and a
contributor t o several other
studies related to this one. His
activities as Director of Audio-
Visual Education for Santa Bar-
bara were extended to include
the county when demands from
teachers become so insistent that
service had to be provided. A
clue to what happened in the
educational use of audio-visual
materials i n Santa Barbara
City and County is to be found
in the fact that classroom uses
of films alone jumped from
fewer than 100 uses per year to
more than 20,000 per year.

During his Directorship at
Santa Barbara, Noel was also an
instructor in Audio-Visual Edu-
cation at the University of Cali-
fornia, Santa Barbara Branch,
from 1938 to 1940 and at the
summer session of the Univer-
sity of California, in 1941.

In March, 1942, Noel entered
the U. S. Navy as a Lieutenant
Commander assigned to the
training-film i)roduction unit in
the Bureau of Aeronautics at
Washington. In accepting his
Navy commission, he did not
leave education, but continued
his activities in a new sphere.
Convinced that the ultimate ef-
fectiveness of the film and other
visual aids was dependent on
their relation to the curriculum
and the use made of them by
the instructor, he set about to
convince others in the Navy De-
partment. He was transferred in
July, 1944, to the Bureau of
Naval Personnel as the first Of-
ficer in Charge of the Utiliza-
tion and Evaluation Service. One
of his early jobs was to decide
how many motion-picture pro-
jectors would be needed for
training in the various Naval ac-
tivities. Another was to deter-

mine how many officers would
be needed to set up training-aids
centers all over the world and
to carry on the work of training
instructors in the use of the vis-
ual materials which were rap-
idly becoming available. Still an-
other task was to assist in the
appraisal of available training
aids and to work with officers
in charge of Navy curriculum on
the selection and use of these
aids in the Navy Training Pro-
gram.

Teachers, supervisors, admin-
istrators, directors of audio-
visual departments, and college
professors were commissioned
and assigned to help in the big-
gest training job the Navy ever
had to do — and do in the short-
est possible time! Over 100 of-
ficers, who would work in set-
ting up a Navy-wide utilization-
of-visual-aids program, were as-
signed to duty all the way from
Adack, Alaska, to Recife, Bra-
zil; from Brisbane, Australia, to
Salerno, Italy. This was in addi-
tion to the many training activi-
ties within the continental lim-
its of the United States. Typical
duties of these officers were
similar to those performed by an
Audio-Visual-Aids Director of a
large school system :

1. Working- with the training-
officers on general audio-vis-
iial-instruction problems.

2. Handling- instructor training-
in the effective use of films
and other visual aids.

■‘5. Advising- on the proper cur-
ricular selection of materials.

4. Maintaining- facilities f o r
servicing equipment.

5. Advising on district requests
for equipment.

d. Advising on distribution prob-
lems.

7. Co-ordinating visual aids with
other local training- programs.

8. Evaluating films and film-
strips in the light of field ex-
periences.

!). Advising- training officers and
instructors on proposed new
production releases.

Jonuory, 1 946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

10. Maintaining a loan library
for situations within a district
which required only occasional
use of films and filmstrips.

For over two years Lieutenant
Commander Noel headed the
Utilization and Evaluation Sec-
tion of the Training-Aids Divi-
sion of the U. S. Navy and gave
leadership to this program,
which was an important phase
of the Naval training activities.
He ascribes to his officers, both
men and women, most of the
credit for the successful use of
audio-visual materials in Naval
training.

In the fall of 1944, at the re-
quest of the Secretary of State,
Lieutenant Commander Noel
was placed on the Navy inactive
list to go with the Department
of State as an Audio-Visual Con-
sultant to the Conference of Al-
lied Ministers of Education then
meeting in London. Noel’s spe-
cial assignment lasted five
months, two months of which
were spent in London counsel-
ling with the ministers of educa-
tion of the occupied countries on
the place of visual education in
the solution of their problems of
educational rehabilitation. Ques-
tions like these were considered :
What will the educational needs
be after the war ? What will the
schools be trying to teach? How
can audio-visual materials help
meet these objectives? What
kinds of materials will be
needed? In short, Noel’s duties
included analyzing audio-visual
education needs for the educa-
tional rehabilitation of Euro-
pean nations; exchanging views
with the ministers of education
of European nations regarding
American experiences in this
field; participating in the vari-
ous meetings of the Conference ;
observing United Kingdom prac-
tices in the use of audio-visual
materials, and preparing the
final reports and recommenda-

Lt. Commander Francis W. Noel

tions for the future participa-
tion of the United States in this
field on the international level.

After completing his Depart-
ment of State assignment in
April, 1945, Noel returned to
California to accept his present
position as Chief of the Division
of Audio-Visual Education in
the California State Department
of Education. Although Califor-
nia has led many other states in
the development of audio-visual
education departments at county
and city levels, it was not until
1945 that a Division of Audio-
Visual Education was set up in
the State Department of Educa-
tion. The new Division aims to
co-ordinate and give leadership
to the audio-visual-education
movement which is making such
rapid strides throughout Cali-
fornia. Problems of classroom
and administration effectiveness
in the use of audio-visual mater-
ials at all educational levels from
the kindergarten through the
college, of setting standards for
the services of local audio-visual
departments, of evaluating and
appraising equipment and ma-
terials, of encouraging and coun-
selling on production activities,
of co-operating with museums,
of serving the professional staff
of the State Department of Edu-

cation, and of interpreting the
State’s educational program to
the public are a few that Noel
is grappling with.

Some idea of the magnitude
and scope of the new Division’s
task may be gained by a few sta-
tistics : in California, the second
largest state in the union, there
are approximately 50,000 teach-
ers employed in some 1,800 kin-
dergartens, 4,000 elementary
schools, 550 junior and senior
high schools, 45 junior colleges,
6 teachers’ colleges, and a state
university. These institutions
range from one-teacher schools
in isolated mountain and desert
areas to the University of Cali-
fornia.

All of this adds up to a chal-
lenge— a challenge to the new
Chief of the Division of Audio-
Visual Education, Francis W.
Noel, whose past experiences as
a California teacher and admin-
istrator— in addition to his
Navy-wide and international ex-
periences— make h i m particu-
larly well-qualified to do the job.

No. 42: George A. Hirlimon

George A. Hirliman, organi-
zer and president of Interna-
tional Theatrical & Television
Corporation, was born in Fort
Lee, New Jersey, September 8,
1901 — the same Fort Lee that
has become historic in the film
industry as one of the earliest
centers of motion-picture pro-
duction. Here many a name that
was to become a household word
in America first came to public
notice : Mary Pickford, D. W.
Griffith, the Gish sisters, Anita
Stewart, John Bunny, Norma
Talmadge ; and among compan-
ies, Pathe, Peerless, Eclair, So-
lox, Kalem. It furnished a per-
fect childhood background for
anyone destined to achieve a
place in the moti()n-i)icture in-
dustry.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

George A. Hirlimon

Young Hiiiiman was dabbling
in it before he was fifteen. By
the time he was twenty, he was
already a partner in a sizable
laboratory, later to become
known as the Hirligraph Com-
pany. After engaging in all
phases of laboratory technique
and in specialties, the business
reached such size that it consti-
tuted one of the important units
in the New York area. In 1927
Hirliman sold the business to
Herbert J. Yates, then engaged
in putting together Consolidated
Film Industries, Inc. By 1933
Hirliman had organized and was
president of Exhibitors Screen
Service, a film-trailer organiza-
tion serving theatres through-
out the country. Shortly there-
after he became We.st Coast Pro-
duction Executive of Consoli-
dated Film Industries. From
1933 to 1935 he supervised all
t h e independent productions
financed by this Company in
Hollywood. Among these were a
series of Bill Boyd action pic-
tures and Magnacolor shorts for
Select Productions, a Consoli-
dated subsidiary. He resigned
from Consolidated in 1935 to
form his own production organ-
ization. He produced features in
Magnacolor in Spanish and Eng-

lish for MGM release. In 1943,
he formed and became president
of Film Classics, Inc., but re-
signed in 1944, to organize and
head International Theatrical &
Television Corporation.

One of Hirliman’s first steps
a f t e r forming International
Theatrical & Television Corpora-
tion was to buy outright the
Walter 0. Gutlohn Company,
which became the core of Inter-
national. The Gutlohn Company,
one of the oldest and best estab-
lished companies in the 16mm
field, had long specialized in
serving the schools. Building on
this foundation, one of the prin-
cipal activities of International
Theatrical & Television will be
in the educational field.

The present International film
library includes Universal and
RKO pictures. Certified Films,
United Screen Attractions, Spec-
trum Pictures, Condor Pictures,
and the product of the Mas-
cot, Chesterfield and Invincible
Companies. In order to print the
films listed in this huge catalog,
Hirliman purchased Circle Film
Laboratories in New York.

The project most cherished by
Hirliman is, however, the pro-
gram of activities in his Instruc-
tional Films Division. He be-
lieves firmly that there is a tre-
mendous future in this field and
is prepared to back this belief
with adequate budgets. As soon
as International’s corporate ex-
pansion is stabilized, this policy
will be translated into action on
a broad and constantly mount-
ing scale. This is good news to
audio-visual educators every-
where.

No. 43: Victor Roudin

Victor Roudin, head of the In-
structional Films Division of In-
ternational Theatrical & Televi-
sion Corporation, was born in
New York City, .June 22, 1899.
Upon graduation from Erasmus

Victor Roudin

Hall High School in Brooklyn,
he attended Columbia Univer-
sity until the entry of the U. S.
into World War I, whereupon he
enlisted in the Navy, serving for
eight months in 1918-19. Re-
turning to Columbia after the
war, Roudin received his A.B.
degree in 1919 and his LL.B. de-
gree in 1920. He became a mem-
ber of the New York bar and
practiced law for 22 years until
the summer of 1943, when he
joined forces with George Hirli-
man in the organization of Film
Classics a n d the subsequent
formation of International.

Roudin is interested in foster-
ing experimentation in new u.ses
of the film in education. He has
encouraged amateur educational
producers in all parts of the
country to experiment in the
making of educational films of
many types. From such activi-
ties, he believes, will come the
directors, producers, and writ-
ers of professionally-made text-
films of the future. As Director
of the Instructional Films Di-
vision of International, Roudin
has mapped out and is proceed-
ing with an ambitious program.
For elementai’y grades, he is
planning films that will empha-
size motivation and incentive to
learn, with a view to substitut-

January, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

ing a winning appeal to young-
sters for the more disciplinary
and repellent techniques of less
adroit approaches to children’s
interests. For secondary grades,
his first films are to be in the
field of vocational guidance, cov-
ering (1) self-evaluation, (2)
preparation for suitable occupa-
tions, and (3) entering an occu-
pation. These vocational subjects
will be based on the teachings
of Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Edlund
who, in their Man Marketing
Clinic, have obtained outstand-
ing results over the past ten
years.

Under Roudin’s direction. In-
ternational is also going through
its catalogs, among the most
comprehensive in the 16mm in-
dustry, and is revising a number
of educational films of long
standing with the purpose of
improving narration and elimin-
ating unnecessary and distract-
ing background music. The com-
pany has also begun to develop
some films on marine biology at
the Marine Biological Labora-
tory at Woods Hole, Massachu-
setts, and some time-lapse color
films on botany. Educational
films are also being produced in
foreign countries for Interna-
tional.

No. 44: Godfrey M. Elliott

Godfrey M. Elliott, Editor-in-
Chief of Young America Films,
Inc., was born in Hiawatha,
Mercer County, West Virginia,
October 19, 1908.

He received his A.B. degree
from Concord State College,
Athens, West Virginia, in 1929,
and his M.A. from West Vir-
ginia University in 1936, ma-
joring in Educational Adminis-
tration, Curriculum, and Audio-
Visual Aids. He is a candidate
for the Ph.D. degree at New
York University, having com-

Major Godfrey M. Elliott’

pleted advanced work in Audio-
Visual Aids and Methods in Ed-
ucation.

From 1929 until 1942, Mr.
Elliott held positions in the Mer-
cer County, West Virginia, pub-
lic schools as classroom teacher,
elementary and high-school prin-
cipal, county director of audio-
visual aids, and special assistant
to the superintendent. During
the summer of 1941, he was
an instructor in Audio-Visual
Aids in Concord State College,
Athens, West Virginia. He was
one of the few individuals in the
West Virginia school system to

FILMS OF MERIT

16MM SOUND - SILENT - 8MM

For Teaching, Recess
and Entertainment

Write for Listing

Nu-Art Films, Inc.

145 WEST 45th STREET
NEW YORK 19, N. Y.

RENT SALE

hold simultaneously state li-
censes as high-school classroom
teacher, elementary principal,
high-school principal, and
county superintendent. He also
organized and directed the first
county co-operative film library
in West Virgina and assisted
in the establishment of other
county libraries which followed.

During the period from 1930
to 1942, Mr. Elliott did consid-
erable writing. He published a
handbook. The Comitij Film Li-
brarn, and was a frequent con-
tributor to such magazines as
Educational Screen, School
Management, American School
Board Journcd, Home Movies,
Popular Photography, School
Executive, and Visual Review.
He also produced a number of
16mm films for local school
needs, as well as one for train-
ing of rural teachers, entitled
Time to Spare, which was well
received.

In September, 1942, Mr. El-
liott entered the Army Air
Forces as First Lieutenant, on
direct commission to assist with
the AAF visual-training-aids
program. He served with the
AAF Training Aids Division,
first as projects officer on train-
ing films and film strips, and
later as officer supervising the
work of the five AAF units pro-
ducing film strips. In addition
he was projects officer for ra-
dar training films. His function
was to assist in the planning of
AAF training films and film
strips, and to assist in the su-
pervision of their production and
use. Released from active duty
in September, 1945, with the
rank of Major, Mr. Elliott
joined Young America Films,
Inc., in the same month. As Edi-
tor-in-Chief, he has charge of
the planning, research, and
wi-iting of all films and slide-
films produced by the company.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

Young America Films

Young America Films, Inc.,
18 East 41st Street, New York
City, has announced the follow-
ing 8-point editorial policy in
the production of its materials :

1. We believe that educational
motion pictures and slidefilms
are an integral part of the
school’s curriculum material ;
that to be useful they must be
based on fundamental curricu-
lum requirements ; and that
their content must be selected,
organized, a n d presented in
such a way as to make them an
essential part of the curriculum
unit. Because educational films
must be produced and used as an
integral part of the curriculum,
we shall use the term Curricu-
lum Films as a general term of
identification.

2. We believe that curriculum
films are most effective when
they are made for a specific
subject-matter area, and for a
specific school-age group. For
that reason, each of our curricu-
lum films will have its empha-
sis directed to one specific sub-
ject-matter area, and will be
graded to the interest level,
learning rate, and comprehen-
sion level of a specific school-
age group.

3. We believe that curriculum
films can be real experiences to
students, and that such films
make their greate.st educational
contributions when the teacher
uses them as a basic learning ex-
perience, not as a “supplement-
ary aid.” Curriculum films do
not merely add a little more of
the same thing to what is taught
in other ways and with other
materials. Curriculum films lay
a foundation of sensory experi-
ence in the student’s mind which
is basic to the development of

meaning. Far from merely “sup-
plementing” books, curriculum
films lay a foundation for bet-
ter learning from books, maps,
graphics, and other curriculum
materials. They develop a “read-
iness” for reading, expression,
conduct, skills, and other activi-
ties in the curriculum.

4. We believe that curriculum
films make their gi’eatest con-
tribution when they are made to
do what motion pictures can do
best. We will not produce motion
pictures in areas which can be
treated better in slidefilms or
other visual forms, nor will we
produce motion pictures or slide-
films in areas where books,
magazines, maps, excursions,
and other teaching materials are
more appropriate for the kinds
of learning that are called for in
the curriculum. In preparing our
films, we are thoroughly cogni-
zant of the fact that the curricu-
lum film takes its proper place
alongside other curriculum ma-
terials, all of which the teacher
will use in their proper place to
help students achieve a richer
and deeper appreciation and
comprehension of the topic or
the unit.

5. We believe that curriculum
films must be produced to meet
the needs and wants of the
schools, and not for the purpose
of thrusting upon them what we
think they should have. We will
not hesitate to explore new areas
of film-making to meet these
needs, nor will we avoid making
films in subject-matter areas
either because of production
problems or because these areas
have been avoided in the past as
controversial.

6. We believe that, to be ef-
fective, curriculum films must

be made in terms of the students
for whom they are intended, not
in terms of pure subject-mat-
ter. This means that the film
cannot be made as a subject-cen-
tered treatise, but that its sub-
ject-matter must be organized
and presented in accordance
with the way students learn. As
a corollary to this, we believe
that curriculum films should be
made in short units which fit
conveniently into class sched-
ules, and which give due consid-
eration to the attention span of
the audience. For this reason,
most of our films will be ten
minutes in length, but in no case
longer than twenty minutes. If a
subject requires longer treat-
ment, it will be organized and
presented in short film units.

7. We believe that curriculum
films are at their educational
best when they stimulate partic-
ipation and activity among the
.students. For this reason, we
will give particular attention to
organization and presentation,
and will use those techniques
which encourage class participa-
tion and which stimulate activ-
ity, reading, discussion, and a
sense of responsibility for fur-
ther learning and application.

8. We believe that teachers
welcome help in using curricu-
lum films as effective classroom
teaching tools. For this reason,
we will prepare teachers’ guides
to accompany each of our films,
so that teachers may quickly
grasp the fundamentals of good
teaching methods in relation to
our films. We look confidently
to the day when curriculum
films will be such an integral
part of classroom teaching that
teachers’ guides will not be nec-
essary.

January, J^946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

WHAT SHALL WE READ ABOUT

THE MOVIES?

A Guide to the Many Books about Motion Pictures:

Their History, Science, Industry, Art, Future —

Compiled as an Aid to Photoplay Appreciation.

BY WILLIAM LEWIN, Ph.D.

Department of Secondary Teochers, National Education Association

Books about motion pictures
have multiplied rapidly. Today a
complete library of such books
would include more than a thou-
sand volumes. However, because
of the creative evolution through
which screen art has been pass-
ing, many of these volumes are
either obsolete or obsolescent.

Accordingly, what the com-
piler of the present bibliography
did was to peruse practically all
the books in the field — old and
new, good and bad — and then
make a descriptive list of the
books worth reading today.
Twelve years ago the compiler
prepared a list of 116 books in
this field. So rapidly have con-
ditions changed that only 8 of
these books are retained in the
present list and 65 are added. A
few years hence, some of these
newer books will probably not be
worth retaining in the list, and
some fine new books will have
to be added.-*The photoplay is in-
deed a creative evolution.

Reference Books

The best reference books on
the motion-picture industry are
those of Alicoate (21*) and
Ramsaye (35). The Americana
Annual and the Britannica Book
of the Year (2 and 13) provide
the best yearly summaries of

'■'The number given in parenthesis
after each name refers to the numeri-
cal listing of the book in the anno-
tated bibliography which follows.

film product and film events.

For Visual Educators

The best books on visual ed-
ucation are those of Uent (8)
and Hoban (73).

For High-School Students

The writings of the following
will appeal to students of high-
school age: Bendick (41),
Brooker (65), Child (55), Dis-
ney (10), Feild (6), Gale (34),
Riesling (67), Lewis (39), Look
Editors (48), Pryor (37), Ram-
saye (45), Strasser (1), and
Wenger (40).

For Technical Readers

Technical information about
movies is most readably pre-
sented in the books of Eisen-
stein (22), Hubbell (70), Rick-
etson (42), Ross (64), Simon
(38) , and Wing (66) .

Histories of the Screen

The story of the development
of the screen may be found in
the volumes of Bardeche (30),
Hampton (31), Hardy (53), Ja-
cobs (60), Ramsaye (44), and
Rotha (49).

Biographical Accounts

Among the more interesting
biographical and autobiographi-
cal volumes are those of Barry
(27), DeMille (32), Feild (6),
Lancaster (36), and Powell
(72).

Th ree Classics

Three books read and re-read

by thoughtful cinema students
are those of Lindsay (5) ,
Muensterberg (54), and Pudov-
kin (51).

1. AMATEUR MOVIES AND HOW
TO MAKE THEM. By Alex Sfrasser. New
York: The Studio Publications, Inc.,
1937. Pp. 80, with 16 figures and 31
tipped-in plates.

The most charming and de-
luxe pre-war book of its kind.
Printed in large type, a visual
delight, yet practical in content.
An ideal gift to an amateur
movie-maker. Simplifies all the
technical and artistic principles
and devices of cinema.

2. AMERICANA ANNUAL. A. H. Mc-
Dannald, Editor. New York; Americana
Corporation. Published annually.

This yearbook, which supple-
ments the E)icyclopedia Ameri-
cana, one of America’s great ref-
erence books, includes each year,
in addition to encyclopedic re-
views of events of the year, a
notable illustrated article on mo-
tion-picture developments of the
year, usually prepared in schol-
arly and critical style by Philip
T. H a r t u n g, motion-picture
critic of The Commonweal, lead-
ing Catholic cultural periodical.

3. AMERICAN THEATER, THE. By
John Anderson. Together with THE MO-
TION PICTURE IN AMERICA. By Rene
Fulop-Miller. New York: The Dial Press,
1938. Pp. 430, copiously illustrated.

This beautiful volume, con-
taining concise histories of the
stage-play and of the photoplay

«:|LM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

in America, is vividly illustrated
with more than 400 photographs
and drawings, many of them in
color, of which 200 are devoted
to films. A section on the his-
tory, technique, and psychology
of the film is remarkable for its
concentration o f information
and its penetration into the fun-
damentals of film making. Mr.
Fulop-Miiier has simplified the
most complex and least stand-
ardized mode of expression in
the world today. The book is
handsomely printed and fascin-
atingly written, a charming and
valuable addition to any library,
public or private. Students of
photoplay appreciation have
here something to appreciate.

4. ART AND PRUDENCE. By Morfi-
mer Adler. New York: Longmans, Green
and Co., 1937. Pp. 686.

A monumental study of the
moral, political, and aesthetic as-
pects of the motion picture. In
the light of historical precedent,
based mainly on Plato and Aris-
totle, Professor Adler proceeds
to examine critically the more
recent attempts at scientific re-
search, including a detailed an-
alysis of the Payne Fund stud-
ies. He concludes with a state-
ment of cinematic principles of
form, technique, and taste from
the standpoint of a practical
philosopher.

5. ART OF THE MOVING PICTURE,
THE. By Vachel Lindsay. New York: The
Macmillian Co., 1922. Originally pub-
lished in 1915. Pp. xliii, 289.

A pioneer discussion of cri-
teria for classifying and judg-
ing photoplays. Analyzes types :
photoplays of action, of fairy
splendor, of crowd splendor, of
patriotic splendor, of religious
splendor, intimate pictures. De-
fines the photoplay as sculpture-
in-motion : a s painting-in-mo-
tion ; as architecture-in-action,
as furniture, tra]q)ings, and in-
ventions-in-motion. Enumerates

differences between the screen
play and the stage play. Dis-
cusses trends and speculates as
to the future of films.

6. ART OF WALT DISNEY, THE. By
Robert D. Feild. New York: The Macmil-
lan Company, 1942. Pp. xvii, 290. Illus-
trated with 59 full-page (8 x 11) plates,
many of them in color, and numerous
reproductions of sketches.

Appropriately issued by Mac-
millan, whose list of books about
the movies is the longest and, in
some respects, the most import-
ant in the field, this volume de-
serves to rank with the Har-
coLirt, Brace books by Lewis Ja-
cobs and by Leo Rosten. Chap-
ter 2 is easily the most fascinat-
ing account of the evolution of
Disney’s technique and the cre-
ative methodology which is the
basis of his success — showing
that Disney is destined to rank
with 1). W. Griffith in the de-
velopment of the film as an art
form. Notable also is Professor
Feild’s intimate description of
the Disney studio, where he was
given the freedom of the place
for many months and where he
found the jobs of the .staff so
closely interrelated “that, so far
as humanly possible, everybody
had to know what everybody else
was doing, and the more their
activities could be made to over-
lajp the better. In the very na-
ture of things, it had to be a
community enterprise. This has
been one of Walt’s great accom-
plishments’’ (p. 282). The

author was formerly a member
of the art department of Har-
vard University, where he was
instrumental in having the uni-
versity give Walt an honorary
degree. He is now Director of
the School of Art of Newcomb
College, Tulane University, New
Orleans.

7. AUDIO-VISUAL AND TEACHING
AIDS. A series of mimeographed bro-
chures. Compiled in co-operation with
Lili Heimers. Upper Montclair, N. J.:

State Teochers College. 1940-46.

Here are comprehensive and
practical guides to the many
new teaching aids of interest to
teachers of virtually every sub-
ject in the school curriculum.
A truly pioneer compilation in-
dispensable to teachers of Eng-
lish, health, music, mathemat-
tics, aviation, meteorology, rec-
reation, safety, business, guid-
ance, chemistry, biology, history,
geography, consumer education,
intercultural education, prob-
lems of democracy, general sci-
ence.

8. AUDIO-VISUAL HANDBOOK, THE.
By Ellsworth C. Dent. Fourth edition. Chi-
cago: The Society for Visual Education,
Inc., 1942. Pp. 211, with illustrations.

The best handbook of its kind
— a concise, practical, inexpen-
sive, authoritative guide to the
many types of audio-visual aids
and to trends in this field.

9. AUDIO-VISUAL TOOLS THAT
TEACH FOR KEEPS. By Bruce Allyn Find-
lay. Foreword by Vierling Kersey. School
Publication No. 395. 72 pp. Los An-
geles: Office of the Superintendent of
Schools. 1944.

H o w to make audio-visual
tools function in relation to time-
tested teaching methods is ex-
plained here by Mr. Findlay in
lively style. He shows how pic-
torial presentations can give
sharper edges to those superb
instructional tools called “par-
ticipation techniques’’ — analy-
sis, comparison, criticism, dis-
cussion, identification, comple-
tion, detection, solution, inter-
relation, and selection ; as well
as the various testing proce-
dures. His purpose is to provide
a basis for building audio-visual
instruction materials into the
curriculum so that they may be
part and parcel of basic units,
rather than merely “aids’’ to in-
struction.

10. BAMBI. By Walt Disney. Based
on "Bambi, a Life in the Woods," by
Felix Salten. Translated by Whittaker

Jonuory, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Chambers. New York: Simon & Schus-
ter, 1941. Pp. 60, size 8 Vi x 11, un-
numbered, with 73 illustrations.

This book is Walt Disney’s in-
terpretation of a modern classic,
the story of Bambi, a forest
deer. The tale begins the day af-
ter Bambi’s birth, when his
mother teaches him how to stand
on his wobbly legs. It ends when
Faline, the beautiful doe who
becomes his wife, gives birth
to twin fauns in a woodland
thicket.

The Felix Salten text has been
rather closely followed through-
out, but Walt Disney’s version
introduces a few new characters
— notably Thumper, the rabbit,
and Flower, the skunk — two de-
lightful creations who will be-
come as well loved as Dopey in
Snoiv White and Jiminy Cricket
in Pinocchio.

The pictures of the animal
characters — 14 pages in full
color, and 54 black-and-white
drawings — are all in the tradi-
tion of Disney’s finest.

When Bambi was first pub-
lished, the late John Galsworthy
said of it : “Bambi is a delicious
book. Delicious not only for chil-
dren but for those who are no
longer so fortunate. For deli-
cacy of perception and essential
truth I hardly know any story
of animals that can stand beside
this life study of a forest deer.”

11. BEHIND THE SCREEN: HOW
FILMS ARE MADE. Stephen Watts, Edi-
tor. Preface by Hugh Walpole. New
York: Dodge Publishing Co., 1938. Pp.
176.

A comprehensive symposium
on film production. The motion
picture critic of the London Sun-
day Exjrress has compiled a uni-
fied and coherent account of the
work of a great studio with ex-
cellent perspective. The book in-
cludes contributions on “The
Producer,” by Hunt Stromberg ;
“The Director,” by George Cu-
kor; “Scenario Writing,” by

Frances Marion ; “The Art Di-
rector,” by Cedric Gibbons ;
“Clothes,” by Adrian; “Cast-
ing,” by Billy Grady ; “Make-
up,” by Jack Dawn; “The Ac-
tor,” by Leslie Howard and
Lionel Barrymore; “Photogra-
phy,” by Lee Garmes ; “Color,”
by Natalie M. Kalmus; “Sound,”
by Douglas Shearer; “Film Mu-
sic,” by Herbert Stothart; “The
Cutter,” by Margaret Booth ;
“Public Relations,” by Howard
Dietz; and “Distribution,” by
Sam Eckman, Jr. Here is a fas-
cinating case-study of the work
of the magnificent MGM pro-
ducing organization, a “must”
book for students of photoplay
appreciation.

12. BEST PICTURES, 1939-40, THE.
By Jerry Wald and Richard Macaulay.
New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1940.
Pp. 534, illustrated.

An excellent annual summary
of the trends, news, and produc-
tion data of the film year, with
condensations of the scenarios of
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (drama).
Bachelor Mother (farce), Ni-
notchka (comedy) , Rebecca.
(tragedy) , Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington (comedy drama).
Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet (bi-
ography) , and Destry Rides
Again (action melodrama). If
these films could be revived as
a planned series, the book might
serve as the basis of a course in
“Types of the Film.”

13. BRITANNICA BOOK OF THE
YEAR. Walter Yust, Editorial Director.
Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britonnica, Inc.
Published annually.

This yearbook, issued as a
supplement to the famous Ency-
clopaedia Britannica, now con-
trolled by the University of Chi-
cago, includes in its annual rec-
ord of the march of events, an
illustrated review of motion pic-
tures and film-industry devel-
opments, prei)ared by experts,
with due utteution to t'ducat ioiial
films.

Similar in size to the volumes
of the Encyclopaedia Britan-
nica.

k 14. DECENCY IN MOTION PIC-
TURES. By Martin Quigley. New York:
The Macmillan Co., 1937. Pp. 100.

A monograph in restrained
and impartial style, by the man
who can best tell the story be-
hind the development of the mo-
tion-picture industry’s notable
production code. The author, as
head of filmdom’s most compre-
hensive publishing enterprise,
originated the idea of the pres-
ent code and fought for its seri-
ous application, with a view to
compelling observance of moral
standards at the source of films.
The validity of voluntary self-
regulation as the only alterna-
tive to censorship is now estab-
lished to the satisfaction of all
concerned.

U 15. EDUCATIONAL FILM GUIDE.
Compiled by Dorothy E. Cook and Eva
Rahbek-Smith. 490 pp. New York: The
H. W. Wilson Co. 1945.

A selected, classified, and an-
notated list of 3540 films for use
in classrooms, libraries, clubs,
etc., with a separate title and
subject index. This Guide ap-
plies the Dewey decimal system
to films. The enormous increase
in the number of educational
film productions makes the de-
velopment of a catalog of this
kind a tool of prime necessity for
librarians and administrators of
audio-visual programs. Out of
this Guide will grow an increas-
ing correlation of books and
films.

16. EDUCATIONAL MOTION PIC-
TURES AND LIBRARIES. By Gerald D.
McDonald. Chicago: The American Li-
brary Association, 1942. Pp. xii, 183.

Report of a study sponsored
by a joint committee on educa-
tional films and libraries, initi-
ated by the audio-visual com-
mittee of the A.L.A., and madt*
with the aid (,»f a grant from the
Rockefeller Foundation. This is

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

another example of the inevit-
able co-operation and co-ordina-
tion of librarians and visual-ed-
ucation directors, as well as the
on-going interest of the Rocke-
feller family in films, radio, and
show business. The author is
chief of the New York Public-
Library’s reserve room, who was
given seven months’ leave with
pay to do the job. Mr. McDon-
ald’s results are eminently worth
while, pointing out the need for
greater use of films in adult ed-
ucation; the need for training
librarians for film service; the
need for on-going community ex-
perimentation, the need for such
encyclopedic, annotated listing
of films cumulatively as is be-
ing done by the H. W. Wilson
Educational Film Guide; the
preservation of films as histori-
cal records ; and the widespread
need for equipping libraries with
projectors. Many practical ap-
pendices point the way to mak-
ing the library ot every com-
munity the source of films for
home and school use, much as it
is now the source of books.

17. EDUCATORS GUIDE TO FREE
FILMS. By Mary F. Horkheimer ond John
W. Differ. Introduction by John Guy
Fowlkes. Fifth edition. 254 pp. Mimeo-
graphed. Randolph, Wisconsin: Educa-
tors Progress Service. 1945.

This is the most complete de-
scriptive bibliography of “free”
films and slidefilms, including
1270 titles, with full informa-
tion as to sources. The materials
are classified .so that teachers of
social studies, science, health,
art, music, shopwork, foods,
clothing, etc., can readily find in
the list suitable subjects in their
fields of intere.st.

18. EMPEROR JONES, THE. By Eu-
gene O'Neill. Students' Edition. New
York: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1934.
Pp. 64.

Includes a guide to the study
of the screen version of the ])lay,
dealing with the literary source

and production, musical ele-
ments, cinematic treatment, pho-
tography, characterization, story
structure, use of contrast and
comparison, humor and irony,
prepared by William Lewin and
Max J. Herzberg.

19. FANTASIA. By Deems Taylor.
Foreword by Leopold Stokowski. New
York; Simon and Schuster, 1940. Pp.
157.

The story of how Fa)(faftia
came to be made, with i)rogram
notes by the film’s commenta-
tor, copiously illustrated in color
and beautifully printed in folio
size, 10 X 13. The volume serves
as a glorified souvenir program,
with chapters devoted to the crit-
ical appreciation of each of the
eight numbers making up the
film. Synopses of the pictorial-
story treatments are presented
i n simple style, interpreting
what Disney and Stokowski have
tried to do in their effort to vis-
ualize and popularize these great
musical comi)ositions. Teachers
and students of art, music,
drama, and i)hotoplay apprecia-
tion will find the book a valuable
aid to discussion and a charm-
ing addition to the school library
or the home library.

20. FILM AND THEATER. By Al-
lardyce Nicoll. New York: Thomas Y.
Crowell and Co., 1936. Pp. 255.

A charming and scholarly
work in which a Yale professor
outlines the basic principles of
the new art of the screen in re-
lation to the old art of the stage.
A practical introduction to the
theory of the cinema in the light
of the drama.

21. FILM DAILY YEAR BOOK OF MO-
TION PICTURES. Jack Alicoate, Editor.
New York: The Film Daily. Published an-
nually since 1918.

The oldest encycloi)edia of
filmdom. Universally recognized
as a standard book of reference
concerning the multifarious ac-
tivities of the motion-picture in-
dustry. Producers, distributors.

theatre operators, and critics al-
ways keep this 1000-page volume
handy. Students of the photo-
play will find it a treasure-trove
of information. Among its fea-
tures is a 200-page directory of
more than 20,000 features re-
leased since 1915, together with
a list of the original titles of
books and plays made into films
under different titles.

22. FILM SENSE, THE. By Sergei M.
Eisenstein. Translated by Jay Leyda.
New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co. 1942.
Pp. XX, 288.

A searching analysis of the
art, philosophy, and technique
behind the brilliant work of
Russia’s leading film producer
and director, who is also head
of the State Institute of Cinema-
tograi)hy at Moscow, as well as
supervisor of the Mosfilm Stu-
dios in Russia’s capital. The man
who made Potemkin, Ten Dan^
that Shook the Wo)‘ld, and Alex-
ander Nevsky tells the meaning
of the famous Russian technique
of montage — a mathematically
calculated .system of harmony
and counterpoint which makes a
simultaneous assault on the
senses of sight and hearing and
appeals to both the emotions and
the intellect. Sequences from
Eisen.stein’s scenarios and a se-
ries of parallel illustrations of
film shots and musical i)hrases
clarify the techniques of inter-
weaving pictorial composition,
cinematic movement, and music.

23. FILMS ON WAR AND AMERI-
CAN POLICY. By Blake Cochran. Wosh-
ington, D. C.: American Council on Edu-
cation, 1940. Pp. vii, 63.

This able monograph offers a
basis for disciussion of events
that lead men into war — the
ideas and conditions that lead to
force, oppression, and treachery
in international affairs. The de-
scription of the films has been
arranged in three parts : pre-
lude to aggression, path of ag-
gression, the American course.

Jonuory, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Twenty films are analyzed and
appraised, all available in 16mm.
The best of these are Territorial
Possessions of the U. S., 1938 —
A Year of Contrast, and 1939 —
A Year of Dark Coyitrasts.
Sources of the films, prices, etc.,
are given.

24. FOCUS ON LEARNING. By Charles
F. Hoban, Jr. Prepared for fhe Commit-
tee on Motion Pictures in Education.
Washington, D. C.: American Council on
Education, 1942. Pp. 172.

The summary volume of a se-
ries reporting the work done in
projects at Wilmington, Denver,
and Santa Barbara, as well as
in a number of supplementary
projects. The use of films sub-
sequently by the Army, the
Navy, the Air Forces, and vo-
cational training centers has
moved the decimal point of cor-
roboration of Dr. Hoban’s find-
ings far beyond the experimen-
tal stage.

25. FOREMOST FILMS OF 1938. By
Frank Vreeland. New York: Pitman Pub-
lishing Corporation, 1939. Pp. 347, with
ten full-page illustrations.

Condensations and analyses of
“best” films released in 1938
{Wells Fargo, Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs, You Can't
Take It With You, The Citadel,
The Young in Heart, That Cer-
tain Age) , summaries of twenty-
eight “unusual” pictures, and
448 additional annotated list-
ings of pictures of 1938 ; a list of
the awards for excellence of va-
rious kinds; a list of reissued
films; a quotation from Will
Hays’s annual report; obituar-
ies ; an index of the year’s pic-
tures; and a 32-page survey of
production trends in Hollywood,
Great Britain, Europe, Latin
America, and elsewhere. The
author, one of the older New
York critics, had production and
editorial experience in Holly-
wood. He established here a
model for a series of yearbooks
of the screen, endeavoring to do

for pictures what Burns Man-
tle’s yearbook of the “Best
Plays” so admirably does for the
stage. While the subjects given
lengthy treatment admittedly
are selections of expediency, on
account of difficulty in obtain-
ing copyright clearance, indus-
try politics, and so on, the vol-
ume is a gold mine of reference
material. One of the best evi-
dences of editorial sincerity is
the fact that the compiler in his
foreword cites such films as
Marie Antoinette, If I Were
King, Boys Town, etc., as meri-
torious enough to be among the
“ten foremost,” but are given
briefer treatment in the supple-
mentary group called “unusual.”
It is in the secondary list that
some of the really “foremost”
films of 1938 may be found.

26. GOOD NIGHT, SWEET PRINCE.
By Gene Fowler. 477 pp. New York: The
Viking Press. 1944.

A biography of John Barry-
more, comparable to Pearson’s
G.B.S. in completeness, vivid-
ness, and frankness. Included
are descriptions of all the Bar-
rymores and Drews and the host
of friends and acquaintances
who influenced John Barrymore
as a man and as an artist. Stu-
dents will be fascinated by the
scores of colorful anecdotes and
lively reminiscences about this
great actor, who did notable
work for the screen.

27. GRIFFITH, D. W.: AMERICAN
FILM MASTER. By Iris Barry. New York:
The Museum of Modern Art, 1940. Pp.
40. Illustrated.

This monograph, by the cura-
tor of a luxurious. Rockefeller-
endowed institution, is appro-
priately de luxe in illustration,
format, and scholarship. Miss
Barry traces the rise of Grif-
fith from obscurity as an actor-
poet to first rank among the
film producer-directors of our
age. A study of his methods and
technical innovations, anecdotes

culled in his native Kentucky, a
wealth of information contrib-
uted by his cameraman-collab-
orator, G. W. (Billy) Bitzer,
and documents from the Mu-
seum’s rich film library combine
to furnish a first-rate critical
evaluation of the immortal di-
rector under whose leadership
the film first developed. The
monograph includes a useful
chronology and index.

28. HANDBOOK OF ACTING, A. By
Eva Alberti. New York: Sam:jel French,
1932. Pp. vii, 205.

The best handbook on acting
prepared by a veteran teacher
of many actors and directors. Of
special value in relation to screen
acting because it emphasizes
“the new pantomime.” Supple-
ments theory with exercises de-
signed to develop natural expres-
sion. Chapter VIII is particu-
larly valuable.

29. HAYS OFFICE, THE. By Raymond
Moley. 266 pp. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-
Merrill Co. 1945.

This is a notable but partial
account of the activities and
aims of Will H. Hays as a “traf-
fic cop” I'ather than a “Czar”
in the development of Motion
Picture Producers and Distribu-
tors of America, Inc., since 1922,
especially in relation to the
Quigley code for “clean pic-
tures,” industry self-regulation,
and the promotion of pictures
worthy o f appreciation and
needing the support of com-
munity organizations. John El-
liott Williams, in the first issue
of the critical Hollywood Quar-
terly (October, 1945), points
out that “anyone familiar with
the history and operations of the
Hays office will immediately
recognize that this book tells the
truth, nothing but the truth, but
not the whole truth.” Mr. Mo-
ley’s sources of objective infor-
mation are mainly Mr. Hays’s
Annual Reports and such files
of correspondence and official

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

data as may have been accessible
to him and his assistants. Some
of his information is both in-
complete and of a secondary na-
ture, rather than based on criti-
cal study or original research.
For e.xample, in the course of
three chapters on the educa-
tional activities of the Hays of-
fice and the movement to raise
standards of public taste in
films, Moley mentions the names
of many educators who gave cas-
ual assistance to Hays office ef-
forts to develop educational in-
terest in films ; but he fails to
mention a single individual
among those who gave many
thousands of hours from 1929
to 1935 to far-flung research
projects of the greatest signif-
icance, under the auspices of im-
portant educational committees
and sub-committees totaling 500
high-school teachers, whose lead-
ers worked in direct relation to
Hays office officials. If Mr. Mo-
ley devotes some 40 pages to an
important educational m o v e -
ment, he should give credit to
those who actually pioneered the
movement and who, in spite of
incumbrances, carried it to no-
table success. Mr. IMoley’s errors
of omission are, no doubt, unin-
tentional, but he was unfortu-
nately so handicapped in the se-
lection of some of his material
that his otherwise informative
account is biased and super-
ficial.

We recommend that Mr. Mo-
ley read Walter Barnes’s intro-
duction to Photoplay Appi'ecia-
tion i)i America)i High Schools
( Appleton-Century) , with which
the Hays office was so pleased
in 1934 that it ordered 500 cop-
ies (or was it 1000?) to send to
industry executives and commu-
nity-organization leaders.

30. HISTORY OF MOTION PICTURES,
THE. By Mau rice Bordeche and Robert
Brasillach. Translated and edited by Iris
Barry. Foreword by John E. Abbott. New

York: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., and
The Museum of Modern Art, 1938. Pp.
xii, 412, with 30 half-tone illustrations.

A lively and comprehensive
account of the history of films
in Europe and America from the
French point of view. The trans-
lator provides many illuminat-
ing corrections in her critical
footnotes. It is to be hoped that
Miss Barry’s great service in
providing this translation will
be followed by a more definitive
telling of the story of the film
in France, England, Sweden,
Italy, Germany, Russia, and
America, based on the notable
researches and re-examinations
of the films of the past which
she is conducting. The present
translation marks a milestone in
Miss Barry’s archeological jour-
ney into film history.

31. HISTORY OF THE MOVIES, A. By
Benjamin B. Hampton. New York; Co-
vici, Friede, Inc., 1931. Pp. 456, supple-
mented by 125 pages of illustrations.

An excellent critical history of
American films down to 1931.
The illustrations are mainly
stills, showing “the development
of the motion picture in Amer-
ica, both as an industry and
as an entertainment medium,’’
from 1901 to 1931.

32. HOLLYWOOD SAGA. By William
C. DeMille. With o Foreword by John
Erskine. Illustrated. New York: E. P. Dut-
ton & Co., 1939. Pp. 319.

An important contribution to
the history of the film in Amer-
ica, in the form of a charmingly
written autobiography. The
author, for many years a writer
and director of films, as well as
a playwright for the New York
.stage, is Cecil UeMille’s elder
brother. The book makes the
story of the development of the
photoplay in America luminous
with many anecdotes and allu-
sions to famous producers, direc-
tors, writers, players, and cam-
eramen. Incidentally Mr. Ue-
Mille analyzes skillfully the basic
problems of story construction.

the relations between writers
and directors (he having been
both) , the relations between
stage and screen, the film as a
social force, and many practical
matters, such as censorship, the
dual bill, and current trends.

[ 33. HOLLYWOOD: THE MOVIE COL-

ONY, THE MOVIE MAKERS. By Leo
Rosfen. New York: Horcourt, Brace, and
Company, 1941. Pp. 436.

The first fully-annotated
factual study o f Hollywood,
based on objective research and
financed by the Carnegie and
Rockefeller Foundations, made
by a trained expert and a staff
of eleven assistants, who inter-
viewed people, surveyed condi-
tions, and explored every nook
of America’s movie colony. Al-
together a brilliant and schol-
arly job.

Dr. Rosten’s book is devoted
mainly to the movie elite. It is
an “X-ray’’ analysis of back-
grounds, work-habits, incomes,
reputations, manners, home life,
night life, politics, feuds, opin-
ions, attitudes, and influence.
Eight appendices, indicating
sources and methods, make some
fascinating pages for students
of the photoplay. Dr. Rosten’s
qualifications for the job in-
clude, in addition to university
work in sociology and econom-
ics, experience as a writer of
The Education of Hyman Kap-
lan, The Strangest Places, and
The Washington Correspon-
dents. He spent three years on
the Hollywood study.

34. HOW TO WRITE A MOVIE. By
Arthur L. Gale. New Yark: E. B. Hack-
ett; The Brick Row Book Shop, Inc.,
1936. Pp. XV, 199.

An attractive handbook on
movie planning and scenario
writing, for amateur and non-
theatrical producers of films, si-
lent and sound, prepared by the
editor of Movie Makers, official
organ of the Amateur Ginema
League.

January, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

35. INTERNATIONAL MOTION-PIC-
TURE ALMANAC. Terry Ramsaye, Edi-
^or. New York: Quigley Publishing Com-
pany. Published annually since 1928.

Now that motion pictures
have become an established part
of educational curricula, Terry
Ramsaye’s annual volume is a
necessary reference book in
every school and college library.
It is a “must” volume for photo-
play clubs and for home libraries
of visual educators. Nearly half
of the 1000-page tome is devoted
to a Who’s Who of Motion Pic-
tures, including some 12,000 bi-
ographies. This is followed by
an accurately edited encyclope-
dia of film facts — production
statistics ; a survey of the educa-
tional and industrial film field ;
the corporate structure of film
organizations; awards for artis-
tic, technical, and commercial
achievement in films ; foreign
film facts and analyses ; theater
equipment data; a list of cir-
cuits; a directory of films since
1937 ; radio and television direc-
tories; lists of the many books
and periodicals devoted to films ;
a directory of film boards and
societies; codes and censorship
data ; and an anlysis of the
news highlights of the movie
year. Here is a factual basis for
appreciating the development of
an industry that is destined to
play an increasingly vital part
in both education and recreation.

36. LAUGHTON AND I, CHARLES.
By Elsa Lanchester. Ineroduction by
Charles Laughton. New York: Harcourt,
Brace and Company, 1938. Pp. xvi, 269,
with 67 full-page half-tone illustrations
and numerous drawings, including one
by James Thurber entitled "Art and Mar-
riage."

At once a charming biog-
raphy, in the style of an intimate
letter, and a mine of informa-
tive anecdotes on a subject con-
cerning which few good books
have been written — the art of
acting — with many allusions to

famous people of stage and
screen.

37. LET'S GO TO THE MOVIES. By
Williom C. and Helen S. Pryor. New
York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1939,
Pp. 183, illustrated.

Dedicated to “the high-school
teachers and principals who
have asked for a book like this,”
the volume provides a basis for
film appreciation and discrim-
ination by describing the com-
plex business of making movies.
There are chapters on story,
direction, players, sound, cos-
tumes, make-up, sets, props, ed-
iting, cartoons, and newsreels,
with 48 illustrations from stills.
A pre-war book for high-school
libraries, of general interest to
adolescents, written in light,
breezy style.

38. LET'S MAKE MOVIES. By S. Syl-
van Simon. Illustrated by John Went-
worth. New York: Samuel French, 1940.
Pp. 112.

The author is one of Holly-
wood’s leading directors, with a
background of work in radio
and the legitimate theater. He
has been greatly interested in
amateur theatricals and in ama-
teur movie-making. To his col-
lections of plays for boys, for
girls, for women, for summer-
camp groups, and for groups of
men and boys, he now adds a
highly useful little book which
reveals much in small space re-
garding the essentials of cine-
matography. This is easily the
best condensation yet made of
the fundamental facts of tech-
nique in the use of equipment by
young folks in the movie field.
Many a semiprofessional adult
or mature amateur will find this
revelation of tricks of the trade
worth its weight in gold. The
volume superseded all previously
published handbooks of its kind.

39. LEWIS'S TECHNIQUE OF ACT-
ING. By Harrison Lewis. New York: Hor-
rison Lewis Screen and Stage School,
1942. Pp. 248. Illustrated.

One of the few practical and
luminous books on acting — a
subject which is difficult to
learn from books at best. The
volume talks in the language of
high-school students and breaks
down one of the most complex
arts into its elements. The style
combines narration with exposi-
tion, provides many illustrative
episodes that young folks will
enjoy, and is designed to build
confidence in the young actor.
The differences between radio,
stage, and screen acting are told
in simple, conversational style.
One of the best chapters is No.
20, on the art of listening.

40. MAKING SCHOOL MOVIES. By
Roy Wenger and William G. Hart. Intro-
duction by Edgar Dale. Columbus, Ohio:
Bureau of Educational Research, Ohio
State University, 1941. Pp. vii, 56.

An excellent and inexpensive
companion pamphlet to the
Child-Finch book. Producing
School Movies, and the
Brooker-Harrington book. Stu-
dents Make Motion Pictures.
Special attention is given to
making films on traffic safety,
including a complete scenario
and a master list of traffic er-
rors. Specific answers are given
to questions of planning, writ-
ing, selection of equipment, com-
munity co-operation, titles, edit-
ing, costs, etc.

41. MAKING THE MOVIES. By Jeanne
Bendick. Illustrations by the author. In-
troduction by Capt. Robert Bendick, 10th
Combat Camera Unit, USAAF. 190 pp.
New York: Whittlesey House, a division
of McGraw-Hill. 1945.

This is the newest and finest
book for young and old in the
field of motion-picture apprecia-
tion. It is suitable for junior jr
senior high-school students. Co-
piously illustrated with lively
and authentic sketches by the
author, written in short sent-
ences, and printed in large type,
the volume is attractive enough

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

to be read at a sitting. Mrs. Ben-
dick gives due attention to both
fact films and fiction films.
She carries the reader smoothly
through the complex procedures
of movie-making and includes a
full glossary of movie terms.

42. MANAGEMENT OF MOTION PIC-
TURE THEATRES, THE. By Frank H.
Ricketson. New York: McGrow-Hill Book
Co., Inc., 1938. Pp. xii, 376.

A practical basis for teaching
theater discrimination. “Rick”
Ricketson, chief of the Fox In-
ter-Mountain theater circuit and
one of the better-known men in
the film industry, presents here
the most nearly definitive book
on the business of operating
movie houses, with many allu-
sions to general principles of
showmanship (“the art of pleas-
ing the most people in the short-
est time”). Thoroughness of the
text is illustrated by such topics
as non-theatrical enterprises and
visual education, color and light-
ing, theater inspection, nine
types of advertising, insurance,
leasing, architecture, booking,
clearance, zoning, double bills,
stage shows, projection, sound,
ventilation, house rules, safety,
fire prevention, budgeting, aud-
iting, games, contests, give-
aways, benefits, and a glossary
of 600 words and phrases used
in the operation of theaters. One
gathers that the theater man-
ager’s job is like a combination
of those of a school principal, a
janitor, and a politician all rolled
in one, with duties to keep him
busy evenings and nights when
most of his friends are having a
good time.

43. MEASURE FOR AUDIO-VISUAL
PROGRAMS IN SCHOOLS, A. By Helen
Hordt Seaton. Series II, Number 8, of
the American Council on Education Stud-
ies. Washington, D. C., October, 1944.
40 pages.

A notable discussion of some
of the difficulties obstructing
the full use of visual materials.

together with basic recommen-
dations for the development of
audio-visual programs in school
systems and individual schools.
The report is based on visits to
a number of cities in the East
and Southeast and on the ideas
of ten audio-visual specialists
now with the armed forces and
government in Washington, as
well as on previous work o f
the council. The percentage of
teachers now using films in their
teaching (about 10 percent) is
found to be small because of dif-
ficulties of darkening rooms,
problems of ventilation, ineffi-
ciency in projecting films, limi-
tations in the availability of
equipment and materials, war-
time curtailment o f delivery
service, weaknesses in booking
systems, need for improvement
of utilization practices, and lack
of adequate financial support.
The concluding ten pages of
recommendations offer specific
suggestions for removing these
difficulties : the appointment of
audio-visual specialists in states,
counties, and cities; the devel-
opment of personnel and the es-
tablishment 0 f standards o f
equipment, service, materials,
utilization, and budgetary allow-
ances. One percent of the annnal
per-pupil cost is suggested as a
minimum operating expense for
the audio-visual program. This
would mean a ten-fold increase
in the annual expenditures for
instructional aids, or approxi-
mately one-half as much as is
ordinarily spent annually o n
textbooks. Minimum goals set
up for such a program include,
for example, one 16mm sound
projector for every 200 students,
one transcription player for
every 200 students (or one per
building for schools with less
than 200 enrolled), and many
other items in like proportion.
A consummation devoutly to be

wished, and one that is coming
yet, for a’ that!

44. MILLION AND ONE NIGHTS, A.
By Terry Ramsaye. New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1926. Two volumes. Pp. Ixx,
868, with 1 03 illustrations.

A detailed account of the ori-
gin and history of the motion
picture, written in lively style.
The work is now out of print,
but may be borrowed in many
public and university libraries.
It is to be hoped that the author
will bring out a new edition,
with a third volume devoted to
the period from 1926 to 1946.

45. MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY,
THE. By Terry Ramsaye. No. 52 in a se-
ries of vocational monographs. 24 pp.
Boston: Bellman Publishing Co., Inc.
1945.

This is the most complete,
authentic, and concise guide to
the many occupations in the
film industry — truly midtum in
parvo. The author is the able
editor of Motion Picture Herald,
Motion Picture Almanac, and
Fame. His A Million and One
Nights (see above) is a standard
history of films. He was for
some years a leading newsreel
editor and also an editor of dra-
matic and documentary features.
His articles on the movies in
the Encyclopaedia Britannica
and in educational magazines
have established him as an aca-
demic authority on films who
has the unique advantage of
thirty years of intimate contact
with the industry whereof he
speaks. For young Americans
interested in entering the film
industry, as well as for workers
in the idnustry, Mr. Ramsaye’s
brochure is full of practical in-
formation.

46. MOTION PICTURES AND RADIO:
MODERN TECHNIQUES FOR EDUCA-
TION. By Elizabeth Laine. Foreword by
Luther Gulick. New York: The McGraw-
Hill Boak Company, Inc., 1938. Pp. 165.

This volume, abounding in
common sense, is one of ten

J-nuary, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

(plus a general report and atlas)
comprising the studies resulting
from the Regents’ Inquiry
into the Character and Cost
of Public Education in the State
of New York, under the chair-
manship of Owen D. Young and
the direction of Mr. Gulick. It
is only natural that under the
eye of Mr. Young, a former ma-
jor executive in the electrical in-
dustry, which underlies all film
and radio development, a study
of this kind should turn out to be
practical. Miss Laine’s book, af-
ter summarizing the platitudes
about the educational possibili-
ties of films, which apparently
had to be stated here for the nth
time, defines the role of the state
department in an educational
film program. She sets up a
graphic chart, showing how a
state department of education
should function in the dissemin-
ation of film information, in the
training of teachers in film tech-
niques, in film experimentation
and research, and in the circula-
tion of materials. Notable in the
plan is the recognition given to
curriculum units in photoplay
appreciation as a phase of vis-
ual education. In line with the
aims of the former motion-pic-
ture committee of the National
Council of Teachers of English,
better guidance of pupils in their
selection of motion-picture en-
tertainment is recommended as
well as “more effective utiliza-
tion of the better theatrical
films in literature courses and
in courses in motion-picture ap-
preciation.”

47. MOTION-PICTURE VERSION OF
SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO AND JULIET,
A. By Irving G. Thalberg and others. New
York: Random House, Inc., 1936. Pp.
290, with ten full-page illustrations.

The first volume of its kind,
presenting a literary classic to-
gether with the shooting script
of the screen version. A de-luxe
case study for teachers and stu-

dents of photoplay appreciation.
Illuminating articles by the pro-
ducer, by the literary consultant,
by the stars, by the director, by
the screen playwright, by the art
director, and by the costume de-
signers, as well as a notable
study guide by Max J. Herzberg.

48. MOVIE LOT TO BEACHHEAD. By
the editors of Look. Preface by Robert
St. John. 292 pp. Garden City, N. Y.:
Doubleday, Doran and Co., Inc. 1945.

A stunning array of pictures
and a concise text, telling the
story of how Hollywood went to
war and how it prepared for
peace — with training films, doc-
umentaries, and entertainment
features — sending i t s writers,
cinematographers, actors, and
directors to Army and Navy stu-
dios, foxhole circuits, battle sta-
tions, and beachheads. Histor-
ians and teachers will find this
vivid volume a ti’easure-trove of
pictorial information about the
movies in relation to World
War II.

49. MOVIE PARADE. By Paul Rotha.
New York: The Studio Publications, Inc.,
1936. Pp. X, 142, with 600 illustrations.

The history of films from
1903 to 1936 told in a pageant
of beautifully reproduced stills,
with penetrating analytical com-
ment on each type of film. This
is Rotha’s best book.

50. NORTH STAR, THE. By Lillian
Helfman. 118 pp. New York: The Viking
Press. 1943.

A movie script by the play-
wright who wrote The Watch
on the Rhine, The Little Foxes,
The Children’s Hour, and The
Searching Wind. A native of
New Orleans and a lover of the
Southland, Miss Heilman writes
here of a Russian village in the
South of that country, before
and after it was invaded by the
German army. Louis Kronen-
berger provides an introduction
in which he admits he had never
before seen a movie script. Nev-
ertheless, his evaluation is ap-

preciative of the elements which
make the scenario a good one.
The script was given an elabor-
ate production by Samuel Gold-
wyn under the direction of
Lewis Milestone. Students of the
film, which is now available to
schools and colleges in 16mm,
will enjoy reading this shooting
script before and after seeing
the film.

51. ON FILM TECHNIQUE. By Vse-
volod Illarionovich Pudovkin. Translated
and annotated by Ivor Montogue. Lon-
don: Victor Gollancz, Ltd., 1929. Pp.
203.

Three important essays and
an address on the art of writing,
editing, a n d directing silent
films, with considerable empha-
sis on the technique of montage.
Comparable t o Edgar Allan
Poe’s essays on the art of the
short-story in that the author is
a master of the art he discusses.

52. PARTICIPATION: THE LAST
WORD IN FILMS. By Bruce Allyn Find-
lay. Foreword by Vierling Kersey. School
Publication No. 384. 36 pp. Los Angeles:
Office of the Superintendent of Schools.
1942.

This brochure, by the Los An-
geles administrator of visual ed-
ucation, blazes new trails in
techniques for utilization of
classroom films. Mr. Findlay
has no use for teachers who pre-
sent films without disturbing
the complacency of students. He
is all for using films to develop
action and reaction in learners.
He offers a series of imagina-
tive ideas for incorporating in
the films themselves devices for
compelling maximum class par-
ticipation in the educational pro-
cess. Mr. Findlay suggests, for
example, that the film may in-
clude challenging statements or
scoring devices as part of the
film narration; that the com-
mentator may make deliberate
misstatements to test the alert-
ness of listeners ; that the film
may embody a quiz for self-scor-
ing by students ; that it may par-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

tially visualize answers to ques-
tions requiring completion by
the class ; that it may call for re-
sponses in unison ; that it may
repeat a commentary without
the accompanying scene, leav-
ing the screen black and requir-
ing recollection of the scene;
that it may develop creative
thinking by presenting two pos-
sible endings to a story and ask-
ing which is better ; that it may
secure emphasis b y flashing
scenes or words on and off re-
peatedly; and that it may pro-
vide drill by alternating words
without scenes and scenes with-
out words.

Always the test of success is
a measure of the ability of the
device to stimulate cerebration
and participation on the part of
the student. What remains is to
produce a few thousand films
embodying these devices.

53. PETITION IN EQUITY: United
States of America, v. Paramount Pictures,
Inc., et ol.. Defendants. By Lamar Hardy
and Paul Williams. Washington, D. C.:
United States Government Printing Of-
fice, 1938. Pp. 119.

Includes a history of the mo-
tion-picture industry in concise
form, down to 1938, based on
scholarly investigation of the
branches of the industry, its
competitive conditions and trade
practices, and conclusions which
the petitioner offers as a basis
for important changes in the
American system of distributing
and exhibiting photoplays.

54. PHOTOPLAY, THE. By Hugo
Muensterberg. New York: D. Appleton &
Co., 1916. Pp. 232.

A pioneer study of the psy-
chology and the aesthetics of the
silent motion picture. Chapter
IV, on “Attention,” contains a
classic discussion of the signifi-
cance of the closeup.

55. PHOTOPLAY APPRECIATION IN
AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOLS. By William
Lewin. Foreword by Walter Bornes. New

York: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1934.
Pp. XV, 122.

Principles a n d methods of
teaching photoplay appreciation,
based on large-scale research in
seventeen states. A basic mono-
graph, describing what has been
called “one of the most import-
ant enterprises undertaken in a
decade in the public schools”
(Ashville, N. C., Times).

56. PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE
MOVIES, A. By Deems Taylor, Marcelene
Peterson, and Bryant Hale. 350 pp.
New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc. 1943.

In spite of a number of errors,
which will no doubt be corrected
in subsequent editions, this is a
useful aid to the study of photo-
play appreciation. The volume
presents about a thousand half-
tone reproductions of stills with
annotations, which carry the
reader, after a fashion, through
the infancy of American films,
and thence over the subsequent
periods o f development. The
treatment is popular rather than
critical or scholarly.

57. PRESENTING SCOTLAND: A
FILM SURVEY. By Norman Wilson. 36
pp. Illustrated. Edinburgh, Scotland: Ed-
inburgh Film Guild. 1945.

Here is a valuable account of
the Scottish documentary film
movement, which was begun by
John Grierson and which has
produced a considerable array
of pictures during the past 15
years. To those of us who have
followed the work of Grierson
and h i s contemporaries — Paul
Rotha, Mary Field, Stuart Legg,
Alberto Cavalcanti, John C. El-
der, Arthur Elton, to mention
only a few — it is gratifying to
read Mr. Wilson’s statement of
the aspirations of Bonnie Scot-
land for a permanent place in
the cinema sun. The land which
gave us Robert Burns, Sir Wal-
ter Scott, and Robert Louis Ste-
venson may before long produce
a film genius of similar stature.

To provide a solid basis for de-
velopment, Mr. Wilson recom-
mends the raising of a fund for
the establishment of a Scottish
School of Cinema, to be part of
one of the art colleges. After
perusing Mr. Wilson’s list of
nearly 100 films of Scotland, we
are 100 percent for his plan.

58. PRODUCING SCHOOL MOVIES.
By Eleanor Child and Hardy Finch. New
York: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1941.
Pp. xii, 151. Illustrated.

Monograph (or rather duo-
graph) No. 12 in the notable and
growing series sponsored by the
National Council of Teachers of
English, this volume is the most
complete and practical handbook
dealing with the creative and
technical elements o f 16mm
movie-making as a phase of the
teaching of English composition
in direct relation to audio-visual
education. The authors are mem-
bers of the Greenwich (Conn.)
school system. Co-author Finch,
a past president of the NEA De-
partment of Secondary Teach-
ers, and editor of Secondary Ed-
ucation, is a leading authority
on progressive aspects of sec-
ondary education.

59. PROJECTING MOTION PIC-
TURES IN THE CLASSROOM. By Fran-
cis W. Noel. Washington, D. C.: Ameri-
can Council on Education, 1940. Pp. vii,
53. Illustrated.

The fifth in a series of studies
of motion pictures in education,
dealing specifically with an ex-
perimental program of explora-
tion of ways and means of using
films in the curriculum of the
public school system at Santa
Barbara, California, an evalua-
tion center of the Motion-Pic-
ture Project of the American
Council on Education. It deals
with the arrangement of physi-
cal conditions, the selection of
equipment, and the training of
personnel, including student op-
erators. The author was for-

Jonuory, 1 946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

merly director of visual educa-
tion in the Santa Barbara
schools and is now chief of the
division of audio-visual aids in
the California State Department
of Education. Dr. Charles F.
Hoban, Jr., director of the proj-
ect, and now in charge of visual
education at Philadelphia, pro-
vides an illuminating foreword.

60. RISE OF THE AMERICAN FILM,
THE. By Lewis Jacobs. New York: Har-
court, Broee, and Co., 1939. Pp. 585,
illustrated.

The best history of American
films in print and the first crit-
ical account of the movie in
America in its commercial, artis-
tic, and social aspects. An ideal
text for colleges, adult groups,
a n d mature high-school stu-
dents. Iris Barry provides an ex-
cellent preface.

61. SCHOOL USE OF VISUAL AIDS.
By Cline M. Koon. Washington, D. C.:
U. S. Office of Education, 1938. Pp. 68,
illustrated with diagrams and photo-
graphs.

An interpretative study of the
data collected in the National
Survey of Visual Instruction
in Elementary and Secondary
Schools, by the government’s
former specialist in radio and
visual education. Still useful to
the student of motion pictures
is Chapter IV, which gives due
attention to the teaching of pho-
toplay appreciation.

62. SELECTED FILMS FOR AMERI-
CAN HISTORY AND PROBLEMS. By Wil-
liam H. Hartley. New York: Bureau of
Publications, Teachers College, Columbia
University, 1940. Pp. 275.

The volume is in the main an
annotated catalog of some 350
films of interest to teachers of
American history and related
social studies. Each film is care-
fully synopsized and evaluated.
Included is a section on criteria
for evaluating social-studies
films. A directory of distributors
is provided. It is to be hoped
that the book will be revised and

brought up to date. What the
teacher needs to know is what
film is the best of its type in
each field ; hence an on-going di-
rectory like the Wilson Educa-
tional Film. Guide needs to be
used in combination with Dr.
Hartley’s handbook. No doubt
some omissions, like that of the
Nu-Art A b r a h a m Lincoln,
and some minor errors, such as
mentioning Warner Brothers in-
stead of MGM as the producers
of Servant of the People, will be
corrected in a second edition.
Information as to the many il-
lustrated study guides which ap-
ply to social-studies films, in-
cluding some films listed by Mr.
Hartley, also should be included :
in the present volume none of
the materials sponsored by the
Department of Secondary
Teachers of the National Edu-
cation Association is mentioned.

63. STAGE AND THE SCHOOL, THE.
By Katharine Ommoney. New York; Har-
per & Bros., 1939. Revised edition. Pp.
504, illustrated.

The best textbook covering
the entire field of the drama at
the secondary-school level, in-
cluding newer chapters on mo-
tion-picture production, make-
up for stage and screen, and tel-
evision production, as well as
sections on film history, film
acting, and shopping for films.

64. STARS AND STRIKES. By Mur-
ray Ross. New York: Columbia Univer-
sity Press, 1941. Pp. x, 233.

An account of the unioniza-
tion of Hollywood, of special in-
terest to social-studies and com-
mercial classes. Useful as a basis
of reports in classes studying in-
dustrial relations and economics.
The book tells for the first time
the complete story of the dra-
matic conflict of capital and la-
bor in Hollywood — how Los An-
geles changed from a citadel of
anti-unionism to a union town
in which the democratization of
labor brought about friendly re-

lations between the elite and the
low-wage earners of the indus-
try. The author is a teacher of
economics at Brooklyn College.

65. STUDENTS MAKE MOTION PIC-
TURES. By Floyde E. Brooker and Eugene
H. Herrington. Washington, D. C.: Amer-
ican Council on Education, 1941. Pp.
vii, 142.

A brilliant book that should
be read by every American
teacher interested in vitalizing
secondary education. This sev-
enth study in the notable series
of reports of the American
Council on Education’s Motion
Picture Project takes rank as
the most practical text dealing
intimately with the fundamen-
tal problems of the production
of text films. One hopes that
schools everywhere will join the
movement to make honest-to-
goodness text films in great vol-
ume, financing them by a sys-
tem of distribution and ex-
change to which all will contrib-
ute. If schools can make good
text reels at $500 each, there are
commercial distributing organi-
zations now that will undertake
to reimburse them in exchange
for the right to distribute the
films nationally. Imagine the
possibilities of a large-scale co-
operative enterprise in which
young America would make its
own films under expert super-
vision !

66. SUGGESTIONS FOR PROLONG-
ING THE SERVICE LIFE OF 16MM
PRINTS. By Frank Wing, Jr. 12 pp. New
York: Allied Non-Theatrical Film Asso-
ciation, Inc., 303 Lexington Avenue.
1943.

An Ansco research expert an-
alyzes the factors influencing
the service life of 16mni prints
and offers practical suggestions
for avoiding film damage dur-
ing projection and rewinding;
reducing film brittleness and
curl ; securing proper humidifi-
cation, cleaning, waxing, reno-
vation, scratch removal, and
storage. Mr. Wing lists 15 “do’s”

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

and 8 “don’ts” for 16mm users.
Copies of this useful brochure
are available in quantities at
low rates as a service of the
ANFA organization.

67. TALKING PICTURES: HOW THEY
ARE MADE — HOW TO APPRECIATE
THEM. By Barrett C. Kiesling. Foreword
by Will H. Hoys. Richmond, Vo.; John-
son Publishing Co., 1937. Pp. vi, 332.

A prewar, but still useful, ac-
count of the steps in making a
photoplay, with descriptions of
the many departments of a big-
studio. The first textbook writ-
ten for high-school students by
a worker within studio walls.
The author is a former news-
paper man who has had long ex-
perience as a studio publicity ex-
ecutive and who has observed
film making at close range. He
surveys the background, the
foreground, and the probable
trend of the photoplay-apprecia-
ation movement. The book is
printed in large, clear type, is
well bound, and is illustrated
with 36 full-page halftones.

68. TEACHING DRAMATIC ARTS IN
THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS. Ernest
Bavely, Editor. 52 pp. Mcadvi lie. Pa.:
American Educational Theatre Associa- ^
tion. 1945.

Included in this presentation
of the recommendations of the
high-school committee of the
AETA, of which Editor Bavely
is chairman, are notable sections
on the social and educational
bases for teaching motion-pic-
ture appreciation, suggested ac-
ti.ities for drama teachers in
relation to motion pictures, and
qualifications for the teacher of
photoplay appreciation.

69. TEACHING WITH MOTION PIC-
TURES. By Mary E. Townes. New York:
Teachers College Bureau of Publications,
1938. Pp. 25.

A guide to sources of infor-
mation and materials, the first
of a series of Teachers Col-
lege Library Contributions. Ex-
cellently organized, accurately

compiled, a n d concisely pre-
sented— a “must” pamphlet for
the student of motion pictures,
setting a high standard of prac-
tical scholarship in its field.

70. TELEVISION PROGRAMMING
AND PRODUCTION. By Richard Hub-
bell. 207 pp. Illustrated. New York:
Murray Hill Books, Inc. 1945.

This is by far the best book
on television yet published. It is
sure to be a standard text for
some years. The volume clearly
explains the nature of television,
analyzes the basic differences
between movie-making and tele-
vision programming, and in-
cludes an excellent discussion
of the principles of cinematog-
raphy and film editing. The
audio and video elements of tel-
evision are clearly defined. The
significance of every detail nec-
essary to an understanding of
the new video industry is made
luminous through drawings and
photographic illustrations. Mr.
Hubbell’s presentation of a
highly technical subject is con-
sistently smooth and at times
fascinating.

71. TWENTY BEST FILM PLAYS.
Edited by John Gassner and Dudley Nich-
ols. 1112 pp. New York: Crown Pub-
lishers. 1943.

The most ambitious attempt
yet made to present a collection
of best screenplays, now devel-
oping into an annual institution.

Of the 20 scripts reproduced
in the book, five are from
the MGM studio — Fury, The
Wome7i, Mrs. Miniver, The Good
Earth, and Yellow Jacket. Co-
lumbia is represented by 3, War-
ners by 3, RKO by 2, Twentieth
Century-Fox by 2, and the fol-
lowing by one each — Goldwyn,
Paramount, Universal, Wanger,
and U. S. Film Service.

The writers represented are
Robert Riskin, Anita Loos, Jane
Murfin, Morrie Ryskind, Eric-
Hatch, Sidney Buchman, Seton
1. Miller, Robert E. Sherwood,

Joan Harrison, Ben Hecht,
Charles Mac Arthur, Nunnally
Johnson, Philip Dunne, Vina
Delmar, Francis Faragoh, Bart-
lett Cormack, Fritz Lang, Heinz
Herald, Geza Herceg, Norman
Reilly Raine, John Huston,
Wolfgang Reinhardt, A n e a s
MacKenzie, James Hilton, Ar-
thur Wimperis, George Froe-
schel, Claudine West, Dan Toth-
eroh, Stephen Vincent Benet,
Dudley Nichols, Talbot Jennings,
Tess Slesinger, Edward Chodo-
rov, and Pare Lorentz.

One of the most illuminating
contributions in the anthology
is the memorandum of music in-
structions prepared b y Pare
Lorenz for his documentary.
The Fight for Life.

72. TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND
FEET: THE EDGE OF THE WORLD. By
Michael Powell. New York: E. P. Dutton
and Co., 1938. Pp. 334.

The story of a group of 24
young men who deliberately ma-
rooned themselves on the Island
of Foula, one of the Shetland
Islands, to make the documen-
tary and dramatic film entitled
The Edge of the World. The
book describes their struggles to
get started and their struggles
to get finished. It covers a pe-
riod of five months on loca-
tion under the direction of Mr.
Powell, who started his career
as an assistant to Director Rex
Ingram and who is now a lead-
ing British director and pro-
ducer.

73. VISUALIZING THE CURRICU-
LUM. By Charles F. Hoban, Charles F.
Hoban, Jr., and S. B. Zisman. New York:
The Cordon Co., 1937. Pp. xv, 304, with
numerous illustrations.

A volume of interest to ex-
perienced educators as well as
teachers in training. The text is
systematic in its presentation of
the principles and practices of
visual education. After eight
years, the basic value of the book
is still great.

Januoryt 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

WHO'S WHO IN RADIO
EDUCATION

No. 10: I. Keith Tyler

Among America’s top-notch
authorities on radio education is
I. Keith Tyler, Professor of Ed-
ucation and Director of Radio
Education at Ohio State Univer-
sity, Director of the Institute for
Education by Radio, and Presi-
dent of the Association for Edu-
cation by Radio. Professor Tyler
was formerly Director of the
Evaluation of School Broadcasts
project, a nation-wide study of
the effects of radio programs
upon children and of the useful-
ness of radio programs in edu-
cation, sponsored by the Federal
Radio Education Committee of
the Federal Communications
Commission and supported by
grants from the General Educa-
tion Board of the Rockefeller
Foundation.

As Director of Radio Educa-
tion at Ohio State University,
Tyler has the responsibility for
developing and co-ordinating all
radio activities of the insti-
tution, including broadcasting,
training of students in radio,
radio research, and conferences.
The University’s radio station,
WOSU, has become nationally
recognized as an outstanding ed-
ucational station as a result of
Tyler’s activities. University
staff members participate in ra-
dio programs as an accepted
part of their university duties,
equivalent i n importance t o
teaching, research, or other
forms of educational service.
Provision for the training of
students in the field of radio
broadcasting is now in process
of reorganization to bring to-

I. Keith Tyler

gether the various contributing
departments and to facilitate
close working relationships with
stations and networks, so that
students may be trained for the
realities of radio positions.

As Director of the Institute
for Education by Radio, Tyler
plans and administers an annual
international meeting for broad-
casters, educators, and civic
leaders. The program is devel-
oped by a program committee
from the suggestions of those
who have attended in previous
years. The conference is devoted
to the discussion of radio policy
and the techniques of educa-
tional broadcasting. More than
1100 persons from the United
States, Canada, and Great Brit-
ain attended in 1944.

Tyler appears frequently on
the programs of general educa-
tional conferences, conventions,
and institutes and acts as con-

sultant to r a d i o-education
groups throughout the country.

Since May, 1944, he has been
president of the Association for
Education by Radio. He is also
one of five educational repre-
sentatives on the Council on Ra-
dio Journalism.

Born i n Table Rock, Ne-
braska, on February 18, 1905,
Tyler received his early educa-
tion in that state and was grad-
uated from the University of
Nebraska. He did graduate work
at Yale University and at Co-
lumbia University, receiving his
M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the
latter institution. He has been
director of research in the public
schools in Allegany County,
Maryland, and assistant direc-
tor of research and curriculum
in the public schools of Oakland,
California. He has taught at the
University of Illinois and at the
University of Chicago.

Tyler’s publications include
a research monograph dealing
with the outcomes of social-stud-
ies instruction and a report of
a high-school discussion group
which he conducted. In addition,
he has written and published
some 75 articles dealing with
radio education and the curric-
ulum. With Normal Woelfel, he
is the editor of Radio and the
School, a new guide-book for
teachers and school administra-
tors.

In October, 1944, Tyler was
given the Annual Award of
Merit by the Advisory Commit-
tee of the Chicago School Broad-
cast Conference for “outstand-
ing and meritorious service in
educational radio.”

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

IS RADIO EDUCATIONAL?

BY I. KEITH TYLER

Professor of Education, Ohio Stofe University, Columbus

Is radio an educational
agency? In the present critical
period, will the broadcasting fa-
cilities of the world be dedicated
to the tremendous task of de-
veloping mutual understanding
among the varied nations and
peoples? Or will they be used
primarily for profit, on the one
hand, or national aggrandize-
ment, on the other?

This is the basic issue of
broadcasting in the post-war
world. All other issues are triv-
ial in comparison. In an age of
atomic bombs and robot, globe-
girdling airplanes, either we
learn to get along with other na-
tions and peoples, or we all die.
There is no other alternative.
If men and women everywhere
are to understand each other
and to have possession of the
facts basic to continuous ad-
justments in economics, culture,
and politics, a gigantic program
of education must be under-
taken.

It must begin at once, it must
proceed with utmost speed, and
it must use every available av-
enue of communication. Because
of the urgency of the task and
because of its demonstrated ef-
fectiveness during the w'ar, ra-
dio constitutes the prime me-
dium for this all-important job.
It is instantaneous, it can reach
all levels of the population, and
it can achieve results. What is
to prevent its maximum use in
this highest priority enterprise?

In the first place, radio may
not be accorded serious recog-
nition as an educational agency
by educators themselves. When

Reprinted from “The News Letter,"
December, 1945."

a great educational need is rec-
ognized, planning to meet the
situation is all too frequently
circumscribed by the traditional
boundaries of scholastic en-
deavor. Thus the Educational
and Cultural Organizations of
the United Nations, like its pred-
ecessor, the Institute for Intel-
lectual Cooperation, may find
itself concerned primarily with
the exchange of professors and
students, the circulation of re-
search documents and schol-
arly publications, and the inter-
change of artists and their
works.

Yet the whole future of civi-
lization may depend much more
upon the adequacy of popular
education derived from radio,
motion pictures, and the press.
Likewise, the formal educational
groups, the American Council on
Education, the American Asso-
ciation of University Professors,
the National Education Asso-
ciation, and the like, seldom
give serious consideration to the
great mass media, and in their
attitude toward radio broadcast-
ing, they demonstrate their utter
failure to grasp its vital signif-
icance in this supremely import-
ant educational job.

In the second place, American
broadcasting may find the pur-
suit of profit preventing radio’s
real dedication to this educa-
tional enterprise. If another war
destroys civilization — as it most
certainly will — there will re-
main neither broadcasting nor
an American enterprise system.
It would seem that the develop-
ment of international under-
standing and enlightenment is
just as important today as win-
ning the war was yesterday, and

just as much outside the realm
of reasonable controversy.

During the war period, the ra-
dio stations of this country did
a magnificent job. They dedi-
cated time, talent and resources
to a variety of war services with
signal success. They aided the
w'ar on the home front and
around the world. Coincident-
ally, they prospered in unparal-
leled fashion. Due to the nature
of tax regulations, the abundant
activity of business enterprise,
and the patriotism of advertis-
ers who sponsored war pro-
grams, broadcasters found that
winning the war went hand-in-
hand with enlarged profits.

But in peacetime, far-sighted
vision and dedication to the pub-
lic welfare may not necessarily
result in greater monetary re-
turns. Public service may really
be in conflict with profit. Will
American radio, recognizing the
urgency of the educational task,
be willing to forego a portion of
gain for the public good? Will
broadcasters tackle this chal-
lenging enterprise in the same
spirit of whole-hearted devotion
that characterized their war ef-
fort? Will winning the peace
have priority over business as
usual?

In the third place, radio may
not be used vigorously because
of the traditional fear of prop-
aganda. Americans are right-
fully antagonistic to a controlled
radio; they want access to com-
plete information. But this pol-
icy may operate to encourage in-
action. Broadcasters may shirk
their rightful responsibilities in
the name of fair play.

International matters are con-
troversial ; better avoid them en-

Jonuory, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

tirely rather than present one
side alone. Radio must not be a
vehicle of propaganda. During
wartime, winning the war is not
debatable ; but winning the
peace, when the hostilities have
ceased, is controversial. Broad-
casting is primarily for enter-
tainment. News will be pre-
sented; informative talks and
forums at odd hours must be
carried; but beyond this, radio
should not go. So will run the
argument.

But meanwhile, scientists in
laboratories all over the world
will perfect new weapons, will
improve atomic bombs and death
rays, and will ready the instru-
ments of destruction for man to
turn upon himself because he
would not understand. Truly, the
most deadly sin is ignorance.
With radio at hand as a vehicle
for enlightenment, will it be
prostituted in the name of im-
partiality? Democracy must not
mean inaction. Acceptance of the
responsibility for education im-

plies completeness and fairness,
but not abstention.

In the fourth place, radio may
be used for competitive nation-
alistic purposes so as to prevent
real understanding among peo-
ples and nations. Radio may be-
come an agency of international
policy, a weapon of power poli-
tics, to be turned upon friend
and foe for ulterior purposes.
Both before and during the war,
both sides used radio extensively
in furthering their conflicting
aims. Potential allies were
wooed ; fifth columns and resist-
ance movements were encour-
aged ; dissatisfactions and griev-
ances were stirred up; seeds of
suspicion and distrust were
planted. Now radio is to be
turned to peaceful purposes and
its powers harnessed for inter-
national understanding. Can this
transition be made overnight by
people steeped in the objectives
and techniques of radio war-
fare?

In countries in which radio is

controlled by government, the
problem is whether radio can be
operated to serve broad, long-
time objectives of peace and un-
derstanding in separation from
day-to-day policies of changing
party politics. In the United
States, the problem is whether
radio shall be used largely to
further international markets
for great American corpora-
tions, or be used altruistically to
further broad policies of in-
ternational collaboration. Inter-
nally, the networks will extend
their efforts in bringing to
American listeners news and
color from foreign countries.
But until international broad-
casting shall truly become a two-
way exchange among nations,
we shall have only begun.

To the task of developing in-
ternational understanding, edu-
cational broadcasters must bring
their skill, their imagination,
and their devotion. In the years
ahead, radio education will face
its greatest challenge.

RECOMMENDED PHOTOPLAYS

Reviewed by Dr. Frederick Houk Law, Editor^
Educational Departmenty The Reader* s Digest

LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN. Character
study. 20th-Fox. John M. Stahl, Director.
Strongly recommended For all.

For exquisite beauty of Tech-
nicolor pictures. Leave Her to
Heaven is notable. For its clear-
ness of character presentation
and for its interest in plot it is
likewise notable. In the course of
the picture story. Gene Tierney,
Jeanne Crain, and Cornel Wilde
play their roles with striking ef-
fectiveness.

Those persons who have read

Ben Ames Williams’s novel on
which the film story is based
know the fascinating nature of
its study of an unbalanced na-
ture, its analysis of a too-pos-
sessive ego.

A young writer (Cornel
Wilde) marries a beautiful girl
(Gene Tierney) whose love is
so demanding that she can tol-
erate no sharing of affection
with anyone, whether man,
woman, or child, relative or
otherwise. She had wished even

her own father “all for herself.”
In the course of the story we see
the steady increase of this pos-
sessiveness and watch it develop
toward tragic results. For this
the makers of the narrative
provide a series of incentives
that awaken a degree of sym-
pathy for the erring young
woman.

In his management of the psy-
chology of the story Director
Stahl has achieved high success.
By contrasting character, by

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in one of the charming dance sequences
in MGM's forthcoming Technicolor production, "Ziegfeld Follies."

January, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

showing vacillation, doubt, and
almost chance arrival at deci-
sions, he has produced strong
sense of reality. In particular,
through use of unusually beauti-
ful Technicolor shots of lake and
mountain scenery, he has pro-
duced something that corres-
ponds to musical accompaniment
throughout the picture.

In many respects Leave Her
to Heaven rises far above the
average.

THE SEVENTH VEIL. A story of psy-
choanalysis. Universal Pictures. Compton
Bennett, Director. Strongly recommended.

Just as Edgar Allan Poe loved
to probe the mysteries of the
mind, as in The Fall of the
House of Usher, so some modern
writers for the screen love to de-
velop plays concerning the sub-
conscious. Today we have The
Picture of Dorian Gray, Spell-
bound and now The Seventh
Veil. That “seventh veil” hides
the very ultimate of personality,
the deep inner secret that one
does not show to the world.

With great skill, scientific ac-
curacy, and strong personal ap-
peal, the new British-made film
tells a fascinating narrative of
narco-hypnosis, that combina-
tion of narcotics and hypnotism
that makes a person lay bare
his inmost self.

According to the story, an in-
ternationally known pianist, in-
jured in an automobile accident,
makes a desperate effort to com-
mit suicide. Why? A narco-hyp-
notist probes deep into the
young woman’s memory of her
past. A series of enthralling
flash-backs tells the entire story,
from her childhood to the pres-
ent. Then, knowing the cause of
her despondency, the physician
finds a way to effect a complete
cure.

The dignity and seriousness of
the production, the freedom
from all buffoonery, and the
slow application of recogniz-

able scientific procedures, give
the picture a gripping quality
that immediately interests and
pleases.

In England this motion pic-
ture attracted crowds. It should
make strong appeal here.

THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S. Human-
int'eresi' comedy. RKO Radio. Leo Mc-
Carey, Director. Enthusiastically recom-
mended.

“An invited audience loved
every minute of the picture and
left the auditorium brushing un-
abashed tears from happy eyes,”
said a reviewer in the Motion
Picture Herald. In its second
week in New York, at nine in
the morning, over 4,000 persons
stood in long lines hoping for
admission. Certainly the success
of Going My Way, to which The
Bells of St. Mary's is a kind of
sequel, or the popularity of In-
grid Bergman and Bing Crosby,
or the nature of the subject, or
the excellence of the picture
itself, or all these together, ac-
count for such instant success.

Without having either the in-
imitable Barry Fitzgerald or the
close human touch of Going My
Way, The Bells of St. Mary’s
stands fully on its own as an un-
usual picture. It is the story of
a tactful priest, a devoted sister
superior, a school, and a rich
man. Incidentally, it is also the
story of a little girl, waif of a
broken family. These far-reach-
ing lines of interest unite in
making a tenderly appealing pic-
ture-story.

Bing Crosby once again is
Father O’Malley, this time tact-
fully suggesting procedures for
the school over which Sister
Benedict (Ingrid Bergman) pre-
sides. A millionaire, whose prop-
erty adjoins the school, plots to
have the school buildings con-
demned as unsafe and thus gain
possession of the land ; the nuns
pray that somehow the million-
aire will be led to give his land

to the school and to erect new
school buildings.

The entire story is managed
with delicacy, humor and under-
standing. Best of all, scores of
deft touches throughout the pro-
duction give life, sparkle and
spirit. Producer-Director Mc-
Carey shows remarkable skill in
covering the dry bones of narra-
tive with the reality that comes
from all the little incidents that
make life.

Here is a picture that every-
one wishes to see — and that
everyone should see.

BURMA VICTORY: THE ALLIED
CAMPAIGN IN BURMA. British Army
Film-Unit Production. Distributed by
Warner Brothers. Captain Roy Boulting,
Director. Recommended.

In Burma Victory an entire
chapter of recent history ap-
pears on the screen for the in-
terest of the present and the in-
struction of the future. Made by
British, Indian, and American
combat cameramen, all the pic-
tures of persons, scenes, and
events are strictly authentic. In
an hour of running time, the
film shows the entire history of
the desperate fighting in the
dense jungles, high mountains,
and wild gorges of the vast re-
gion between China and India.
Without any single group of
leading characters, and without
including any story other than
that of the complete overthrow
of the Japanese in the wild
Burma region, Burma Victory
has the unity of a military cam-
paign conducted under almost
impossible conditions and lead-
ing through three years of gi-
gantic effort and bloody fight-
ing to full victory.

In spite of the difficulties that
the combat cameramen had to
overcome, all the shots are clear,
interesting in nature, and thrill-
ing in their unplanned sequence.

Such a record has high value
for the future.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

CHALLENGE TO HOLLYWOOD.
March of Time. British Motion-Picture
Rivalry. Recommended.

A new McD'ch of Time pres-
entation sets forward the chal-
lenge that British motion-pic-
ture producers are now making
to Hollywood in an effort to gain
a goodly share of the world’s
motion-picture market. For
many years British motion-pic-
ture stars, such as Noel Cow-
ard, Ronald Colman, Ida Lupino,
Charles Laughton, and C. Au-
brey Smith, have aided materi-
ally the success of United States
films. Now the British producers
propose to challenge the suprem-
acy of Hollywood. With almost
unequalled financial backing, J.
Arthur Rank, controlling hun-
dreds of motion-picture houses
in England, proposes to extend
British films throughout the
world. With such lavish produc-
tions as G. B. Shaw’s Caesar and
Cleopatra a n d Shakespeare’s
Henry U British films will ap-
peal to lovers of literature as
well as to the general public.

THE SPIDER. Detective melodrama.
20th-Fox. Robert Webb, Director, Rec-
ommended.

Some eighteen years ago a bi-
zarre stage-play. The Spidei', by
Fulton Oursler and Lowell Bren-
tano, thrilled New York audi-
ences and ushered in a series of
melodramatic mystery plays.
Made now into a motion picture
play, The Spider has lost much
of its gripping interest and has
become a detective melodrama.
The significance of the title,
made startlingly prominent in
the stage-play, hardly appears
at all in the motion-picture pres-
entation.

A series of murders, an ama-
teur detective (Richard Conte),
a mysterious young woman
(Faye Marlowe), and a mind-
reading magician form central
points in the story.

Informed that her sister had
been murdered some time be-
fore, an actress appeals to a pri-
vate detective whom her infor-
mer had named. That person’s
investigations involve him in
suspicion of the crimes. In fact,
the detective does act with a
very high hand, indeed, trans-
porting a corpse, entering a
room officially sealed by the po-
lice, breaking jail, and in many
ways flouting authorities.

Lacking the mystic symbolism
of the stage play, The Spider has
all the virtues and all the faults
of motion-picture detective stor-
ies.

MASQUERADE IN MEXICO. Comedy.
Paramount. Mitchell Leisen. Director.

Dorothy Lamour and Arturo
de Cordova lead in an elabor-
ately produced film story of in-
trigue and social life in the home
of a rich banker in Mexico. On
her plane trip to Mexico, Dor-
othy Lamour, as a night club
entertainer, discovers that she
has been led to carry a stolen
diamond for which police auth-
orities are looking. She slips the
diamond into the pocket of a fel-
low-passenger and thereby sets
in motion a long series of amus-
ing events. All of her own money
having been stolen, she finds
herself arriving in Mexico in
penniless condition, and then
surprisingly provided with every
luxury. She accepts employment
to pose as a Spanish Countess
and make love to a bull fighter
as a means of luring him away
from a rich man’s wife.

The motion-picture story
gains its title from the fact that
in the picturesque old monastery
in which the banker lives the
hostess prepares a masquerade
party. This serves to introduce
colorful costuming, a great deal
of lovely music, special scenic
sets and unique dancing. All
this, with a slender thread of

romantic story running through
it, makes pleasant entertainment
of a somewhat sophisticated na-
ture.

ROAD TO UTOPIA. Satirical Farce.
Paramount. Hal Walker, Director.

Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and
Dorothy Lamour, somewhat as-
sisted by Robert Benchley, play
high jinks in a series of ridic-
ulous events supposed to take
place in Alaska. Like Charlie
Chaplin’s “Klondike” farce of
years ago (The Gold Rimh) , this
new absurdity shows heavily-
bearded, fierce “bad men,” im-
mense precipices down which
everyone seems about to slide,
prowling bears, mad episodes
w i t h dog sledges, confused
scenes in frontier dance-halls
and all the other paraphernalia
of gold-mining Alaska.

Robert Benchley, as an en-
tirely needless narrator, in-
trudes now and then into the
picture and comments upon its
events as if he were a show-
man exhibiting the scenes. Bing
Crosby and Bob Hope likewise
“kid” the picture and increase
the satire. Under these condi-
tions The Road to Utopia ridi-
cules the desperate adventures
and miraculous escapes shown in
pictures of many years ago.

Not a grain of sense in it, to
be sure, but if one wants non-
sense here it is.

PEOPLE ARE FUNNY. Satirizing Radio
Progroms. Paramount. Sam White, Di-
rector.

Persons who like the slap-
stick “truth or consequences”
types of radio programs, and the
orchestras that prefer blare
rather than melody, perhaps
may enjoy People Are Funny.
The story concerns the develop-
ment of an audience-participa-
tion radio show, and rivalry to
obtain a radio contract.

-lack Haley, Helen Walker,
Rudy Vallee, Ozzie Nelson, and

January 1 946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Philip Reed carry the principal
parts in the somewhat confused
story.

WHISTLE STOP. Melodroma. United
Artists. Leonide Moguy, Director.

Old-time melodrama, replete
with plotting, double-crossing
and murder, comes to the fore in
Whistle Stop, a story of under-
world life in a small town at
which trains stop only on signal.

George Raft and Victor Mc-
Laglen, the one as a town ne’er-
do-well and the other as an ex-
convict bartender, play their
rough parts well, but in so do-
ing they do not elevate the tone
of the film story. Even Ava
Gardner, as the youthful lead-
ing woman of the story, carries
the role of a young person whose
past in Chicago is hinted at but
not explained.

Whatever realism Whistle
Stop has is coarse in conception
and highly melodramatic in na-
ture.

DOLL FACE. Musical comedy. 20th
Century-Fox. Lewis Seiler, Director. For
adults.

Obviously founded upon the
life-story of a certain burlesque
queen who made the story of her
career a best-selling book of the
day, Doll Face tells about the
ambitions and the success of a
girl of the Gayety Follies. Inci-
dentally, perhaps for the benefit
of those persons who never see
burlesque, the motion picture
shows something of the nature
of the stage and the audience in
a burlesque house.

Vivian Blaine, as the dancer
and singer called “Doll Face,”
has sufficient personal charm to
carry the part well. As a foil to
her. Carmen Miranda, with her
Latin ways and forceful person-
ality, adds piquancy to the story.

Dennis O’Keefe, as Mike Han-
nigan, manager of a burlesque
show, finding that up-town
stage-managers will not accept a

singer from a down-town gayety
theater, seeks what he calls “cul-
ture,” and engages a rich, mar-
riageable, and wholly unattached
young author to ghost-write the
life of “Doll Face.” This he does
so successfully that he wins an
up-town stage for the lady and
all but gains for himself a wife.

The story is well and pleas-
antly acted and, in spite of con-
cerning the burlesque, is gener-
ally free from offense.

ADDITIONAL REVIEWS

THE ROAD TO UTOPIA. Comedy.
Paramount'. Hoi Walker, Director. Highly
recommended for all.

This gay and amusing comedy
makes us realize how much we
have been missing those “Road”
pictures for the last few years.
Bob Hope and Bing Crosby are
still the perfect comedy team
supplying just the right blend
of humor and musical romance.
This time, the scene is laid in
Alaska, during the Gold Rush
days, and the heroes get involved
in a fast and furious plot con-
cerning gold mines, lost maps,
cruel villains, and helpless hero-
ines. The story never takes itself
seriously, many of the gags and
comedy situations are hilariously
funny (watch for the “Put It
There, Pal” and the bear se-
quences), and the direction
keeps the plot moving at a fast
pace. Dorothy Lamour is again
the heroine, and one may call
her and the team of Hope and
Crosby a perfect blending. We
may well hope that “Road” pic-
tures will never come to the end
of their road.

— EMILY FREEMAN

CORNERED. Melodrama. RKO Radio.
Edward Dmyf-ryk, Director. Recommended.

In Cornered, the new Dick
Powell roars on to new deeds of
derring-do. Battling sophisti-
cated, slimy, and cold villains of

an Eric Ambler thriller with the
headlong foolhardiness of his
first detective role in Murder,
My Sweet, Powell, a discharged
RCAF officer, grimly trails a
reportedly dead collaborationist
killer from post-war France to
effetely corrupt Buenos Aires, in
order to revenge the murder of
his wife. By dint of luck,
hunches, pig-headedness, a n d
sheer courage, he finds his man
and kills him. The photography,
politics, settings, and acting are
all superior, and the suspense is
tensely maintained throughout.
Good, clean, exciting adventure
with a dash of anti-fascism and
a hint of new implacable Monte
Cristo, out for vengeance. Defi-
nitely, a superior film.

— JULIUS C. BERNSTEIN

BECAUSE OF HIM. Comedy drama
wiHi songs. Universal. Richard Wallace,
Director. Recommended.

What this picture lacks in plot
imagination is redeemed by the
fine performances of Deanna
Durbin and Charles Laughton. It
is the story of a girl who pre-
fers the theatrical stage to the
public kitchen, and by the ruses
of an autograph on a letter of
recommendation manages to get
a chance to display her talent.
Of course, her apartment is too
luxurious and she bursts into
song without sufficient provoca-
tion, and yet Because of Hun is
good entertainment.

Whatever the pretext. Miss
Durbin’s songs are melodious
and warm and the proper type
for her gifts. She portrays her
role with understanding and
truth. As for Charles Laughton,
it is not always easy to tell when
he is acting and when mugging,
but since the role as “John Sher-
idan” calls for both — and he
does both to perfection — his por-
trayal is delightfully spiced with
chuckles and sympathy.

— HELEN E. WINTER

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

' VARIETY'S" MINIATURE REVIEWS OF
FORTHCOMING FILMS

The drama's laics the di-aiua's patrons (jive.

For those who live to please mast please to live.

— SAMUEL JOHNSON

The chief criterion applied by
Variety in these estimates of
forthcoming films is the com-
mercial value of the offering.
Compare these evaluations with
those of educators like Dr. Fred-
erick Houk Law as a basis for
stimulating g r o u p discussion
and appreciation of film values.

"Variety's" Miniature Reviews
December 5, 1945

“Road to Utopia” (Par). Wacky
and fast Crosby-Hope-Lamour release
in the “Road” series, fourth to date.
Big b.o.

“Masquerade In Me.xico” (Pai).
Fair story made okay by fine act-
ing work of Dorothy Lainour, Ann
Dvorak, Arturo de Cordova.

“A Letter for Pivie” (M-G). Neat
comedy-drama with familiar cast of
names for twin-bill bookings.

“P>ontier Gal” (Color) (U). Lusty
western feature satire in Technicolor.
Stout b.o. possibilities.

“Tokyo Rose” (Par). Well-paced ac-
tion drama about the femme Jap piop-
aganda radio announcer, looks okay
for b.o.

“House of Dracula” (U). A money
horror opus combining U’s Dracula,
the Wolf man and Frankenstein Mon-
ster.

“An Angel Comes to Brooklyn”
(Musical) (Rep). Fairly diverting mu-
sical programmer.

“White Pongo” (PRC). Poorly-exe-
cuted jungle meller; weak b.o.

“Rake's Progress” (Eagle-Lion).
Rex Harrison, Lilli Palmer in Biitish
production likely to go over strongly
in America.

"Variety's" Miniature Reviews
December 12, 1945

“Miss Susie Slagle’s” (Par). Drama
of medical students with average box-
office outlook.

“Prison Ship” (Col). Secondary
melodrama about Jap atrocities; okay
dualer.

“Pillow of Death” (U). Program
murder mystery, okay for supporting
brackets and chiller fans.

“South of the Rio Grande” (Dlono).
Cisco Kill in a standardized western;
okay for the action fans.

“Along the Navajo Trail” (Songs)
(Rep). Newest Roy Rogers western
an OK b.o. entry.

“Nais” (Gaumont). Fernandel in
Marcel Pagnor adaptation of Emile
Zola novel; has some possibilities for
American market.

“Rome, Open City” (Minerva Film).
Italy’s first bid for post-war foreign
market; looks extremely mild entry
for U. S.

“Peach Blossom” (Grovas). Mc.xi-
can-made boasts Fernando Soler, Es-
ther Fernandez. Has some U. S. the-
atre possiliilities.

“Johansson Gets Scolded” (Swe-
dish). Dull importation; weak b.o.

“Pink String and Sealing Max”
(Eagle-Lion). Fable of Victorian pe-
riod in England not likely to mean
much in U. S.

"Variety's" Miniature Reviews
December 19, 1945

“Adventure” (M-G). Clark Gable,
Greer Garson, Joan Blondell, Thomas
Mitchell in smash love story; big biz
and long runs.

“Doll Face” (Musical) (20th). Rou-
tine filmusical about burlesk queen
that will do better in the nabes.

“Dick Tracy” (RKO). Fast action
meller based on comic strip of same
name for supporting spots.

“The Crime Doctor’s Warning”
(Col). Warner Baxter in a good who-
dunit, okay for the family trade.

‘AVoman "Who Came Back” (Re))).
Horror melodrama, sturdy fare for
chiller trade.

“Strange Voyage” (Signal). Okay

first venture for ex-serviceman film
company- Shapes up as supporting
material in action houses.

“The Strange Mr. Gregory” (Mono).
Satisfactory meller for duals.

“Frontier Feud” (Mono). First-rate
western starring Johnny Mack Brown.

“Girl M'ith Grey Eyes” (Minerva).
French-made given no chance in
America despite Fernand Ledou.x’s
fine performance.

"Variety's" Miniature Reviews
December 26, 1945

“Voice of the M'histler” (Col). So-
so whodunit of its type.

“The Tiger AVoman” (Rep). Fair
murder meller fare.

“Lightning Raiders” (PRC). Buster
Crabbe, A1 St. John in an okay wes-
tern.

“It Happened at the Inn” (Metro-
Int’l). French-made comedy-drama
outstanding; strong boxoffice at arty
theatres.

“Once There AVas a Girl” (Russian-
made) (Artkino). Moving story but
slow and not for average U. S. audi-
ence despite English titles.

"Variety's" Miniature Reviews
January 2, 1946

“Caesar and Cleopatra” (Eagle-
Lion). Pascal’s (Rank) Shavian epic
disappointing despite opulence.

“The Harvey Girls” (Musical;
Color) (M-G). OK filmusical with
Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Ray Bol-
ger, certain for big b.o.

“Leave Her to Heaven,” (Techni-
color) (2()th). Lush color values and
highly exploitable theme geared for
heavy femme trade.

“Scarlet Street” (Diana-U). Okay
b.o. melodrama with same lead trio
that headed “Woman In Window”
(RKO) last season.

“The Sailor Takes a AA'ife” (MG).
Smooth comedy about young love,

Jortuory, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

based on stage play. B.o. outlook good.

“Up Goes Maisie” (MG). Typical
“Maisie” comedy with plenty of
laughs.

“One Way To Love” (Col). Fair
comedy that should do okay.

“Snafu” (Col). Uninspired screen
version of last year’s legiter.

“I Ring Doorbells” (PRC). Mild
melodrama for the dual situations.

“The Red Dragon” (Mono) (Song).
Dull Charlie Chan whodunit.

“Allotment Wives, Inc.” (Mono).
Good cast in fair meller.

“Trojan Brothers” (Angl-Am.).
British-made comedy looks mild for
U. S.; lacks names for marquee.

“The Old Clock at Roenneberga”
(Swedish). Well produced Svensk pie,
but too long.

"Variety's" Miniature Reviews
January 9, 1946

“My Reputation” (WB). Psycholo-
gical drama should do well with
femme trade.

“Whistle Stop” (UA). George Raft
and Victor McLaglen command mar-
quee attention in this heavy meller.

“Because of Him” (Songs) (U).
Deanna Durbin, Laughton, Tone, in
good comedy for lush returns.

“The Spiral Staircase” (RKO).
Smart murder thriller, with Dorothy
McGuire, George Brent, Ethel Barry-
more.

“Abilene Town” (Songs). (Levey-
UA). Randolph Scott, Ann Dvorak in
spectacular western meller; strong
b.o.

“A Week’s Leave” (Minerva). Ital-
ian-made love story not good for
U. S.; a glorified tour of Rome.

RCA Victor Extends
Visual Activities

Expansion of the Education
and Training Division of RCA
Victor, in line with the com-
pany’s extended activities in the
manufacture and sale of equip-
ment for audio-visual education
and personnel training, is an-
nounced by Frank M. Folsom,
Executive Vice President in
charge of RCA Victor.

Dr. Forrest H. Kirkpatrick,
Dean of Bethany College, will
act as Director of School and

College Relations. Paul R.
Thornton, closely associated
with the development of music
programs in schools and colleges
since he joined RCA Victor in
1940, will continue as Sales and
Merchandising Manager.

In each of the RCA Victor re-
gional offices, educational field
directors have been appointed to
serve schools, colleges, and uni-
versities.

RCA Victor recently intro-
duced a new 16mm projector for
schools, colleges, churches, com-
mercial establishments, and civic
groups.

Other audio-visual aids which
RCA Victor plans to make avail-
able for the educational and in-
dustrial fields are sound sys-
tems, EM and AM transmitters
and receivers, television receiv-
ers and transmitters, classroom
“Victrolas,” magnetic and disc
recording equipment, RCA Elec-
tron Microscopes, electron tubes,
and RCA Victor records.

First- Permanent- Educational
Series in Television

The first permanent series of
educational television broadcasts
will be inaugurated by the Na-
tional Broadcasting Company in
New York, April 7, under the
supervision of John F. Royal,
NBC vice-president in charge of
television.

A feature of the series will be
its use by the New York City
Board of Education as an exper-
iment in student utilization. Ti-
tled Your World Tomorrotv, the
weekly educational series will be
produced with the cooperation
of the NBC University of the
Air, directed by Sterling Fisher.
It will deal with the fields of
physical sciences and will keep
students in touch with outstand-
ing developments in these fields.
Among the subjects for early
telecasts will be "The Mighty

Atom,” an explanation of atomic
fission and potential uses of
atomic power; “Jet Propulsion,”
and “Huff-Duff, the Radio De-
tective.” As television network
facilities develop, the programs
will visit the nation’s capital to
bring viewers scenes from the
Smithsonian Institution. Other
cities may also be visited to tap
the scientific resources of lab-
oratories and museums.

In order to test the effective-
ness of the programs from an
educational standpoint, the New
York City Board of Education
will bring groups of students
each week to NBC’s viewing-
room to witness the telecasts.
Questionnaires will be provided
to enable students to analyze
their reactions. These will be
turned over to NBC for use as
a basis for improvement in pro-
gram content and techniques.

Programs will be kept highly
flexible. Some may consist of
u n u s u a 1 laboratory demon-
strations by leading scientists,
others are expected to combine
with such demonstrations the
use of drama for historical back-
ground. In still other instances,
programs will rely upon special
events and field pickups by
NBC television’s mobile equip-
ment. Extracts from educational
motion pictures will also be used
from time to time.

One of the difficulties in the
development of this important
science series was the problem of
finding writers who have broad
scientific knowledge combined
with knowledge of radio and tel-
evision media. To this end, NBC
has obtained the services of Dr.
Joseph Mindel of the science de-
partment of William Howard
Taft High School, who is a sci-
ence writer for such radio pro-
grams as “Cavalcade of Amer-
ica.”

The new series will be telecast
from 2 ;30 to 3 :30 P. M.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

THE PLAY'S THE THING

FLORA RHETA SCHREIBER

"State of the Union"

Howard Lindsay and Paussel
Crouse are a play-writing team
with which to reckon. Not that
they are great writers or pro-
found writers, but because they
combine sincerity of conviction
with smart showmanship — an
admirable mixture.

Stripped to its essentials, their
State of the JJyiion is just a se-
ries of gags, but the gags spring
from sound observation of the
contemporary scene and at their
best rise to fine social satire.
Emotionally, however, the play
is sterile. There simply are no
peaks in the play’s structure.
The wit is all on one plane. If
you enjoy this kind of thing, you
would enjoy it whether you came
in during the first act or not un-
til the last act, just as you en-
joy a cartoon on page 11 of your
favorite magazine whether or
not you’ve seen the cartoon on
page 4.*

The story is about a successful
airplane manufacturer, G r a n t
klatthews, who is groomed by
the politicoes for the Presidency,
and about how, resisting their
persuasion, he finally gets out of
hand and stands up for what he
believes. His mistress — also mis-
tress of a large newspaper syndi-
cate— wants him to be presi-
dent ; his wife wants him to come
home and keep his convictions
untarnished. This struggle be-
tween the wife and the mi.stress

"'The episodic type of story-con-
struction is well suited to the needs of
the screen. The movie habits of U. S.
audiences make it necessary to break
stories down, so that people may pick
up the story at any point. — EDITOR’S
NOTE.

Flora Rheta Schreiber

is an ironic one, for in the very
act of promoting Grant for the
presidency, the mistress loses
him. If he is to be presidential
timber, he must appear to be
happily married, the politicoes
argue. While the play opens with
Grant estranged from his wife,
it ends with a reconciliation in-
advertently promoted by the mis-
tress. “Politics makes strange
bedfellows,’’ a line in the play,
is patly apropos. The love story,
dealing with the old theme of a
wife who makes the decisions for
her husband while shrewdly
making it seem as if he is mak-
ing his own decisions, is remin-
iscent of What Everij Womaa
Knows.

Ralph Bellamy, with that spe-
cial combination of urbanity and
forthrightness that generally
characterizes his acting, is a con-
vincing Grant. Ruth Hussey, as
his wife, gives a clearly con-
ceived and brilliantly executed
performance. The rest of the
company, including Kay John-
son as the calculating publisher-

mistress, Myron McCormick as
a cynical publicity man. Minor
Watson as a veteran politician
give crisp performances. Bre-
taigne Windust’s direction is as
usual smooth, well-paced, and
knowing.

"The Rugged Path"

It is five years since Robert
Sherwood, who has himself fig-
ured in the newspaper dis-
patches of the recent war, has
had a new play produced. And
it is fifteen years since Spencer
Tracy, then appearing in The
Last Mile, has acted in a Broad-
way play. The Playwrights’
Company’s production of Sher-
wood’s The Rugged Path, with
Tracy in the lead, should there-
fore be something of an event.
The truth is, however, that the
audience is pretty well let down.
Tracy gives an easy and sincere
performance, and Sherwood is
writing sincerely of a man of
good will, whose dream of Amer-
ica can be realized only in the
purgatory of World War II. But
sincerity in itself is not enough
to make a provocative evening
in the theater. The play is form-
less, thin, lacking in verisimili-
tude and in psychological moti-
vation. At times it has eloquence
— an undramatic, static elo-
quence, but eloquence for all
that. At other times it is embar-
rassingly hackneyed, as in the
final scene in which an old
Negro attendant in the White
House says, “We all got to keep
the spirit of our forefathers
alive.’’

Like J. M. Patterson’s The
Fourth Estate and Elliott Nu-
gent’s A Place Of Our Own, Mr.

January, 1 946

Sherwood’s play is about a news-
paper editor. Morey Vinson, the
editor, is a liberal in conflict
with the reactionary publisher
of the newspaper for which he
works. When, after the Nazi in-
vasion, Morey comes out for aid
to Russia, there is a showdown
between Morey and his boss.
Morey quits and joins the Navy.
Over-age for combat service,
smarting at the idea of being as-
signed to a desk, he is sent as
cook on a destroyer to the Pa-
cific. The destroyer is sunk, but
Morey escapes and makes his
way to a small island held by
American and Filipino guerril-
las. He turns down the chance to
return home on a submarine,
preferring to fight and die with
the guerrillas.

Spencer Tracy makes a valiant
attempt to humanize a part that
is essentially a point of view
rather than a character. Martha
Sleeper, who plays Morey’s wife,
walks through the play without
once making her presence felt.
Clay Clement as the colonel and
Laurence Fletcher as the news-
paper’s business manager play
stock characters effectively for
stock characters. Capt. Carson
Kanin’s direction is clean cut.

The Reader's Theater

The newly organized Readers
Theater is worthy of your atten-
tion. It is the purpose of this
new group to present readings of
great plays.

The opening performance was
of Oedipus Rex. And let me tell
you that the Frank Sinatra
bobby sockers and the cultivated
devotees of Euripedes have a
great deal in common. You
would know what I mean if you
saw the mad, wild, hysterical
scramble for tickets in the lobby
of the Majestic. One woman in
what started as a qu^ue la-
mented in choric fashion : “Ami
these people consider themselves

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

intellectuals!”

The reading itself was unfor-
tunately not equal in zest to the
demonstration that heralded it.
The technique, part reading,
part acting, was hybrid. In a
reading the problem of the actor
is to create an illusion, an illu-
sion that gains in effectiveness
because the emotion and the
meaning are unhindered by ex-
ternal factors. But in this case
the actors moved around and
gestured so that they broke the
continuity of words, images and
sensation.

Tozere, who read Oedipus,
was too cold in the early part of
the reading. He achieved inten-
sity of emotion only at the end,
when he faced the horrible, shat-
tering revelation of how he could
not escape his destiny of killing
his father and marrying his
mother. Blanche Yurka was an
impressive but mannered Jo-
casta.

"The Secret Room"

Within the last decade Robert
Turney wrote a play called
Daughters of Atreus, which
failed to get critical approval or
meet the public taste. And yet it
was a play that had poetic in-
sight and considerable dramatic
power, so that when a new play
by Mr. Turney was announced,
I looked forward to it with en-
thusism.

The Secret Room is the new
play, and again there are mo-
ments of penetration and beauty.
But this time the moments are
rare. The story is of a woman
whose mind has been deranged
by imprisonment in Dachau and
by compulsory prostitution un-
der the Gestapo. An old physi-
cian has brought her to America
to be cured by a brilliant young
psychiatrist. She comes to live
in the ])sychiatrist’s home as a
comi)anion to his children. A
curious choice for a companion,

but at the time the choice is
made the psychiatrist does not
know the history of the case.
Very soon after coming to live
with the psychiatrist’s family,
this woman commits one mur-
der, attempts another, and dis-
turbs the whole household in
every conceivable way.

This story of a frenzied, des-
perate woman could have been
a good one, but Mr. Turney
muffed his opportunity. His se-
lection of incidents is faulty, and
his plot is fraught with incon-
sistencies of structure and be-
havior. In addition, the play is
interspersed with corny gags.
Obviously, what happened is
that the esoteric Daughters of
Atreus got its author nowhere,
and he decided to catch the pub-
lic taste this time, no matter
how. The attempt was clumsy
and resulted in a betrayal of Mr.
Turney’s better judgment. So in-
consistent, so unreal was the
play, and incidentally much of
the acting as well, that at times
the otherwise indifferent audi-
ence actually grew contemptu-
ous and burst into unrestrained
laughter.

It may be just a hunch or
cussedness in clinging to an in-
itial impression, but I still feel
that Mr. Turney could turn out
a viable play if he’d relax and
write without an inhibiting self-
consciousness.

"Home is the Hunter"

The American Negro Theatre
has a brief but proud record of
play production. Its Anna Lu-
casta, for instance, was not only
successful in Harlem; it has also
been playing for a long time
to appreciative downtown audi-
ences and a roadshow company
has met with great success.
Home Is The Hunter, by Sam-
uel M. Kootz, the newest offer-
ing of the ANT, however, mai’ks
an anti-climax. The new play is
Continued on Page 45

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

EDUCATING THE EMOTIONS

BY ROGER W. BABSON
(Reprinted from the Atlanta Journal)

Some years ago, a few farsee-
ing educational leaders were
convinced that moving pictures
had great possibilities in con-
nection with the public schools.
They thereupon urged certain
concerns to make “educational”
films. These concerns have done
a good job and these films are
being used today successfully in
many schools and colleges. They,
however, teach only history, sci-
ence and certain other factual
subjects, without developing the
character of the child.

By “character” I mean his
purposes, habits, and desires. As
every modern psychologist
knows — character is the big
thing for which the public
schools should aim. Yet, we turn
this very technical task over to
plumbers, storekeepers, and poli-
ticians to solve. Top-notch edu-
cational e.xperts tell me that the
answer lies with properly di-
rected emotional visual educa-
tion.

Study Your Own Children

I have a bunch of grandchil-
dren. Incidentally, I believe that
good healthy grandchildren, who
love to work and have been
taught to pray, are the best in-
flation hedges which any man
can have. Naturally, I want
them “educated” in addition.
But here is what troubles me.
One of my grandchildren is a
girl 12 years old. She has little
interest in her school work ex-
cept the games which she is
taught to play. Yet, at home she
is “glued,” most of the time, to
the radio. Like other kids, she
is crazy to go to the movies. She
knows the names of all the lead-
ing movie and broadcasting ac-

Roger W. Babson

tors. She especially likes the
movie and radio dramas. Upon
checking with neighborhood par-
ents, I find that their children
measure up about the same.

Schools Must Go Drama

Some eld maids reading this
column will say that young chil-
dren should not be allowed to go
to the movies or listen to these
radio “bedtime” features. Oth-
ers blame the inefficiency of the
public schools on the home and
pass the buck back to the
parents. What is the answer?
Should the children be forbid-
den to listen to these radio dra-
mas and attend the run of mov-
ies or shall the public school
adojot more visual emotional ed-
ucation while still retaining dis-
cipline?

Frankly, our present educa-
tional system must be amended.

The school committees — backed
up by the publishers of text-
books— are forcing children to
drive “horses and buggies” in an
automobile and airplane era.
Unless the public schools are to
turn the real education of our
children over to the commercial
movie and broadcasting com-
panies, then schools must in-
stall more visual education and
drama. Otherwise, the public
schools will gradually become a
waste of time and money.

What Will Television Do?

All of the above is true with-
out any consideration of what
will happen to our children when
television gets into every home.
Considering the present influ-
ence on the child’s character of
going to the movies only once or
twice a week, what will happen
when television operates in all
homes all of every evening?
Really the situation is very se-
rious.

I am making no appeal for the
movies, or radio. I sometimes
wish neither had ever been in-
vented. Moreover, I am much
opposed to “babying” or “amus-
ing” children. Schools should not
engage in any appeasement pro-
gram. I even believe that the
bamboo stick and black walnut
ruler should be restored as a
part of the public school system.
My appeal is merely this : The
first purpose of the schools, af-
ter teaching the “3 R’s,” should
be to awakev children intellectu-
allij and spirituaUij. The best
way to accomplish this may be
to scrap much of the present
school system and institute more
carefully selected, both factual
and emotional, visual education.

A scene in the MGM International film
"The Last Chance," produced
in Switzerland.

THE LAST CHANCE. Multi-lingual
drama of refugees. Leopold Lindtberg,
Director. Produced in Switzerland by
Lazar Wechsler. MGM International.
Highly recommended.

Everyone speaks his own lan-
guage in The Last Chance, prob-
ably the most cosmopolitan
picture ever filmed. The num-
ber of languages heard in it adds
up to half a dozen. English, of
course, is the predominating
tongue, but there are respectable
slices of Italian, French, Yid-
dish, German, and Dutch.

Based on the novel by Richard
Schweizer, The Last Chance tells
the story of a group of people
who, though they come from
widely diversified origins, find
that they are all seeking the
same goal — to get out of Italy

and away from the Nazis —
across the Swiss border to free-
dom. The picture was produced
in Switzerland by Lazar Wech-
sler and acquired by MGM In-
ternational Films Corporation
for release throughout the
United States.

The languages in The Last
Chance come easily and natur-
ally to their speakers. There is,
for example, a German professor
in the film for whom the only
thing with meaning in life is
that he be allowed to finish his
book. The role is portrayed by
Rudolf Kaempf, a real German
professor. The roles of a Jewish
tailor from Poland and his niece,
Chanele, are played actually by
a Jewish tailor from Poland,

Maurice Sakhnowsky, and his
niece, Berthe. Carlo Romatko, a
laborer from Yugoslavia, is
seen in the role of a Yugoslav
worker, and Gertrudten Cate, a
woman from Holland, portrays
a woman from Holland.

The leading roles are those of
two British officers and an
American sergeant. The story
starts with their escape from
the Nazis as they are being
transported to a prison camp in
Germany. The parts are played
by E. G. Morrison and John
Hoy, a Major and a Lieutenant
in the British army, who them-
selves escaped into Switzerland
after being captured by the Ger-
mans in Italy. Sergeant Brad-
dock is portrayed by Ray Rea-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

gan, a young flyer from Cam-
den, New Jersey, who was in-
terned in Switzerland after a
forced landing in his Flying
Fortress.

The Last Chance was directed
by Leopold Lindtberg, who pic-
tured the trials and adventures
of this highly cosmopolitan
group with extraordinary real-
ism and suspense. Some of them
have escaped from brutal con-
centration camps : some have
managed to elude the Nazi death
ovens : others, after wandering
across Europe, find themselves
in Nazi-controlled Italy; still
others, such as the British and
American soldiers, are military
escapees. They come together
from many different places and
sometimes have difficulty under-
standing each other. But in the
crucible of their anti-fascism
and their search for freedom,
they achieve an indissoluble
unity.

Stereoscopic Movies

Under the pressures of war-
time technology, inventors have
been at work on a variety of im-
provements for motion pictures,
designed to achieve better color
and stereoscopic depth.

The Soviet film industry be-
lieves it has achieved three-di-
mensional images in the inven-
tion of Semeon Ivanov. In an in-
terview in Moscow he said that
Russians instinctively d o d g e
when airplanes or birds come at
them on the screen in pictures
filmed by his process. The world
will have to await completion
of Robi)iso)i Crusoe, now in pro-
duction by Mosfilm, to judge
whether this long-sought effect,
obtainable with dual still pic-
tures held close to the eyes, can
now be projected on a screen.

The Russian method is re-
ported to be a variation of the
grid pr(;cess, by which two im-

ages are projected on the screen
simultaneously and are broken
up into closely spaced bands by a
grid or grating near the screen.
This grating also serves as the
selective viewing means.

Three other stereoscopic sys-
tems are now being developed.
The Anaglyph method employs
complementary colors with indi-
vidual viewers. The Polarized
Light method involves the use of
polarizing viewers in which the
axis of polarizing of one eye-
piece is crossed with the axis of
the other.

A balanced-lens optical sys-
tem, using single-image photog-
raphy and standard projection
equipment, has been developed
by Stephen E. Garutso. With
practically unlimited focal depth,
from 40 inches to infinity, this
optical balance is said to give
the illusion of a third dimension.

Captured by our army from
the Germans, and now the prop-
erty of the Alien Property Cus-
todian, is a new negative-posi-
tive Agfacolor film developed by
I. G. Farben Industries of Wol-
fen, Germany.

Brifannica Films Enter
World Market

Dr. Theodore M. Switz has
been appointed vice-president in
charge of overseas sales for En-
cyclopaedia Britannica Films
Inc., E. H. Powell, president, has
announced.

Dr. Switz has been in Europe
attending visual-education con-
ferences in England, Switzer-
land, and Sweden.

Dr. Switz will be responsible
for the world-wide distribution
of classroom films produced by
the film company. Many of the
500 teaching films are available
in Spanish, Portuguese, French,
Afrikaans, Chinese, T u r k i s h,
a n d Arabic. Foreign sound
tracks are in production for

many more titles and in other
languages.

“We believe that in a world
grown small, every nation is ‘the
family across the way’ — and its
peoples are our neighbors,” Mr.
Powell said. “Whether or not we
remain good neighbors depends
upon how well we understand
one another.

“In no way can interest in
these world neighbors of ours —
and their interest in us — be so
dramatically and completely sat-
isfied as through the medium of
the authentic classroom film.
Pictures speak a universal lan-
guage. The classroom film is the
closest approach to a basis for
complete and mutual under-
standing— without bias or spe-
cial pleading.”

British Films

Thomas Baird, Director of the
Film Division, British Infor-
mation Services, has announced
that the Division’s 16mm films
would be re-classified into his-
torical and current pictures. For
historical films dealing with war
subjects, an archive will be set
up in New York, where they may
be obtained for reference pur-
poses.

At the same time, Mr. Baird
pointed out, a number of histori-
cal films, such as Desert Victory,
V-1, Operation Pluto, and Oper-
ation Fido, cannot yet be rele-
gated to the shelves because they
remain in constant demand.
These will be continued in gen-
eral circulation because they are
great war pictures and exam-
ples of fine film making.

Current films from Britain
now fall into three categories :
rehabilitation, reconstruction,
and projects for the peace. Un-
der the first come pictures like
Ptack to Normal, Life Pegins
Again, and Psychiatry in Action.
Films on reconstruction include

Jonuory, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Naples Is a. Battlefield, Stricken
Peninsula, and French Toivn.
Such pictures as Power for the
Highlands, Netv Buildings, and
A City Rehorn all deal with
peacetime projects. There are
also excellent films on South
Africa, New Zealand, and others
from the British Common-
wealth, while a new picture. The
Story of D.D.T., is arousing in-
terest both in the theatrical and
16mm fields.

All British Information Serv-
ices films are distributed at
nominal service rates and may
be obtained from Film Officers
in New York, Chicago, Holly-
wood, San Francisco, and Wash-
ington, D. C., and from a num-
ber of British Consulates.

AMPAS Film for Schools and
Colleges

The Academy of Motion Pic-
ture Arts and Sciences is spon-
soring a documentary film show-
ing all steps in producing a pic-
cure. Jean Hersholt, president
of the Academy, has appointed
Dore Schary to produce. The
picture will be shown for the
first time at the Academy
awards ceremonies at the Chi-
nese Theatre, Hollywood, in
March, and will be supplied in
16mm to schools and colleges.

Filmedia Announces "Greater
Victory" in 16mm

The national non-theatrical
release of Greater Victory, a
provocative 22-minute motion
picture on inter-religious good-
will is announced by Filmedia
Corp., 12 East 44th Street, New
York. Produced by United Spe-
cialists, New York, the film fea-
tures a dramatic cast including
Louis Calhern.

Limited theatrical showings
introduced the film in key com-
munities, but Sherman Price,
president of Filmedia, known

for his wartime releases, such as
Fighting the Fire Bomb, with
which he achieved a release of
1800 16mm prints and 1000
3.5mm prints, says : “The influ-
ence on public opinion of wide-
scale non-theatrical film show-
ings, permitting audience par-
ticipation in follow-up discus-
sions, demonstrations, and for-
ums, far outweights the passive
audience reception of theatrical
showings of important films.
What happens when the lights
go on again is what really
counts — the sooner people can
discuss the ideas, hear different
view-points, and in some per-
sonal way become involved in
serious thoughts about the
film’s message, the sooner and
the more successfully they’ll put
those thoughts into action.’’

Mr. Price has devised a new
tool to stimulate and guide these
audience-participation activities
in the form of a 3 x 4 inch 40-
page booklet called a “Filmtext.”
One of these is being released
with each major film distributed
through Filmedia. The “Film-
text’’ for Greater Victory opens
with statements about America’s
problems of inter-group unity
by Supreme Court Justice Frank
Murphy, Eddie Cantor, Dr.
Ralph W. Sockman, Archbishop
Richard J. Cushing, and Rabbi
Herbert Goldstein. The intro-
duction, by Dr. Everett R.
Clinchy, President of The Na-
tional Conference of Christians
and Jews, which co-operated in
the production of the film, says,
“The fascist armies have been
defeated. It now remains for us
to defeat their ideas. Our weap-
ons must be better ideas, and a
better spirit. Teamwork, in
peace as in war, will bring us to
the Greater Victory.”

Showing of the film, followed
by discussions based on the
Filmtext, will be held at all types
of places where people meet to

35 YEARS

0 f furnishing entertain-
ment to schools through
lyceum and pictures has
taught us that good service
is very important. We take
pride in good service as well
as good pictures such as ;

— Beyond Tomorrow
— North Star
— Prisoner of Zendo
— Swiss Family Robinson

and many others listed in
our 1946 catalog. If you do
not have your copy yet, a
post card will bring it, free
of course.

Try Dermis Friendly Sendee

DENNIS
FILM BUREAU

Wabash, Indiana

consider serious topics of gen-
eral or special interest. It is ex-
pected that over 20,000,000 peo-
ple will view the film in the non-
theatrical field.

Preview prints of Greater
Victory conveniently located in
40 major cities are available to
local film libraries for private
screening through Filmedia.

The Play's the Thing

Continued from Faye 4l
that most perplexing of all plays
to review — a play whose inten-
tions are worthy but which
nonetheless is an artistic fiasco.
The story is of a returned sol-
dier who has turned sour. He
has turned fascist and has also
grown brutal to his wife. In
spite of a good theme, both exe-
cution a n d production were
downright shallow. I sincerely
wish the American Negro The-
atre, which has just moved into
its own i>ermanent headquar-
ters, better luck in the future.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

HOW WRITERS PERPETUATE
STEREOTYPES

A Digest of Data Prepared for the Writers'

War Board by the Bureau of Applied
Social Research of Columbia University

During the year 1944 the
Writers’ War Board and its
Committee t o Combat Race
Hatred came to the conclusion
that the writers of the United
States, because of their habitual
employment of “stock charac-
ters,” were unconsciously foster-
ing and encouraging group prej-
udice. To investigate the truth
of this conclusion, the Writers’
War Board commissioned Co-
lumbia University’s Bureau of
Applied Social Research to make
a study of the treatment ac-
corded white, Protestant Anglo-
Saxons in mass media as against
the treatment accorded all other
elements of the American popu-
lation. When finally completed,
this research material became
the basis of a performance spon-
sored and staged by the Board
at the Barbizon-Plaza Theatre,
New York, on January 11, 1945.

An invited audience of 600
writers, editors, artists, publish-
ers, broadcasters, advertisers,
and communications technicians
was informed that the constant
repetition of racial stereotypes
was exaggerating and perpetu-
ating the false and mischievous
notion that ours is a white,
Protestant Anglo-Saxon country
in which all other racial stocks
and religious faiths are of lesser
dignity. It was promised that
the Writers’ War Board would
prepare and issue a digest of the
report of the Columbia Univer-
sity Bureau. Here then is that
promised report.

Reprinted by permission of Writers'
War Board.

Short Stories

The Bureau of Applied Social
Research found that racial stere-
otypes were more often, more
intensively, and more offensively
presented in popular light fic-
tion than in any other medium
of entertainment or communica-
tion analyzed.

The Writers’ War Board sug-
gests that the explanation may
lie in the fact that short stories
largely escape professional and
socially conscious criticism of
the kind which tends to restrain
and improve stage, screen, nov-
els. radio, cartoons.

Of magazine fiction the Bu-
reau of Ai)plied Social Research
had this to say generally: “In
frequency of appearance, im-
portance in the story, approval
and disapproval, status and oc-
cupation, and in traits, the An-
glo-Saxons receive better treat-
ment in these .stories than
minority and foreign groups,
both qualitatively and quantita-
tively.

Eight nationally circulated
magazines were selected by the
researchers to provide represen-
tative s h o r t story samples.
These were the Satiodaij Eve-
uiug Post, Collier’s, American,
Cosmopolitan, Woman’s Home
Companion, Ladies’ Home Jour-
nal, True Stori/, and True Con-
fessions. In all, 185 short stories
from the i)re-war year, 1937,
and the war year, 1943, were an-
alyzed. Of 889 identifiable char-
acters 90.8 percent were Anglo-
Saxon (including a fringe of
“Nordics”), whereas only 9.2

percent of the characters were
drawn from all other racial
stocks in the United States.
Only 16 Negroes and 10 Jews
were counted. And where the
authors brought in menials,
racketeers, thieves, gamblers,
shady night club proprietors,
crooked prize fight managers,
such non-.sympathetic charac-
ters were seldom Anglo-Saxon.

Subtle disparagements of mi-
nority characters were noted
throughout the 185 short stor-
ies. To quote the Bureau of Ap-
plied Social Research : “The
overwhelming attention is given
to the Anglo-Saxons. The stage
and si^otlight belong to them.”
They were habitually pictured as
the salt of the earth. Their su-
periority, wealth, and prestige
were usually taken for granted,
whereas in the few instances
where a minority character was
represented as rich or important
the author offered an elaborate
explanation — he had inherited
wealth, married well, worked
hard, been lucky, or come by his
gains through crooked dealings.
Again quoting the Bureau :

“The behavior of these fictional char-
acters could easily be used to ‘prove’
that the Negroes are lazy, the Jews
wily, the Irish superstitious and the
Italians criminal.”

It is true of course that the
bulk of the 185 stories analyzed
were intended only as entertain-
ment and not as socially signifi-
cant writing. This does not di-
minish their contribution to the
Anglo-Saxon myth. Authors lav-
ished approved characteri.stics
upon Anglo-Saxons, but with-

Jonuary, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

held or were niggardly in as-
signing such traits to all others.

Only in connection with mem-
bership in the armed forces did
the short stories published in the
war year of 1943 accord some-
thing like the population parity
to the non-Anglo-Saxons. Short
story writers did at least include
a few Jews, immigrants and
non-Anglo-Saxons in their mili-
tary and naval personnel.

Rank, incidentally, was im-
portant in these stories. Of 58
speaking characters in uniform,
76 percent were pictured as offi-
cers, only 24 percent as enlisted
men.

The research data also reveal
that 42 percent of the fictional
Anglo-Saxon housewives had
maids and other servants,
whereas only 13 percent of the
fictional non-Anglo-Saxon
housewives had servants. Over
and over again the superior-
inferior connotations repeated
themselves in stereotyped dia-
logue and description.

The attitude of both authors
and editors was shown by the
repeated assignment of “heart”
(or sympathetic) motivations to
Anglo-Saxons. They were con-
spicuously concerned with ro-
mantic love, marriage, affection,
emotional security, adventure
for its own sake, patriotism,
idealism, and justice. In contrast
“head” motivations were made
largely typical of minority char-
acters. They showed interest
mostly in money, self-advance-
ment, power, and dominance.

The evidence is clear. Ameri-
can short story writers have
made “nice people” synonymous
with Anglo-Saxons. Such char-
acters were written as intelli-
gent, industrious, esthetic, dem-
ocratic, athletic, practical, frank,
lovable. Granting that popular
fiction seeks a generally amiable
overtone, it was nevertheless

invidiously true that the non-
Anglo-Saxons were usually pic-
tured as the “villains,” domin-
eering, immoral, selfish, unin-
telligent, cowardly, lazy, sly,
cruel, stubborn, non-esthetic,
weak.

The Stage

Under modern conditions the
legitimate stage appears to be
by far the most liberal of all
media of entertainment in avoid-
ance of racial stereotypes on the
one hand and pioneering toward
new and more generous concepts
on the other. Oddly enough, how-
ever, some obnoxious and per-
sistent racial stereotypes have
been popularized in the theater
— notably the “Uncle Tom” type
of Negro, the quarrelsome Jew-
ish business man, and the “stage
Irishman.”

Men to the Sea, while not a
commercial success on Broad-
way, was interesting because
four women shared an apart-
ment while their husbands were
at sea and one of the women was
a Negro. Her presence and color
were taken for granted.

Motion Pictures

The history of films dealing
with Negroes has been streaked
with the record of race protests.
Negro educators like Dr. L. W.
Reddick say that the film indus-
try from its first big picture in
1915 down to very recent times
has consistently disparaged Ne-
groes. As they see the matter,
Dixie-born D. W. Griffith’s film
The Birth of a Nation was
nothing less than a disaster since
it used the screens of the coun-
try to spread a purely Southern
estimate of the Negro. The more
recent Hollywood product Gone
with the Wind is also regretted
because of its glorification of
slave-owners and the whole ster-
eotype of the attractive South-
ern aristocrat.

An analysis of 100 motion pic-
tures involving either “Negro
themes or Negro characters of
more than passing significance”
produced this score :

Stereotyped and disparaging 75
Neutral or unobjectionable 13
Favorable 12

The findings of the Bureau of
Applied Social Research indi-
cated that Hollywood has re-
cently become aware of the ster-
eotype and of the social impact
of gags, lines, situations, and in-
ferences which heretofore were
judged only by the criterion of
amusement. Of late the film stu-
dios have occasionally done bet-
ter. In the Bette Davis film hi
This Our Life, the Negro boy
was exceptionally well written
and sensitively portrayed. A Ne-
gro boy was included in a choir
of Catholics in Going My Way.
But against these and the two
favorable documentaries, Amer-
icavs All and The Negro Soldier,
were the caricatures in Lifeboat,
The Life of Mark Twain and
Cabin In the Sky.

Comic Cartoon Books

Unlike the daily newspaper
cartoon strips, the “comic” books
tend to be melodramatic and se-
rious, rather than humorous.
Millions of readers, not all ju-
venile, are devoted to them. They
are a relatively new medium of
great influence.

Before the war, the comic
books had drawn some critical
fire by the use of racial stereo-
types. They apparently took
these comments to heart. By
1944 there were few traces
among them of the stock char-
acters noted in examples pub-
lished in 1937. One favorite vil-
lain in the pre-war era was “The
Chink.” He was a stereotyped
Chinese devoted to refined tor-
tures. Other now-forgotten car-
toon stereotypes of 1937 in-
cluded a cowardly Italian named

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

Joseph Stucchi and a girl
named Olga Balinoff. There was
also a 1937 reference to “the na-
tives of Peru” who “would kill
a man for a peso.” In comment
on these stereotypes the Bureau
of Applied Social Research de-
cided “None of these characters
could have appeared in a current
edition.”

The comic cartoon books of
1944 assigned similar names to
heroes and villains alike. Thus
the “bad guy” is, by inference,
just as Anglo-Saxon as the
“good guy,” to wit :

Heroes

Gregg Saunders
Dick Grayson
Bruce Wayne
Slam Bradley
Steve Trevor
Shorty Morgan

Villains
Sam Maxon
Horace Manton
George Smith
Ted Swan
Miggs Morgan
Mart Mink

In drawing the heroes the art-
ists make them “prettier” and
more clean-cut. The villains have
faces that are more plastic, mis-
shapen but not notably stereo-
typed in the “dirty foreigner”
tradition. In handling Germans
the cartoon books have, however,
veered to (a) stupid-robot-with-
monocle or (b) ridiculous nin-
compoop, neither type being re-
alistic.

Issues arising from national,
racial, or religious minorities
simply do not exist in most car-
toon books. By this omission
most of the publishers of comics
at least avoid offense. All-Amer-
ican Comics has taken a com-
mendably progressive stand by
treating the problems of militar-
ism in Germany realistically in
cartoon form a n d repeatedly
portraying the heroism of Amer-
ican Negro fighters in this war.

On the general subject of car-
toon books, the Bureau of Ap-
plied Social Research has this to
say:

“The heroes and villains are differen-
tiated in terms of status or occupa-
tion, rather than in terms of ‘Anglo-
Saxon vs. Foreigner’ differences. The

heroes are detectives, reporters, Army
Intelligence Officers, whereas the vil-
lains are professional criminals. The
essential social evil of all the villains
as presented is that no environmental
factors are ever suggested as possible
explanations of delinquent personali-
ties.”

Comic cartoon book publishers
who were interviewed by the Co-
lumbia University researchers,
testified as follows :

“The heroes must be ‘American’ be-
cause that is what children expect and
because the continuous nature of
their adventures makes it necessa)’y
to avoid the use of any minority group
which might lose popularity in the
future.

“That villains, in contrast, must also
be free of associations with minori-
ties because the comic cartoon manu-
facturers have learned from past
trouble to expect future trouble from
such sources.”

In short, the comic cartoon
book industry seems to have
been responsive to public criti-
cism and has already desisted
from the more objectionable util-
ization of racial stereotypes.
They do not on the whole recog-
nize any social responsibility to
enhance democracy or e.xemplify
the practice of group reconcilia-
tion and harmony.

“We are interested in circula-
tion primarily,” commented one
expert in this field, adding,
without malice, “Can you imag-
ine a hero named Cohen?” (The
Writers’ War Board can.^ —
Editor.)

Radio Programs

The broadcasting fraternity
has been arguing for years as to
whether “Amos ’n’ Andy” helps
or hurts the Negro race. Some
Negroes do, some don’t object
to the series. Another continu-
ing argument revolves around
“Rochester” on the Jack Benny
program. This presentation is
good-natured and picture s
“Rochester” as quick-witted and
wise, yet it is .stereotyped on
all usual counts — addiction to

drink, dice, wenching, and ra-
zors.

All of the American networks
prohibit offense to minorities.
Dr. Reddick has testified that
radio gives them the fairest
treatment of any mass medium.
That heroes and heroines in ra-
dio drama tend invariably to be
white, Protestant Anglo-Saxons
remains true. They practically
never attend either Catholic
Mass or Jewish Temple.

Oddly enough there is nothing
particularly Irish about the se-
rial called The O’Neils and noth-
ing particularly Jewish beyond
a vague dialect about Rise of
the Goldbergs. Perhaps the one
frank effort on radio to exploit
the comic Jewish stereotype was
Abie’s Irish Rose, now off the
air. Commenting upon the wise
old Jewish bookseller in the se-
rial Life Can Be Beautifnl, the
Bureau of Applied Social Re-
search stated:

“The very intellectual superiority of
the old man differentiates him, not in
degree, but in principle from the hero
group, just as it would be in the case
of an Indian yogi, bestowed with an-
cient and maybe super-natural wis-
dom.”

In recent years a former com-
plaint of Negroes that radio pro-
grams did not accord them titles
of respect has been largely cor-
rected. It’s now “Miss Lena
Horne” or “Mr. Paul Robeson.”
There have been a number of
instances in which Negroes have
appeared in dramatic casts with
no mention of their race. This
appears to be much valued by
Negroes. On the other hand,
many people sympathetic to Ne-
groes think it desirable to state
their color when giving recogni-
tion to their achievements.

Newsreels

Years ago social critics were
bemoaning what they called
“our newsless newsreels.” This
particular form of communica-

January, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

tion is subject to technical diffi-
culties (distance, manpower, ex-
pense, hard-to-handle camera
and sound equipment) and is
also handicapped by the terrific
group pressures which represent
a daily reality. The theatrical
newspaper Variety reported
during 1944 that film theatres
in the South were cutting out
newsreel footage dealing with
Negroes. Such practices may
shock the liberal who hears
about them for the first time.
They represent an all-too-tangi-
ble fact of newsreel editing.

The Bureau of Applied Social
Research discovered through an
analysis of 600 “clips” in 1944
newsreel editions that minor-
ities were treated in only 18
instances. Half of these were re-
lated to war activities, to wit :
Five Sullivans’ parents
Creek Indian decorated
Air Ace Gabieski in action
Sgt. Bejenski saved from death
Sgt. Beranek’s athletic prowess
Negro Paratroopers
99th Pursuit Squadron
The Fighting 92nd
Negro Red Cross Club in Cherbourg

Advertising Copy

Interviews with copywriters,
art directors, and others estab-
lished the general acceptance of
the whole white, Protestant An-
glo-Saxon myth and a disposi-
tion to defend current practices.
Only when time and budget per-
mit, do some firms revise their
advertisements for the foreign
language and Negro press by
substituting pictures and text
appropriate to these special aud-
iences.

The refrain goes like this :

“We naturally draw on typical Ameri-
cans because the greatest bulk of our
ads are directed at typical Ameri-
cans.”

Another advertising man ex-
plained his views in these
words ; “Basically, it is commer-
cial. You want to sell to the
greatest n u m b e r of people.

Therefore in your advertisement
you present someone whom they
will want to emulate.” This man
had actually conducted research
of his own to determine what
particular Anglo-Saxon names
possessed the greatest power to
suggest high social and economic
status — in other words, maxi-
mum snob appeal.

Still another advertising man
said :

“You’d lose your audience if a colored
man appeared in the ad. However, in
a i)icture of the Old South, whiskey
ads and so forth, one puts in an Uncle
Tom for atmosphere.”

Colored servants are almost
invariably found in whiskey or
mint julep copy “to suggest the
Old South, Kentucky, gracious
living, and all that.”

The full text of the Bureau’s
study on racial stereotypes will
probably be published in full sci-
entific trappings, with charts,
footnotes, bibliography and ex-
tended comment. Meanwhile this
digest is primarily a summary of
the key facts and the chief con-
clusions.

The impressions of the Writ-
ers’ War Board may be summed
up as follows:

THE STAGE — is the most liberal of
all the media in presenting minor-
ity characters sympathetically and
honestly.

'I’HE NOVEL — is, like the theatre, in
the forefront of liberalism; witness
Lillian Smith’s “Strange Fruit,”
Hodding Carter’s “The Wings of
Fear,” and Gwethalyn Graham’s
“Earth and High Heaven.”

THE MOTION PICTURE— has con-
tinued to make disparaging presen-
tations of minorities, but there has
been some improvement.

THE RADIO — ranges from innocuous
to sympathetic, despite some invidi-
ous stereotjqjes.

THE COMIC CARTOON— has ac-
corded the greatest recognition and
credit to the Negro fighter.

THE PRESS — in the North is, with
some notorious exceptions, gener-
ally fair, although not zealous
where minorities are concerned.
About 60 loercent of the Southern

press is considered anti-Negro de-
spite all disclaimers.
ADVERTISING COPY— is openly and
self-admittedly addicted to the An-
glo-Saxon myth because of reliance
on “snob appeal.”

THE SHOR’P STORY — uses the most
stereotypes, is the worst offender.

Three New Swimming and
Diving Shorf Subjects

George A. Hirliman, Presi-
dent of International Theatrical
and Television Corp., announced
recently the purchase of three
one-reel short subjects entitled.
Swimming for Beghmers, Ad-
vanced Swimming and Stvim-
ming and Diving.

These films were produced by
Norman Sper, are made in koda-
chrome, and run for approxi-
mately eight minutes each. With
commentaries by the radio an-
nouncer, Ken Carpenter, the
production of these films was
supervised by Fred Cady, coach
of the United States Olympic
Team and swimming and diving
instructor at the University of
Southern California.

The first of the three films
shows Cady instructing a young-
ster. The child is taught the fun-
damentals of swimming from
Boating and kicking to proper
breathing and the finished arm-
stroke of the American Crawl.
The second in the series pictures
accomplished swimmers perfect-
ing their strokes and gaining
speed through correct kicking
and swift down pulls with the
arm. The third film deals with
the fundamentals of diving and
shows how the average swimmer
may become proficient in this
sport. This film also illustrates
how some of the more difficult
trick dives are performed and
perfected.

ITTCO has world rights for
the distribution of these film in
both 16mm and 35mm. They sell,
in 16mm, for ,$75.00 and rent for
$3.50 a reel.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

Hollywood Trends Evaluated In
A New Quarterly

The appearance of Volume I,
Number 1, of the HoUijivood
Quarterlii (October, 1945) is an
event of significance to teachers
and students of drama, speech,
literature, English composition,
music, and the social studies, as
well as to those interested in
films and radio programs and
audio-visual education gener-
ally. The new magazine is pub-
lished under the joint sponsor-
ship of the University of Cali-
fornia* and the Hollywood Writ-
ers Mobilization. This is indeed
a happy combination. The edi-
tors are Samuel T. Farquhar,
Franklin Fearing, John Howard
Lawson, Kenneth Macgowan,
and Franklin P. Rolfe. Helene
M. Hooker is assistant editor.

The fir.st issue of the Qimr-
te'tiij, which runs to 129 pages,
contains five articles on motion
pictures, three on radio, two on
the status of the writer, two on
technology, and one on problems
of communication. There are
four interesting briefer items,
including one by Alexander
Knox on playing Wilson. There
are thirteen reviews of recent
books in the film and radio field.

Dorothy B. Jones, in “The
Hollywood War Film: 1942-
1944,” says:

It is well within the power of the
film to reduce psycholog-ical tlistance
between people in various parts of the
world, just as the airplane has reduced
physical distance. Whether or not the
picture makers of the world will meet
this challenge remains to be seen. In
the case of the Hollywood picture

*The subscription price of the Hol-
lywood Quarterly is $4.00 a year. Sin-
gle copies are $1.2.5. Subscriptions
shoidd be sent to University of C'ali-
fornia Press, Berkeley 4, Calif.

makers perhaps some indication of
the answer to this question may be
found in an examination of the way
in which they met their responsibili-
ties to their nation and to the United
Nations (luring wartime.

The present article reviews the Hol-
lywood feature product of three years
of war. * *

Hollywood has gained immeasur-
ably in social awareness and in new
techniques of film making as a result
of the war. Now that the smoke of
battle is clearing away, a world public
is waiting to see whether Hollywood
will accept the greater responsibili-
ties and opportunities that lie ahead
by helping to create One World dedi-
cated to peace, plenty, and the pur-
suit of happiness.

Director Irving Pichel, whose
latest film is the notable Tomor-
rou' Is Forever, in “Creative-
ness Cannot Be Diffused,” says:

There are three kinds of pictiues
made in Hollywood — those which are
distinctly “directors’ pictures,” those
which have been “])roduced,” and
those which owe their distinction to
the work of the writer. In each cate-
gory, one man has given his stamp
to the work. " * *

In the end, there will be only one
man, the producer-writer-director.

Ben Maddow, scenarist, in
“Fisenstein and the Historical
Film,” remarks that the most ex-
pressive of all the elements of
cinema is the play of change
upon the human face.

Lawrence Morton, music edi-
tor and comiioser, in “Chopin’s
New Audience,” says:

The elevation of i)ublic taste is a
long and difficult process; it is neces-
sary to acquaint the public with great
music ])efore it will care — let alone
know — whether an interpi'etation is
pure 01- affected.

If the cynic despairs, the optimist
(one might say, the realist) has
plenty of grounds for encouragement.

The thousands who read liiogra-
l)hies of Chopiti and Sand may have
been shocked by the film’s falsifica-

tion of fact and character, but they
cannot have been b. ought even that
close to Chopin without having
learned something about the great-
ness of human spirit which he re-
vealed through his music.

Dudley Nichols, former pres-
ident of the Screen Writers
Guild, in “Men in Battle,” re-
views three films and points out
that A Bell for Adano lacks that
one quality which shines out in
Stoioj of G. /. Joe — “tenderness,
sympathy, and respect for the
human being.” Mr. Nichols
points out that only in tender-
ness can real humor be touched.

William Matthews, Associate
Professor of English in the Uni-
versity of California, Los An-
geles campus, in “Radio Plays
as Literature,” says;

The realization of the best potenti-
alities of radio drama depends upon
the welcome that radio will give to
<lramatic })oets and the willingness of
such poets to make use of this, their
natural medium in these days.

* * * There is an ample place in
radio for vei'se diama and now that
drama is likely to realize most amply
the Iitera;y potentialities offcretl l)y
this medium of the ear; prose may
achieve greatness, but in poetry still
lies the power and the glory.

Marjorie Fiske and Paul F.
Lazarsfeld, of the Columbia Uni-
versity Office of Radio Re-
search, present a condensation
of a chapter in the forthcoming
book, Hou' to Operate Consumer
and Opinion Research, in which
they say:

The programs that are known and
promoted as “educational” reach a rel-
atively small proportion of the radio
audience, chiefly those who would
make a point of acquiring the same
information from another medium if
it were not available to them over the
air. It is known that such progi-ams
will not reach even those I'elatlvely
few listeners unless organized efforts

January, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

are made to “build” an audience. But
what about the utilization of such al-
ready accepted programs as the day-
time serials as a means of raising,
rather than catering to, the cultural
level of the average listener? The
sponsor feels he would thereby lose
some of his audience, but the fact re-
mains that no one has tried to im-
prove them and there is as yet no
proof that the sponsors aie right or
wrong.

Gail Kubik, who composed the
musical score for the fine docu-
mentary film, Memphis Belle,
discussing “T h e Composer’s
Place in Radio,” says :

How many schools offer courses in
radio and film music? How many
composition teachers can talk from
experience (or, for that matter, from
theory) about cross-fades, multiple
mikes, scoring behind different types
of voices, echo chambers, filters, treat-
ment of sound effects with music, and
a hundred other problems posed by
radio? Almost none of them; and so
their young hopefuls are denied a
knowledge of the veiy skills which
will make them professional compos-
ers— men who live by composing. No
wonder that by the time they are
twenty they have already subscribed
to the old notion that teaching and
playing in orchestras are practically
their only economic hopes. * * *

By the time our young composers
are leady to try their wings, the very
thought of radio music is accompan-
ied by a feeling of nausea and a mad
rush to turn off all sets within hear-
ing. It is easy to see why this triumph
of mediocrity over quality should be
interpreted to mean that radio simply
cannot use quality music — original,
creative styles. * * *

Radio, broadcasting hundreds of
thousands of hours of music each year
and spending millions and millions of
dollars for performers, sound engi-
neers, and all the rest, may have spent
in the last fifteen years a hundred or
two hundred thousand dollars for the
commissioning of new serious music.
¥ ^ ^

The worst possible faux pas that
an aspirant to the field of functional
radio music can make is to admit his
education at Eastman, Juilliard, or
Curtis, or his career as a teacher at
a university. Such is the reputation
of the “long-hairs.”

* * * Speaking directly to our com-
poser friends, we should advise them

that they have at least four tasks:

1. Buttonhole the radio producers,
the advertising-agency heads, radio
writers, sponsors, orchestra leaders;
hang on for dear life, talk fast, con-
vince one and all that you are going
to plague them until a contract is
signed. Eventually somebody will give
in, and it need not be you.

2. Know that simple honesty le-
quires that if you are going to accept
money for your work you must turn
in a score that from the standpoint of
techniques peculiar to radio is thor-
oughly professional. Remember: fifty-
three, not fifty-two or fifty-four sec-
onds, if fifty-three are called for.

3. Remember that your music will
have very little rehearsal time.

4. More than anything else, remem-
ber: wiite your own style.

Morris E. Cohn, counsel for
the Screen Writers Guild, in
“Author’s Moral Rights : Film
and Radio,” says :

A literary work sold for the screen
or for broadcast may lie hacked and
hewn like so many feet of lumber.
The finished product may or may not
have a discernible resemblance to the
manuscript, and the author is as likely
as not to be justified in disowning
the picture or the broadcast. Is there
any way in which a writer can pre-
vent, or at any rate control, such
treatment? An answer may be found
in the European legal doctrine known
as “author’s moral rights.” * * *

Is there, then, any way by which
American writers for the screen and
radio can enforce moral rights ? That
is to say, in selling a story for mo-
tion pictures or radio can the author
import moral rights into the trans-
action? The academic answer is. Yes.
All he needs to do is to get the pro-
ducer’s or agency’s signature to a
contract which enumerates all the
privileges for the benefit of the
writer. * * *

The problem arises in part out of
the submergence of the employed
writer in an industry. * * *

It is no answer to say that a mo-
tion picture or a radio broadcast is
by nature the product of many artists.
So is the production of a stage play.

* * * If the occasional honest film,
the occasional fine radio play become
more frequent; and if motion pictures
and radio seek to become the media
for the sincere work of America’s
great writei's, then the public will rec-
ognize that motion pictures and ladio

broadcasts deserve the greatest pro-
tection. The way will then be paved
for moral rights for creators.

Lester Cole, scenarist of the
Cagney film. Blood on the Sun,
in “Unhappy Ending,” reveals
that in the elimination of his
ending and the substitution of
another “the entire meaning of
the film was destroyed.” The
article is a case study which illu-
minates Mr. Cohn’s article.

William G. Brockway, a n
MGM sound technician, in “Tele-
vision and Motion-Picture Proc-
esses,” says :

The technical processes involved in
motion-picture production and televi-
sion production aie different, but the
end result, a composite picture, is the
same. * * *

In the present state of television,
simplicity of control is lacking. The
reason for the complexity lies in the
fact that electronic engineers have
relied upon electronic controls to pro-
duce optical effects.

Franklin Fearing, Professor
of Psychology in the University
of California, Los Angeles cam-
pus, who is at work on a book
dealing with mass media of com-
munication, in “Warriors Re-
turn: Normal or Neurotic?”
says :

The terrific readjustment demanded
of the soldier when he was translated
from a world committed to doctrines
of ireace with its condemnation of
force and destruction to a world in
which destruction was a way of life
now compels him to raise a basic
question. Was it worth it?

P. J. O’Rourke, in “Legion or
Leaven,” attacking the many lo-
cal Radio Councils now being or-
ganized, says :

It may be argued that a civic group,
choosing and recommending pro-
grams, saves the networks many a
headache. But it is an inescapable
conclusion that unless it is truly rep-
resentative of the whole community,
any organization that exists for the
purpose of encouraging and discour-
aging radio programs leads into cen-
sorship. And from censorship it is
only a step to another Legion of De-
cency.

Volume XII, No. 4

BURROWS NOW A
VICTOR EXECUTIVE

L. V. Burrows, film industry expert,
recently appointed Director of Distrib-
ution for Victor Animotogroph

Lincoln V. Burrows, former
chief of the Photographic Divi-
sion of the War Production
Board, has been appointed Di-
rector of Distribution of Victor
Animatograph Corp., Daven-
port, Iowa, manufacturers of
16mm motion picture equipment,
it is announced by S. G. Rose,
Executive Vice-President.

Mr. Burrows served with the
WPB from April, 1942, to Octo-
ber, 1945, dealing with the con-
trol of production and allocation
of all types of photographic
equipment, film, and paper.
From 1935 to 1942 he was asso-
ciated with Eastman Kodak
Company, and shortly before
Pearl Harbor was sent by the
firm to Washington to assist in
handling government contracts
for photographic items. Mr.
Burrows is a graduate of the
University of Rochester and of
the Wharton School of Finance
and Commerce of the University
of Pennsylvania, where he took
his master’s degree in 1935.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Radio "Slanguage"

(From CBS Listeners’ Guide)

Jive chatter has a rival. Call
it fluff stuff, mike talk, or studio
jargon, and it still comes out
radio’s own unique lip routine.

Born in Producer’s Row in
radio’s infancy, the new lan-
guage eased into the studios
gradually, as need arose; has
since been slowly disseminated
to the public through audience
shows. But much of it still re-
mains a dark mystery to laymen.

The woman dean of mike talk
is Nila Mack, who has inhabited
Producer’s Row at CBS for the
past thirteen yeaars at the helm
of her Let’s Pretend program.
To hear her in action in the
control room is to catch, in ac-
cents crisp, a chatter pattern
like this :

“Less weaving, please. Get on
the beam. Come out of the mud.
Leave us face it.’’

To Nila’s cast of youthful ac-
tors, this isn’t double talk. It’s
terse, valuable information.
Time is always short in radio re-
hearsals. The faster a producer
can make directional comments
to actors, the better.

“Weaving’’ is moving from
the microphone, to indicate, for
instance, ducking a punch in a
fistic scene.

“Get on the beam’’ means sim-
ply to step to the “live’’ side of
the mike where sound is picked
up most clearly.

“In the mud’’ means insuffi-
cient tone volume.

“Leave us face it,” a bit of
New Yorkese currently enjoying
a popular kicking about in air-
way comedy sequences, actually
is an oldtimer to mike talk. In a
director’s jargon it simply
means to speak directly into
the microphone.

The radio word code includes
special directions to sound men
and technicians, too. A sound ef-
fects man slams a door harder

when a producer indicates more
volume is needed by saying,
“Give it the old elbow.”

“Dead air,” one of radio’s
bugaboos, is easy to figure out.
It simply means silence, due to
failure of transmission or other
error.

“Segue” (pronounced “seg-
way”) is a musical cue calling
for a transition from one musi-
cal number to another. It is the
blending of two dissimilar ele-
ments.

“What a woodshed” means
what a session, what a severe re-
hearsal. Reminiscent of the days
when dad took junior to the
woodshed to give him a licking.

A bit of adept elbow nudging
by one performer jockeying him-
self into better position at the
mike, at the expense of a fellow
actor, earns the chiseler the ap-
pellation “mike hog.”

Serial stories geared to a high
pitch of excitement through one
tense sequence after the other
are known as “cliff-hangers.”

Yes, leave us face it, radio has
a language all its own.

The United Nations in Films

Write to the United Nations
Information Office, Films Divi-
sion, 610 Fifth Avenue, New
York 20, for a free copy of the
56-page brochure listing films
on the United Nations. Included
are descriptions of reels on Aus-
tralia, Canada, China, Czecho-
slovakia, Denmark, Iceland,
France, Great Britain, Greece,
India, Latin America, Luxem-
bourg, Netherlands, Nether-
lands East Indies, Netherlands
West Indies, New Zealand, Nor-
way, Philippines, Union of
South Africa, U. S. A., U. S. S.
R., Yugoslavia, and UNRRA.
Two study kits, with guides,
charts, and handbooks on the
plans of the United Nations are
also described.

Jawuory, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Bruce A. Findlay Now Heads
L.A. Instructional Aids and
Services Branch

Bruce A. Findlay, formerly
Supervisor of the Audio-Visual
Education Section of the Los
Angeles City Schools, has been
promoted to the position of Head
Supervisor of the Instructional
Aids and Services Branch of the
Los Angeles City Schools, which
includes three sections : Library
and Textbook Section, Audio-
Visual Aids Section, and Guid-
ance and Counseling Section.
This new position affords an op-
portunity for Mr. Findlay to su-
pervise the correlation of the
printed page and the screen.

Ellsworth C. Dent Now
"Coronet" Executive

The appointment of Ellsworth
C. Dent as Educational Director
of Coronet and General Sales
Manager of Coronet Instruction-
al Films is announced by David
A. Smart, Publisher of Coronet
and President of Coronet In-
structional Films.

“The selection of Dent for
these important assignments,”
said Mr. Smart, “is but one step
in expanding the educational
services of the magazine and
Coronet Instructional Films. The
sound film studios at Glenview,
Illinois, which are the most mod-
ern and complete for the produc-
tion of 16mm sound motion pic-
tures in color, are increasing
their production schedules to
add new films each month to
more than 60 subjects now avail-
able. At the same time, extensive
research is being conducted to
determine the film requirements
of schools and other training in-
stitutions, so that the most use-
ful subjects can be produced.
These activities will be coordi-
nated with those of Coronet
magazine for one primaiy pur-
pose— to provide the most effec-

Make Literature

LIVE

In the Classroom

The following Teaching Film Custodian
(M-G-M) subjects are ideally suited
to classroom study;

"Treasure Island"

Lionel Barrymore Wallace Beery

Jackie Cooper

"Tale of Two Cities"

Ronald Colman

"Mutiny on the Bounty"

Clark Gable Charles Laughton

Franchot Tone

"Romeo and Juliet"

Leslie Howard Norma Shearer

John Barrymore

"David Copperfield, the Boy"

"David Copperfied, the Man"

Lionel Barrymore Maureen O'Sullivan

W. C. Fields Freddie Bartholomew

Each subject 4 reels Rental: $6.00

(Special Series Rate)

Write for Free Catalogue "2" of
SELECTED MOTION PICTURES

Y.M.C.A.

MOTION PICTURE BUREAU

New York 17, N. Y. Chicago 3, III.

347 Madison Ave. 19 So. LaSalle St.
San Francisco 2, Cal Dallas 1, Tex.

351 Turk St. 1700 Patterson Ave.

five visual and other aids to
classroom instruction and adult
education.”

Mr. Dent comes to Coronet
with a broad experience of more
than 22 years in the visual field.
This work started when he was
placed in charge of the Bureau
of Visual Instruction at the Uni-
versity of Kansas, in 1923. Dur-
ing the fall and winter of 1933-
34, he organized the visual in-
struction service for the inter-
mountain area at the Brigham
Young University, Provo, Utah,
and wrote the first edition of the
Avdio-Visual Handbook, the
fifth edition of which is now on
the press. From Brigham
Young, he went to Washington,
D. C., to organize and direct the
Division of Motion Pictures, U.
S. Department of the Interior,
and from there to the Radio
Corporation of America, Cam-
den, N. J., as Educational Di-
rector. He left RCA three years

ago to become General Manager
of the Society for Visual Edu-
cation, Inc., Chicago, where he is
still completing special projects
preparatory to devoting full
time to his new assignments.

S.V.E.'s 813 Slidefilms

A new S. V. E. Picturol Cata-
log of 813 educational slide-
films, many of them new or re-
vised and some of them just re-
leased, has been issued by the
Society for Visual Education,
Inc., Chicago. It is the first post-
war catalog of S.V.E. film-
strips and includes subjects for
use in practically all courses
from kindergarten to college.

Navy's 35mm Films on
Non-Flam Stock?

All films now being sent to the
U. S. Navy are on acetate cellu-
lose, and the nitro-cellulose
prints are being called in.

Meanwhile, there appears to
be a division of opinion as to
the efficiency of the non-inflam-
mable film. Some experts claim
that the images projected from
acetate stock are not so clear as
those printed on nitro-cellulose,
even though the former is just
as durable and equal in cost.

While the acetate stock is fire-
proof and eliminates booth haz-
ards insofar as ffame is con-
cerned, the possibility of a com-
plete switch to the non-inflam-
mable film is remote unless a
better definition of objects can
be obtained, the experts say.

Forthcoming Documentary on
the Adoption of the UNO Charter

It would take thirty hours of
continuous running-time to
screen the 163,000 feet of film
which were made of the proceed-
ings of the United Nations Con-
ference at San Francisco. These
163 reels are now being cut and
edited to make a definitive docu-
mentary of the event.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

An Elementary Film Script
On Good Manners

Foreword

MilLon ■). Salzburg, I’resitleiit oi'
I’ictoi'ial Films, Inc., of 1270 Sixth
Avenue, New York City, recently
signed a contract with Harmon Stu-
dios for a series of entertaining and
educational cartoon stories.

The first two in this new series.
Good Manners and Good Health,
should appeal to children and parents
alike.

The synopsis of Good Manners, pre-
sented herewith, is evidence of the
value of a story well told in cartoon
visualization. The main character,
.Johnny, is a “regular” little fellow,
but, like many other little boys, is
untidy, careless, selfishly thoughtless
— not exactly a source of joy to his
parents. His two selves, portrayed hy
imps “Goodself” and “Badself,” are
waging a battle, the decision of which
will deteimine whether .Johnny will
continue to be a bad boy or whether
he will improve. However, things go
from bad to worse, and “Badself,” ex-
ercising his influence, slowly gives
Johnny the physical appearance of a
little pig — ears, snout, hooves, and
curly little tail. “Goodself” now de-
cides on drastic action and makes
Johnny retrace his actions, making
sure this time that he will do the best
he can. Gradually he is turned back
into his old self, but he is now a bet-
ter “man.”

Good Manners

The picture on good man iters
oiiens on a close-up of a draw-
ing-board and shows an artist’s
hand completing the sketch of
a little house. The hand then
moves over to another section of
the drawing-board and sketches
eyes, nose, mouth, and the rest
of a little boy’s head. The expres-
sion frowns, but, at a cue from
the narrator, changes into a
smile.

The narrator begins the story
like this :

Once upon a time, in a certain

little town, on a street that had

beautiful poplar trees growing

along each side of it, was a nice
little house. This was the home of
Johnny. He had brown eyes that
looked like this . . . ears that
stood out a little, like this . . .
a nose that turned up slightly . . .
and a mouth that always had a
happy smile. 1 said — the mouth
always had a happy smile. That’s
better.

The artist’s hand then rapid-
ly draws arms, legs, and a body,
as separate entities on different
parts of the drawing paper. The
narrator says :

tVhen you put all these things
together. . .

The various parts of the anat-
omy animate around the paper
and take their respective places
to complete our hero, little John-
ny-

The scene dissolves to Johnny
asleej) on his bed in a room that
is completely untidy. Clothes
have been thrown about the
place, and toys litter the floor.
The narrator says that it is very
easy for anyone to see that
Johnny is a very, very untidy
little boy. And it is such a shame
— because he has been asked re-
peatedly to take better care of
his things and to keep his room
in order. But you can see very
clearly that Johnny doesn’t think
much of this advice. When he
awakens, gets up out of bed, and
pulls off his pajamas, you begin
to get an idea of the cause of the
trouble. His Badself, a nasty
little imp whose mission in life
seems to be to get Johnny into
trouble, urges him to throw his
pajamas down anywhere. Of
course the Goodself pleads with
Johnny to do as his mother has
asked him to do and as he knows
he should do — fold up his pa-
jamas neatly. But the Badself
wins the argument, and the pa-

jamas are thrown on the floor.
Let his mother pick them up !

When Johnny enters the neat
and tidy bathroom, it doesn’t
stay that way very long. At the
urging of the Badself, he squirts
water over everything, squeezes
out the toothpaste, rumples and
soils the towels. Badself is in an
ecstasy of delight. Goodself re-
minds Johnny that if he insists
on acting like a little pig, he will
turn into one. Johnny is scornful
of the advice. Lo and behold, as
Johnny leaves the bathroom, his
hands and feet turn into pig’s
hooves! Johnny, however, is
quite unaware of this metamor-
phosis.

Badself has won that round,
too, and just to rub it in, has
imprisoned Goodself in his halo.
Then he laughs and laughs at his
own mean trick.

At the breakfast table, John-
ny’s manners are terrible. His
mother is most unhappy at his
lack of response to her sugges-
tions. Goodself makes frequent
and urgent pleas, but Johnny
slouches with his arms over the
table. He stuffs enormous quan-
tities of food into his mouth,
sihlls his milk and slurps and
splashes around in his food until
pig’s ears pop onto his head.
Goodself just has time to cau-
tion Johnny about turning into
a pig before he is imprisoned un-
der a tumbler by Badself. When
Johnny, rudely and brusquely,
leaves the table, a snout grows
on his face.

When he goes out to play base-
ball with the boys. Tommy, a
smaller boy, is at bat. But John-
ny decides that he wants to bat.
So he takes the bat away from
Tommy. The other boys protest

January, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

against this behavioi’, and Good-
self tells him he knows it is
wrong. But Johnny is adamant.
Taking a swipe at Goodself with
the back of his hand, Johnny lev-
els off to hit the ball. A closeup
of Johnny’s derriere shows that
he now has acquired a curly little
tail that would look cute on a
pig, but seems out of place on
Johnny.

During the course of the
game, Johnny hits a ball and
runs for first base. But the ball
is thrown in, and Johnny very
obviously is out. This isn’t the
way Johnny likes it, however,
and rather than accept the deci-
sion, he starts an argument
which, alas, results in a fight.

The boys leave him flat. They
tell him he is nothing but a pig.
Though Johnny is obviously
amazed by this pronouncement,
the transformation is complete.
Johnny now turns completely
into a pig, but he doesn’t know
it.

On his way home, Johnny
passes a piggery, full of very
dirty little pigs. Because the pig-
gery door is open, and the little
pigs have never before seen a
pig with clothes on, their curi-
osity gets the better of them.
They start following him. He
tries to shoo them home with-
out effect. He has to run away
from them. He finally gets rid
of them by running inside his
garden gate and slamming it.

In the garden he sees his lit-
tle dog. Rover. As the narrator
points out, Johnny has no truer
friend than Rover. No matter
what his other friends did to
him, or think of him, Johnny can
always rely on Rover.

He whistles for the pup. At
the familiar sound the dog comes
running. But, at the sight of the
transformed Johnny, even Rover
balks. He skids to a terrified
stop. Letting out a dismal howl,
he runs off to hide in the bushes.

Really dejected at this lack of
affection, or even recognition,
from his pal Rover, Johnny en-
ters the house. As he walks
through the hall, he passes a
mirror hanging on the wall into
which he casually glances. He
looks away, and then, as the
light of understanding dawns,
he returns for a better look. A
porcine image glares back at him
from the mirror. For the first
time, Johnny sees himself as he
is — a pig. With a wail that could
be heard half way down the
street, he runs to find his moth-
er.

His mother, of course, is very
sympathetic. But she explains
that the reason he looks like a
little pig is that he has been act-
ing like a little pig. All he will
have to do to look like a nice lit-
tle boy again, is to act like a nice
little boy. She turns on a pro-
jector and shows Johnny a film
of newsreel clips of champions
in all fields of sport. She shows
the young future generals at
West Point: how neatly they
keep their rooms, how well-man-
nered they are at the table. Dem-
onstrating the lessons on tidi-
ness, good manners, and sports-
manship, she has tried to teach
Johnny new habits.

When the show is over, John-
ny is impressed. He needs no
urging to put his new resolu-
tions into practice. Rushing up-
stairs to his room, he hangs up
his clothes and puts away his
toys. He makes everything spic
and span.

Just as his mother has prom-
ised, his own hands and feet
once more take the place of the
little pig’s hooves. Encouraged
by this progress, he rushes in
and cleans up the mess he has
left in the bathroom. He takes
time out only to look in the
mirror, to see if any more of his
unwanted features have left
him. He is rewarded to find he

has his own hair back again. He
knows he is on the right track.

At the lunch table, his man-
ners are impeccable. But Bad-
self, who isn’t going to give up
without a struggle, makes a vig-
orous attempt to win Johnny
back to his bad ways. However,
Johnny has learned his lesson.
Picking up Badself, Johnny
throws that bad little character
into the sugar bowl. Goodself,
thoroughly elated, cements the
deal by sitting on the lid. By
this time, Johnny has lost his
pig’s ears, and except for a lit-
tle snout, is a little boy again.
Asking his mother’s permission,
he leaves the table and goes out
to play baseball with the boys.

The boys don’t want to play
with him. But when he insists
that little Tommy use his new
bat, that Freddy wear his glove,
and that Billy pitch his new ball,
the boys’ resentment grows less.
They decide to let Johnny play,
even though they are not too en-
thusiastic about it. But as the
game progresses, Johnny proves
his sportsmanship. Little by lit-
tle, the boys accept him.

When it is Johnny’s turn at
bat, he hits a ball that looks as
though it will surely be a home
run and takes off for his run
around the bases. It’s thrilling.
He’s on his way to the home
plate as the ball is being thrown
in. Both Johnny and the ball
seem to arrive simultaneously.
The catcher says he’s out. Ex-
pecting trouble, the boys gather
round. This time they are not
going to let Johnny get away
with anything. But their fears
are unfounded. Johnny tells
them he had been too busy run-
ning to be able to see exactly
what happened, and if the catch-
er said he is out, then he guesses
he is out. He shakes hands with
the catchei- and tells him it was
a wonderful catch.

Continued on Page 60

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

PHOTOPLAY GUIDES

MUSIC ASSORTMENT; April Romance (Schubert), The Mikado, Moonlight Sonata (With Paderewski),
They Shall Have Music (Jascha Heifetz), Saludos Amigos.

5 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 60c 25^

FRENCH-SPANISH ASSORTMENT: Harvest (Guide in French), Les Miserahles (Hugo), Marie An-
toinette (French Revolution), A Tale of Two Cities, Saludos Amigos.

5 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 60c 25{^

ART ASSORTMENT: Pinocchio (Walt Disney). Saludos Amigos (Disney .Artists Visit South .Amer-
ica), Snow White (Disney), Captains Courageous, Good Earth.

5 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 50c 25$z

ELEMENTARY ASSORTMENT: Anne of Green Gables, Captains Courageous, Edison the Man
Robin Hood, Tom Sawyer Detective, The Wizard of Oz, Twenty-Three and a Half Hours’ Leave, Pin-
occhio, Snow White, Union Pacific. 10 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $1.00 50/

DRAMA ASSORTMENT: Hollywood Cavalcade (.History of the Movies), A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
The Mikado, As You Like It, Winterset (Maxwell Anderson), Pygmalion (Shaw), Stage Door (Kauf-
man and Ferber), The Plough and the Stars, Anne of Green Gables (With Radio' Play).

9 Illustrated Booklets, RegularP^ 90c 50/

BIOGR.APHICAL .ASSORTMENT; Conquest (Charles Boyer as Napoleon), Edison the Man, The Life
of Emile Zola, Man of Conquest (Sam Houston), Marie .Antionette, Moonlight Sonata (Paderewski)
Queen of Destiny (Victoria), Stanley and Livingstone, Victoria the Great, Toast of New York Noith
west Passage. 11 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $1.30 ’

AUDITORIUM ASSORTMENT (16MM. FEATURES): Harvest, In His Steps, Moonlight Sonata, 2.31/2
Hours Leave, Union Pacific, Stanley & Livingstone, Give Me Liberty, .A Tale of Two Cities, Mutiny on
the Bounty, Servant of the People, Captains Courageous, ’fhe Good Earth, Men with Wings, As You
Like It. 14 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $1.90 00

LITER.ATURE ASSORTMENT: Captains Courageous, The Citadel, Goodbye Mr. Chips, The Good Earth,
Gunga Din, Kidnapped (Stevenson), Mutiny on the Bounty, .A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Robin Hood,
Les Miserahles, Human Comedy, Pygmalion, Tom Sawyer Detective.

13 Illustrated Booklets, Regulailv $1.70 $1.00

INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING ASSORTMENT: Captains Courageous, The Citadel, Con-
quest, Drums, Goodbye, Mr. Chips; Etlison the Man. The Good Earth, Gunga Din, The Life of Emile
Zola, Marie .Antoinette, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Mikado, Moonlight Sonata, Music for
Madame, Mutiny on the Bounty, Northwest Mounted, Pinocchio, The Plough and the Stars, Pygmalion,
(^ueen of Destiny, Victoria the Great, The Real Glory, Robin Hood, Saludos Amigos, Servant of the
People, Snow White, Stanley and Livingstone, They Shall Have Music.

28 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $3.30 $1.20

SOCI.AL STUDIES .ASSORTMENT: .Allegheny LTprising. Boys Town, Conquest (Charles Boyer as
Napoleon), Drums (India), Give Me Liberty (Patrick Henry), The Good Earth (China), The Life of
Emile Zola, Man of Conquest (Story of Sam Houston), Marie .Antoinette, Men With Wings (History
of .Aviation), Mutiny on the Bounty (British History), Northwest Passage, The Plough and the Stars
(Irish Rebellion), Queen of Destiny (Biography of Victory), The Real Glory (Philippine ConsL^bulary),
Servant of the People (Adoption of the U. S. Constitution), Stanley and Livingstone, Toast of New
York (Wall Street Financial History), Union Pacific (First Transcontinental Railroad), Victoria the
Great (Biography of Queen Victoria), North West Mounted Police (Canada), Mr. Smith Goes to Wash-
ington, Les Miserahles, The Citadel, Captains Courageous, Kidnairped, Robin Hood, In Old Oklahoma,
.A Tale of Two Cities, Saludos .Amigos, Winterset, Gunga Din.

32 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $3.50 $1.25

ORDER BLANK

EDUC.ATIONAL & RECRE.ATIONAL GUIDES, INC., 172 Renner .Avenue.. Newark 8. N. ,1.

□ SEND the assortment checked above. Enclosed is

□ SEND COMBINATION ORDER of all these assortments. Regularly $15.40 $6.90

□ ENTER or RENEW subscription to “Film & Radio Guide,’’ $2.00 a year.

NAME

ADDRESS

Jonuory, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Lively Cartoons from Tressler's
""English in Action" Series

(Courtesy of D. C. Heath & Co.)

recalcitrant = rc, back -|- calcitrare, kick = kicking back, obsti-
nate, stubbornly rebellious

RADIO

COURSE

“A Course of
Study in Radio
Appreciation"

BY ALICE P. STERNER

Barringer High School
Newark, N. J.

22 Curriculum Units

— Free Listening
— Listening Processes
— Music Programs
— Popular Programs
— News Broadcasts
— Radio Comedy
— Radio Drama
— Sports Broadcasts
— Radio Discussions
— Radio Speeches
— Literary Programs
— Radio Censorship
— Radio Advertising
— The Radio Industry
—Foreign Broadcasting
— Planning Our Listening
— Radio and the Home
—Political Programs
— Radio and Propaganda
— The History of Radio
— Radio Technicalities
— Influence of Radio

50i^

Free With 2-year Subscriptions to
“Film and Radio Guide"

EDUCATIONAL AND
RECREATIONAL GUIDES, Inc.

172 Renner Avenue Newark 8, N. J.

WILLIAM LEWIN, Editor

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

January, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

cr’

# Ke love sto

ry tliat will
live wltK you today —

tomorrow and ro

re ver i

International Pictures presents

Claudette Colbert • Orson^iV 0II0S

George Brent i.

TOMORROW IS FOREVER

with

Lucile WiVrSON • Rickard LONG • Natalie ^W^OOD

Joyce MacKENZIE

Directed ky IRVING PICHEL * ProJacea ty DAVID LEWIS

Novel and Ladies Home Journal Story Ly Gwen Bristow • Screenplay by Lenore Coflee • Music by Max Steiner

An INTERNATIONAL PICTURE • Released by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

GOOD ENIERTAINMENI

IS INTERNATIONAL

A 64-Page Illustrated Magazine for
Audio-Visual Educators

FILM & RADIO
GUIDE

FILM & RADIO GUIDE is a 64-page illustrated magazine
for audio-visual educators and for teachers of film and
radio appreciation. It is an outgrowth of pioneer committee
activities in the N.E.A. Department of Secondary Teachers,
the National Council of Teachers of English, and the Amer-
ican Educational Theatre Association.

Less Than Five Subscriptions Five or More Subscriptions

One Year 2.00 Each 25% Discount on

Two Years 3.50 Each Quantity Orders

Three Years 5.00 Each to One Address

Less Than One Year 35c a Copy

In Canada, add 50c a year; in foreign countries, add $1.00 a year.

"Course of Study in Radio Appreciation" or "What Sholl We Reod About the
Movies" Free with 2-Yeor Subscriptions. Both Free with 3-Yeor Subscriptions.

ORDER BLANK

EDUCATIONAL 6c RECREATIONAL GUIDES, Inc.

172 RENNER AVENUE NEWARK 8, NEW JERSEY

|_ Enter (or renew) my (our) order tor subscription(s) to

FILM & RADIO GUIDE tor yeor(s), beginning

(Radio Course or "What Shall We Read About the Movies" Free with
2-year Subscriptions. Both Free with 3-year Subscriptions.)

[_J Send current issue ot "Film and Radio Guide," 35c.

□ Send annotated bibliography, "What Shall We Read About the

Movies," 25c.

□ Send "Course ot Study in Radio Appreciation," 22 units, 50c.

□ Send "Get-Acquainted" Assortment ot older Guides, $1.00.

NAME

ADDRESS

Continued from Page 55

The boys are delighted to find
Johnny such a good sport. With
the last of their resentment
gone, they hoist him upon their
shoulders. Then and there, they
unanimously elect him captain
of the team.

Happy as any little boy can
be, Johnny wipes a furtive tear
from his eye as the last of his
pig features fall away. Goodself
appears just long enough to give
him the old fighter’s handshake
and tell him he knew that he
could do it.

Leaping over the fence on his
way home, Johnny enters the
house, finds his mother and Rov-
er in the living room. He sits at
the feet of his proud mother.
Rover once more shows his af-
fection in the best doggy fash-
ion. Johnny confides to his
mother that it’s really much
more fun not to be a pig.

Goldwyn's First 16mm Release

Samuel Goldwyn’s first 16mm
release, N())-th Star, is now being-
distributed through Bell & How-
ell and other leading 16mm film
libraries. The feature is eleven
reels in length and rents for
$20. It is a story of the Nazi in-
vasion of a South Russian vil-
lage and the ultimate turning of
the tide of fortune. Based on a
story by Lillian Heilman and di-
rected by Lewis Milestone, the
film stars Anne Baxter, Dana
Andrews, Walter Huston, and
Ann Harding. James Wong
Howe directed the top-notch
photography.

Forthcoming Technicolor
Features

The procession of Technicolor
films soon to be released in-
cludes Shaw’s Caesar and Cleo-
patra, Shakespeare’ s Henry V,
The Yearling, The Rohe, Life
With Father, The Virginian,
Duel in the Sun, Disney’s Uncle
Remus, and Smoky.

ADAPTATION BY HAROLD BUCHMAN
DANCES STAGED BY KENNY WILLIAMS

SCREEN PLAY BY LEO N A R D PR AS K I N S
FROM A PLAY BY LOUISE HOVICK

1 w

So*tfA!

"Dig You Later" (THE KUBBA-HUEBA-HUBBA SONG!)

"Somebody's Walkin' In My Dreomi" • "Here Comes Heaven Again'

'Chico-Chico" • by Jimmy McHugh end Harcdd Adamson

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 4

COMING

'The Biography of a
Classroom Film"

BY WILLIAM LEWIN

Of special Interest to
All Visual Educators

AUDIO-VISUAL DIRECTORY

National & International

INTERNATIONAL THEATRI-
CAL AND TELEVISION CORP.

ITTCO OF ILLINOIS, 100 W.
Monroe St., Chicago 3.

ITTCO OF THE WEST, 3123
W. 8th St., Los Angeles 5.
ITTCO OF THE WEST, 4247
Piedmont Ave., Oakland 11,
Calif.

ITTCO OF THE SOUTH, 756 W.
Peachtree St., N. W., Atlanta,
Ga.

ITTCO OF MISSOURI, 3326
Olive St., St. Louis, Mo.

ITTCO OF THE SOUTH, 302/2
So. Harwood St., Dallas 1, Tex.

ITTCO OF NEW YORK, 25 W.
45th St., New York 19, N. Y.

ITTCO OF NEW ENGLAND,
115 Newbury St., Boston 16,
Mass.

ITTCO OF WASHINGTON, 51
H St., N.W., Washington 1,
D. C.

ITTCO OF NEW ORLEANS, 815
Poydras St., New Orleans 13,
La.

ITTCO OF CANADA, 21 Dun-
das Square, Toronto, Canada

Bell & Howell Co., Dept. "G"
FILMOSOUND LIBRARY
I 834 Larchmont Ave., Chicago
30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York
716 N. LaBrea Ave., Hollywood
1221 G. St., N. W., Washington

FILMS INCORPORATED

330 W. 42nd St., New York 18
64 E. Lake St., Chicago 1
101 Marietta St., Atlanta 3
109 N. Akard St., Dallas 1
314 S.W. 9th Ave., Portland 5
1709 W. 8 St., Los Angeles 14

ASTOR PICTURES CORPORATION
130 W. 46th Street
New York, N. Y.

BRANDON FILMS, Inc.
1 600 Broadway
New York, N. Y.

BAILEY FILM SERVICE

2044 No. Berendo St., Holly-
wood 27, Calif.; 404 No. Good-
win Ave., Urbana, III.

COMMONWEALTH PICTURES
CORPORATION, 729 Seventh
Avenue, New York, N. Y.

CORONET PRODUCTIONS
Instructional Films
Glenview, Illinois

EDUCATIONAL FILM GUIDE
H. W. Wilson Co., 950 Univer-
sity Ave., New York 52, N. Y.

EDUCATORS GUIDE TO FREE
FILMS, Educators Progress
Service, Randolph, Wis.

WILLIAM J. GANZ COMPANY
40 East 49th Street
New York, N. Y.

PAUL HOEFLER PRODUCTIONS
9538 Brighton Way
Beverly Hills, California

HOFFBERG PRODUCTIONS, Inc.
618-20 Ninth Avenue
New York 1 8, N. Y.

IDEAL PICTURES CORPORATION
28-34 E. 8th Street
Chicago, III.

Offices in principal cities.

INSTITUTIONAL CINEMA SERV-
ICE, Inc., 1560 Broadway
New York, N. Y.

MOTION PICTURE BUREAU—
YMCA, 347 Madison Avenue
New York, N. Y.

1 9 S. La Salle St., Chicago, III.
1 700 Patterson Av., Dallas, Tex.
351 Turk St., San Francisco, Cal.

NATIONAL FILM SERVICE

Raleigh, N. C. Richmond, Va.
424 Madison Ave., New York

NU-ART FILMS, Inc.
145 W. 45th Street
New York, N. Y.

POST PICTURES CORPORATION
723 Seventh Avenue
New York, N. Y.

SKIBO PRODUCTIONS, Inc.
165 West 46th St.

New York 1 9, N. Y.

New England

HARVARD FILM SERVICE

Graduate School of Education
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts

A. H. RICE & CO.

Rentals and Projection Service
Hollis, N. H.

The West Coast

THE SCREEN ADETTE EQUIP-
MENT CORP., RCA Audio-Visual
Equipment.

314 S.W. 9th, Portland, Ore.
1709 W. 8th, Los Angeles.

68 Post St., San Francisco.

The South

ITTCO OF THE SOUTH, 756

Peachtree St., N.W., Atlanta,
Ga., and 302/2 S. Harwood St.,
Dallas, Texas. Exclusive distrib-
utors of Monogram products,
ITTCO films, Ampro and SVE
equipment. Jam Handy teaching
films. Serving the South only.

CALHOUN COMPANY
101 Marietta St., N.W.

Atlanta 3, Georgia

WILFRED NAYLOR

1907 Fifth Ave., North
Birmingham 1 , Alabama

SOUTHERN VISUAL FILMS
686 Shrine Building
Memphis, Tenn.

Indiana

DENNIS FILM BUREAU
29 E. Maple St.

Wabash, Ind.

Iowa

RYAN VISUAL AIDS SERVICE
409-1 1 Harrison St.

Davenport, Iowa

Michigan

COSMOPOLITAN FILMS
3248 Gratiot Avenue
Detroit, Mich.

CAPITAL FILM SERVICE, Film Li-
brary and Motion-Picture and
Visual-Aid Equipment, 1043 E.
Grand River Ave., East Lansing,
Mich.

Minnesota

HOWARD FILM DISTRIBUTORS
86 So. Sixth Street
Minneapolis 2, Minn.

Missouri

SWANK'S MOTION PICTURES
620 N. Skinker Blvd.

St. Louis, Mo.

New York

IDEAL MOTION PICTURE SERV-
ICE, 371 St. Johns Avenue
Yonkers, N. Y.

New Jersey

ART ZEILLER, Visual and Audio-

Visual Aids, Victor Distributor,

Factory Service. Entertainment.

868 Broad St., Newark 2, N. J.

Ohio

rWYMAN FILMS, Inc.

29 Central Ave.
Dayton, Ohio

West Virginia

E. B. SIMPSON
8 1 6 W. Virginia St.
Charleston 2, W. Va.

MESSAGES

^1/ MESSAGES

(/ TO AMERICAN

SCHOOL TEACHERS

I Ho. 12 #

The ]\[cc(J for a Basic Understanding

i"T-iHE WAR TECHNICALLY IS OVER. Fcw of ouL pcoplc Lcalice that this cruclcst of

all wars was merely an interlude in a world revolution,” says Alonzo G.
Grace, State Goniniissioner ol Education of Gonnecticut. ‘‘The war was a
physical expression of an intellectual conflict that has not been settled. We have
disposed of Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo, but the elimination of the leader does
not guarantee the termination of the ideology, either of the leader or of the move-
ment which he sponsored.

‘‘The totalitarian mind a generation ago began to spread its poisonous
philosophy and unprincipled procedures world-wide. By conquering school
systems; by operating through centralized ministries of education; by organizing
youth nationally for service to tlic state; by crushing free institutions; by organizing
a massive military machine, and by creating an atmosphere of false security,
dictatorship triumphed.

‘‘The sovereignty of the people and the dignity of the individual became
abandoned ideals. The state became the fundamental basis for living. Ditlalorsliips
ilo not arise from spontaneous revolution, hut from single acts ulucli, when fully organized
and nurtured, reduce the individual overnight to a state of intellectual, moral and even
physical subservience.

‘‘It is not too early to begin an evaluation and, in many cases, a reorganization
of the content of the social studies as now taught in our schools. The need for a
basic understanding of our liberty; of our human and natural resources; of our
position in world affairs, and of geography and history is evident.

‘‘We must raise a generation committed to the improvement of our democracy
and constitutional government. Accurate information on signihcant current de-
velopments is a necessary adjunct in this task. As such. The Reader’s Digest provides
a concise, readable handbook of world events and trends. Newspapers and
magazines are textbooks on modern problems, and should be so used.”

Cornel Wilde in "The Bandit of Sherwood Forest/
New Technicolor Version of the Robin Hood Legend

Greater

Brilliance

longer

lamp

life

with Victor exclusive
Spiro-draft Lamp house

The Anlmafophone —
16mm Sound Proi'eetor —
First In the Field ,

During projection, lamps get Jiot . . . I’ery hot. But only
in the Animatophone this condition is anticipated and
alleviated with Victor’s exclusive Spira-Jrajt lamp house.
Only on the Animatophone is the cooled air forced in a
spiralized, all-over, fast-moving stream through a multiple
wall to dissipate heat more efficiently.

Result . . , longer lamp life, clearer pictures. And remem-
ber, on the VICTOR, the lamp has a standard base, obtain-
able anywhere, at no extra cost.

Here’s another outstanding feature that gives the Victor
Animatophone its leading position in the l6mm industry.

Home Office and Factory; Davenport, Iowa
New York (18) McGraw-Hill Bldg., 330 W. 42nd St.— Chicago (1) 188 W. Randolph

MAKERS OF I6MM EQUIPMENT SINCE 1923

Have You a Problem in
Sound-Film Acoustics?

Send for This New Free Booklet,

"Acoustic Treatment of Auditoriums"

The finest motion picture sound equipment
cannot overcome the handicap of an audi-
torium in which excessive reverberation in-
terferes with proper sound reproduction.

To answer fully the increasing number of
inquiries received concerning directional
baffles, multiple speakers, and altering au-
ditoriums for improved sound reproduc-
tion, Bell & Howell has published a new
manual, "Acoustic Treatment of Auditor-
iums.”

Three parts are devoted to (l) principles
of the sound-reproducing equipment, (2)
improving sound distribution, (3) sugges-
tions for auditorium treatment. There are

charts on reverberation time limits an i on
absorption coefficients of building materials.

"Architects’ Visual Equipment Handbook"

This covers completely plans and specifica-
tions for classrooms, conference rooms, and
auditoriums where sound motion picture
equipment is to be used. Including blue-
prints, it is a complete and authoritative
manual for all concerned with building or
adapting rooms for showing sound films.

Send for your free copies of these hand-
books today. Bell & Howell Company,
Chicago; New York; Hollywood; Washing-
ton, D. C.; London.

Superior Sound Film
Projection— Easy^ Trouble-Free

Filmosound 179 is even
finer than its predecessors.
This l6mm sound-on-film
projector incorporates
war-developed refine-
ments that simplify opera-
tion, greatly enhance
sound and picture repro-
duction.

Visit Bell & Howell at the Regional Conference
of the American Association of School Adminis-
trators of the N.E.A. New York, March 5 to 7,
Booth A-41. Chicago, March 12 to 14, Booth A-4.

OPTt-ONICS — products combining the sciences of OPTIcs • elecirONics • mechanICS

HELL & HOWELL COMPANY
7134 McCormick Road, Chicago 45
Without obligation, send my copy of ( ) “Acoustic
T'reatment of Auditoriums” ; also send ( ) “Archi-
tects’ Visual Equipment Handbook”; ( ) Infor-
mation on 13&H Filmosound Projectors.

SINCE 1907 THE LARGEST MANUFACTURER OF PROFESSIONAL MOTION PICTURE EQUIPMENT
FOR HOLLYWOOD AND THE V/ORLD

City

State

FHDG 2-40

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

PHOTOPLAY GUIDES

MUSIC ASSORTMENT: April Romance (Schubert), The Mikado, Moonlight Sonata (With Paderewski),
They Shall Have Music (Jascha Heifetz), Saludos Amigos.

5 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 60c 25?

FRENCH-SPANISH ASSORTMENT: Harvest (Guide in French), Les Miserables (Hugo), Marie An-
toinette (French Revolution), A Tale of Two Cities, Saludos Amigos.

5 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 60c 25j2

ART ASSORTMENT: Pinocchio (Walt Disney;, Saludos Amigos (Disney Artists Visit South Amer-
ica), Snow White (Disney), Captains Courageous, Good Earth.

5 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 50c 25?

ELEMENTARY ASSORTMENT: Anne of Green Gables, Captains Courageous, Edison the Man,
Robin Hood, Tom Sawyer Detective, The Wizard of Oz, Twenty-Three and a Half Hours’ Leave, Pin-
occhio, Snow White, Union Pacific. 10 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $1.00 50?

DRAMA ASSORTMENT: Hollywood Cavalcade (History of the Movies), A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
The Mikado, As You Like It, Winterset (Maxwell Anderson), Pygmalion (Shaw), Stage Door (Kauf-
man and Ferber), The Plough and the Stars, Anne of Green Gables (With Radio Play).

9 Illustrated Booklets, Regularlv 90c 50?

AUDITORIUM ASSORTMENT (16MM. FEATURES): Harvest, In His Steps, Moonlig:ht Sonata, 23y2
Hours Leave, Union Pacific, Stanley & Livingstone, Give Me Liberty, A Tale of Two Cities, Mutiny on
the Bounty, Servant of the People, Captains Courageous, The Good Earth, Men with Wings, As You
Like It. 14 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $1.90 $1.00

LITERATURE ASSORTMENT: Captains Courageous, The Citadel, Goodbye Mr. Chips, The Good Earth,
Gunga Din, Kidnapped (Stevenson), Mutiny on the Bounty, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Robin Hood,
Les Miserables, Human Comedy, Pygmalion, Tom Sawyer Detective.

13 Illustrated Booklets, RegularP’ $1.70 $1.00

INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING ASSORTMENT: Captains Courageous, The Citadel, Con-
quest, Drums, Goodbye, Mr. Chips; Edison the Man, The Good Earth, Gunga Din, The Life of Emile
Zola, Marie Antoinette, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Mikado, Moonlight Sonata, Music for
Madame, Mutiny on the Bounty, Northwest Mounted, Pinocchio, Tne Plough and the Stars, Pygmalion,
Queen of Destiny, Victoria the Great, The Real Glory, Robin Hood, Saludos Amigos, Servant of the
People, Snow White, Stanley and Livingstone, They Shall Have Music.

28 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $3.30 2,0

SOCIAL STUDIES ASSORTMENT: Allegheny Uprising, Boys Town, Conquest (Charles Boyer as
Napoleon), Drums (India), Give Me Liberty (Patrick Henry), The Good Earth (China), The Life of
Emile Zola, Man of Conquest (Story of Sam Houston), Marie Antoinette, Men With Wings (History
of Aviation), Mutiny on the Bounty (British History), Northwest Passage, The Plough and the Stars
(Irish Rebellion), Queen of Destiny (Biography of Victory), The Real Glory (Philippine Constabulary),
Servant of the People (Adoption of the U. S. Constitution), Stanley and Livingstone, Toast of New
York (Wall Street Financial History), Union Pacific (First Transcontinental Railroad), Victoria the
Great (Biography of Queen Victoria), North West Mounted Police (Canada), Mr. Smith Goes to Wash-
ington, Les Miserables, The Citadel, Captains Courageous, Kidnapped, Robin Hood, In Old Oklahoma,
A Tale of Two Cities, Saludos Amigos, Winterset, Gunga Din.

32 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $3.50 25

ORDER BLANK

XOj educational & RECREATIONAL GUIDES, INC., 172 Renner Avenue., Newark 8, N. J.

□ SEND the assortment checked above. Enclosed is

□ SEND COMBINATION ORDER of all these assortments, Regularly $15.40 $6.90

□ ENTER or RENEW subscription to “Film & Radio Guide,” $2.00 a year.

NAME

ADDRESS

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

EDUCATIONAL & RECREATIONAL GUIDES, Inc.
172 RENNER AVENUE, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY

VOLUME XII, NUMBER 5

FEBRUARY, 1946

IN THIS ISSUE

16mm Exchange Practices — No. 20: What is This

"Confusion in the English Field"? B. A. Aughinbaugh

Behind the Screen Credits Helen Colton

Racial Stereotypes in Our English Textbooks Jerome Carlin

Readings in Photoplay Appreciation The Screen Writer

A Basis for Discussing Boxoffice Criteria Variety

A Teacher Looks at the Movies Frederick Houk Law

Interculturol Radio at Chicago George Jennings

Flight by Sight Ray 0. Mertes

A Classroom Teacher's Plea for Social Studies Films Elizabeth Gruner

Science on the Air Ruth Weir Miller

Visual Aids in a Small City School System W. Max Chambers

The Problem of Quality in 16mm Sound Henry A. Morley

A Junior-College Audio-Visual Center in Colorado

Who's Who in Audio-Visual Education —

No. 45: Hardy R. Finch — No. 46: Samuel G. Gilburt

Who's Who in Radio Education — No. 11: Harold B. McCarty

Newark's Educational Radio Station Newark Evening News

The Ploy's the Thing Flora Rheta Schreiber

The 1946 ANFA Yearbook Horace O. Jones and Wilfred L. Knighton

24
33
35
38

Less Thon Five Subscriptions Five or More Subscriptions

One Year $2.00 Each 25% Discount on

Two Years 3.50 Each Quantity Orders

Three Years 5.00 Each to One Address

Less Than One Year 35c a Copy

In Canada, add 50c a year; in foreign countries, add $1.00 a year.

"Course of Study in Radio Appreciotion" or "What Shall We Read About the
Movies" Free with 2-Year Subscriptions. Both Free with 3-Year Subscriptions.

WILLIAM LEWIN, Editor and Publisher RUTH M. LEWIN, Business Manager
FREDERICK HOUK LAW and B. A. AUGHINBAUGH, Contributing Editors
HELEN COLTON, Hollywood Editor

Copyright 1946 by Educational and Recreational Guides, Inc. Published nine times a year, October to June, by Educa-
tional and Recreational Guides Inc., 172 Renner Avenue, Newark 8, N. J. Re-entered as second-class matter, October
12, 1942 at the post office at Newark, N. J. under the act of March 3, 1879. Printed in USA— All Rights Reserved.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

Tested Plan Provides More Utilization, Often Costs Less than Rentals!

For all teachers and administrators who ask, “How can
I use more classroom films?” there is an easy, practical
answer. Simply join with a group of other schools in your
area to form a Cooperative Film Library.

Successfully used in many localities, the Cooperative
Film Library Program, as outlined by ^Encyclopaedia
Britannica Films Inc., offers these unique advantages:

More Classroom Films — Now! No need to wait for
the audio-visual budget to catch up with teaching needs.
By pooling their purchases a group of 5 to 15 schools can
use more films without increasing the budget.

More Availability! Teachers have much more assur-
ance of getting the right Encyclopaedia Britannica class-
room film they want when they want it. Films can be
re-used several times each year at no extra cost!

ENCYCLOPAEDIA

Flexibility! “Block” or far-in-advance booking is not re-
quired. Films are available long enough for required show-
ing in different classes and buildings. Eliminates “Must
show and ship today!’ Permits previewing and proper
preparation by teachers.

Lower Cost! A com|>arison of tbe cost of a Cooperative
Eilm Library program with that of renting (including
transportation costs and charges for extra days) shows
that the Cooperative plan saves money for its members.
Eurther, after two years the schools own their films and
can use succeeding yearly budgets to acquire additional
classroom films.

Let us tell you more about this modern plan for in-
creasing the sco|)e and use of classroom films in your
school. Write Encyclopaedia Britannica Eilms Inc., Dept.

2.3-B, 20 North Wacker Drive, Chicago 6, Illinois.

*Formerly Erpi

RITANNICA FILMS INC.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

WILLIAM LEWIN, EDITOR

January, 1 946 Volume XII, No. 4

16MM EXCHANGE PRACTICES

BY B. A. AUGHINBAUGH

Director, Slide & Film Exchange, State Department of Education, Columbus, Ohio

No. 20: What is This "Confu-
sion in the English Field ?

Translation is changing from
one language to another layi-
guage. This consists of altera-
tions in spellings, syntax, idioms.
Both the original and the trans-
lation demand essentially that
nouns function through verbs.
The whole set-up is completely
symbolic, employing sound sym-
bols. Ninety percent of the
nouns represent visual con-
cepts either directly or ab-
stractly; ten percent will rep-
resent all the other sensory con-
cepts, directly or abstractly.

But changing a book into a
motion picture is no mere trans-
lation. This is a change in which
natural forms replace the nouns,
and some form of action, state,
or condition replaces the verbs.
The adjectives become colors,
shapes, et cetera ; the adverbs be-
come positions, or degrees of
size, distance, and time. The al-
teration is as complete as the
metamorphosis which changes a
caterpillar into a butterfly. This
change is, of course, a reversal
of the mental activity which
made a living or a pictorial cat-
erpillar into the word-symbol
"caterpillar.” However, the one
who undertakes the alteration
from words to reality faces a
different task, and in many ways
a more exacting task, than the
one who works only with words.
The one who works with lan-

B. A. Aughinbaugh

guage broadly sketches his word-
scenes and characters, but he
that works with motion pictures
works with very specific enti-
ties.

An author need not be very
precise, since he knows that his
words will serve only as sug-
gestions to his readers. But the
worker in cinematics can trust
to no such “suggestions” because
acts must be precise and, as
Hamlet says, an act “overdone,
or come tardy off, though it
make the unskilful laugh, can-
not but make the judicious
grieve ; the censure of which one
must o’erweigh a whole theatre
of others.” A script can hide a
multitude of creatures under the
words, “a fight between prehis-
toric creatures,” but when a
picture director not so long ago

“metamorphosed” such a fight
into a death-battle between a
paleozoic creature and a meso-
zoic one, the protests of one spec-
tator, who knew better, caused
the producer to recall the pic-
ture and remake the scene at a
cost of many thousands of dol-
lars. Picture producers can af-
ford to have their patrons laugh
with them but not at them !

The writer in the course of his
work has discussed the subject
of pictures for the English field
with many competent teachers.
He has found that it is the situa-
tions just set forth which form
the basis of criticisms. Teachers
fail to realize that there is no
sure key by which one person
may unlock the store of pictorial
images that are contained in an-
other person’s mind. Certainly
words provide no such key.
But teachers do not realize
this until they see, via the 'mo-
tion picture, that their concep-
tions and some other person’s
conceptions (the picture direc-
tor’s, for example) may differ
very widely. There are circum-
stances which aggravate this sit-
uation. The legitimate theatre
has a background outdating the
book. It is an aristocrat. Its
great actors and actresses are
legends. But the cinema crept
into being through a very low-
ly, if not actually a bawdy,
background. The antics of some
cinema actors and actresses have
not helped to elevate it. There

PICTURI^

Screenplay by Wilfrid H. Pettittand Melvin Levy • Directed by GEORGE SHERMAN and HENRY LEVIN • Produced by LEONARD S. PICKER and CLIFFORD SANFORTH

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

has also been a tendency to her-
ald great production expendi-
tures rather than great artistic
results. Too many cinema mo-
guls have gone in for the paste-
diamond technique of the newly
rich. The precocious child has
not had time to develop a blue-
blood line. While the stage is
accepted by teachers as an aris-
tocrat, the cinema is too often
regarded by the iUustrados as an
upstart. How long it will take
for the cinema to live down its
past will largely depend on how
long picture-producers will tol-
erate in their employ persons of
low taste, and how long they will
let their productions cater to
persons of low tastes. Some
claim they cater to the box-office,
which is the barometer of public
taste. But this may be the mons-
ter which devours itself. At any
rate, many teachers are wont to
criticize negatively.

And now that we have given
Hollywood a spin, may we give
the English teachers a whirl?
Having been one of this cult, we
feel we are not wholly lacking
in the background from which
to offer some suggestions. Eng-
lish is one of the most poorly
taught subjects in the schools
today. Compared to the best-
taught subject, athletics, it is far
down the list. It all but remains
at that ancient stage of “stand
on two feet, hold the book in the
left hand, turn the pages with
the right, and speak the words
correctly and distinctly.” Prob-
ably not over twenty percent of
all English teachers ever saw a
great Shakespearan actor, and
probably not five percent ever
saw four of the bard’s plays.
Even the literature textbooks are
inaccurate. I recently saw in an
English text a passage in which
the author pointed out that there
were three ways in which Lady
Macbeth might say the words

“we fail.” I myself have known
four ways — (a) emphasis on
“we,” (b) emphasis on “fail,”
(c) descending inflection of the
phrase and (d) burst of anger.
As a matter of fact, whatever
interpretation of this phrase
Lady Macbeth decides to use,
more or less fixes her charac-
ter in the play, and to some ex-
tent fixes the interpretation of
the entire play.

Too many English teachers do
not admire the real classics.
I was in a class where they were
reading Pope’s The Rape of the
Lock — a rare occasion in these
days — but it was a “rare,” or
perhaps we should say “raw” in-
terpretation that was in prog-
ress. The Rape of the Lock is a
most amusing, though biting,
satire. Properly interpreted it
can and does produce almost hys-
terical laughter. But there was
no laughter in this class. It was
dull drudgery. The students were
doing all the reading. Why does
not the teacher ever do the read-
ing? Let me give an incident
from my own life to illustrate.

As a child I had received an
eye-injury which made reading
not a too-easy task. Added to this
misfortune I had never heard
anyone read except my fellow-
pupils, who, in classroom fash-
ion, merely pronounced words.
One year a new principal came
to our school ; and one day,
when our teacher was absent,
he took over our class, which
corresponded to what is now the
seventh grade. We were read-
ing the Squeers School scene
from Nicholas Nickleby, printed
in a McGuffey’s Fifth Reader.
The principal called on several
pupils to read; but, while their
pronunciations were more or less
correct, they gave no interpre-
tations of the characters. So the
principal said he would show us
how to interpret the selection.

and he did. None of us had ever
heard anything like it. There
were the gross voice and actions
of Squeers, and the weak, stam-
mering voices of the little boys.
The principal then asked several
pupils to read as he had done,
but I alone of the whole class
was bold enough to venture an
attempt. For this effort I re-
ceived something no one had
ever given me before in school —
praise! I skipped home in high
glee. I read to my parents this
selection as I had read it in
school, and I received praise
from mi] parents. From being at
the bottom of the reading class,
I became the top ; and, more im-
portant to me, I became inter-
ested in reading. This led to my
reading thousands of good
books. Example and praise will
accomplish what low grades will
n eve r do. Mere reading of
words is not interpretation.
Stressing pronunciation with-
out stressing expressive inter-
pretation is schoolroom folly.

Those who are interested in
giving the English classics via
the motion picture to the schools
should by all means give them
without rearrangement, abridg-
ment, or other alterations of the
original. Let the actors have a
chance to reach the child un-
hampered by any confusion of
misguided or mistaught peda-
gogs who are themselves con-
fused. “The play’s the thing.” So
let it “hold, as ’twere, the mir-
ror up to nature.” Remember
that every photoplay is a drama
and not the mere reading of a
book. Dramas demand interpre-
tation. There are all too few
English teachers who seem to
realize this and none too many
who could produce a dramatic
interpretation. Hence this “con-
fusion” is largely the fault of
their inadequacy.

Above all, do not cut plays or

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

book dramatizations so as to be
shown in one forty-five-minute
high-school period. These plays
and books often take ten or more
class periods to read, so why
should anyone expect them to be
squeezed into a forty-five min-
ute dramatization? This all
stems from the fact that teach-
ers disagree with Shakespeare’s
dictum that “the play’s the
thing.’’ They seem to think “the
book’s the thing.’’ We stick by
the Bard whose perpetual popu-
larity is attested by the fact
that his Hamlet has been played

at least once each day someplace
ever since it was written ! That’s
a preferential record that be-
speaks merit. We have asked
hundreds of teachers whether
they wish the theatrical produc-
tions of the classics changed in
any way, and their unanimous
answer is, “No!”

There are many who are will-
ing to place so much trust in
words, and so little faith in
things, that they are akin to
those persons who show little
concern over the devil’s making
monkeys out of men but raise

a hubbub when anyone suggests
that God can make a man out of
a monkey. It is quite as worthy
an effort to make a drama out of
a book as to make a book out of
iiiv, drama of life. The cinema
must be accepted as the realistic,
visual form of communication
and the book must be recognized
as a man-made, symbolic audio-
communication. Then and then
only will this “confusion” in the
English field, as well as in many
other fields, pass away. Drama
is life. The book is merely about
life.

BEHIND THE SCREEN CREDITS

BY HELEN COLTON

Hollywood has what is prob-
ably the most talented train in
the world.

For where else could you find
a train that has toot-tooted its
way around the world without
traveling more than a quarter
of a mile? That has smashed
speed records without going
more than 15 miles an hour, and
then, not even under its own
power? That has survived
bombings, hold-ups, crack-ups,
and bridge wash-outs? That has
had kings and queens, cops and
robbers, cowboys ’n Indians for
passengers? And has been ev-
erything from a swanky red-
and-gold private car or an ex-
tra-fare silver streamliner to a
shabby second-class coach or a
freight train?

What makes this train so
unique is that it has done all of
these things with only a loco-
motive and a half-dozen cars.

without evci moving off Lot No.
2 at MGM Studios in Culver
City.

Most of its frequent trips be-
gin and end right at the MGM
version of a big-city train-sta-
tion, one of three “standing sets”
of railroad stations.

To bring Robert Walker to
New York’s Pennsylvania Sta-
tion in The Clock, Greer Garson
to London’s Victoria Station in
Mrs. Miniver, Robert Taylor to
Moscow in Song of Russia, Irene
Dunne to Southampton in White
Cliffs of Dover, and Fred As-
taire and Lucille Bremer to a
mythical South American capi-
tal in Yolanda and the Thief,
the train has taken exactly the
same route. It has stood still on
the track and had the signs on
its adjoining station changed!

Before Mickey Rooney went
into service, it actually got to
travel once in a while — to Car-

vel, home of Andy Hardy and his
family. “Traveling” to this train
means moving a few hundred
feet up the track, pulled by a
ten-ton truck loaded with con-
crete blocks to give it traction.
As it pulls into “Carvel Depot,”
the second railroad standing set,
it huffs and it puffs and it chugs
as joyously as if it had escaped
from Lot 2 and were making a
real trip to a real middle-west-
ern city.

On a few occasions over the
many years it’s been an actor,
the train has gone to Toledo,
Ohio, by going to Carvel. Toledo
being the first stop after Chi-
cago on the New York Central’s
Twentieth - Century Limited,
anyone who forgets to mail a
letter in Chicago usually jumps
off at Toledo to do so. Carvel
Depot, with a change of sign and
the addition of a U.S. mailbox,
becomes part of the Toledo sta-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

FEBRUARY, 1946

The story of "The Harvey Girls" begins on the train which, with various make-ups, has played notable parts in MGM productions.

tion.

The third standing station is
an exact duplicate of the one at
Port Huron, Michigan, where
Young Tom Edison, in the per-
son of Mickey Rooney, earned
his early living as a candy butch-
er and once rescued a little girl
from being crushed beneath a
train when she fell to the tracks.

To go from Carvel to Port
Huron you travel about 200
feet. Young Robert Shannon of
The Green Years recently got
off at a slightly renovated “Port
Huron” to find himself in Win-
ton, Scotland.

Travel in the movies is not
broadening; it’s downright con-
fusing. Imagine taking the same
time to go ten miles as it takes
to go 2,207 miles! The people

who set up time schedules for a
real railroad would go berserk
trying to figure out a schedule
for this one. A time-table would
read :

Depart N. Y. C., Arrive Newark,

N. J., 10 miles, approximately
2 days.

Depart Los Angeles, Arrive Chi-
cago, 2207 miles, the same run-
ning time.

It takes a picture crew and
cast the same time to film the
departure and arrival of a short
trip as it does for a long jour-
ney.

All the cars in the train are
veterans of service with real
railroads. They were bought by
the studio purchasing depart-
ment and hauled over the regu-
lar tracks right to the studio,
which has its own railroad sid-

ing.

Like glamour girls, they un-
dergo frequent changes of body
contours, acquiring new chassis
and fittings, mostly of plaster,
wood, and paint, as they are
needed to play pullmans,
coaches, dining cars, club cars,
and so on. By now, only one car
has its original body. It’s a box-
car, once actually used by the
Wells Fargo company, and now
used in films as a baggage or
mail car.

The train also has reserves to
call upon. These include two
subway cars, which played lead-
ing roles in The Clock, a couple
of Toonerville trolleys, used for
“The Trolley Song” in Meet Me
in St. Louis, and two British
coaches.

Volume XII, No. 5

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

The concluding scenes of "The Harvey Girls" ore likewise played on this

interesting train.

Most recent and prized pur-
chase is a little black locomotive
still bearing the seal of the Bald-
win Locomotive Works in Phila-
delphia, which was the first con-
cern to manufacture train en-
gines in the U.S., and which be-
gan to build locomotives more
than a hundred years ago.

All aglitter with brass fit-
tings, the new engine has al-
ready been initiated into movie
acting in The HcD'veij Girls. In
the days when it was in actual
use, it burned wood or coal to
supply power. But with present-
day movie magic, it has an oil-
burning diesel engine. And
what’s more, it gets a song about
itself. The Atchison, Topeka, and
Sante Fe, sung by Judy Gar-
land !

Yes, this talented train has
already “gone places” by not go-
ing any place.

"Read the Book — See the
Picture"

The Grosset & Dunlap Film
Classics Library is a series of
illustrated motion-picture edi-
tions priced at $1. Since the se-
ries was launched last fall, six
volumes have appeared :

1. State Fair, by Phil Stong,
on which Twentieth Century-
Fox based its Technicolor musi-
cal with new music by Richard
Rodgers and Oscar Hammer-
stein II, creators of Oklahoma.

2. Weekend at the Waldorf,
novelized by Charles Lee, liter-
ary editor of the Philadelphia
Record, from the original MGM
screenplay about Manhattan’s
luxury hotel, starring Ginger
Rogers, Lana Turner, Walter
Pidgeon and Van Johnson.

3. Love Letters, Chris Mas-
sie’s psychological novel, which
inspired the Hal Wallis produc-
tion for Paramount, starring
Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cot-
ten.

4. Our Vines Have Tender
Grapes, George Victor Martin’s
“neglected masterpiece” about
the “Little Norway” region of
Wisconsin, filmed by MGM.

5. Tomorrow Is Forever, by
Gwen Bristow, the story of the
dilemma facing a woman hap-
pily married for the second time,
who is suddenly confronted by
the return of her first husband,
whom she believed killed in the
war. The International picture

based on the novel, released by
RKO-Radio, stars Orson Welles,
Claudette Colbert and George
Brent.

6. And Then There Were
None, by Agatha Christie, the
mystery on which 20th Century-
Fox based the Rene Clair mo-
tion picture, starring Barry
Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, and
Louis Hayward. It is the story
of ten people, each with a crimi-
nal past, marooned on a deserted

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

FEBRUARY, 1946

•jiw

How can an accident
be AVOIDED here?

Frames in the filmsiides accompanying the first classroom motion pictures
produced by Young America Films.

island. One by one, each of the
group is killed.

The jackets of these books
make excellent posters for class-
room bulletin boards and serve
to stimulate home reading.

* ★ *

First Reels Released by
Young America Films

WE, THE PEOPLE. A classroom visual
study kit for a unit on the United Na-
tions Charter. Suitable for Grades 7 to

12. Produced by Young America Films,
Inc. Running time, 8 minutes, plus time
required for 80 frames of slidefilms. The
film is 16 mm sound, black and white.
$30 for complete kit.

The film, which is accompa-
nied by a teacher’s manual and
two filmsiides of forty frames
each, presents a simple approach
to the problem of a world feder-
ation of nations. The reasons for
the UNO and the set-up pro-
vided in its charter are ex-

plained briefly in the movie. The
manual is an elaborate brochure
of 44 pages, with many illustra-
tions and three diagrams of the
UNO organization, functions,
and personnel, together with
utilization suggestions. The first
slidefilm unit deals with the
needs and purposes of the char-
ter; the second, with its or-
ganization. It would be useful to
add a unit on the necessity of es-
tablishing international laws in
place of the present doctrine of
national sovereignty, which rec-
ognizes no world authority capa-
ble of checking an aggressor na-
tion.

SAFETY BEGINS AT HOME. Classroom
film for Grades 4 to 6. Produced by
Young America Films, Inc., 18 E. 41st
St., New York 17. Running time, 10
minutes. 16mm sound, block and white.
Released 1946. $25.

This film helps the child to
avoid various safety hazards in
the home — explaining how to
use a jack knife, how to use a
step-ladder, how to avoid acci-
dents on cellar stairs, how to
handle electric cords, how to
light a gas oven, how to handle
hot pans, and where to keep poi-
son medicine. The film is an ex-
cellent one, but one wonders why
the final episode changes the
point of view from that of the
child to that of the parent, by
showing that poison medicine
should be kept on the top shelf
of the medicine chest, out of the
reach of children. A guide to the
utilization of the film accom-
panies the reel, which is one of
the first made by Young Amer-
ica Films.

★ ★ ★

Puppefoons Go Chaucerian

The Canterbury Tales are the
basis of a series of Puppetoons
planned by George Pal. “Chan-
ticleer, the Cock,” one of the
famed Chaucer’s characters, will
provide the framework of the
first.

U FIUA^ ASm RAD]O^GU|D^ Volume XII, No. 5

Racial Stereotypes In Our
English Textbooks

BY JEROME CARLIN

Brooklyn High School for Specialty Trodes, Brooklyn, New York

William didn’t want to go on
the errand. He didn’t want to
carry home the wash-tubs and
the clothes-boiler from the sec-
ondhand store, but more than
that, he objected strenuously to
walking through the streets with
that awful-looking nigger. Gen-
esis.

But mothers have no regard
for the tender sensibilities of a
boy’s feelings. Willie Baxter just
had no choice about doing that
chore ; he was condemned by his
mother to reveal himself publicly
in the company of a disreputable
Negro and the latter’s equally
disreputable dog.

Genesis, on the other hand,
was blissfully unaware of the
keen embarrassment he was
causing his patron’s son. The di-
lapidated state of his overalls
caused him no concern ; in fact,
he completely lacked anxiety
about any aspect of his appear-
ance. On his feet were what had
once been a pair of patent leath-
er dancing-pumps ; in his mouth,
the salvaged stub of a cigar; on
his head, an ancient derby, its
color resembling his own, its
weight pressing down upon his
“markedly criminal’’ ears. And
as with the master so with the
dog, for tagging Genesis’s foot-
steps came such an animal as
would have been known any-
where as a colored man’s dog.

This was the ordeal of William
Baxter, that together with these
two he must make part of a hor-
rible pageant advancing through
the streets of the town.

Reprinted from “High Points,” .Jan-
uary, 1946.

Jerome Carlin

Dangers of Racial
Stereotypes

In this vein Willie Baxter’s
embarrassment over his predica-
ment furnishes comedy for three
chapters of Seventeen, a novel by
one of America’s best loved au-
thors, Booth Tarkington. Al-
though the preceding para-
graphs are not a direct quota-
tion, they summarize both the
circumstance and spirit of this
episode in the book. The au-
thor’s treatment of Genesis is
one of good-natured jest; indeed,
not a single drop of ill-will
stains the pages of this or any
other of the Tarkington stories,
which have entertained millions
of readers. Nevertheless, such
characterizations as Genesis or
the equally comic Gertrude, the
Negro serving-maid in Alice
Adams, are distinctly regretta-
ble. While the omission of these
minor characters would not have
diminished by one whit the ap-
peal of either novel, their inclu-

sion makes these books unsuit-
able for use in our schools.

Genesis exemplifies the racial
stereotype, for his character is
drawn to a definite pattern. The
racial stereotype presents a
member of a specific race or re-
ligion in a stock characterization
which labels as inferior not only
the individual character in the
fictional world of the story, but
also, by extension, all other
members of his group in the liv-
ing world of the community.
However little this outcome may
have been intended by the au-
thor, it is as tragically fatal as
the shooting committed by the
fellow who didn’t know the gun
was loaded. If the blundering
domestic servant in the story is
a Negro, if the gangster-villain
bears an Italian or Greek name,
if the usurious pawnbroker pos-
sesses Semitic features, if the
sneaking cattle rustler turns out
to be a Mexican “greaser,” if the
stupid policeman calls upon the
blessed saints in an Irish brogue,
the bullet of intolerance slips as
hurtfully into the heart of the
victim as if the trigger had been
pulled with premeditated malice.
The victim, alas, is every Negro,
every Italian or Greek, every
Jew, every Mexican, every Irish-
man or Catholic.

Stereotypes in Current
Fiction

Racial stereotypes as they ap-
pear in current literature and on
radio and screen were studied
recently by Columbia Univer-
sity’s Bureau of Applied Social
Research. Popular light fiction
proved to contain the worst in-

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

stances of such character por-
trayals. What the Columbia
workers found (according to
American Unity, June, 1945)
was a constant repetition of ra-
cial stereotypes “exaggerating
and perpetuating the false and
mischievous notion that ours is
a, white, Protestant, Anglo-Sax-
on coimtry in ivhich all other ra-
cial stocks and religious faiths
are of lesser dignity. . . . Non-
sympathetic characters were sel-
dom A^iglo-Saxon The be-

havior of these fictional c/iarac-
ters could easily be used to
‘prove’ that the Negroes are
lazy, the Jews wily, the Irish su-
perstitious and the Italians
criminal. . . . Over and over
again the superior-inferior con-
notations repeated, themselves in
stereotyped dialogue and de-
scription. . . . The evidence is
clear. American short story
writers have made ‘nice people’
synonymous tvith Anglo-Sax-
ons.”

Textbook Stereotypes

If these facts are so over-
whelmingly proved against cur-
rent popular literature, to what
extent may they also be true of
our textbook materials, some of
which are drawn from just such
publications as were studied by
the Columbia group? Happily
enough, on a comparative basis
the textbooks approved for use
in our English classes appear to
advantage. Because the editors
of school books have been more
conscious of this problem than
have other editors and because
selection has been exercised in
establishing approved book lists,
the proportion of undesirable lit-
erature on the selves of school
bookrooms is slight when com-
pared with the publications on
the book counters and magazine
racks of commercial dealers.

But whether racial stereo-
types in our textbooks are many

or few, the fact remains that
there should, be none. Having
embraced the aim of teaching
our students to live together
without group tensions in a spir-
it of understanding, harmony,
and mutual respect, we cannot
permit even an occasional influ-
ence to operate in our classrooms
against this objective. There are
forces enough outside school
walls which we cannot control.

Even closer vigilance is need-
ed to guard against the dangers
of racial stereotypes in our Eng-
lish textbooks. From the fruit of
such distorted concepts about
minority groups come the seeds
of hatred and disunity.

Why Stereotypes Slip By

What causes authors and edi-
tors to err in their handling of
this problem? Why have we per-
mitted books containing racial
stereotypes to remain on our ap-
proved lists? Why do many of
us, although possessing warm
sympathies and sincere demo-
cratic ideals, still continue to as-
sign to our students reading
matter that is dangerous and
subversive?

First of all, the absence of ma-
licious intent deceives us. The
wielder of a poison-pen would
arouse our indignation, but the
portrayer of the stereotype fails
to disturb us because he obvious-
ly has no intention of fomenting
discord, of slandering or misrep-
resenting. He doesn’t deliberate-
ly run down the poor old lady
crossing the street. He is the hit-
and-run driver who is entirely
unaware that he has bowled
over the pedestrian.

Sometimes even those who are
champions against intolerance
follow unconsciously a distorted
pattern in treating of minority
peoples. In an outstanding high-
school reading text, prepared by
an exceptionally competent and
liberal group of editors, an es-

say declares that Negroes sing
songs of contentment with their
humble lot in this life, looking
to the hereafter for their sus-
taining hope. That is the old
pattern of representation fol-
lowed by those who were kindly
disposed toward the Negro in
the days of Harriet Beecher
Stowe. It is the pattern of all the
humble Uncle Toms in our liter-
ature. Articulate Negroes them-
selves have been telling us re-
cently that they do not welcome
for their own group any larger
share of the “humble lot” than
falls to the fortune of any other
people. Negro spokesmen have
been declaring their abhorrence
of Uncle Tom, whether he exists
in fact or fancy. When a musical
version of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
came to Bridgeport, Connecticut,
not long ago, the New York
Times reported that it drew pro-
tests from Negro community
leaders. The pattern of the Ne-
gro contentedly lullabying his
woes to sleep is hardly one to
repeat in a book bearing a copy-
right date in these 1940’s. Nev-
ertheless, on occasion even the
alert editor or author thus al-
lows a racial stereotype to mar
his work. It slips by him, and
it may slip by us who teach his
book.

It gets by the more readily
because custom has blunted our
sensitivities. The racial stereo-
type is such a natural feature
of the literary landscape that the
mind’s eye unsearchingly passes
over it just as the glance ab-
sently sweeps past the familiar
monument in the center of a
square.

In the case of the Negro, who
of all minority groups is the
most frequently delineated in a
distorted pattern, there is an
additional reason for the dull-
ness of our perceptions. When
we laugh at literature’s comic
Negroes, at the Rochesters and

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

Stepin Fetchits of radio and
screen, we are by no means ig-
noramuses, brutes, or fascists- —
although some day history will
surely find some uncompliment-
ary term for our benighted state.
White men have been victims of
a social disorder which has
placed the Negro on a lower
plane in the scale of human val-
ues. The Negro has generally
been seen in an inferior position
— living in slum dwellings,
working at menial occupations,
traveling in Jim Crow cars.
These obvious facts would hard-
ly be worth mentioning here,
were it not to explain why even
the most liberal heart under a
white skin occasionally fails to
react to the stereotype with pain
and outrage. These facts explain
why belly laughs, instead of
roars of indignation, greet the
slap-stick portrayal of the Ne-
gro— the stereotype which de-
picts him as an eye-rolling,
shuffle-gaited, “no-account” fel-
low, who hates to work, loves to
gamble, carries a rabbit’s foot
and suffers from the abject cow-
ardice created by his own su-
perstitions. When such a twisted
characterization appears in the
pages of a story, we ought to
snap the book shut and drop it
in the incinerator ; when it
comes through the radio loud-
speaker, we ought to twist the
dial and write the sponsor a
burning letter; when it appears
on stage or screen, we ought to
cease our chuckles and sit silent
and ashamed, making the box-
office shudder. If generally we
don’t do these things, it may be
because we are not aware. The
stereotype, the pattern, has been
too well established.

This is perhaps as true for
teachers as for everyone else.
Even those of us who are most
sensitive to this problem may
have passed over instances of
dangerous racial patterns with-

out seeing them for what they
are. Nearly everyone has read
Edgar Allan Poe’s story The
Gold-Bug. Certainly every Eng-
lish teacher is familiar with it,
and many have included Poe’s
tale of treasure-hunting in read-
ing assignments for their
classes. How many of us have
recognized that for the imma-
ture minds of high-school stu-
dents this story is n dangerous
formative influence and an un-
desirable reading assignment?

How the Stereotype Works

The Gold-Bug is a favorite of
anthology makers, appearing in
a number of collections. Because
the study of the forces creating
prejudice has only recently been
begun, the implications of a
character like the Negro Jupiter
in The G(dd-Bug have been over-
looked.

Poe was no bigot, and his
treatment of Jupiter was cer-
tainly sympathetic. Had Poe’s
attitude been really vicious, had
he shown hatred or contempt for
his Negro character, the effect
on the modern high-school stu-
dent might have been less tell-
ing. Our local schools have
sought to educate boys and girls
in ideals of tolerance and. bet-
ter yet, of mutual respect and
acceptance of others. Today’s
high-school youth might be re-
pelled by an intolerant attitude
in an author’s work, but Poe ob-
viously loved that foolish old
darky, and so all the defenses
that might be raised are down.

Our first introduction to Ju-
piter is in this sentence: “In
these excursions he was usuallg
accompanied by an old Negro,
called Jupiter, who had been
manumitted before the reverses
of the family, but who coidd be
induced neither by threats nor
by promises to abandon what he
considered his right of attend-
ance upon the footsteps of his

young ‘Massa Will.’ ”

As he reads this, the student
unconsciously establishes cer-
tain patterns of thought. (What
do I know about Jupiter? 1 know
that he is a Negro. He is cdso a
servant, just like the Negroes m
most stories. The author says
that Jupiter has been “manumit-
ted”; according to the dictionary
that word means “freed from
bondage.” So Jupiter must have
been a slave once, but the fine
old fellow still worships his mas-
ter, and )ieither threats nor
promises will drive him away.
The people in the story find it
necessary to humor him by let-
ting him attend and serve his
“Massa Will”)

The student reads further and
encounters this description : “Ju-
piter, grinning from ear to ear,
bustled about to prepare some
marshhens for supper.”

(That's familiar. I’ve seen
some characters like that in the
movies, usually Negroes, too.
Happy-go-lucky in a kind of
simple-minded , childish way. hi
stories people who are dignified
and important don’t grin from
ear to ear.)

Progressing with the narra-
tive of the treasure hunt, the
reader learns that Jupiter was to
drop the gold-bug from the
branch of a tree in order to lo-
cate the buried hoard. He reads
Master Will’s inquiry as to
whether Jupiter could climb the
tree — and the servant’s reply :

“ ‘Yes, Massa, Jup can climb
any tree he ebber see in he life.’

“ ‘Then up with you os soon
as possible, for it will soon be
too dark to see what we are
about.’

“ ‘How far mus’ go up, Mas-
sa?' inquired Jupiter.”

(There’s a big difference be-
tween how Jupiter talks and the
way his master speaks. Jupiter’s
dialect is a little funny. Not that
I’d want to laugh at it in any

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

mean tvay, hut some of his re-
marks tickle my fiimiy-bo7ie just
because they’re in dialect. I
guess my English is vretty good
by comparison.)

“ ‘Get up the main trunk first,
a7id then 1 will tell you which
ivay to go — and here — stop!
Take this beetle with you.’

“ ‘De bug, Massa Will! — de
goole-bug!’ cried the Negro,
draiving back in dismay. ‘What
prepai'ed to ascend the iree.”

“ ‘If you are afraid, Jup, a
great big Negro Like you, to take
hold of a harmless Little dead
beetle, ivhy you can carry it up
by this string — but if you do not
take it up luith you in some way,
I shall be under the necessity of
breaking your head with this
shovel.’ ”

{Jupiter is just like a little
child, but his master knows how
to deal with him. Master Will
talks exactly as if Jupiter were a
little boy. First he coaxes — then
he threatens to beat Jupiter.)

“ ‘What de matter now, Mas-
sa? said Jup, evidently shamed
into compliance. ‘Always want
to raise f uss wid ole nigger. Was
only f minin’ anyhow. Me feered
de bug! — What I keer for de
bug?’ Here he took cautiously
hold of the extreme end of the
string, and, maintaining the in-
sect as far from his person as
circumstances ivould permit,
27repared to ascend the tree.”

{The Negro is scared all right.
It makes you laugh at how
frightened he is of a little bee-
tle. Maybe superstitious, too.)

Reading on, the pupil is enter-
tained with how Jupiter climbed
the tree, how he hesitated to
venture out on the limb unless
he could first rid himself of the
beetle, and how his master re-
monstrated with him.

“ ‘You infernal scoundrel!’
cried Legrand apparently much

relieved, ‘tvhat do you mean by
telling me such rionsense as
that? As sure as you let that
beetle fail. I’ll break your neck.
Look here, Jupiter! Do you hear
me ?’

‘‘ ‘Yes, Massa, needn’t hollo at
poor fiigger dat style.’ ”

{Jupite7‘’s right. Even if he is
a fiigger, his master shouldn’t
yell at him that way.)

“ ‘Well! now listeti! — if you
will venture out on the limb as
far as you think safe, and 7wt let
go of the beetle. I’ll make you a
prese'ut of a silver dollar as soon
as you get down.’ ”

{Boy, I can just see Jupiter’s
eyes bugging out! I’ll bet he’d
do almost anything for a dollar.)

Next in the sequence of events
Jupiter was instructed to drop
the gold-bug through the left eye
of a skull which was attached to
the end of the limb. However,
this procedure failed to locate
the position of the buried treas-
ure until Master Will suddenly
saw the light.

“ ‘You scoundrel,’ said Le-
grand, hissing out the syllables
from between his clenched teeth
— ‘you inferncd black villain! —
speak, I tell you — answer me
this instant, without prevarica-
tion!— which — which is your
left eye?’

“ ‘Oh, my golly, Massa Will!
Ain’t clis here my lef eye for
sartain?’ roared the terrified
Jupiter, placing his hand upon
his RIGHT organ of vision, and
holding it there with a desperate
pertinacity, as if in immediate
dread of his master’s attempt at
a gouge.”

{Now wasn’t that a stupid
trick? The poor colored man
didn’t know his left eye from his
right.)

And so it goes. The effect up-
on the young reader of such a
story as The Gold-Bug is to es-
tablish in his mind a stereotype
of the Negro as an ignorant.

foolish, childlike, craven individ-
ual. How can the average white
youth help but feel patronizing-
ly superior toward Jupiter? If in
empathy the reader projects
himself into the place of a char-
acter in the story, it is the mas-
ter, Will Legrand, whose role
he plays in imagination. With
Legrand, the reader heaps im-
precations on Jupiter for his stu-
pidity, his ridiculous fears. With
Legrand, the reader lovingly
condescends to wheedle Jupiter
with a silver dollar. With Le-
grand, the reader looks down
upon Jupiter from the lofty pin-
nacle of white superiority.

If Jupiter could be accepted as
an individual rather than a type,
Poe’s characterization would not
be objectionable. Unfortunately,
Jupiter is precisely the prototype
of his fictional brethren as they
are encountered by the high-
school student everywhere, at
the local motion picture theater,
on the radio, and between the
pages of other books, including
other textbooks. Jupiter rein-
forces other images, and they in
turn reinforce the cruel carica-
ture that is Jupiter.

Other Minority Groups

Although the stereotype of the
Negro is the one found in our
textbooks most often, other mi-
nority groups suffer similar
treatment. The Irishman, for in-
stance, appears in several derog-
atory patterns. This kind of por-
trayal, incidentally, has existed
for some time in the history of
English literature. Hard feeling
between the English and the
Irish gave rise to the disparag-
ing delineation of the Irishman.
Subsequently this tendency was
carried over into American liter-
ature and has continued down to
the present day.

Some textbook stereotypes of
the Irishman are casual — a
chance descriptive phrase, a

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

passing remark. In JoJuunj T re-
main the hero, delivering a mes-
sage to a man named Molineaux,
is described as uncertain wheth-
er the idea had penetrated the
recipient’s “thick skull.’’ Had the
author stopped there, she would
have done the cause of intercul-
tural harmony a service. But the
writer went further and added a
label ; her complete phrase is
“the wild Irishman’s thick
skull.’’ This is an example of the
all-too-ready characterization of
the Irishman as dull-witted,
thick-headed. The author would
have done better to omit the
group label.

An older example of the un-
complimentary treatment of the
Irishman appears in Nathaniel
Hawthorne’s Mr. Higgitiboth-
u/n’.s- Catastrophe. This charac-
terization partakes less of the
nature of the stereotype in the
sense that the Irishman is not
portrayed here as dense of wit.
Nevertheless, his is an unsympa-
thetic role. The plot of the story
hinges on a rumor that "Mr.
Higginbotham of Kimballton
iras murdered i)i his orchard at
eight o’clock last night by an
Irishman and a )iigge}-." Had the
rumor turned out to be wholly
unfounded, this story would
have made a fine lesson in the
need for combating rumors
about the misdeeds of persons
belonging to minority groups.
Unfortunately, the climax of the
story finds Mr. Higginbotham,
several days after the inception
of the false report, saved just in
the moment before being hanged
by an Irishman. The leaks of a
poorly concealed conspiracy had
caused the rumor.

For the more familiar stereo-
type of the Irishman, Butler’s
Pigs Is Pigs offers a sorry ex-
ample. The humor of this story,

*Meisan(l, Joseph, 'rraditioiis in
.\meriean IJterature, The Modern
Chapbooks, New York, 1939.

which is very funny indeed, de-
pends upon the obtuse interpre-
tation of the shipping rates by
an express company’s agent,
IMike Flannery. All the complica-
tions of the plot arise from Mr.
Flannery’s attempt to collect ex-
pressage on guinea pigs, or
“dago” pigs as he sometimes
calls them, at the rate charged
for bona-hde porkers instead of
the fee for pets. The fact that
the author is manifestly sympa-
thetic toward his character fails
to cancel out the effect of the
stereotype.

If the Irishman appears as
stupid, members of other groups
play more sinister parts. There
is a “swarthy Greek” cast in the
role of a hold-up man in Scott
Fitzgerald’s Pusher-i)i-the-Face.
There is a “Mexican-looking”
hoodlum in Jack London’s A
Raid on the Ogster Pirates; this
character is the only one in the
gang to whom any particular na-
tionality is ascribed. Such char-
acterization is in line with the
Columbia group’s findings in
magazine fiction, revealing a
negative presentation of the con-
cept that nice people are Anglo-
Saxons.

There are also the Jews of fic-
tion and the drama, drawn as
sly money-grubbers and misers.
Fagin of Dickens’s Oliver Tirist
has vanished from the school-
room. since the novel is no long-
er on the approved list; but Shy-
lock is still with us in Shake-
speare’s play on the pound of
flesh. Although some schools
have dropped 7’he Mercluoit of
Venice, its continuance in four
editions on the textbook list
seems to indicate that this drama
still maintains a degree of i)opu-
larity.

Some have it that the six-
teenth century bard was the vic-
tim of the popular i)rejudice
then existing against Queen
Elizabeth’s physician, the Portu-

guese-Jewish Dr. Roderigo Lo-
pez.* However, whether or not
Shakespeare can be shown to
have been bound thus by the lim-
itations of his time, there is a
palpable danger of presenting to
young minds a play which por-
trays the Jew in a stereotype
l)erfectly finished in every detail.
Shylock hates Christians.

“7 hate him for he is a Chris-
tia)i.”

"But yet I'll go in hate to feed
upo)t

The prodigal Christian.’’
Shylock is a usurer.

“Antonio. Or is your gold and
■River eices and ranis?

Shylock. 7 cannot tell; I make
it breed as fast.’’

Shylock is a miser.

“Launcelot. My master’s a
very Jew ... I am famished in
his service.”

Shylock loves money more than
his child.

“Shylock. How now. Tubed!
what news from Genoa? has
thou foiDwl my daughter?

Tubal. 7 often came where I
did hear of he)', but cannot find
he)'.

Shylock. Why, there, there,
tho'e, there! a diamond gone,
cost nie tiro thousand ducats in
Frankfoi't !”

Shylock is crafty and treacher-
ous.

(Before the bargain is made)
“Shylock.

If he should break his day,
what should I gain
By the exaction of the forfeit-
ure?

A pound of man’s flesh taken
from a man

Is not so estimable, profitcdile
neither,

A.s flesh of muttons, beefs, or
goats.”

(After the bargain is made)
“Salarino. Why, I am sure,
if he forfeit, thou wilt not take
his flesh: what’s that good for?

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Shylock. To bait f ish nhthal :
if it will feed vothing else, it will
feed mil revenge.”

In short, Shylock conforms to
the racial pattern of inferiority.
While this stereotype of the Jew
casts him as being keen of wit
and well endowed with the
world’s goods, it also shows him
as lacking in spiritual wealth.
He is an inferior person because
his values are twisted, his ideals
base.

Some of us have tried to blur
the image of the stereotype in
The Merchant of Venice by
stressing Shylock’s speech on the
identity of Christian and Jew:
"Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not
a Jew hands, organs, dimen-
sions, affections, passions? . . .
If a Jew ivrong a Christian,
what is his hnmility? Revenge.
If a Christian wrong a Jew,
what should his .sufferance he
by Christian example? Why, re-
venge. The villahny ijou teach
me, I ivill execute, and it shall
go hard but I will better the
instruction.”

How is Shylock purged by this
speech or by the few other bits
of dialog which supiiosedly jus-
tify his attitude through show-
ing him ill-used by those of An-
tonio’s faith? Nothing noble ap-
pears in Shylock’s defense. Shy-
lock himself does not say : I am
motivated by good impulses. He
says : I am moved by an evil
stimulus, revenge — but so would
you be. “The villainy you teach
me, I ivill execute. . . .” What
common ground has the Jew
Shylock found with Christians?
Only the base emotions that both
can feel, only the base deeds that
both can do.

While some teachers have ex-
erted themselves to use The Mer-
chant as a springboard to lessons
on intercultural harmony, the
play may easily have the oppo-
site effect. The teacher must ex-
plain away too much of what the

author presents. If there is any
underlying attemjit in this
drama to interpret the pressures
on the Jew in that earlier day,
it never comes clearly to the sur-
face.

Walter Scott, on the other
hand, successfully carried
through such a purpose in Ivan-
hoe and made his romance a les-
son in the effects of persecution
upon the Jew in the Middle
Ages. Isaac, the Jew in Scott’s
work, is again a stereotype, not
too different from Shakespeare’s
Shylock. Isaac too loves money ;
Isaac too is a usurer. But Scott’s
character has his moments of
nobility, and he is revered by his
daughter Rebecca — unlike Jes-
sica, who is ashamed of her
father. Furthermore, Scott pre-
sented clearly the thesis that the
Jew was unjustly persecuted and
that unhappy Jews like Isaac re-
sponded to oppression with the
weapons of their wits, seeking
wealth as a bulwark against per-
secution.

Scott wrote in Ivanhoe: “. . .
there ivas no race existing on
the earth, in the air, or the uni-
ters, ivho ivere the objects of
such an unintermitting , general,
and relentless persecution as the
Jews of this period. Upon the
slightest and most unreasonable
pretenses, as well as upon accu-
sations the most absurd and
groundless, their persons and
property were exposed, to every
turn of popular fury. . . . The
obstinacy and avarice of the
Jews, being thus in a measure
placed in opposition to the fanat-
icism and tyranny of those under
whom they lived, seemed to in-
crease in proportion to the per-
secution with which they were
visited; and the immense wealth
they usually acquired, in com-
merce, while it frequently placed
them in danger, was at other
times used to extend their influ-
ence, and to secure to them a cer-

tain degree of protection. On
these terms they lived, and their
character, inf I uenced according-
ly, was watchful, suspicious, and
timid — i/et obstinate, uncomplii-
ing, and skillful in evading the
danger to which they wei'e ex-
posed.”

Scott’s purpose, however, is
sometimes thwarted by the text-
book editors who abridge and
adapt Ivanhoe. One currently
used adaptation omits complete-
ly the philosophical dissertations
on the causes and effects of per-
secution of the Jews. What re-
mains in this edition is only the
picture of the rich, money-loving
Jew, constantly terrified by
fears of robbery, violence, and
extortion by torture. Thus, even
Ivanhoe, in abridged versions,
must be scutinized for undesir-
able racial overtones.

What Can We Do?

Developing intercultural har-
mony and understanding mani-
festly is a delicate and difficult
task. No factors should be
thrown into the wrong side of
the balance to add to the weight
already there. Racial stereotypes
should be comi)letely eliminated
from our textbooks.

When publishers are made
completely aware that our
schools will not accept books
containing stereotypes, they will
set their standards accordingly
in dealing with manuscripts.
This task of education can be
accomplished only by our care-
ful scrutiny of texts and avoid-
ance of undesirable purchases.

This does not imply taking the
broom and sweeping out all of
the books which contain intercul-
tural kinks. Many texts can be
put in order merely by a few
minutes’ work on the part of the
publisher’s editor armed with a
blue i)encil. Where unsymi)a-
thetic characters have been la-
beled as members of particular

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

groups, the labels can often be
deleted. The reference to the vil-
lain’s Mexican features can be
cut; his name can be changed.
When the character has been
drawn in such fashion as to pre-

vent removal of the label — his
brogue or dialect, for instance,
may be an integral part of his
characterization — it may be pos-
sible to drop his role from the
story. Only where revisions of

this nature will destroy the
worth of a particular work, must
the remedy be complete oblivion
— but oblivion, then, it should
be. There are more than enough
available replacements.

READINGS IN PHOTOPLAY
APPRECIATION

From *^The Screen Writer^^

The Screen Writer is the offi-
cial publication of the Screen
Writers’ Guild, Inc., 1655 North
Cherokee Avenue, Hollywood 28,
California. It is published
monthly at 25c a copy. The sub-
scription rate is $2.50 a year for
12 issues. Teachers and students
of literature, composition,
speech, and drama, as well as
members of photoplay club s,
will do well to read the complete
issues of this aggressive maga-
zine.

Hollywood scenarists whose
articles appear in the Decem-
ber, 1945, issue of The Screen
Writer include Philip Dunne,
Roland Kibbee, John Lardner,
Guy Endore, and Arch Oboler.

Philip Dunne, in “An Essay
on Dignity,’’ discusses the nota-
ble article by Raymond Chand-
ler, entitled “Writers in Holly-
wood,’’ which appeared in the
November Atlantic Monthly.
Says Mr. Dunne :

Where Mr. Chandler’s piece differs
from the average attack on Holly-
wood is in its constructive approach.
He writes not to make you laugh but
to make you angry. It is a crusading
piece, and therefore hopeful. For Mr.
Chandler not only describes the symp-
toms; he makes bold to diagnose the
sickness and prescribe a cure.

Consider this paragraph:

“Hollywood is a showman’s para-
dise. But showmen make nothing;

they exploit what someone else has
made. The publishers and the play
producers are showmen too; but they
exploit what is already made. The
showmen of Hollywood control the
making — and thereby degrade it. For
the basic art of motion pictures is the
screenplay; it is fundamental; with-
out it there is nothing. Everything
derives from the screenplay, and most
of that which derives is an applied
skill which, however adept, is artisti-
cally not in the same class with the
creation of a screenplay. But in Hol-
lywood the screenplay is written by
a salaried writer under the supervi-
sion of a producer — that is to say,
by an employee without control over
the uses of his own craft, without
ownership of it, and however extrav-
agantly paid, almost without honor
for it.”

Here — and this is the heart of his
piece — Mr. Chandler is putting into
a national magazine what a thousand
screen writers have asked themselves
for years. * * *

But read “Writers in Hollywood”
for yourself. It is a “must” for every
one who believes, with Mr. Chandler,
that the motion picture is “an art
which is capable of making all but
the very best plays look trivial and
contrived, all but the very best nov-
els verbose and imitative.”

Roland Kibbee, known to a
wide radio audience as well as
to films, contributes a brilliant
satire on the Hollywood custom
of having writers work in pairs.
In “Two Men on a Vehicle,’’
which would make a good movie
short, Mr. Kibbee says :

In Europe, the wages of collabora-
tion is death. In Hollywood the wages
are much better, and you can get
away with it indefinitely. * * * All
that is required for a successful col-
laboration (and by collaboration I
mean, in case you haven’t already
guessed, a writing partnership) is a
heart of stone, a congenial mien and,
of course, a collaborator — preferably
a trusting one with big, baby-blue,
wondering eyes.

Let us take two writers and call
them Hammacher and Schlemmer.
Schlemnier is the writer. Hammacher
is the professional collaborator.

* * Three sure-fire story confer-
ence techniques follow. They are suf-
ficient to give you the general pat-
tern. As a matter of fact, this gen-
eral pattern is also called Blood ’n
Guts. Schlemmer’s blood and Ham-
macher’s guts.

1. Arrange to sit side by side with
the collaborator so that the produc-
er sees both of you, but neither of
you see each other. Now the producer
says that this or that stinks. You
quickly shoot a look of gentle re-
proach over toward Schlemmer. It is
not much, but the producer sees it
and is left with the ineradicable con-
viction that your collaborator is mur-
dering the script in spite of every-
thing you can do to prevent it.

2. This is really Number 1 with re-
verse English. The producer says that
this or that is great. You promptly
beam triumphantly upon your collab-
orator and say: “What did I tell you!”
You may indeed have told him it was
great when he thought of it. But the
effect of this, as will readily be per-
ceived, is to give the producer the im-
pression that the favored idea was
yours, and that your collaborator

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

fought tooth and nail to prevent its in-
clusion in the script.

3. And this is an over-all must.
When the producer is in a good frame
of mind and likes the way things are
going, always refer to the team in
the first person singular, such as:

“I think,” or “I did,” or “I will do.”
When the producer is irritable and dis-
gusted with the progress that is be-
ing made, always refer to the team in
terms of “We think,” or “We did,” or
“We will do.” It would be dandy if,
in the latter case, we could indicate
our collaborator and say, “He thinks,”
or “He did,” or “He will do,” — but that
is rather too obvious for practical
usage.

In conclusion, I want to say that I
am well aware of the almost certain
reprisals which this article will evoke.
You are probably overcome v/ith ad-
miration for my courage in writing it.
The fact is, I didn’t write it. My col-
laborator did.

John Lardner, who was once
a film reviewer for The New
Yorker, in an article called “Last
Word,” continues the campaign
of The Screen Writer against the
incompetence of most movie re-
viewers. Says Mr. Lardner :

Theodore Strauss, a critic turned
screen writer, wrote morosely about
the New York reviewers in the first
issue of this magazine. The trouble
with Mr. Strauss’s piece is that it
did not go far enough. There is no
hope for film reviewing in New York
or any place else as it is presently
constituted. * * *

Mr. Strauss wrote that the low-
grade critics — Daily News, Hearst,
etc. — were no good. He said that the
high-toned critics — the double-talk-
ers— were no good. He was in the
groove up till then, but he mistaken-
ly went on to speak words much too
gentle for what he called the center
group. Maybe this is because he used
to be a Times man. Times men have a
special kind of myopia toward the
distinctive, nay, spactacular, defects
of the Times. There was a good writ-
er on the Times once, name of John-
son, and there is another now, name
of Berger. That about covers it.

Guy Endore, who is a novel-
ist and researcher as well as a
screen playwright, in “Infla-
tion, Please !” bewails the pover-

ty of many screen writers. Says
he :

“One third of our active screen writ-
ers are really little guys whose in-
come is somewhere between that of a
waiter and that of a barber.”

“Indeed,” said Junior.

“In fact, one out of every ten of
our members earned absolutely
nothing.”

★ ★ ★

Arch Oboler, one of radio’s
most distinguished playwrights,
who has lately turned to motion
pictures as a writer, director,
and producer, continues the dis-
cussion started by Ranald Mac-
Dougall in the September issue
of The Screen Writer on improv-
ing sound elements in movies.
Says Mr. Oboler :

Having recently completed a picture
in which I attempted, in a degree, to
bring radio’s sound consciousness to
the cinema medium, I feel that I can
realistically discuss Mr. MacDougall’s
theoretics.

All through the writing of the
screen play I was tremendously con-
scious of particularities of sound ef-
fect and music that I wanted myself,
the director, to put into the final prod-
uct. Intimacy of sound in intimate
scenes, background sound effects to
create mental images beyond those
incited by dialog and photography,
the use of sound effects to heighten,
where possible, the dramatic effect of
the words and action, and the musical
use of the “sting” chords and disson-
ances and musical dissolves about
which Mr. MacDougall wrote so
fluently — all these were indicated in
my script.

At the most, five percent of the
critics made even the slightest refer-
ence to the sound track; not a single
critic made any comment about what
Ranald thinks would be most note-
worthy— the variation of sound levels,
from scene to scene, in key with the
setting.

Even as the critics failed to note
these nuances of sound, so, too, I be-
lieve were they ignored by the audi-
ence.

In the two-dimensional medium of
motion pictures, the photographic
image is the primary one and as long
as the sound track is kept at an op-
timum level of mechanical excellence,
the movie-goer obtains complete sat-
isfaction.

As a craftsman I enjoyed the work
in sound, but I cannot truthfully
say that all this meticulous sound-
track polishing made any apprecia-
ble difference in the over-all values
of the picture.

★ ★ ★

Contributors to the January,
1946, issue of The Screen Writer
include Scenarists Howard
Koch, F. Hugh Herbert, Alvah
Bessie, and Arthur Strawn.

In “The Historical Film —
Fact and Fantasy,” Mr. Koch
presents a paper on the short-
comings of historical and bio-
graphical photoplays. Says Mr.
Koch :

A writer in the historical field must
find himself faced with one primary
question — to what extent must the
factual record of actual characteis or
events determine the characters and
events he is recreating ? This prob-
lem presents itself to the screen writ-
er in an even more stark foim than
to historical novelists, because of the
necessity for simplifications in a film.
Whereas the novelist may spend para-
graphs explaining a particular action
of the characters so that all its im-
plications and shadings are manifest,
the screen writer can only let the
characters and actions speak for them-
selves.

* * * Cecil DeMille, you may re-
member, was commissioned to put to-
gether a picture that would telescope
the significant portions of the his-
tory of America into a single perform-
ance. I did not see the film as it was
edited then, but of course we have all
seen many of the pictures whose parts
were spliced together into this typi-
cal De Mille colossus, entitled Land of
Liberty. An observant critic who at-
tended the performance told me that
the whole dreary panorama failed to
produce one single human being or one
substantial historical sequence. I sup-
pose it can be regarded as another
demonstration that the whole can be
no better than the sum of its parts.

On a somewhat different historical
level is a Civil War picture made a
few years ago that became one of the
world’s most popular films. Gone With
The Wind deserves a more concrete
analysis. The first portion of the film
effectively dramatized the impact of
war on a stratum of Southern society.
Several characters, notably Scarlett

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

and her two lovers, were given some
shading as human beings. Many of
the early scenes had mature writ-
ing, expel t direction, amid an ex-
travagant splendor of Technicolor
photography. However, the second
part was generally regarded as not so
successful.

What was lacking to weld this part
into the structural unity of the first?

I think the missing element was a
veiy basic one — an idea, an attitude
on the part of the author toward the
social phenomena she was dramatiz-
ing. She was writing about the fall of
a particular civilization, but there
was nothing to indicate her own evalu-
ations of that society or the historical
reasons for its overthrow.

Taking a long jump to more recent
history, let me use as an illustration
a picture 1 was connected with, be-
cause I had to deal with the main
problem here under discussion. You
will probably recall the rather diver-
gent opinions regarding Mission to
Moscow. I think it safe to say the
views of people varied with their polit-
ical rather than their dramatic con-
victions.

Coming to another American film
depicting recent historical events, it
seems to me that no venture prom-
ised more than what has become
known as Darryl Zanuck’s Wilson.
Certainly it was a picture of abund-
ant virtues, particularly in the high
calibre of its acting, direction, and
its lavish but tasteful production.
Moreover, it handleil certain scenes —
like the 1912 Democratic Convention —
with a lusty feeling for Americana.
However, in my opinion the picture
failed to achieve its intended stature
as dramatic history.

Probably our greatest need is to ap-
proach factual material with an ob-
jective and searching mind, with a
willingness to face and probe into
issues, and with considered convic-
tions about the world in which we
live.

★ ★ ★

F. Hugh Herbert, long a well-
known playwright and scenarist,
and now also a partner in a film-
producing concern, cautions the
members of the Screen Writers’
Guild again.st the publication of
vitriolic articles in which writ-
ers attack directors. Recent arti-
cles have appeared attacking
Sam Wood and Cecil De Mille.

Despite Mr. Herbert’s admoni-
tions, however, one feels that the
battle of the writers for a better
place in the sun will probably
continue.

Alvah Bessie, in “Blockade,”
discusses the various cinematic
treatments of the Spanish strug-
gle. Mr. Bessie saw military
service in Spain during World
War II and discusses, in addition
to Blockade, such films as For
Whom the Bell Tolls, Casablan-
ca, The Fallen Sparrow, Watch
on the Rhine, and ConfidcMtial
Agent. He describes the pitfalls
and difficulties of treating con-
troversial subjects in entertain-
ment films. A teacher, reading
his article, cannot but reflect on
the great contrast between edu-
cational and entertainment films.
Controversial films afford an
excellent opportunity for stimu-
lating classroom discussion, but
they afford only headaches to
Hollywood scenarists. Movie
writers fasten their hands upon
their hearts when faced with the
necessity of trying to please ev-
erybody in the presentation of
subjects concerning which there
is violent disagreement. Mr. Bes-
sie, i)ulling no punches, re-
marks :

The hero of Casablanca ran a dive
and pursued Ingrid Bergman; and in
Sparrow the hero ran after three
women and pursued a vendetta that
was both personally ludicrous and
historically absurd.

Arthur Strawn presents “The
Case for the Original Story.”
He points out the “strange fact”
that although original screen
stories are regarded with con-
tempt by both “the men who
write them and the producers
who buy them,” about half of the
literary properties bought by
studios are originals, written by
professionals and submitted
through recognized agents. Mr.
Strawn offers the following pre-

cepts for the benefit of those
who write originals :

1. Minimize all doubt in the
reader’s mind that the language
you are trying to work with is
English.

2. Ask yourself if the central
idea would make the kind of pic-
ture you personally would walk
a block out of your way to sit
through.

3. Avoid mass output of trite
stories, on the theory that if one
of five sells, you’ll do all right.
One out of five won’t sell, unless
that one is distinguishable from
the ruck.

4. Be concise. There are few
originals that can’t make their
point in thirty pages. This is
good discipline for the writer.
Studios have paid huge sums for
originals written on only ten or
twelve pages — and often pay
nothing at all for some that run
to eighty or one hundred.

5. Don’t “condescend” to
write an original ; the disparage-
ment of your own work shows
in the product.

★ ★ ★

Coordination of Textbooks

With Audio-Visual Education

Lloyd W. King, in the Jan-
uary, 1946, issue of “High
Points,” says:

“Textbook publishers are alive
to the implications of the wider
and more effective use of visual
and audio aids to teaching and
are considering the educational
possibilities of the coordination
of these media and textbooks.
The utilization of textbooks in
any radio education program is
obvious, since study guides, di-
rectives, tests, and summations
must be included in the plan of
teaching by radio. Again, if a
city embarks on a program of
adult education by the utilization
of FM bands, what is more log-
ical than to use specific text-
books as the bases of such
courses ?”

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A BASIS FOR DISCUSSING
BOXOFFICE CRITERIA

"The stage but echoes back the public voice;

The drama's laws, the drama's patrons give.

For we that live to please, must please to live."

— Samuel Johnson, in Prologue to "Irene," spoken by David Garrick.

"Variety's" Miniature Reviews
January 16, 1946

“Tomorrow Is Forever” (RKO).
Emotional family-war drama, star-
ring Claudette Colbert, Orson Welles,
and Geoige Brent. Will do well.

“Breakfast In Hollywood” (UA)
(Songs). Groovey for air audience of
the Tom Breneman ABC program.

“Tars and Spars” (Col). (Musical).
Slow but moderately pleasant tuner
starring Alfred Drake and Janet
Blair.

“Shock” (20th). Vincent Price,
Lynn Bari in horror meller; only mod-
erate boxoffice.

“Behind Green Lights” (20th).
Weak whodunit with tepid b.o. pros-
pects.

“Riders of the Dawn” (Mono),
(Songs). Minor westerner with heavy
musical accent.

“Le .lugement Dernier” (Minerva).
French-made semi-propaganda, pa-
triotic story; slim chance in U. S.
market.

"Variety's" Miniature Reviews
January 23, 1946

“Life With Blondie” (Col). Anoth-
er okay comedy in series based on
the Chic Young cartoon strip.

“A Guy Could Change” (Rep). Well-
paced meller with poor script; geared
for minor grosses.

“Detour” (PRC). Fair meller that
looks okay as supporting dualer.

“Night Boat To Dublin” (Pathe).
Capable cast wasted in this British-
made spy meller; mighty lukewarm
for U. S.

“Prairie Rustlers” (PRC). Buster
Crabbe in dual role as both hero and
villain in a fair western.

“Six Gun Man” (PRC). Bob Steele
in a watery formula westerner; even
the addicts won’t like it.

“Club Havana” (PRC). Feeble mel-
ler with w.k. Latin-American songs.

“The Flying Serpent” (PRC). Hor-
ror stuff that may get the kids but
n.g. for adults.

"Variety's" Miniature Reviews
January 30, 1946

“Diary of a Chambermaid” (UA-
Bogeaus-Meredith). Star-studded mel-
ler geared for strong grosses on
name value.

“The Virginian” (Par). Flavorsome
revival of Owen Wister novel in Tech-
nicolor. Will do okay.

“Three Strangers” (WB). Fine per-
formances mainly recommend this one.

“The Blue Dahlia” (Par). Suspense-
ful murder thriller, with strong mar-
quee pull in Alan Ladd, Veronica
Lake and William Bendix.

“The Well-Groomed Bride” (Par).
Mild comedy will be mildly depend-
ent upon Ray Milland-Olivia De Hav-
illand tags on the marquee.

“Terror By Night” (U). Standard
for the Sherlock Holmes mystery se-
ries.

“The Mask of Dijon” (PRC). So-so
horror meller for dualers.

“They Made Me a Killer” (Par).
Action film featuring Bob Lowery
and Barbara Britton, aimed for the
nabes with fair b.o. prospects.

“The Navajo Kid” (PRC). Routine
western okay for Bob Steele fans.

"Variety's" Miniature Reviews
February 6, 1946

“Sentimental Journey” (20th) (One
Song). Maureen O’Hara, John Payne,
William Bendix, plus moppet Connie
Marshall, in big b.o. weeper.

“The Hoodlum Saint” (M-G). Re-
vival of the miracle reformation
theme, with name cast to aid selling.
Average b.o.

“Bad Bascomb” (M-G). Wallace
Beery and Margaret O’Brien in tale
of pioneer western days; strong box-
office.

“Ambush Trail” (PRC). Formula
western with Bob Steele, but lack-
ing in slugging and gunplay.

“Idea Girl” (U). Clever, small-
budgeted tunefilm offering irlenty of
entertainment. Above average li.o.

“Six P. M.” (Artkino). Russian-

made musical okay for houses using
this type of film.

“Fedora” (Variety). Italian-made
version of Sardou’s stage success;
strong for arty and Italian-language
houses.

★ ★ ★

Disney Plans Three Television
Stafions

Walt Disney Productions has
applied to the Federal Commu-
nications Commission for a tele-
vision and FM band in Southern
California. It is reported this
move is preliminary to the estab-
lishment of three to five tele-
vision stations in various sec-
tions of the country. If the appli-
cation is granted, a broadcast-
ing station will be built on the
site of the 55-acre Disney Studio
in Burbank, Calif. The U. S.
Department of Agriculture For-
est Service already has approved
a transmission station atop Mt.
Lowe, Southern California.
Company plans call for the use
of the cartoon medium and the
"live” action and cartoon com-
bination in Disney television en-
tertainment.

★ ★ ★

Institute for Education
by Radio

The Institute for Education
by Radio will be held May 3-6,
1946, at the Deshler-Wallick Ho-
tel in Columbus, Ohio. With lift-
ing of gasoline rationing and
easing of train and plane travel,
there should be a record attend-
ance.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

A TEACHER LOOKS AT
THE MOVtES

Frederick Houk Law, Famous Educator,
Revieivs Current Photoplay Offerings

TOMORROW IS FOREVER. A story of
family devotion. RKO. Irving Pichel, Di-
rector. Strongly recommended for oil.

In this strong story of wife-
ly love and motherly devotion
Claudette Colbert presents one
of her best characterizations,
the appealing role of a wife who
can never forget, and a mother
who always will love.

When published first in The
Ladies Home Journal the story
made instant call upon the sym-
pathies. Later, in book form, it
became the choice of the People’s
Book Club. Now, as a motion pic-
ture, it stirs people with new
power.

This Enoch Arden story tells
how an American soldier of the
First World War, falsely re-
ported dead, returns to his home
town after eighteen years. There
he finds his wife happily mar-
ried again but troubled by the
coming of a new World War. Ut-
terly changed in facial appear-
ance, he evades full I'ecognition,
although the wife feels that her
dead husband somehow is near.

With his own peculiar power,
Orson Welles enacts the Enoch
Arden husband, and George
Brent plays the part of the sec-
ond husband.

One of the most touching inci-
dents in recent motion pictures
occurs in Tomorrow Is Forever
when a tiny six-year-old child,
who had seen the horrors of Nazi
killing, shieks in hysteria at the
sound of a snapper from a table
favor. All the frightfulness of
Nazi brutality springs at once
into the imagination. In other
events also in the film story lit-
tle Natalie Wood plays with such

Irving Pichel, Director of
"Tomorrow is Forever."

quick and naive reality that she
enrols herself immediately as a
child star.

The entire film story has
charm, intensity and pathos, but
one will remember longest the
frail little Austrian child who
shrieked at the sound of a toy
snapper.

SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY. Romonce
of the supernatural. 20th Century-Fox.
Walter Long, Director. Strongly recom-
mended.

Years ago such stage-plays as
The Return of Peter Grimm and
Smilin’ Through attracted wide
attention because they showed
persons who had passed from
life but who continued to influ-
ence people on earth. Senti-
mental Journey is that kind of
play in motion-picture form,
told interestingly, delicately, and
with much appeal to the emo-
tions. You may interpret it as
you please — either as showing
the supernatural, or merely as
setting forward the results of a

too-vivid imagination.

A devoted young wife (Maur-
een O’Hara) , realizing that a se-
rious heart affection soon will
cause her death, teaches a sen-
sitive, highly imaginative little
girl ( Connie Marshall), whom
she has adopted, to care for the
household after the wife has
passed away. Later, when death
indeed has come, the mother ap-
pears again and again and en-
courages the child in what
seems a hopeless effort.

Developed from a story by
Nelia Gardner White, the mo-
tion-picture play takes its title
from a popular song that both
the husband and the wife called
“Our Song.”

In all her appearances, either
as reality or as “ghost,” Maur-
een O’Hara is particularly
charming. William Bendix does
much to add humor to the some-
what sombre story. John Payne,
as the husband, and Sir Cedric
Hardwicke, as a kindly physi-
cian, help to carry out the pleas-
ing nature of this unusual mo-
tion picture.

ZIEGFELD FOLLIES. Glorified vaude-
ville in Technicolor. Mefro-Goldwyn-
Moyer. Vincente Minnelli, Director. Rec-
ommended generally.

Glorified vaudeville to the
nth degree, lively, colorful, in-
teresting, and utterly without
story, plot or contunity, the mo-
tion-picture version of the fam-
ous Ziegfeld Follies takes to ev-
ery city and hamlet of the Unit-
ed States the sparkle and gay
laughter of Broadway.

One after another, twelve dis-
connected acts flash upon the

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Young MacDonald (Orson Welles) bids good-by to his wife
(Claudette Colbert).

Elizabeth MacDonald receives notice that her husband has
been killed in action.

screen, introduced by the shade
of “The Great Ziegfeld” in the
other world, still intent upon
producing girly-girly shows on
earth.

With all his earthly experience
back of him, “The Great Zieg-
feld” plans a masterpiece that
he hopes will excel anything that
he produced in his living career.
Gifted now with more than us-
ual knowledge he calls upon such
stars as Fred Astaire, Lucille
Ball, Lucille Bremer, Fanny

Brice, Judy Garland, Kathryn
Grayson, Lena Horne, Gene Kel-
ly, James Melton, Victor Moore,
Red Skelton, Esther Williams,
Edward Arnold, and others.
With all these to carry out ac-
tion, he devises scenes of start-
ling color and activity and pro-
duces beauty and laughter.

A lovely water-ballet precedes
Keenan Wynn trying vainly to
make a telephone call. Victor
Moore becomes tangled in a mis-
demeanor and employs a too-

energetic lawyer ; Fanny Brice
wins the Irish sweepstakes ; Judy
Garland, a great lady of the mov-
ies, gives a press interview ; and
Fred Astaire dances at his live-
liest. Lavish scenery, gay cos-
tumes, and bevies of beautiful
Ziegfeld girls take one, as it
were, to the very front seats of
a dazzling Broadway production.
Unless one is altogether liverish,
he will enjoy the laughter and
the liveliness, as well as the
beauty, of Ziegfeld Follies.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

Above After twenty years, Macdonald returns os "Erich Kessler," on Austrian chemist, finds his son grown up ond his

wife happily remarried. Below — Erich Kessler tells his orphaned ward Margaret (Natalie Wood) thot she hos nothing to

fear in America.

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Above — Kessler tries to be helpful to his son, who does not know that his "dad's" chemist is his father. Below Elizabeth

recognizes that Kessler is her former husband, but he, finding her comfortably situated, helps his son and socrifices himself.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

DEADLINE AT DAWN. Mystery melo-
drama. RKO. Harold Clurman, Director.
Generally recommended.

An innocent and unsophisti-
cated sailor (believe it or not!)
and a well-educated and philoso-
phical taxicab driver (believe it
or not !) unite with a tired young
taxi-dancer to solve a murder.
Through all of one night they
follow clue after clue, involv-
ing themselves and appearing to
accomplish nothing. Then, at the
last moment, when the mystery
has deepened, all becomes clear.

The picture story, based upon
a novel by William Irish, holds
its secret until the very end and
then produces its surprising con-
clusion. Foolish as the actions of
the main characters appear to
be, those actions all have their
reasons.

Bill Williams plays the sim-
ple-minded sailor, who can be
as violent as he is meek. Paul
Lukas takes the role of the
friendly taxicab driver. Susan
Hayward enacts the Virginia
girl who has come to New York
to earn a livelihood as a paid
partner in a dance hall.

Melodramatic as the picture
is, with its presentation of gang-
ster life, it runs along smoothly,
and because of the suspense that
it creates, makes a strong im-
pression.

THE HARVEY GIRLS. Musical Extrov-
aganza. MGM. George Sidney, Director.
Recommended for adults.

If the Santa Fe Railroad had
begun building up the desert
spaces of the West with such
help as that shown by “The Har-
vey Girls’’ in the motion pic-
ture of that name, the West
would have become overpopu-
lated at once by lovers of pretty
faces, cheerful songs, delectable
luxuries to eat, and of care-
less, happy living.

Into the rainbow-colored froth
of this lively picture-story Direc-
tor George Sidney and Producer

Arthur Freed threw everything
that could increase the colors
and multiply the iridescence.
They mixed together the musical
extravaganzas of New York and
Wild West gambling halls,
poured in a touch of desert his-
tory, and touched everything
with the spice of utter nonsense.
Then, with Technicolor, they
presented it with as grand a
flourish as one could wish.

The story, if one asks for story
in such a mixture of all that is
nonsensical, tells about a young
lady from Ohio (Judy Garland),
who sets out for the wilds of
New Mexico to marry a fiance
whom she had obtained “sight
unseen’’ through advertisement
and correspondence. One look at
the man and she becomes a Har-
vey Girl, joining a group sent
from the East, and quickly be-
coming their leader in fighting
the local bad man (Preston
Foster). In the midst of every-
thing else, the extremely elastic
and ever-contorting Ray Bolger
does some of his most extraor-
dinary clowning and dancing.
Believe it or not, this color, song,
and laughter have for their
sources a book by Samuel Hop-
kins Adams and an original
short-story. Judy Garland is at
her best, and she and the whole
show make lasting and pleasant
impressions.

ADVENTURE. Melodrama. Metro-
Goldwyn-Mayer. Victor Fleming, Director.
Disappointing.

Clark Gable and Greer Gar-
son are names to draw many
millions of persons to see any
motion-picture play in which
such stars appear, but Adven-
ture is a film story not at all
suited to their abilities or to
their reputations as gained by
previous pictures.

Adventure is a rough, knock-
me-down, improbable story that
depends upon melodrama with a
capital “M’’ rather than upon

charm or subtlety. It bangs upon
the big bass drum by including
a shipwreck, a death on a raft
floating at sea, a brutal fight in
a questionable house in a seaport
city, a series of slugging affairs,
a birth that is all but tragic, and
the repentant death of a half-
crazed seaman. Such slam-bang
melodrama is a far cry from the
happy incidents of It Happened
One Night and the true tenseness
of Mr.s. Miniver.

Adventure sets forward an ex-
tremely improbable plot that
brings a hard-hitting Jack Lon-
don type of boatswain (Clark
Gable) into sudden romance
with a staid, bespectacled libra-
rian (Greer Garson). For no
explainable reason, the libra-
rian’s hoity-toity friend (Joan
Blondell), and finally the libra-
rian herself, fall for the boister-
ous, shouting, and coarse sea-
man. Then follows a marriage
that lasts three days, and a di-
vorce that lasts nine months,
while the seaman carries on with
various ladies in foreign ports.

A great public is eager to see
both Clark Gable and Greer Gar-
son, and that public will swarm
to the box office, but many per-
sons will feel keen disappoint-
ment at not seeing their favorite
screen stars in the kind of mo-
tion-picture play in which those
stars appear to best advantage.
The producers made a most un-
wise choice of a medium for the
return of Clark Gable and for
the appearance of Greer Gar-
son.

LIFE WITH BABY. A study of infant
development. March of Time. Recom-
mended for all teachers.

If you have lived with babies
— or have not — this presenta-
tion of the findings of Dr. Arn-
old Gesell and his staff at the
Yale University Clinic of Child
Development will interest you.
Teachers especially will find
much of value in the long se-

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

ries of photographs that show
the growth of physical and men-
tal powers. Through these care-
fully made pictures we gain
new sympathy with child life.
We watch the babies ti’y to solve
problems too great for them —
and wonder if we ourselves are
only children of a larger growth.

THE BANDIT OF SHERWOOD FOR-
EST. A Robin Hood story. Columbia.
George Sherman and Henry Levin, Di-
rectors. Strongly recommended.

Once again Robin Hood and
his band gallop through Sher-
wood Forest. Once again we see
Friar Tuck, Alan a’Dale and
Little John. Once again swords
flash and men make desperate
escapes. Once again we see dom-
ineering and cruel nobles striv-
ing to crush liberty. Once again
we see Robin Hoed and his men,
with their long bows that shoot
with deadly accuracy, attacking
a castle. Now, for the first time,
we see Robin Hood’s son (Cornel
Wilde) excelling even his famous
and gallant father.

According to the story, years
have passed and Robin Hood
long has been absent from Sher-
wood Forest. The Magna Carta,
wrung from King John, has led
to freedom. Then England has
fallen under the power of the
selfish, despotic Regent. To re-
sist the new tyrant, Robin Hood
once again summons his band.
He places the men under charge
of his son.

It is a gallant story, gallantly
acted. Cornel Wilde, as Robin
Hood’s son, has the zest, spirit,
dash, and happy smile that made
Douglas Fairbanks such a popu-
lar screen hero in the role of
Robin Hood.

From beginning to end we see
a long series of beautiful vistas
in Sherwood Forest. The Tech-
nicolor pictures show places at-
tractive enough to make any

Above — Friar Tuck crosses swords with the son of Robin Hood, not knowing person wish to join Robin Hood’s

who he is. Below — The outlaws, in disguise, escape from the castle. band. Into that forest go a love-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

ill

IHb l k \

Robin Hood's son (Cornel Wilde) joins his father's famous bond of honest outlaws to redress the wrongs of the Regent.
Here ore Friar Tuck, Little John, Alon-o-Dole, Will Scarlet, and Robin Hood himself.

ly lady of the highest rank and
her attendant lady, much as
Rosalind and Celia fled into Ar-
den in As You Like It.

If you miss The Bandit of
Sheru'ood Forest, you will lose
a bit of enchantment.

JOURNEY TOGETHER. English Films,
Inc. The training of British aviators.
Story by Ter~nce Rattigon. John Boult-
ing, Director.

Written, directed, and pro-
duced by members of the Royal
Air Force, the Royal Canadian
Air Force, and the United States
Army, Jounieii Together, by tell-
ing the personal story of two
aviation candidates, explains the
strenuous methods of air train-
ing for British war service.

To give the film something of
that professional and “star” in-
terest to which audiences are ac-
customed, the director intro-

duced Edward G. Robinson as a
hard-boiled United States com-
mander of air force cadets, and
Bessie Love as his sympathetic
and understanding wife.

In order to gain realistic and
typical material for this highly
personal, factual film, two Brit-
ish Flight Lieutenants journeyed
nearly 70,000 miles, visiting all
kinds of British air training
schools, and talking with all va-
rieties of candidates and instruc-
tors. With this intimate infor-
mation in mind, they developed
the story of two typical British
boys who “journey together”
through all the phases of air
training, make far expeditions
into perilous regions, experi-
ence common hazards, and at
the end still are journeying to-
gether, equally faithful and
equally heroic.

The film, through its dramatic

events, shows precisely how and
why one candidate becomes a
pilot and the other a navigator.
At the same time the film shows
how supremely necessary each
position is, and how each posi-
tion calls for unfailing skill.

Joio-ueii Together has both
dramatic and educational values.

— F. H. Law.

Mrs. Carolyn Harrow of Ju-
lia Richman High School, New
York, says:

Journeij Together is treated
with that restraint we admire
so much in the English. It has
great suspense but not a trace
of the melodramatic.

Except in two cases, the parts
are played by R.A.F. pilots,
who, in the principal roles, act
in as finished a manner as the
most talented professionals. Ed-
ward G. Robinson plays, with

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

his usual humor and expert char-
acterization, a lesser role which,
by its lack of prominence, illus-
trates his unselfish contribution
to the work of training in avia-
tion.

Questions Suggested by the Film

1. Why is the job of a navi-
gator so important?

2. Why is it that a cadet who
does well in ground school is
not necessarily outstanding as a
flier?

3. What quality which would
not display itself on a written
test makes for success in a pilot?

4. Give examples of the sym-
pathetic attitude of British and
American instructors.

Comparison with Other Films
of the Some Type

It impresses one as having all
the accuracy of Memjjhis Belle

and in comparison with other
films on the same theme empha-
sizes a new subject — a delinea-
tion of the navigator.

Additional Review of
"Tomorrow Is Forever"

This is the story of a modern
Enoch Arden, a horribly mutil-
ated soldier who preferred to be
reported missing in action, dur-
ing the last war, to coming back
to his wife as a hopeless cripple.
The complications that arose,
when twenty years later he re-
turned to the United States, with
his face changed by plastic sur-
gery, in the guise of a Viennese
chemist, make up most of the
plot. In his unselfish desire to
free Elizabeth, at any cost to
himself, from the bonds of the
past and to make her live in the

future lies the theme of this mo-
tion picture. A good deal of the
plot is too heart-rending, but it
does hold the audience’s interest.
The real surprise of the film is
the remarkably sensitive and
subdued portrayal of Orson
Welles, as John, the first hus-
band. For the first time he has
forgotten to play Orson Welles
and has been willing to sink his
personality in that of his char-
acter.

— EMILY FREEMAN.

★ ★ ★

25^0 DISCOUNT

There is a 25% discount on
orders for 5 or more
subscriptions to
FILM & RADIO QUIDE

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

Memorable scenes in the English photoplay, "Journey Together," affording on excellent basis for group discussion.

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Intercultural Radio at Chicago

A REPORT BY GEORGE JENNINGS

Assistant Director, Radio Council — Station WBEZ, Chicago Public Schools

All radio, whether it is edu-
cational, commercial, short-
wave, standard broadcast, or
Frequency Modulation, is a form
of intercultural relations. Radio
is communication, and communi-
cation, in most instances, pre-
supposes a “sender” and a “re-
ceiver.” In the usual sense of the
word, one communicates with
another individual, and as soon
as there are two individuals, “in-
tercultural relations” come into
play.

William E. Vickery and Ste-
wart G. Cole in their recent text-
book, Intercultural Education in
American Schools propose the
following objectives for inter-
cultural education : clarifying
and protecting the rights of mi-
nority peoples ; preserving to
American Democracy the Old-
World ethnic values that nation-
ality groups rightfully cherish ;
nurturing in all our students ir-
respective of racial, religious,
economic or ethnic differences, a
united loyalty to the laws and
ideals which can make America
a priceless civilization for free
peoples.

The Radio Council of the Chi-
cago Public Schools has been
cognizant of the problems of in-
tercultural relations. During the
past year it has made a concert-
ed effort to bring facets of the
problem to the attention of
teachers and students through
the scheduling of appropriate
programs.

Radio, as used in the Chicago
Public Schools, is a starting
point, rather than the end itself ;
consequently, the radio pro-
grams broadcast over stations
WIND, WJJD, and the Board’s

George Jennings, Acting Director
of Chicago Radio Council —
Station WBEZ.

own FM station WBEZ have
been motivators for the study of
problems within the classroom,
under the guidance of the class-
room teacher. For many of the
programs broadcast by the
Council, a teacher’s guide to the
use of the program is published,
containing suggested procedures
for the use of the individual
broadcasts. It has been the prov-
ince of the Council to prepare
and broadcast the best programs
it can in specific fields or courses
of study ; after the broadcast it
is the province of the teacher to
use them as he and the needs of
his class dictate.

During 1944-45, 25 series of
broadcasts, each including from
13 to 16 individual programs,
bearing directly upon the prob-
lem of intercultural relations,
were broadcast to the schools. A
cataloging of the titles will not
completely indicate the content
or the use made of the programs
in the schools. The titles sug-
gest, however, the Council’s

thinking and activity :

Lest We Forget — How our demo-
cratic institutions develoi^ed.

Famous Names — An exchange pro-
gram with the British Broadcasting
Corporation.

Lest We Forget — Demociacy is our
way of living.

Americans All — Immigrant All —

An outstanding series of programs,
emphalsizing that the immigrants to
America have profoundly influenced
our culture.

Let’s Look at Canada — An exchange
program with the Canadian Broad-
casting Corporation.

American Neighbors — A series of
programs concerned with our Pan
American neighbors, both north and
south.

Places and People of Asia — A pro-
gram presented in cooperation with
the Chicago Natural History Museum.

The New China — A program pre-
sented in cooperation with the Chin-
ese News Service.

China and India Speak to America

— A program presented in cooperation
with the East-West Society.

Brown Americans, Series 1, 2, and
3 — A group of thirty-nine broadcasts
for lower, middle, and upper elemen-
tary grades, based on the Supple-
mentary Units to the Social Studies
Course of Study.

A Look at Australia — A series of
programs done in coopeiation with
the Australian News Service.

The Peoples of Asia — A series of
programs presented in cooperation
with the Washington, D. C., Public
Schools.

Growth of Democracy — A series of
20 broadcasts presenting the out-
standing developments in the battle
for freedom.

Spirit of the Vikings and Music of
Norway — Two series of programs pre-
sented in cooperation with the Royal
Norwegian News Service.

Music of Belgium — A new series of
programs presented in cooperation
with the Belgian News Service.

In addition to these programs,
many other program series, par-
ticularly those written and pro-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

duced by the Radio Council, con-
tained individual scripts with in-
tercultural connotations. Exam-
ples are the series America's He-
roes, bringing to the middle and
upper elementary grades dram-
atized biographies of Americans
of all races, creeds, and colors
who have become “heroes” ;
Rivers of America, telling the
story of the great rivers of our
country, of the river folk from
the world over who have made
rivers their homes ; W orld Build-
ers, dramatized biographies of
men of all creeds and colors who
have contributed to civilization
their great inventions; and lit-
erature series, such as Battle of
Books, Let's Tell a Story, Tales
from Ivory Towers, Bag of
Tales, and Lady Make Believe,
suggesting that through reading
we learn of other peoples, their
contributions to each of us
through their contributions to
civilization. In this fashion our
students come to know the peo-
ples of the world, their activities,
and their daily lives. In knowing
them, they come to understand
them.

The Radio Council during the
past year has brought to its mi-
crophones a number of outstand-
ing representatives of other cul-
tures and ways of living. Dr.
Shiva Rao, journalist from In-
dia; General Carlos P. Romulo,
champion of the Philippines ; Dr.
Solomon Osorio, former Secre-
tary of State and Minister of
Education for Peru; and stu-
dents from China, Czechoslo-
vakia, Denmark, and Jugoslavia
were heard in discussions of
their countries and cultures.
Through living contacts such as
these, other cultures become
vital, dynamic, and meaningful.

The Radio Council has also
brought representatives of all
Chicago schools to microphones,
either in the studios of WBEZ
or in the studios of commercial

stations over which the Council
presents programs. An interest-
ing example of an intercultural
series of programs was a group
of 8 broadcasts dealing with the
Negro in different fields, such as
music, art, military service, edu-
cation and so forth. Lacking FM
receivers, many of our Negro
schools were not able to tune in
the broadcasts. Each week dur-
ing the series representatives of
several schools, therefore, came
to the studio to hear the broad-
cast and report on it to their
classmates.

Still another project in moti-
vating intercultural relations
through radio programs oc-
curred in the Medill Elementary
School, which followed closely
the Council series, The New
China. Here Negro youngsters
made an intensive study of their
Chinese neighbors in another
school ; representatives of both
schools visited each other ; the
Medill school gave a Chinese
luncheon for the visitors. Cer-
tainly, there is better under-
standing between those two
groups through the stimulus of
the radio programs!

In the student activities of
the Radio Council intercultural
relations have also been stressed.
It is not unusual at a meeting of
the Central Radio Workshop to
see representatives of all groups
working together at the micro-
phone: a Jewish refugee boy, a
Chinese girl, and a Negro boy,
working together at the micro-
phone on a script written by a
student of Russian extraction.
Many members of the Workshop
come from homes where a for-
eign language plays an impor-
tant part in everyday living.

The same may be said of the
three series of television broad-
casts released over station
WBKB. Here again, students
from all types of families and
backgrounds, with racial and

cultural differences, came to-
gether with but one idea in
mind : to present the best tele-
vision program they knew how.

The Radio Council has spon-
sored a number of “student opin-
ion” programs, such as the
Young Peoples' Platform, heard
on station WBBM ; Young
America Answers, Citizens of
Tomorrow, Prep Sports, and
High School Forum, all pro-
grams in which the students
themselves play the important
parts. All are heard over major
Chicago commercial stations.
They bring young people of di-
vergent backgrounds together
and give them opportunities to
know each other, to express their
views, and to come to an under-
standing of each other’s prob-
lems.

The Radio Council will con-
tinue to emphasize intercultural
relations. Several series for the
spring semester have been set
up, with major emphasis upon
this problem. The series of Wig-
wam Tales is based upon bi-ling-
ual texts used in the schools of
the United States Indian Serv-
ice. Indian problems carry over
into the activities of other mi-
nority groups ; hence, if a teach-
er has difficulty in presenting
the problems of a minority group
too close to home, he may use
Wigwam Tales, and the children
draw their own inferences and
make their own applications to
the more immediate problem.

Other new programs which
will be heard are: Current Prob-
lems, a discussion program for
high-school students ; The Atom-
ic Age, a discussion of the na-
tional and international prob-
lems presented by the release of
atomic energy ; This Living
World, in which high-school stu-
dents discuss world problems;
Lest We Forget These Great
Americans, in which the biogra-
phies of men of all races and

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

creeds are presented ; Coming
Home, in which the problems of
the returning veteran are dis-
cussed by the men themselves;
and ten in-school broadcasts for
classroom use (heard on station
WIND and WJJD, as well as
FM-WBEZ) based upon and
supplementing the course of
study in specific subject areas.

The influence of radio cannot
be measured as precisely as the
influence of other media of com-
munication. But we can offer
figures as an index of listening

in the schools, and, consequently,
the influence of radio.

The Board of Education’s Fre-
quency Modulation Station
WBEZ operated a total of 470
hours in the period from Feb-
ruary 1st to June 20th. In addi-
tion to this time on the air, 72
hours were used on standard
commercial stations. Some 14,-
000 classes, or a total of 615,000
students, listened to radio. The
schools have a total of 1160 re-
ceivers, including Frequency
Modulation sets, but have indi-

cated that they are prepared to
install approximately 700 new
AM-FM receivers as soon as
these are available. With this in-
crease in the number of schools
equipped to receive the offerings
of the Board of Education sta-
tion WBEZ, and with the con-
tinued efforts of the program
staff of the Council and the
teachers themselves in develop-
ing the use of radio in the
schools, radio will continue to
be an increasingly valuable ad-
junct to education.

FLIGHT BY SIGHT

BY RAY 0. MERTES
United Air Lines, Inc.

Flight by sight! Yes, all can
fly — either through the actual
experience of flight, or “flight”
through visual aids. True, many
may never leave the ground ex-
cept in fantasy — yet they will
“fly.” Through graphic aids pro-
duced by the airlines having edu-
cational departments, the mo-
tion picture industry, the U. S.
Office of Education, the Armed
Forces and others, “flight” has
become common.

During the war, the interest
expressed by both youth and
adults in the airplane was a
great motivating force in educa-
tion. As a result of this and the
advances made in aviation dur-
ing the war period, interest in
aviation is now a significant fac-
tor in education.

War-time interest in the air-
plane necessarily was centered
about the technical phases, so
that we might speedily train the
many men and women needed in
war-time aviation. Pre-flight
courses were developed by the
Civil Aeronautics Administra-

Ray O. Merfes, Associate Director,
United Airlines Department of School
and College Service.

tion and were taught in thou-
sands of high schools. Textbooks
for these courses soon were de-
veloped, and, though excellent
in content, they needed the fur-
ther “punch” which could be
gained by visual aids. In serv-
icing this need, practical agen-
cies came to the assistance of the
schools in producing technical
visual aids. The Jam Handy

aviation slidefilm series, the
WEFT plane-identification se-
ries, the Walt Disney films, the
U. S. Office of Education films,
and many other visual aids were
promptly produced.

The aviation industry also de-
veloped many technical visual
materials. The airlines needed
these for “in-service” training
of pilots, stewardesses, sales
staffs, and ground crews. The
aircraft manufacturers needed
films to assist in teaching weld-
ing, engine mechanics, fabrica-
tion, and the thousands of other
specialized procedures in plane
manufacture. Many of these aids
were made available to the
schools.

Recognizing that the audio-
visual approach was the speed-
iest and most effective way of
teaching, the Armed Forces pro-
duced and used many thousands
of these aids. The acceleration of
learning gained in this way is
now a part of educational his-
tory.

Since the close of the war.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

Typical display of audio-visual materials on aviation, available through The Society for Visual Education,

100 East Ohio Street, Chicago, Illinois.

education has won new responsi-
bilities. Although technical as-
pects of aviation instruction will
remain in the curriculums of
some schools for those individ-
uals who will make aviation a
profession, the major emphasis
has broadened. Aviation instruc-
tion for the masses is being in-
corporated in units at all lev-
els from kindergarten through
college. Aviation is being inte-
grated with regular traditional

subjects where it best motivates
learning. The instruction aims to
interpret the effects of the air-
plane on man’s social, political,
and economic life.

In this connection a few words
in general about “visual aids’’
may be in order. While we are
agreed that they are here to stay,
the nomenclature of “visual
aids” is sometimes misinterpret-
ed. Some of the “moderns” may
think only of films, slidefilms.

2x2 Kodachromes, glass slides,
charts, and pictures. They may
forget that anything we see is a
visual aid — only as good as the
eye viewing it — or only as good
as the instructor using it as a
tool.

Realizing a need on the part
of educators for help in their
aviation education programs,
United Air Lines, through its
Department of School and Col-
lege Service, pioneered this as-

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

sistance six years ago. Several
years later American Airlines,
through its Air Age Education
Research, and Pan American
Airways, through its Education-
al Service, entered the field. Re-
cently Transcontinental and
Western Air launched its Air
World Education program. All
these programs are based on the
premise of offering the best up-
to-the-minute educational mate-
rials and services possible to
schools in order to aid in inter-
preting technical elements of
aviation at a layman’s level of
understanding, as well as inter-
preting the social, political, and
economic effects of the airplane.
These departments, staffed by
educators, have produced and
distributed hundreds of audio-
visual aids, such as films, slide-
films, recordings, charts, maps,
pictures, and highly illustrated
reading units.

Following is a listing of films,
slidefilms, and recordings which
are available from only three of
the four airlines mentioned. List-
ings of other visual materials
will be made in future issues of
Film and Radio Guide.

United Air Lines Materials

All of the following are avail-
able on a free loan basis from
United Air Lines School and
College Service offices at :

23 E. Monroe St., Chicago 3,

111.

6th & Olive Sts., Los Angeles,
Calif.

400 Post St., San Francisco,
Calif.

4th & University Sts., Seattle,
Washington.

80 E. 42nd St., New York 17,

N. Y.

1. Coast to Coast Geography
from the Air — 53 frames
(1945) . Shows aerial patterns of
some sections of the U. S. from
East to West Coast, together
with some discussion of topogra-

phy, vegetation, climate, and in-
dustry of these sections.

2. R e s e a r c h Engineering
Aircraft Developments, Air-
ports— 24 frames (1945). Intro-
duces the subject of airline re-
search engineering and inter-
prets the flying wing, helicopter,
glider train, and jet-propulsion
plane in the light of commercial
airline use; also describes pres-
ent and future airports.

3. Meteorology and Naviga-
tio)i — 24 frames (1945). Devel-
ops an understanding of meteo-
rology in relation to flight plan-
ning and helps clarify naviga-
tion by explaining the four dif-
ferent ways of navigating a
plane.

4. Global Concepts atid the
Age of Flight — 24 frames
(1945). Explains the develop-
ment of map propections ; also
gives highlights on the implica-
tions of global geography and
global flight on youth.

5. Air Transportation, Jobs
and Yon — 55 frames (1944).
Describes jobs in air transporta-
tion, together with some aspects
of postwar employment possibil-
ities for youth in air transporta-
tion.

6. Behind the Seelies of a
Coast - to - Coast Flight — 56
frames (1944). Besides taking
us on a flight from New York
City to San Francisco, the slide-
film shows behind-the-scenes ac-
tivities of a transcontinental air-
line.

7. Seeing the Airport — 33
frames (1944). A personalized
visit to the Chicago Municipal
Airport and an airplane flight
from Chicago to Cleveland.

Motion Picture:

Of Men and Wings — 16mm,
sound, 18 minutes. The develop-
ment of transcontinental airmail
and passenger service from 1920
to 1945, highlighted with impor-
tant events and music of the

time. Commentary by Del Shar-
butt.

Recordings :

Nine 9)/^-minute dramatic
programs at phonograph speed
(78 r.p.m.) on Meteorologu,

Navigation, Age of Flight, The
World and Yon, Aiixraft Devel-
opments, Airpoiis and Airways.
Accompanied by illustrated
sheets for students and outlines
for teachers.

Pan American World Airways
Materials

All films 16mm, color, sound.
Available from Y.M.C.A. Motion
Picture Bureau, New York, Chi-
cago, Dallas, San Francisco, up-
on payment of shipping charges
both ways.

1. Wings of Alaska — 25 min-
utes. A travelog by air, combin-
ing views of Alaskan scenery,
pictures of customs and relig-
ious ceremonies of native races,
and scenes of the goldmining
and fishing industries.

2. Wings Over Latin Amer-
ica— 40 minutes. By clipper
from Miami to Nassau (Ba-
hamas) ; from New Orleans
through Central America to the
Panama Canal ; down the west
coast of South America to San-
tiago, Chile; over the Andes to
Buenos Aires ; north to Trini-
dad, Port of Spain, and thence
returning across the Caribbean
to the U. S.

3. Weekend, in Bermuda — 15
minutes. By plane from New
York City to Hamilton, the cap-
ital of Bermuda. Shows the
many attractions of this vaca-
tion resort.

Materials of Transcontinental
and Western Air, Inc.

Air World Education Division,
101 West 11th Street, Kansas
City, Missouri. Films available
without charge, except for re-
(piest that user relui'u film by in-
sured express, chai’ges prepaid.

Volume XII, No. 5

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

All films 16mm, sound.

1. Ambassador of Good Will
— 30 minutes. Showing how pas-
senger agents and other person-
nel who have charge of handling
passengers, mail, express, and
luggage are trained to carry on
service operation.

2. The Constellation — 15
minutes, color. The first flight of
The Constellation from Los An-
geles to Washington, D. C.

3. Sky Worker — 60 minutes,
color. Illustrates the widespread
operations of TWA.

4. Winged Horizons — 45

minutes, color. A TWA cross-
country flight, including opera-
tion and traffic activities prepar-
atory to flight.

5. Winged Service — 26 min-
utes. Illustrating the training of
reservations and ticket repre-
sentatives of the traffic depart-
ment.

6. Youth Takes to Wings —
55 minutes. A film explaining the
basic elements of flight.

Ray 0. Mertes is associate director
of United Air Lines School and Col-
lege Service.

A native of Milwaukee, Mertes was
graduated from the Milwaukee State

Teachers College in 1929. He began
teaching in that year in the public
schools of Beloit, Wisconsin. Later he
directed the guidance program of the
Beloit public schools, acting as chair-
man of the committee on guidance for
several years.

Mertes later served as director of
guidance at the Lyons Township
High School and Junior College in
LaGrange, Illinois, and as principal of
the Hinsdale Junior High School,
Hinsdale, Illinois. He received his
M.A. degree from Columbia Univer-
sity in 1935 and has done graduate
work at the University of Chicago.

With United for the past two years,
Mertes has specialized in the produc-
tion of audio-visual aids for use in the
schools.

A Classroom Teacher's Plea For
Social Studies Films

A live, wide-awake, social-
studies film? How can any one
afford to make such a film? Do
not various ages demand mental-
age-level films? Consider the
well-known era of United States
history which is spoken of in
the grade school as “The Nation
Expands to the Pacific,” in the
junior high school as “The
American Frontier,” and in the
senior high school and the col-
lege as “The Westward Move-
ment.” One might visualize this
broad period in a single incident
or the story of a great personal-
ity, such as Dr. Marcus Whit-
man. This unsung hero of Amer-
ican history helped shape the
destinies and boundaries of our
beautiful country. He gave his
life that you and I might enjoy
the great Northwest. He was
far-sighted enough to realize
that the pure, clear air of the
West held magic healing power.
A classroom film might show

BY ELIZABETH GRUNER

how Whitman rode from Oregon
to Washington, D.C., to plead
with President Tyler and Con-
gress, and to prove that Oregon
must be saved for the Union.
What boy or girl, man or woman
would not be thrilled to see this
daring, thrilling adventure un-
fold with simplicity, sincerity,
and that intimate personal touch
that only a good movie can cre-
ate?

Such a film should, of course,
be accompanied by a well-pre-
pared study guide for use in ad-
vance of the showing of the film.
An interesting classroom discus-
sion might include such topics as
a comparison of the West of yes-
terday and today, the ideals for
which Marcus Whitman lived
and died, and the significance of
the great westward immigration
of 1843.

Small classroom film compan-
ies have done well enough con-
sidering the limited finances and

facilities they have had. Holly-
wood, which has both capital and
facilities, has not been interested
in educational movies, because
such films cannot yield profits
comparable to those yielded by
entertainment films shown in
theatres.

Some theatrical films, such as
Wilson, produced by Twentieth
Century-Fox, presenting scenes
of Princeton, the White House,
and Versailles, and speeches in
Congress and at Democratic
Conventions, have great educa-
tional values. The interpretation
of Wilson’s speeches, the appre-
ciation of Wilson’s devotion to
his country, and the ideals for
which he gave his life in the
hope that the world might not
have to endure another horrible
war, were authentically woven
into a live, wide-awake film.

Of course, every company can-
not operate on such a large scale.
But even “B” pictures could find

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

wide support in the schools and
later a profitable market in
classrooms and auditoriums if
they were good, authentic films,
replete with American incidents
and adventures.

Is there not some way to ob-
tain more and better educational
films to help vitalize the teach-
ing of our Social Studies units?
What a great, unexplored field
awaits the energetic educator!* *

^EDITOR’S NOTE: Miss Gruner
will find some excellent social-studies
films in the catalogs of Encyclopaedia
Britannica Films, Inc., Films, Inc.,
Bell & Howell Co., and other 16mm
companies. Social-studies teachers will
do well to peruse the study guides in
the “Social Studies Assortment” pub-
lished by Film and Radio Guide.

★ ★ ★

New York Film Council
Launched

John Grierson, pioneer film
producer and leader in public
education, delivered the main
address on The Place of the Film
in the Present Social Scene at
the opening luncheon meeting of
the newly organized New York
Film Council at the Hotel Shera-
ton recently.

Some 250 producers, distribu-
tors, and visual-education group
leaders from the non-theatrical
film world greeted Mr. Grierson,
who has just returned from a
survey visit to the United King-
dom.

The meeting was opened by
Thomas J. Brandon, of the Film
Council of America, who ably
summarized the background of
the formation of the New York
Film Council. Commander Or-
ville Goldner, former head of the
Training Film Motion Picture
Branch, Navy Photographic Di-
vision, served as temporary
chairman, and introduced Mr.
Grierson, who is currently en-
gaged in organizing Interna-

tional Film Associates.

In his speech Mr. Grierson
outlined the history of the docu-
mentary film movement and
stressed the fact that through
its work in the war the film has
finally come into fuller recogni-
tion as a powerful medium of
public education. Because of its
new recognition, he said, it is
important that the motion pic-
ture continue to do in peace the
job it accomplished in the field
of reporting and education dur-
ing the war.

Mr. Grierson ended his speech
with an outline of a six-point
working program to help bring
order to production, distribu-
tion, and the use of information
films in the United States.

The New York Film Council
is planning monthly luncheon
meetings, based on the pattern
established by the Washington
Visual Workers during the war.
The luncheons will feature guest
speakers who will talk on sub-
jects of common interest to pro-
ducers, distributors, and users
of non-theatrical films. The for-
mation of the Council was init-
iated by the Film Council of
America, which is composed of
the heads of the following na-
tional organizations : American
Library Association, National
Education Association, Educa-
tional Film Library Association,
Allied Non-Theatrical Film As-
sociation, National Association
of Visual Education Dealers,
Equipment Manufacturers
Council.

The Film Council of America
works in conjunction with such
civic organizations as : The Na-
tional Parent Teachers Associa-
tion, General Federation of Wo-
men’s Clubs, American Legion.
It is a peacetime outgrowth of
the voluntary OWI National Ad-
visory Committee.

★ ★ ★

Audio Material for Teachers
of English

A long series of excellent disc
recordings, illustrating the en-
tire field of teaching English
and United States History is
now being sold by the Educa-
tional Department of Popular
Science Monthly, 353 Fourth
Avenue, New York 10, N. Y. The
subjects eventually will include
all the ordinary literary texts
used in teaching English in sen-
ior high school, as well as the
principal texts used in junior
high school and elementary
school.

Among the discs now ready
are the following: Lancelot and
Elaine, Gareth and Lynette,
A Tale of Two Cities, Silas
Marner, Treasure Island, Ivan-
hoe, Merchcmt of Venice, Ham-
let, Midsummer Night’s Dream,
She Stoojos to Conquer and vari-
ous short selections. Teachers’
manuals accompany the discs.

New Booklet on Projection

Secrets of Good Projectio7i is
the title of a 32-page booklet re-
cently published by Radiant
Manufacturing Corp., manufac-
turers of projection screens with
the “Hy-Flect” beaded screen
surface.

The booklet is illustrated. It
treats a technical subject in non-
technical language. It discusses
types of projection screens and
tells which types are recom-
mended for various room capaci-
ties. Sections are devoted to the
care of the projector, the advan-
tages of a beaded-screen surface,
the principles of reflection, and
pertinent facts related to sound
movies.

The booklet points out that
selection of a screen should be
determined by such factors as
the size and shape of the room,
the position of the projector, the
power of the projector’s light
source, and the size of audience.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

The new Ampro 16mm sound-film projector.

Julien Bryan's International
Program

The International Film Foun-
dation, a new, non-profit organ-
ization dedicated to the building
of world understanding through
the production and distribution
of documentary films, was an-
nounced recently at the Town
Hall Club in New York with
press, magazine, radio, and edu-
cational leaders as guests.

Julien Bryan, one of the lead-
ing producers of documentary
films, has been named executive
director of the new foundation.
Operations will be world-wide in
scope. Ten sound films interpret-
ing the peoples of Russia, China,

Poland, and Turkey are in pro-
duction, while two expeditions,
one to Europe and another to the
Far East, are slated for 1946.

The documentary film offers
the most effective medium for
acquainting the peoples of the
world with each other, Mr.
Bryan believes.

The work of the foundation
will be a two-way operation, in-
terpreting the people of the Uni-
ted States to people in foreign
lands, and picturing life abroad
to the people here in our own
country.

Mr. Bryan, who has recently
completed a series of documen-
tary films on life in the United

States for the Office of Inter-
American Affairs, in addition to
some 23 films on life in South
America, is also known for his
Background of the War series,
produced in Europe, which por-
trays the conditions leading up
to World War II. His Siege,
made in Warsaw in 1939,
showed the heroic stand made
by the people of that afflicted
city when Poland was attacked
by the Nazis. Siege was re-
leased by Pathe.

The I. F. F. will operate with
funds made available by the Da-
vella Mills Foundation of Mont-
clair, N. J. The initial grant to
the Film Foundation is $150,000
a year for two years.

* ★ *

New Ampro Projector

The new Amprosound “Pre-
mier-10” sound-on-film 16mm
projector, with aluminum cast-
ings throughout, equipped for
both silent and sound film speeds
and reverse operation, is light,
compact, and portable, with ex-
tremely simplified design.

The price, with 2-inch fl.6
Super Lens, is $422 F.O.B.
Chicago. Write to Ampro Cor-
poration, 2835 North Western
Avenue, Chicago 18, Illinois, for
further information or a dem-
onstration.

D. T. Davis Opens Cincinnati
Preview Studio and B & H
Service Station

The I). T. Davis Company,
Special Representatives of Bell
& Howell Company, with head-
quarters at Lexington, Ken-
tucky, now offers equipment re-
pair service to owners of Bell
& Howell projectors from its
new Cincinnati headquarters at
911 Main Street. Another D. T.
Davis Company branch is in
Louisville, Kentucky.

This office and showroom is
for Southern Ohio and North-
ern Kentucky patrons.

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Free 96-Poge DeVry
Film Catalog

DeVry’s current catalog of
16mm sound and silent class-
room teaching films comprises
76 pages of titles and data, plus
a 20-page supplement of films
newly added to the DeVry Film
Library. Ten pages of the cata-
log are devoted to audio-visual
equipment, including DeVry’s
new 16mm 3-purpose sound-on-
film projector that projects both
sound and silent films and has
a separate 25-watt amplifier and
12-inch speaker that can be used
as a public address system, with
microphone and turntable. Write
DeVry Laboratories, 1111 Armi-
tage Ave., Chicago 14, Illinois.

RCA Victor's New
Spanish Records

RCA Victor announces the re-
lease of a new Spanish-language
record set titled Netv World
Spanish, including two albums
of ten 10-inch records, together
with a 337-page textbook. Pre-
pared and arranged by outstand-
ing Spanish-language authori-
ties in this country, the new set
is designed to give a practical
and authentic approach to the
learning of the language by stu-
dents in classrooms and individ-
uals in homes or clubs.

The set was prepared jointly
by Henry Grattan Doyle and
Francisco Aguilera. Mr. Doyle
is Dean of Columbian College of
George Washington University
and was Director of the Inter-
American Training Center in
Washington, D. C. For a num-
ber of years he served as editor
of Hispania.

Francisco Aguilera, co-author
of the set, is Assistant Director
of the Hispanic Foundation of
the Library of Congress. He for-
merly served as instructor in
Spanish at Yale University and
at one time was assistant chief

of the Division of Intellectual
Cooperation of the Pan-Ameri-
can Union.

The entire instruction course
has been recorded for RCA Vic-
tor by native Spanish-American
speakers from Peru, Colombia,
and Chile. Two men and one wo-
man were used as narrators to
ensure variety and to demon-
strate the conversational use of
the language.

★ ★ ★

Argenfina's Complaint

“I have lived in Argentina all
my life and never seen a guitar-
playing gaucho serenading his
lady love. Why do Hollywood
producers insist on such charac-
ters in films they send to my
country?”

Luis Cesar Amadori, of Ar-
gentino Sono Films, director-
producer of stage and cinema
productions and owner of Tea-
tro Maipo in Buenos Aires, thus
recently criticized the “South
American way” as depicted in
our pictures.

FREE FILM ON TELEVISION

SIGHTSEEING AT HOME. 16inni
sound film, 1 V2 reels, 15 minutes, free.
Produced by General Electric. Distrib-
uted by YMCA Motion Picture Bureau.

The process of televising is de-
scribed from the time the stu-
dio’s camera is trained on the
subject until the picture reaches
the screen of the family televi-
sion set.

Depicted are scenes of mobile
stations, the control room, an-
tenna, and interior shots of the
transmitter station. In the stu-
dio, the various duties of the op-
erating staff are explained.

The subject is summarized by
a backstage glimpse of what
goes on during the televising of
an operetta, showing how sound
and pictures are picked up from
the set, how instructions are giv-
en, and how the final editing of
the picture is managed.

Prints of this film may be se-
cured, free of charge, by writ-
ing to the Y.M.C.A. Motion Pic-
ture Bureau, 347 Madison Ave-
nue, New York 17, N. Y.

Volume XII, No. 5

NCTE Committee Recommends
Magazine Study

On April 28, 1943, the Execu-
tive Committee of the National
Council of Teachers of English
asked the Committee on News-
papers and Magazines, Helen
Rand Miller, chairman, “to in-
vestigate the usefulness and
soundness of The Reader’s Di-
fiest as a teaching aid in the war
situation.”

On February 20, 1944, the Ex-
ecutive Committee received a
preliminary draft of the Maga-
zine Committee’s report and, in
accordance with Mrs. Miller’s
request, offered suggestions for
its improvement. The report of
the Magazine Committee, sub-
mitted on July 21, 1944, was
acted upon by the Executive
Committee at its next regular
meeting on November 23, 1944,
when it was “impelled to rec-
ommend that the February and
July, 1944, reports from the
NCTE Magazine Committee not
be published.”

In response to this recom-
mendation the Board of Direc-
tors on November 24, 1944,

passed a motion “that we ask
the Executive Committee to ap-
point a new committee on Maga-
zine Study to examine and pur-
sue the materials already discov-
ered, as far as these seem to be
usable ; that they be empowered,
however, to go further in the
study of this magazine or other
magazines used by high-school
people; that they report to us,
the Directors, next year; and,
that that committee consist of
persons not now on the Maga-
zine Committee nor on the Exec-
utive Committee.”

On January 15, 1945 the pres-
ent committee was notified of its
appointment and was composed
of ; Harlen M. Adams, chairman,
Jean Cravens, E. A. Cross, Irvin
C. Foley, Thomas Pollock, Mar-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

ion C. Sheridan, and M. E. Tra-
bue.

The present committee re-
ports as follows ;

1. We question whether the
original investigation should
have been requested by the Ex-
ecutive Committee in the first
place. We recommend that no
further analysis of The Reader’s
Digest or any other single peri-
odical be undertaken unless the
National Council desires objec-
tive study of a number of the
magazines most commonly used
in the schools. Even such study
should not be undertaken until
the pamphlet suggested in para-
graph 3 has been formulated and
accepted by the National Coun-
cil.

2. The report of Mrs. Mil-
ler’s Committtee deserves com-
mendation for its thought-pro-
voking qualities ; however, it
falls short of the objective view-
point necessary for sponsorship
and publication by the National
Council, and it is inadequate as a
reply to the request of the Ex-
ecutive Committee. Further, Dr.
Broening’s handling of the re-
port lacked complete objectivity.
We recommend that neither the
Committee’s report nor Dr.
Broening’s subsequent analysis
be used as an official National
Council report and that the Ex-
ecutive Committee’s stand in not
accepting the Committee report
for publication be sustained.

3. There is as yet no official
National Council statement con-
cerning periodical literature in
the English classroom. The in-
creasing popularity of maga-
zines and newspapers makes de-
sirable a report on the choice
and use of periodicals. We rec-
ommend that the National Coun-
cil sponsor the preparation and
publication of a pamphlet on the
evaluation and use of magazines
and newspapers in the class-
room.

4. We recommend that a
committee be appointed whose
first duty should be to prepare
such a pamphlet and that a suit-
able budget be appropriated for
the work of the committee.

★ ★ ★

Script-of-the-Month for
Discussion Groups

Radio-minded teachers, club
advisors, and discussion leaders
will be interested in “Script-of-
the-Month,” a new monthly
service sponsored by The Amer-
ican Mercury. This is a 15-min-
ute radio program that can be
used on or off the air as the ba-
sis for group discussion. Scripts
are based on articles appearing
in The American Mercury.

Gretta Baker, instructor in
radio techniques at New York
University, writes the programs.
She also acts as consultant to
groups who plan to go on the air.
Such groups are invited to write
to Miss Baker.

Free copies of the scripts may
be obtained by writing to Radio
Department, The American Mer-
cury, 570 Lexington Avenue,
New York 22, N. Y.

Films on Alaska, Bermuda,
and Lafin America

Three new travelfilms, in col-
or, have just been completed for
Pan-American World Airways
by The Princeton Film Center.
Production of the new subjects
was supervised by the Motion-
Picture Department of J. Wal-
ter Thompson.

Designed to stimulate public
interest in various areas served
by the far-flung lines of the
Pan-American System, the new
motion pictures deal respective-
ly with Alaska, Bermuda, and
Latin America.

All of the films feature inter-
pretive musical scores, which
were specially composed and rec-
orded for these pictures.

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

SCIENCE ON THE AIR

BY RUTH WEIR MILLER

Radio is bringing new impet-
us to the study of science in the
schools of the Philadelphia area.
Boys and girls from the third
grade to the twelfth hear science
programs in the classroom and
follow their listening with ex-
periment and research on their
own.

Science is Fun, broadcast
every Monday at 2:15 over Sta-
tion WFIL, has been on the air
for a year and a half. This series
of programs is designed to stim-
ulate an interest in the study of
science and to motivate further
learning in science by means of
dramatized stories and simple
scientific experiments which can
be done in the classroom by the
listening audience. The emcee of
Science is Fun is none other than
Egbert, the Mechanical Man in
The Franklin Institute, who has
been standing at the door saying,
“How do you do? I am glad to
see you,” to Institute visitors for
some ten years. Now every Mon-
day afternoon at 2:15 the magic
of radio brings him to life. His
programs, planned in units of
study, range all the way from
hurricanes to house painting,
from storms on earth to storms
on the sun.

That Egbert has fired the
imaginations of thousands of
boys and girls (the listening
audience numbers well above
45,000) is an established fact.

Ever since he has been on the
air, he has received a great deal
of fan mail ; when he conducts a
quiz program more questions
are sent in than he can possibly
handle in a 15-minute broadcast.
When he does an experiment on
the air to drive home a scientific

fact, every child in the classroom
does the experiment along with
him, and thus proves things for
himself. Moreover, teachers find
that interest in science continues
long after the broadcast period.

Boys and girls bring in mod-
els to demonstrate to their fel-
low-students something they
have heard about on the air.
Then too they bring in reports
of experiments which they have
done at home. Furthermore,
their powers of observation have
increased a hundred-fold. They
constantly make comments on
weather phenomena, on the stars
and the constellations ; they have
begun to realize that their every-
day experiences illustrate scien-
tific principles.

Visits to the Franklin Insti-
tute have increased 89% since
this show was first aired in
October, 1944. In addition, libra-
rians of the Free Branch Libra-
ries in Philadelphia, as well as
those of the school libraries in
the city, have reported a definite
increase in the demand for books
on science. But what is most im-
portant of all, the youngsters
realize that there are no national
boundaries in the world of sci-
ence ; they realize that present-
day scientific achievement has
been made possible by men of all
nationalities.

The older boys and girls have
a scientific treat every Tuesday
morning, at 11:15, over Station
WIP, when Dr. Roy K. Marshall,
Director of Fels Planetarium of
The Franklin Institute, comes
to the microphone. Teachers con-
sider it a privilege to be able to
bring to the classroom one of the
leading scientists of the country.

Beginning with a program on
What Is Science?, Dr. Marshall’s
broadcast series presents the
story of man’s search for knowl-
edge by dramatizing Great Mo-
ments in the lives of great scien-
tists. On every program. Dr.
Marshall has as his guest a
young high-school student who
is particularly interested in sci-
ence. At the end of the “story”
of the day, the young scientist
has an opportunity to ask ques-
tions regarding the possibilities
of scientific achievement in the
future. Dr. Marshall’s Great
Moments in Science program has
done much to foster an under-
standing of the significance of
the scientist in the modern
world. As all good radio pro-
grams should. Great Moments in
Science vitalizes work in the
room and enriches it.

The cooperation of the mem-
ber organizations of the Museum
Council in Philadelphia with the
schools in the matter of educa-
tional broadcasting is one of the
finest outcomes of the entire
radio program in that city. Ar-
mand Spitz, Director of the De-
partment of Museum Education
in The Franklin Institute, sums
it up by saying, “Radio pro-
programs are steps toward our
ideal of bringing a knowledge of
science to all who want it.” Sev-
eral educational agencies in the
city cooperate with the schools
in serving the community by
radio. Each week under the aus-
pices of the Zoological Society
boys and girls in the elementary
schools are taken for a radio
Trin to the Zoo. Thirty-three dif-
ferent animals of the Philadel-
phia Zoo are brought right into

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

the classroom via the air waves.
Warren Kay, of the schools radio
staff, tells a story about how an
animal acquired some character-
istic of his appearance, or, it
may be, of his disposition. Com-
bined with these tales are facts
about the nature and habits of
the animal. The facts help to
clear up common misconceptions.
They also encourage the proper
care of domestic animals and
pets.

Attendance at the Zoo has in-
creased because children want
to see the animals they have
heard about; members of the
Zoo’s population have become
popular radio “personalities.”
Besides encouraging trips to the
Zoo, the program has created an
interest in animal lore and in
science generally.

All of these programs on sci-
ence are planned by the Radio
Office of the Philadelphia Public
Schools, in cooperation with the
institutions involved. Teachers’
manuals for all the broadcast
series are made available by the
radio stations WFIL and WIP to
every teacher in the grades to
which the program is directed.

USE OF VISUAL AIDS
IN THE OKMULGEE
CITY SCHOOLS

BY W. MAX CHAMBERS
Okmulgee, Oklo.

Since the beginning of World
War II, there has been such a
turnover of personnel in small
school systems that audio-visual
programs have suffered tempo-
rary setbacks.

Okmulgee’s motion-picture ma-
chines have been idle for some
time. Stereopticon slides have
been used spasmodically. The
recording machine has found lit-
tle use by speech classes in the
last three years. Speech-correc-
tion teachers, like other highly
skilled people, went away to
build airplanes.

W. Max Chambers, Superint'endent of
Schools, Okmulgee, Oklahoma.

The movie camera, which was
formerly employed to record out-
standing student activities, is no
longer is use, because of short-
age of films and lack of per-
sonnel to operate the camera.

Now that the war is over, and
l)ersonnel, equipment, and sup-
plies will once more be avail-
able, plans are developing for
an audio-visual program to sup-
l)lement practically every learn-
ing situation in the entire school
system.

The program has developed to
such a point that in this school
system of 3,000 boys and girls a
full-time director of audio-vis-
ual programs is highly desirable.
Finding such a trained person
for immediate employment, how-
ever, is out of the question.

An audio-visual program com-
mittee of teachers, two from
each school, led by the elemen-
tary curriculum supervisor and
working in conjunction with the
Visual Education Department
of the University of Oklahoma,
will make recommendations to
the superintendent and Board
of Education at the close of the
current semester.

"Best" Pictures of 1945

The Film Daily’s recent an-
nual poll of newspaper, maga-
zine, and radio critics resulted
in the following verdict regard-
ing films of 1945;

HEST DIRECTION

H1;NRY king for “Wilson” (20th
Century-Fox).

OTTO PREMINGER for “Laura”
(20th Century-Fox).

ALFRED HITCHCOCK for “Spell-
bound” (David 0. Selznick-UA).
WILLIAM DIETERLE for “Love Let-
ters” (Hal Wallis-Paramount).
ELIA KAZAN for “A Tree Grows in
Brooklyn” (20th Century-Fox).

OUTSTANDING SCREENPLAYS
“WILSON” — Lamar Trotti (20th Cen-
tury-Fox).

“LAURA” — Jay Dratler, Samuel Hof-
fenstein, Betty Reinhardt (20th
Century-Fox).

“THE STORY OF G.I. JOE”— Leo-
pold Atlas, Guy Endore, Philip
Stevenson (Lester Cowan-UA).
“LOVE LETTERS”— Ayn Rand (Hal
Wallis-Paramount) .

“A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN”
— Tess Slesinger, Frank Davis
(20th Century-Fox).
OUTSTANDING PHOTOGRAPHY
“THE FIGHTING LADY” (Techni-
color)— U. S. Navy photographers,
under supervision of Com. Edward
.1. Steichen (20th Century-Fox).

“W I L S 0 N” (Technicolor) — Leon
Shamroy (20th Century-Fox).
“ANCHORS AWEIGH” (Technicolor)
— Robert Planck, Charles Boyle
(M-G-M).

“NATIONAL VELVET” (Techni-
color)— Leonard Smith (M-G-M).
“A THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS
(Technicolor) — Ray Rennahan (Co-
lumbia).

“T H E PICTURE OF DORIAN
GRAY’’ — Harry Stradling
(M-G-M).

Wilson, Darryl F. Zanuck’s
brilliant 20th-Fox production
which brought to the screen the
life and times of the Princeton
educator who became the 27th
President of the United States,
was rated 1945’s Number One
feature release by 481 American
critics and reviewers for press
and radio who participated in
The Film Daily’s poll.

Following are the top 25 pic-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDH

FiBRUARY, 1946

aPLICE YOUR OWN FILM QUICK
AND ACCURATELY WITH A

OR ISWOLD

FILM SPLICER

GRISWOLD Model R-2 for 35mm. film or
Model R*3 for 16mm.

Every maker and user of motion pictures can
do a quick, accurate splicing job with the
GRISWOLD Splicer. No special skill is needed,
for this sturdy, PRECISION-BUILT instrument
has exclusive design features which make
splicing easy and assure a clean, accurate
splice on a frame line every time. GRISWOLD
Splicers come in models for all film sizes. They
splice both sound and silent film and are good
for long years of service. They are sold by
Photo Supply Dealers. If your dealer does not
hove them on hand order from us direct.

GRISWOLD MACHINE WORKS

PORT JEFFERSON, N. Y,

tures according to the critics :

1. Wilson

2. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

3. Keys of the Kingdom

4. Valley of Decision

5. A Song to Remember

6. Laura

7. The Story of G.I. Joe

8. The Coi-n is Green

9. National Velvet

10. Anchors Aweigh

11. Our Vines Have Tender Giapes

12. The House on 92nd St.

13. Meet Me in St. Louis

14. A Bell for Adano

15. Rhapsody in Blue

16. Spellbound

17. State Fair

18. Love Letters

19. The Enchanted Cottage

20. Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

21. Mrs. Parkington

22. Mildred Pierce

23. The Fighting Lady

24. The Picture of Dorian Gray

25. None But the Lonely Heart

RADIO

COURSE

"A Course of
Study in Radio
ApprecioHon''

BY ALICE P. STERNER
Barringer High School
Newark, N. J.

22 Curriculum Units

— Free Listening
— Listening Processes
— Music Programs
— Popular Programs
— News Broadcasts
— Radio Comedy
— Radio Drama
—Sports Broadcasts
— ^Radio Discussions
— Radio Speeches
— Literary Programs
— Radio Censorship
— Radio Advertising
— The Radio Industry
— Foreign Broadcasting
— Planning Our Listening
— Radio and the Home
— Political Programs
— Radio and Propaganda
— The History of Radio
— Radio Technicalities
— Influence of Radio

50/^

Free With 2-year Subscriptions to
"Film and Radio Guide"

EDUCATIONAL AND
RECREATIONAL GUIDES, Inc.

172 Renner Avenue Newark 8, N. J.

WILLIAM LEWIN, Editor

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

THE PROBLEM OF QUALITY
IN 16MM SOUND

In order properly to discuss
the question of sound quality in
16mm motion-picture reproduc-
tion, it is necessary to define
what we consider to be good
quality. Under ideal conditions,
quality sound is produced when
the wave form of the reproduced
sound signal is exactly the same
as that of the signal originally
delivered to the microphone dur-
ing recording. Naturally it is
impossible to maintain this ideal
condition, but all steps in the
production of 16mm sound films
attempt to achieve this goal as
closely as possible.

The production of a high-qual-
ity sound film begins with the
recording and is followed by
processing, printing, print pro-
cessing, and projection. These
are all steps in a chain of events.
Any single weak link will de-
stroy whatever efforts have been
made to achieve quality in the
steps preceding the weak link
or following it.

Technically the recording pro-
cess is the most difficult in which
to obtain good quality, but be-
cause present - day recording
equipment is manufactured with
such a great degree of precision
and because many years of in-
tensive research have been in-
corporated in the circuits of rec-
ording amplifiers and galvano-
meters, the art has reached the
point where recordings contain-
ing less than 2'/ total harmonic
distortion can be regularly pro-
duced.

The sound track is produced
by transporting at a uniform
speed of 36 feet per minute a

BY HENRY A. MORLEY
Reprinted from ANFA Bulletin

fine-grain positive film in front
of a recording optical system.
This optical system focuses a
sharp finger of light which is re-
flected from a light source by
means of a small mirror mount-
ed on a coil of fine v/ire in a mag-
netic field. Electrical excitation
of the voice coil causes it to os-
cillate at a frequency corre-
sponding to the frequency of the
exciting source. The oscillations
of the mirror cause the reflec-
tion of the light source to ex-
pose the film, and a latent sound
track is thereby produced.

The recording amplifier which
builds up the microphone signal
to sufficient power to actuate the
galvanometer is far more than
an ordinary audio amplifier. Spe-
cial equalizing circuits must be
introduced in this amplifier in
order to compensate for the
characteristics of the film, which
does not respond equally to all
frequencies. Provision is also
generally made for applying a
bias to the voice coil of the gal-
vanometer to produce so-called
“noiseless recording.” This re-
duces to a very large extent the
background noise of 16mm
sound films.

The next step is the process-
ing of the sound-track negative.
The laboratory work is extreme-
ly critical, for the processed
sound track must have a prede-
termined fixed density within
rather close limits. This means
that processing time and temper-
ature must be held within suffi-
ciently close limits to permit the
necessary density control. The
uniformity of film motion in

printing is as important as it
was in the original recording.
Any variation from the 36-feet-
per-minute speed will introduce
distortion and harmonics which
were not present in the sound
that was originally recorded.
This places a ceiling on the speed
at which printers can be operat-
ed for optimum results. This is
generally recognized to be be-
tween 60 feet and 125 feet per
minute. The laboratory also has
a choice of printing method in
that it may print by contact or
optically. It has been definitely
shown that optical printing will
produce results with less of a
high-frequency loss than con-
tact printing. After the sound
track is printed and combined
with the motion-picture print
and the final processing is com-
pleted, we have a 16mm sound
motion-picture film ready for
projection.

The requirements for good
sound-reproduction in a 16mm
projector are in many ways simi-
lar to the requirements for good
sound-recording. The rate of
film travel in front of the scan-
ning beam should be as uniform
as possible. For ideal reproduc-
tion the width of the scanning
beam slit should be zero, but
because the zero slit width would
not transmit any light, the width
of the slit should be kept to an
absolute minimum. A slit width
of .001-inch in 16mm sound-pro-
jectors will produce fairly satis-
factory results. The wider the
slit width the greater will be the
high-frequency loss.

The question of emulsion

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

position of 16mm sound prints
does not receive sufficient atten-
tion from projector manufac-
turers. No person would be sat-
isfied to view a 16mm projection
with the picture out of focus.
Yet it is a common practice to
reproduce 16mm sound films
with the scanning beam focused
on the wrong side of the film
and therefore out of focus for
the particular purpose. Most
projectors have scanning beams
focused in one position for re-
producing sound films which
have standard emulsion posi-
tions, in which the emulsion
faces the screen. A great many
film productions result in a non-
standard emulsion position in
the finished print. This means
that the sound quality must suf-

fer when projection is made on
a projector that does not permit
focusing the sound track on eith-
er side of the film. Kodachrome
prints made from a Kodachrome
original and black-and-white
prints made from a film that was
originally shot on reversal film
from which a dupe negative was
made are in this category.

The film distributors can be
instrumental in improving the
quality of 16mm sound if they
will refuse to accept poor re-
sults. The future of the 16mm
film - distributing industry de-
pends on offering decent quality
in sound. No industry has ever
been able to grow and prosper
on poor quality merchandise.
The science of producing 16mm
sound has progressed to the

point where any second-rate ma-
terial or reproduction cannot
be blamed on the fact that this
is the best that can be done. It
is up to the distributor to insist
on good results if he would see
his industry advance.

S.V.E.'s Plant- Expansion

The Society for Visual Edu-
cation, Inc., pioneer Chicago
manufacturer and producer of
educational slide and slidefilm
projection equipment, Picturol
teaching materials, and acces-
sories, has announced comple-
tion of its expansion program in
Chicago. All production of
equipment is now consolidated in
the company’s modern daylight
factory building at 1345 Diver-
sey Parkway.

A Junior-College Audio-Visual
Center In Colorado

Reprinted from the Pueblo Star-Journal

An audio-visual teaching ma-
terials center has been author-
ized by the Pueblo junior college
committee to be set up at the vis-
ual education department of the
college, which is under the direc-
tion of Ernest Tiemann. The
center will provide schools and
organizations with selected au-
dio-visual teaching aids. Sound
and silent pictures, slide-films,
slides, transcriptions, pictures,
charts and posters will be made
for educational use. The primary
purpose is to provide the needs
of Pueblo county and then ex-
pand the center to aid organiza-
tions and schools all over South-
ern Colorado.

The department now owns
about $5,000 worth of teaching-
materials and equipment. An ad-

ditional $5,000 has been appro-
priated to secure basic classroom
teaching films and other visual
aids. The department recently
increased its housing facilities
for classroom films by installing
a special shipping and checking
section. Film racks, which were
declared surplus by the army,
were placed in the department
to make space enough for 500
film titles.

In Pueblo county today there
are 23 sound motion-picture pro-
jectors being used for school
purposes. By fall, it is expected
that there will be 40 projectors
in operation. In order to service
these projectors properly, it is
essential that a regional film li-
brary be established. There are
now about 350 producers of edu-

cational, religious, and industrial
films in the United States. The
productions must be channeled
into the local educational institu-
tions, and without regional film
centers, these productions will
not reach their intended users.

Advisory board members, in-
cluding Mrs. Nettie S. Freed,
county superintendent of
schools ; Robert Baulesh, chair-
man of district 20 visual educa-
tion committee ; Franklin Get-
ting, district one visual educa-
tion committee director, and
Miss Claire Knox, city librarian,
are assisting in making plans for
the center so that it will be more
effective. The board will help
preview various teaching mate-
rials and will enlist the coopera-
tion of classroom teachers in this

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

project. A definite set of criteria
for selecting teaching materials
will be outlined by the board.
Producers of the materials will
be asked to submit prints of
their titles for preview purposes
and only materials that meet
definite educational specifica-
tions will be purchased by the
center.

The center will attempt to
make available the finest class-
room teaching films produced.
In addition to the films especially
designed for the classrooms, the
center also will make available a
number of selected films of gen-
eral interest to the public, in-
cluding travel pictures, indus-
trial subjects and vocational ti-
tles. During the past year, more
than 50 adult organizations of
this community requested films.
Individuals are purchasing
equipment for home use and it
is believed that the use of edu-
cational films in the home will
expand tremendously during the
next few years. Professional or-
ganizations also are using the
educational films to deliver spe-
cial messages to their members.

Special teacher - training
courses will be organized by the
college this year. One course will
stress the importance of good
utilization of the teaching ma-
terials and the resources of the
center will be available to the
students and teachers enrolled in
the courses. Another course will
deal with the role of the motion
picture, the radio and television
in education, and other courses
will deal with the selection of
teaching materials and the ad-
ministration of a department of
teaching materials.

Plans are underway to set up
a workshop in the use of teach-
ing materials during the early
part of June and a regional con-
ference is being planned for
early fall. No effort will be
spared in making the center use-

ful to all schools and organiza-
tions and by means of the work-
shop and the conferences, infor-
mation will be given as to the
best ways and means of using
the materials more effectively.

The Pueblo junior college is
one of the few institutions of its
kind to sponsor a teaching ma-
terials center as a service to the
community and region. Educa-
tion and community leaders are
encouraged to utilize the re-
sources of the center and take
advantage of its services.

★ ★ ★

C. R. Reagan Heads
Film Council of America

The Film Council of America,
consisting of delegates from the
principal national organizations
concerned with the production,
dist)-ibiition, and use of informa-
tional and educational films,
adopted a program of action for
1946 and elected officers at con-
ferences held in Washington, I).
C., January 15 and 16.

The Film Council grew out of
the National Advisory Film
Committee of the Office of War
Information, which worked with
Government agencies to coor-
dinate and utilize film person-
nel and equipment in the field
during World War II, with the
result that millions of Americans
used and saw films to help win
the war.

Former associate chief of the
Bureau of Motion Pictures of
the OWI, C. R. Reagan, repre-
senting NAVED, was elected
president of the Council and will
function from his office in Aus-
tin, Texas. Other officers are :

David E. Strom, of the Uni-
versity of Connecticut, repre-
senting the National University
Extension Association, first vice-
president; I. C. Boerlin, of Penn-
sylvania State College, repre-
senting the Educational Film

Library Association, second
vice-president; Vernon G. Dam-
eron. Department of Visual In-
struction, National Education
Association, secretai'y, and Mer-
riman H. Holtz, head of Screen
Adette Corporation, represent-
ing the Allied Non-Theatrical
Film Association, treasurer.

Other member associations
are the American Library Asso-
ciation and the Visual Equip-
ment Manufacturers Council.

Affiliation with the Film
Council of America will be open
to the General Federation of
Women’s Clubs, the National
Council of Parents and Teach-
ers, the American Legion, labor
and industry groups, and farm,
youth, and other national organ-
izations concerned with films in
the public interest. The Council
will serve such groups with
needed data for more effective
use of non-theatrical films.

During 1946, the Film Coun-
cil will aid local film groups in
community meetings like those
of the Washington Visual Work-
ers of the District of Columbia.
The Council will coordinate na-
tionwide efforts to achieve com-
plete documentation of the his-
tory of the production and use
of motion pictures in World War
II. It will also stimulate research
in various subject-matter areas.

Temporary headquarters of
the Film Council of America will
be at the office of the secretary,
Vernon G. Dameron, Depart-
ment of Visual Instruction, Na-
tional Education Association,
1201 16th Street, N.W., Wash-
ington, D. C., and at the office of
the president, C. R. Reagan, 12th
at Lamarr, Austin, Texas.

★ ★ ★

25^0 DISCOUNT

There is a ZSa/g discount on orders
for 5 or more subscriptions to FILM
& RADIO QUIDE.

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Y.M.C.A. Producfion Unit's
"Association Films"

For 35 years the National
Council of Y.M.C.A.’s has served
through its Motion Picture Bu-
reau as a source of educational
and religious films for Y. M. C.
A.’s, schools, colleges, churches,
clubs, and community organiza-
tions. A pioneer in informal edu-
cation, personal counselling, rec-
reation, and group activities for
young men and boys, the Y. M.
C. A. is highly interested in im-
proving the quality of its lead-
ership and enriching every as-
pect of its program.

To provide an added medium
toward achieving this end, and
to make available urgently need-
ed new visual educational re-
sources, the National Council
has recently established a film
production unit, named “Asso-
ciation Films.”

Play Volleyball, a 16mm in-
structional sound film, was the
first of the aids to be released
by the new unit, followed by
Play Softball, a 35mm slide film.
Other subjects in the field of
Health and Physical Education,
in the planning stage, are to be
used in high schools, Y. M. C.
A.’s and other youth organiza-
tions, as well as in industrial es-
tablishments.

In collaboration with Look
Magazine, the Y. M. C. A. Mo-
tion Picture Bureau has conduct-
ed inquiries among students,
community groups, and leading
educators, to determine major
interests and needs for 16mm
films in schools and other groups
using motion pictures. Requests
for films from the Bureau’s wide
list of exhibitors conclusively in-
dicate a demand for classroom
films dealing with family prob-
lems, personal relationships,
conduct and behavior, moral is-
sues, and other human-interest
questions.

J. R. Bingham, Director of the

FILMS OF MERIT

16MM SOUND - SILENT - 8MM

For Teaching, Recess
and Entertainment

RENT SALE

Write for Listing

“Y” ’s film bureau and of Asso-
ciation Films, and Albert R.
Perkins, Film and Radio Direc-
tor of Look Magazine, have an-
nounced that as a result of their
studies, the two organizations
have formed a producing-distri-
buting team that will launch a
special series of 16mm film pro-
ductions to meet the needs of
schools, colleges, churches, par-
ent teacher groups, clubs, and
community organizations. The
films are being produced by es-
tablished film-production com-
panies.

In a jointly-produced series
titled The Art of Living, two
one-reel subjects. You and Your
Family and Y on and Y our
Friends, have just been filmed
and are ready for distribution
by the Motion Picture Bureau.
Set for release this spring are:
You and Your Personality and
You and Your Health. Future
plans call for a second series of
four films, including such titles
as You and Your Church, You
and Your School, You and Your
Community , and You and Your
Coimtry.

The production technique be-
ing employed stresses natural-
ness of presentation. “Each film,
instead of sermonizing, is de-
signed to stimulate youthful au-
diences to think for themselves.

Thus, students can draw their
own conclusions on everyday
situations from the facts pre-
sented,” stated Mr. Perkins.

Plans are also being made for
several films on leadership in
clubs, camping, guidance and
counselling, and discussion.
These aids for the training of
leaders in the major fields of
group activity are expected to
be of value in improving the
quality of programs, not only in
Y. M. C. A.’s, but also in other
organizations.

According to Mr. Bingham,
the Y. M. C. A. is proceeding
with production plans on the as-
sumption that education in bet-
ter living is not merely a func-
tion of the schools and colleges,
but that learnings of importance
are often acquired amid infor-
mal settings at home, in
churches, in clubs, and under
circumstances involving leisure-
time activities.

Members of the Y. M. C. A.’s
Audio-Visual Education Advis-
ory Committee, who are consult-
ing with the Bureau’s staif on
the production of the Art of Liv-
ing series and other films, are
such prominent authorities as :

Paul D. Sheats, Ph.D., Educa-
tional Director of New York
City’s Town Hall, chairman;
Rome A. Betts, General Secre-
tary of American Bible Society
and Chairman of the Protestant
Film Commission; M. R. Brun-
stetter, Ph.D., instructor in au-
dio-visual aids, Columbia Uni-
versity; Morse A. Cartwright,
LL.B., Institute of Adult Edu-
cation, Columbia University;
Frederick M. Thrasher, Ph.D.,
New York University, and Pres-
ident of the Metropolitan Motion
Picture Council; Paul H. Vieth,
Ph.D., Yale Divinity School; and
Dean McClusky, Ph.D., Consul-
tant, Commission on Motion Pic-
tures in Education of the Amer-
ican Council on Education.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

WHO'S WHO IN AUDIO-VISUAL

EDUCATION

No. 45: Hardy R. Finch

Hardy R. Finch, head of the
English Department at Green-
wich, Connecticut, High School
and editor of Secondary Educa-
tion, is the author of more than
one hundred lively educational
articles, many of which have
been on audio-visual topics.
From 1941 to 1945 he conducted
a monthly department in Educa-
tional Screen, dealing with
school-made films. He has edited
two pamphlets on movies in the
schools. The Motion Picture and
the Teacher, and The Motion
Picture Goes to School. He was
co-editor of a guide to the screen
version of The Mill on the Floss.
With Eleanor D. Child, Finch
published Producing School
Movies, National Council of
Teachers of English Monograph
No. 12.

His other writings include:
Roads T o Travel, published by
Harper and Brothers ; articles
for Scholastic, Everyday Read-
ing, and Youth Today; a month-
ly column for Connecticut Teach-
er; special assignments for The
Christian Science Monitor, Time,
and the Teacher’s Guide to The
Reader's Digest; and reviews
and articles on English teach-
ing for The English Journal.

Finch has been a director of
the National Council of Teachers
of English, a member of the ad-
visory board of The English
Journal, treasurer and president
of the Department of Secondary
Teachers of the National Educa-
tion Association, member of the
advisory editorial board of Scho-
lastic Magazines, and a consul-
tant on textbooks and films.

Hardy R. Finch

Finch was born in Salamanca,
New York, April 5, 1905; was
graduated in 1922 from Green-
wich High School, where he re-
ceived his “G” in football and
track ; completed the six-year co-
operative course, with alternate
periods of work and study, at
Antioch College, Yellow Springs,
Ohio, receiving his A. B. degree
in 1927. Under the cooperative
plan, he was an assistant in bac-
teriology at college; teacher at
Pine Mountain, Ky., Settlement
School ; and research assistant in
the Winnetka, Illinois, Public
Schools. In college, he received
three varsity manager letters
and was liusiness manager of the
college paper. While assistant
principal and head of English at
Ten Broeck Academy, Franklin-
ville. New York, in 1930, he com-
pleted his work for the M.A. de-
gree at St. Bonaventure’s Col-
lege, St. Bonaventure, New
York. Since that time, he has
done nearly two years of grad-
uate woi’k at Teachers College,
Columbia University. While con-

tinuing his specialization in the
English field. Finch is also in-
terested in health and physical
education as a member of the
State Board of Directors of the
Connecticut Tuberculosis Asso-
ciation.

No. 46: Samuel G. Gilbert

Samuel G. Gilburt, a young
man in the New York City school
system, has done an outstanding,
pioneering job in teaching movie
and radio appreciation at the
junior-high-school level.

Gilburt was born in Brooklyn,
N. Y., September 13, 1910. He
attended Brooklyn Boys’ High
School and the City College, in
New York, where he obtained
the B.S. degree. While an under-
graduate he became interested in
movies and was associated with
the National Board of Review of
Motion Pictures as a reviewer.

While studying for his M.A.
degree at Columbia University
during 1932-33, Gilburt sold lug-
gage and haberdashery at
Macy’s.

Thereafter he served as a so-
cial worker in the New York
City Department of Welfare for
several years. He next taught
English at Boys’ High School on
temporary appointment for two
years. He was then permanently
assigned to Strauss Junior High
School, Brooklyn, N. Y., in Sep-
tember, 1940.

Gilburt’s principal. Maxwell
F. Littwin, asked him to teach
a special class in “Creative Eng-
lish.’’ One activity of the group
was the creation of cartoons.

Gilburt was also made facul-
ty adviser of the Straus Movie

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

and Radio Appreciation Club, an
extra-curricular activity. At a
Junior Conference of the Na-
tional Board of Review, three
members of Gilburt’s club de-
livered their own versions of
“Movies in 1960.” These highly
amusing and imaginative re-
ports caught the fancy of news-
paper reporters who were pres-
ent. Full accounts appeared in
New York papers the next day.
The club won first prize in an
essay contest conducted by the
Motion Picture Council for
Brooklyn on “Movies and the
War.” It was awarded the doc-
tor’s chest used by Fredric
March as a prop in Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde, because of the
members’ high score in the Na-
tional Board’s annual “Ten Best
Movies” contest.

As a result, these extra-cur-
ricular activities were made part
of the regular curriculum. A
bright class was assigned to Mr.
Gilburt, with a view to integ-
rating the communication arts
— movies, radio, and journalism.
This course and the activities of
Gilburt’s pupils have become
widely known. In October, 1943,
the class participated in an OWI
broadcast to England. The “ra-
dio projects” of Gilburt’s class
were shown recently at an ex-
hibit of the U. S. Office of Educa-
tion. What’s Ha})pening in Hol-
lywood of November 11, 1944,
devoted a section to his class’s
“movie scrap-books.” These were
described as ingeniously devised,
set up with title page, index,
and bibliography, and reflecting
enthusiasm, worthwhile conclu-
sions, and “quite an amazing in-
sight into this many-sided sub-
ject.” Other movie and radio
projects of the class were dis-
played at the 1945 Audio-Visual
Conference held at the American
Museum of Natural History.

At the invitation of Thomas

Samuel G. Gilburt

H. Briggs, Gilburt prepared the
radio section of a new text on
Leisure Time Activities. He has
appeared as a participant on
audio-visual forums over Station
WNYC and is a frequent guest
speaker at audio-visual courses
of colleges and universities. Gil-
burt’s talks are always practical
and profusely illustrated with
concrete proof of what has been
done in junior high schools in
the audio-visual field. His suc-
cess in fusing movies and radio
with the regular English curri-
culum on the junior-high-school
level is influencing teachers to do
likewise.

Some of Gilburt’s articles and
reviews have appeared in our
Film and Radio Guide, The Eng-
lish Journal, High Points, Jour-
nal of Education, Neiv Movies,
Teaching in Practice, and the
Federal Radio Education Bidle-
tin. He has been called on for
advice by the American Council
of Education and the Hays or-
ganization. Several advertising
agencies have consulted him be-
fore producing children’s radio
programs.

As a member of the New York
City Association of English

Teachers’ Movie Committee, Gil-
burt helped prepare a film-study
report in relation to bright, nor-
mal, and slow pupils. At present
he is a member of the Photoplay
Committee of the National
Council of Teachers of English
and the Motion Picture Commit-
tee of the NEA Department of
Secondary Teachers.

His students have been ad-
dressed by the great and the
near-great. The pupils, in turn,
have spoken at innumerable au-
dio-visual conferences, forums,
and over the radio. They have
travelled great distances to in-
terview colorful personalities.
The club boasts of having one of
the largest collections of auto-
graphed pictures in the country,
as well as letters from President
Truman, Mrs. Roosevelt, Gen-
eral Eisenhower, Helen Keller,
Marion Anderson, John Barry-
more, and almost everyone of
note in the movie and radio
fields.

The class experiences and ac-
tivities of Mr. Gilburt’s groups
have been realistic, informal,
profitable, and satisfying be-
cause they have been based on
deep, genuine, out-of-school in-
terest in movies and radio.

As a result, Gilburt asserts
with assurance, “I’ll match the
social competency of my pupils
with those of any other junior
high school.”

He is proudest of his inscribed
copy of Credo, by Elias Lieber-
man. New York City’s Associate
Superintendent in charge of
Junior High Schools. The in-
scription is to “Mr. Gilburt,
whose educational vision goes
far beyond the walls of a class-
room.” It was presented when
the class won the music box used
as a prop in the Academy win-
ner, Going My Way, for the
highest national score in the
1944 “Best Movies Contest.”

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

WHO'S WHO IN RADIO
EDUCATION

No. 11: Horold B. McCarty

Harold B. McCarty, winner of
the 1945 Award of the School
Broadcast Conference, for “out-
standing and meritorious serv-
ice in educational radio,” has
been engaged in educational
broadcasting since 1929. It was
in that year that he began an-
nouncing at WHA, the Univer-
sity of Wisconsin station, “just
as a sideline while studying for
a Master’s degree in speech,” he
says. McCarty is now Director
of the Division of Radio Educa-
tion at the University of Wiscon-
sin and Executive Director of
the State Radio Council, a coop-
erative board under whose aus-
pices Wisconsin is planning a
state system of EM radio sta-
tions.

Hoosier by birth (Clinton,
March 30, 1901), McCarty is es-
sentially Middle Western in I’esi-
dence, schooling, and experience.
He is a graduate of the Univer-
sity of Illinois, with a B.S. in
Business Administration, which
he put to use as an office man-
ager and advertising writer in
Chicago before going to the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin in 1918 for
an M.A. degree in speech and
dramatics. “I have the best radio
job in the country,” he affirms,
and you know he is expressing
his enthusiasm about radio edu-
cation in his own state of Wis-
consin and his belief in the fu-
ture of educational broadcasting
as it is being developed through
the university-owned stations
which are located in the Middle
West. A year in the Overseas Op-
erations Branch of the Office of

Harold B. McCarty

War Information, where he was
engaged in efforts to give an in-
terpretation of America abroad,
convinced him, he says, of the
soundness of broadcasting based
on educational aims and conduct-
ed by public-service institutions
and agencies.

McCarty’s present position in-
cludes direction of Wisconsin’s
Station WHA, identified as “The
Oldest Station in The Nation”
because the University began its
broadcasting service in 1919.
McCarty is also Director of the
Wisconsin School of the Air,
which he founded in 1931. Pro-
grams of the Wisconsin School of
the Air, which reach more than
300,000 registered listeners
weekly in the elementary schools
of the State, have won thirteen
national awards and citations at
the Annual Exhibition of Edu-
cational Radio Programs con-
ducted by the Institute for Ed-

ucation by Radio. One of the
School of the Air features was
also the winner of the 1943
George Foster Peabody award
for excellence in radio educa-
tion. Including adult programs
and general features, WHA has
received a total of 24 awards
and citations at the American
Exhibitions. The station was
also the winner of Variety’s
Showmanship award to the out-
standing social-service station in
1938. In speaking of the recog-
nition which has come to WHA
since he began its direction in
1931, McCarty gives full credit
to his fine staff of imaginative,
enthusiastic workers and pays
tribute to the loyalty and sup-
port of the Radio Committee,
which represents the faculty of
the University.

McCarty is a member of the
Federal Radio Education Com-
mittee, is past president (1935-
37) of the National Association
of Educational Broadca.sters,
and is serving now as National
Radio Chairman of the National
Congress of Parents and Teach-
ers. His experience in radio edu-
cation includes a period of study
of the British Broadcasting Cor-
poration in England and Scot-
land under a fellowship from the
General Education Board in
1935.

Though he became identified
with WHA in 1929, McCarty
confesses that that was not his
initial venture in radio. He had
played the violin over a station
in Peoria, Illinois, in 1923 and
had directed an orchestra ap-
pearing in a stage show with a
number of radio “stars” of the

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

early days in Chicago back in
1925. These experiences quali-
fied him for admission recently
to H. V. Kaltenborn’s Twenty-
Year Club of Pioneers in Radio
Broadcasting.

An enthusiast about the possi-
bilities of FM for radio educa-
tion, McCarty is currently work-

ing to accelerate Wisconsin’s
plans for a network of state-
owned-and-operated FM stations
to provide educational public-
service programs, day and night,
for the entire state. According to
a recent announcement, Wiscon-
sin was the first state in the na-
tion to appropriate funds with

which to embark upon a compre-
hensive state FM educational
network plan. The State Radio
Council has funds for construc-
tion of the first two units in the
proposed system. Applications
have been filed, and it’s expect-
ed that FM operations will begin
during the summer of 1946.

Newark's Educational Radio Station

The Newark Board of Educa-
tion will go on the air with its
own radio station in the not too
distant future — possibly by Sep-
tember, 1946.

The entrance of radio into the
classroom will broaden class-
room experience by introducing
a new medium of education as a
supplement to the printed word,
the teacher’s guidance, and the
many visual aids available in the
school system.

Miss Marguerite Kirk, direc-
tor of school libraries and visual
aids, who has been designated
by Schools Superintendent Her-
ron to supervise the radio proj-
ect, is enthusiastic about the ad-
vent of school radio. Action of
the Federal Communications
Commission in granting the
Newark board a license for an
FM non-commercial radio sta-
tion, she points out, makes the
local school system the first edu-
cational institution in New Jer-
sey to acquire such a license and
places Newark among the pion-
eering cities in school radio.

Miss Kirk says:

“Not only does radio in the
classroom bring children a rich
listening experience and help de-
velop discrimination and tech-

From the Newark Evening News

niques in listening; it also gives
them creative experience. Par-
ticipation in radio programs de-
velops in young people poise,
voice control, and clear and
quick thinking.’’

The broadcasting station will
be at Central High School, with
a second studio in the Board of
Education building in Green
street. Although final determi-
nation of the station’s operating
policy is in the board’s hands.
Miss Kirk has studied the sub-
ject sufficiently to have definite
ideas on how she thinks the New-
ark program might work.

Two modes of operation are in
vogue in other school radio sys-
tems, Miss Kirk says. One in-
volves use of radio as a direct
teaching medium — broadcasting
“model lessons” conducted by a
“master teacher.”

The other method, toward
which Miss Kirk leans, views the
radio as a supplementary tool
similar to films and books, de-
signed to enrich studies and
stimulate pupils rather than re-
place any part of the regular
classroom work. Miss Kirk ob-
serves :

“Radio is an informal medium
of education, and its greatest

value is to interest and stimu-
late. If we make it just another
part of the formal classroom
work, we will have lost an op-
portunity.”

Superintendent of Schools
John S. Herron foresees a com-
bination of the two methods in-
to three types of program —
those intended primarily for
classroom reception, those pri-
marily for home reception and
those of value to both school and
community.

These would include programs
by school bands and choral
groups, talks and directives for
students and faculty, model les-
sons, exhibition of speech work,
debates and forums, interpre-
tation of teaching aims and
methods, talks by school offi-
cials on such topics as the budget
and building program, and
broadcasts aimed at character
building and community good
will.

Dr. Herron believes the school
station should not restrict itself
to pedagogical subjects, but
should broadcast every type of
program which can be interpret-
ed as educational, cultural, or
concerned with community bet-
terment. It should, he thinks,

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

offer free time to recognized city
institutions, such as the public
library and museum ; should co-
operate with other city agencies
in non-political movements, and
county educational institutions
on a cost-sharing basis.

It is also proposed to broad-
cast football games and other
high-school athletic events.

Both Dr. Herron and Miss
Kirk believe radio will bring a
closer bond between home and
school, between parent and child.
Parents, they say, will be able
to ally themselves via radio with
their son’s or daughter’s activi-
ties. A mother, for example,
might interest herself in home
economics courses through
school broadcasts and thus share
the curricular interest of her
daughter.

As for the classroom pro-
grams, Miss Kirk would like
them to stimulate pupil interest
in somewhat the same way mo-
tion pictures do. For example, a
dramatization of the life of an
American statesman or an Ori-
ental nabob would stir the imag-
ination of history classes. Sci-
ence stories, re-enactments of
Newark and New Jersey his-
tory, news programs, music,
tales of foreign lands, folklore
sketches, dramatizations of
peace problems would reach oth-
er interests.

Miss Kirk is equally anxious
that there be no compulsion on
teachers to tune in the programs.
But she adds :

“We are going to make them
so interesting and so appealing
to teacher and pupil alike that
they won’t dare to miss them.”

Those interested in the school
radio project believe all possible
talent should be developed in the
schools among both teachers and
students and used in producing
the programs. To compete with
commercial programs in interest
and technical quality, it is

In line with our policy of
giving you the best selected
pictures, we are proud to
announce —

STAGE DOOR CANTEEN

the biggest star picture in
16mm. 42 name stars and 6
great bands.

Also

NORTH STAR
and

BEYOND TOMORROW

as well as many other fine
pictures listed in our 1946
catalog.

Try Dennis Friendly Service

DENNIS
FILM BUREAU

Wabash, Indiana

agreed a staff of professional
radio assistants will be neces-
sary to act in a participating and
supervisory capacity.

Miss Kirk says :

“We hope to have a radio
workshop in every high school,
conducted either as an extra-
curricular activity, as at West
Side High School, or as a credit
course, as at Weequahic. There
also might be a central work-
shop, staffed by professional ra-
dio instructors and open to stu-
dents who prove exceptionally
talented at script writing, acting
and other techniques of radio
production.

“We expect to operate by hav-
ing active committees of teach-
ers for various subjects. Mate-
rial for scripts would be sug-
gested and collected by teachers.
A number of Newark teachers
are now studying radio script
writing at Newark Teachers’
College.”

Miss Kirk regards the radio

project as “a great opportunity
and a great responsibility for
teachers and children.” Newark
is fortunate, she says, in having
radio-minded teachers and prin-
cipals among its school person-
nel. Some, including Max Herz-
berg, Weequahic principal, and
Dr. Alice P. Sterner of Bar-
ringer High School, are nation-
ally known in the field of radio
utilization.

★ ★ ★

Recommended Radio
Programs

(Time is EST)

SUNDAYS

11:30 — Invitation to Learning (NBC)
12:00 — F. H. LaGuardia (ABC)

12:00 — Eternal Light (NBC)

12:30 — Transatlantic Call (CBS)

1:30 — Chicago Round Table (NBC)
3:00 — Philharmonic Orchestra (CBS)
3:00 — Elmer Davis (ABC)

5:00 — Geneial Motors Symphony
(NBC)

5:45 — William L. Shirer (CBS)

7:00 — Drew Pearson (ABC)

7:30— Quiz Kids (ABC)

7:45 — Max Lerner (Mutual)

8:30— Fred Allen (NBC)

9:00 — Walter Winchell (ABC)
9:30— F. H. LaGuardia (ABC)

10:00 — Hour of Charm (NBC)
MONDAYS

8:00 — Cavalcade of America (NBC)
8:00 — Author Meets Critic (WHN)
9:00 — Lux Radio Theatre (CBS)

9:00 — Telephone Hour (NBC)

9:30 — Information Please (NBC)
10:00 — Screen Guild (CBS)

TUESDAYS

6:15 — Here’s Morgan (ABC)

7:30 — Barry Fitzgerald (NBC)
10:00— Bob Hope (NBC)

WEDNESDAYS

7:15 — Raymond Swing (ABC)

8:00 — Can You Top This? (Mutual)

THURSDAYS

8:30 — Town Meeting (ABC)

9:00 — Andre Kostelanetz (CBS)

FRIDAYS

8:30 — Duffy’s Tavern (NBC)

10:30 — Symphonette (Mutual)

10:00 — Durante and Moore (CBS)
11:30 — World’s Great Novels (NBC)

SATURDAYS

2:00 — Metropolitan Opera (ABC)
2:30 — Columbia Workshop (CBS)
7:00 — University of the Air (NBC)
9:30 — Boston Symphony (ABC)
9:30— Can You Top This? (NBC)

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDt

THE PLAY'S THE THING

BY FLORA RHETA SCHREIBER

The Winter’s Tale, seldom
produced, seldom anybody’s fa-
vorite Shakespearean play, came
to life recently with rare vivid-
ness in an illuminating, radiant,
and bewitching production by
The Theatre Guild. The direction
was by Romney Brent, the actor,
and B. Iden Payne, a director
associated with the Shakespeare
Memorial Theater, Stratford-
on-Avon.

The essential wonder of this
limited-run production was that
we, the audience, believed in it.
It was a story having visible
life, a fantasy moving before
us, a dream through which we
escaped all remembrance of the
reality that surrounds our daily
life.

In this state of childlike cred-
ulity, of fervent faith in the
proceedings before us, we
watched Leontes, the spineless
king, yield to an insane jeal-
ousy. We watched this unfound-
ed jealousy wreck the lives of
Hermione, the queen, of the
young prince, of others in the
court, of the king himself. When
man makes his own evil with
no end in view, with no motiva-
tion other than the passion of a
moment, we look on human
frailty at its most vulnerable
and perhaps at its most vicious.
Our own sense of guilt is evoked.
And out of this sense comes our
longing for vindication or at
any rate our longing to make
things as they were before that
pitiless moment against which
our present pain has been pitted.
That is why the second half of
the play, the half that takes place
after a lapse of sixteen years.

Flora Rheta Schreiber

though often deprecated for its
change of tone, is actually so sat-
isfying. It seems to me — or at
any rate in the recent produc-
tion it seemed to me — that the
change of tone is justified by
the final, cumulative effect. The
second half is the wish-fulfill-
ment half, the half that distils
beauty out of the horror of the
first half, that makes it possi-
ble for us to wake up and go
back into the world of sense.
The famous scene of the second
part in which the statue of the
dead queen comes to life seems
credible precisely because the
wish aroused in us in the first
half of the play is strong. As
presented at the Cort Theatre
this scene had meaning even for
the most redoubtable Sancho
Panza in the audience, who for
once forgave fantasy and for-
got to clamor for a nice natural-
ism. The feeling that everything
is turning out for the best, that
self-same feeling which is also
at the root of the trashy happy-
ending of popular vintage, here

operates with a logic of its own,
illuminating the scene and mak-
ing it as right in the presenta-
tion as in the wishing.

There was in this production a
rare unity of conception and
style. Stewart Chaney’s cos-
tumes were brightly beautiful;
his conventionalized settings a
nice frame for the action. The
acting was now stately, now ca-
pering. Henry Daniell played the
baffled and baffling king with
unaffected eloquence. Jesse
Royce Landis brought dignity
and tragic intensity to the role
of the ill-used queen. Florence
Reed’s low, resonant, evocative
voice was admirably suited to
the fiery Paulina, the noblewo-
man who cleaves to the queen
with fierce loyalty. Geraldine
Stroock was a lithe and fetching
Perdita, born in sorrow, and the
cause of the final reunion and re-
surrection. The entire company
played together in a fine orches-
tration of motifs.

Looking on from some distant
heaven, Shakespeare, I’m sure,
was very grateful to Messrs.
Payne and Brent for distilling
beauty from his much-ignored
play. And we tired New Yorkers
were grateful for a good draught
of poetry and fancy in this
atomic age, whose wonder too
often eludes us.

★ ★ ★

Newest war play to descend
on Broadway is Home of the
Brave by Arthur Laurents, pro-
duced by Lee Sabinson in asso-
ciation with William R. Katzell.

The play centers around a
handful of GI’s who are assigned
(Continued on Page 60)

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XM, No. 5

THE 1946 ANFA YEARBOOK

CONTENTS OF ANFA'S
FIRST YEARBOOK

Chronology of ANFA William K. Hedwig

Legal Aspects of the Social Film William F. Kruse

What is Shaping Up in the 16mm Field Ben Kerner

The Importance of 16mm Motion Pictures in

Army Training and Morale Programs....Brlg. Gen, E. L. Munson, Jr.
Essential Piinciple for the Successful

Operation of a Film Library Bertram Willoughby

The Future of Home Movies Leslie Winik

How Will Television Affect Home Movies Augustus Wolf man

Modern Tools for Training Our Youth C. R. Crakes

Portable Power for 16mm Sound H. B. Blaine

New Tools for Adult Education L. Hairy Strauss

Non-Theatrical Films in Britain Thomas Baird

Film Rejuvenation Joe F. Henry

Films Working for Agriculture C. A. Lindstrom

Subject Specialist and Film Producer V. C. Arnspiger

Office of War Infoimation — Biography E. A. Marquardt

Visual Education 100 Years Ago L. F. Kleinfeld

How to Merchandise Study Guides William Lewin

How Many Projectors in Our Schools Wilfred L. Knighton

Photographic Industry Coordinating Committee

DEPARTMENTS:

Photographic Publications
Projectionists’ Training
Audio-Visual Who’s Who
Manufacturers of Audio-Vis-
ual Equipment and Accessories
Exporters of Motion Picture
Plquipment and Supplies

Wholesale Sources of 16mm
Motion Pictures

Producers of 16mm Motion
Pictures

Canadian Wholesale Sources
of 16mm Motion Pictures,
Equipment and Supplies
Film Libraries in the United
States

Film Libraries in Canada
Film Sources Publications
Microfilm — National Sources
of Equipment and Service
Wholesale Distributors o f
Photographic Equipment

Horace O. Jones

Horace 0. Jones, president of
the Allied Non-Theatrical Film
Association, introducing the As-
sociation’s first yearbook, just
issued, says :

“After twenty-three short
years of existence, 16mm films
have attained world-wide recog-
nition as indispensable to hu-
man progress, serving civiliza-
tion as an important instrument
of education, religion, adult
training, and entertainment. The
16mm motion picture has taken
its rightful place as an essential
activity in every country of the
world, and for this achievement,
full credit is due the far-sighted
educators, clergy, business exec-
utives, industry leaders, and gov-
ernment officials listed in the
“Who’s Who’’ section of this
publication.

“It has been my privilege to
serve as the executive head of
this Association during the most
critical period in the history of
the world and I cannot resist
this opportunity to admonish
those who may be inclined to feel
that with the successful prose-
cution of the war, our work has

been completed. On the contrary,
the job ahead for our industry
is greater than ever before. If
we are to supply the leadership
the world expects of us, we must
utilize all the experienced and
trained manpower it is possible
to muster in our field of activ-
ity.”

Wilfred L. Knighton, secre-
tary of ANFA, says in his Fore-

word :

“In presenting this modest
brochure to the members of the
16mm trade — ecpiipment manu-
facturers, film producers, distri-
buting organizations, libraries,
publishers, and professional
workers — merely a beginning
has been made. The yearbook is
not intended to be a complete
record of the industry’s activi-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDF

Volume XII, No. 5

ties for the year. Nor does it at-
tempt to survey all the technical,
creative, and commercial aspects
of the industry. What it does is
to present a basis for growth. It
offers a symposium of ideas as
to current problems, trends, and
aims in a transitional period be-
tween war and peace. It points
the way to a greatly expanded
industry, an industry concerning
which there will be many inter-
esting and authoritative compil-
ations of data in future year-
books.

“A feature of this first year-
book is the beginning of an Au-
dio-Visual Who’s Who. Bio-
graphical sketches of 16mm in-
dustry personalities have been
appearing for several years in
trade magazines but this is the
first lengthy list of its kind. The
officers and directors of ANFA
hope that those into whose hands
this first yearbook may come will
contribute lists of many addi-
tional names for succeeding is-
sues.

“It is hoped also that sugges-
tions for the development of the
yearbook into an indispensable
almanac of information will be
promptly forthcoming. What
new features shall the next is-
sue include? What data as to
films in education, religion, in-
dustrial training, government
information, home entertain-
ment, television programs, and
in situations without theatres
would be desirable? Let the sec-
ond ANFA yearbook be a coop-
erative and mutually helpful
publication, at once comprehen-
sive and of practical use for con-
stant reference.

“To the many contributors
whose articles appear in this
first issue ANFA desires to ex-
press its gratitude. To the gen-
erous advertisers whose com-
mercial announcements have
made the book possible ANFA is
most thankful.

“To William Lewin, Publish-
er of Film and Radio Guide, who
read all the articles and who

Dr. Charles F. Hoban, Jr., Di-
rector of Visual Education at
Philadelphia, in an article on
“Films and Textbooks,’’ which
appeared in the December, 1945
issue of Educational Screen,
points out that “for many years,
educational administrators have
been trying to interest textbook
publishers in the production of
films which correlate with their
books” and that “investigations
currently being made by text-
book publishers . . . indicate that
. . . something will be done about
it.” Dr. Hoban analyzes the dis-
tinctive psychological character-
istics of the textbook and points
the way to a coordination of film
and book. Too many books, he
says, are impersonal, abstract,
difficult, and dull — unnecessarily
so. Educational films, he says,
should have “exactly the oppo-
site characteristics.” He sets
forward criteria of textfilm
craftsmanship which will make
pictures basic educational ma-
terials, not merely supplemen-
tary aids to illustrate dull books.
Films and books, Hoban feels,
are destined to work together:
films to supply the basic stuff of
experience ; books the material
by which this experience may
be “intellectualized, integrated,
and extended.”

The most significant passages
in Dr. Hoban’s article are those
in which he warns that films can
be just as bad as textbooks if
they are not designed to capture
audience interest, enliven sub-
ject-matter, increase motivation,
and build enduring impressions.
Just as textbooks are usually
dominated by authorities rather
than by persons who can write

served as editorial consultant,
we are grateful for encourage-
ment and much practical help.”

clearly and fluently, so films can
be dominated by dull scholars,
whose presentations are coldly
factual, differing from textbooks
only in the form of presentation,
so that they will have to be
shown repeatedly to be grasped.

Good textfilms, says Dr. Ho-
ban, should be personal, warm,
vibrant, intimate, and leisurely.
Their appeal should be emotional
rather than intellectual. Such
films, he holds, must be made by
professional producers, not by
subject-matter specialists or
classroom teachers. The services
of educational specialists, while
indispensable to the planning
and the technical supervision of
the film, must play a secondary
part in the production process.
Only scenarists, directors, cam-
eramen, editors, and commenta-
tors can make good pictures,
whether for education or for en-
tertainment.

One might add to Dr. Hoban’s
analysis the important point that
the ideal textfilm maker is the
teacher who is also an experi-
enced movie-maker. What re-
mains is to train a whole new
generation of picture-minded
subject-matter specialists, who
will combine teaching skill with
cinema craftsmanship. The most
valuable members of the Ency-
clopaedia Britannica Films pro-
ducing organization, for exam-
ple, are those who were formerly
teachers and who have had the
imagination, persistence, enter-
prise, and intelligence to learn
creative movie-making the hard
way — through experimentation
leading to the all-important
know-how.

Films and Textbooks

W. L.

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A GREAT STAR

IN ANOTHER GREAT PICTURE

Rougher than in **Llttle Caesar^!

Tougher than in **Doubie indemnity'^!

THRILLING STORY OF THE R. A. F.

VARIETY soys;

'This epic is so terrific in its simplicity and heart-gripping
story, it makes everything previously screened look like
cheap heroics. .... Moves with mounting tension guaran-
teed to glue one to his seat This one has about every-
thing Robinson has never done anything better."

Distributed in the U. S. and Canada by

ENGLISH FILMS, Inc.

1560 BROADWAY, NEW YORK 19, N. Y.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 5

(Continued from Page 55)
to a special mission, which takes
them to a Pacific Island under
Japanese control. On the island
petty squabbles bubble to the
surface, and behind the squab-
bles are deep-set prejudices.
Coney is a Jew, and under stress,
some of the other men fall into
calling him “yellow Jew bas-
tard.” T. J., a former high-pow-
ered executive, bristles with the
humiliation of his present need
to take orders from a 26-year-
old major and to rub elbows with
his social inferiors. Mingo is the
man with a wife at home, a wife
who writes poetry with which
she spurred him on at first, but
a wife who now has proved un-
faithful. Finch is the man whom
the Japs capture, torture and ul-
timately kill. Finch’s death is
pivotal to the drama. As a re-
sult of this death. Coney suffers
from an acute sense of guilt, a
guilt-feeling which is intensi-
fied by his sense of being a Jew
and different. Through analysis,
an army psychiatrist finally
shows him that the feeling from
which he is suffering is the same
feeling all men confronted with
the death of a buddy have in
common — one moment of over-
whelming relief that death
struck the buddy rather than
themselves. Beginning in a hos-
pital room, the story is told
through flashbacks evoked by
psychoanalysis.

Mr. Laurents writes with vig-
or ; his style is hard-hitting and
sparse. His thinking is likewise
forthright and honest. He has a
feeling for elemental and social
values and a genuine concern for
the problems of human person-
ality. In its unalloyed matter-of-
factness in facing the facts of
war, the new play is reminiscent
of Cry Havoc, a war play pro-
duced about two years ago. It
departs completely from the sen-

Make Literature

LIVE

In the Classroom

The following Teaching Film Custodian
(M-G-M) subjects are ideally suited
to classroom study:

"Treasure Island"

Lionel Barrymore Wallace Beery

Jackie Cooper

"Tale of Two Cities"

Ronald Colman

"Mutiny on the Bounty"

Clork Gable Charles Laughton

Franchot Tone

"Romeo and Juliet"

Leslie Howard Norma Shearer

John Barrymore

"David Copperfleld, the Boy"

"David Copperfied, the Man"

Lionel Barrymore Maureen O'Sullivan

W. C. Fields Freddie Bartholomew

Each subject 4 reels Rental: $6.00

(Special Series Rate)

In Our Free Catalog of

SELECTED MOTION PICTURES

Write to Dept. “Y”

Y.M.C.A.

MOTION PICTURE BUREAU

New York 17, N, Y. Chicago 3, III.

347 Madison Ave. 19 So. LaSalle St.
San Francisco 2, Col Dallas 1, Tex.

351 Turk St. 1700 Patterson Ave.

sationalism of earlier war plays
like The Wookey and Heart of a
City.

The cast, which is directed by
Michael Gordon, includes Joseph
Pevney, Alan Baxter, Russell
Hardie, Eduard Franz, Kendall
Clark, Henry Barnard. They all
turn in honest and workmanlike
performances.

-A- A" ★

In a recent best seller, Cath-
erine Drinker Bowen told the
story of the Holmeses, autocrat
of the breakfast table and Jus-
tice of the Supreme Court.
Where Miss Bowen left off. Em-
met Lavery begins in his new
play — Magnificeyit Yankee —
which starts with Justice
Holmes’s arrival in Washing-
ton on the first day of his first
Washington term.

The new play, set between
1902 and 1933, is not so much a
drama as a portrait; not so

much an exposition of the public
career of a great man as an
intimate look into the private
life of a very human one. The
mood of Magnificent Yankee is
akin to that of Life With Father
and The Late George Apley, the
shades being those of autumnal
mellowness. It is a play of bright
flashes and warm vignettes — of
the Justice’s kidding the long
line of Harvard Law School boys
who served as his secretaries, of
the Justice poking fun at the so-
bering propriety of Henry
Adams, of the Justice making
friends with the newly appointed
Justice Brandeis. And it is the
story of a great love — of how
Fanny Holmes humorously
found ways of imposing her will
on the Justice, of Fanny in eve-
ning dress running out to a fire
for sport, of how the Justice and
Fanny concealed from each oth-
er their pain at being childless,
of how in extreme old age for
each the fear of death was large-
ly the fear of separation from
the other.

Dorothy Gish brings humor,
pathos, and philosophic overtone
to her portrait of Fanny. Louis
Calhern plays the Justice with
humanity, suavity, and discern-
ment. Arthur Hopkins has given
the play the smooth, mellow pro-
duction it requires. Result :

Go see it !

★ ★ ★

The Distributor’s Group, Inc.,
756 West Peachtree, N. W., At-
lanta, Georgia, report that a
print of Danger Ahead was
shipped to J. S. Gardner, South-
eastern Service Co., 2666 Lamar,
Memphis, Tennessee, on Decem-
ber 1, 1945, and never returned.
All efforts to contact him have
failed. Any information as to
his whereabouts or the location
of the print will be appreciated
by The Distributor’s Group, Inc.

FEBRUARY, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

4,NOTHER MILESTONE OF SCREEN GREATNESS!
ONE MOTION PICTURE HAS TRULY, FEELINGLY
CAUGHT THE TEMPO AND HEART OF OUR TIMES!

^^One of the Best!’^

— Time Magazine

Superb! Intensely Human!’’

— Redbook Magazine

^Unparalleled! Magnificent!”

Look Magazine

Starring

DANA ANDREWS'RICHARD CONTE

George Tyne • John Ireland • Lloyd Bridges • Sterling Holloway • Norman Lloyd • Herbert Rudley • Richard Benedict

Produced and Directed by LEWIS MILESTONE

From the Novel by HARRY BROWN • Screenplay by ROBERT ROSSEN • Ballads by MILLARD LAMPELL and EARL ROBINSON

2o^

CENTURY- FOX

//■ 1

ROMANCE, MUSIC,
HEART-THROBS AND FUN . . .

IT'S GLORIOUS ENTERTAINMENT!

r0>

■"■he sizzling

SONGSTRESS 1

KATHRYN

wcim

THE BOSTON BEAUTY!

JUNE

ALLYSOn

THE GOLDEN VOICE!

LAURITZ

^flELCHlOR

/ L

, 'N',

THE Bl

G SCH NOTZLE 1

JIMMY

burante

the HAN

DSOME LOVERL

peter

liAV/FO^

A HENRY KOSTER PRODUCTION • Original Screen Play by MYLES CONNOLLY
Additional Dialogue by JAMES O' HANLON and HABRY CRANE

Directed by HENRY KOSTER * Produced by JOE PASTERNAK

A METRO -GOLDWYN- MAYER PICTURE

AUDIO-VISUAL DIRECTORY

NaHonol & International

INTERNATIONAL THEATRI-
CAL AND TELEVISION CORP.

ITTCO OF ILLINOIS, 100 W.
Monroe St., Chicago 3.

ITTCO OF THE WEST, 3123
W. 8th St., Los Angeles 5.
ITTCO OF THE WEST, 4247
Piedmont Ave., Oakland 11,
Calif.

ITTCO OF THE SOUTH, 756 W.
Peachtree St., N. W., Atlanta,
Ga.

ITTCO OF MISSOURI, 3326
Olive St., St. Louis, Mo.

ITTCO OF THE SOUTH, 302 J/2
So. Harwood St., Dallas 1, Tex.

ITTCO OF NEW YORK, 25 W.
45th St., New York 19, N. Y.

ITTCO OF NEW ENGLAND,
1 1 5 Newbury St., Boston 1 6,
Mass.

ITTCO OF WASHINGTON, 51
H St., N.W., Washington 1,
D. C.

ITTCO OF NEW ORLEANS, 815
Poydras St., New Orleans 13,
La.

ITTCO OF CANADA, 21 Dun-
das Square, Taranto, Canada

Bell & Howell Co., Dept. "G"
FILMOSOUND LIBRARY
1834 Larchmont Ave., Chicago
30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York
716 N. LaBrea Ave., Hollywood
1221 G. St., N. W., Washington

FILMS INCORPORATED

330 W. 42nd St., New York 18
64 E. Lake St., Chicago 1
101 Marietta St., Atlanta 3
109 N. Akard St., Dallas 1
314 S.W. 9th Ave., Portland 5
1709 W. 8 St., Los Angeles 14

ASTOR PICTURES CORPORATION
I 30 W. 46th Street
New York, N. Y.

BRANDON FILMS. Inc.
1 600 Broadway
New York, N. Y.

BAILEY FILM SERVICE

2044 No. Berendo St., Holly-
wood 27, Calif.; 404 No. Good-
win Ave., Urbano, III.

COMMONWEALTH PICTURES
CORPORATION, 729 Seventh
Avenue, New York, N. Y.

CORONET PRODUCTIONS
Instructional Films
Glenview, Illinois

EDUCATIONAL FILM GUIDE
H. W. Wilson Co., 950 Univer-
sity Ave., New York 52, N. Y.

EDUCATORS GUIDE TO FREE
FILMS, Educators Progress
Service, Randolph, Wis.

WILLIAM J. GANZ COMPANY
40 East 49th Street
New York, N. Y.

PAUL HOEFLER PRODUCTIONS
9538 Brighton Way
Beverly Hills, California

MOFFBERG PRODUCTIONS, Inc.
618-20 Ninth Avenue
New York I 8, N. Y.

IDEAL PICTURES CORPORATION
28-34 E. 8th Street
Chicago, III.

Offices in principal cities.

INSTITUTIONAL CINEMA SERV-
ICE, Inc., 1 560 Broadway
New York, N. Y.

MOTION PICTURE BUREAU —
YMCA, 347 Madison Avenue
New York, N. Y.

I 9 S. La Salle St., Chicago, III.
1 700 Patterson Av., Dallas, Tex.
351 Turk St., San Francisco, Cal.

NATIONAL FILM SERVICE

Raleigh, N. C. Richmond, Va.
424 Madison Ave., New York

NU-ART FILMS, Inc.

1 45 W. 45th Street
New York, N. Y.

POST PICTURES CORPORATION
723 Seventh Avenue
New York, N. Y.

SKIBO PRODUCTIONS, Inc.
165 West 46th St.

New York 1 9, N. Y.

New England

HARVARD FILM SERVICE

Graduate School of Education
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts

A. H. RICE & CO.

Rentals and Projection Service
Hollis, N. H.

The West Coast

THE SCREEN ADETTE EQUIP-
MENT CORP., RCA Audio-Visual
Equipment.

314 S.W. 9th, Portland, Ore.
1709 W. 8th, Los Angeles.

68 Post St., San Francisco.

The South

ITTCO OF THE SOUTH, 756

Peachtree St., N.W., Atlanta,
Ga., and 302V2 S. Harwood St.,
Dallas, Texas. Exclusive distrib-
utors of Monogram products,
ITTCO films, Ampro and SVE
equipment. Jam Handy teaching
films. Serving the South only.

CALHOUN COMPANY
101 Marietta St., N.W.

Atlanta 3, Georgia

WILFRED NAYLOR

1907 Fifth Ave., North
Birmingham 1, Alabama

SOUTHERN VISUAL FILMS
686 Shrine Building
Memphis, Tenn.

Indiana

DENNIS FILM BUREAU
29 E. Maple St.

Wabash, Ind.

Iowa

RYAN VISUAL AIDS SERVICE
409-1 1 Harrison St.
Davenport, Iowa

Michigan

CAPITAL FILM SERVICE, Film Li-
brary and Motion-Picture and
Visual-Aid Equipment, 1043 E.
Grand River Ave., East Lansing,
Mich.

COSMOPOLITAN FILMS
3248 Gratiot Avenue
Detroit, Mich.

LOCKE FILM LIBRARY
129 W. Michigan Avenue
Kalamazoo 9, Michigan

Minnesota

HOWARD FILM DISTRIBUTORS
86 So. Sixth Street
Minneapolis 2, Minn.

New York

IDEAL MOTION PICTURE SERV-
ICE, 371 St. Johns Avenue
Yonkers, N. Y.

New Jersey

ART ZEILLER, Visual and Audio-
Visual Aids, Victor Distributor,
Factory Service. Entertainment.
868 Broad St., Newark 2, N. J.

Ohio

nyv/VMAM films, !nc.

29 CentrnI Ave.

Dayton. Ohio

West Virginia

E. B. SIMPSON

8 1 6 W. Virginia St.
Charleston 2, W. Vo.

To Declare Independence is J\[ot Enough

r-p-iHE MEN WHO SIGNED tKe immortal “Declaration” in 1776 did not suddenly
arrive at tlie conclusions there set forth as a foreword to the free way of life.

For years they had been rcaihiig and tluii Icing about human needs and wants, and
the ideals of independence proclaimed at Philadelphia were the blended product
of their best mental efforts.

In their day we had no free education system, opening wide the doors to
useful knowledge and moral guidance. Now, in every part of our land, even to
the remotest hamlet, every American child is given an equal chance to learn; to
become acquainted with the material facts on which men and women base their
individual and group actions, and to cultivate habits of sound thought.

“One of the chief responsibilities of our public schools,” says Burgin E.
Dossett, State Commissioner of Education in Tennessee, “is to tram the youth
of America in independence of thinking, so that they will be able, both now and
in later years, to sieve out the false from the true facts in all of their social, moral
and spiritual relationships. When our boys and girls are so trained, and when they
have accepted their personal responsibilities of citizenship, they will be better
prepared to render service and to provide leadership in the maintenance of peace
and security for America and the world.

“Those courses of study which will provide the type of training and instruction
to prepare the youth of America to think independently, and to assume the
responsibilities of citizenship, should be included in the curriculum of every
school throughout the land.

“As an auxiliary aid to classroom instruction in the building of bedrock
Americanism, the value of The Reader’s Digest is very high. It serves as an excel-
lent guide in leading young minds to understand and appreciate the principles,
the benefits, and the responsibilities of our form of democracy.”

FILM & RADIO

GUIDE

Jimmy Durant'e, one of America's best-loved comedians,
at the piano with Lauritz Melchior, Metropolitan Opera
star, June Allyson, and Kathryn Grayson, principals in
the musical photoplay, "Two Girls from Boston."

IN THIS ISSUE: Scenes from Shakespeare's "Julius
Caesar" and "Macbeth" in 16mm.

march; 194
Vol.XII,No.6
35c ' $2 a Year

Pass this copy to:

Check this Victor Oversize Sprocket.

Note the greater film surface . . . five teeth
engage the film (instead of three as in
ordinary projectors).

The Animatophone —
16mm Sound Projector

VICTOR

ANIMATOGRAPH CO R PO RATION

Home Office and Factory; Davenport, Iowa
New York 1181 McGraw-Hill Building, 330 We$t 42nd Street • Chicago 111 188 West Randolph

MAKERS OF I6MM EQUIPMENT SINCE 1923

THANKS TO VICTOR'S GREATER FINGER ROOM

Over the sound drum . . . under the large sprocket . . .
into the easily accessible film channel — these are the
simple highlights of threading a Victor. Yes, fingers —
young and old — quickly learn this easy lacing. The
reason is . . . simplicity . . . more finger room.

Such exclusive Victor features as 180 degree Swing-Out
Lens Mount, Duo-Flexo Pawls, Spira-Draft Lamp House,
and Safety Film Trips give greatest protection to valuable
films. Both new and experienced operators prefer this
extra security and trouble-free operation. Yes, your
films are safer — as well as being brilliantly projected
— with a Victor.

If you were to apply your own ideas of
color to this well-known bird, it is likely
you would color some areas incorrectly.
But the CORONET sound motion picture,
THE BOBOLINK AND BLUEJAY, presents
young bluejays and their parents in full,
lifelike, natural color — gives correct im-
pressions to all who see it. It is but one
of the popular color films in the new
catalog of CORONET Instructional Films.

COLOR

isaMuejatf?

There are dozens of other Coronet natural color sound films
available on birds, flowers, Indians of the Southwest, life in Mex-
ico, science, health, safety, vocational guidance and physical edu-
cation. Some are also available in black and white, and a few
subjects which do not require color are black and white only.

All have been produced in collaboration with subject matter
specialists for classroom use. Many others are in production.

Write for the new illustrated catalog of Coronet
Instructional Films — it will be mailed promptly.

CORONET

INSTRUCTIONAL FILMS

919 NORTH MICHIGAN AVENUE, CHICAGO 11, ILL.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

A LOVE SHE NEVER

The boy from Times
Square . . . the girl from
Grosvenor Square . . .
finding in each other's
arms a new kind of
love that spanned an
ocean 1 A romantic
triumph of our timesi

ith NANCY PRICE • DAME IRENE VANBRUGH

JANE DARWELL

CENTURY- FOX

Produced and Directed by HERBERT WILCOX

Associate Producer Max Greene • An Associated British Picture Corporation LTD. Production

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

EDUCATIONAL & RECREATIONAL GUIDES, Inc.

172 RENNER AVENUE, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY

VOLUME XII, NUMBER 6 MARCH, 1946

IN THIS ISSUE

16mm Exchange Practices — No. 21: Film Widths B. A. Aughinbaugh

Behind the Screen Credits Helen Colton

The Play's the Thing Flora Rheta Schreiber

How to Organize a Local Film Council

Whot Services Should a Visual Education Dealer Offer? John R. Amacker

Visuol Education in the Church Raul L. Folkemer

18th Annual Motion Picture Academy Awards

Educational Recordings

Introducing Classroom Films in a Small School System L. L. Hagie

Some Legal Aspects of the Social Film William F. Kruse

A Preview of Lenten and Easter Films William S. Hockman

New York Schools Experiment with Television Edward Stasheff

Essential Principle for Operating a Commercial 16mm Film Library

Bertram Willoughby

NBC, USA, and UNO Cooperate for World Amity Project

Who's Who in Radio Education — No. 12: Poul F. Lazarsfeld

so Inexpensive and Non-Royalty Radio Plays

New Cartoons Enliven the English Curriculum

A Teacher Looks at the Movies Frederick Houk Law and Others

Cinema Syndrome Max J, Herzberg

Motion Pictures Useful for the Study of Literature Robert E. Schneider

Audio-Visual Who's Who — No. 47: Orton H. Hicks —

No. 48: Merriman H. Holtz

A Community Motion-Picture Forum Kathryn A. Kline

20
21
23
25
27

41
49
52

Current Subscription Rates

One Year $2.00 Each

Two Years 3.50 Each

Three Years 5.00 Each

Less Than One Year.

Effective July 1, 1946

One Year $3.00 Each

Two Years 5.00 Each

Three Years.... 6.50 Each

..35c a Copy

In Canada, add 50c a year; in foreign countries, add $1.00 a year.

"Course of Study in Rodio Appreciation" or "What Shall We Read About the
Movies" Free with 2-Year Subscriptions. Both Free with 3-Year Subscriptions.

WILLIAM LEWIN, Editor and Publisher RUTH M. LEWIN, Business Manager

FREDERICK HOUK LAW and B. A. AUGHINBAUGH, Contributing Editors
HELEN COLTON, Hollywood Editor

Copyright 1946 by Educational and Recreational Guides, Inc. Published nine times a year, October to June, by Educa-
tional and Recreational Guides Inc., 172 Renner Avenue, Nevyark 8, N. J. Re-entered as second-class matter, October
12, 1942 at the post office at Newark, N. J. under the act of March 3, 1879. Printed in USA— All Rights Reserved.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

PHOTOPLAY GUIDES

MUSIC ASSORTMENT: April Romance (Schubert), The Mikado, Moonlight Sonata (With Paderewski),
They Shall Have Music (Jascha Heifetz), Saludos Amigos.

5 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 60c 25?

FRENCH-SPANISH ASSORTMENT: Harvest (Guide in French), Les Miserables (Hugo), Marie An-
toinette (French Revolution), A Tale of Two Cities, Saludos Amigos.

5 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 60c 25?

ART ASSORTMENT: Pinocchio (Walt Disney). Saludos Amigos (Disney Artists Visit South Amer-
ica), Snow White (Disney), Captains Courageous, Good Earth.

5 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 50c 25?

DRAMA ASSORTMENT: Hollywood Cavalcade (.History of the Movies), A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
The Mikado, As You Like It, Winterset (Maxwell Anderson), Pygmalion (Shaw), Stage Door (Kauf-
man and Ferber), The Plough and the Stars, Anne of Green Gables (With Radio Play).

9 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 90c 50?

AUDITORIUM ASSORTMENT (16MM. FEATURES): Harvest, In His Steps, Moonlight Sonata, 231/2
Hours Leave, Union Pacific, Stanley & Livingstone, Give Me Liberty, A Tale of Two Cities, Mutiny on
the Bounty, Servant of the People, Captains Courageous, The Good Earth, Men with Wings, As You
Like It. 14 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $1.90 QQ

LITERATURE ASSORTMENT: Captains Courageous, The Citadel, Goodbye Mr. Chips, The Good Earth,
Gunga Din, Kidnapped (Stevenson), Mutiny on the Bounty, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Robin Hood,"
Les Miserables, Human Comedy, Pygmalion, Tom Sawyer Detective.

13 Illustrated Booklets, Regularlv $1.70 $1.00

INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING ASSORTMENT: Captains Courageous, The Citadel, Con-
quest, Drums, Goodbye, Mr. Chips; Edison the Man, The Good Earth, Gunga Din, The Life of Emile
Zola, Marie Antoinette, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Mikado, Moonlight Sonata, Music for
Madame, Mutiny on the Bounty, Northwest Mounted, Pinocchio, The Plough and the Stars, Pygmalion,
Queen of Destiny, Victoria the Great, The Real Glory, Robin Hood, Saludos Amigos, Servant of the
People, Snow White, Stanley and Livingstone, They Shall Have Music.

28 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $3.30

32 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $3.50

$1.20

ORDER BLANK

TO: EDUCATIONAL & RECREATIONAL GUIDES, INC., 172 Renner Avenue., Newark 8, N. J.

□ SEND the assortment checked above. Enclosed is

n SEND COMBINATION ORDER of all these assortments, Regularly $15.40 $6.90

□ ENTER or RENEW subscription to “Film & Radio Guide,” $2.00 a year.

NAME

ADDRESS

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

WILLIAM LEWIN, EDITOR

March, 1946

Volume XII, No. 6

16MM EXCHANGE PRACTICES

Topsy's A Precocious Child Even Though She's Turvy
BY B. A. AUGHINBAUGH

Director, Slide & Film Exchange, State Department of Education, Columbus, Ohio

No. 21: Film Widths

As was to be expected, im-
provements in photo emulsions
and lenses have combined to
make the 16mm film a theatrical
threat. One of the first notice-
able reactions in this revolution
(or as we see it, evolution) has
been the effect upon film cen-
sorship. Most of the censorship
laws were passed when there
existed only 35mm film and the
accepted footage unit was a reel
of 1000-foot length. The unit for
censor-review charges is there-
fore based on “a thousand feet
of film or fraction thereof.” For
this reason a thousand feet of
any width of film today goes
through at the same standard
censor-rate. But approximately
400 feet of 16mm or 200 feet of
8mm film carry as much pic-
torial material as 1000 feet of
35mm, and they run the same
length of time on the projector.
Thus over two reels of 16mm
and over four of 8mm get under
the “wire” at the same censor
charge as 1000 feet of 35mm.
When sound was recorded on
film, the recording companies
made no such legal faux pas in
fixing royalties. They based
their royalties on “running
time,” which is the same for all
widths of film. These rates, how-
ever, do vary for theatrical and
educational use. The rates of one
recording company were, at one

B. A. Aughinbaugh

time, $200 per minute for the-
atrical recording and $100 per
minute for educational. What
these rates are now we can not
say.

The film-width situation has
created other problems. With the
advent of 16mm arc-light pro-
jectors, there have been opened
16mm theaters, and therefore
the 16mm film no longer belongs
solely to the educational field.
Some schools, in need of extra
funds, are also using their 16mm
projectors for theatrical exhibi-
tions in their auditoriums. Some
of these theatrical shows are
only for school children, but
others admit the general public.
This situation has brought a
whisper from the theatrical field
that there should be a film width

for theatrical use between 35mm
and 16mm; perhaps 20mm. This
width would be used by small
city theaters and theaters in
small towns. This plan may pre-
vent small theaters from desert-
ing the big producers. That
would be a most lamentable oc-
currence to them since it is such
small theatres that make theat-
rical pictures profitable. These
little fellows are the profitable
“skimmed milk,” especially to
the “independent,” or semi-inde-
pendent, producers. Theatres of
this type thrive considerably on
the “gun-play” releases, which
do not call for big production
budgets. Their patrons are not
too particular. Just so a saloon,
or “hotel,” doesn’t appear too
often on the same side of the
street, these “ride-’em-cowboy”
folks are not critical about the
scenery. They never were partic-
ular about plots, if they ever
knew what a plot was. Moreover,
people who are so easy to please
are not critical about what the
highbrow “projectionist” styles
“screen results.” So why “cast
such pearls” before them, espe-
cially since a few millimeters
will not make much difference
if the screen area is kept ivithin
the projection limits of the film
tvidth being used?

There is another considera-
tion that must not be overlooked.
By utilizing a film-width inter-
mediate to 16mm and 35mm, the

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

small-town theatres can be “pro-
tected” by the theatrical ex-
changes against school or other
unwanted theatrical competi-
tion because such pictui’es will
be made o)ihj in 35mm and the
new width. The gun will also
have a second barrel, because
the new width will clip the wings
of fbj-bij-night 16mm theatrical
exchanges which are springing
up all over the map, and are
renting out-of-date theatricals in
16mm sound. Too many of these,
we are sorry to say, thrive on
school patronage, and this brings
us to our next observation.

With improvements being
made in film emulsions and pro-
jector lenses, why can not a class
of, say, 30 pupils, be accommo-
dated with 8mm projection?
Sound has been experimentally
recorded on 8mm by amateurs
with more than reasonably good
results. If professional skill gave
this problem serious considera
tion, no doubt 8mm sound-film
could be economically pi'oduced
commercially. This would bring
the outright sale of educational
pictures down to the point
where individual schools could
possess them, aoid it is on such
possessio}i that adequate and
proper use of the motion picture
in education depends. Schools
ca)i not be operated on loans or
rentals as theatres are!

At present, those schools for-
tunate enough to possess pro-
jectors are doing what they can
to introduce visual communica-
tion into their work, but the
present situation is too much
akin to the “rabbit sausage” that
Teddy Roosevelt described as be-
ing composed partly of rabbit
and partly of horse meat, on a
50-50 basis — one horse and one
rabbit! The school use of visual
communication is diluted with
audio communication in the ra-
tio of a thousand to one. And
now some book companies, intent

on holding the status quo, are
advocating school use of film
strips! They know very well that
only in this way can they con-
tinue the dilution ratio a little
longer. If school authorities are
so uninformed that they can’t
see through this sudden interest
of the book companies in pro-
jected pictures, they are going
to waste a lot of money! The
situation has reached the point
where one may almost spot a
person who may have more than
a professional interest in books,
by his advocacy of filmstrips. It
is amusing to note that some of
these advocates do not so much
as know what to call this mug-
wump of the projected-picture
field. They think it is something
new ! They do not know that
the filmstrip antedates the
16mm motion picture and that
it was born neither of necessity
nor for the advancement of
learning, but came into being
purely for a commercial reason
called “competition.” However,
its creator saw that it wasn’t
even good competition and dis-
carded it. It will take more than
a “strip” to save a certain
drowning business, which brings
forth another consideration.

It was unfortunate that des-
tiny placed the motion picture in
the theatrical field instead of
the publishing field. The scripts
and cameras employed in mak-
ing motion pictures are “props”
of the publishers. The thespian
and scenic arts are “props” of
the theatre. On this basis the
motion picture might be consid-
ered as belonging equally to the
publisher and theatre. But there
was another factor, and it was
the deciding one. For purely
mechanical reasons the publish-
ers sold their products directly
1 0 the individual consumer,
whereas for equally imperative
mechanical reasons, the theatre
sold its commodity collectively .

This difference doubtlessly
placed the theatre in possession
of the cinema.

It is becoming increasingly ap-
parent that this alliance of the
theatre and the cinema was not
for the best interest of the con-
sumer. The consumer, at least
in free countries, accepts collec-
tivity as an irksome compromise,
but only a compromise. He is
ever ready to cast it aside. For
a time the theatre held a firm
grasp on the motion picture, but
there are too many and neces-
sary uses for the cinema that
are not legitimate theatrical ma-
terial for the theatre to continue
its monopoly — witness the great
use made of motion pictures by
the armed forces ; and the ever-
swelling tide of school, commer-
cial, and propaganda usage of
all kinds. Commercial demands
have become so insistent that
they are pushing their way onto
the theatrical screen itself with
such bold attempts as Weak End,
at the Waldorf and Harvey
Curls. Soon we may be having
theatrical pictures on The
Standard Railroad of the World,
It Isn’t a Codak If It Isn’t a
West man (with tintinnabula-
tion), or Ninety-Nine and Nine-
ty-Nine One Hundredths Per
Cent Pure. The radio is doing
it, so why not the movies, espe-
cially if television shows or
forces the way !

As for classroom pictures,
shall we choose to place this frail
infant in the hands of its old,
rapacious nurse, the text-book
publishers ; or shall it be left to
the mercies of one that has come
up from the slums, and is still
pretty sticky — the theatricals ;
or shall we let it grow like Topsy
and choose its own parents later
on? Well, the Topsy of Uncle
Tom’s Cabin didn’t do so badly.
Let us allow the matter to rest
here until next month, when we
shall discuss this “Topsy” angle.

March, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Topsy’s a precocious child even
though she’s Turvy.

If you have not read “Can
Your Child Really Read,” by C.
H. Henry, in the January, 1946
(pg. 72) Harperfi, by all means

do so.

COMING

In the next issue of Film and
Radio Guide, J. D. Knight of
California answers B. A. Augh-

inbaugh of Ohio on “Free”
Films, and Mr. Aughinbaugh
“closes the case” with his re-
buttal.

BEHIND THE SCREEN CREDITS

BY HELEN COLTON

Request Performance, the
Sunday evening radio program
on which movie, radio, and stage
stars do what the public asks
them to, is the brainchild of The
Masquers Club, a group of Hol-
lywood actors which has en-
deared itself to servicemen by
presenting dinner and entertain-
ment to several hundred of them
every Saturday night for the
past three years as an activity
of its Servicemen’s Morale
Corps.

Seeing how much the service-
men enjoyed making requests
of guest stars on these Satur-
day night occasions, the mem-
bers of the Masquers thought:
“Why not do the same thing
with the public? Everyone likes
to be a casting director. A radio
show on which the stars do what
the public asks them to ought to
be a ‘natural’ !”

An audition record was pre-
pared with Cary Grant, Ran-
dolph Scott, Joan Leslie, and
Charles Coburn, president of
The Masquers, under the guid-
ance of Edward Earle, one of
the officers of the Servicemen’s
Morale Corps. It was then
turned over to a large theatrical
agency, A. & S. Lyons, for ped-
dling to radio agencies which
are always in search of bright

Helen Colton

new ideas for radio programs
for their clients.

The Ward Wheelock radio
agency thought it might appeal
to one of its clients, Campbell
Soups. They were right. Upon
running the audition record for
those responsible for the selec-
tion of radio programs for
Campbell, it was agreed that the
soup company should sponsor
Request Performance for the
usual 13-week period, with an
option to renew the show for a
second 13-week period if they

felt it was doing well for them
and really getting people to buy
the sponsor’s product.

(The effectiveness of a radio
program in getting across the
sponsor’s message and product
to the public is determined usu-
ally by a poll, by which listeners
are telephoned at home and
asked what station and program
they are tuned to at that mo-
ment and if they know the name
of the product being plugged on
the show.)

In presenting the idea to its
client, Campbell Soups, the
Ward Wheelock agency was able
to offer it the Sunday evening
time, 9 to 9:30 p. m. (EST) on
which it holds an option with
the Columbia Broadcasting Sys-
tem. All desirable radio time on
all networks is optioned by ad-
vertising agencies, which like to
be able to offer the best listen-
ing time to clients when selling
them programs. Most radio
agencies vie for Sunday evening
time, proven by polls to be the
best of the whole week (Wed-
nesday evening is second best) .
There is a long waiting list of
agencies, for instance, trying to
get options on practically every
half hour of radio time from 6
to 10 p. m. on Sundays. It is
rare that an agency relinquishes

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

Jeonette MacDonald, Marta Wilkerson ("G.l. Jill" to servicemen), Maureen O'Sullivan, and Robert Walker chat while waiting
for their cues at "Request Performance," radio show in which the public does the casting (Sundays at 9:00 EST over CBS).

its option on desirable time, and
so other agencies may buy op-
tions for many years, so as to
remain on the waiting list for
a particular time spot.

After the program had been
sold to Campbell, wheels were
set into motion. Many sponsors
like to keep their own an-
nouncers under contract. Del
Sharbutt, one of radio’s top an-
nouncers, has been under con-
tract to Campbell for many
years to handle their shows ex-
clusively. Naturally, he was se-
lected to announce Request Per-
formance. Ads on the radio and
in newspapers urged people to
write letters to CBS, telling
what stars they want to hear
and what they want the stars
to do. All these letters are

promptly forwarded to the Ward
Wheelock agency. The public,
loving its role of “producer,”
swamps them with 5,000 letters
a week. For easy reference
they’ve been divided into sev-
eral groups.

The “challengers” are those
who dare them to do something
almost impossible. One such let-
ter challenged them to make up
a dramatic skit using only names
from the telephone directory. It
was done with great success,
starring Rita Hayworth.

The “casting directors” ask
for their favorite stars in favor-
ite plays, or reading poetry, such
as Fredric March reading Oscar
Wilde’s Ballad of Reading Gaol.

The “humorous” ones ask for
Jack Benny and Fred Allen play-

ing the “friendship scene from
Damon and Pythias,” or Wal-
lace Beery and Marjorie Main
playing Romeo and Juliet.

Th e “sentimentalists” are
those who expect a dear one
home from service on a certain
date and would like to have his
favorite song played or poem
read the first Sunday night he
is home.

Once a week a conference is
held in the office of Diana Bour-
bon, head of the Ward Wheelock
office in Los Angeles, at which
are present Richard Diggs, also
of the Wheelock agency; Bill
Robson, director of the show;
two staff writers, Jerome Law-
rence and Robert E. Lee; and
Nat Wolff, the casting director.

Mr. Wolff lines up all the act-

March, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

•

ing talent for the show. He con-
tacts the stars’ agents, arranges
the dates on which they will ap-
pear, and their salaries. His job
i s fraught with last-minute
changes. If a star is taken ill, or
has to go out of town, either for
personal reasons or on location
for a picture, he has to scout
around and come up with some
one else, sometimes on only a
few days’ notice. He also has to
know which stars enjoy radio
work, which avoid radio appear-
ances, and what prices to offer
various personalities for a one-
shot radio job.

If a particular program has
two male comedians and one
male dramatic actor lined up, a
female singing star will be
wanted to balance the show. Af-
ter allocating the salaries of the
two comedians and dramatic
star, the program’s budget for
guests might have only, say,
$1000 left, so he has to know
who are the female singing stars
who may command $1000, and
no more, for a radio appearance.

At this weekly conference,
ideas are kicked around for a
script in which to fit the tal-
ents of the guests. The ordinary
radio show is built entirely
around one personality or one
guest star. When it comes to
building a new show each week
around several guests, each of
whom is known for his particu-
lar and unique talents, it be-
comes a task for experienced
hands. Of course, they must
keep in mind what the public
has requested the stars to do.

A format is agreed upon, on
the basis of which the two staff
writers turn out a “skeleton”
script. The script is then turned
over to a couple of writers who
provide the gags and heighten
the comedy. If one of the Re-
quest Performance guests is a
topnotch radio comedian, like

Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Jack
Carson, Gary Moore, or Red
Skelton, his own writers are
usually hired for this job of
“gagging up” the script.

The script now comes back to
the same group which evolved
the idea for it originally, for
their approval or suggestions
for further revision and polish.
Changes are frequently made in
a script up to the very afternoon
of the day it is broadcast. Oc-
casionally a star has some good
suggestions to offer, or Bill Rob-
son, the director, may think up
some good bit of business or
sound effects during rehearsals.

The first rehearsal of each
show takes place the night be-
fore it is broadcast, in a confer-
ence room at CBS Studios in
Hollywood. It starts with a
round-the-table reading of the
script, then adjourns to a studio
where they go through the script
once or twice more, this time
with music, sound effects, and
the commercials. There is a final
dress rehearsal the next day,
Sunday, an hour before the show
goes on the air.

Copies of the mimeographed
script go to actors, orchestra
leader, sound effects man, an-
nouncer, director. Ward Whee-
lock agency. Masquers Club,
sponsor (Campbell’s Soups),
A. & S. Lyons agency, engineers,
and the trio which sings the
commercial,

A transcription is made of
every broadcast. During the fol-
lowing week, those connected
with the program can listen to
it and decide what are the weak
spots, what things to avoid in
the future, and what parts of the
program seemed to go over es-
pecially well with the studio
audience.

Obviously, there is more to it
than “meets the ear” when you
listen to Request Performance.

Annotated
Bibliography
on the

MOVIES

'WHAT
SHALL WE
READ

about the

MOVIES?"

A Guide to the Many Books about
Motion Pictures — Their History,
Science, Industry, Art, Future.

By WILLIAM LEWIN, Ph. D.

Chairman, Department of
English, Weequahic High
School, Newark, New
Jersey

25c a Copy

Free With Two-Year Subscrip-
tions to "Film & Radio
Guide."

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

Hamlet (Maurice Evans) to the Queen (Lili Darvas): "Look here upon this picture."

March, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

THE PLAY'S THE THING

BY FLORA RHETA SCHREiBER

"Hamlet"

You have probably heard
about Maurice Evans’s GI Ham-
let, the production brought from
the Pacific and presented by
Michael Todd in New York.
Most people who have seen it at
the Columbus Circle Theatre
have doubtlessly told you that
it is a swell show. The scholars,
looking for Hamlet, the doubt-
ing, introverted philosopher, the
man called upon to take action
although he is temperamentally
unsuited to do so, have probably
said, “A swell show — but — ’’

Let us first look into the

Flora Rheta Schreiber

“but.” Hamlet is presented as a
man of common sense who de-
lays because he must: a man
like any common man — uncom-
mon only in that he must face
and cope with uncommon cir-
cumstances. He is an intelligent
man who asks questions, but
his questioning does not come
from a tortured, fired, highly
contemplative imagination. The
disadvantage of such a portrayal
is that it renders incongruous
certain passages that are not cut
and it soft-pedals the emotional
tone. Many of these passages re-
fuse to be taken casually and

explains Homlet, as he sits et Ophelia's feet, "is the image of a murder.

Polonius stands at the left.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII. No. 6

The scene in the lost act of "Hamlet" when the King cries, "Gertrude, do not drink!"

therefore seem obtrusive. Whole
scenes seem telescoped to the
point of incongruity; the scene
in which the queen describes
Ophelia’s d r o w n i n g, for in-
stance, takes place too soon af-
ter Ophelia leaves the stage. The
grave-digger scene is completely
omitted. This omission, an omis-
sion which David Garrick in-
variably made in the 18th cen-
tury, makes for a certain stark-
ness of line. I, for one, though,
would prefer to sacrifice this
starkness and not have to for-
feit the comedy of the grave-
diggers and the frenzy of Ham-
let’s discovery o f Ophelia’s
death.

Now for “the swell show.’’

The present production does
have a vigor of its own, for what
it loses in emotion and grandeur
it gains in pace and in a readily
understood humanity. This near-
ness is, incidentally, aided by the
neutral modern costuming.

Maurice Evans’s Hamlet is no
romantic figure. He does not try
to out-Hecuba John Gielgud or
any other recent Hamlet. His
performance is admirably inte-
grated with the over-all concep-
tion ; it is clear-cut, incisive, and
intelligent. Frances Reid’s Ophe-
lia is first-rate. For once, Ophe-
lia is a real girl and not a mere
wisp. Dili Darvas plays the
queen with a light-mindedness
that is admirable. Her queen has

definite personality and is con-
siderably more than a mere foil
as is often the fate of the queen.
Her foreign accent, on reflec-
tion, is incongruous, but doesn’t
actually make any difference.
Thomas Gomez’s king is rightly
repulsive. Thomas Chalmers’s
Polonius is too blatantly fool-
ish. Both Emmett Rogers’s
Laertes and Walter Coy’s Hora-
tio suffer from the play’s lost
eloquence.

★ ★ ★

"Antigone"

Katharine Cornell and Gilbert
Miller have imported the Jean
Anouilh-Lewis Galantiere ver-
sion of Sophocles’s Ayitigoyie,

March, T946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

which was produced in Paris
during the Nazi occupancy.

This is a version whose mood
and manner are part ancient and
part modern. Not only are there
omissions ; there are also addi-
tions to this story of the self-
willed daughter of Oedipus, who,
defying the edict of Creon, the
king, that her brother be left un-
buried, buries him even though
she knows to do so means her
own death.

Why burying her brother
seemed so important to Antigone
is difficult for modern audiences
to grasp. Time separates us from
the belief of that day — that the
unburied dead could find no
peace in the after-world.

I expected that both this gao
in belief and the hybrid mood
would keep me from feeling any
real emotion. I was pleasantly
surprised, however. I left the
theatre with a feeling of baffle-
ment at being human — a feeling
that always overtakes me when
I see a Greek play well done. And
I also had a feeling of being car-
ried away, that somehow Broad-
way had no business looking the
same when I came out of the
theatre. Quite apart from any
conscious analysis, it seems to
me that this subjective feeling is
a touchstone of the production.

The plays opens with a ciga-
rette-smoking one-man chorus in
dinner jacket, telling the story
and introducing the characters
who sit on the steps, waiting for
the play to begin. Throughout,
the acting is subdued, and the
mannerisms, like the dress, be-
long to modern people.

Antigone, defying Creon, is
the personification of individual
freedom in defiance of the tyr-
anny of the state. It so happens
that in this case it is Creon, not
Antigone, who is on the side of
common sense. The brother An-
tigone buries was never a friend
to her ; in fact, as Creon points

out clearly, this brother was a
scoundrel, plotting his father’s
death and his country’s destruc-
tion. Yet Antigone thinks her-
self duty-bound to bury him.
This futile mission is wholly
ironic. A woman who is about to
marry, to face joy with a man
she loves, prefers to defy false
authority and die. Her wish goes
deeper than a sense of duty. It
reflects, too, her feeling that
mere happiness, the settled rou-
tine happiness that descends on
the heroine of today’s best-seller,
is basically sterile, basically
unworthy of the daughter of
Oedipus.

Sir Cedric Hardwicke’s Creon
is easily the acting masterpiece
of the season. This is the por-
trait of a tyrant who under-
stands his own tyranny ; the por-
trait of a man who loves the
niece whom he must condemn to
die. There is grace, stateliness,
sternness, and compassion in
Sir Cedric’s masterly perform-
ance. Katharine Cornell’s Anti-
gone is likewise masterly. There
is grace, beauty, a tender fem-
ininity, and a stern courage in
her portrait.

★ ★ ★

"Dream Gir!"

Elmer Rice, who once took his
leave of the theatre which he
found not robust enough for
him, has himself of late settled
into a merely pleasant frame of
mind. The newest example of his
new manner is Dream Girl, pre-
sented b y The Playwrights’
Company. The play is about a
twenty-four-year-old girl who
hasn’t found herself and doesn’t
know where to look. Not know-
ing, Mr. Rice’s heroine settles
into a half-comfortable, half-dis-
turbing habit of day-dreaming.
Let any stimuli prick her ever so
slightly, and she drifts off. A
radio interview to which she lis-
tens is enough, in imagination.

to put her before Mr. Anthony’s
tribunal. Let her sister announce
that she is expecting a baby, and
our heroine is propped up amid
hospital pillows, holding twins
of her own. When a man-about-
town suggests a trip to Mexico,
she sees herself just in the
midst of native serenaders with
whom she exchanges pleasan-
tries. Then, dressed as a Sadie
Thompson in tell-tale scarlet,
she sees herself standing against
a lamp-post, explaining her de-
scent from virtue. When she
watches a performance of The
Merchant of Venice, the Portia
is taken suddenly ill, and gra-
ciously she consents to come to
the aid of the management by
stepping into the breach and
playing the part. About to elope
to Reno with the brother-in-law
who has figured in her dreams,
our heroine is rudely awakened
by a tough newspaper man who
makes her fall in love with him.
She marries him and lives hap-
pily ever after. Perhaps that is
where the day-dreaming really
begins.

There is nothing unusual
about any of this, but it does
somehow all add up to a satisfy-
ing and human portrayal of very
average experience. There is
ease, humor, and unpretentious-
ness in the writing. The transi-
tions from the real to the imag-
ined are adroitly managed, the
real scenes nicely punctuating
the imagined ones, so that at
times one wonders whether re-
ality isn’t itself largely dream.
This is an ingenious technique,
allowing the playwright to use
material which is not only ab-
surd but which, if presented as
anything other than the hallucin-
ations of the heroine, would be
cliched.

Betty Field, for whom the
play was written, lives through
it all with the greatest of ease.
It is the calculated ease of the

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

finished craftsman. Two other
performances should be particu-
larly noted. Wendell Corey gives
a sharply realistic performance
as the newspaper man. Evelyn
Varden plays the girl’s mother
with brilliance. All through the
play she sneezes. There is com-
edy in this sneeze, and a kind of
satiric comment. Let her daugh-
ter think the things of this world
important — the sneeze seems to
say — but as for her, well, she’ll
just sneeze at it all. Or she’ll re-
cline and read Ahvaijs Opal, the
pornographic best-seller which,
for all her matter-of-factness,
puts her just where her daugh-
ter is — day-dreaming.

"Apple of His Eye"

Apple of His Eye, a new
play by Kenyon Nicholson and
Charles Robinson, presented by
Jed Harris, is an unpretentious
telling of an old story — the story
of a middle-aged man who falls
in love with a young girl. In the
present instance the man is a
widower, so that there are really
very f e w complications. This
lack of complications makes at
once for a lack of incident and
a concern f o r character, for
thinness, and for mellowness.
The characters unfold quietly
and humanly.

Walter Huston is the man ;
Mary James, the girl. He is pros-
perous and a pillar of society.
She is just young, pretty, and
poor. His cook is in the hospital.
The girl has come as a substitute
cook. He wants to woo her, but
doesn’t know how. Finally he
works up sufficient courage to
take her out for a Chinese din-
ner. A kindly fate brings them
together while they officiate at
the birth of a calf. Finally —
0 fateful day! — he takes her to
the carnival. There, to prove his
non-existent youth, he tries to

match his skill with a profes-
sional wrestler’s, sprains his
back, and becomes the laughing-
stock of the community that had
once respected him. Angry, he
fires the girl and sets about ex-
iling himself to Florida or Cali-
fornia— it doesn’t matter which.
But the girl, who is also leaving
town, comes to say good-by. It
turns out not to be good-by, but
rather till death do us part.

There are fine character-por-
traits of local types. Doro Mer-
ande represents the congrega-
tion of neighborhood busybodies.
Mary Wickes is the man’s out-
raged daughter-in-law. Clare
Woodbury plays the sick cook
whose operation didn’t keep her
away long enough. Jimsey
Somers plays the little grand-
child with uncommon skill. Her
grandfather tries to bribe her
out of coming along to the car-
nival, and her response is elo-
quent. She refuses his quarter
with dignity at the humiliation
he has caused her. Mary James
brings freshness to the part of
the girl ; Huston, pathos and hu-
mor to that of the man. You’ll

remember Huston with affection
when you think of him in this
role.

"The Day Before Spring"

Anthony Tudor, the choreog-
rapher, and Miles White, the cos-
tumer, are the real heroes of The
Day Before Spring, the John C.
Wilson musical. Mr. Tudor’s
dances are imaginative and Mr.
White’s costumes brilliantly
vivid. I found the music strident,
the book largely dull, and the
acting cliched. There is just one
scene worthy of your notice —
that in which the heroine, un-
able to decide whether to leave
her husband and elope with her
lover, consults Freud, Voltaire,
and Plato. Plato says, just be
friends with the lover; Voltaire,
being French, says, keep the hus-
band and keep the lover on the
side; it is Freud who exultantly
exhorts, "Run away, run away,
run away!’’ (With the lover, of
course.) In the end, though, she
stays with her husband, as
though nothing had happened.
Nothing very much had !

FILM & RADIO GUIDE

Enter or Renew Your Subscription
NOW at Current Low Rates:

ONE YEAR $2.00

TWO YEARS 3.50

Effective July 1, 1946

ONE YEAR $3.00

TWO YEARS 5.00

What Shall We Read About the Movies” or
"Course of Study in Radio Appreciation” Free
With 2-Year Subscriptions. Both Free With
3-Year Subscriptions. In Canada, Add 50c; In
Foreign Countries, Add $1.

March, 1 946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

How to Organize a Local
Film Council

The Film Council of America
urges the formation, in cities
and towns throughout the
United States, of local groups of
persons interested i n audio-
visual education and 16mm films
in general.

Meetings can be held weekly,
every two weeks, or monthly ; at
lunch or dinner; and adjust-
ments can be made to fit any
other local demands. The plan
calls for meetings which are in-
formal in tone, with emphasis
upon promoting friendship
among persons who have com-
mon interests in audio-visual ed-
ucation.

A good example of how your
own community meeting can be
initiated can be found in the re-
cently-organized Film Council of
Atlanta, which is only one of a
number of new groups already
under way in various cities. The
following simple steps led to its
organization :

1. Four interested persons de-
cided to organize the meeting. A
local hotel agreed to furnish a
private dining room for the in-
itial noon meeting, at a cost of
$1 per plate. Each of the four
persons agreed to telephone a
list of his or her acquaintances
in the audio-visual field, on be-
half of the meeting.

2. The initial telephone calls
were made about a week prior
to the first planned meeting.
When it developed that the date
which had been tentatively se-
lected involved numerous con-
flicts with other meetings, it
was changed to another date

Condensed from "NAVED N ews,"
March, 1946.

agreeable to most of the prospec-
tive members.

3. On the morning of the
meeting, every person on the
list was telephoned again as a
reminder. While the original list
contained only 21 names, 23 per-
sons actually attended the first
meeting. Every person expressed
a desire to become a permanent
member of the group.

4. The first meeting was in-
formal and consisted principally
of discussions of the various
members’ ideas concerning the
group. It was agreed that a slate
of temporary officers should be
elected to serve during the or-
ganization period of the group,
probably for two or three
months ; that the election should
be held at the second meeting;
and that for the present the
group should continue to meet
weekly at the same place and
time. Every member present ex-
pressed an intention to be ac-
tive in the group and to be pres-
ent at as many weekly meetings
as possible.

5. Persons present at the first
meeting were urged to list
names of others who should be
invited t o future meetings.
Those present volunteered to
contact new prospects and invite
their participation. Since the or-
iginal group included school,
church. Boy Scout, college, and
visual-dealer representatives, a
considerable number of new
prospects were uncovered.

6. The cost of operating the
organization on its present basis
will be nil, but nevertheless it
was agreed that an extra charge
of 15c per plate be added, to go
into the organization’s treasury

toward possible future needs.

7. It was agreed that the sec-
ond meeting be an organization
meeting and that plans be made
for future meetings.

Thus, as a result of work on
the part of each of the four orig-
inal organizers, a group is well
along toward formation in one
city. From the interest expressed
in the first meeting, it was evi-
dent that the need for the group
existed ; all that was required to
make the group a reality was the
spark of the organizers’ effort.

C. R. Reagan, President of the
Film Council of America — the
sponsoring organization — stands
ready to help in organizing
groups at this time. There will
be regional chairmen and state
chairmen, who will assist groups
in their areas. If you want to
get the ball rolling contact Mr.
Reagan at 12th and Lamar
Streets, Austin 21, Texas.

★ ★ ★

Television Stimulot'es
16mm Production

Television — which is coming
around that well-known corner
with express-train speed- — will
require that the present 16mm
film production capacity of the
country be tripled or quadrupled
within the next five years to
take care of its demands alone.
According to DuMont officials,
available 16mm product is be-
ing consumed rapidly, with the
result that television stations
are increasingly in need of good
films for telecasts.

To meet this future need, an
unusual boom in 16mm produc-
tion was forecast by Donald A.
Stewart, of DuMont’s New York
office.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

NAVED to Present "16mm Oscar"
at Chicago Convention

The National Association of
Visual Education Dealers will
hold its first postwar conven-
tion and trade show at the
Continental Hotel, Chicago,
August 5 and 6, 1946.

The program will include
work on problems of interest to
all persons in the visual-educa-
tion field, and will offer stimu-
lating ideas for broadening the
viewpoint of every participant.
The agenda will feature practi-
cal discussions; sessions on fu-
ture developments, such as tele-
vision ; and talks by educators
and industry executives on
audio-visual matters.

High point of the convention
will be the NAVED banquet on
August 6, at which tentative
plans call for the presentation
of a “16mm Oscar” to the man
who has contributed most to
audio-visual education during
the year.

The National Visual Educa-
tion Trade Show will take place
in the Tropical Room of the
hotel.

★ ★ ★

ANFA to Convene in

New York

The annual convention of the
Allied Non-Theatrical Film As-
sociation is scheduled for May
9 to 11 at the New Yorker Ho-
tel, in New York City. The pro-
gram will be announced shortly.

* ★ *

Ohio Announces
Sub-Exchange Plan

For many years the Ohio Slide
and Film Exchange has provided
free service to 3,400 separate
schools in the state. Several
years ago it began to combine

these separate schools into city-
wide or county circuit groups.
Now being undertaken is the
second step, which will involve
combining the city or county
circuits into county-city units
which will serve as sub-ex-
changes of the State exchange.
Slides and films will be provided
by the State for periods of a
quarter, half-year or full year,
and the sub-exchanges will hire
their own film inspectors and
bookers. Each sub-exchange will
serve an area of only one county,
which can be covered without re-
sort to mail or express shipment.
Where mail or express shipment
would be required, the present
service from the State Exchange
will be continued.

Ohio’s State Exchange, which
employs 35 persons, serves all
types of schools in Ohio — public,
parochial and private, on all lev-
els. The Exchange has 12,000
prints and thousands of slides
and film strips. Out of Ohio’s
113 cities, 20 possess their own
educational film exchanges.

B & H Get’S British Instructional
Films

The Bell & Howell Company
has entered into a long-term
agreement for an interchange of
research, manufacture, and dis-
tribution of equipment and films
with the J. Arthur Rank group
of British companies. Terms of
the agreement state that British
Acoustics, a Rank subsidiary,
will manufacture B&H 35mm,
16mm, and 8mm equipment ac-
cording to B&H methods. Inter-
change of films between the two
companies’ 16mm film libraries

is planned. This will make the
excellent Gaumont British In-
structional Films available to
American schools and colleges
during the academic year
1946-47.

Remake of "Quo Vadis"

Steve Pallos, former aide to
Alexander Korda, and recently
released from the British Army,
has closed a deal with J. Arthur
Rank for the remake of Quo
Vadis in Rome. For the produc-
tion, Rank will put up a reported
$2,000,000, and the picture will
be produced under the banner of
Pendennis Films of London.

Forthcoming Seiznick Pictures

David 0. Seiznick has an-
nounced the scheduling for pro-
duction in Technicolor of Sir
Judas, the story of Benedict
Arnold, on the massive scale of
Gone With the Wind and Duel
in the Sun. Sir Judas will have
an all-star cast.

While Sir Judas was written
some years ago in script form
for Seiznick, under his personal
supervision, by author Oliver H.
P. Garrett, production was de-
layed until the end of World
War II because of the difficul-
ties of staging so massive a pic-
ture. It is still uncertain whether
Seiznick will begin Sir Judas or
his scheduled production of lAt-
tle Women first. This decision
will be dependent upon cast
availabilities. Present plans call
for starting one of these produc-
tions between May 15 and June
15 and the other two or three
months later.

March, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

What Services Should a Visual
Education Dealer Offer?

BY JOHN R. AMACKER

Amacker's Audio-Visual Service, Madison, Wisconsin

In my estimation there are
two main functions a dealer can
offer to his customers. I prefer
to look upon them as “clients”
rather than customers. I like
to diagnose their requirements,
tailor-fit their needs. I want to
take care of their physical re-
quirements, and then I want to
take care of their application of
this physical equipment.

I do not want to be looked
upon as a repair station; yet,
should the equipment need at-
tention, I want to be able to fix
the trouble in the shortest pos-
sible time. In making the orig-
inal installation, I try to point
out where they are to encounter
difficulties through carelessness,
and to avoid calling for help un-
til there is a genuine need. It is
no joke to buck the snow and ice
in Wisconsin, driving 150 miles,
because a school gets no sound
from its machine, and then to
find that the cause is simply an
exciter lamp which has worked
loose from its socket. I have
found 80 percent of my special
service calls are due to minor
matters that the client could
have adjusted himself if he
worked with the machine.

If time is taken during the
original installation to point out
what makes the sound, what
“gives” when it comes to illum-
ination, a great deal of unneces-
sary calls can be stopped.

Once a customer has had you
over for such a mission he is go-
ing to be pretty definite the next
time.

Condensed from "NAVED News,"
March, 1946.

I feel the greatest good I can
do is to work out an exact and
concise schedule whereby I get
over my territory every six
weeks. This means I make my
after-the-sales calls regularly.
My clients look for me. Maybe
the equipment doesn’t need any
sort of attention, but should it
be acting up, that is a good time
to catch it before the trouble be-
comes serious. That to me means
service. Does it pay? Who do you
think sells people their lamps,
bulbs, extra reels, etc.? Who do
you think finds out about Joe
Bloak thinking about buying a
projector? Who do you think
has the inside track when it
comes to additional equipment?

We should learn the “tricks of
the trade,” be able to tell what
to do for darkening shades and
home-made projector stands. We
should read periodicals, attend
meetings, interchange ideas with
others in the same line of woi'k,
and then pass along that which
we have gleaned to our clients.

I’ll grant that the client should
do this himself, that the state
university and other public or-
ganizations should make such
information available. Yet, if
the dealer makes regular calls,
and he “knows his stuff,” he
can perform a very vital service
by passing along such informa-
tion.

N, Y. Physical Educators
Stress Visual Methods

Floyd Wilber of Wilber Visual
Service, New Berlin, N. Y., re-
ports that at a recent convention
of the New York State Associa-
tion for Health and Physical

Education, visual methods were
strongly stressed. The organiza-
tion is working out a well-or-
dered plan for film utilization.
At one session of the conference,
several hundred physical-educa-
tion directors saw the Washing-
ton Red Skins’ coach, Dudley de
Groot, use reel after reel of grid-
iron footage to explain football
technique.

★ ★ ★

Hazel Calhoun, Georgia's No. 1

Woman Manager of Visual-

Aid Service

Hazel Calhoun, manager of
Calhoun Company, 101 Marietta
St., N.W., Atlanta 3, offers the
schools of Georgia and the sur-
rounding territory a multifari-
ous and energetic type of visual-
aid service that is the envy of
real he-men of other states. Miss
Calhoun’s company not only dis-
tributes Bell & Howell motion-
picture equipment and main-
tains the only factory-author-
ized B & H service station in
Georgia, with a complete stock
of B & H accessories, but is also
equipped to make repairs on all
the other standard makes of
film equipment.

Calhoun Company also dis-
tributes the stereopticons of the
Spencer Lens Company, subsid-
iary of the American Optical
Company; of the Society for
Visual Education, and of Bausch
& Lomb.

The Calhoun film library in-
cludes all the subjects in the cat-
alogs of Films Incorporated,
Castle Films, British Informa-
tion Services, and the Office of
Inter-American Affairs.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume Xll, No. 6

Visual Education in the Church

BY PAUL L. FOLKEMER

The church field is potentially
greater than all others — there
are over 250,000 churches in this
country. Visual education deal-
ers, hoping to make real strides
in this field, should be prepared
to give service not required or
expected in other fields.

We made an informal survey
among a small, but representa-
tive, group of clergymen to find
out what services they consid-
ered most important to their
proposed visual education pro-
gram. From the survey, we re-
ceived many and varied sugges-
tions and requests, the most im-
portant of which were the three
that follow.

First, these clergymen wanted
good Biblical films close by. If
possible, they wanted the films
close enough to arrange book-
ings by telephone calls. Too
much time is spent in correspon-
dence with rental agencies at-
tempting to schedule films. They
found it necessary to book films
too far in advance. It was fre-
quently not possible to lay plans
far enough in advance to assure

Paul Folkemer is a member of Christ
English Lutheran Church, Baltimore, Md.
He has been teaching the Young Peo-
ple's class for ten years and has been
Superintendent of the Young People's De-
partment for seven years. Mr. Folkemer
has an A.B. degree from Gettysburg Col-
lege, Pa., which he received in 1934.
After graduating, he did some teaching,
then went into boys' work at the Balti-
more YMCA. He used audio-visual tools
extensively and in 1939 left the "Y" to
enter his father's photographic business,
heading the audio-visual department of
Folkemer Photo Service, Baltimore, Mory-
land.

Condensed from "N A V E D News,"
March, 1946.

them of finding the films they
wanted. Film rental concerns
must set up religious film libra-
ries in all metropolitan areas or
else each individual dealer must
provide his own library for
churches in his area. We chose
the latter course, and can report
exceptional interest not only in
motion picture films and slides,
but also in our equipment.

The second important service
noted in the survey was a
“screening” plan, whereby min-
isters could see the films and
slides before booking or buying
them. Most visual education
dealers adhere to such a “screen-
ing” policy before adding films
to their libraries. No dealer
would have time to “screen”
films for interested individual
clergymen and laymen. Such a
program would be impractical.

Therefore, we recently an-
nounced that every Monday
would be screening day in our
})rojection room. By this method,
we can reach a number of indi-
viduals at the same time. While
we believe that such a program
will begin slowly, we are firmly
convinced that it will become and
remain an important part of
our service to the churches.

It was apparent that the most
important service noted in the
survey was demonstration. The
ministers participating in the
survey were not thinking of
competitive demonstrations of
equipment, but rather a plan by
which the interested dealer
would come into the church
and adequately demonstrate the
proper use of equipment in the
teaching process. While compet-
itive equipment demonstrations
will still be necessary in some

cases, we are convinced by ex-
perience that a great many
churches will purchase from the
dealer who helps them, regard-
less of the “make” he handles.

The church wants and needs
demonstrations of proper usage.
It should be remembered that
most churches have on their
Sunday a n d week-day school
staffs intelligent and willing
teachers who have not had the
advantage of professional train-
ing in the use of visual aids as
secular school teachers have had.
The churches are not asking
long-term training periods for
their teachers, but they do want
practical, down-to-earth, demon-
strations of how to use the aids
that are available. We are per-
sonally attempting to satisfy
that desire by preparing lec-
tures on each type of visual aid
and presenting them, as re-
quested, to Bible School Associa-
tions, youth-planning groups,
etc. We deliberately refrain from
using any advertising in these
programs, as we consider it
poor taste. By following this
procedure, we create the true
impression that we not only
want to sell equipment; we also
want to help the church increase
its teaching capacity.

The church, more than any
other institution, is unselfishly
working for the welfare of each
individual, community, and na-
tion. No other institution does
so much to keep alive the much-
needed spirit of brotherhood.

We believe that the visual-ed-
ucation dealer who, as an indi-
vidual, has these same goals in
his heart will find little diffi-
culty in doing business with the
church.

Morch, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

18th Annual Motion Picture
Academy Awards

Outstanding Production

“The Lost Weekend,” Para-
mount.

Best Performance by an Actor

Ray Milland, “The Lost Week-
end” (Par).

Best Performance by an Actress

Joan Crawford, “Mildred
Pierce” (WB).

Best Performance by a
Supporting Actor

James Dunn, “A Tree Grows
in Brooklyn” (20th).

Best Performance by a
Supporting Actress

Anne Revere, “National Vel-
vet” (M-G).

Best Direction

Billy Wilder, “The Lost Week-
end.” (Par).

Best Original Picture Story

“The House on 92nd Street”
(20th), Charles G. Booth.

Best Original Screenplay

“Marie-Louise,” Praesens
Films, Swiss-made, distributed
by Mayer-Burstyn. Richard
Schweizer.

Best Written Screenplay

“The Lost Weekend” (Par),
Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder.

Cinematography
(Black and White)

“The Picture of Dorian Gray”
(M-G), Harry Stradling.

Cinematography (Color)

“Leave Her to Heaven”
(20th). Leon Shamroy.

Best Original Song

“It Might as Well Be Spring,”
from “State Fair” (20th). Rich-
ard Rogers, music, and Oscar
Hammerstein II, lyrics.

Best Music Score of a Dramatic
or Comedy Picture

“Spellbound” (David 0. Selz-

nick-UA) . Miklos Rozsa.

Best Scoring of a Musical Picture

“Anchors Aweigh” (M-G).
Georgie Stoll.

Art Direction (Black and White)

“Blood on the Sun” (William
Cagney-UA). Wiard Ihnen.

Art Direction (Color)

“Frenchman’s Creek” (Par).
Hans Dreier, Ernest Fegte.

Interior Decoration (Black and
White)

“Blood on the Sun” (William
Cagney-UA). A. Roland Fields.

Interior Decoration (Color)

“Frenchman’s Creek” (Par).
Sam Comer.

Special Effects (Photographic)

“Wonder Man” (Goldwyn-
RKO) . John Fulton.

Special Effects (Sound)

“Wonder Man” (Goldwyn-
RKO). Arthur W. Johns.

Sound Recording

“The Bells of St. Mary’s”
(R a i n b o w-R K 0) . Stephen
Dunn.

Film Editing

“National Velvet” (M-G).
Robert J. Kern.

Short Subjects (One Reel)

“Stairway to Light” (M-G).
Produced by Herbert Moulton;
executive producer, Jerry Bres-
ler.

Short Subjects (Two Reel)

“Star in the Night” (WB) .
Produced by Gordon Hollings-
head.

Short Subjects (Cartoon)

“Quiet Please” (M-G). Pro-
duced by Frederick C. Quimby.

Documentaries (Feature)

“The True Glory.” Govern-
ments of Great Britain and

U. S. A.

Documentaries (Short)

“Hitler Lives” (WB). Pro-
duced by Gordon Hollingshead.

Special Awards

Walter Wanger, small plaque,
for distinguished service as pres-
ident of Academy for six suc-
cessive years.

Peggy Ann Garner, outstand-
ing child actress of 1945.

“T h e House I Live In”
(RKO).

Technicolor Achievements
Awards

Loren Ryder, Charles R. Daily
and Paramount Sound Depart-
ment, honorable mention for de-
sign, construction and use of
first dial-controlled step-by-step
sound channel lineup and test
circuit.

Michael S. Leshing, Benjamin
C. Robinson, Arthur B. Chate-
lain and Robert C. Stevens of
20th-Fox and John G. Capstaff
of Eastman Kodak Co., honor-
able mention for 20th-Fox Film
Processing Machine.

CORRESPONDENCE

To The Editor:

I’m disturbed! Your Film
AND Radio Guide has so many
good articles and there must be
available in some localities many
good movies.

In my teaching experience in
a mining town with one movie;
in a retired farmers’ community
with one movie ; in a college
town with one respectable play-
house and one on the “other side
of the tracks” catering to a slum
area; and now in an industrial
city with one movie house which
adds a low-rate movie to a good

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

movie as a double feature, and
one poorer movie house where
discipline is lax and where sev-
enth and eighth graders flock,

I see similar problems.

Hollywood, which I would
compare to commercial Broad-
way, is setting the standard of
movies and not raising very fast
the cultural level of America !

How can people in small towns
combat the public movie house
with its low-rate movie? Our de-
linquent children and our stu-
dents who are awaiting the day
they become 16 to get out of high
school are on hand for every
change of performance. Our ed-
ucational films are not what
those children crave. The slap-
stick comedy and the movie with
sex appeal are their meat!

When I start a film-apprecia-
tion unit, I have to talk about
the movies which my people see.
There are few movies which all
see. What is the answer to the
movie i)roblem as it exists, not
as we write about it in our ed-
ucational magazines?

Gladys Hoffman

Director of Dramatics
Pekin Community High School
Pekin, Illinois

"So Ends Our Night" in 16mm

Pictorial Films, Inc., of 1270
Sixth Avenue, New York City,
has the 16mm sound-film world
distributing rights for So Ends
(Jiir Night, an adaptation of
Flotsam, by Erich Maria Re-
marque, author of All Quiet on
the Western Front.

So Ends Our Night, produced
by David L. Leow and Albert
Lewin and directed by John
Cromwell, c o-s tars Fredric
March, Margaret Sullavan, and
Frances Dee. Its large support-
ing cast includes Glenn Ford,
Anna Sten, Erich von Stroheim,

Roman Bohnen, Leonid Kinskey
and Lionel Royce.

The story — told through the
eyes of political refugees, hunted
through several European coun-
tries to escape oppression — is a
poignant a n d moving tale,
mixed with touching humor.

Performed with d y n a m i c
force, this drama contains all
the elements of a mystery thril-
ler, but its adherence to realities
gives it an almost documentary
character, a part of contempor-
ary history,

William Cameron Menzies,
who won the 1939 Academy
Award for his work on Gone
With the Wind, was production
designer for So Ends Our Night.
The musical score was written
by Louis Gruenberg, who had
achieved fame with his opera,
Emperor Jones and 40 other
works.

So E)ids Our Night is enter-
tainment of wide appeal among
civic, church, fraternal, politi-
cal, and educational groups.

John F. Royal Tells
What Television Will Do

John F. Royal, veteran show-
man, now NBC vice-i)resident
in charge of television, recently
summed up for Varietii his find-
ings and forecasts regarding the
art, industry, and business of
video broadcasting. He said, as
reported by editor Abel Green :

1. Television will require ten
times as much imagination as
radio.

2. Television comedy will be
the key to the success of the new
industry.

3. Television programs will
be more condensed than radio
program.s — a 15-minute r a d i o
program will be cut to ten min-
utes in video.

4. Politicians coming into the

home via television will be de-
bunked— "the phoney will be
stripped naked.” Voters will
weigh appeals more critically;
rabble-rousing and mob psychol-
ogy that go over in Madison
Square Garden won’t go in the
home.

5. Television will make news-
reels practically obsolete.

6. Television will create new
stars.

★ ★ ★

Holtz Organizes Screen
Adette Equipment Corp.

The Screen Adette Equipment
Corporation, recently organized
by Merriman H. Holtz to operate
in the Western States, has been
appointed by the Radio Corpor-
ation of America its distributor
for RCA 16mm sound projectors
and accessories. Holtz states: “It
is a proud occasion indeed to be-
come associated with the Radio
Corporation of America, a com-
pany with more than forty
years of research, engineering,
and manufacturing background.
This vast accumulation of
"know' how'” has been employed
to great advantage in design, de-
velopment, and manufacture of
sound projectors.”

Arthur A. Heliert, Jr., w'ho re-
cently disposed of his business
in Hartford, Connecticut, has
become affiliated wdth The
Screen Adette Equipment Cor-
poration on the West Coast as
General Manager, it has been
announced b y Merriman H.
Holtz, president. Hebert is a
graduate of the Radio Institute
of America, New^ York City, and
entered the audio-visual field in
1934 in Hartford as Hebert Stu-
dios, Inc. Prior to 1934 he was
a partner in the H. F. Dunn Mo-
tion Picture Company, and in
1930 w'as Staff Photographer for
the Hartford Courant. Since

Continued on page 23

March, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

EDUCATIONAL RECORDINGS

Recommended by the Ohio State University Teaching Aids Laboratory

ROBIN HOOD. Useful in music and
literature. Suitable for intermediate
grades, junior and senior high school,
college and adult groups. Four 12-inch
records (eight sides, four minutes per
side) at 78 r.p.m. Cost of album, $4.50.
Produced by the Columbia Recording
Corporation; order through your local
record dealer.

(Columbia Masterworks, Set
MM-583.) Here is a record al-
bum that should be in every
school. It is a superb dramatic
rendition of the essential leg-
ends of Robin Hood, starring
Basil Rathbone. The music, the
songs, the intensity of the action
are all of the very highest qual-
ity. The old story of the rugged
man of the people who becomes
an outlaw in order to bring jus-
tice and freedom to his land is
presented in a way to make child,
adolescent, or adult sit up and
hear it through to the end, even
though he has heard the story
many times before. There is a
freshness and originality in the
production which promises well
for further ventures in dramatic
recordings. The story as pre-
sented on the four double-faced
records in this album provides
about thirty-five minutes of
high cultural entertainment. The
cost of the set is very low in
terms of the many purposes for
which the record can be used,
from the intermediate grades
through the senior high school.

★ ★ ★

TUNEFUL TALES. Useful in sfory hour,
literature, speech, dramatics. Suitable
for primary and elementory grades, and
classes in story-telling. Six 12-inch rec-
ords (twelve sides, four minutes per side,
two sides per program) at 78 r.p.m. Cost
per unbreakable record, $2.10. Produced
and distributed by Simmel-Meservey,

9538 Brighton Way, Beverly Hills, Calif.

(Series No. 1)

“The Three Little Pigs”

“The Little Engine That Could”
“The Shoemaker and the Elves”
“Johnny Cake”

“The Laughing Jack o’Lantern”

(Series No. 2)

“The White Easter Rabbit”
“Little Black Sambo”

“The Little Gray Pony”

“Peter Rabbit”

These stories, told by Martha
Blair Fox, are designed for kin-
dergarten, first, a n d second
grades. They vary in quality and
appeal, but on the whole furnish
good material for classroom use.
The introductory material on

Continued from page 22

1934 Hebert has been active in
the field of audio-visual aids,
representing leading manufac-
turers and film distributors in
Connecticut. As a director of
the National Association of Vis-
ual Education Dealers and State
16mm chairman for the Connec-
ticut State War Finance Com-
mittee Hebert has acquired a
broad background in the utiliza-
tion of films and equipment.
Hebert’s father was one of the
founders of the Amateur Cin-
ema League and its first treas-
urer.

Willard M. Sanzenbacher, re-
cently discharged from the
Navy after three years of serv-
ice in the Training Aids Section,
has also joined The Screen
Adette Equipment Corporation
as manager of the Portland, Ore-
gon, office. Sanzenbacher has

each program, suggesting activ-
ities to be carried on separately
by the girls and the boys, tends
to restrict the use of these re-
cordings to the classroom, and
the instructions are rather for-
mal for such young children.
There is a general sameness in
the material and in the songs.
The background music and the
sound effects are excellent, how-
ever, especially the flute accom-
paniment in the “Shoemaker”
story and the music in the
“White Easter Rabbit.” The
notes and directions and musi-
cal score on the paper envelopes
of the recordings are valuable,
whether or not one agrees with
the suggestions.

had wide experience in the field
of visual education, having for
ten years directed this activity at
the Macomber Vocational High
School in Toledo, Ohio, in addi-
tion to instructing in all phases
of Graphic Arts, Advertising,
Photography, a n d Printing.
With a Bachelor of Science de-
gree in Printing Engineering
from Carnegie Institute of Tech-
nology and graduate work in
Vocational Guidance and Coun-
selling at the University of Wis-
consin, and with three years as
a Naval Reserve Officer under
Francis Noel in the supervision
and the effective utilization of
training aids through films, it is
expected that educational insti-
tutions and commercial firms in
the Pacific Northwest will bene-
fit by the experience and back-
ground of Sanzenbacher in the
field of audio-visual aids.

Hebert and Sanzenbacher Join Holtz Organization

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

STUDIDISC CLASSROOM RECORDINGS

For Classes in English Literature and
United States History

STUDIDISC Classroom Rec-
ordings are among the most ex-
citing and rewarding develop-
ments in audio-visual education.
These include professionally re-
enacted scenes from the works
of the masters of literature and
the lives of great Americans.
They greatly stimulate intei’est
in literature and history, and
are responsible for improved
reading and speaking habits.

^ ^ .
English Literature Series

of "Studidiscs"

A Christmas Carol, Parts I & II
A Christmas Carol, Parts III &
IV

Evangeline, Parts I »& II

Make Literature

LIVE

In the Classroom

The following Teaching Film Custodian
(M-G-M) subjects are ideally suited
to classroom study:

“Treasure Island"

Lionel Barrymore Wallace Beery

Jackie Cooper

Tale of Two Cities"

Ronald Colman

“Mutiny on the Bounty"

Clark Gable Charles Laughton

Franchot Tone

“Romeo and Juliet"

Leslie Howard Normo Shearer

John Barrymore

' David Copperfield, the Boy"

“David Copperfied, the Man"

Lionel Barrymore Maureen O Sullivan

W. C. Fields Freddie Bartholomew

Each subject 4 reels Rental: $6.00

{Special Series Rate)

III Our Free Catalog of

SELECTED MOTION PICTURES

Write to Dept. “Y”

Y.M.C.A.

MOTION PICTURE BUREAU

New York 17, N. Y. Chicago 3, 111.

347 Madison Ave. 19 So. LaSalle St.
San Francisco 2. Cal Dallas 1, Tex.

351 Turk St. 1700 Patterson Ave.

Evangeline, Part III
A Leak in the Dike
The Skeleton in Armor
Barbara Frietchie
Ivanhoe, Parts I & II
Ivanhoe, Part III
Treasure Island, Part I
Treasure Island, Parts II & III
Mg Financial Career
The Awful Fate of Melpomenus
Jones

The Man Without a Country,
Parts I & II

The Man Without a Country,
Part III

Horatius At The Bridge
Paul Revere’ s Ride
Incident of a French Camp
0 Captain! My Captain!
Invictus

She Stoops to Conquer, Parts
Parts I & II

She Stoops to Conquer, Parts
III & IV

Silas Marner, Parts I & II
Macbeth, V, 1 ; I, 7 ; IV, 3
Hamlet, I, 2, 3, 4
Hamlet, II, 2; III, 1 ; IV, 5
A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
II, 2; III, 1 & 2
The Merchant of Venice, IV, 1
The Merchant of Venice, II, 7;
II, 9

The Merchant of Venice, III, 2;

II, 2

A Tale of Two Cities, Parts I
& II

A Tcde of Two Cities, Part III
The House of the Seven Gables,
Part I

The House of the Seven Gables,
Parts II & III

Lancelot and Elaine, Parts I
& II

Lancelot and Elaine, Parts III
& IV

Gareth and Lynette, Parts I &

Gareth and Lynette, Parts III

& IV

United States History Series
of "Studidiscs"

The history records drama-
tize the foundations of the Unit-
ed States and the contributions
of eight men who contributed
most to American Independence.
Marquis James, Pulitzer prize
biographer, prepared this origi-
nal series especially for use in
high-school classrooms. These
Studidiscs present many little-
known, but vital, facts and au-
thentic incidents in the lives of
the patriots, and their part in
laying the foundation of our
present-day American democra-
cy:

Patrick Henry, Parts I & II

Patrick Henry, Part III

Paul Revere, Part I

Paul Revere, Parts II & III

D r a f t i n g the Constitution,

Parts I & II

Drafting the Constitution,

Parts III & IV

These recordings play on any
phonograph at 78 r.p.m. They
are produced and distributed by
the Education Department of
Popular Science Monthly, 353
Fourth Avenue, New York 10,
N. Y. They cost $2 a record, or
$19 for an album of ten records.

Study Aids

Teachers’ manuals and stu-
dent-activity materials provide
teachers with the means of de-
veloping student understanding
and appreciation.

March, 1 946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Introducing Classroom Films in a
Small School System

Our Victor sound projector
was delivered last December. We
immediately developed a library
shelf of all available films for
teacher reference. Teachers se-
lect the films that they believe
suitable for classroom use. We
secure them on a rental basis
for a period of time ranging
from one to three days, and
carry complete insurance cover-
age. Films, when they arrive, are
used only by the teacher or de-
partment requesting them. They
are shown from one to five times
for study purposes, depending
somewhat upon the technicality
of the films and the previously
prepared background o f the
class. We encourage the teacher
in the use of thought-provoking
questions prepared in advance
for use with the showing of the
film. In our system, with four
buildings and thirty-three teach-
ers, we are this year allowing
the junior high school to use the
machine one day a week and the
elementary school one day a
month. The high school keeps the
machine busy from three to five
hours a day during the rest of
the time. We use one classroom
exclusively for visual work. We
have discontinued the occasional
use of feature pictures for the
student body, as we do not feel
that we can spare the time from
regular work.

We have developed a record
card which the teacher fills out
on every film, giving among
other things an evaluation of the
film for class use. These records

BY L. L. HAGIE

Superintendent of Schools, Osceola, Iowa

L. L. Hagie, Superintendent
of Schools, Osceola, Iowa

are permanent. They provide
valuable reference material from
year to year. It is our experience
that at the secondary level the
general fields of science, history,
agriculture, physical education
and health, home economics, and
shop have at the present time
very rich teaching aids available.
There is a limited amount of
very valuable material in the
commercial field and mathe-
matics.

Our estimated budget for the
current year for visual educa-
tion, we believe, will not exceed
$350. In order to make the most
effective use of the visual work
at the elementary and junior-
high-school levels, we must se-
cure at least one additional ma-
chine. We have equipped each
building with a dark room and
screen, so that it is necessary to
move only the projector between

buildings.

We are following the policy of
having the individual class-
room teachers become trained
machine-operators, with the sug-
gestion that they use student
help in the management of the
program to the degree that they
believe it beneficial to the pro-
gram.

We have made no attempt to
run any test studies to indicate
the effectiveness of visual edu-
cation. The reaction of the stu-
dents, and therefore the public,
is such that we expect the use
of visual material to increase as
our organization grows into the
technique of using fully this rel-
atively new tool.

Our Junior High School Prin-
cipal, Mrs. Minnie L. Hertz, has
followed through every film that
she has shown with note-book
work, including drawings and
other records.

We have recently placed an
order for a microphone, which
will permit use of the equipment
as a public-address system and
also in connection with speech
work.

On the adverse side of the vis-
ual program, we find that it
takes additional teacher time
and preparation to select the
film, preview it, and prepare stu-
dent reference material relative
to the film. There is also the of-
fice problem of developing the
film schedule, eliminating con-
flicts, and seeing that teachers
fill out the required records, in
addition to the handling of the

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

VISUAL EDUCATION

FILE

Department

Film Name

Supplied by

Date Received

..Date Due to Avoid Penalty

Date Returned

Route as Follows:

Cost

Length

Teacher

Class

Date

Hour People at Showing

Teacher’s Estimate of Educational Value -ABODE

Instructor Comment Letter Grade

NOTE: This card should remain attached and be checked by each teacher
showing the film. PLEASE RETURN IT WITH THE FILM FOR
THE PERMANENT OFFICE FILE.

numerous parcel post and ex-
press shipments of films com-
ing in and going out.

If teachers worked the same
number of hours per week that
industrial workers give to their
business, we would require an
increase of thirty to fifty per-
cent in staff members. We be-
lieve this condition is around
the corner.

★ ★ ★

Speaking of Classics

J. Donald Adams, editor of
The New York Times Book Re-
view Sunday section, in his
weekly article, “Speaking of
Books,” on February 17, paid
tribute to a film classic :

Recently I went to a revival of one
of the greatest of motion pictures —
Robert Flaherty’s “Man of Aran,’’
which I have seen each time with
mounting admiration. On this last oc-
casion it set me to thinking about a
certain common denominator that is
shared by the visual arts and by cre-
ative writing — and that is the choice
of significant detail. In Flaherty’s
work with the camera this amounts
to genius; his imagination seizes on
the little thing that lends meaning to
the whole. Any writer who has that
gift cannot fail to interest us; with
that in his possession the most com-
monplace of subjects can be made ar-
lesting.

More and more, critic.s of the
communication arts appreciate
the work of Bob Flaherty and
pay tribute to his work as a poet
wdth a camera. Flaherty’s Nan-
ook of the North, made in 1920-
21 for Revillon Freres, was the
first documentary film, antici-
pating a whole new development
in the world of film art. From
Nanook in 1921 to Flaherty’s
film for Standard Oil in 1945 —
a lifetime of pioneering lies be-
tw'een. Flaherty and his brother
David now make their headquar-
ters in New York, where they
have formed a company to make
industrial films in the great Fla-
herty tradition. It was Flaherty

of Michigan who showed the
way to the British and Russian
documentary schools and who
paved the way for the Pare Lor-
entz school in America.

— w. L.

A ★ ★

Rank's British Instructional
Film Plans

J. Arthur Rank has gone on
record as enthusiastically back
of any international institute
which might be formed to coor-
dinate the production and dis-
tribution of educational films
throughout the world. In a
speech in London before the Al-
lied Educational Conference,
Rank said that he planned to
start a large program of instruc-
tional pictures, both sound and
silent, adaptable for use in for-
eign countries.

The editor of Film and Radio
Guide visited European studios
in 1932 and 1936 in an effort to
coordinate classroom film pro-
duction, but the time was not
ripe. A world war was in the
making. Perhaps by 1950 such
a development will come about.

Pictures, like music, speak a
universal language ; they are
destined to unify the peoples of
the world.

★ ★ ★

Star or Story?

Terry Ramsaye, editor of Mo-
tion Picture Herald, recently
made the following observation
in one of his editorials, which
may serve as a springboard for
some interesting discussions in
the realm of photoplay appre-
ciation ;

While play and story material is
continuously rising in significance,
cost, and attention, the star values
rise, too, with personality always the
dominant component of the merchand-
ise of entertainment.

People like people.

25% DISCOUNT

There is a 25% discount on
orders for 5 or more
subscriptions to

FILM & RADIO QUIDE

March, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Some Legal Aspects of the
Social Film

Strictly speaking, the ques-
tion of public law concerning the
non-theatrical or “social” film is
like that of feathers on a frog.
There aren’t any. Wherever spe-
cific mention has been made of
16mm film, as, for instance, in
fire prevention and operator
licensing ordinances of the City
of Chicago, it has been negative
— the 16mm is specifically ex-
empted from the code. No men-
tion whatever in the law books
has come to light concerning
8mm film.

This recognition of the essen-
tially safe-and-sane character of
our industry and its medium
does not, however, place it alto-
gether outside the law. Notwith-
standing the unique social status
of the non-theatrical film, it still
remains subject to all legal pro-
visos that affect the uses to
which it is put and the relation-
ships under which it is made and
marketed. Thus, if the village
fathers of Podunk Center levy
license-fee tribute on traveling
salesmen or itinerant circuses,
they may be expected to put the
bite also on a roadshowman
bringing 16mm sweetness and
light into their community.
Again, a copyright violation or
a breach of agency contract is
just as actionable in 16mm as in
35mm.

In a few localities attempts
are also made from time to time
to subject the non-theatrical film
to restrictions identical with
those imposed upon the theatri-
cal. This is notably true of oper-

BY WILLIAM F. KRUSE
Secretary of ANFA

Reprinted from the 1946 ANFA Yearbook

ator-license and censorship pro-
visions. In the main, such at-
tempts to stretch laws passed
long before the birth of the new
medium are based chiefly on con-
sideration of revenue and gov-
ernmental grandeur. Sometimes,
too, on the theory that “misery
loves company,” they are abetted
by interests smarting under the
existing laws, in the hope that
injustice spread is sooner reme-
died.

Where the letter of an old law
commands that all movie projec-
tors, regardless of illumination
source or film width, be operated
by government-licensed profes-
sionals, the only remedy lies in
public pressure to amend or
shelve the law. The Chicago ordi-
nance, already cited, does ex-
empt 16mm and 8mm “opera-
tors,” and in a Florida town an
effort to pass an indiscriminate
operator license was laughed to
death by public demonstrations
of proficiency by six-year old
“operators.” In Pennsylvania,
however, the state license law is
strictly construed, and even
teachers are expected to take out
a license (and pay a fee) in or-
der to run a teaching film in a
classroom. Where such laws ex-
ist, and are enforced, every
16mm operator must abide by
them, exercising his rights as a
citizen meanwhile to have them
altered to meet the conditions of
modern living. In these efforts
he can count on the support of
very broad elements of our pop-
ulation — teachers, clergymen,

social workers, club members,
home movie fans, and many
more.

Censorship — Slate ond Local

The same applies to the com-
batting of efforts to extend the-
atrical censorship provisions to
non-theatrical users of motion
pictures. Political film censor-
ship in general represents a
problem in public mores that,
fortunately, has already been
largely localized. Only seven
states still have film censorship
laws on the statute books, pro-
viding for special policemen to
decide what is “moral and prop-
er.” Of these only two have made
any serious effort to enforce the
laws also against 16mm film, and
even there the emphasis of the
enforcement was against the
“public performance” aspect,
thus voluntarily relinquishing
the field of school, church, and
home to the discrimination of the
film user. In addition to these
seven states (Kansas, Maryland,
Massachusetts, New York, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, and Virginia)
some fifty cities and towns have
local censorship ordinances,
sometimes administered only on
special occasion by committees of
public-spirited citizens but more
often subjected to constant local
police rule. In Chicago, for in-
stance, sporadic forays by the
hoary police-censor board have
all too often been of reactionary
political character. Thus prior
to the war anti-Nazi films were
consistently blocked on the
ground that they would stir up

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

differences between national
groups, yet no Nazi-made films,
however propagandistic, were
stopped ! The German-born vote
is strong in Chicago ; so is native
isolationism. One film, originally
objected to by the Chicago cen-
sors, was the first to be used in
conquered Berlin toward the re-
education of the German people.
In such a situation every effort
to subject 16mm programs to
this same censorship calls foiTh
vigorous protest from public-
spirited groups.

Censorship in Canada

In Canada 16mm films are di-
rectly subject to censorship (and
its inevitable “fees” of from
$1.50 per reel to $15 per pro-
gram), in all but two provinces
(Quebec and Prince Edward Is-
land). Only films owned by gov-
ernment bodies and educational
institutions are exempt from
these provisions. It is surprising
that in a land which has made
such vigorous, constructive use
of the non-theatrical motion pic-
ture, governmental grip on the
ideology (as well as revenues)
of the film seems to be under less
challenge than in the United
States. Under the able direction
of men like John Grierson, the
social film has been developed to
a high point in Canada as a
means of expression and discus-
sion. Certainly there is no less
devotion to the evolutionary ex-
pansion of democratic processes
there than here. This authorita-
rian grip upon vital channels of
communication, just because
they happen to be on celluloid,
seems rather out of character.

Why Any Censorship?

The “theory” of theatrical
censorship is that public welfare
must be protected from pollution
by selfish private interests ;
hence, since the theatre is almost
in the class of a public utility,
open to all regardless of age or

interest, there is alleged to be a
need for police and tax-gatherer
regulation of audience fare. Ab-
stracting entirely from the right
or wrong of theatrical censor-
ship, there are sound reasons
why it should not in any case be
applied to the social field, com-
posed as it is of great numbers
of self-contained and self-regu-
lating units — schools, churches,
homes, clubs, etc., where the
personal-profit motive is ab-
sent, or at least entirely subordi-
nate to that of the use value of
each specific film program. These
closed units can and do enforce
their own mores — which may
well differ as between unit and
unit, as well as between each
unit and the broad theatre pub-
lic.

Films for teaching should ob-
viously be chosen by the teach-
er, films for worship by the cler-
gyman, films for the fireside by
father and mother. Not every
teacher will choose the same film
— even for the teaching of the
same subject. Not every clergy-
man will choose the same film
version of “The Life of Christ”
— for baptismal procedures and
other denominational considera-
tions are vital in such choice.
The hard-and-fast rules of state
censors, or of positive and nega-
tive pressure groups such as the
Hays Organization or the Legion
of Decency may bar theatre au-
diences from seeing film treat-
ment of childbirth or of ven-
ereal disease — yet it is the right
of a parent to teach to his own
children such facts of life with
the aid of film if he sees fit to
do so. The right of every respon-
sible group to make or show or
distribute film fare of its own
choice should be as free as the
right to publish in print or to
read at will. Police powers here
are tolerable only in the preven-
tion of public nuisance.

Before it is ever shown in the

theatres, recreational film (con-
sidered apart from the social film
used mainly as a means of self-
expression and social communi-
cation) has already run the gam-
ut of censorship, self-imposed as
well as authoritarian. There is
certainly no need for a double
censorship.

Responsibility vs. Censorship

The very factors that properly
exempt the social (sub-stand-
ard width) film from theatrical
regulations, at the same time
place a special responsibility on
its distributors for proper cata-
loging and evaluation to enable
film users to choose their pro-
grams in conformity with their
own mores. Actually standards
for the social film have to be
higher and more discriminating
than those of the theatre, be-
cause of the very differentation
of its audiences that makes pos-
sible a much wider range of film
fare, without police interference.

This responsibility to our own
broad public is sensed by many
purveyors to the social film mar-
ket and is perhaps the most im-
portant single public-relations
field in which the ANFA can
function as a trade association.
Questions of legal and other re-
lations of the social film to the
community it serves are of vital
concern to all of us, and should
be treated further in future
yearbooks.

Post Pictures Corp., 723-7th
Ave., New York 19, N. Y., offers
$50 for information leading to
the recovery of a print of the
sound motion-picture entitled
One Million B. C., which was
rented to M. S. Freeman of
Arab, Alamaba, on December
14, 1945, by The Distributor’s
Group, Inc., 756 West Peachtree,
N. W., Atlanta, Georgia, and
which was never returned. All
efforts to locate Mr. Freeman
have been unsuccessful.

March, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A REPLY TO CRITICS

BY RAYMOND MOLEY
Author of "The Hoys Office"

I am sure that no author of
an account of the activities of
so vast an enterprise as the M.
P. P. D. A. can pack within the
covers of a readable book every
fact and every name related to
it. I am equally sure that I
spared no effort to say what was
true and fair and pertinent. My
interest in the Hays Office was
that of a student of public af-
fairs who saw in that institution
an example of such internal co-
operation as might save a great
industry from the dead hand
of government.

With respect to the Film and
Radio Guide’s criticism of the
chapters in my book on educa-
tion and cognate subjects, I
spread in almost tiresome array
dozens of the names and organ-
izations which the records of
the Hays Office indicated as its
contacts with agencies interest-
ed in the motion picture. To have
gone beyond that into the activi-
ties of those agencies not only
would have carried me into a
field which the book explicitly
forecloses in its printed intro-
duction, but would have made
the text of small interest to any-
one except the specialist.

For the tribute in your re-
view that what I said was true,
I am grateful. I need hardly re-
mind you that your review might
have been expanded to include
the names of the unchronicled
pioneers for whose sake I am
charged with neglect.

Neither am I disturbed by a
few reviews by motion picture
critics charging I have not been
sufficiently critical of the Hays
Office because pictures have not
been artistically better. That is

Raymond Moley

a matter for motion-picture cri-
tics to debate. I am judging an
institution in its setting in a civ-
ilization which is rapidly bring-
ing private matters under gov-

A catalog of fifty 16mm sound
motion pictures for group in-
struction has been announced by
Coronet Instructional Films.
Most of the films listed are avail-
able either in full natural color
or black and white. The catalog,
itself, is illustrated with full
color “stills” from the motion
pictures.

The groups of motion pictures
announced in the catalog include
the Biological Sciences, Civics,
Economics, Psychology, Health,
Industry, Physical Education,
the Physical Sciences, the Social
Studies, and Vocational Guid-
ance.

Outstanding among the films
in color are five on the American
Indians of the Southwest, three

ernment control. I have told in
thorough detail how the motion
picture has escaped that fate. I
don’t know what kind of pic-
tures we would have had if there
had been no Hays Office. Neith-
er do the motion-picture critics.
I do know that there would have
been a crippled and enslaved in-
dustry, had there been no Will
Hays. And I have proved it.

I silent seven years on this
book and I am now turning to
other things. I hope that others
may give the same sort of time
and attention to books on those
aspects of the motion picture
which I had no time to cover.
There are plenty of years ahead,
and, I hope, plenty of research
students qualified for the job.

on life in Mexico, nine on color-
ful birds of the United States,
and an unusual picture showing
the growth of flowers. The phy-
sical-education series includes
films on basketball, field events,
swimming, tumbling, and volley-
ball. One of the more advanced
films for psychology classes has
the imposing title, “Color Cate-
gorizing Behavior of Rhesus
Monkeys.” Most of the films are
for use in elementary and sec-
ondary schools.

The new catalog is available
free to those who use 16mm
sound motion pictures for train-
ing purposes. Requests for it
should be addressed to Coronet
Instructional Films, Glenview,
Illinois.

Coronet Instructional Film Catalog

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

A PREVIEW OF LENTEN AND
EASTER FILMS

BY WILLIAM S. HOCKMAN

Director of Religious Education, Lakewood, Ohio, Presbyterian Church

Under the auspices of the
Cleveland Church Federation, a
preview of Lenten and Easter
films was held on Jan. 21st,
bringing together from greater
Cleveland 175 interested clergy
and laymen.

The first film shown, Journey
Into Faith (1), did not bring
the audience to its feet. Many
considered it a usuable film in
the absence of better films. The
photography was considered
good and the sound track satis-
factory. The story “did not jell.”
The intention of the film was
ambiguous, and its effect scat-
tered. In places the acting was
weak, and the representation of
the character of Christ was con-
sidered by some as “very unsat-
isfactory” and by others as “ac-
ceptable.” The inclusion of so
large an amount of apocryphal
material was questioned. The
group rated the film at C2 in-
stead of Bl.

An English-made film. The
First Easter (2), was considered
more satisfactory on all counts.
The acting was stronger, and it
was characterized by reverence,
restraint, and feeling. The story
stayed by the Biblical account,
including little other material.
The sound was clear, and the dic-
tion of the actors easily heard
and understood. The incidental
music was suited to the moods
of the drama. The audience was
impressed by the amount of
Scripture in the dialog. The pro-
ducer was not afraid of silence
and pauses. The pace of the film
varied.

Rev. William S. Hockman

A new release, Religion in the
Family (3), elicited all kinds of
responses from the audience. It
was criticized severely for plug-
ging a breakfast cereal and a
well-known soft drink. “What’s
it for?” asked several members
of the group. Others remarked,
“How could I use it?” Another,
“It simply does not show religion
in the home or how religion in
the home carries over into life
situations. It talks about reli-
gion; shows very little.” The
sound track is technically good.
The commentation is the back-
bone of the whole film. Without
it, the picture sequences would
have little meaning. There is no
progression in the shot se-
quences. When it was character-
ized as “sermonic” and “prea-
chy,” even the clergy present
concurred. No better than a C3

rating could be given.

The question of sufficient
causation came up when the film,
A Woman To Remember (4),
was previewed and discussed.
The widow of the story had such
offhand and fleeting contact with
The Master that her conversion
seems less than real. To give this
character to so young an actress
was a mistake. A strong woman,
with a face etched by strong
lines which come from proud
and willful living, is needed for
the character to make it convinc-
ing. And, it was asked, “What is
the picture driving at? What
does the film set out to do?”
About half the audience — as is
generally the case — felt that the
character of Christ was satisfac-
torily portrayed. Others felt that
a more forceful picture could
have been developed without His
direct portrayal. Bl is about the
best this previewing group
would rate this film.

Psalm of Psalms (5), was
considered both “bad” and
“good.” By “good” was meant
better than having no pictoral
representation and interpreta-
tion of the Twenty-Third Psalm
at all. By “bad” was meant that
it simply did not show that God
is to human beings as is a shep-
herd to his flock. As a matter of
plain fact, the pictorial content
is just so much animal husband-
ry. The commentation in the
soundtrack does reveal insights ;
it contains some beautiful ex-
pressions of religious truth. Tak-
en as a whole, the film does
not get at the meaning of the

March, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

psalm. One cannot use it with
children ; they will look at the
picture sequences and never un-
derstand the commentation. One
cannot use it with adults ; they
will appreciate some of the fine
thoughts of the “sermonic”
soundtrack, but they will wonder
what all the sheep are about. The
film, pictorially, is about a shep-
herd and his sheep; not about
how God is the shepherd of the

human flock. A C3 rating would
be generous.

(1) A Cathedral film; 34 minutes;
sound; black and white; regu-
lar rental $8; during Lent and
Easter |14.00. Rated B1 in Re-
ligious Film Association catalog.

(2) British film; 35 minutes; sound;
black and white; regular rental
$9, during Lent $11.25, during
Holy Week $13.50. Rated A1
in R.F.A. catalog.

(3) A Square Deal production; one

reel; sound, black and white.
Selling price per print $30;
rental not given. New release
and not listed and rated in R.F.A.
catalog.

(4) A Cathedral film; 20 minutes;
sound; black and white; rental
$6; listed but not rated in R.F.A.
catalog.

(5) Produced by E. Le Roy Knepp.
Filmed in Palestine; 10 min-
utes; black and white; not list-
ed or rated in R.F.A. catalog.

New York Schools Experiment
With Television

For over a year now, members
of the staff of Station WNYE,
the FM radio station of the New
York City Board of Education,
have been working on television
programs in cooperation with
the program departments of lo-
cal television stations. It was in
January of last year that three
members of the staff attended a
broadcast at Station WABD and
came away so impressed by the
educational possibilities of the
new medium that they made
plans at once to expand their ac-
tivities. Those activities had
been the planning, writing, pro-
ducing and broadcasting of spe-
cial educational radio programs
for the classrooms of New York
City, and for interested adults as
well. In addition, WNYE staff
members conduct courses in both
the technical and the program
sides of radio for selected stu-
dents.

It was proposed early in 1945
to investigate the possibilities of
securing the cooperation of the
three New York television sta-
tions, with an eye toward pro-
viding television experience for

BY EDWARD STASHEFF

gifted students (drawn from
academic and vocational high
schools all over the city) . It was
also felt desirable to begin ex-
perimental broadcasts, developed
with the help of the WNYE
staff, over the facilities of the
professional stations, since it
was clear that the possibility of
a city-owned television transmit-
ter was in the distant future.

Accordingly, the National
Broadcasting Company’s Station
WNBT, the Columbia Broadcast-
ing System’s WCBW, and Du
Mont’s WABD were all ap-
proached and asked to consider
setting up a joint experiment
with WNYE, which would in-
clude mutual assistance in pro-
gram planning, experimentation
in classroom reception, studio
visits for the pupils and teachers
doing the special work, talks by
professional personnel to the
All-City Classes, and (ultimate-
ly) appearance of gifted pupils
before the telecameras.

CBS took the lead in respond-
ing to these proposals by set-
ting up the studio visits and
guest lecturers within a month’s

time. February, the opening of
the new school term, found our
students at the WCBW studio
to watch, to listen, and to audi-
tion for a new Columbia televi-
sion program. There Ought To
Be a Law. This was a forum of
thirty high-school students in a
setting suggesting a miniature
Congress ; the “law” debated at
each broadcast was (and still is)
proposed by one student, second-
ed by another, and then
thrashed out by the entire “Con-
gress.” The first broadcast took
place in March, and there were
fifteen more by the end of 1945.
The series is continuing, with
a minimum of four broadcasts
during each school term. In ad-
dition, a WNYE staff writer as-
sisted in the preparation of video
scripts for The World We Live
In, an educational series pro-
duced by CBS in collaboration
with Encyclopaedia Britannica
Films. In this latter series, ten
students, as a rule, appeared in
each broadcast, and several have
been engaged, from time to time,
to play adolescent roles in other
CBS productions. In all, some

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

Edward Stasheff, presiding, and some of the students partcipating in the CBS television program, “There Ought to

Be a Law.’’

26 were able to get professional
experience in this manner dur-
ing 1945.

An interesting sidelight on
The World We Live In was its
value in demonstrating the pos-
sibilities of educational televi-
sion to groups of educators. At
the request of Maurice Ames,
Science Supervisor for the Board
of Education, the students dem-
onstrated a typical program,
dealing with photosynthesis, at
a November meeting of the So-
ciety for the Experimental Study
of Education in New York City.
They repeated the program on
December 1st at Atlantic City,
before the annual meeting of the
New Jersey Visual Education
Association. It is amusing to
note that what little fan mail

has been received has come from
schools in Montclair and Glen
Ridge. It would seem that at
least two New Jersey teachers
were able to acquire television
receivers sooner than their met-
ropolitan colleagues.

The suggestion that a series of
educational broadcasts be eval-
uated by specimen classes was
taken up by NBC. A plan to
conduct such an experiment with
junior-high-school classes in
general science was jointly an-
nounced in August by John E.
Wade, Superintendent of Schools
and John Royal, Vice-President
in charge of NBC’s Television
Department. The series is sched-
uled to begin in April. It will be
broadcast weekly during a con-
venient school hour. A selected

junior-high-school class will re-
ceive the broadcast in NBC’s
Viewing Studio 980. Teachers
and students will join in eval-
uating each broadcast.

Another phase of WNYE’s
television activities is the train-
ing of teachers in the use of
video broadcasts. With so new a
medium as television, it was felt
that the first step was acquaint-
ing teachers with what television
is, and how it operates. Accord-
ingly, the Du Mont Laboratories
set up, at WNYE’s request, a
meeting at Station WABD for
the Speech Association. Teach-
ers were conducted through the
control room, the studio, the tele-
theatres, and the offices. They
observed a broadcast, were
themselves televised, saw films

Morch, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

explaining the process, and
heard talks by key executives.
A more technical tour, for mem-
bers of the General Science As-
sociation, is scheduled for April,
when the opening of the new
Du Mont studios in the Wana-
maker Building will permit a
demonstration of multi-studio
operations and new types of
equipment. With the encourage-
ment of Du Mont executives,
WNYE staff members are cur-
rently designing four new tele-
vision programs which they feel
could be used not only in New
York City, but by any school
system of medium size. Du Mont
officials feel that this will be
a contribution to the develop-

ment of educational telecasting
throughout the country.

The opening of the February
term also marked the organiza-
tion of the All-City Television
Workshop. Students were chosen
for their telegenic qualities and
for skill in impromptu speaking.
The elements of writing for tele-
vision, already introduced in the
All-City Script-Writing Class,
are included this term, although
the students continue to devote
most of their time to radio writ-
ing and to providing twelve
dramas, ten newscasts, and
twelve quiz programs for
WNYE’s schedule of classroom
broadcasts.

WNYE’s staff is headed by

James F. Macandrew, Broad-
casting Co-ordinator for the
Board of Education. The devel-
opment of television activities
has been supervised by the pres-
ent writer, who is a member of
the WNYE Program Depart-
ment. Since all but one of the
members are on assignment
from the High School Division,
the staff is under the direct su-
pervision of Associate Superin-
tendent Frederic Ernst. The
current experiment in television
utilization is the responsibility
of Associate Superintendent
Elias Lieberman, of the Junior
High School Division, who is as-
sisted in this venture by Maur-
ice Ames.

Essential Principle for Operating a
Commercial 16mm Film Library

You will note that the wording
of my title is “essential princi-
ple” and not essential principles.
In other words, the noun is sin-
gular. This principle is the same
as that which pertains to any
successful business ; namely,
adaptability. To make a success
of a library operation, the op-
erator must adapt to his business
all the various elements of busi-
ness success which apply to any
business.

Thus, he must be careful of
his location. A good location for
a library might not be a good
location for a grocery store, a
drug store, or even a real-estate
agency. The average library does
very little business from the
street. Thus, a location on an
important retail street is not

BY BERTRAM WILLOUGHBY
(Reprinted from 1946 ANFA Yearbook)

necessary. As most of his cus-
tomers come to his place of bus-
iness especially to see him, a
ground-floor store is not neces-
sary. It is necessary, however,
that he have a neat and ade-
quate location, not too far from
a post office, and within the de-
livery zones of express and tele-
graph companies. As many of
his customers drive in to see
him, it is also desirable that
there should be good parking fa-
cilities in his immediate neigh-
borhood.

After settling on the location,
the next step is to furnish and
equip the office. If possible, a
neat reception-room should greet
the visitor when he enters the
place of business. Next to the
reception-room should be the

bookers’ tables. These tables
should have slanted tops, so that
route books can be easily opened
and handled. The room for film
storage, film inspection, and
shipping should be as far away
from the reception-room as pos-
sible, so that the customer will
be discouraged from going into
this department and uselessly
taking up the time of the
workers.

Too much importance cannot
be placed upon proper records.
I know of no better system than
the old route-book system, in-
cluding the “mother sheets” and
the booking sheets. This was the
system used in theatrical ex-
changes 25 years ago, and I un-
derstand that they nearly all use
this system still. Some have been

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

tempted to try the card system,
but they have generally been
glad to come back to the good,
old-fashioned route book.

Now we’re ready for business.
The question is, where are we
going to get our customers? The
campaign to secure customers
divides itself into two main
parts; namely, the mail cam-
paign and the personal-solicita-
tion campaign. A good classi-
fied mailing-list is essential. The
classifications s h o u 1 d include
school prospects, church pros-
pects, roadshow prospects, club
prospects, industrial prospects
and home prospects. The local
situation will determine to some
extent the classification in the
mailing list, although the first
three referred to above are es-
sential to any well-established
film library. At least once every
year literature should be sent to
every one on the mailing list.
This could be in the form of a
new catalog or a new list of films
of general interest. During the
balance of the year, segments of
the mailing list should be cir-
cularized on pictures particu-
larly suitable for that segment.
For example, if you secure a new
religious picture, circularize the
churches on your list. Note, how-
ever, that such a picture might
be suitable for only part of your
church group. It is good busi-
ness to divide your church list
into Catholic and Protestant
churches and to see that each of
these is circularized only on the
pictures that are suitable for
that group. In circularizing
schools, bear in mind that they
use not only textfilms in class-
rooms but also good, clean en-
tertainment features in assem-
bly halls and auditoriums.

In the early days of the film
libraries, when potential custom-
ers were few and far between,
about the only practical method

for securing new customers was
through the mail-order system.
The situation has somewhat
changed today. Now there are
many customers and prospects
in almost any given community.
Thus the traveling salesman has
a place, and an important place,
in our industry. Under normal
conditions, the mission of a trav-
eling salesman is two-fold ; first,
to sell equipment whenever pos-
sible, because most libraries also
handle equipment; second, to
book films to projector owners.
Where does the traveling sales-
man get his prospects? Some of
them come through the mail, in
the nature of inquiries. Such in-
quiries may be the basis of his
visiting certain communities ;
but while in those communities
he m u s t recognize that all
schools, churches, clubs, factor-
ies, training centers, etc., are
his prospects. In fact, wherever
people gather together he may
find a prospect. A good salesman
will tabulate his prospects in the
community in which he finds
himself. He will then go into a
telephone booth and call up these
prospects. He will follow up, by
a personal call, every one who
has given him any encourage-
ment over the telephone. When
he visits a projector owner, he
will inquire about the condition
of the machine, and no detail
will be too small to demand his
attention. Often a large film or-
der can be traced to supplying a
projector owner with a small
item like a fuse, an exciter lamp,
or a belt or helping him to re-
align his machine. Service is the
keynote of success in our busi-
ness.

The attitude of a library op-
erator toward his competitors is
very important. It is here, fre-
quently, that success or failure
is determined. Wise competitors
recognize that the success of one

is related to the success of an-
other. I strongly recommend
that, whenever possible, com-
petitors cooperate with each
other, even to the extent of sub-
leasing prints from one another.
This fosters a friendly atmos-
phere, which is reflected in the
attitude of the customer. Many
a customer has stuck to a li-
brary representative or operator
because “he always spoke well
of his competitors.’’ The quick-
est way to fail as a library op-
erator is to commence to cut
prices. The salesman who can
secure business only on the
ground that he can sell the same
pictures at a lower price than
his competitor is destined to fail.
He may succeed temporarily, but
he will soon find that price-cut-
ting is a whirlpool game that
two can play. His profits will
become less and less, until fin-
ally they vanish.

The main requisite to success
is service. If you send your cus-
tomers prints in bad physical
condition, you will not keep
those customers long. If you
send customers substitutions in-
stead of what they want, you
will lose those customers. On the
other hand, if you go out of your
way to get the right picture to
your customer on time, even
though this necessitates person-
ally delivering the picture to him
at a loss, you keep that customer.
Service pays.

CIO Labor Union Films

The CIO Department of Re-
search and Education, 718 Jack-
son Place, N.W., Washington 6,
offers a list of films on labor
problems and “Union Hall
Films,’’ a 32-page annotated
guide that may be secured for 10
cents.

March, 1 946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

NBC, USA, and UNO Cooperate for
World Amity Project

Extensive plans for a long-
term project of international
broadcasting and educational ac-
tivities designed to promote
United Nations unity and un-
derstanding were announced re-
cently by Dr. James Rowland
Angell, public service counselor
for the National Broadcasting
Company.

The project, phases of which
are being launched with the co-
operation of the U. S. Depart-
ment of State and the represent-
atives of the information serv-
ices of various members of the
United Nations, will include:

1 — A United Nations Week,
observed nationally by the net-
work and locally by NBC’s inde-
pendent, affiliated stations.

2 — A conference in New
York, arranged by NBC, for
broadcasting educators and pro-
gram executives of member na-
tions of the United Nations, and
development of an exchange of
cutural programs among broad-
casters in these nations.

3 — Use of the entire NBC
University of the Air in an in-
tegrated, inter-nation educa-
tional campaign.

Dr. Angell said, “NBC recog-
nizes that the primary concern
of every American of our era
must be the development of
world unity and the preservation
of peace. The United Nations or-
ganization has been called the
‘last chance of civilization’.’’

William Benton, assistant U.
S. secretary of state, said, “As
a positive contribution to the
building of an enduring peace,
the development of genuine mu-
tual understanding among peo-

Sterling Fisher, Director oF the
NBC University of the Air.

pies is perhaps the surest way of
removing the threat of the atom
bomb, and that is an end and aim
of statesmen throughout the
world. It is gratifying, therefore,
to find the National Broadcast-
ing Company initiating a broad
project built around the United
Nations and devoting programs
to questions of foreign rela-
tions.”

The week of the first meeting
in the United States of the Gen-
eral Assembly of the United Na-
tions, scheduled for early Sep-
tember, has been selected by
NBC as its United Nations
Week. Announcement of its
adoption by the National Edu-
cation Association for observ-
ance in the schools of America
was made by Dr. Willard E. Giv-
ens, executive secretary of the
NEA. The NEA, which has 350,-
000 teacher-members, will coor-

dinate its activities — special as-
semblies and programs — with
those of NBC and its independ-
ent, affiliated stations, to stress
the need of unity and under-
standing based on the theme of
the United Nations.

The world conference on
broadcasting and education will
be held in New York during
United Nations Week. Program
exchange plans made then will
provide for the allocation of
programs to be written about
the people and life of each of
the United Nations. When the
conferees return to their coun-
tries, it is expected that they will
obtain the best writers available
to prepare scripts dealing with
their own countries. As soon as
possible, these scripts will be
assembled and translated into
the languages of the nations and
will be offered by NBC to each
country for radio presentation at
the convenience of the broad-
casters.

Beginning with its United
Nations Week, NBC will set
aside a half-hour weekly for spe-
cial programs of drama, music,
and news about the United Na-
tions. This period will later be
used for the exchange programs
planned at the conference.

The official start of program-
ming in the University of the
Air series, for cooperation with
the project, is scheduled for
June. Our Foreign Policy will be
devoted to broadcasts of official
clarification of the operations of
all the United Nations units, in-
cluding the General Assembly
and Security Council, and the
Food and Agricultural, Mone-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume Xll, No. 6

FILMS OF MERIT

16MM SOUND - SILENT - 8MM

For Teaching, Recess
and Entertainment

RENT SALE

Write for complete list

tary and Aviation organizations,
and the World Court.

This series will be augmented
by the programs, Music of the
United Nations, Home Around
the World, and Tales of the For-
eign Service, which will replace
the current NBC University of
the Air programs beginning
with the summer months.

The foreign-service program
will draw its material from the
files of the Foreign Service Of-
fice of the U. S. Department of
State, most of which will be en-
tirely new to the American pub-
lic.

Whenever feasible, NBC sta-
tions will arrange civic activi-
ties and broadcast programs in
their local areas on the theme
of the United Nations as well as
commemorative activities for
United Nations Week. Plans
thus far include public meetings,
displays, special music, and pro-
grams clarifying UNO activities.
It is also expected that civic
clubs, churches, and education-
al organizations will support the
general plan.

“NBC’s United Nations proj-
ect,” said Dr. Angell, “effects
a new concept in the use of
broadcasting as a world-wide
medium of understanding and
cooperation. Through interna-

tional exchange of radio pro-
grams for the education of the
world’s peoples, one of the great-
est communications media of the
world will help to promote the
plans for peace.”

Dr. Angell announced that the
entire project will be under the
supervision of Sterling Fisher,
director of the NBC University
of the Air and assistant public
service counselor.

"MASSACHUSETTS
PLAN" POPULAR

NBC University of the Air Series
Wins Official Collegiate Credit

Attempts have been made in
the past in various sections of
the country to adapt the facili-
ties of radio to the teaching
process. However, it remained
for the Massachusetts Depart-
ment of Education, Division of
University Extension, to formu-
late in “The Massachusetts
Plan” a concrete method of pro-
viding educational programs
carrying full collegiate credit.

The Division of University
E.xtension selected Our Foreign
Policy, heard each Saturday
night between 7 :00 and 7 :30
EST over the NBC Network, as
the basis for the first course of-
fered under “The Massachu-
setts Plan.” This series of broad-
casts features men and women
who are formulating America’s
foreign policy. It is the only pro-
gram on the air which has the
complete cooperation of the De-
partment of State in Washing-
ton. This broadcast is supple-
mented each week with a quar-
ter-hour program on Saturdays
at 9:15 A. M. over WBZ-Boston,
WBZA-Springfield. The local
program is in charge of Dr. Le-
land M. Goodrich, Professor of
Political Science at Brown Uni-

versity and Director of the
World Peace Foundation. Dr.
Goodrich is the course leader
throughout the series of twenty-
six weeks. He has guests from
universities in New England.
Among them are Dr. Payson
Wild, Associate Professor of
Government at Harvard ; Dr.
Anton De Haas, Professor of In-
ternational Relations at Har-
vard; and Norman Padelford,
Professor of International Re-
lations at Massachusetts Insti-
tute of Technology. “The Mas-
sachusetts Plan” already is re-
ceiving an enthusastic response
throughout the region.

Our F'oreign Policy has been
selected also as the basis for a
special course by the University
of Maine’s Extension Division.

The new course, designed to
assist teachers in understanding
current world problems, espe-
cially in terms of international
relationships, will be presented
by the university’s history de-
partment. Students will listen
to and report on the weekly
broadcasts. Texts of the NBC
discussions, as well as approved
bibliographies of pertinent arti-
cles in books and magazines,
will be given to each student.

Full university credit will be
given for this course, which will
begin with the NBC broadcast
of October 13, 1946. It will be
heard over the Maine stations of
WRDO-Augusta, WLBZ-Bangor,
and WCSH-Portland, all NBC
affiliates.

What remains is to make the
project national during the
academic year 1946-47. Inevita-
bly radio will bring the college
to the student. Eventually,
through FM and television, edu-
cational courses will be truly
democratized. Our Foreign Pol-
icy is blazing a trail which is
destined to mark a new era in
popularizing the study of inter-
national relations.

March, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

WHO'S WHO IN RADIO
EDUCATION

No. 12: Paul F. Lazorsfeid

Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Director
of the Bureau of Applied Social
Research, Columbia University,
and Associate Professor in the
Department of Sociology at Co-
umbia, was born in Vienna, Aus-
tria, February 13, 1901. He re-
ceived his doctorate at the Uni-
versity of Vienna in 1925 and
subsequently directed the Divi-
sion of Applied Psychology
there, doing consumer research
for a number of business con-
cerns in Germany, Austria, and
Switzerland.

In 1933 he was awarded a
Rockefeller fellowship for two
years of travel and study of re-
search methods in the United
States. At the end of this time,
he decided to stay in this coun-
try, In 1937 he was appointed
Director of the Office of Radio
Research. This office, which
was financed by a grant of the
Rockefeller Foundation, was at
that time conducted under the
auspices of Princeton Univer-
sity. It grew out of one of the
projects sponsored by the Fed-
eral Radio Education Commit-
tee. Its purpose was to investi-
gate the role of radio in the
lives of various groups of peo-
ple.

In 1940 the grant and the of-
fice were transferred to Colum-
bia University, where Dr. La-
zarsfeld holds the position of As-
sociate Professor of Sociology.
Since that time, the scope of his
work has been enlarged to cover
all media of communication. Dr.

Paul F. Lazarsfeld

Lazarsfeld is a member of the
Magazine Audience Research
Group, through whom a consid-
erable number of current read-
ership studies are handled.

The Office of Radio Research
is now a division of the Bu-
reau of Applied Social Research,
which is devoted not only to in-
vestigations in the field of com-
munications, but also to the de-
velopment of new research tech-
niques and the training of qual-
ified graduate students in the
field of social research. Dr. La-
zarsfeld is now the director of
this Bureau, which also does
work in market research and
housing. CBS, NBC, Life Maga-
zine, MacFadden Publications,
and many advertising agencies
and industrial concerns are
among the sponsors of studies
done by the Bureau.

For the duration of the war.
Dr. Lazarsfeld was a consult-
ant to the Office of War Infor-
mation, the War Production

Board, and the War Department.

In addition to numerous pam-
phlets, monographs, and contri-
butions to academic journals. Dr.
Lazarsfeld is the author of four
books :

Radio and the Printed Page,
Duell, Sloan and Pearce, New'
York, 1940.

Radio Research, 194-1, Duell,
Sloan and Pearce, New York,
1941.

Radio Research, 1942-43,
Duell, Sloan and Pearce, New
York, 1944.

The People’s Choice, Duell,
Sloan and Pearce, New York,
1945.

Among his professional affili-
ations are the American Psycho-
logical Association, the Ameri-
can Sociological Association, the
American Statistical Associa-
tion, and the American Market-
ing Association.

★ ★ ★

Newsreel Comedians

Movietone News recently
nominated Mrs. Harry S. Tru-
man, wife of the President, and
New York Mayor Fiorello La-
Guardia as the best newsreel
comedians of 1945. In its review
of the “greatest news year in
history,” Movietone listed, as
the best laughs of 1945, Mrs.
Truman at the christening of a
bomber plane, wielding a bottle
that would not break, and Mayor
LaGuardia at the microphone
during the New York newspaper
strike, reading Dick Tracy to
the kiddies over the radio.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

50 Inexpensive and Non-Royalty

Radio Plays

Suggested by the Department of Speech, University of Michigan

PLAY

AUTHOR

TYPE

ROYALTY

CAST

PUBLISHER

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

8m 4w

USE

Alice in Wonderland

L. Carroll

Fan.

$3.

7m 4w

RWL

Alladin and the Magic Lamp

Fan. D

7m 3w

USE

Asylum

R. Morris

12m 4w

Mor

Bill of Rights, The

H. G. and D. Calhoun

21m

USE

Bon-Bon

Edgar Allan Poe

Mor

Brief Glory

G. Schmitt

7 m 2w

Sch

Confession

H. Colin Rice

$3.

6m 2w

RWL

Debt of Honor

J. L. Latham

$3.

7m 3w

DPC

Discipline by Dad

J. L. Latham

$2.

2m 4w

DPC

Doll’s House, A

Ibsen

4m 2w

Clas

Dusky Singing

G. Schmitt

3m 2w

Sch

Dust on the Moon

H. D. Spatz

Fan. 1)

$3.

5m Iw

RWL

East Lynne

Mel.

$3.

4m 3w

RWL

Everyman

12m 8w

Mor

Fickle Widow, A

Esther A. Kern

5 m Iw

First Spark, The

G. Schmitt

7m 3w

Sch

Five-Nine-One

Marc Williams

$3.

4m 2w

RWL

For Mister Jim

J. L. Latham

$2.50

3m 5w

DPC

Freedom of Speech

H. G. and D. Calhoun

20m

USE

Gift, The

G. W. Pinney

$3.

3m 2w

RWL

Gray-Eyed Man of Destiny, The

Phil Milhous

8m 2w

Green Horse, The

H. J. Johns

$3.

4m 2w

RWL

House on Halstead Street, The

G. Schmitt

2m 5w

Sch

Lady Windermere’s Fan

Wilde

7 m 5w

Clas

Mac and the Black Cat

J. L. Latham

$2.25

3m 6w

DPC

Macbeth

Shakespeare

24m 2w

Clas

Man Who Discovered the Sun

G. Schmitt

5m Iw

Sch

Mark Twain Digs for Gold

G. Schmitt

Sch

Miracle Maker

R. Morris

9m 5w

Mor

Mr. Elliot’s Crazv Notion

G. Schmitt

6m Iw

Sch

New Clothes for the Emperor

H. C. Anderson

10m

Mor

Not for Ladies

B. Lewis

5m 3w

Sch

Othello

Shakespeare

10m 3w

Clas

Peasant Queen, The

H. C. Anderson

7m 2w

Mor

Pen is Mightier, The

Raven’s First Flight

B. Lewis

8m Iw

Sch

G. Schmitt

5m 2w

Sch

Rip Van Winkle

Washington Irving

5m 2w

Mor

Romantic Frankenstein, A

R. Klein

$3.

4 m 2w

RWL

Sign Here, Please

R. Morris

3m Iw

Mor

Sinbad the Sailor

Fan. D

15m Iw

USE

Special Case

M. P. Kinsella

4m Iw

Swineherd, The

H. C. Anderson

4m 4w

Mor

Trial by Jury

H. G. and D. Calhoun

26m 3w

USE

Vagabond Lover

G. W. Pinny

$3.

6m 2w

RWL

Vicar Saves the Day, The

G. Schmitt

6m Iw

Sch

Way of Shawn, The

J. L. Latham

$2.50

3m 5w

DPC

Wilderness Trail, The

J. Danlev

$3.

7m 2w

RWL

William Tell

Friedrich Schiller

10m

Mor

With Eyes Turned West

J. L. Latham

$2.75

DPC

March, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Abbreyiations Used for
Types of Ploys

C Comedy

C-D Comedy-Drama

D Drama

Fan Fantasy

F Farce

Mel Melodrama

ED Educational Drama

(Clas) Burgess Publishing Com-
pany, Minneapolis.

E. W. Ziebarth and R. B.
Erekson. Classic Plays For
Radio. 1939, $2.25.

(DPC) The Dramatic Publish-
ing Company, Chicago.

J. L. Latham. Nine Radio
Plays. $1.50.

(AB) McGraw-Hill Book Co.,
New York.

W. M. Abbot. Handbook of
Broadcasting , 1941, $3.50.
(RWL) Radio Writers’ Labora-
tory, 10 South Queen Street,
Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
(Sch) Scholastic Publications,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
(USE) United States Office of
Education, Washington, D. C.

H. G. and D. Calhoun, Let
Freedom Rmg, Bulletin 1937,
No. 32, 60c.

★ ★ ★

Protestant Film Commision

Lieutenant Paul R. Heard has
been elected executive secretary
of the recently incorporated
Protestant Film Commission. At
their first meeting held at 156
Fifth Avenue, New York, the di-
rectors set $1,000,000 as an ini-
tial goal for a revolving fund to
provide religious motion pic-
tures, to advise with the indus-
try and to raise standards of
presentation. Lieutenant Heard,
currently completing produc-
tions for the Navy in Hollywood,
will be released from the Navy
shortly. He was formerly with
the visual education depart-
ments of the University of Min-
nesota and the Methodist Board

of Missions. Rome A. Betts, sec-
retary of the American Bible So-
ciety, is president of the Film
Commission.

Free Speech in Films

Darryl F. Zanuck, forward-
looking film producer, writing
in Treasury for the Free World
(Arco Publishing Company,
New York) , declares that chaos
may result from failure to eval-
uate properly the amazing re-
cent growth of the screen’s
influence in shaping men’s
thoughts and actions.

He shows in his essay, “Free
Speech in the Films,’’ that the
film industry was crucial in war,
yet “in all the current public dis-
cussions about the dictator na-
tions and their control and re-
education, little or nothing has
been said about motion pictures.
This grave and dangerous over-
sight by the planners of a better
post-war world obviously points
to a lack of understanding of
the immense and still unplumbed
possibilities of the screen in
molding and guiding public opin-
ion. It may leave to the vagaries
of change a weapon which can
be used for incalculable good or
harm in shaping the future.’’

Mr. Zanuck advances a plan
for the control of fascist films,
although he sees it “vital that
this great medium of enlighten-
ment, education and entertain-
ment be kept free. It should re-
ceive the same privileges and
protection accorded the press
and be permitted to function
with the same freedom here and
abroad. Unless the screen is
free, within the limits of good
taste, it may easily become an
object of partisan strife and po-
litical reprisal. Then it would be
robbed of its chance and real
value in the job of reconstruct-
ing a chaotic world.’’

RADIO

COURSE

"A. Course of
Study in Radio
Appreciation''

BY ALICE P. STERNER

Barringer High School
Newark, N. J.

22 Curriculum Units

50^^

Free With 2-year Subscriptions to
"Film and Radio Guide"

EDUCATIONAL AND
RECREATIONAL GUIDES, Inc.

172 Renner Avenue Newark 8, N. J.

WILLIAM LEWIN, Editor

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

New Cartoons Enliven the
English Curriculum

Reprinted from J. C. Tressler's ^‘English in Action”

Before • After

PRIZES FOR CARTOONS

Send us your ideas for cartoons to teach English. Prizes of
$1.00, $5.00 and $10.00 for the best ideas. Address William
Lewin, Editor, 1 72 Renner Avenue, Newark 8, New Jersey.

Morch, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A TEACHER LOOKS AT
THE MOVIES

Frederick Houk LaWf Famous Educator,
Reviews Current Photoplay Offerings

IT HAPPENED AT THE INN. Comedy
drama of French peasant life. In French,
with English titles. Jacques Becker, Direc-
tor. MGM International. Highly recom-
mended.

French vivacity and energy,
as well as French peasant thrift,
appear in full force in It Hap-
pened at the Inn, a French-
speaking film with English ti-
tles. In some respects the story
is a kind of French Silas Mar-
ner story, for it tells about an
extremely old man who has a
mass of gold hidden away in a
place known only to himself. Ar-
rived at his one hundred and
sixth year, and seemingly on his
death bed, the old man refuses
to tell his heirs just where the
treasure is. The efforts of the
entire Goupi clan to learn that
secret bring about the events
that give the film story its rapid
action.

What with aged grandfather,
middle-aged sons and their
wives, cousins and the like, the
Goupi family is a clan in itself,
a clan containing many widely
differing personalities. Strik-
ingly individual, each person
stands out in sharp relief. Ton-
kin has served in Indo-China
and prefers to live in a hut filled
with Asiatic souvenirs, sleep in
a hammock, and live a lonely
life. “Red Hands” is a half-wit
who takes beatings with much
the air of a friendly dog. “Pinch-
penny” is a calm-minded, shrewd
man, the best brains of the fam-
ily. “The Emperor,” the grand-
father, is a tough-minded old
centennarian as determined in

Assisted by Other Teachers

age as he was in his youth.

Through excitement and trag-
edy the story rises to a strong
climax in which Tonkin emulates
the climbing powers of an ape.

Like Silas Marner, a book that
It Happened at the Inn much
resembles, this film story car-
ries a meaning for those who
care to find it: “Self-dependence
is better than any treasure, how-
ever great.”

F. H. L.

FROM THIS DAY FORWARD. RKO.
Social comedy of post-war reconversion.
John Berry, Director.

Somewhat resembling certain
aspects of A Tree Groius m
Brooklyn, From This Day For-
ward tells a sordid story of pov-
erty-stricken life in a great city
and of the efforts of a returned
service man to find a place for
himself in life.

Happy to return to normal ex-
istence after the hardships of
war, a strong, handsome soldier
back in his city surroundings
feels certain that he can master
all conditions. He plans at once
to marry his former sweetheart,
get a job, and become steady and
independent. Red-tape filling
out of endless forms, competi-
tion with thousands of others
who apply for work, the closing
of factories when work has been
obtained — all beat upon him and
dull his spirit. Losing position
after position, drawn into tem-
porary drunkenness, and finally
entrapped and arrested because
of entanglement with an offen-

der, the returned soldier all but
gives up entirely.

In spite of the poverty of her
people and the wretchedly of-
fensive conditions under which
they live, the sweetheart (Joan
Fontaine) lavishes her love upon
the unfortunate man, struggles
for him, fights for him, and at
last restores him to confidence
in himself.

Such devoted love redeems
much of the emphasis upon
drink and coarse tenement life.
Joan Fontaine’s beauty and
charm add marked values.

F. H. L.

★ ★ ★

A YANK IN LONDON. Social com-
edy. 20tli Century-Fox. Herbert Wilcox,
Producer and Director. An Associated
British Picture Corporation Production.
Strongly recommended.

In spite of an uninviting title
that appears to announce a hil-
arious farce or a musical pro-
duction, A Yank in London tells
a delightful story that sets for-
wards the democracy of British
life.

Two American GI’s f i n d
themselves billeted in London in
an aristocratic mansion, the res-
idence of an elderly Lord. Little
by little they discover that the
mansion, its owners, and its
servants, all have sympathetic
spirit. They see the members of
the household bravely bearing
up against the hard necessities
of war. They find the Lord of
the mansion open-hearted and
friendly.

In Lady Patricia, the grand-

Volume XII, No. 6

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Scenes in "Devotion."

ABOVE — Arthur Kennedy os Bronwell Bronte. BELOW — Thockeroy (Sydney
Greenstreet) introduces Charlotte Bronte (Olivia de Havilland) at a London
banquet in her honor.

daughter, they see a young Eng-
lish woman who leaves her rich
surroundings and former easy
life to drive an army motorcar.
In her sweetheart from child-
hood times they find a courteous,
affable British aviator. In fact,
in all around they they see the
friendly and patriotic spirit that
characterizes the people of the
United States.

Some events take place at the
Lord’s country seat, some in
London, and some in the air. All
alike lead toward a climax that
avoids the usually perfunctory
happy ending of motion pic-
tures.

Herbert Wilcox, as director,
and Anna Neagle, Rex Harri-
son, Dean dagger, and Robert
Morley, as players, bring into
the story a rich amount of sen-
timent and personal interest.
Anna Neagle, in particular,
shows herself a most attractive
personality.

The combination of story in-
terest, character interest, and
emphasis of similarities between
the British and the Americans
makes a most pleasing film.

F. H. L.

★ ★ ★

DEVOTION. Biography of the Bronte
Sisters. Worner Brothers. Curtis Bern-
hardt, Director. Strongly recommended
tor all.

The .story of the amazing lit-
erary succes.ses of Charlotte,
Emily and Anne Bronte forms
the basis of Devotion, a period
picture of the first half of the
nineteenth century in England.

All lovers of literature, and
especially all admirers of Jane
Eyre, Wutherinfi Heights and
Agnes Grey, will have keen in-
terest in this motion picture that
follows closely the facts about
the remarkable Bronte family.

In the picture story we see the
secluded family on the bleak
moors, the father who keeps to
himself and his study, and the

March, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

ABOVE — Writing a Bronte novel. BELOW*— •Charlotte, Emily, end Anne Bronte portrayed by Olivia de Hovilland, Ido Lupino,

and Nancy Coleman,

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

aunt who looks after the home
interests of three strange young
women and their drunken broth-
er. We catch the spirit of the
moors and see the foreshadow-
ings of Emily Bronte’s Wuther-
ing Heights. We observe episodes
in England and in Brussels that
help to explain Jane Eyre. We
see the beginnings of the love af-
fair between Arthur Nicholls
and Charlotte Bronte, a love
that led at last to their mar-
riage.

The picture has the title Devo-
tion because it shows how all the
Bronte family devoted them-
selves to admiration of the
drunken brother’s real genius,
and to efforts to care for him.

Olivia de Havilland, Ida Lu-
pino, and Nancy Coleman play
the parts of the three gifted sis-
ters. Arthur Kennedy enacts
Branwell Bronte. Sidney Green-
street presents a vivid repre-
sentation of Thackeray and that
great writer’s egotistical cer-
tainty of himself. The figure of
Charles Dickens flashes by, as
he and Thackeray pass with
coolness, the one aristocratic, the
other interested in the poor.

Literary-minded persons who
bring a great deal with them
will like this story of one of the
most amazing of literary fami-
lies; the general public, know-
ing little about the Brontes, will
find in the story a great deal of
human interest.

★ ★ ★

UNITED STATES. British Army Film
Unit. Script by Eric Ambler. Commentary
by David Niven. Strongly recommended.
Avoiloble in 16mm from British Informa-
tion Services, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New
York 20. 5 reels, 45 minutes. Service
fee $1.50.

Companion to the United
States Army film. Know Your
Ally, Britain, the British film
that explains the United States
to British men and women has in
it so much that is both good and

amusing that it interests Ameri-
cans as well. For school presen-
tation, the film has peculiar ex-
cellence, first, because it is
highly instructive and second,
because its pictures and ani-
mated maps appeal to young ob-
servers.

In forty-five minutes of run-
ning time, the film tells the
story of the discovery, explora-
tion. and development of the
American continent, and of the
ways and peculiarities of the
American people. The animated
maps emphasize remarkably well
the influence of the great river
and mountain systems of the
United States.

The film shows that the Amer-
ican people work hard, play
hard, and keep alert; that they
have faith in all peoples, and
that they are quick to rise to the
defense of liberty. Even the fun
that the film slyly pokes at
American love of crowds and
excitement, of blatant orators
and noisy processions, has in it
praise for energy and good will.

Any school will profit by ex-
hibiting all five reels of United
States.

F. H. L.

* 'k *

HENRY V. Shakespeare in Technicalor.
United Artists release of British produc-
tion of J. Arthur Rank. Laurence Olivier,
Director. Strongly recommended.

With all the antique wonder
of Elizabethan London in 1599,
the strangeness of the Globe
Theatre in its first days, and
the jiroud story of Henry V,
1415, the English bowmen, and
the triumph of Agincourt, the
$2,000,000 Technicolor Henry V
stirs one in many ways. The
film-story appears to take one
actually into the very building
in which Shakespeare produced
his famous play about English
courage against odds. We see
the knights and the archers of
long ago, and we learn much

about the ways of the past. We
follow, in seeming reality, the
courtship of the twenty-eight-
year-old King with the fair
Katharine of France. We gain
new interest in Shakespeare’s
play.

As King Henry V, Laurence
Olivier is handsome, dignified,
spirited, and romantic, satisfy-
ing eyes and ears alike. He looks
and acts the part. He is the play.
He gives the production that
epic quality that Shakespeare in-
tended it to have.

This magnificently rich pro-
duction of a Shakespearean play
illustrates something new in mo-
tion pictures, a new method of
stimulating and enlarging the
imagination. It begins with
scenes of old London and the ex-
terior of the Globe Theatre, then
takes us into the place itself and
shows us the opening of the play
exactly as the people of 1599
saw it. From that, as if in obedi-
ence to the Prologue’s command :
“Think, when we speak of
horses, that you see them,’’ the
scenes change to reality, and
from then on we follow the for-
tunes of King Henry and his men
in England and in France, see-
ing, as it were, the work of our
own imaginations.

“Can thi.s cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France ? Or may
we cram

Within this wooden O the very casques
That did affright the air at Agin-
court?”

For almost the first time we
realize the nature of the Eng-
lish archers, the men of Crecy,
Poitiers, and Agincourt, whose
spirits appeared to return to
fight once again for the Eng-
lish, in the time of the desper-
ate plight of the British, in the
retreat from Mons in the First
World War. We see how they
use their bows and how they
send great flights of clothyard
arrows at the enemy. We are
particularly amused to see the

March, 1946

FtLM AND RADIO GUIDE

Emily Bronte (Ida Lupino) feels the influence of the moors and begins to dream of "Wuthering ffeights."

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume Xll, No. 6

Screen Version of the Forum Scene in "Julius Caesar."

TOP — "Look! In this place ron Cassius' dagger through." MIDDLE — "Let but
the commons heor this testament — " BOTTOM — "Here wos a Caesar! When

comes such another?"

odd way in which knights in
heavy armor are lifted upon
their armor-clad horses by pul-
ley and tackle. We glory in the
hardiness of the archers, and in
the thundering charge of the
knights. Now and then we catch
glimpses of beautiful landscapes,
the “fair fields of France." We
enter the camps and see how the
armies of the period housed
themselves.

Those persons whom the
comic characters, Falstaff, Flu-
ellen, Gower, Macmorris, Pistol,
N y m, and Bardolph have
amused will enjoy seeing these
counterfoils in real life. They
may attend the last moments of
the “Fat Knight” who “babbled
of green fields” as he died. The
production retains, but does not
over-accent, the Shakespearean
comic relief and the play upon
dialects.

All this is so good that it is a
pity that the entire production
is not carried out in the vein of
enlarged imagination and close-
ness to reality. Instead, the
scenes at Southampton and at
Harfleur, and the exterior of the
castle of the French king, are all
highly conventionalized. The cas-
tle looks more like a child’s toy
castle, or more like an impres-
sionistic painting, than it looks
like any place in which human
beings live. Touches of this
spirit of convention appear in
showing the doddering and half-
mad French king, Charles VI,
Queen Isabel of France, and
even Princess Katharine.

Vivien Leigh makes a most
beautiful Katharine, fully equal
to Laurence Olivier’s youthful
and heroic King Henry V.

Certainly every teacher of
English should direct pupils to
see this lavishly produced, beau-
tiful and extremely instructive
production of one of Shake-
speare’s most epic plays.

F. H. L.

March, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

JULIUS CAESAR, Act III, Scene 2.
Screen version of the forum scene of
Shakespeare's play. Produced by Sidney
Box. Directed by Compton Bennett. Avail-
able in 16mm from British Information
Services, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New
York 20. Running time, 19 minutes.
Service fee, $2. Strongly recommended.

Here at last is an answer to
the prayer of teachers of Eng-
ish and the social studies every-
where for a classroom film ver-
sion of the climactic scene in
Shakespeare’s historical tragedy
dealing with the assassination
of Julius Caesar.

As timely as today’s newspa-
per are the scenes which follow
the murder of Caesar. As power-
ful as the most inspired lesson
in social psychology is this pres-
entation of rabble-rousing.

Leo Genn, British stage player,
is splendid as Mark Antony. He
delivers the famous funeral ora-
tion with convincing effect. Fol-
lowing Felix Aylmer’s presenta-
tion of Brutus’s address, Direc-
tor Compton Bennett’s handling
of the swirling mob lends power-
ful support to Genn’s perform-
ance. Notable shots of mass ac-
tion and striking closeups are in-
terwoven with the speech.

The effect is heightened by
music composed by Ben Frankel,
played by the London Symphony
Orchestra, and conducted by
Muir Mathieson.

Even the smallest and remot-
est schoolhouse, if it has elec-
tricity and a projector, will now
be able to make its study of
Julius Caesar and its great les-
son in the dangers of rabble-
rousing luminous indeed.

w. L.

MACBETH, Act II, Scene 2, and Act
V, Scene 1. Screen versions of the scenes
of the murder of Duncan and of Lady
Macbeth's sleepwalking. Produced by
Sidney Box. Directed by Compton Ben-
nett. Available in 16mm from British In-
formation Services, 30 Rockefeller Plaza,
New York 20. Running time, 19 minutes.
Service fee, $2. Recommended.

Wilfred Lawson plays Mac-

Rabble-Rousing in Ancienf Rome.

TOP — "Read the will! We'll hear it, Mark Antony." MIDDLE — "Revenge!
About! Seek! Burn!" BOTTOM — "Mischief, thou ort afoot; take thou what

course thou wilt!"

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

beth and Cathleen Nesbit plays
Lady Macbeth in the British
screen version of two famous
scenes in Shakespeare’s tragedy
of the disintegration of a Scot-
tish king and queen — the scene
of the murder of Duncan and the
sleepwalking scene. Felix Ayl-
mer plays the doctor and Cath-
erine Lacey the gentlewoman.

The mood and atmosphere of
the scenes are conveyed by Di-
rector Bennett in simple, unpre-
tentious style. Classes studying
Macbeth will gain from the film
a visualization of the two lead-
ing characters on which teach-
ers may build appropriate les-
sons in character study.

The film is provided with mu-
sic composed by Ben Frankel,
played by the London Symphony
Orchestra, and conducted by
Muir Mathieson.

w. L.

★ ★ ★

A NIGHT IN CASABLANCA. Force
comedy. Produced by Dovid L. Loew.
Archie Moyo, Director. Originol screen-
ploy by Joseph Fields ond Rolond Kib-
bee. Recommended.

The Marx brothers prance,
ogle, wisecrack, and play
through a night in a Casablanca
hotel. That is, Harpo and Chico
help try to run down the mur-
derer, while Groucho tries to run
down the murderer’s girl friend.

It seems that three successive
hotel managers have been mur-
dered by some Nazis tenanted in
that place. Of course, nobody
knows who did the murdering
— hence, the mystery. But those
Nazis have to get some of their
loot, which is cached somewhere
in the hotel.

The mystery seems to run a
typical Marx brothers gauntlet :
from “who killed the manager?’’
to “who’s got the toupee?’’ to
“who’s got my girl?’’ to “who’s
got the loot?’’ and back again to

Continued on Page 54

British Screen Version of the Murder Scene in Macbeth.

March, 1 946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

CINEMA SYNDROME

BY MAX J. HERZBERG

Principal, Weequahic High School, Newark, New Jersey

The sound film is the most
stupendous and revolutionary
educational invention since the
invention of the printing press.
When Edison began his experi-
ments vcith this device, or com-
bination of devices, in 1894, he
was pointing the way toward a
contrivance as time-saving and
as energy-saving in education as
the complicated structures of an
automobile factory or a news-
paper pressroom are in industry.

But one would not think the
sound film so momentous or im-
portant if one looked at our
schools today, a full generation
since this contrivance came into
practical use. It is only haltingly
and faultily that we have at-
tempted to bring films to educa-
tional fulfilment. Vested inter-
ests, lethargy, but mainly ignor-
ance and misunderstanding con-
tinue to stand in the way of such
fruition all over the land. It is
indeed a disease of education
that films are still only a toy in
our schools, still only an inciden-
tal and not an essential and in-
dispensable procedure. What are
the symptoms of this disease or,
to abandon medicine for logic,
what are the fallacies, the mis-
conceptions which prevent a full
realization of cinema values?
Let me mention five causes of
misunderstanding.

1. It is not clearly enough per-
ceived that, as a semantic de-
vice, pictures speak louder than
words. In this connection we
need not dwell on the truism
that sound pictures are merely
part of a vast system of com-

Reprinted from "The English Journal,"
February, 1946.

Max J. Herzberg

munication devices which make
possible what somewhat naively
we choose to call civilization.
Man’s scheme of living has de-
veloped through the ages as a
consequence of the evolution of
his power to communicate, from
the limited space and time range
of gestures and grunts to the
tremendously rapid and far-
flung effectiveness of print, tel-
egraphy, and radio.

Nor need we dwell on the
equally platitudinous fact that it
is the business of language arts
teachers to provide instruction
in the skills of communication.
From the time when motion pic-
tures and radio first began their
evolution as the most popular
of modern folk arts, English
teachers instinctively felt that
it was particularly their business
to deal with them. That instinc-
tive feeling, in my judgment,
arose from a realization on their
part that these arts were funda-
mentally mediums of verbal

communication a n d therefore
within the province of the lan-
guage arts. Some debate ensued
regarding this question, yet ap-
parently little doubt exists today
that the cinema is as truly one
of the language arts as is litera-
ture itself.

But as communication and as
a language the cinema performs
a special and distinctive func-
tion. The admirable Harvard re-
port on General Education in a
Free Societij stated the point
very well in its final section on
new mediums of education.
Speaking of films and television,
the report said ;

Something of a revolution is indeed
taking' place through these ne'w means
of bringing the world itself, and claii-
fied versions of it, to us. Traditionally
language deputizes for what has to be
absent. It tells us what we might see
or hear. But too often it gets in the
way of, or replaces, all that could give
it a meaning. ... Now that the things
and events themselves can be brought
to us, the role of language is reversed.
Instead of words having to explain or
represent things, it is rather things,
and actual processes taking place be-
fore us, which explain words or call
them in question. In the making of
a good instructional or documen-
tary film the duties of language are
searchingly looked into, and the need-
less obscurities of traditional texts
are exposed. A healthy criticism is
started, and language, gaining a rival
in its new i^artner, has new standards
of lucidity to live up to.

This sound doctrine of the
Harvard report may perhaps be
supplemented in the minds of
teachers by the reflection that,
after all, many of our alphabets
and our words originated in pic-
tographs and in onomatopoeia,
remote ancestors of the film and
the sound track.

2. Because of another misun-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

derstanding, it is not yet appar-
ent to teachers (and here Eng-
lish teachers have been particu-
larly at fault) that the art of
the motion picture is an inde-
pendent, almost incredibly vital,
art and, more specifically, that
motion-picture art is not the art
of literature, even though it
may, as language art, have many
close correlations with litera-
ture.

Literature itself is, of course,
a congeries of somewhat loosely
related arts, all of which employ
words as their primary medium
but not all of them as their sole
medium. It is foolish to expect
a drama or a ballad to conform
to the conventions and tech-
niques of a novel. Even such in-
timately related arts as the
novel and the short story cannot
be subjected to the same criteria,
and the massive epics of the
Western world are art products
quite distinct from the seven-
teen-,syllable hokkus of the Jap-
anese.

English teachers have, never-
theless, often insisted on fitting-
motion pictures into the Pro-
crustean standards of some form
of literature. They have failed to
realize that nowhere in the his-
tory of man has there existed an
art that called for the combina-
tion of so many skills as is the
case with the motion picture. It
makes demands on astonishinly
varied talents and seeks to merge
many mechanical and human ac-
tivities into a unit of art. Often,
to be sure, this orchestration of
talents produces a discord rather
than a harmony ; only occasion-
ally does it produce a master-
piece. But what we need to keep
in mind constantly and stead-
fastly is that we do not judge
the success or failure of a par-
ticular motion picture by the de-
gree to which it reproduces the
qualities of a fine novel or a
beautiful poem or even a stirring

play.

This misunderstanding ap-
pears most frequently when a
notable novel or biography, the
lineaments of which have be-
come familiar in our minds from
enjoyable reading, is brought to
the screen in a motion-picture
version. The expectation of many
admirers of the original is that
its details will be faithfully re-
produced in the movie. But this
is a futile and foolish expecta-
tion. All that can be expected is
that the movie version will show
fidelity not to the cletaih but to
the spirit of the original and
that the producer will not
make unnecessary and wanton
changes in his reproduction of a
classic.

I regret to say that this rea-
sonable expectation is often dis-
appointed and that some movie
versions of the classics keep lit-
tle but the titles of the original.
Yet we must continue to be rea-
sonable, and there is a salutary
measure those of us can take
who tend to become impatient
with Hollywood’s drastic altera-
tions. All we need do is turn to
that prototype of Hollywood,
Elizabethan London’s Bankside,
and to those forerunners of the
Hollywood ere w, the rowdy,
bawdy, boisterous, ruthless Eliz-
abethan dramatists, and note
what they did to the classics and
to the best-sellers of their time.
They were neither reverent nor
scrupulous : their sole purpose
was to produce plays that would
satisfy to a reasonable extent
their artistic conscience and also
(and this was really important)
satisfy the box office. The re-
sult, strangely and paradoxical-
ly, was a series of literary mas-
terpieces, concerning which we
usually remember only the fact
that they were written as plays ;
we forget that they were often
stage versions of classics.

3. I should like to discuss here

the way in which our undue lit-
erary and classroom seriousness
generally deludes us into over-
looking the excellent comedy of
the screen, so that we rarely
think it worthwhile in English
classrooms to analyze the mas-
terly comedic effects of a writer
a n d producer like Preston
Sturges or to discuss the re-
markable histrionic skill of a
great clown like Danny Kaye. I
should also like to mention in
passing the potent and favorable
effect which the movies can have
on reading, and on which some
alert and intelligent publishers
like Grosset and Dunlap have
capitalized by synchronizing the
publication of film stories with
the appearance of the movies
that tell the same stories.

I shall go on to the third de-
ficiency which vitiates the use
of movies in the classroom,
namely, the startling fact that
no major textbooks have as yet
been devised in which direct,
extended, unremitting, and em-
phatic employment is made of
sound-film material as an inte-
gral, not an incidental or supple-
mentary, part of instruction.
Such textbooks are certain to ap-
pear, perhaps in the near future.
But failure to make it clear to
potential producers of such text-
books that efficient, term-long
combinations of verbal text and
sound film will be welcomed by
us is a deplorable indication of
our lethargy and insensitivity.

Nor have we developed ade-
quate pedagogic techniques for
handling such material, although
there have been some sound and
valuable discussions of the sub-
ject. I may particularly mention
the volume called F o c u s on
Learning: Motion Pictures in
the School, written after much
research by Charles F. Hoban,
Jr., and published by the Ameri-
can Council on Education. Many
teachers still do not realize that,

Morch, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

in view of classroom conditions,
a twenty-minute film is superior
to a forty-minute film and that
a longer film, like David Copper-
field, should be given in serial
instalments. Administrators fail
to realize that lavish expendi-
tures on motion-picture equip-
ment and films are ridiculous if
provision is not at the same time
made for training teachers in ef-
fective use of tho material and
if a competent director is not
immediately placed in charge of
the work. Schools of education
are likewise decidedly at fault
when they fail, as many do, to
give instruction in the field of
audio-visual aids.

4. As a fourth fault, we have
allowed commercial interests to
manufacture their products
without any real insistence on
our part that the remarkable
techniques developed in motion-
picture production and some of
the impressive plays created by
these processes must be made
available as a public service in
the schools as well as in the-
atres. Failure to be stubborn in
our insistence is a symptom of
social backwardness or of a tim-
idity that too often character-
izes educational leadership.

It is clearly evident that, in
general, we have not seen to it
that the weight of our authority
is felt in the motion-picture in-
dustry, if necessary uncomfort-
ably felt. For we are not a noisy
minority group applying pres-
sure techniques for our self-
ish advantage; we have no spe-
cial or divisive interests. The
fact is, we are the people.

5. Finally, we have not been
sufficiently insistent on produc-
ing among our students critical,
even if for most part apprecia-
tive, attitudes toward this en-
grossing occupation of much of
their leisure time. Our educa-
tional task in this field is a two-

fold one — to use audio-visual
aids to a vastly increased extent
and to establish criteria for the
OLit-of -school appreciation of
movies, radio, and television, the
big three that are today slowly
moving toward their own UNO.
Our opportunity to establish
such standards is at the same
time cur power to control con-
ditioiis in this vast realm.

I assume, as I have already
indicated, that we shall weigh
these arts by no unveracious
scale, for if we do so, our alert
and up-and-coming young folks
will have none of us and will
even react negatively and dan-
gerously. But if we remember
that these are arts of enjoyment,
that they are vigorous and lusty
products of our dynamic age.

that in their free-spoken irrev-
erence, frequent unruliness, and
caustic humor they are charac-
teristically American, if we can-
didly share the pleasure that our
boys and girls take in motion
pictures and radio, we shall win
them over to honest judgments
of productions obviously vary-
ing in merit. Then we shall go
far, and we shall tremendously
increase the potency of our ed-
ucational efforts.

Some people say, positively
a n d pessimistically : “Motion
pictures are theatre. Classroom
procedures are pedagogy. And
never the twain shall meet.” I
am convinced, however, that the
two not only met long ago but
that they are destined to an en-
during friendship.

New Subscription

Rates

FILM & RADIO

GUIDE

Effective July 1,

1946

ONE YEAR ....

. $3.00

TWO YEARS ....

. 5.00

THREE YEARS . . . .

. 6.50

Enter or Renew Your Subscription

NOW at Current Low Rates:

ONE YEAR ....

. $2.00

TWO YEARS . . . .

. 3.50

THREE YEARS . . . .

. 5.00

"What Shall We Read About the Movies” or
"Course of Study in Radio Appreciation” Free

With 2-Year Subscriptions. Both Free With

3-Year Subscriptions. In Canada, Add 50c; In

Foreign Countries, Add $1.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

Motion Pictures Useful for the
Study of Literature

COMPILED BY ROBERT E. SCHNEIDER

Research Assistant, Center for the Study of Audio-Visual Instructional Materials,

University of Chicago

800: Literature:

Alice in Wonderland. (Ex-
cerpt from the Paramount
Production) 22 minute s,
sound. A detailed presentation
in costume of the leading
characters of the book : Alice
in her living room examining
the chessmen, commenting on
the rabbit she sees outside the
window, talking to the turtle
in the Aquarium and to Uncle
Gilbert’s picture, and her so-
liloquy with the cat; the trip
through the looking glass:
taking the potion which makes
her grow, and eating the cake
which makes her small, etc.
$3.00. Wisconsin.

The Good Earth. (Excerpt
from the M-G-M production
starring Paul Muni) 30 min-
utes, sound. Shows the de-
pendence of China’s farmers
on the earth; the farm as a
family project: its economic
effects on the populace. $4.50.
YMCA.

David Copperfield: The Boy.
(Abridged version of the first
half of the M-G-M produc-
tion) 45 minutes, s o u n d.
$6.00. YMCA.

The Lady or the Tiger. (M-
G-M Miniature Series) 10
minutes, sound. Dramatiza-
tion of Frank R. Stockton’s
famous story in which a prin-
cess is required to choose be-
tw'een sending her lover to
death or to another woman.
A n excellent example o f
screen treatment of the short
story. Recommended for clas-

ses in American Literature.
$1.50. Illinois.

Mutiny on the Bounty. (Con-
densed version of the M-G-M
feature) 45 minutes, sound.
Starring Charles Laughton,
Clark Gable, and Franchot
Tone. $6.00 YMCA. Illinois.

A Tale of Two Cities. (Con-
densed version of the M-G-M
feature) 45 minutes, sound.
Starring Ronald Colman et al.
$6.00. YMCA. Illinois.

Treasure Island. (Condensed
version of the M-G-M feature)
45 minutes, s o u n d. Lionel
Barrymore, Wallace Beer y,
and Jackie Cooper. $6.00.
YMCA.

811: Poetry:

Barefoot Memories. 11 min-
utes, sound. Commentator re-
cites Whittier’s fUirefoot Boy
as the camera illustrates the
passages. $1.25. Bell a n d
Howell.

821: English Poetry:

Gray’s Elegy. 17 minutes,
sound. Stoke Poges and other
places associated with the po-
et’s life, then recitation of
Elegy against a background of
English farm labor. Scenes
include St. Giles church in
Buckinghamshire, Gray’s
home, the churchyard, and
Cambridge University. The
reading is illustrated with ap-
propriate shots. $2.00. Bell
and Howell.

822: Shakespeare:

Macbeth. 11 minutes, sound.
Condensed, well-played ver-

sion of Shakespearean classic,
professionally produced i n
Cinecolor. Useful in study of
literature and drama, and as
illustration of effective brief-
ing of required reading. $3.00.
Bell and Howell.

Romeo and Juliet. (Condensed
version of the M-G-M fea-
ture.) 45 minutes, sound.
Stars Norma Shearer and Les-
lie Howard. $6.00. YMCA. 111.

Master Will Shakespeare. 11
minutes, sound. An outstand-
ing, though somewhat fiction-
ized, film on the life of Shake-
speare, professionally p r o-
duced by M-G-M. $1.50. Col-
lege Film Center. Illinois.

Shakespeare. 12 minute s,
sound. The purpose of this
film is to create an impres-
sion of some of the methods
a n d meanings of Shake-
speare’s p 0 e t r y. Gaumont
British production. $2.00. B.
& H.

Stratford on Avon. 10 minutes,
silent. Scenes which figured in
the life and plays of Shake-
speare; King’s New School,
Village of Shottery, gardens,
mills. Guild Church, Anne
Hathaway’s cottage, War-
wick Castle, and Holy Trinity
Church. $1.00. College Film
Center.

921: Individual Biagraphy:

Flag of Humanity. (Clara Bar-
ton.) Warner Bros. Techni-
color production. 20 minutes,
sound. A biography of Clara
Barton, beginning with her pi-
oneer service in caring for

March, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

wounded soldiers in the Civil
War and extending through
her many efforts to have a ci-
vilian hospital service organi-
zation recognized by the U. S.
government. $4.00. Iowa.

The Life of Emile Zola. (Ex-
cerpts from the Warner Bros,
production, starring Paul
Muni.) 30 minutes, sound.
Deals with the trial of Zola
after he has publicly exposed
the injustice of Dreyfus’s ex-
ile to Devil’s Island for trea-
son he did not commit, the
struggle of the French Army
staff to preserve its prestige
at the expense of truth and
justice, and the Army staff’s
use of special privilege and
intimidation to keep the Drey-
fus case closed. $4.00. College
Film Center.

Lincoln in the White House.
Warner Bros. Technicolor
Production. 20 minutes,
sound. Story of Lincoln, be-
ginning with his First Inaug-
ural Address and ending with
the Gettysburg Address.
$3.00. Illinois.

Old Hickory. (Andrew Jack-
son.) Warner Bros. Techni-
color production. 20 minutes,
sound. With the aid of Lafitte,
the pirate, Jackson defends
New Orleans against the Brit-
ish in the War of 1812. Nu-
merous episodes lead up to his
statement at a dinner, “Our
Federal Union must — and
shall — be preserved.’’ $3.00.
Illinois.

Romance of Robert Burns.
(Warner’s Broadway Brevi-
ties Series.) Technicolor, 10
minutes, sound. A fictionized
story woven about episodes in
the life of Robert Burns. The
musical accompaniment in-
cludes various Scottish folk
melodies. $3.00. Minnesota.

Teddy, the Rough Rider. (The-
odore Roosevelt.) Warner
Bros. Technicolor Production.

20 minutes, sound. This biog-
raphy of Theodore Roosevelt
from 1898 to 1914 shows his
activities as President of the
N. Y. Police Commission and
as Assistant Secretary of the
Navy; his organization of the
Rough Riders and participa-
tion in the Spanish-American
War; election as Governor of
New York State; nomination
and election to the Vice-Presi-
dency and Presidency of the
United States. $3.00. Illinois.

Literary Feature Presentations:

Adventures of Tom Sawyer
(Mark Twain) Films. $15.00.

Alice In Wonderland
(Lewis Carroll) Films. Sliding
Scale ($12.50—20.00).

Anne of Windy Poplars
IT&T. Sliding Scale.

As You Like It (Shake-
speare) Films. 17.50.

Back Street (Fannie Hurst)
IT&T. Sliding Scale.

Beau Geste (Percival Wren)
Films). Sliding Scale.

Captain Caution (Kenneth
Roberts) Films. 17.50.

China Sky (Pearl Buck).
IT&T. Sliding Scale.

Count o f Monte Cristo
(Dumas) Films. 17.50.

Drums Along the Mohawk
Color. Films. Sliding Scale plus
50%.

Grapes of Wrath (Stein-
beck) Films. Sliding Scale.

Great Impersonation (Op-
penheim) IT&T. Sliding Scale.

Gulliver’s Travels (Swift)
Color. Films. Sliding Scale plus
50%.

Gunga Din (Kipling) IT&T.
Sliding Scale.

Heidi. Films. Sliding Scale.
Hoosier School Master (Eg-
gleston) IT&T. 9.00.

House of the Seven Gables
(Hawthorne) IT&T. Sliding
Scale.

How Green Was My Valley
(Llewelyn) Films. Sliding Scale.

Howards of Virginia (Page)
Roshon. 17.50.

Hunchback of Notre Dame
(Hugo) IT&T. Sliding Scale.

Jane Eyre (Bronte) Films.
Sliding Scale.

Keeper of the Bees (Porter)
IT&T. 9.00.

Kidnapped (Stevenson)
Films. Sliding Scale.

Kitty Foyle (Morley) IT&T.
Sliding Scale.

Last of the Mohicans (Coo-
per) Films. 15.00.

Light That Failed (Kipling)
Films. Sliding Scale.

Little Lord Fauntleroy
(Burnett) Films. 17.50.

Little Men (Alcott) Films.
17.50.

Magnificent Ambersons
(Tarkington) IT&T. Sliding
Scale.

Mother Carey’s Chickens
(Wiggins) IT&T. Sliding Scale.

My Friend Flicka (O’Hara)
Color. Films. Sliding Scale plus
50%.

Nevada (Grey) IT&T. Sliding
Scale.

None But The Lonely
Heart (Llewelyn) IT&T. Slid-
ing Scale.

Of Mice and Men (Stein-
beck) Films. 17.50.

Our Town (Wilder) B & H.
15.00.

The Pied Piper (Schute)
Films. Sliding Scale.

Prisoner of Zenda (Hope)
Films. 15.00.

Rebecca of Sunnybrook
Farm (Wiggins) Films. Sliding
Scale.

Swiss Family Robinson
IT&T. Sliding Scale.

Things to Come (Wells)
Films. Sliding Scale.

When the Daltons Rode
IT&T. Sliding Scale.

Key:

Wisconsin: Bureau of Visual In-
struction, University of Wis-
consin, Madison 6.

YMCA: YMCA MOTION PIC-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

TURK BUREAU, 19 S. La-
Salle St., Chicago.

111. : Visual Aids Service, Uni-
versity of Illinois, Champaign,
Illinois.

B & H : Filmosound Library,
Bell & Howell Co., 1834
Larchmont Ave., Chicago.

CFC : College Film Center, 84 E.
Randolph St., Chicago 1.

Iowa : Bureau of Visual Instruc-
tion, University of Iowa, Iowa
City.

Films : Films, Inc., 64 East Lake

St., Chicago 1.

ITtfeT : International Theatri-
cal and Television Corp., 100
West Monroe St., Chicago.

Roshon : Russell C. R o s h o n
Films, 6 N. Michigan Ave.,
Chicago.

Sliding Scale : Provides lower
rental rates on feature films
to schools of small enroll-
ment; under 251, 251-500,
501-750, and over 750 are the
classifications.

FILM GUIDES: “Educational

A Teacher Looks at the

Continued from Page 48

“who killed the manager?” — all
of which makes as dizzy a mer-
ry-go-round of witticisms, ca-
vortings, and disportings as ever
those brothers Marx rode on.

The humor is fast, the action
swift, and the situations impos-
sible. But that’s just the way
those big kids “slap sticks” at
each other, at the others in the
picture, and at the audience. But
it’s not all low-brow; because,
don’t foi’get, they play music in
a forthright, talented manner.

Of course, if you like them,
they’d only have to sit still and
you’d laugh at them. But even
those who don’t care for the
Marx family particularly could
take a chance on this one
f 0 r an evening’s entertain-
ment. Especially amusing is
Groucho’s crouching walk; call
him “Croucho,”

— Frank DeLisi
★ ★ ★

THE BLUE DAHLIA. Social melo-
drama. Paramount. Written by Raymond
Chandler. Directed by George Marshall.

Saloons, whiskey, drunken-
ness, murder, rough and tumble
fighting, kidnapping, extortion,
blackmailing, gangsters, fast

parties, illicit love — all these ap-
pear in The Blue Dahlia. Evi-
dently director George Marshall
said, “Put it all in ; make it
rough ; that’s life today.” Then
perhaps he said, “Make it about
returned service men — make one
of them shell-shocked, with a
silver plate in his skull. Pep it
up.”

From Shakespeare’s Titus
Audronicus down through the
cheap-paper “dime novels” of
the 1890’s to the present, writ-
ers have produced such mater-
ial, and a certain section of the
public always has applauded.

Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake,
William Bendix, Howard da
Silva and Doris Dowling have
acting ability worthy of far bet-
ter scripts.

The highly melodramatic story
shows three service men just ar-
riving in their home city. One of
them (Alan Ladd) finds his
wife (Doris Dowling) entertain-
ing a houseful of riotous guests,
including a new lover. Some un-
known person murders the faith-
less wife. The I’eturned husband
falls under suspicion and runs
away, only to fall into the hands
of gangsters. In his wanderings

Film Guide,” H. W. Wilson
Co., 950 University Ave.,
N. Y. “1000 and One,” The
Educational Screen, 64 East
Lake St., Chicago. Also, con-
tact the Extension Services of
State Universities.

PERIODICALS: “The Educa-
tional Screen,” 64 East Lake
St., Chicago. “Film and Radio
Guide,” 172 Renner Avenue,
Newark, N. J. “S e e and
Hear,” E. M. Hale and Co.,
Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Movies

he meets a lovely blonde (Ver-
onica Lake) , and new complica-
tions develop.

The loyalty of three service
pals, and especially that of the
shell-shocked man (William
Bendix), highlights the story.
That, with the excellent acting
of Doris Dowling, and the in-
genious way in which events ap-
pear to point out the actual mur-
derer and yet, at the same time,
conceal him, make deepest im-
pression upon all who see this
lurid melodrama.

F. H. L.

REPORT ON GREECE. March of Time.
20l'h-Fox release.

Small boys rummage about in
heaps of waste material trying
to find boy treasures and even
bits of food but throw aside as
uninteresting all paper money
that they find. Men stand knee-
deep in paper money and shovel
it into mills that grind it up.
Such scenes appear in the March
of Time’s Report on Greece.

Against the background of
stately ancient ruins, March of
Time shows the Greece of today,
its people starving, its villages
ruined, the canal at Corinth

Morch, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

blocked, its government disor-
ganized. The picture is pathetic
but illuminating, showing how
war affects an entire people.

Most hopeful of the many pic-
ture sequences are those that
show the work of the UNRRA in
sending to the Greek people
clothing, machinery for farms,
and hundreds of thousands of
tons of food. We think, with
Whittier :

‘Not wholly lost, 0 Father, is this
evil world of ours;

Upward, through its blood and ashes,
spring afresh the Eden flowers.”

F. H. L.

★ ★ ★

TO EACH HIS OWN. Love story.
Paramount. Mitchell Leisen, Director.
Screenplay by Charles Brackett and Jac-
ques Thery. Recommended.

Miss Norris, possessor of
charm, beauty, sweetness, popu-
larity in her own home town,
does not succumb until she meets
a pilot. Then she falls very hard
indeed ; unfortunately he has to
leave before their love can be
legalized. After he is killed in
the last year of World War I,
she devotes her life to his mem-
ory and the welfare of their son.
Her maternal love is put to the
test when her father persuades
her to let friends adopt the little
boy in order to spare him the
stigma of small-town gossip.

The plot is absorbing, care-
fully worked out, admitting no
loopholes. In one instance there
is almost a touch of subtlety and
originality when the audience is
informed of the heroine’s condi-
tion. It is not disclosed in the
usual sensational way, but han-
dled with almost a Barrie sense
of humor and charm.

Olivia DeHavilland has never
been in better form and rises to
superb heights. On one occasion
you see character development
vividly portrayed in her facial
expression when a piece of news
causes the lines in her face to

become very pronounced and
hard. Her appearance and tech-
nique as the mature, embittered
woman in the picture is even
finer than when she was at the
young and glamorous stage.

— Carolyn Harrow

A Woman's View of
"From This Day Forward"

While the title of the picture is
From This Day Forward, the
story is really about From This
Day Backward, for most of the
film is a flashback revealing the
romance and pre-war married
life of a veteran who is seeking
a post-war job.

Joan Fontaine does a very fine
job as an attractive, sympa-
thetic, and above all, courageous
young girl. In contrast to her
quality of being so alive all the
way, the hero rather walks
through his lines.

Those who have seen Born
Yesterday in the theatre will
welcome its author, Garson Ka-
nin, as the adapter of this film
and not be disappointed. The
dialog in the movie is flavored
with the same trenchant wit
which is found in the play.

— Carolyn Harrow

★ ★ ★

TWO SISTERS FROM BOSTON. Musi-
cal farce. MGM. Henry Kos^er, Director.
Screenplay by Myles Connolly. Generally
recommended.

Jimmy Durante, as a good-
hearted, rough-spoken, worldly-
wise piano player in a Bowery
beer hall of the 1890’s, plays
guiding angel to an ambitious
young singer from Boston
(Kathryn Grayson) . He com-
pletely dominates the entire pic-
ture story, and with a kind of
rough Dickensesque good-will,
combined with Bowery forceful-
ness, he masters every difficulty.
In fact, Jimmy Durante is at
his very best in rough-and-ready

dialect, lovableness, and in find-
ing the weak spot in every man’s
armor.

In order to earn money with
which to pay for a musical ed-
ucation, a young woman from a
sedate Boston family sings on
the stage of a cheap Bowery
beer hall, where ‘‘Spike’’ (Dur-
ante) plays the piano. The girl’s
sister (June Ally son) comes to
New York and discovers the real
situation. Then the foster par-
ents arrive on the scene. The
Bowery piano player, hoping to
make the proud Boston family
believe their protege really is
becoming a noted singer, sneaks
her upon the stage of the Met-
ropolitan Opera House. Because
of his insinuations she and her
sister become involved with a
rich opera patron, and with his
son( Peter Lawford). Big-nosed
Jimmie appears i n evening
dress, or in stage costume, or
in street clothes, as occasion de-
mands, and in general makes
himself master of destiny.

The replete production in-
cludes long scenes from operas,
with beautiful singing by Lau-
ritz Melchior, Kathryn Grayson,
and others. It likewise includes
numerous scenes on the Bowery
beer hall stage of the 1890’s.

All in all, Two Little Girls
from Boston tells an interest-
ingly trite story, pleases with
its singing, and brings roars of
laughter because of its farce.

F. H. L.

To save money f enter or
renew your subscription
to FILM & RADIO
QUIDE now* New rates
go into effect

July 1, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

AUDIO-VISUAL WHO'S WHO

No. 47: Orton H. Hicks

Orton Havergal Hicks, whose
career can well be said to par-
allel the history of the develop-
ment of 16mm, was born in Min-
neapolis, Minn., November 6,
1900, of Canadian parents. He
received his prep school train-
ing at the Shattuck Military
Academy, Faribanlt, IMinn. He
was graduated from Dartmouth
in 1921, with an A.B., and re-
ceived his M.C.S. from The
Amos Tuck School of Adminis-
tration and Finance at Dart-
mouth the following year.

He entered the film field im-
mediately on leaving school. By
a curious coincidence, the day he
reported to Eastman Kodak was
the very day the original Model
“A” Cine-Kodak and Kodascope
were first unveiled. After four
months’ training in Rochester,
he was transferred to Eastman’s
Boston store. Later, when the
New York store was opened, the
former Boston manager induced
young Hicks to go with him.
Hicks sold Eastman goods also
on the road for two years, and
then spent two years with East-
man Kodak as purchasing agent
for the New York store.

In April, 1926, L. W. Gillette,
whom Hicks had first met as the
Advertising Manager for East-
man Kodak in Rochester, started
a photographic retail organiza-
tion. Hicks joined the new enter-
prise as vice-president in charge
of store operations. The store
specialized in 16mm outfits.
Hicks began to do some serious
thinking about 16mm di.stribu-
tion which, he felt, had hitherto
been overlooked. In 1927, he bor-
rowed capital to start an organ-
ization which became a land-

Lt. Col. Orton H. Hicks, film distribu-
tion executive, now in charge of
16mm operations of Loew's Interna-
tional Corporation in thirty foreign ter-
ritories, with headquarters in New
York City.

mark in the history of 16mm dis-
tribution, namely. Home Film
Libraries. The purpose of Home
Film Libraries was to broaden
the base of 16mm film use from
that of the home to the wider
non-theatrical field. At first, the
business was run on spare time,
with Gillette’s consent. Rut as
the volume of operations in-
creased, Hicks was forced to
leave the camera-store field. De-
voting his full time and ener-
gies to the exploitation of the
then new non-theatrical market,
he streamlined his organization,
(piite characteristically, first, by
removing the market limitation
implied by the word “Home,”
and second, by eliminating the
stuffiness implicit in the word
“Library.” The company was re-
named “Films Incorporated.” As
president, Hicks negotiated the
first release of major motion-

picture entertainment features
and shorts in 16mm to ships,
camp s, railroads, schools,
churches, theaterless towns, pri-
sons, hospitals, and other out-
lets.

In 1938 he resigned from
Films Incorporated, joined Wal-
ter 0. Gutlohn, Inc., as Chair-
man of the Board, and devel-
oped this company by obtain-
ing major product from RKO.
The company also distributed
16mm prints for Universal,
Monogram, and various inde-
pendent producers.

Also in 1938, he founded the
Seven Seas Film Corporation,
the first firm to specialize in dis-
tributing 16mm entertainment
films to steamship companies.

In 1941 he went to the War
Production Board in Washing-
ton, as a dollar-a-year man. His
job was Chief of the Field Pro-
gram Branch, Contract Distrib-
uting Division.

In 1942, he was commissioned
a Major in the Signal Corps,
and made director of the Distri-
bution Division, Army Pictorial
Service. In this post he is cred-
ited with having created the
largest system of film circuits
ever known. He promoted activi-
ties by Theatre Commanders to
obtain air priorities for film,
thereby cutting down the time
required to get entertainment,
orientation, and training films
to distant points overseas.

Perhaps his most spectacular
single accomplishment during
the war was the distribution of
Two Down and One to Go, which
was seen by 85 percent of the
troops in this country within
five days after the release date,
and within 21 days overseas, in
spite of difficulties caused by

March, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

strategic deployment of troops
and difficult terrain.

In July of 1945, he was pro-
moted to a Lieutenant Colonelcy.

Discharged from the Army
in December, 1945, he joined
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, as head
of the 16mm Division of Loew’s
International, in full charge of
the new program for the distri-
bution of entertainment and
educational films outside the
United States and Canada.

Hicks is married, resides at
Great Neck, L. I., and is the
very proud father of three chil-
dren, Orton H. Hicks, Jr., who
is now with the Signal Corps at
Camp Crowder, and two daugh-
ters, Caryl Anne, 17, who is at
school at House-in-the-Pines, at
Norton, Mass., and Wendy Joan,
15, who attends high school at
Great Neck.

As to the future of 16mm, Col.
Hicks has this to say :

“It has been said that with
35mm we bring the audience to
the film, whereas with 16mm
we bring the film to the audi-
ence. The opportunity exists,
on an international scale, to
broaden the market base for en-
tertainment and educational
films. To accomplish this, it
must be done by an organization
with initiative, vision, and the
wherewithal that a long-range
plan, as opposed to one seeking
‘quickie’ returns, requires.

“A company such as Metro-
Goldwyn-Mayer, which has pio-
neered in providing a new and
comprehensive system for the
distribution of entertainment
and educational films in 16mm,
is acting to open up vast new
vistas, not only for 16mm, but
for the motion picture industry
as a whole, as also for the peo-
ples of the world. The horizons
of tomorrow for the cause of in-
ternational good-will and under-
standing are far wider than
were the horizons of yesterday.

Merriman H. Holti

One reason why they are wider
is that the motion picture indus-
try boasts men like Arthur M.
Loew.”

No. 48; Merriman H. Holtz

Merriman H. Holtz was born
in Portland, Oregon, on August
15, 1901. He attended the Port-
land Public Schools, and in 1914
moved to Cleveland, Ohio. On
graduation from Culver Military
Academy, Culver, Indiana, in
1920, he was employed by the
May Company, Cleveland de-
partment store. By 1924 he was
merchandise manager for twen-
ty-one departments.

Holtz first became interested
in 16mm in 1923 when Eastman
marketed its first Cine-Kodak
Model “A” camera. He began
photographing a considerable
amount of 16mm footage as a
hobby. He still owns one of East-
man’s original Model “A” pro-
jectors. In 1932, becoming in-
interested in the possibilities of
selling merchandise through the
medium of the motion-picture
screen in theatres, he established
Screen Adettes, Inc. In 1935, he
made arrangements with Orton
Hicks, then president of Home
Film Libraries (later to become

TOP
FLIGHT

FEATURES

From Major Producers

12 HOPALONG CASSIDY WESTERNS
Starring BILL BOYD - New in 16mm.

•

PAUL LUKAS in JACK LONDON'S
Mutiny On The Elsimore

•

Lourel & Hardy in THE BOHEMIAN GIRL
90 Minute Operetta - 7 Songs

•

THE NORTH STAR - Big Name Cast
Samuel Goldwyn's First Film in 16mm.
A 1944 Major Company Release

•

FRED ASTAIRE & PAULETTE GODDARD
in Second Chorus

LAUREL & HARDY in PARDON US
Riotous Hal Roach Feature

•

Six DR. CHRISTIAN Features
Starring JEAN HERSHOLT

•

Hal Roach Feature-Length Comedy
KELLY THE SECOND - All Star Cast

•

LAUREL §t HARDY in Our Relations
Another Big Hal Roach Feature

•

SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON
TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS

Louisa May Aleott's LITTLE MEN

•

BEYOND TOMORROW with Jean Parker,
C. Aubrey Smith, Charles Winniger,
Horry Corey, Helen Vinson

> FOREMOST
LIBRARY
SUPPLIERS

130 WEST
46TH STREET
New York 19
New York

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 6

Films Incorporated), to handle
that company’s 16mm films in
Oregon and Washington. A year
later, California was included,
and Screen Adettes became the
pioneer 16mm operator on the
West Coast. The business ex-
panded rapidly, and a Los An-
geles office was established in
1939. By that time, Holtz had
become active in developing sales
ideas which were adopted na-
tionally by Films Incorporated.
He became the company’s Gen-
eral Sales Manager in January,
1941.

During his association with
Films Incorporated, Holtz cre-
ated several innovations in the
sales and distribution of 16mm
film, including the sliding scale
of rental rates to schools.

In 1943, Holtz returned to
Screen Adettes and reestablished
his residence in Portland. At this
time, Ted R. Gamble, National
Director of War Finance, who
was a close personal friend of
Holtz’s and also came from Port-
land, met with C. R. Reagan and
a group of officers of NAVED,
including Holtz, to discuss the
possibilities of using 16mm film
to help sell war bonds. When
action was taken in the sum-
mer of 1944, Holtz was invited
to head the 16mm Division of
Special Events and Motion Pic-
tures of War Finance in Wash-
ington. Holtz agreed to contrib-
ute his services, and the record
of this activity under Holtz’s
splendid leadership is well
known to everyone in the 16mm
industry.

In addition to pursuing his
business career, Holtz has con-
tributed much toward civic de-
velopment in the Pacific North-
west. From 1927 to 1931, he was
a director and officer of the Ad-
vertising Club of Portland. In
July, 1931, he became its young-
est president. With a member-
ship of 500, the Club at that

time had a national reputation
in advertising circles. As presi-
dent of Mt. Hood Winter Sports,
Inc., Holtz and five others were
responsible for opening Mt.
Hood as a winter playground,
which has become internation-
ally famous for its winter sports.

In recent years, Holtz has con-
fined his efforts to helping de-
velop the 16mm field. As a di-
rector and first vice-president
of NAVED, he has contributed
much to the 16mm industry.

Holtz recently established a
new corporation, the Screen
Adette Equipment Corporation,
to distribute RCA Audio-Visual
equipment in the three Pacific
Coast states. Mr. and Mrs. Holtz
have two sons aged eleven and
seventeen. The elder will be
graduated in June from his
dad’s alma mater, Culver Mili-
tary Academy.

★ ★ ★

Kenneth Bartlett Advises New
Jersey Teachers on Television

Interest in television on the
part of educators was mani-
fested in January when the New
Jersey Visual Education Asso-
ciation met in Atlantic City.
During a symposium on “Edu-
cation Through Television,’’ they
were told that they have almost
limitless potential in this new
medium as an educational de-
vice.

Professor Kenneth Bartlett,
director of Syracuse Univer-
sity’s Radio Workshop, pointed
out that only six percent of the
nation’s classes use radio today.
He urged that his audience fight
the “natural inertia that seems
a part of our profession’’ in con-
verting to television as a class-
room aid.

Bartlett suggested the follow-
ing six-point program for school
administrators : “ ( 1 ) Start

reading about television for
background. (2) Visit studios

and see for yourself. (3) Go to
homes with receivers and see
what it’s like. (4) Make a list
of things that you think might
be taught by television and try
preparing a script. (5) Study
the techniques of utilization of
radio programs and other visual
aids. (6) Hold demonstrations
at teachers’ meetings such as
have been presented at this
meeting.”

Television plans of Syracuse
University were outlined by
Bartlett. The university will
study television program tech-
niques, piping telecasts into sev-
eral rooms in a single building.
The university hopes to cooper-
ate with a commercial station,
the university furnishing stu-
dios and talent and the station
furnishing transmitter and site.
It is hoped in this way to de-
velop a cooperative venture
which will point the way for
other universities to initiate tele-
vision programs.

★ ★ ★

Iowa Universify Plans
Audio-Visual Lab

An audio-visual education lab-
oratory to serve teachers of the
state of Iowa is being planned
by the Extension Division of the
State University of Iowa at
Iowa City.

Designed to make information
on audio-visual classroom aids
available to teachers of the state,
the laboratory will contain ex-
amples of all types of audio-
visual equipment and will be or-
ganized so that demonstrations
of effective classroom techniques
with various types of equipment
can be made.

A library of publications bear-
ing on the subject of audio-
visual materials will be main-
tained in the laboratory, and vis-
iting teachers will be given as-
sistance in planning balanced
audio-visual aids programs.

Morch, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A Community Motion -Picture Forum

The Reading, Pennsylvania,
Motion-Picture Forum began its
activities for the eighth year
with the general organization
meeting in September. The pro-
gram group, which had begun
its business during the summer,
announced the general theme
selected for the year was “Films
and World Citizenship.”

For the September program,
they presented a series of Latin-
American 16mm films, includ-
ing Bolivia, Amazon Aivakens
(produced by Walt Disney) , and
Gracias Amigos (narrated by
Lowell Thomas, telling the con-
tributions made by the repub-
lics of South America toward
winning World War II.).

Following the film program, a
social hour was scheduled as a
get-acquainted meeting for rep-
resentatives of fourteen civic
clubs affiliated with the Forum.
These persons discussed methods
of conveying film information to
their organizations and utilizing
the resources of the Forum,
which acts as a clearing-house
for film information. Through
programs and announcements,
the Forum endeavors to bring to
its members the best and newest
films in the 16mm field.

In the 35mm entertainment
field, the Forum lives up to its
motto of “Better Appreciation
Through an Informed Public” by
publishing a monthly bulletin of
film reviews, including type-of-
audience suitability. Parents and
teachers find this information
useful in directing young peo-
ple to the best films for their
level of understanding. Through
the co-operation of local theatre
managers, the editorial commit-

BY KATHRYN A. KLINE

tee secures the programs a
month in advance. Previews are
scheduled locally wherever pos-
sible ; but for most of the infor-
mation, the editors depend upon
such publications as Film and
Radio Guide, the National Board
of Review’s New Movies, and
Unbiased Opinio7is from the
West Coast.

The program committee usual-
ly alternates film and speaker
programs. For the November
meeting, our guest speaker was
Miss Theresa Stone, of Metro-
Goldwyn-Mayer’s Public Rela-
tions Bureau in New York City.
Miss Stone discussed, informa-
tively and pleasantly, the timely
subject of “Films: Their Peace-
Time Destiny.”

The Reading Senior High
School Forum, which is one of
the school’s leading clubs, is af-
filiated with the civic group in
several specific ways. The high-
school club, always invited to at-
tend meetings, assists in usher-
ing and in the distribution and
mailing of bulletins.

Films presenting the necessity
of racial and religious friendli-
ness were shown at a recent
meeting. The February meeting
always features the annual ban-
quet, which is the most festive
occasion of the year. Usually an
entertaining full-length 16mm
film is presented. Last year, The
Melody Master was shown and
thoroughly enjoyed. This year
Michael Strogoff was selected.

In these ways, the Reading
Motion Picture Forum acts as a
service organization in the com-
munity. Thoroughly convinced
that films can both educate and
elevate, its members are dedicat-

ed to the purpose of securing
“Better Appreciation Through
an Informed Public.”

★ ★ ★

Akron's Notable Audio-
Visual Progress

Few school systems are so
completely equipped with mo-
tion-picture projectors as the
Akron system. Each of Akron’s
fifty-six public schools has one
or more sound motion-picture
projectors.

In order to facilitate the use
of visual aids and make the pro-
gram more effective, a visual-
aids co-ordinator has been ap-
pointed in each school. Regular
departmental meetings are held,
and a monthly newsletter is pub-
lished. At Akron’s Central High
School a point system for stu-
dent awards has been set up, and
school letters are awarded for
visual-aids service. In all schools,
student projectionists carry
printed operator’s permits,
which have been granted after
they have met the training re-
quirements.

The Akron Public Schools
Film Library renders extensive
service to the community. Twen-
ty-four community organiza-
tions are regular borrowers of
films.

Enlarged offices, workrooms,
and a screening room will soon
be occupied jointly by the Ra-
dio and Visual Aids depart-
ments. The Radio Department
is under the direction of Mrs.
Josephine French and the Visual
Aids under the direction of M.
Lincoln Miller. Otis C. Hatton
is superintendent of the Akron
Public Schools.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume Xll, No. 6

NEW 16mm SOUND

BRITAIN

UNITED STATES

5 reels— 45 mins.

The chronicle of the USA, showing the growth of the nation from its
humble origin at Plymouth Rock to the present day world power.

THE STORY OF DDT 3 r..ls-2S mins.

The development of the famous insecticide from its discovery in 1870 to
large scale production in World War II, culminating in its spectacular
success during a typhus epidemic.

Christian Andersen’s fantasy,
The Emperor and the Nightin-
gale.

New Address of Brii-ish
Information Services in
Los Angeles

The Los Angeles office of the
British Information Services has
been moved to a new address.
The Film Officer of the organiza-
tion may now be addressed as
follows: Miss Jane Mead, Brit-
ish Consulate-General, Pershing
Square Bldg., 448 S. Hill St.,
Los Angeles, 13, California.

A DIARY FOR TIMOTHY 5 reels— 40 mins.

The story of a baby born during the last winter of the war, telling what
happens in the bitter world around him and giving a glimpse of better
things to come.

JULIUS CAESAR 2 reels — 19 mins.

Act III, Scene II — the forum scene which follows the assassination of

MACBETH 2 reels — 16 mins.

Act II, Scene II — the murder of Duncan.

Act V, Scene I — the sleepwalking scene.

These films are on loan from the following offices of

British Information Services

An Agency of the British Government

30 Rockefeller PUi*. New York 20, N. Y. 360 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago I. III.

391 Sutter St.. San Francisco 8. Calif. 1005 Taft Bldg.. 1680 North Vino St., Hollywood 28, Calif.

907 - 15th Street. N.W. Washington 5, D. C. ■

AND FROM BRITISH CONSULATES AT
Boston • Detroit * Houston • Seattle

Forthcoming Disney
Subjects

Walt Disney appears to have
lined up a literary “Who’s Who’’
to work on the scripts for his
proposed combination cartoon
and live-talent subjects. He has
Carl Carmer working on a pic-

ture to be based on American
folklore ; Aldous Huxley is devel-
oping a scenario for Alice in
Wonderland; Edwin Justus
Mayer is writing a screenplay of
Sterling North’s Midnight and
.Jeremiah; and Marc Connelly is
doing a treatment of Hans

“Now — The Peace"
in 16MM

Noiv — The Peace, screen story
of global plans for peace, is of-
fered through a network o f
film distribution service points
by Brandon Films, Inc. The two-
reel film was written and direct-
ed by Stuart Legg, world-famous
film-maker, for The National
Film Board of Canada, and was
originally distributed to thea-
tres by United Artists, Inc.

Prints of the two reels can
be rented ($2.50 per day) or
purchased ($50.00) from Bran-
don Films, Inc., 1600 Broadway,
New York 19, N. Y.

★ ★ ★

Films on Social Customs

Dorothy Hamlen, chairman
of the audio-visual committee
of the University of Akron, has
prepared an interesting list of
ten films on “social customs,’’
including etiquette in general,
travel and hotel etiquette, pos-
ture, good grooming, and club
procedures. The reels are used in
a course for freshmen. Film
sources include the Ohio State
Department of Education, Bell
& Howell Co., Film Associates
Co., General Motors, the Univer-
sity of Iowa, the University of
Illinois, and Indiana University.

Morch, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A.L.A. Recordings

The American Library Asso-
ciation has branched out into a
new activity, of significance to
libraries, schools, and parents.
It is now distributing for its
Division of Libraries for Chil-
dren and Young People five rec-
ords* of classic children’s stories
told by Mrs. Gudrun Thorne-
Thomsen. Those available are
Gudhrayid - on - the - Hillside,
Sleeping Beauty, Baldur, and
Tales from the Volsimga (two
records) .

Teachers and librarians have
long wanted to preserve in the
simple storytelling form fine ex-
amples of stories and of the
storyteller’s art, and these five
records are the first results of
a project on which children’s and
school librarians have been
working for several years. It is
hoped that other records wfill fol-
low. They are planned for
schools, libraries, educational,
radio, and home use.

Mrs. Gudrun Thorne-Thomsen
is recognized as a writer as well
as a master storyteller. These
twelve-inch records, according
to the announcement, enable her
to do full justice to the stories
selected for presentation and to
preserve the fiavor and essence
of folk tales and myths that have
endured throughout the cen-
turies.

★ ★ ★

Recordings in Spanish

The recently introduced Decca
Language Series course in Span-
ish includes a mystery play with
Spanish dialog, performed by a
cast of Spanish actors and act-

*Thorne-Thomsen recording, Gud-
brand-on-the-Hillside, Sleeping Beau-
ty, Baldur, Tales from the Volsunga
Saga (two records). Chicago, Ameri-
can Library Association, 1945. Sold
only in sets of five; per set, $10,
prepaid. Individuals who are non-
members of the Association may or-
der C.O.D.

resses. The course, including rec-
ords and supplementary mate-
rials, sells for $39.95. Address:
Decca Distributing Corporation,
105 East Third Street, Cincin-
nati.

Film Library Manual

How to Rmi a Film Library
is the title of a manual published

by Encyclopedia Britanmca
Films (20 N. Wacker Drive, Chi-
cago 6) . The manual, which sells
for 50 cents, contains four sec-
tions ; ( 1 ) forms and operating
procedure; (2) film storage; (3)
care, maintenance, and repair of
films; and (4) how to offer
greater technical help to the
film user.

PERFECTION

—that’s the kind of projec-
tion you get with your new

DeVRY

16mm. SOUND-ON-FILM
PROJECTOR

TRUE ARTISTS know that the
"sweet singing” tone qualities of
a Stradivarius are not produced
by the musician’s skill alone...
that it is the designing genius,
the superb workmanship and the
master craftsmanship of Antonio
Stradivari that makes this violin
the perfect instrument — that en-
dows it with completeness of tone
and finish never since excelled.

Like that of Antonio Stradi-
vari, DeVRY’s goal is a unit of
complete performance — a motion
picture SOUND projector "built
from the ground up” to blend
high-frequency sound and clear-
cut imagery into a complete
oneness of what vou see and
what you hear.

Your NEW DeVRY l6mm.
sound-on-film projector is a pre-
cision electrotlic device, built by Illustrated is Stradivarius "Duke of Edinburgh” (1122)

the same master craftsmen who courtesy Lyon & Healy

Make DeVRY your source of 16 mm. classroom films — for sale or rent.

Only 5-TlME WINNER of Army-Navy ’’E” for the
production of motion picture sound equipment

DeVRY CORPORATION
1111 Armitage Avenue, Chicago 14, Illinois |

Send catalog of Audio-Visual Teaching
Equipment. Also 1946 Film Catalog.

/-r

^r,

ifc ^

-^i>tr

^ Nk O **

l\/J

\vi

cut*'*®"

-<r?

^torrlng

FRED ASTAIRE
LUCILLE BALL
LUCILLE BREMER
FANNY BRICE
JUDY GARLAND
KATHRYN GRAYSON
LENA HORNE
GENE KELLY
JAMES MELTON
VICTOR MOORE
RED SKELTON
ESTHER WILLIAMS

and

WILLIAM POWELL

with

EDWARD ARNOLD
MARION BELL
BUNIN’S PUPPETS
CYD CHARISSE
HUME CRONYN
WILLIAM FRAWLEY
ROBERT LEWIS
VIRGINIA O’BRIEN
KEENAN WYNN
DIRECTED BY VINCENTE MINNELLI
PRODUCED BY ARTHUR FREED
A METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER PICTURE

AUDIO-VISUAL DIRECTORY

National & International

INTERNATIONAL THEATRI-
CAL AND TELEVISION CORP.

ITTCO OF ILLINOIS, 100 W.
Monroe St., Chicago 3.

ITTCO OF THE WEST, 3123
W. 8th St., Los Angeles 5.
ITTCO OF THE WEST, 4247
Piedmont Ave., Oakland 11,
Calif.

ITTCO OF THE SOUTH, 756 W.
Peachtree St., N. W., Atlanta,
Ga.

ITTCO OF MISSOURI, 3326
Olive St., St. Louis, Mo.

ITTCO OF THE SOUTH, 302 Vi
So. Harwood St., Dallas 1, Tex.

ITTCO OF NEW YORK, 25 W.
45th St., New York 19, N. Y.

ITTCO OF NEW ENGLAND,
1 1 5 Newbury St., Boston 1 6,
Mass.

ITTCO OF WASHINGTON, 51
H St., N.W., Washington 1,
D. C.

ITTCO OF NEW ORLEANS, 815
Poydras St., New Orleans 1 3,
La.

ITTCO OF CANADA, 21 Dun-
das Square, Toronto, Canada

Bell & Howell Co., Dept. "G"
FILMOSOUND LIBRARY
1834 Larchmont Ave., Chicago
30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York
716 N. LaBrea Ave., Hollywood
1221 G. St., N. W., Washington

FILMS INCORPORATED

330 W. 42nd St., New York 1 8
64 E. Lake St., Chicago 1
101 Marietta St., Atlanta 3
109 N. Akard St., Dallas 1
314 S.W. 9th Ave., Portland 5
1709 W. 8 St., Los Angeles 14

ASTOR PICTURES CORPORATION
130 W. 46th Street
New York, N. Y.

BRANDON FILMS, Inc.
1 600 Broadway
New York, N. Y.

BAILEY FILM SERVICE

2044 No. Berendo St., Holly-
wood 27, Calif.; 404 No. Good-
win Ave., Urbano, III.

COMMONWEALTH PICTURES
CORPORATION, 729 Seventh
Avenue, New York, N. Y.

CORONET PRODUCTIONS
Instructional Films
Glenview, Illinois

EDUCATIONAL FILM GUIDE
H. W. Wilson Co., 950 Univer-
sity Ave., New York 52, N. Y.

EDUCATORS GUIDE TO FREE
FILMS, Educators Progress
Service, Randolph, Wis.

WILLIAM J. GANZ COMPANY
40 East 49th Street
New York, N. Y.

HOFFBERG PRODUCTIONS, Inc.
618-20 Ninth Avenue
New York 18, N. Y.

IDEAL PICTURES CORPORATION
28-34 E. 8th Street
Chicago, III.

Offices in principal cities.

INSTITUTIONAL CINEMA SERV-
ICE, Inc., 1560 Broadway
New York, N. Y.

MOTION PICTURE BUREAU—
YMCA, 347 Madison Avenue
New York, N. Y,

1 9 S. La Salle St., Chicago, III.
1700 Patterson Av., Dallas, Tex.
351 Turk St., San Francisco, Cal.

NATIONAL FILM SERVICE

Raleigh, N. C. Richmond, Va.
424 Madison Ave., New York

NU-ART FILMS, Inc.

1 45 W. 45th Street
New York, N. Y.

POST PICTURES CORPORATION
723 Seventh Avenue
New York, N. Y.

PROFESSIONAL FILM SERVICE
(N. H. Barcus)

Booking and exhibition of com-
mercial and industrial films.

342 Madison Ave.

New York 1 7, N. Y.

SKIBO PRODUCTIONS, Inc.
165 West 46th St.

New York 19, N. Y.

New England

HARVARD FILM SERVICE
Graduate School of Education
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts

A. H. RICE & CO.

Rentals and Projection Service
Hollis, N. H.

The West Coast

THE SCREEN ADETTE EQUIP-
MENT CORP., RCA Audio-Visuol
Equipment.

314 S.W. 9th, Portland, Ore.
1709 W. 8th, Los Angeles.

68 Post St., San Francisco.

The South

ITTCO OF THE SOUTH, 756

Peachtree St., N.W., Atlanta,
Ga., and 3021^2 S. Harwood St.,
Dallas, Texas. Exclusive distrib-
utors of Monogram products,
ITTCO films, Ampro and SVE
equipment. Jam Handy teaching
films. Serving the South only.

CALHOUN COMPANY
101 Marietta St., N.W.

Atlanta 3, Georgia

WILFRED NAYLOR

1907 Fifth Ave., North
Birmingham 1, Alabama

SOUTHERN VISUAL FILMS
686 Shrine Building
Memphis, Tenn.

Indiana

DENNIS FILM BUREAU
29 E. Maple St.

Wabash, Ind.

Iowa

RYAN VISUAL AIDS SERVICE
409-1 1 Harrison St.
Davenport, Iowa

Michigan

CAPITAL FILM SERVICE, Film Li-
brary and Motion-Picture and
Visual-Aid Equipment, 1043 E.
Grand River Ave., East Lansing,
Mich.

COSMOPOLITAN FILMS
3248 Gratiot Avenue
Detroit, Mich.

LOCKE FILM LIBRARY
129 W. Michigan Avenue
Kalamazoo 9, Michigan

Minnesoto

NATIONAL CAMERA EXCHANGE
Bell & Howell Branch, Filmo-
sound Library, 86 S. 6th St.,
Minneapolis 2.

New York

IDEAL MOTION PICTURE SERV-
ICE, 371 St. Johns Avenue
Yonkers, N. Y.

New Jersey

ART ZEILLER, Visual and Audio-

Visual Aids, Victor Distributor,

Factory Service. Entertainment.

868 Broad St., Newark 2, N. J.

Ohio

TWYMAN FILMS, Inc.

29 Central Ave.

Dayton, Ohio

West Virginia

E. B. SIMPSON

8 1 6 W. Virginia St.
Charleston 2, W. Va.

We Can’t Back Into The Future

By Elizabeth Ireland, SuperintmJent of Public Instruction, State of Montana

OUR NATION no longer is the greatest provincial civilization in the
■world. Our ships sail the seven seas and all the skyways. We
have become the greatest traders and travelers on earth.

If the United States is to maintain a world-wide influence, promi-
nence, power and respect, the level of general education must be
raised. No longer can we back into the future while looking at the
past. The future must be faced head-on.

In these days, eternal vigilance should be exercised to instill in
youth a high regard for democratic institutions and procedures, and
the basic principles of the American way of life.

The youth of our land should be given abundant opportunity to
inform themselves on current social, economic and scientific matters,
and I know of no better or more pleasant way of securing such infor-
mation than through the Reader’s Digest, which contains present-day
articles of lasting interest.

The Digest IS widely used in the schools of Montana, and it sup-
plies a definite need, for however valuable textbooks may be, they
must be supplemented by just such varied and interesting briefs of
current affairs and happenings as it offers from month to month.

I recommend it highly as a guide to the formation of right ideals in
the minds of American youth, and to the evaluation of those principles
which are basic in the government of a free people.

FILM & RADIO

GUIDE

SAVED BY VICTOR’S "Safety Zone”

VICTOR’S exclusive design brings you this triple insurance
against costly film damage:

1. Safety Film Trip — stops projector instantly in
emergency or in case of incorrect film threading.

2. 180° Swing-Out Lens Mount — simplifies cleaning
of dust and grit.

3. Duo-Flexo Pawls — slide into film perforations
accurately instead of punching new holes.

A VICTOR projector treats film gently . . . handles film safely.
Even inexperienced operators, as well as old hands, enjoy operating
VICTOR, because of these Safety Features. They are delighted,
too, with the brilliance of VICTOR’S Straight Line Beam and
the thrilling fidelity of VICTOR’S Sound System.

VICTOR

ANIMATOGRAPH

CORPORATION

Home Office and Factory: Davenport, Iowa
New York 1181, 330 W. 42nd Sf. • Chicago (II, 188 W. Randolph

MASTERPIECE OF

6MM CRAFTSMEN

FILMOSOUND LIBRARY CATALOG
OF EDUCATIONAL MOTION PICTURES

Every school now using motion pictures to increase
learning speed, lighten teaching loads, and vitalize
instruction will want this comprehensive new cata-
log of films.

It presents 2047 teaching aids that embrace
the school curriculum at all teaching levels —

Geography

History

Science

Health and Nursing
Agriculture, Forestry
Social Science

Literature
Art and Crafts
Music and Dancing
Physical Education
Outdoor Sports
Nature Studies

Film Stories for Small Children

For quick reference, films are clas-
sified by general subj ects, and com-
pletely indexed. A synopsis briefs
each film and indicates its audience
suitability.

Availablethrough Bell&Howell
Filmosound Library branches lo-
cated conveniently throughout the
country, Filmosound Library films
are always clean, ready to use, and
in first-class condition.

OPTI-ONICS — products combining tho sciences of OPTIcs • electrONics • mechanics

City .

Every inch a Bell & Howell pro-
jector in quality and performance,
the new Filmosound is a 1000-
watt, l6mm sound-on-film pro-
jector that offers superb illumi-
nation, abundant sound volume,
and versatility for every school

purpose. It is sturdy, cooler in
operation, and so simple that any-
one can learn to use it. Send the
coupon for complete information.

BELL & HOWELL COMPANY
7K%4 McCormick Road, ChicaiJo 45
Without obli{^ation, please send new Fllmo-
soiind Library Cataloj^ of ( ) Educational
Films; { ) Religious Films. Also send ( ) In-
formation on the new Filmosound Projector.

Name

School

Address

Send today for your copy of the
new Filmosound Library Catalog
of Educational Films. Use the cou-
pon below.

Church schools will want to get
the Filmosound Library Catalog of
Religious Motion Pictures, too . . .
films suitable for all churches.

Bell & Howell Company, Chi-
cago; New York; Hollywood;
Washington, D. C.; London.

SINCE 1907 THE LARGEST MANUFACTURER OF PRECISION EQUIPMENT FOR MOTION PICTURE STUDIOS OF HOLLYWOOD AND THE WORLD

I ^

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

SIGNATURE

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

EDUCATIONAL & RECREATIONAL GUIDES, Inc.

172 RENNER AVENUE, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY

VOLUME XII, NUMBER 7 APRIL, 1946

IN THIS ISSUE

The BoH-le of Free Films j. D. Knight

Mr. Aughinbaugh's Rebuttal B. A, Aughinbaugh

Sponsored Films for Schools Stephen M. Corey

Why Better Radio Programs are Coming E. K. Jett

Audio-Visual Who's Who — No. 49: John W. Gunstream —

No. 50: R. Haven Falconer

Film Plans of the Protestant Church Paul F. Heard

Audio-Visual Aids to Social Education National Council for the Social Studies

Behind the Screen Credits Helen Colton

A Teacher Looks at the Movies Frederick Houk Law

A High-School Student Looks ot "The Green Years" Estelle Nachbar

"The Green Years" as a Novel Harriet Bernheim

16mm Screen Version of "Treasure Island' William Lewin

16mm Screen Version of "David Copperfield" William Lewin

A Unique Audio-Visual Center Ernest Tiemann

Audio-Visual Aids in the Davenport, lowo, Eiementory Schools. .. .C. J. Butterfield
Policy as to Sponsored Audio-Visual Materials for Schools Detroit Conference
Shooting Script of the Forum Scene in "Julius Coesar"

Ten Questions on Sound Conditioning Celotex Corporation

A Deoler's Approach to Visual Education Gene Calkins

Spanish Sound-Track 16mm Films

28
30
34
37
39
43

47
49
51
57
59
61

Current Subscription Rotes

One Year $2.00 Each

Two Years 3.50 Each

Three Years 5.00 Each

Less Than One Year.

Effective July 1, 1946

One Year $3.00 Each

Two Years 5.00 Each

Three Years.... 6.50 Each

....35c o Copy

In Canada, add 50c a year; in foreign countries, add $1.00 a year.

"Course of Study in Radio Appreciotion" or "Whot Sholl We Read About the
Movies" Free with 2-Year Subscriptions. Both Free with 3-Year Subscriptions.

WILLIAM LEWIN, Editor and Publisher RUTH M. LEWIN, Business Manager
FREDERICK HOUK LAW and B. A. AUGHINBAUGH, Contributing Editors
HELEN COLTON, Hollywood Editor

Copyright 1946 by Educational and Recreational Guides, Inc. Published nine times a year, October to June, by Educa-
tional and Recreational Guides Inc., 172 Renner Avenue, Newark 8, N. J. Re-entered as second-class matter, October
12, 1942 at the post office at Newark,, N. J. under the act of March 3, 1879. Printed in USA— All Rights Reserved.

In ACoiiiRiNG or selecting classroom
films the thoughtful educator asks
these questions, hor — despite the ad-
vantages oi films as a teaching tool —
the right film must be used to obtain
the full advantages of this medium.

Encyclopaedia Britannica Classroom
Films"*^ are right films. They have one
purpose only — to help teachers teach!
They are professionally created,
through the collaboration of subject-

matter specialists. They are meant to
be used as an integral part of the regu-
lar classroom curriculum. They have
been prepared for ready assimilation
into the regular courses of study.

Encyclopaedia Britannica Films are
authentic! Designed as they are for
classroom use, they plead no special
cause, grind nobody’s axe.' Thev con-
tain no bias or “slant.” Like a good
text-book, their editorial integrity main-

tains the purely objective approach.

All schools, even those with small
budgets, can build a classroom film
library — now — under our Lease-to-
OWN Plan or by participating in a
Coojrerative Film Library program.
Costs are as low as film rentals — fre-
quently lower. For complete informa-
tion, write Encyclopaedia Britannica
Films Inc., Dept. 23-D, 20 N. Wacker
Drive, Chicago 6, Illinois.

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA FILMS INC.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

WILLIAM LEWIN, EDITOR

APRIL, 1946 Volume XM, No. 7

The Battle of "Free" Films

BY J. D. KNIGHT

Director, Audio-Visual Education Department, San Diego County Schools
San Diego, California

In a recent article* by B. A.
Aughinbaugh, Director of the
Slide & Film Exchange of the
Ohio State Department of Edu-
cation, appears a challenge to
those who have a different phil-
osophy from his own in the util-
ization of so-called “free” films.
In this article there is a very
stimulating, interesting, and
challenging statement relative to
the place of such films in our
public schools. Some statements
made in this article are extreme-
ly broad and general in their im-
plications. So far as I know, no
proof has ever been developed
through research and experi-
mentation to bear out some of
these statements. If this article
means to say that he does not be-
lieve the suggestions made by
the “newcomer” that there are
two kinds of free films, namely,
those that are recreational and
those which deserve to be classed
as text films, then I would like
to go on record as a believer in
this classification. However, I
would prefer calling them harm-
ful and helpful propaganda
“free” films.

If all free films are to be “out-
lawed” on the basis that they
are released by public relations
departments, I would desire a
better reason than that some-

*See January, 1946, issue of "Film
and Radio Guide."

one advocates the idea that mo-
tion picture films are produced
for the purpose of warping pub-
lic opinion to a private view-
point. I do not believe that any
concern, or any individual, is
free from bias. We are all trying
to sell our opinions and attempt
to influence the minds of others
according to our way of think-
ing. I cannot believe that teach-
ers throughout the country are
not honest in attemping to teach
better citizenship, stronger char-
acter, a nobler and better way
of life. I would like to say em-
phatically that I do believe that
there are two kinds of “free”
films and that I classify most of
them as propaganda films —
films which attempt to formu-
late thinking and action for de-
finite purposes. I select “free”
films with this thought in mind :
that I have a purpose in teach-
ing ; that I have a problem.
My purpose is: building char-
acter, good citizenship, and an
understanding of our environ-
ment and the problems of living.
My problem is : how to attain my
purpose? Some of the “free”
films may b e harmful propa-
ganda or detrimental to my ob-
jective. Some of them may be the
sort of tool which helps me to
formulate and to build up char-
acter changes. If the purpose of
the commercial firm is couched
so subtly and its designs are

such that they do not assist in
inculcating principles leading to
a more complete life for the in-
dividual learner, I do not use the
film. If the film is so constructed
— be it that famous soap film
(and grant that the company
produces it to sell more soap) —
that it enables me to present a
teaching point on cleanliness, the
care of the skin, a pride in per-
sonal appearance, to the extent
that it helps me instill in the
minds of the learner such ideals,
I will use the film regardless of
who produced it. I use it hoping
to be able to make it coincide
with my philosophy of develop-
ing an individual to the point
that he will act in society in the
most approved manner. When
Mr. Auginbaugh spoke of all of
these so-called “free” films and
asked the question, “How many
children are being taught today,
in public schools, through certain
promotional films, that “coil
springs are the only proper type
of springs for automobiles,” etc.,
I ask the question, “How many
are taught to react in the most
desirable way spiritually and
mentally to the problems of soci-
ety in this complex world?”

It is true that “He who steals
my purse steals trash, but he
who steals my unsuspecting and
confiding mind steals that which
no one can return.” Teachers are
not trying to steal from the un-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

suspecting minds of children.
The producers of commercial
films are not trying to steal from
the unsuspecting minds in the
majority of cases. We are beset
on every hand by multitudes of
experiences and opinions. We
must sift these opinions to get
the true conceptions and true
values from this varied condi-
tion in our modern life. The tea-
cher’s job is to select and utilize
the experiences of industry. How
else can he prepare students to
meet life’s problems?

Mr. Aughinbaugh makes this
statement : “The school pupil
must be guaranteed that not one
but all sides of any proposition
will be given him.” Commercial
films, in my opinion, present a
viewpoint, and that viewpoint is
not to sell children out directly
or indirectly to commercial in-
terests. Many of these pictures
have been produced to impress
the public as to the cpiality and
the advantages of a product, and
I believe that a manufacturer’s
greatest pride in life is to give

to the public a lifetime of service
for the betterment of society. If
we as school teachers have failed
and are failing to use propa-
ganda films, or “free” films, if
you please, for the benefit of
society, we have missed the boat
in all of our endeavors. Public
schools, commercial concerns,
our local, state, and national
government are all resorting to
the use of propaganda films. If
we exclude or “outlaw” all such
films, we would outlaw practic-
ally every documentary film in
existence, including such films
as produced by the Office of
War Information, the Bureau of
Mines, the Department of Agri-
culture, the Office of Inter-
American Affairs, and all for-
eign films of every description
that are now being circulated in
this country, including many
fine Canadian films. All are try-
ing to sell something; some idea.

As free teachers working in
a democracy, claiming the right
to express our biased opinions,
if you choose to call them such.

living in a democracy with free-
dom of thought and action as a
dominating force, how can wc
help but feel we have missed
the boat if we do not strive to
glean the grains of thought from
all available sources and weave
them into a mature life?

Briefly, my point is this : The
difficulty is not entirely within
the tool itself. The fault is with
the operator. How should the
tool be used ? How can it be
used? Many teachers through-
out the country are using these
tools effectively and honestly.
They work with a purpose,
namely, to devolop the individ-
ual learner. Our teachers do not
believe anyone has all the facts.
They realize that there are
groups advocating the “left” and
groups advocating the “right.”
We have the Old Deal and the
New Deal. We have all sorts of
isms in the commercial world,
in our churches, and in our
schools. We should attempt to
utilize all means, free and other-
wise, for a better tomorrow.

Mr. Aughinbaugh's Rebuttal

Mr. Knight informs us that
there has been no research to de-
termine the effect of the school
use of commercial promotional
films (sometimes called “spon-
sored films”*) on pupils. Doubt-
less this is because no college-of-

*The author does not regard films
released by governments as sponsored
films. He assumes the ■word “spon-
sored” to be used as it is in those
radio programs in which the sponsor’s
“plug” is frankly called “the commer-
cial.” The “plug” in a sponsored film
consists of the entire film.

education professor has thought
to swat a degree candidate with
the question. But who cares? We
are all pretty well fed up with
such researches. For the most
part, they merely dangle one
more “key” on some brat’s watch
chain, like adding another scalp
to an Indian’s belt. The research
reports are then laid dustily
away in the college archives. If
there has been no research, as
Mr. Knight declares, why bring
the subject up? What’s sauce for
my gander is sauce for his goose.

There still exist (I hope) the
Mosaic Code and the Eleventh
Commandment, which have been
acceptable social law for many
years, although neither Moses
nor Christ ran a research pro-
ject before handing them to hu-
manity. But it was on this foun-
dation that civilization and so-
cial ethics developed, and thanks
to these principles, Christ threw
the money-changers out of the
Temple. I am only emulating
Christ when I seek to kick this
same gang of money-changers

‘-that’s the kind of projection
you get with the new

DeVRY

16inm. SOUND-ON-FIIM PROJECTOR

That ''searchlight-steady” screening you get
with a new DeVRY l6mm. sound-on-film pro-
jector is the result of refinements built into
them by master craftsmen who also build
35mm. equipment for the world’s finest theaters.

That clear definition of image . . . that uni-
formity of illumination over the screen’s entire
surface . . . that soft, natural brilliance that
assures viewing comfort because it is kind to
the eyes — these are theater standards of per-
formance that the NEW DeVRY brings to
classroom, conference room and auditorium.
No visible jump, no weave, no blur!

DeVRY "searchlight-steady” projection
gives you the clearest of black and white detail,
the full splendor of natural color, everything,
on the film — rock-steady, "Nature-Real.”

Your DeVRY l6mm. sound-on-film projec-
tor is a 3-purpose unit that (l) safely projects
BOTH sound and silent films; that (2) projects
BOTH black and white and color films without
extra equipment; and (3) with 25-watt ampli-
fier and sturdy 12" speaker in separate balanced
carrying cases to provide you with portable
Public Address facilities — indoors or out.

Place your order NOW with the DeVRY dealer nearest you

DeVRY 16 mm.
SOUND-ON-FILM
PROJECTOR
MODEL 16-1966

ALABAMA: American Seating Co.
407 N. 23rd St., Birmingham.

ARIZONAiO. B. Marston Supply Co.
324 N. Central Ave., Phoenix.

ARKANSAS; All State Supply Co.
412 E. Jackson Ave., Jonesboro.

CALI FORNI A; American SeatingCo.
207 S. Van Ness Ave., San Francisco.
6900 Avalon Bivd., Los Angeles 3

COLORADO:

American School Supply Co.

1817 California St., Denver 2.

FLORIDA: American Seating Co,

315 Masonic Temple Bldg.
Jacksonville.

GEORGIA: American Seating Co.
354 Nelson St. S. W., Atlanta 3.

IDAHO: Industrial Electronics Co.

1200 Glison St., Portland. Ore.
ILLINOIS: DeVry Corporation
1111 Armitage Ave., Chicago 14.

INDIANA: Modern School Supply Co.
3810 E. 16th St., Indianapolis/.

IOWA: Metropolitan Supply Co.

602 E. 16th St., Cedar Rapids.
KANSAS &. MISSOURI:

University Publishing C'o.

1322 W. i3th St., Kansas City 1.
KENTUCKY: Office Equipment Co.
117 S. Fourth St., Louisville 2.

LOUISIANA:

F. I*'. Hansell & Bro.

131-133 Carondelet St.

New Orleans 12.

MICHIGAN: Michigan Products, Inc.

1226 Turner St., Lansing.
MINNESOTA;

Farnhatn Stny. & School Supply Co.
Lumber Exchange Bldg.
Minneapolis 1.

MISSISSIPPI:

Mississippi School Supply Co,

116 E. South St., Jackson.

MONTANA WYOMING:

Colborn School Supply Co.

P. O. Box 1354, Billings, Montana
NEBRASKA:

University Publishing Co.

1126 “Q" St., Lincoln 1.

NEW ENGLAND STATES:

DcA'ry Corporation
52 Vanderbilt Ave., New York 17.
NEW MEXICO; Wood mansee School
& Office Supply Co.

302 E. Central, Albuquerque.
NORTH CAROLINA:

Universal School Equipment C'o.

733 W. Hargett St., Raleigh
NORTH DAKOTA:

Colborn School Supply Co.

I8H N. Third St., Grand F'orks.
OHIO:

The Dobson-Evans Co.

305-307 N. Front St., Columbus 15.
O KLAHOMA: Oklahoma Seating Co.

17^2 Main St., Oklahoma City 2.
OREGON: Industrial Electronics Co.
1200 N. W. Glison St.. Portland 9.

PENNSYLVANIA:

Clem Williams Films
311 Market St., Pittsburgh 22
S. CAROLINA: American Seating Co,
842 Abelia Rd., Columbia.

SOUTH DAKOTA:

Brown & Saenger, Inc.

120 W. Eighth St., Sioux Falls.
TENNESSEE: Asa Peterson

James Robertson Hotel. Nashville.
TEXAS: American Seating Co.

1118 Jackson St., Dallas 2.

UTAH:

Western Sound Equipment Co.

144 E. First St., Salt Lake City
VI RGINIA: J. H. Pence
P. O. Box 863, Roanoke.
WASHINGTON :

Industrial Electronics Co.

1200 Glison St., Portland. Ore.
WEST VIRGINIA: D. E. Lovett
P. O. Box 1127, C larksburg.
WISCONSI N: Gallagher Film Service
123 S. Washington St.. Green Bay
641 N. 7th St., Milwaukee.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

out of the schools. Neither the
church nor the schools must be
defiled by such unsocial para-
sites. Before anyone pleads their
cause, we suggest that he con-
sider what Banquo said to his
friend Macbeth, when the Thane
of Glamis, after one of his dalli-
ances with the “instruments of
darkness” was considering dir-
king the King of Scotland. The
Bard of Avon, who never heard
of “research,” and to whom
“keys” were merely a simple ad-
junct to locks, somehow or other
managed to give vent to some
startlingly good logic in spite of
what Mr. Knight might consider
unpardonable educational handi-
caps. The Bard, through Banquo,
told Macbeth, and incidentally
all those of future generations
who would flirt with selfish in-
terests :

“Oftimes, to win us to oui harm,

The instruments of darkness tells us

truths,

Win us with honest trifles, to betray
Into the deepest consequence.”

It requires no research to dis-
tinguish right from wrong un-
less one has a conscience made
hard by inattention. Herewith
are a few “true stories” that
would worry my own conscience,
did I take a differant stand on
this subject. If they do not worry
Mr. Knight, or other readers of
my article on “Free” Films,
there isn’t much I can do about
it. But there is one matter of
which I wish to make very cer-
tain— I have no desire that my
otun worrying on this spbject
shall cease, and, judging from
many letters I have received,
there are nimierous others who
feel likeivise.

Incident One : One day a
large railroad company, which
we shall call “A,” presented a
beautiful calendar to a Cincin-
nati, Ohio, school teacher. The
teacher hung it up and all ad-
mired it. A few days later the

agent of a second railroad
(“B”), came to the school room
and showed the teacher a much
more beautiful calendar than
ihe one she had previously hung.
It was so nice that she accepted
it and hung it up. A week or
so later the agent of a third
railroad (“C”) tapped at her
door and showed her his com-
pany’s magnificent work of ad-
vertising art. She was very
much pleased with it, for it
was really a super-duper, but
she refrained from accepting it,
saying she had two fine railroad
calendars already and had no
room for a third. Thereupon
this railroad agent delivered
himself of what we regard as the
“Sermon on the Mount” rela-
tive to advertising in schools.
“Madam,” he said, “our railroad
is a tax-payer in this commun-
ity, the same as are these other
roads whose calendars you have
hung. In view of this we request
that you either put ours up or
take theirs clown! You have no
choice in the matter!” He was
so right that when the situtation
came to the attention of the Cin-
cinnati Board of Education, the
Board agreed with the railroad
agent, and today NO calendars
are displayed on the walls of
Cincinnati schools except those
printed and supplied by the
Board, and all commercial ad-
vertising in schools is taboo !

Incident Two: Coincidental-
ly, the day I received my copy of
the Guide carrying the article
on “Free” Films, I was called on
the phone by the Ohio branch-
manager of one of the nation’s
largest manfacturers. He asked
me about our State Exchange,
and, having received the desired
information, told me that he had
been sent a circular letter dis-
tributed by the head California
representative of his company.
This letter, he explained, told
how the California office had

put the company’s promotional
motion pictures into numerous
California schools and how bene-
ficial this promotion program
had been to the company. The
California letter urged other
state branches to follow this
lead. The Ohio manager asked
my reactions, which I gave to
him as fairly as I tried to give
them to my Guide readers. At
the conclusion of my remarks,
the Ohio manager agreed with
my position in toto, stating that
no tax-supported institution had
the right to participate in priv-
ate propaganda of any kind, and
the Ohio office would not follow
the California idea. Pigeons
went home to their California
roost !

Incident Three: The Ohio
Exchange bought (mind you
bought) several prints of a safe-
ty picture from a large manufac-
turer of automobiles. It was a
rare case, since the picture was
in no way related directly or in-
directly to the firm’s business,
and our exchange would have
bought it from any producer. We
had had our prints several years
when one day we discovered that
the motion picture affairs of this
concern had been turned over to
a bright young thing in New
York. He was going to handle
matters expeditiously. He called
on us for attendance reports. We
replied that the prints were
ours ; that we had bought them ;
that we made no such reports.
To this he answered that we
must return the prints unless we
made such reports. We told him
we would gladly return them if
he would send us a check cover-
ing what we had paid for them.
We had called for a showdown,
and all he could do was to com-
ply by sending us a check. We re-
turned the prints. Now, my dear
readers, what would you do if
a textbook company from whom
you had bought books took such

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Speaking of Fundamentals

CORONET Instructional Films provide
essential basic training

The illustrations at the left are from two new CORONET Instructional
Films — How to Study and How to Use a Library. There are others
equally important — We Discover the Dictionary, Soccer for Girls,
Springboard Techniques, Batting Fundamentals, Catching, How
Man Made Day and The Nature of Color are a few of the latest
ones. Dozens have been announced previously and many others
are in production.

From “How to Study”— William H. Brink, Ph.D.,
Professor of Education, Northwestern University,
co//abofofor.

From “How to Use a Library”— Miss Alice
Lohrer, Asst. Professor of Library Science, Uni-
versity of Illinois, Urbona, collaborator .

Nearly all CORONET Instructional Films offer the added ad-
vantages of full natural color. Some are also available In
black-and-white, and a few which do not require color are
black-and-white only. All are offered at moderate cost and
on terms to suit budget plans.

For complete information concerning CORONET Films
now available and new ones as released, write to —

CORONET INSTRUCTIONAL FILMS

919 NORTH MICHIGAN AVE., CHICAGO

an autocratic attitude toward its
contractual obligations? But
these film advertisers do, and
they are becoming toorse, thanks
to knightly help. Don’t put your-
self in their power! Stop encour-
aging this game — NOW! Like
liquor, if you get the best of it,
it gets the best of you! Pause
and consider whether it is better
to obtain a picture free of cost
with propaganda, or a picture
free of propaganda with cost.

To a free country that is proud
of its schools, we advocate that
laws be passed, as have been
passed for textbooks in some of
our states, requiring the deletion
of all commercial propaganda
from motion pictures intended
for school use. We predict that
if such laws are passed, within a
year all these so-called “free”
pictures will be “free” of some-
thing besides their cost, or they

will be withdrawn because they
will not serve their real purpose !
Any one who believes that he
can get something for nothing
condemns himself as a sucker
before he begins. We can not
condone suckers as teachers. If
any teacher wishes to use his
pupils for a social experiment
which may affect their mental
well-being, we say give him the
gate and do it quick! It just
isn’t knightly, Mr. Knight.

Since the appearance of our
first article on free films, we
find a hurried call was sent out
for a huddle in Michigan. The
outcome of that meeting is not
known at this writing, but we do
know that the film manufactur-
ers, sound recorders, projector
manufacturers, and commercial
“sponsors” will all be for “spon-
sored films.” They make money
(temporarily at least) from any

user of films, and they know
these “sponsored” films can not
exist without school usage. But
are school people going to desert
the makers of boyia fide educa-
tional films and become the tools
of such commercialism? The
book publishers will be gleeful if
they do ; it will further delay the
full use of educational films. The
substitution of “sponsored” for
“commercial” is a snare unto the
feet — they are identical in pur-
pose and EFFECT!

By the way, who is Darrell
Huff? He huffed quite a puff
for his favorites in the Febru-
ary sixteenth issue of Liberty,
but we can’t see that he blew the
house down or got the little pig.

Next Article: How old is
“old” when applied to educa-
tional motion pictures?

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

Sponsored Films for Schools

BY STEPHEN M. COREY

In October the J. Walter
Thompson Company gave lim-
ited distribution to a 67-page
mimeographed memorandum en-
titled “The Educational Motion
Picture Field.” The author was
Mr. W. F. Howard, who spent
the greater part of five or six
months conferring with repre-
sentatives of the armed services,
of education, and f)f business in
an attempt to find out what
promise the educational motion
picture field held for commercial
exploitation.

In this report Mr. Howard
estimates that the foreseeable
maximum annual expenditure
for visual education in the
United States is approximately
$20,000,000, or $0.84 per pupil.
This estimate represents the
“ultimate potential” and is ap-
proximately 75% of the present
public-school expenditure for
textbooks. This over-all figure
of $20,000,000 is broken down
into items, one of which is a
$10,000,000 annual expenditure
for educational films and motion
picture projection equipment.

The J. Walter Thompson study
discusses intelligently the role
in public education of the “spon-
sored” film — the film produced
and paid for by a commercial
concern and distributed to
schools gratis or for a very
small fee. “Sponsored films, in
the opinion of many educators,
will have a real place in tomor-
row’s motion picture program in
schools,” Mr. Howard believes,
and he adds: “If manufacturers

Reprinted from “The School Review,"
March, 1946, pages 126-30.

Stephen M. Corey, Professor of Educa-
tional Psychology and Director of the
Audio-Visual Center at the University
of Chicago.

can accept their responsibilities
and obligations, it would seem
likely that they would find an
opportunity for showing spon-
sored films to an extent equal
to the showing of non-sponsored
films.”

There is little doubt that with-
in the next few years a large
number of motion pictures will
be made by American industrial
concerns and that teachers and
adminstrators will be urged to
use these motion pictures in
schools. There is no reasonable
objection to this practice if the
pictures are appropriate. The
same standards should be em-
ployed to evaluate sponsored
pictures as are employed to eval-
uate any other kind of instruc-
tional material that is used in
schools. The fact that sponsored
pictures are free, or almost free,
should per se be no argument
against their use.

In the past many sponsored

pictures have been subject to
serious limitations as instruc-
tional materials. First, they were
usually designed for a very
heterogeneous audience. The
point in the production of these
pictures seems to have been to
reach as large an audience as
possible. This characteristic has
disposed teachers and adminis-
trators to use these pictures in
auditorium situations only. Most
students of the use of audio-
visual materials are in agree-
ment that showing motion pic-
tures to a heterogeneous group
of boys and girls in an auditor-
ium falls far short of exploiting
the real educational potentiali-
ties of this medium.

Motion pictures that are de-
signed expressly for classroom
use, in contrast with sponsored
pictures, are produced for a
homogeneous audience. This
homogeneity pertains to devel-
opmental level, interest, back-
ground, and as many other fac-
tors as can be taken into consid-
eration. These films are made so
as to bring about a maximum of
learning rather than to be shown
to the largest number of people
at one viewing.

A second weakness of many
sponsored films is that they have
been titled in clever but mislead-
ing ways. This practice is partly
the consequence of a suspicion
on the part of the sponsors that
their pictures may not be chosen
for use in instructional situa-
tions purely on their merits. For
example. Scrub Game is a pic-
ture o n personal cleanliness,
which advertises Procter and
Gamble products ; Jerry Pulls

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

UNITED STATES 5 reels— 45 mins.

The chronicle of the USA, showing the growth of the nation from its
humble origin at Plymouth Rock to the present day world power.

THE STORY OF DDT 3 reels — 25 mins.

The development of the famous insecticide from its discovery in 1870 to
large scale production in World War II, culminating in its spectacular
success during a typhus epidemic.

A DIARY FOR TIMOTHY 5 reels— 40 mins.

The story of a baby born during the last winter of the war, telling what
happens in the bitter world around him and giving a glimpse of better
things to come.

JULIUS CAESAR

2 reels — 19 mins.

Act III, Scene II — the forum scene which follows the assassination of
Caesar.

MACBETH 2 reels— 16 mins.

Act II, Scene II — the murder of Duncan.

Act V, Scene I — the sleepwalking scene.

These films are on loan from the following offices of
BRITISH INFORMATION SERVICES

30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20, N. Y.
360 North Michigan Ave., Chicago 1, III.

391 Sutter St,, San Francisco 8, Calif.

907 - 15th Street, N. W., Washington 5, D. C.

BRITISH CONSULATES
Detroit - Houston - Los Angeles

Seottle

British Information Services

An Agency of the British Government

the Strings describes coffee pro-
duction ; Alaska’s Silver Mil-
lions tells the story of salmon;
and America’s Favorite urges
greater consumption of ice-
cream. None of these titles de-
scribes the content of the pic-
ture. This failure is a real limi-
tation because many teachers
order motion pictures for class-
room use from an examination
of their titles only.

In contrast, the motion pic-
ture that has been made ex-
pressly for classroom use is ti-
tled descriptively. For example,
a film that deals with immuniza-
tion would be called Immuniza-
tion rather than Defense against
Invasion.

A third limitation of many
commercially sponsored pictures
is that they deal with too many
topics. The writer recently saw
a picture which was produced
by a national shoe company and
which was divided into these
four sequences : (1) the advant-
ages of walking, (2) shoe styles,
(3) care of the feet, and (4)
the manufacture of a particular
shoe. This diversity of topics
makes it almost impossible for a
teacher to use the motion pic-
ture intelligently. Carefully de-
signed pictures made for class-
room use usually illustrate unity
in topic treatment. Different
and unrelated topics are not de-
veloped in the same picture.

A fourth limitation of many
sponsored pictures is that they
are unduly influenced by prac-
tices which have proved to be
effective in the entertainment
field. For example, the spon-
sored picture frequently includes
dramatization and elaborate
background music; sacrifices in
instructional quality are made
to gain aesthetic appeal; enter-
tainment, in the form of jokes,
is introduced ; and “big-name”
radio commentators take the
part of narrators. All this elab-

oration results because the pic-
ture is designed to carry its
own incidental motivation, quite
apart from the inherent worth
of the concepts that are depicted.
The assumption seems to be that
the children will not want to

learn what is taught because of
the apparent value in the lesson
and hence that their attention
must be arrested and held by the
use of jokes, background music,
well-known names, and a dram-
atized story.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

Annotated
Bibliography
on the

MOVIES

"WHAT
SHALL WE
READ

about the

MOVIES?"

A Guide to the Many Books obout
Motion Pictures — Their History,
Science, Industry, Art, Future.

By WILLIAM LEWIN, Ph. D,

Chairman, Department of
English, Weequahic High
School, Newark, New
lersey

25c a Copy

Free With Two-Year Subscrip-
tions to "Film & Radio
Guide."

Motion pictures made for
schoolroom use are usually
straightforward and unencum-
bered with irrelevancies. Enter-
tainment is rarely introduced
purposely, although frequently
there are humorous episodes in-
herent in the lesson that is be-
ing taught. This characteristic of
instructional films leads many
people to criticize them and call
them dull. They are dull if the
students are not prepared to
learn, and are not interested in
learning, the lessons that the
film teaches. In a sense, the mo-
tion picture made for classroom
use assumes motivation ; that is,
it assumes that the students will
be ready to learn the lesson
taught by the picture. Getting
them ready is largely the teach-
er’s responsibility.

A fifth limitation of spon-
sored pictures is that either the
amount of advertising or its na-
ture is objectionable. An indus-
try pays for a motion picture to
be used in the schools because
the industry hopes to benefit
from its expenditure. This pur-
pose is natural and understand-
able. In order to assure this ben-
efit, most sponsored pictures
carry a heavy load of advertis-
ing. Sometimes the advertising
is obvious, and sometimes it is
subtle. In many cases the adver-
tising is introduced in such a
way as to make it difficult for
teachers and learners to distin-
guish between the instructional
and the advertising aspects of
the picture. While it is true that
school libraries include many
magazines containing large
amounts of advertising, the ed-
itorial policy and format usually
make it possible for the reader
to differentiate clearly between
advertisements and other types
of context.

Films designed expressly for
the classroom carry no adver-
tising. Frequently, commercially

manufactured products are
shown in such a fashion as to
make the trade name identifi-
able, but the name is always in-
cidental to the main lesson in
the picture. A motion picture of
a railroad trip would naturally
make use of a certain railroad.
Consequently the trademark or
initials of that railroad would
appear at several points in the
picture. At no time, however,
would the camera linger on the
initials or the name of the rail-
road for a long time in order to
be certain that the group does
not miss the fact that this par-
ticular railroad was used.

A final limitation of many
commercially sponsored pictures
is that they are too long. Most
of them range in length from
two to five reels, or from twen-
ty-two minutes to approximately
one hour of viewing time. Be-
cause of the nature of most
American school schedules, this
period is too great. A three-,
four-, or five-reel film cannot be
shown advantageously because
conscientious utilization involves
preparation and follow-up sug-
gestions, which usually are given
within a single period. For this
reason the great majority of in-
structional films are one reel in
length. Seldom are they longer
than two reels.

While the writer believes, as
he stated above, that sponsored
films, if they meet the same
standards used to judge the
worth of other kinds of instruc-
tional materials, should be used
in schools, he is worried about
“sponsored” instructional ma-
terials of all sorts. Teachers have
fought for years, and with suc-
cess, against the use of teaching
materials that are produced pri-
marily or even secondarily to
advertise commercial products.
Most of the attention of school
people to date has been directed
at printed materials.

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

An essential part of your

MOVIE EQUIPMENT -A

GRISWOLD

FILM SPLICER

There is no little evidence that
this fight may have to be won
over again in connection with
so-called “sponsored” films. For
example, Young America Films,
in a preliminary announcement,
stated that it was entering the
field of classroom motion picture
production and, by describing its
proposed editorial policy and its
intention to use qualified advi-
sory committees, told teachers
that the films would be educa-
tionally sound and authorita-
tive. Despite this assurance.
Young America Films, in a re-
cent folder which apparently
was sent only to industry and
not to school people, urged the
distribution of motion pictures
to schools in order to advertise
certain products that are pro-
duced by industrial firms. The
following is a quotation from the
folder :

No matter what you have to sell,
you cannot afford to overlook Amer-
ica’s 30,000,000 students and 1,000,000
teachers as an immediate and ex-
tremely responsive market. Today, and
every day, these millions are in the
market to buy. Educational films, ef-
fectively distributed, can help build
acceptance for your product or serv-
ice both directly and because of the
powerful way in which students in-
fluence the purchasing habits of their
families.

But most important of all is this
fact: the future success of your com-
pany in the intensely competitive days
ahead may well be determined by the
educational job you do in America’s
schools today!

This appeal t o commercial
corporations to use the Young
America Films distribution sys-
tem (“More than 400 skilled
school salesmen will personally
promote your film.”) is most
disappointing. Another quota-
tion runs :

When you can beam your message
to this huge market with a proved
medium of topnotch effectiveness and
be sure of reaching it completely and
intensively with the new Young
America Film distribution service, you
have at hand a golden opportunity.

This may be a golden oppor-
tunity from the point of view of
the Young America Films dis-
tribution service, which hopes to
make money as an agent for
sponsored films, but the prac-
tice certainly has evil implica-
tions for classroom instruction.
The schools do not exist to en-
able manufacturers to influence
the buying habits of American
children. Any attempt to do so

is highly inadvisable and will, in
the long run, defeat its own
ends.

25% DISCOUNT

There is a 25% discount on
orders for 5 or more
subscriptions to

FILM & RADIO QUIDE

16 FILM AND RADIO GUIDE Volume XII, No. 7

Why Better Radio Programs
Are Coming

BY E. K. JETT

Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission

Within the not so distant fu-
ture— probably within two or
three years — large numbers of
the American public will be able
to take advantage of a remark-
able new system of broadcasting
called FM — Frequency Modula-
tion. Credit for this development
belongs to Professor Edwin H.
Armstrong of Columbia Univer-
sity, who describes his invention
as “a method of eliminating
static in radio by means of
frequency modulation.” Other
American scientists and engi-
neers, including some who de-
veloped radar, which enables us
to see through clouds and fog,
have also contributed to the
present state of development of
this vastly important and inter-
esting new kind of broadcasting.

I imagine that most peoi)le,
who have come to depend upon
radio for so great a part of their
news and entertainment, have
heard something about FM.
Some of you probably have
heard FM programs, and are
able to judge for yourselves the
advantage of this system of
broadcasting over AM, or Am-
plitude Modulation, which is the
term for the present standard
broadcasting service, now in
general use. At present there are
about 50 FM stations on the air.
These stations are the pioneers
in this new development of radio
science — and they have already
demonstrated — at least from the
engineering point of view — that
the new system of FM broad-

From a talk presented over the Colum
bia Broadcasting System.

casting is sound and reliable.
Within two or three years, it is
expected that some 500 FM sta-
tions— t e n times the present
number — will be serving the
American radio public.

FM broadcasting lies in the
realm of the very short waves.
Transmission will be on wave-
lengths much shorter than any
of those now used for general
broadcasting to the public. Nat-
urally, FM involves the use of a
new type of receiver. Therefore
the great majority of radio re-
ceiving sets now in use, that is,
those which do not include the
FM receiving band, will not be
able to pick up FM broadcasts.
FM also involves the use of new’
transmitters by the broadcast-
ers. Whereas the older broad-
casting sites usually are in low,
marshy land or open fields, the
new’ FM transmitting tow'ers
and antennas w’ill be placed on
top of high buildings or hills.

Because of its high fidelity
characteristics, FM w’ i 1 1 be
greatly appreciated by musicians
and artists w’ho present the pro-
grams, as well as music lovers
the world over, who receive the
programs in their homes.

But perhaps the most obvious
advantage of FM over AM, the
present broadcast system, from
the listeners’ standpoint, is FM’s
freedom from noise and static.
Most of the cracklings and pop-
pings, due to man-made inter-
ference, electrical storms and
other natural causes, that often
annoy listeners to AM broad-
casts, will be eliminated by FM.

A second and closely related
advantage of this new' system of

broadcasting is the freedom of
interference from other stations
which operate on the same or
adjacent channels. Except in
rare cases interferences wdll not
be experienced w’ithin the serv-
ice areas defined by the Fed-
eral Communications Commis-
sion, from stations located in the
same or other cities.

The service areas of FM sta-
tions W’ill be greater than those
of existing AM stations. Persons
residing in urban and suburban
areas and for a considerable dis-
tance beyond, wdll enjoy excel-
lent reception from all stations
in their locality. In many cases
persons residing in remote rural
areas w’ho have difficulty in re-
ceiving AM stations w’ill get
good reception from FM stations
w’hich are located on mountain
tops.

The logical result of these fea-
tures of FM broadcasting is that
a great many more broadcast-
ing stations can be built. At
present there are 900-odd AM
stations in the United States and
there are demands for many
more. The principal reason that
the Federal Communications
Commission has been unable to
grant licenses for more AM sta-
tions is that all of the available
channels are being used in most
localities. With FM broadcast-
ing, it will be possible to license
more stations in a given local-
ity. Indeed, it is believed that,
b y careful planning, several
thousand FM stations can be
authorized in this country. Fur-
thermore, since the range of FM
stations is not increased at night,
as in the case of AM stations, it

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

APRIL, 1946

Announcing . . .

New Subscription Rates
FILM & RADIO GUIDE

Effective July 1, 1946

ONE YEAR $3.00

TWO YEARS 5.00

THREE YEARS 6.50

Enter or Renew Your Subscription
NOW at Current Loiv Rates:

ONE YEAR $2.00

TWO YEARS 3.50

THREE YEARS 5.00

in Canada, Add 50c; In Foreign Couni-iries, Add $1

“Whaf Shall We Read About the Movies” or “Course
of Study in Radio Appreciation” FREF With 2-Year Sub-
scriptions. BOTH FREE Wi th 3-Year Subscriptions.

will be possible to utilize the
same channels in all countries
without mutual interference.

Of course, just how rapidly
FM broadcasting develops will
depend on how rapidly you, the
listeners, accept this new method
of program transmission. While
I hesitate to make predictions
concerning the speed with which
people will shift from AM to
FM, I venture the guess that
within four or five years after
production begins, at least half
of the homes of America will be
equipped to receive FM broad-
casts. And it is also my opinion
that, in the densely populated
metropolitan area, FM eventu-
ally will replace local and re-
gional AM reception. However,
the highpower dear-channel of
AM stations must be retained
throughout the years to serve
rural audiences which cannot
get good reception from FM sta-
tions.

During the transition period
from AM to FM most of the re-
ceivers offered for sale to the
public will incorporate both sys-
tems of broadcasting. The ad-
ded cost for the FM feature will
not be great — perhaps no more
than you have been accustomed
to pay for the short-wave inter-
national broadcasting range in
your existing pre-war receiver.
It is therefore to your advant-
age to obtain a combination set
which will receive both AM and
FM when the new models appear
on the market. If your present
receiver is in good condition you
may wish to consider purchas-
ing an FM adapter, or a receiver
capable of FM reception only.

The vast possibilities of fre-
quency modulation broadcasting
offer a clear challenge to Amer-
ican broadcasters and American
listeners. The broadcasters as-
sure us that, under FM, we shall
continue to get our favorite pro-

grams— and perhaps to enjoy
them more than ever — since re-
ception will be considerably bet-
ter. More than that, we shall be
offered an even greater variety
of programs as a natural out-
growth of the tremendous in-
crease in the number of stations
and the number of services pos-
sible with FM. This increase
means an opportunity for even
wider discussion of public issues
than we now enjoy. In short, it
appears that FM provides one
very important means of vastly
improving the service of radio
throughout the United States, to
all the American people.

Cleveland Schools Plan to
Use Television

WBOE, Cleveland School
Board radio station, expects to
offer lessons by television, ac-
cording to Dr. William B. Lev-
enson, the station’s directing su-
pervisor.

“Although we are not yet in
a position to announce definite
plans, we hope to do daytime
television broadcasts in co-oper-
ation with a commercial sta-
tion,” Dr. Levenson said. “Cleve-
land’s school station has always
pioneered, and we feel television
lessons should be included in its
schedule for the near future.”

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

AUDIO-VISUAL WHO'S WHO

No. 49: John W. Gunstreom

After a busy nine-year period
of developing the eyes and ears
of education in Texas, John W.
Gunstream has resigned his pos-
ition as Director of Radio and
Visual Education, Texas State
Department of Education, to as-
sume directorship of the newly
created Audio Video Institute,
a n organization designed t o
serve the schools, churches, and
industry, in the field of sound
and visual education.

Gunstream is a graduate of
Southern Methodist University,
Dallas, with the degrees of Bach-
elor of Arts and Master of Arts.
He has done graduate work at
The University of Texas and at
Oxford University, and special
work in the field of sound and
visual education. He was for-
merly a superintendent o f
schools in public-school systems
of Texas ; Deputy State Super-
intendent of Texas ; and later.
Director of Radio and Visual Ed-
ucation in the Texas State De-
partment of Education.

Gunstream, who is recognized
as one of the nation’s authorities
in the field of radio and visual
education, was one of the organ-
izers of the Texas School of the
Air, and has served as Vice-
President of the Association for
Education by Radio, as State
Chairman for the George Foster
Peabody Radio Awards, and as
a member of several national
committees in the field of radio
education. He is one of the auth-
ors and producers of Hahletnos
Espanol, a series of recorded les-
sons in Spanish for elementary
grades.

In the field of visual educa-
tion, Gunstream organized the
State Film Library Service for

John W. Gunstream, director of the
new Audio Video Institute at Dallas,
Texos

the schools of Texas. He was one
of the organizers of the Texas
War Film Program. He served
as visual aids coordinator for
the Texas State Guard and as
state 16mm chairman for the
War Finance Committee o f
Texas. He has also served as a
member of a special post-war
committee to study the needs of
the schools in the field of sound
and visual aids.

Audio Video Institute has been
selected as the educational rep-
resentative for the Radio Cor-
poration of America, in Texas,
Oklahoma, and New Mexico. In
cooperation with RCA, this new
concern will jirovide complete
facilities in the field of sound
and visual education, including
all types of equipment and pro-
fessional services in i)lanning
and utilizing scientific aids to
learning in education and indus-
trial training. Offices are lo-
cated in Dallas, Houston, San
Antonio, Lubbock, Albiuiuertiue,
and Oklahoma City.

In discussing the function of

the newly organized Audio Video
Institute, Mr. Gunstream made
the following statement:

“Education must adapt itself
to the requirements of the
Atomic Age. This imposes a ti'e-
mendous responsibility on edu-
cational leadership. Most educa-
tors agree that the schools must
provide more learning, faster
learning, and better learning
than heretofore.

“Such scientific aids to learn-
ing as the film, the film strip,
radio, recordings, and many
others, can contribute greatly
toward this end. The proper ajv
plication of such aids to learning
is one of the major problems
which education faces today.’’

★ ★ ★

No. 50: R. Haven Falconer

R. Haven Falconer can hon-
estly say that he was active in
the non-theatrical film field
while he was still in grade
school. As a boy he ran Sunday
afternoon programs of educa-
tional and fact films and film
strips, for the afternoon serv-
ices at St. Paul Congregational
Church, at Nutley, New Jersey,
of which his father was pastor.

Falconer was born in New
York City in 1918. He attended
grade school in Nutley and grad-
uated from the Nutley High
School in 1935, going directly to
Dartmouth, where he majored in
physics. After graduating in
1939, he remained at Dartmouth
as director of Audio-Visual Edu-
cation, a title to which he ob-
jected as being too all-inclusive.
On his insistence, the title was
modified to Director of Dart-
mouth College Films, but the
job remained the same. In this

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

position he was in charge of the
distribution and exhibition of
educational and fact films, ran
the students’ extra-curricular
activities in film production and
distribution, and was responsible
for the visual-aids program at
Dartmouth. He also supervised
the preparation of technical
shorts for the Dartmouth Eye
Institute.

While at Dartmouth he found-
ed the New England Educa-
tional Film Association (NEE-
FA) , of which he was Chairman
of the Board of Directors from
1940 to 1942. NEEFA coordi-
nated the release of educational
films in New England, and was
a joint effort of Harvard Uni-
versity, Boston University, the
CCC First Corps Area, the Uni-
versity of New Hampshire, the
University of Maine, and Dart-
mouth. It was responsible for
greatly increased use of educa-
tional films in New England
secondary schools and colleges
through the creation of a com-
mon pool for fact films and the
establishment of regular circuits
for distribution.

In 1941, Falconer entered the
armed forces. He was given a
medical discharge one year later
and became associated with the
Army Educational Program as
director of the Visual Aids De-
partment of the U. S. Armed
Forces Institute. This depart-
ment supplied visual aids of all
types to the Army and Navy,
and recommended the visual-
aids policy for peace-time army
educational programs to be di-
rected by the Information and
Education Division of the War
Department General Staff.

In September, 1945, his work
with the Armed Forces Institute
came to an end, and he became
associated with Metro-Goldwyn-
Mayer in that company’s pro-
gram for world-wide distribu-
tion of educational and fact

R. Haven Falconer, head of educational
department of the 16mm division of
Loew's International Corporation.

films outside the United States
and Canada.

Falconer believes that educa-
tional films can be an instrument
to promote world peace through
public education and enlighten-
ment, only if the films are
adapted to meet each country’s
individual needs; hence, no ed-
ucational or informational sys-
tem can be imposed by the
United States or any other
source of material, no matter
how valid the doctrine or the
quality of the production.

Falconer’s wife, charming
Vera M. Kalal, is also keenly in-
terested in visual education as a
free-lance consultant and author.
She was formerly a teacher of
English.

★ ★ ★

Eastin Pictures Company
Plans Expansion

Eastin Pictures Co., of Daven-
port, Iowa, which lost every
male employee upon the out-
break of the war, is now wel-
coming its veterans home. Six
ex-service men, including Kent
D. Eastin, head of the firm, have
just returned to executive posi-
tions with the company. A sev-
enth received his discharge and

returned to his desk several
months ago.

Of the seven, five saw exten-
sive service overseas, four rose
to commissioned rank, and two
were decorated for bravery un-
der fire.

Besides Mr. Eastin, who was a
lieutenant in the U. S. Naval
Reserve, the returned veterans
include Edward H. Hieronymus,
captain in the Army quarter-
master corps, new general man-
ager of the Davenport office;
Tom F. Smith, electrician’s mate
(first class) in the U. S. Naval
Reserve, now manager of the
film and projector department;
Robert K. Hieronymus, major
in the Army inspector general’s
department, again to be general
manager of the Colorado Springs
office; W. Reid Wooldridge, cap-
tain in the Army field artillery,
now assistant to the general
manager; Kenneth J. Olsen,
technician (fifth grade) in the
Army medical corps, now man-
ager of the shipping depart-
ment; and Newell H. Dailey,
staff sergeant in the Air Force
weather service, now advertis-
ing manager.

In addition to the old employ-
ees who have returned, other ex-
service men not previously con-
nected with the firm have been
added to the staff.

The company sent ten men to
the Army and three to the Navy,
including Mr. Eastin and all of
his immediate assistants. It be-
came necessary to close the
firm’s branch office at Colorado
Springs, Colo., and the whole
burden of the company’s nation-
wide business in the rental and
sale of 16mm sound films for ed-
ucational and recreational pur-
poses was thrown upon the Iowa
office. The management and
work of the firm was shoul-
dered largely by the feminine
em[)loyees.

Eastin’s expansion program.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

cation in the public schools of
Rochester, N. Y., has commented
that the “plan is unique in pro-
viding a distributional procedure
in complete harmony with the
best utilization practice.”

Eastin’s new Guidebook con-
tains 48 pages of carefully se-
lected instructional items, each
described in some detail. While
it offers numerous films of a
general educational nature, the
new list shows that the Eastin
library is rapidly being ex-
panded to include a good assort-
ment of films meeting specific
teaching needs in fields as wide-
ly separated as music and wood-
working.

Other Eastin lists currently
available are an 88-page cata-
log of entertainment films, an
“Economy” list of 116 complete
programs, and a special list of
49 new recreational short sub-
jects.

★ ★ ★

MGM's Foreign Representatives
Visit Ampro Factory

The three smiling gentlemen
giving rapt attention to the par-
tially dissected Premier-10 Am-
prosound Projector are, from
left to right, Marco Ortiz of Pan-
ama, Pedro Mena of Chile, and
Alfredo Gonzales of Mexico.

These gentlemen completed
their training at the Ampro
plant in Chicago and recently
returned t o their respective
countries to take active part in
the vast MGM 16mm program
recently announced by Loew’s
International for operation in
foreign countries. These are but
a few of the men who have been
trained at the Ampro plant and
at other 16mm motion-picture
projector plants in the United
States.

Under the watchful eye of
Service Director Henry Wilson,
left, they have learned not only
how to completely disassemble
Ampro Projectors, but how to

now resumed after interruption
by the war, has made it possible
to absorb the returning ex-serv-
ice men without releasing other
employees. Projects already un-
der way call for early reopening
of the Colorado office, rapid en-
largement of the firm’s list of
school films, improved film and
projector service to roadshow-
men, and wholesale replacement
of rental prints.

Among the new Eastin of-
ferings is the remarkable Brit-

ish production of scenes from
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, de-
scribed elsewhere in this issue of
Film and Radio Guide.

An interesting new rental plan
is announced in the Eastin
Guidebook t o Instructional
Films.

Under this plan, schools will
be able to rent films for a full
school week for about the same
amount as formerly charged for
one day’s use. Paul C. Reed, di-
rector of visual and radio edu-

Back at their desks at Eastin Pictures Co., Davenport, Iowa, ore these seven
World War II veterans. Left to right, back row — T 5 Kenneth J. Olsen, Army
Medical Corps; Electrician's Mate (First Class) Tom F. Smith, USNR; S Sgt.
Newell H. Dailey, Air Force Weather Service. Center — Lieut. Kent D. Eastin,
USNR. Front row — Mojor Robert K. Hieronymus, Army Inspector General's De-
partment; Captain W. Reid Wooldridge, Army Field Artillery; Captain Edward
H. Hieronymus, Army Quartermaster Corps.

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A few of the trainees of Loew's International 16mm division analyze projectors
at the Ampro plant in Chicago. After intensive training at Ampro, Bell & Howell,
Victor, and other factories, these men return to foreign countries as experts in
maintaining 16mm projection standards.

other operations. Inventor of the president of Motion Picture
set is Miguel Lopez-Henriquez, Equipment Company, Inc.

Dubuque, Iowa, System of Visual Education

put them together again. In ad-
dition to intensive training in
equipment, these men have been
taught the requisites of good
16mm projection techniques and
should be a credit to the great
MGM organization in their fu-
ture 16mm activities.

Self-Rewinding Reels

A non-rewinding reel device
for all types of movie projectors
will soon be available. This post-
war surprise for 16mm projec-
tionists is manufactured by Mo-
tion Picture Equipment Com-
pany, Inc., 112 West 42nd Street,
New York City. It promises to
revolutionize the present method
of showing movies.

The remarkable new non-rewinding
reel.

This reel-set eliminates the
need to rewind film for reshow-
ing once it already has been
shown. It is composed of two
scientifically designed reels and
a specially constructed attach-
ment that will fit all 8mm and
16mm silent and sound projec-
tors. It will save much wear and
tear. It will also save time.
Throughout the operation of
this new device there is no fric-
tion of film with any metallic
part of the reel or attachment.
The two reels in the set may also
be used in splicing, cleaning, and

Hale C. Reid, Director of Vis-
ual Education at Dubuque, Iowa,
is developing the audio-visual
program along the following
lines, notable as an example of
cooperation between public and
parochial schools :

The Dubuque Public Schools
and the Archdiocesan Schools
organized a Joint Film Library
in 1944. An equal number of
films have been donated to the
library by both the public and
parochial schools and total films
now number 125. Thirteen pub-
lic schools and thirteen parochial
schools are members of the pro-
gram.

At the beginning of the school
year schedules are prepared for
the entire year. Films are issued
once each week and are loaned
to the school for the week. Serv-
ice is maintained to the extent

of examining, repairing, and re-
winding of the films in the de-
pository. Approximately 25 per-
cent of the films are in use each
week. Duplicate titles have been
purchased of some of the more
popular ones. Nearly all schools
have their own projectors with
the exception of nine elementary
schools, where one projector
serves three schools for one-
week periods. Projectors are op-
erated by students in the secon-
dary schools and by teachers in
most of the elementary schools.
Additional purchase of projec-
tors is contemplated, so that
every school participating in the
program will have its own pro-
jector.

The secondary-school mem-
bers also participate in a ren-
tal program, using about the
same number of films as are ob-
tained from the joint library.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

Film Plans of the Protestant Church

BY PAUL F. HEARD

Executive Secretary, Protestant Film Commission, Inc.

Eventually, w e are told,
atomic energy may be harnessed
to the will of man, and any one,
with a flick of his finger and the
turn of a switch, may enjoy all
the comforts of life by taking
advantage of this cosmic service.
Meanwhile there are deadlier
and more familiar uses to which
atomic energy may be put. Prob-
lems of international coopera-
tion, cultural and race relations,
government and economics, eth-
ics and personal psychology —
pressing problems in these fields
still remain fundamentally un-
solved. Unless they are solved,
no amount of material progress
can save the world from an
armed struggle which will be
its third — and very likely its
last.

These problems cannot be fi-
nally solved by making a survey,
or studying the problem, or by
years of research. They cannot
be solved by conferences or con-
ventions. They cannot be solved
in committee, by legislation, or
by making a report. They can-
not be solved by education. They
cannot be solved even if every-
one wants them solved and uses
all o f the above techniques
towards a solution.

No amount of good will and
technical competence will be
really effective in the solution
of the world’s problems unless
accompanied by the formation of
attitudes in the hearts of peo-
ple which will make possible
such a solution.

Over and over again, leaders

A paper presented at the 37th annual
meeting of the Notional Board of Review,
held in New York, Morch 28, 1946.

Paul F. Heard, Executive Secretary,
Protestant Film Commission, Inc.

in many fields of human en-
deavor, in science and industry,
in government and international
relations, have .stated that the
ultimate solution of pressing
problems in their fields lies in
the realm of the spiritual. This
challenge thrown out by leaders
in secular fields is one which the
Protestant churches cannot ig-
nore.

The Protestant Film Commis-
sion believes that the solution of
these problems lies in the fun-
damental attitudes and beliefs
of individual people. At the same
time we are aware of the most
effective medium for influenc-
ing those attitudes — the motion
picture. The Protestant Film
Commission has been formed for
the express purpose of using and
promoting the use of that power-
ful medium for such ends.

During the war as film evalu-
ator for the United Nations
Central Training Film Commit-
tee and as War Orientation Film
Officer for the Navy, I had the
opportunity of learning how
film was being used by the Nazis

to inculcate their ideals and
to promote allegiance to their
cause. I have seen how the film
has been used to train men to
fight, and to condition them psy-
chologically and emotionally to
kill. It seems to me that if film
can be used so successfully in
these ways, it must now be used
to train men to live, to work to-
gether, and to inculcate those
fundamental principles of Chris-
tianity which are basic to Amer-
ican democracy and to a stable
order for the world.

The Protestant Film Commis-
sion proposes to use the motion
picture in two ways. First- — it
will produce films of high tech-
nical and artistic quality for dis-
tribution in 16mm to churches,
clubs, and schools. These films
will utilize the techniques of the
propaganda and attitude motion
l)ictures which were developed
by the armed forces during the
war. Producers will be selected
from both the east and the west
coasts, on the basis of their skill
in particular kinds of technique.
Second — it will attempt to stim-
ulate in the Hollywood motion-
picture industry a greater sense
of responsibility in the pro-
duction of entertainment films
which influence the attitudes
and behavior of millions. It pro-
poses to obtain in the produc-
tion of entertainment films a
fair representation of Protes-
tantism, the portrayal of more
significant moral themes, and
the increased application to such
production of standards of art
and ethics. To achieve the above
ends, the Protestant Film Com-
mission will soon launch a fund-
raising campaign with one mil-

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

lion dollars as its initial goal.

The first phase of the plan is
for the production of films in
the non-theatrical field. During
the war, production of the non-
theatrical film rose from a
struggling business to a major
industry, primarily through the
activities of the armed forces.
In the next few years, the pro-
duction of non-theatrical films,
and particularly of attitude-
forming films, will, I believe, re-
ceive its greatest impetus from
the churches.

When we stop to think that
Protestant churches in America
number 550,000, it is obvious
what can be done with the non-
theatrical film if we really stim-
ulate this tremendous market.

Now, exactly what kind of
films does the Protestant Film
Commission propose to produce?

First — t h e Protestant Film
Commission will produce films
which promote many phases of
the churches’ specific program,
including its humanitarian and
benevolent projects. This will in-
clude films publicizing the re-
markable medical and educa-
tional work being carried on by
the missionary enterprise at
home and abroad, and showing
how much the church is doing to
remove the seeds of hatred and
to spread a practical conception
of the brotherhood of man.

Second — the Protestant film
commission will produce speci-
alized films for use in the cur-
riculum of Christian education.

Third — the Protestant Film
Commission will produce films
which show the application of
Christian principles to pressing
problems in many areas of life.
It is about the possibilities in
this third phase of our produc-
tion program that I want to
talk today.

The Protestant Film Commis-
sion is an official interdemonin-
ational agency of the Protestant

churches. Its organization em-
braces over seventeen different
denominations and thirteen in-
terdenominational agencies and
boards. Obviously, we do not
propose to produce films which
deal with the superficial aspects
of controversial issues or which
champion any special political
or economic point of view. We
do propose to produce films de-
signed to in.still those Christian
attitudes which are basic to the
solution of problems in these and
many other fields.

1. The family is one of the
first subjects in which the Prot-
estant Film Commission will
undertake the production of at-
titude-forming films. The Prot-
estant churches are concerned
with the future of this basic
American institution. Today the
family is subject to many stres-
ses and strains. The radio, the
movies, the automobile, con-
gested living conditions in our
large cities, and our passionate
desire to raise our standard of
living, all have had an impact
on American family life. A film
is needed to place the institution
of the family in its historical
perspective, and to trace the his-
tory of the family from the days
when its integrity was guaran-
teed by its status as a self-suffi-
cient economic unit. Films are
needed to portray what there is
about the family which is worth
preserving, and to suggest ways
in which the worthwhile aspects
of family life may be preserved,
despite the forces of change.

Not only the family as an in-
stitution, but personal relation-
ships within the family, includ-
ing marriage and child psychol-
ogy, are important subjects for
films.

In the field of child psychol-
ogy, highly valuable films might
be produced showing how mal-
adjustments between parents or
mistakes in parents’ treatment

of children often result in seri-
ous emotional disturbances for
the child. We are not likely, how-
ever, to give any comfort to the
school of psychology whose re-
luctance to see the child emo-
tionally disturbed prompts them
to advocate that children should
be coddled and spared any pain
at all, at the expense of develop-
ing moral fibre. Films produced
by the Protestant Film Commis-
sion should make a real contribu-
tion by synthesizing the think-
ing of both religious leaders and
child psychologists on this sub-
ject, and helping parents to fol-
low a balanced course.

2. One of the greatest contri-
butions of the attitude-forming
film is that the very fact of
making a film about a problem
often tends to clarify our think-
ing about it.

It is this kind of contribution
which we hope the Protestant
Film Commission can make in
the field of personal psychology.
Dr. Norman Vincent Peale of
the Marble Collegiate Church
has said, “The principles of
Christianity are in reality the
subtlest form of psychology.”
Leading psychologists have said
that the real secret of avoiding
frustration, preserving mental
health, and attaining the fullest
development of the personality
— lies ill the realm of the spir-
itual.

One of the things which we
need desperately today is a se-
ries of films on the elementary
principles o f psychology — o n
subjects such as how the mind
works, the relation between the
mind and the emotions, why we
decide to do the thing we do,
and the role of the subconscious
in motivation. The man in the
street, and even you and I, do
not adequately understand our-
selves and the real reasons for
our actions. Not understanding
these things, we go through life

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

on the basis of an elaborate sys-
tem of self-deception, talking one
thing and doing another. It is
not only a matter of psychology.
It is a matter of spiritual hon-
esty and character. It is a mat-
ter that should be widely publi-
cized, and on which the public
should have the benefit of the
point of view of both psychology
and religion.

There should also be films on
the nature and origins of neu-
roses, psychoses, and how these
may develop into serious mental
illnesses. The Protestant Film
Commission could make a special
contribution by making films
which stress the spiritual basis
of mental illness, and the role
of the spiritual in maintaining
mental health.

And here again is a point on
which the findings of religion
and psychology should be coor-
dinated and synthesized. Psy-
chology generally regards the
guilt complex as a thing of evil
and the basis of many mental
ills. Christianity regards a re-
curring sense of guilt as an in-
evitable and almost wholesome
influence in stimulating the in-
dividual to new endeavors. It
would be extremely valuable, it
seems to me, to have a film
which brings the moral vigor of
religion into an area of psychol-
ogy in which many synonyms
have been devised for moral
weakness, and where such weak-
ness is often coddled or regarded
with clinical detachment.

Tremendous good has been
done for the human race in the
fields of psychology and psychi-
atry, and these fields are today
beginning to be a favorite sub-
ject for Hollywood films. A
further contribution, I believe,
can be made by bringing the
point of view of religion to bear
upon a field to which it is so in-
timately related.

3. In the field of applied eth-

ics, the Protestant Film Com-
mission has an unusual opportu-
nity for the production of films
to influence behavior. Ethical
problems form the basis for
much of literature and the plots
of many Hollywood films. Near-
ly everyone, regardless of creed,
is vitally concerned with the
standards of right and wrong,
and tries to apply these stand-
ards, in one way or another, to
his own life. Here is an oppor-
tunity for the church to produce
films, utilizing the dramatic-
story technique, which will show
people in modern life-situations
facing their problems in a prac-
tical way and working out ethi-
cal solutions.

The right solutions must be
made to appear more attractive,
dramatic, and exciting than the
“wrong” ones, and “goodness”
thus dramatized and “sold” on
its own merits.

This brings up the question of
technique, a problem which ap-
plies to all of the films which
the Protestant Film Commission
will produce. These films must
utilize the subtlest, most effec-
tive, and most persuasive tech-
niques yet devised in the field of
the propaganda and attitude mo-
tion pictures. We cannot simply
tell people to be good and expect
to achieve results. We have got
to make them want to be good.
These films cannot be obvious,
or preachy, or moralistic, or in-
ept. They must be genuinely ef-
fective. They must really change
people — not just talk about
changing them. They must actu-
ally do the job.

4. One of the most important
issues in the world today is the
question of social and race re-
lations. Next year, this field will
be the subject of study in the
Protestant churches. A Protes-
tant film program devoted to
human betterment cannot be si-
lent on this important question.

And in this field it is vital
that we speak with that real
persuasion that I mentioned a
moment ago. It will do little good
if we view with alarm, or dra-
matize, existing conflicts. We
should not merely dramatize the
problem and suggest a solution
which is utopian, synthetic, and
pollyanna.

Films in this area should be
genuine attempts to minimize
the prejudices against other
g r 0 u p s, races, and cultures
which nearly all of us possess.
We must not make films which
say what wonderful, broad-
minded people we are for mak-
ing such a film. Too many films
in the attitude-forming field are
made merely to please the peo-
ple who make them, and thus we
go around and around in an eter-
nal squirrel cage. We have got
to face realistically the status of
our audience, and make films
which will really have an effect.
And to do this we cannot merely
say how terrible it is to be prej-
udiced. We have got to be realis-
tic— we have got to go to the
root of the problem, figure out
why we are prejudiced, and
make a film which portrays the
harmful effect of prejudice on
us.

5. The Protestant Film Com-
mission must make films which
will instill the attitudes basic to
the solution of many other vital
issues of the day. One of these
is the relations between capital
and labor. I believe that the
churches can make a real con-
tribution to the solutions of
problems in this controversial
field. I believe that this contri-
bution can be made, in part,
through films. Here, as in all
other areas, we must analyze the
problems. We must get the facts.
We must see both sides of the
question. Then we must utilize
the most effective psychological
a n d motion-pictui’e techniques

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

yet devised to make pictures
which will help work out a real
solution.

6. The field of democracy and
citizenship offers another im-
portant area for the production
of Protestant films.

During the war, it was dis-
covered that many men in the
armed forces lacked a real un-
derstanding of the American
ideal, and were confused regard-
ing the democracy and freedom
for which they fought.

To combat this state of mind,
both the Army and the Navy in-
stituted programs of orientation
and information, including not
only material regarding the ori-
gins and progress of the war,
but education in citizenship and
in the basic concepts of Ameri-
can democracy.

Other political philosophies
have used and are still using the
most potent propaganda weap-
ons at their command to instill
allegiance to their cause. If we
believe in American democracy,
and if we believe that democ-
racy is better in essence than
avu totalitarian philosophy, it is
up to us to preserve this democ-
racy by instilling loyalty to its
ideals and training ourselves for
its use. We must carry on the
work in this field which was be-
gun by the armed services under
the stress of war. Here, as in all
other crucial areas, we must
have films,

I do not mean films which
stress the point of view of any
political party. I am talking
about films on the basic prin-
ciples of democracy, without
which there would be no parties,
or elections, freedom of religion,
or freedom of speech.

To stimulate a greater under-
standing and appreciation of
democracy is one of the aims of
the Protestant churches. The
Christian theory of the worth of
the human personality is basic

to the democratic theory of the
dignity of the individual and of
his responsibilities and rights.
Therefore it is highly appropri-
ate that the churches engage in
the production of films which
will help preserve the American
democratic ideal, which is essen-
tially a Christian concept. No
matter how well-intentioned,
few other agencies can under-
take the production of films in
this area without calling forth
charges of propaganda. And yet
this kind of indoctrination in
democracy is vital if we do not
want to replace our American
democracy by the totalitarian
way of life. Here again the
churches must lead the way.

7. Obviously, world peace is a
subject with which the churches
are vitally concerned. Here,
too, is an area for films. Here
the problem is made even more
urgent by the advent of the
atomic bomb. Now, as never be-
fore, we must have peace if the
world is to survive. Yet it is
doubtful if fear of the horrors
of war, or even of complete ex-
tinction, is sufficient to keep the
world at peace, as long as the
prime factors in human behavior
are selfishness and greed.

Here again it is the function
of the churches to attack the
problem at the roots. We must
not just talk about brotherhood
— we must “sell” it. We must not
just talk about unselfishness, we
must promote it as a practical
attitude for our lives. We must
instill in all people a sense
of mutual interdependence. We
must instill an understanding of
other peoples and an apprecia-
tion, not hatred, of their differ-
ences. We must instill a sense
of the basic similarities of all
peoples, so strong and so con-
vincing that we will all really
grasp the concept that we are
one people and one world.

And here, too, films produced

by the Protestant Film Commis-
sion can play a compelling and
decisive role. Obviously, the most
effective kind of attitude-form-
ing can be done with young peo-
ple and with children. An ex-
tremely important part of the
work of the Protestant Film
Commission will be the produc-
tion of films especiallj^ designed
for showing in church schools.
These films will be concerned
with instilling Christian atti-
tudes on many of the subjects
we have mentioned above.

These are some of the high
lights of the plans of the Protes-
tant Film Commission for films
which we will produce. Most of
these are attitude-forming films,
all of them designed for one ul-
timate goal — the betterment of
the human race, and the build-
ing of the Kingdom of God, not
at some future time in another
world — but on earth, here, and
now.

In addition to conducting a
non-theatrical production pro-
gram, the Protestant Film Com-
mission is vitally concerned with
the role of the Hollywood enter-
tainment films in influencing at-
titudes and behavior.

It cannot truthfully be said
that any Hollywood film is pure-
ly entertainment. The entertain-
ment film has a tremendous ef-
fect upon manners and morals,
fashions and standards of living.
Whether producers intend it or
not, very often entertainment
films also have an effect upon
our basic attitudes, prejudices,
and fears.

We do not ask that Hollywood
producers make their enter-
tainment films more innocuous.
Neither do we ask that they
make them less scintillating,
dramatic, or entertaining.

We do ask that the producers
take responsibility for the una-
voidable effect of these pictures
on people’s lives.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Just as in any other art, al-
most any entertainment film
that is any good must be prop-
aganda for something, and must
have a point of view. The Prot-
estant Film Commission is in-
terested in seeing that the points
of view taken by Hollywood
films are constructive, and that
the attitudes which these films
instill make for the betterment
of human life.

We are interested in seeing
that in a medium which is per-
haps the greatest American art,
recognized standards of art are
increasingly applied.

The application of such stand-
ards is not inconsistent with
box-office considerations. Holly-
wood is continually looking for a
“formula” to increase its box-
office returns. Many of the for-
mulas of the past have proved
very unreliable indeed. We be-
lieve that the application to en-
tertainment films of standards
of art and ethics is just that
formula for which Hollywood
has been looking. Coupled with
intelligent promotion, we believe
that the application of such
standards is the surest method
which has yet been devised for
insuring box-office returns.

We are tremendously im-
pressed with entertainment
films which dramatically and en-
tertainingly promote construc-
tive ends, and influence for the
better the attitudes and behav-
ior of millions. We believe that
Hollywood has performed an im-
pressive service in the produc-
tion of such films as Hotv Green
ITfl.s My Valley, Our Vines Have
Tender Grapes, and in the pro-
duction of religious films such
as Going My Way and The Bells
of St. Mary’s. This, we hope, is
just the beginning. We believe
that the traditions of all relig-
ious faiths offer a wealth of ma-
terial for further films in this
important field. We believe that

Hollywood entertainment films
can perform an untold service by
more presentations along these
lines, and by the portrayal of
other worthwhile and construc-
tive themes.

In summary, the plans of the
Protestant Film Commission are
two-fold : to produce non-theat-
rical films which are concerned
with human betterment, and to
stimulate the Hollywood motion-
picture industry to produce en-
tertainment films which also
contribute to this end. It is to
support this program that we
will shortly launch a national
campaign for funds.

In an issue of Fortune pub-
lished before the war, the
churches were criticized for fail-
ure to lead the way in the appli-
cation of religious principles to
the problems of modern life. It
was said that, in contrast to the
early days of Judaism and
Christianity, the churches today
do not take the lead in the solu-
tion of our problems, but merely
conform to progress which al-
ready has been made.

In the preachments of the
church Fo)'tnne found no spirit-
ual leadership, no ringing words
of prophecy.

I do not believe that this is
the fault of our spiritual leaders.
Great religious leaders of all
faiths are constantly deepening
our insight into spiritual truth
and its insistent message for to-
day. But modern spiritual lead-
ership requires new techniques,
new tools, new media. Already
the press and the radio are be-
ing used in this regard. There
remains the most effective
means of persuasion in the world
today — the film. Of this power-
ful medium, the Protestant
churches are now prepared to
make full and compelling use.
Through film, the church may
finally make heard its prophetic
voice.

16mm
Releases

n <

\m WILLIAM BOYD

IN 12 GREAT

, HflPALONG CASSIDY

WESTERN FEATURES

with GABBY HAYES.
• JIMMY ELLISON

- ' 6 BIG
111 FEATURES

s Starring

■ ^ Ian

Glorious Music
Riotous Comedy

laurel & HARDY

THE BOHEMIAN
' GIRL

HAL ROACH FEATU^

?«Ul

lUfflS _

I LOGON'S
* i MuTt I M ^

ON TNI

■I ‘ ELSINORE

P77rst GOLDWYN
: picture in 16mm.

The

north star_

i”ssrss" I

^HAL ROACH'S BIO
COMEDY FEATURE

I '^pardon

I u S"

p.:

ASTOR

PICTURES

CORP-

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS IN
SOCIAL EDUCATION

From a Report by a Commission of the Notional Council
for the Social Studies

The gravity, number, and
complexity of the problems to be
faced by the citizen in the trans-
ition and postwar periods, and
the need for broad understand-
ing of these problems, will im-
pose a heavy burden upon social
studies teachers. The social stud-
ies curriculum will be more
crowded than ever ; time and en-
ergy will be at a premium. It is
imperative that social studies
teachers utilize to the fullest
possible extent all effective
means for enriching and facili-
tating the learning process.

Visual and auditory aids, such
as maps, globes, charts, graphs,
models, mounted pictures, slides,
slidefilms, sound and silent mo-
tion pictures, radio programs,
a n d recordings have demon-
strated their effectiveness in
the armed forces, in school, and
out of school. Yet too few of
these newer tools of learning
have been readily available to
teachers, and their use has been
all too limited. Too few school
administrators appreciate fully
their importance or make ade-
quate provision for their full
utilization. Many teachers have
not received adequate training
in the most effective methods of
using these tools. The Commis-
sion recommends that :

— there be a clear recognition on
the part of teachers and lay-
men that many pupils cannot
learn effectively from the
printed page; that all pupils
need the real and vivid experi-
ences provided by visual and
auditory aids ; that emotional
drives which facilitate learn-

ing are often provided by
these aids

— individual teachers, private
and public agencies, and edu-
cational organizations under-
take further experimentation
and research in methods for
using these tools effectively
and that provision be made
for disseminating the findings
among teachers and others
concerned

— colleges and universities es-
tablish more courses and
workshops for the training of
teachers in methods of effec-
tive use of audio-visual aids

— educational organizations, in-
cluding the National Council
for the Social Studies, collab-
orate with foundations, gov-
ernment agencies, and the mo-
tion picture and radio indus-
tries in the preparation of
auditory and visual aids to so-
cial education, for all levels of
instruction and for all topics

in the social studies curricu-
lum

—the supply of multiple copies
of visual aids and recordings
be increased and made more
readily available and easily
accessible to teachers in de-
positories such as those of the
United States Office of Edu-
cation, state departments of
education, universities and
colleges, boards of education
in the larger communities,
public libraries, museums,
film centers, and other agen-
cies

— b 0 a r d s of education equip
classrooms adequately for the
effective use of these tools,
and that the National Council
for the Social Studies, in col-
laboration with other educa-
tional organizations, founda-
tions, and public and private
agencies, undertake a study of
the equipment needed and is-
sue recommendations.

Save by Ordering Now

Before the Deadline for
New Subscription Rates

If Ordered Before July, 1946

One Year 2.00 Each

Two Years 3.50 Each

Three Years 5.00 Each

Effective July 1, 1946

One Year 3.00 Each

Two Years 5.00 Each

Three Years 6.50 Each

Less Than One Year 35c a Copy

In Canada, add 50c a year; in foreign countries, add $1.00 a year.

FILM & RADIO GUIDE

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

Behind the Screen Credits

BY HELEN COLTON

Hollywood Editor, "Film and Radio Guide"

Hollywood is always in a
hurry. To get rush jobs done, it
has learned that the fastest er-
rand boy in town is Paul Mantz,
the noted flier, who operates his
own airline out at the Lockheed
Air Terminal in Burbank. Mr.
Mantz is best known as the
“Flying Cupid” who pilots elop-
ing movie stars to Yuma or Las
Vegas. Actually, though, most of
his busy life is spent on less ro-
mantic business.

A typical week in the schedule
of the Paul Mantz Airline might
include such varied jobs as
these : aerial stunting for a
movie; flying Clark Gable to
South Dakota for duck hunting;
a camera crew to Biloxi, Mis-
sissippi, to film scenes at Kees-
ler Field for Seven Were Saved,
Pine-Thomas picture about the
A.A.F. Air Rescue Service;
movie executives to Washington,
D. C., for meetings to discuss
the snarled labor situation in
the industry ; a Technicolor cam-
era crew high over the High Si-
erras to film cloud formations
for a film library; a crew for
an insurance company to take
aerial pictures of a ship wrecked
off the coast of Mexico, to de-
termine if its cargo could be sal-
vaged ; water, food, blankets,
sleeping bags, medicine, and
chemicals to marooned fire
fighters for the U. S. Forestry
Service.

To handle all these j o b s,
Mantz maintains a fleet of about
fifty planes, including a C47, a
C67, a Lockheed 12, a Spartan,
a Stinson, and a Basic Trainer
1.3. Many of the fifty planes are
what Mantz calls “eggbeaters”
— old crates which are rented

Paul Mantz

out to movie companies for
scenes set in the various periods
in which the planes were flown.

Besides himself, he employs
five pilots. He gets several ap-
plications a day from people who
want to pilot for him. But only
those with long, tough experi-
ence under all sorts of flying
conditions stand a chance. They
must have had a minimum of
2,000 hours in the air, to ciualify
for insurance. Every seat in a
Mantz plane is insured for $2.5,-
000 ; Mantz himself for $50,000.

A chartered ride in a plane is
costlJ^ sometimes running into
the thousands ; it has to be, to
cover the plane, supplies, insur-
ance, salaries, and stop-over ex-
penses for the crew if it has to
wait in any city for the return
trip. Every flight on a large
plane carries a i)ilot, co-pilot,
and flight engineer. The smaller
planes, used for short hops like
the “Honeymoon Express” to
Yuma or Las Vegas, are oper-
ated only by a pilot.

Mantz’s first movie customer
was the late Douglas Fairbanks,
Sr., who phoned him one day

seventeen years ago and said :
“How about flying me down to
Mexico for some deep-sea fish-
ing? It’s the only way of get-
ting there without missing the
ball game.” Fairbanks loved to
listen to sports broadcasts, and
whenever Mantz flew him, he’d
sit immersed in radio reports of
athletic events which Mantz
would tune in on his radio and
relay to Fairbanks via the ear-
phones with which people lis-
tened to the radio in those days.

Not long after that, Elsie
-Janis, “Sweetheart of the Amer-
ican Expeditionary Forces” in
World War I, hired Mantz to fly
her around the country on a lec-
ture tour. Cecil De Mille, the
movie director, was the next
show-business name to take to
the air. By then, the idea began
to get around in the movie col-
ony that flying was a safe, sane,
and quick way of getting things
done in their busy lives, and
Mantz was on his way as pilot
to the movie colony.

Mr. Mantz has frequently
doubled for actors in flying-
roles, sometimes with nearly ca-
tastrophic results. Once he had
to fly through a barn, and he
cleared the sides by inches ; an-
other time, doubling for Cary
Grant in 0)dij Angels Have
Wings, he took a sheer drop off
a cliff, smashing his plane and
some bones. For Thunder Birds,
he had to fly upside down and
throw out a pair of overalls to
Gene Tierney on the ground.
The wind threw the overalls
right back into his face, blind-
ing him for a few moments as
he skimmed dangerously low
over a water tower.

W^\ m

1 1

f 1

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

During his many years of
stunting, the closest he came to
death was while doubling for
Fred MacMurray in Men With
Whigs, a history of aviation. As
he was taxiing down the run-
way for a take-off in an early-
vintage plane, the motor be-
came overheated and burst into
flames. The fire spread instantly
to the highly inflammable fabric
of the “eggbeater” and became
a roaring inferno. Only the quick
action of the fire-fighting crew
saved his life.

Ever since then, he hasn’t
been keen about stunting scenes
in which he has to fly old crates
like that one. He did get back
into one, however, for scenes in
Captain Eddie. But nothing
more dangerous happened than
his landing at a nearby naval
air field in an old World War I
biplane, and scaring the Navy
fliers half to death when he
stepped out of the cockpit wear-
ing 1918 flying clothes. They
thought he was a vision of 28
years ago come to life!

All his hairbreadth experi-
ences have taught Mantz to take
preventive measures against the
possibility of accident, whenever
possible. Right after the U. S.
entered World War II, when
there was a lot of rumor-mon-
ger ing about Jap and Nazi par-
achutists coming to blow up our
bridges and reservoirs, Mantz
had to double for Richard Dix
making a low parachute jump.
The stunt was to be done in San
Fernando Valley. Days before-
hand, he advertised in the local
press, urging the valley farmers
“not to shoot the parachutist,”
who was only a movie stunt man
and not a Nazi or Jap. He did
the stunt and floated down out
of the blue without even a BB
gun aimed at him.

Not all of Paul Mantz’s excit-
ing adventures in the air have
come from movie work. He has

made many dramatic aerial res-
cues of persons who were
wounded in desolate mountain
passes while hunting, or persons
taken ill far from a doctor.

Of the many rescues he’s
made, none was more dramatic
than a 220-mile flight from a
petroleum refinery a t Santa
Maria, California, where a deep-
sea diver was stricken with the
dreaded “bends,” to the de-com-
pression chambers of the Mare
Island Naval Yard at San Fran-
cisco. Mantz had to fly no more
than fifty feet above the ground
all the way ! But help hadn’t
been called in time, and the poor
fellow died. Mantz now keeps a
portable oxygen unit, which fits
into any plane, for emergency
trips to give the passenger a bet-
ter chance to live. In about a
year, he’s had forty occasions
to use the oxygen equipment.

Mantz was born in Redwood
City, California, in 1903. As a
kid, he was as airminded as
the youngsters of today are,
although aviation was even
younger than he was. At 16 he
took his first flying lesson at
the Palo Alto School of Avia-
tion. Then he worked for a year
as manager of the local gas and
electric company, but his heart
wasn’t in it. He enlisted as an

Army Air Cadet and received
his training at March Field.
When his Army hitch was up, he
came to Hollywood, lured by the
tales of the financial success of
Dick Grace, one of the first of
the aerial stunters. Soon he was
one of the most sought-after
stunters in the business. After
Douglas Fairbanks, Elsie Janis,
and De Mille hired him to pilot
them, he got the idea of starting
his own airline, offering only
chartered service, and he has
been doing that ever since.

Too young for World War I,
he joined the R.A.F. when
World War H started, and fer-
ried bombers from Newfound-
land to England. When the U. S.
entered the war, he became a
Lt. Colonel in the U. S. Army
Air Force Motion Picture Unit,
stationed at Culver City, where
he trained combat camera units
which made many of the thrill-
ing documentary films of the
war. He hopes these documen-
taries have helped to make peo-
ple at home painfully aware of
the horror of war. He thinks
such pictures ought to be shown
over and over again through the
years as a white-hot reminder
to young people to take active
part in plans for avoiding future
wars.

Extend Your Subscription to

FILM AND RADIO

GUIDE

At Present Low Rates!

Volume XII, No. 7

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A TEACHER LOOKS AT
THE MOVIES

Frederick Houk Law, Famous Educator,
Reviews Current Photoplay Offerings

THE KID FROM BROOKLYN. Sociol
force. RKO. Norman Z. McLeod, Direc-
tor. Based on a play by Lynn Root and
Harry Clork. Adapted from a screenplay
by Grover Jones, Frank Butler, and Rich-
ard Connell. Recommended for all.

Danny Kaye always plays to
comic perfection any part in
which unexpected and utterly
unusual responsibilities sudden-
ly fall upon him. With his inno-
cent, guileless and self-distrust-
ful manner he shows the embar-
rassment that we all feel when
fate puts us in hard circum-
stances. We laugh at his seem-
ing inability to master difficul-
ties. We wish that we, too, had
his good fortune to change ridic-
ulous failure into glowing suc-
cess.

In 'The Kid from BrookUjn
Danny Kaye is a meek and mild
milkman who goes patiently on
his altogether too-early morn-
ing rounds — and then suddenly
finds himself one of the most
celebrated pugilists in the coun-
try, fighting even the national
champion. H e knew nothing
about fighting; he had no par-
ticular strength or skill ; he did
not dare to face an opponent ; he
leaped from the ring and tried
to run away ; he never really
knocked anyone down — and yet
he won a long series of ring vic-
tories, left brutal bruisers un-
conscious, put his name in all
the papers as the great cham-
pion of champions — and didn’t
deserve it at all!

That seeming contradiction of
all common experiences, com-
bined with the milkman’s con-

Assisted by Other Teachers

stant efforts to escape his cir-
cumstances, makes extremely
comic material.

Put into Technicolor, a n d
further illuminated and enliv-
ened by the Goldwyn Girls, the
antics of Danny Kaye are irre-
sistibly funny. Virginia Mayo,
Vera-Ellen, Fay Bainter, Wal-
ter Abel, Lionel Stander, and
Steve Cochrane contribute large-
ly to unrolling the series of par-
adoxical events. Call it farce,
slap-stick comedy, or just Danny
Kaye, 'The Kid from Brooklijii.
will prove a big box-office suc-
cess and will rest many a weary
mind. F. H. L.

RENDEZVOUS 24. 20th-Fox. Spy mel-
odrama. James Tinling, Director. Recom-
mended for all.

An atom-bomb motion i)ic-
ture ! A melodrama of a con-
spiring Germany in years to
come! International spies! New
methods of using atomic power!
Here certainly are thrills for
those who like to be thrilled.

Rendezvous 2h tells how
United States and British secret-
service men, just in the last sec-
ond of possible time, save the
city of Paris from utter destruc-
tion by a remotely controlled
atomic bomb. Right in the heart
of the United States, cooperat-
ing with its scientists in regard
to control of the atomic bomb, is
a distinguished German scien-
tist. He manages to go back to
his fellow-conspirators in their
cave laboratory in the German
mountains, leaving behind him

the belief that he had been
killed in an automobile accident.
Then follows the hunt. Secret-
service men pursue him, locate
the headquarters of the men who
have discovered how to destroy
all the cities of the world, and
there shoot them down.

Rendezvons 2U has no subtlety
nor does it ascribe much cunning
to German men of science, nor
much care or common sense to
British and American secret-
service men. The inevitable
beautiful young woman, a Ger-
man agent, learns easily enough
all about the foreign spies, and
they themselves walk readily
into traps. Only last-minute
heroics save the day.

For the Saturday-afternoon
children’s audience, and for all
who like their melodrama served
partly cooked. Rendezvous 2i
will prove interesting and even
mildly exciting. It i s clean,
straightforward melodrama,
without undue horror, and it
does carry a message: “Be pre-
pared.” F. H. L.

SUSPENSE. Romantic ice-revue melo-
drama. Monogram. Frank Tuttle, Direc-
tor. Screenplay by Philip Yordan. Gener-
ally recommended.

Around the pleasing personal-
ity and marvelous skating of Be-
lita. Monogram has constructed
a story that gives the English-
born star full opportunity to
show her unusual ability as act-
ress and as skating expert. Sus-
pense leads one to see remark-
ably well Belita’s womanly qual-

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

ities in her various roles as
wife, companion, romantic lover,
and woman awakened to her
better self. What one will re-
member longest from Suspense
is the striking personality of the
skater, as revealed in her ath-
letic skill and in her enacting
of the romantic parts that she
plays.

The action takes place princi-
pally in a Los Angeles Ice Gar-
den, in which Belita, as Roberta,
a star skater, provides the main
attraction. A wandering ne’er-
do-well gains a position in the
Ice Garden and induces the
skater to draw crowds by per-
forming the peculiarly danger-
ous feat of leaping through a
ring of long, sharp swords,
pointed directly at her. Later
the roving adventurer pays her
such attention that the husband
becomes insanely jealous and
tragedy results.

In one strong episode in the
High Sierras of California,
where Belita skates upon a
mountain lake set among snow-
covered peaks, we see a huge,
thundering avalanche of snow,
ice, and great rocks pour down
into the narrow valley.

Belita’s numerous skating acts
have been managed with such
skill that we see the events from
the point of view of the audi-
ence in the Ice Garden and at
the same time appreciate them
from the point of view of the
actual performer. Those skating
scenes, instead of being mere
spectacles of ice ballets, although
as such they are presented with
vim and spirit as well as beauty,
all develop interest and climax.

Suspense carries out its name
and produces thrills galore.

F. H. L.

★ ★ ★

NIGHT CLUB BOOM. March of Time.
Released by 20l'h-Fox.

Everyone is curious about
night clubs ; many persons never

visit them; the March of Time
takes audiences on a tour of all
the most notable night clubs in
gay New York. That alone guar-
antees the interest of the new
March of Time.

Incidentally, the picture shows
that labor-saving devices, as
well as baby-sitters, now free
fathers and mothers and most
of their families, to leave their
homes occasionally a n d seek
pleasure in motion pictures, ath-
letic events, stage-plays, eating
places, and night clubs that of-
fer special entertainment.

It is startling to realize that
$600,000,000 of United States
money every year goes to night
clubs, of which there are no less
than 70,000 in the land. Night
clubs represent big business, call
for careful planning, employ
thousands of persons, and con-
stitute a major feature of life
in the United States.

The March of Time, in its pic-
ture tour, takes us to the bright
lights of Broadway and the up-
per forties and fifties, and also
down into the coarser places in
the Bowery. We see the dining-
places, the dancers, the specialty
performers, the kitchens and the
wine cellars. We sit with famous
guests, such as Jinx Falkenburg,
Bert Lahr, Elliott Roosevelt and
Faye Emerson, Ed Wynn, and
others.

Yes, this is the cheapest and
the easiest of all ways to learn
about New York’s night club
life. F. H. L.

★ ★ ★

THE BRIDE WORE BOOTS. Equestrian
comedy. Paramount. Irving Pichel, Direc-
tor. From a play by Harry Segall. Screen-
play by Dwight Mitchell Wiley.

Virginia racing horses leaping
fence after fence in a mad race
to win the most prized cup of
the year ; riders and horses fall-
ing; tense, breath-taking mo-
ments ; a dramatic and unex-
pected finish — such is the climax

of The Bride Wore Boots, a
farce-comedy about a Virginia
girl who loved horses, and her
husband who hated horses.

As the aristocratic Sally War-
ren, lover of horses, Barbara
Stanwyck appears to excellent
advantage, sitting her horse well
and showing good sportswoman
spirit. Robei’t Cummings, as
Jeff Warren, a popular author
who from childhood has hated
even merry-go-round horses,
falls headlong again and again
and appears to gain the sym-
pathy of his mount.

This motion-picture p 1 a y,
which in some respects much re-
sembles Richard Harding Da-
vis’s famous story, Mr. Travers’s
First Hunt, is a merry, rollick-
ing, care-free presentation that
mingles social comedy, the mari-
tal tug-of-war, rivalry in love,
and downright farce. To all this
Barbara Stanwyck adds the nec-
essary touch of central charac-
ter interest. Rivalling her for
the love of “her man,’’ Diana
Lynn proves an especially cap-
able foil.

In the course of the plot de-
velopment we see (with sorrow
at his loss) the late Robert
Benchley, who plays an indul-
gent and observant uncle to the
twin children of the fighting
pair.

Such horse stories, when well
done, give particular pleasure —
and this is well done, interest-
ing, amusing, and a good driver
away of dull care. F. H. L.

THE WELL-GROOMED BRIDE. Social
comedy. Paramounf. Sidney Lanfield, Di-
rector. Based on a story by Robert Rus-
sell. Screenplay by Claude Binyon and
Robert Russell.

Ray Milland, as Lieutenant
Briggs of the Navy, during the
75 minutes of running time of
The Well-Groomed Bride, has
one long series of anxious mo-
ments trying to persuade Olivia

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

DeHavilland, as Margie, to give
up a magnum of French cham-
pagne. No — in spite of all the
events in The Lost Weekend, he
has not the slightest wish to
drink any of the champagne.
H i s cranky Naval Captain
(James Gleason) had ordered
him to get a magnum of French
champagne with which to chris-
ten a new 40,000-ton aircraft
carrier — and if he did not get
it demotion stared him in the
face. On the other hand, the
young lady’s fiance (Sonny
Tufts) , coming home from the
Aleutians, had telegraphed to
his ladylove to buy the biggest
bottle of champagne in San
Francisco — and there was but
one such bottle! The girl gets it
first! How did the worried Lieu-
tenant get the bottle away from
her ?

That is the story, and it is a
good story and a lively one, full
of laughter and surprises. In the
course of events you find your-
self “in the top of the Mark” in
San Francisco, looking off over
the lights and bridges of that
city. You go up and down hotel
elevators, you pop into and out
of hotel rooms, you sympathize
with the determined girl and
also with the equally determined
Lieutenant — and then into the
action comes a blonde from Ore-
gon. Can you guess the rest?

Ray Milland, as you know he
would, plays his part superbly,
and Olivia DeHavilland is at her
best. A cheerful, happy lot of
enthusiastic nonsense. The Well-
Groomed Bride provides most
happy entertainment. F. H. L.

★ ★ ★

HEARTBEAT. Social comedy. RKO.
Som Wood, Director. Screen ploy by
Hons Wilhelm, Max Koipe, and Michel
Duran. Generally recommended.

Oliver Twist, Cinderella and
Her Prince, and Pygmalion to-
gether tell the story of Heart-
beat. Action begins with Basil

Rathbone, as a kind of Fagin,
teaching a group of men and
women the art of picking pock-
ets ; the story develops when
Ginger Rogers, as one of the
most promising girl pupils, most
surprisingly goes to the Em-
bassy Ball in Paris; events con-
clude when the reform-school
girl gains recognition for her
better self.

Still, the story is not tiuite so
simple, for it has a great deal
of originality in its development.
Adolphe Menjou, Jean Pierre
Aumont, Henry Stephenson, and
Mona Maris, as members of the
ambassadorial society of the
France of many years ago, all
take part in a long series of in-
terest-holding episodes that be-
come more and more complicated
until at last “boy gets girl.”

If in some scenes blonde Gin-
ger Rogers is disheveled and
dirty-faced, in others she wears
lovely garments and carries her-
self with all the airs that fascin-
ate the diplomats who surround
her in the play.

Without attempting any more
than the merest surface realism.
Heartbeat, as its title indicates,
is a pleasant romance of a for-
eign land, a past time, and a
gutter-girl who suddenly be-
comes a princess.

Long ago such novels as The
Prisoner of Zenda and Gran-
stark told of men who fell in
love with real princesses ; the
Cinderella and Pygmalion stor-
ies likewise always have at-
tracted attention, and do attract
it especially today. Director Sam
W ood has kept this picture story
in the fanciful mood, has aimed
merely to interest for the mo-
ment, and thus has made a
happy entertainment- — old-fash-
ioned story-telling for people of
all ages. F. H. L.

A SCANDAL IN PARIS. Picaresque
Iragi-comedy. Released through United

Artists. Screenplay by Ellis St. Joseph.
Douglas Sirk, Director. Generally recom-
mended.

Approximately a h u n d r e d
years ago there lived in France
a great rascal named Eugene-
Francois V i d o c cp Himself a
criminal and a close associate of
desperate criminals, he became
chief of the Paris police. Know-
ing the criminal mind thor-
oughly, he became such a shrewd
detective that he has given his
name to numerous detective stor-
ies of unusual interest.

A Sca)tdal im Paris tells amaz-
ing episodes in the life of the
famous — or i n f amo u s — V i d ocq .

The picturesque setting of
Paris a hundred years ago forms
an excellent background for this
old-fashioned romance of a great
rascal. George Sanders plays to
perfection the incomparable Vi-
docq, master criminal, master of
ladies, master of men, master of
himself, aiming even to rob the
Bank of Paris. Akim Tamiroff
plays the servile, bloodthirsty
scoundrel who accompanies Vi-
docq. Carole Landis admirably
enacts the flippant, money-seek-
ing light-lady of the story, and
Signe Hasso the timid true-love.

To see A Scandal in Paris is
much like reading one of the old
French romances about Vidocq,
great criminal and great detec-
tive. Perhaps the influence of
George Sanders added such cyn-
ical touches as : “Sometimes the
chains of matrimony are so
heavy that it takes three to carry
them.” At any rate, repartee
plays a large part in the presen-
tation.

Particularly amusing is a com-
plete family of rascals, including
aged men and women, middle-
aged relatives, young men, and
a small boy.

Picturesque, different, highly
romantic, and strongly directed,
A Scandal in Paris grips atten-
tion. F. H. L.

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

THE DARK CORNER. Mystery melo-
drama. 20th-Fox. Henry Hothaway, Di-
rector. Screenplay by Jay Dratler and
Bernard Schoenfeld. Based on a story by
Leo Rosten.

If you like your melodrama
thick, here it is, rough, brutal,
murderous, with fierce fist
fights, attempted killing by auto,
shooting, and the fine touch of
throwing a man bodily from an
upper floor of a high city build-
ing. The Dark Corner has a very
dark corner, indeed, for an in-
nocent man finds himself beset
by unknown enemies who try to
take his life.

Following the good rule set by
Shakespeare, this motion pic-
ture shows a young woman (Lu-
cille Ball) leading a young man
(Mark Stevens) to meet all
emergencies and rise triumphant
over difficulties.

William Bendix plays strong-
arm villain for the evil genius
of the events, and Kurt Kreuger
and beautiful Cathy Downs play
strong roles that help to boil the
melodrama to dangerous action.

The ingredients for the plot
are a man who had been impris-
oned for a crime he did not
commit, a treacherous wooer of
ladies, a murderous thug, and
a jealous husband. The saving-
grace is a charming and faithful
secretary — and who does not
wish for one? The scenes of ac-
tion are at times in the dark
corners of city streets under the
shadows of the elevated, and at
times in the aristocratic, art-
crowded residence of a million-
aire.

This mystery - melodrama
holds its secret well, keeping-
full revelation until the end of
a long series of startling epi-
sodes. Interest in the mystery as
to who it is who causes all the
villainous attacks upon a man
who acts suspiciously and at the
same time maintains his inno-
cence, helps to soften the too-

brutal events.

The Dark Corner has the
quality of interest, but parts of
it will shock many persons, and
will leave disagreeable impres-
sions. F. H. L.

What Mrs. Harrow Says About
"The Dark Corner"

A skillfully developed double-
murder mystery is The Dark
Corner, in which the hero is
made the scapegoat in a plot to
liquidate the lover of an unfaith-
ful wife. As far as I could de-
tect, there are no loopholes, and
the story holds the attention riv-
eted throughout with several
twists that seem refreshingly
original. Moreover, the neces-
sary murders do not follow a
noisy act of table throwing,
bodies rolling over each other
and pistol snatching, which I
thought Hollywood considered
an inevitable climax for all mur-
der mysteries. I’m glad to find
myself mistaken in regard to the
film in question.

To be sure, the bedroom set
was Hollywood rather than rep-
resentative of the taste of a cul-
tivated art dealer. At the end we
were just a little let down when
the Irish cops prepared to com-
ment on a piece of sculpture.
The combination of art and cops
as critics offered great promise,
but we needed Peter Finley
Dunne to write the quips.

It must not be overlooked,
however, that on another slight
occasion in the picture, just a
child blowing a whistle provides
humor and excellent psychology.
A much larger element, one of
great satisfaction, was the act-
ing of Lucille Ball, who shows
versatility in a part which
wasn’t to amuse but to portray
devoted love and mental agility.

Carolyn Harrow

so GOES MY LOVE. Comedy romance.
Universol Pfctures. Direcfed by Fronk
Ryan. Screenplay by Bruce Manning and
James Clifden. Based on "A Genius in
the Family," by Hiram Percy Maxim.

Jane Budden, young and pret-
ty, played by Myrna Loy, decides
in the day of bustles and stage-
coaches to go to Brooklyn to find
a rich husband. During her cam-
paign, she falls in love with, and
marries, a poor young inventor
(Don Ameche) . After marriage,
he makes a fortune, so that Jane
finds it has been profitable to in-
dulge in ideals.

The plot is thin, the charac-
terization colorless, the acting
undistinguished. The actors are
given no opportunity to show
their talents. As the story am-
bles along, there is much pad-
ding, which in one instance is
amusing. With the intention of
administering a beating to his
first born, the father (Don
Ameche) , with the cooperation
of the child, experiments with
different branches cut from a
tree on their grounds. From the
living room the mother and
her visiting relative hear the
switches cracking in the bed-
room above. Not realizing that
the branches are just being
tested on the bed and not on the
child, the two ladies endure men-
tal agony and marvel at the con-
trol of the youngster. But the
audience never loses itself in the
story or the acting; it is con-
scious all along of just watching
a Hollywood movie.

Carolyn Harrow

Reprints of the Illustrated
Guides to ‘‘David Copperfield,’’
"Treasure Island” and "A Tale
of Two Cities” are available at
5c a copy.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

A High-School Student Looks
at "The Green Years"

BY ESTELLE NACHBAR

Age 16, Student ot Weequohic High School, Newark, New Jersey

THE GREEN YEARS. Intimate story of
a boy. MGM. Victor Seville, Director.
Screen play by Robert Ardrey and Sonya
Levien, based on the novel by A. J.
Cronin. Produced by Leon Gordon.

In bringing- A. J. Cronin’.s
novel. The Green Years, to the
screen, MGM has done credita-
bly. The movie contains more
Cronin and less Hollywood than
is usually the case in the pic-
turization of a novel.

The most striking difference
between the book and the movie
is the important role which the
lovely Alison Keith plays in
Robert Shannon’s life. In char-
acterizing her, Robert Ardrey
and Sonya Levien have e.xecuted
a complete aljout-face. Here is
not an unattainable, practical,
musical madonna, but a very
warm-hearted Scotch lassie, ap-
propriately starry-eyed, to sup-
l)ly the love interest. In the
movie, it is she who is weak,
while Shannon is .strong. In the
Ijook, Shannon is a dreamer, and
Alison a determined young lady.

Adam Leckie, in the book, dis-
plays the brash characteristics
of a high-pressure insurance
salesman, while in the movie he
is a soft-spoken scoundrel with
a sophisticated veneer.

Schoolmaster Jason Reid’s lisp
and moustache are happily dis-
pensed with, leaving a devoted
pedagogue in place of the un-
stable bundle of complexes of
the novel.

In almost all motion pictures
which are made from novels, the
perscmalities and emotions of

the characters are greatly sim-
plified. This is especially nec-
essary in The Green Yea)'s, since
the book is written from the
viewpoint of Robert Shannon,
whose impressions of different
people changed as he grew older.
In this movie, which presents a
span of eighteen years in two
hours, the personality of each
character had to be e.stablished
in the mind of the audience in
one or two pertinent scenes, and
not deviated from. Thus Grand-
pa remains a wise, lovable old
reprobate, although in the book
Robert Shannon is frecpiently
di.sgusted at his antics. Papa
Reekie’s extreme parsimony is
evident at once when he appor-
tions the food at Robert’s first
dinner. This first impression is
furthered by his willingness to
sell a beloved toy of Robert’s,
and his reluctance to buy a
much-needed suit for the l)oy.
E V e n Robert Shannon, the
“hero,” is subject to having his
character made less complex.

Although the basic construc-
tion of the plot follows Dr. Cro-
nin’s very closely, there are two
major deviations, one for dra-
matic, the other for ethical ef-
fect. Since Robert attempts to
win the Marshall Scholarship
affei- he has begun to work in
the boiler factory, his failure to
win the scholarship is all the
more significant, because he
must return to an occupation
for which he is wholly unsuited,
and in which he is not happy. In
the novel, Robert’s return to his
religion occurs after Grandpa’s
will, guaranteeing him the

longed-for university education,
is read. In the movie his period
of doubt is considerably shorter.
By the time Grandpa has most
dramatically died to the tune of
“God Save the King,” Robert is
already safe within the fold, in-
dicating that not the money, but
his inner self had to do with his
return to grace.

The manner in which the con-
flicting religions of Scotland and
Ireland were handled is one of
the commendable attributes of
The Green Years. Canon Roche
is not a hypocritical preacher in
the book, nor is he in the novel.
The religious ceremonies are
liresented with dignity, as is
Robert’s observance of them.
The attitude of Robert’s rela-
tives toward his religion has
been tactfully changed from
open hostility to a rather un-
willing acceptance.

It was most interesting to note
the relative importance given to
various scenes in the movie as
compared with the novel. Grand-
pa and his cronies teaching Rob-
ert to box, one of the most hu-
morous scenes in the picture, is
dashed off in less than a page by
Dr. Cronin. Perhaps the success
of a similar episode in The Bells
of St. Mavji’s, in which a certain
boxing lesson is one of the high-
lights, encouraged MGM to do
likewise. The discovery of the
golden plover’s nest by Gavin
Blair and Robert, a significant
step in a friendship which was
not emphasized in the movie, is
treated as a short scene. Cronin
may say plenty about Grandpa’s
“unique” hat, but it does not

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Introducing a Starlet

Beverly Tyler os Alison in the Screen Version of "The Green Years."

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

Save by Ordering Now

Before the Deadline for
New Subscription Rotes of

FILM & RADIO
GUIDE

A 64'pcige Magazine for Visual Educators

SUBSCRIPTION RATES

If Ordered Before July, 1946 Effective July 1, 1946

One Year 2.00 Each One Year 3.00 Each

Two Years 3.50 Each Two Years 5.00 Each

Three Years 5.00 Each Three Years 6.50 Each

Uu Than One Yaor 35c a Copy

In Canada, add 50c a year; in foreign countries, odd $1.00 a yeor.

ORDER BLANK

EDUCATIONAL A RECREATIONAL GUIDES, Inc.

172 KENNER AVENUE NEWARK 8. NEW JERSEY

0 0 Enter (or renew) my (our) order for subscription(s) to

FILM & RADIO GUIDE for year(s), beginning

(Radio Course or "What Shall We Read About the Movies" Free with
2-year Subscriptions. Both Free with 3-year Subscriptions.)

Send current issue of "Film and Radio Guide," 35c.

Send annotated bibliography, "What Shall We Read About
the Movies," 25c.

Send "Course of Study in Radio Appreciation," 22 units, 50c.
Send "Get -Acquainted" Assortment of older Guides, $1.00.

NAME ....
ADDRESS

really come to life until Grandpa
(Charles Coburn) gives it a re-
assuring pat as he saunters
down the street.

In fairness both to the novel
and to the motion picture, it
must be remembered that each
employs a different method of
approach. What takes the least
time to read is most suitable for
the visual medium because of the
action involved. Someone read-
ing of the egg-hunt by Gavin
and Robert might have thought
it beautiful prose. Nevertheless,
it was entirely unsuited for the
screen.

In conclusion, we may note
that the film makes certain ad-
ditions, employing “Hollywood
touches.” Alison singing “Auld
Lang Syne” at the Flower Show,
with Robert looking on lovingly
is totally unnecessary to the
s t 0 r y but rather pleasant.
Then there are the added love
scenes between Alison and Rob-
ert. These are enacted in the
true Scottish tradition, upon a
bridge. Grandpa .selling Papa
Reekie’s encyclopaedia is an ex-
cellent bit of “busine.ss” which
the good Dr. Cronin might well
have included in the novel.

■V V

Synopsis of the Film Version of
"The Green Years"

The film opens with Robert Shan-
non (Dean Stockwell), an orphan, ar-
riving from Dublin, Ireland, in the
small village of Loganford, Scotland,
to make his home with his grand-
mother, the kindly, hard-vcorking wife
of Loganfoid’s fatuous and thrifty
assistant sanitary inspector. Papa
Leckie. It is Mama Leckie herself
( Selena Royle ) who meets the lad on
his arrival, forgets her Scottish re-
serve long enough to give him a wel-
come hug in public, and initiates him
into the vagaries of her sprawling
family.

Murdoch, sober, bespectacled youth
(Robert North), is Mama Leckie’s
youngest son and therefore Robeit’s
youngest uncle. Kate, daughter of the
family (.Jessica Tandy), teaches school

and is the prisoner of her own con-
fused emotions. Adam, the oldest
Leckie son (Norman Lloyd), is a suc-
cessful and pompous insurance ex-
ecutive who lives elegantly in Lon-
don. Papa Leckie himself (Hume
Cronyn) is greedy, scrimping, vain, a
veritable Old Scrooge, who* granted
the doubtful authority of minor of-
ficialdom, bears himself as a power
in the municipality.

Only Grandpa Gow (Charles Co-
burn) is human enough or independ-
ent enough, to make the sensitive
youngster feel completely welcome

in this ill-assoited household. The
two strike up a warm friendship.
Grandpa, being Mama Leckie’s father,
is really Robert’s great-grandfather,
but the child is more in spiritual ac-
cord with the Rabelaisian old gentle-
man than with anyone else in the fam-
ily. Grandpa, called Dandie by his
friends, is a bawdy, lusty, incorrig-
ible with the demeanor of a mangey
lion, the understanding heart of an
unregenerate drunkard, and the auth-
ority of Sir Oracle.

Young Robert’s efforts to reconcile
his Irish Catholic upbringing within

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

the narrowing confines of this rugged
Presbyterian home atmosphere brings
him to a declaration of open rebellion
against his matriarchal great-grand-
mother Leckie, Papa Leckie’s mother
(Glady Cooper), who rules the family
with an iron hand.

It is this despotic beldame who
makes Robie a suit of clothes out of
a discarded green petticoat, causing
him to become the butt of cruel jokes
at the hands of his young school-
mates. Only an inconclusive fistfight
with Gavin Blair, handsome young-
son of the town’s wealthiest family
(Richard Lyon), redeems Robie’s
faith in himself. The two, Gavin and
Robie, become fast friends after the
fight.

Robie, in fi-equent company with
Gavin and pretty Alison Keith, an-
other schoolmate (Eilene Janssen),
now experiences for the first time
some of the pleasures of childhood.
Robie’s happiness is really complete
when Gavin gives him an old micro-
scope with which to pursue his all-
absorbing interest in science.

The youngster has performed bril-
liantly in school; so brilliantly that he

is nominated as a candidate to com-
pete for a five-year medical scholar-
ship at the University. Thrifty Papa
Leckie, however, rules that it is time
Robie (now Tom Drake) paid his own
way, and sends him to work in the
Loganford Boiler Works.

Robert, desperate, appeals to grand-
pa, and the old gentleman takes the
case to Jason Reid (Richard Haydn),
headmaster of the school and Robie’s
early mentor. Together they decide
that grandpa shall sign the necessary
documents and Jason shall give the
young man six weeks of the most in-
tensive tutoring to enable him to win
the scholarship examinations.

The family finally packs Papa off
to visit Adam in London and collect
a 50-pound debt which has been owed
for years. Papa Leckie also is inter-
ested in the status of Grandpa Gow’s
life insurance, amounting to 500
pounds, which has been drawn in
Papa Leckie’s favor and paid by
grandpa out of his small remittances
as a condition of his remaining a
member of the Leckie household in-
stead of going to the workhouse.

Robert’s intensive studies exhaust

him to the point where he is stricken
with pneumonia before the end of the
scholarship examinations. He flunks
out, and goes back to work in the
boilershop. Meanwhile Alison (Bev-
erly Tyler, now) has developed a fine
singing voice and goes to the Univer-
sity to study.

The family misses Grandpa one
night, and the next morning his hat
turns up by the side of the pond, in-
dicating suicide. But Grandpa, red-
eyed and haggard from a four-day
carousal, appears. He’d been in jail.

Robert nurses Grandpa through the
after-effects of his debauchery, but
the old gentleman is warned that an-
other repetition will mean his life. A
few weeks later, at the gay and color-
ful Highland Games, he succumbs to
a stroke. He dies in Robert’s arms as
Alison, guest soloist at the great car-
nival, sings.

At the reading of Dandie’s will, a
codicil reveals he has left his insur-
ance to Robert — who, with it, finally
realizes his long desire and sets off
for the University to begin his medi-
cal studies. Alison is there, waiting
for him.

The "Green Years" as a Novel

BY HARRIET BERNHEIM

Age 17, Student at Weequahic High School, Newark, New Jersey

The Green Years is the story
of Robert Shannon, a young or-
phan whose Scottish mother had
run away from home and mar-
ried an Irishman. Robert was
raised as a Catholic, and after
his mother’s death, he went to
live with his Scottish grandpar-
ents. Living there also were his
grandfather’s mother and his
grandmother’s father. The story
tells of his experiences at school
and at home, and of his attempt
at the Marshall, an important
scholarship examination. H e
missed winning because of an
attack of diphtheria.

The four main people in his
home were ; Grandpa, his great-
grandfather, who was an irre-
sponsible, boasting, penniless
man ; grandma, his great-grand-

mother, who was a religious
woman and who thoroughly dis-
liked grandpa ; mama, his grand-
mother, who was a very kind
woman who had to “put up
with’’ a very “tight” husband ;
and papa, his grandfather, who
had forbidden his mother to en-
ter the house after running off
and who was a stingy, boastful,
intolerable man, always talking
about his promotion to head of
the Waterworks.

The great-grandfather, who
was treated quite badly by papa,
especially after mama’s death,
had an insurance policy, which
was supposed to have been made
out to papa. It seems that when
Robert had been unable to win
the Marshall, grandpa had gone
to the lawyer and changed it.

so that Robert would be the
beneficiary. The old man did
this so that the boy would be
able to attend school with the
money and become a zoologist (a
desire that was always his
greatest dream) .

After grandpa’s stroke and
subsequent death, Robert was
told that he was to receive the
money, much to the dismay of
papa and Adam, an uncle.

The book ends with Robert
again stepping into the church
to offer thanks for this wonder-
ful gift.

I enjoyed this book very much.
I hated to leave it until I was
finished, and then I was sorry
that I had finished it. I think
I’ll read it again after 1 see the
movie.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

PHOTOPLAY GUIDES

MUSIC ASSORTMENT; April Romance (Schubert), The Mikado, Moonlight Sonata (With Paderewski),
They Shall Have Music(Jascha Heifetz), Saludos Amigos.

5 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 60c 25?

FRENCH-SPANISH ASSORTMENT: Harvest (Guide in French), Les Miserables (Hugo),
toinette (French Revolution), A Tale of Two Cities, Saludos Amigos.

5 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 60c

Marie An-

25?

DRAMA ASSORTMENT: Hollywood Cavalcade (History of the Movies), A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
The Mikado, As You Like It, Winterset (Maxwell Anderson), Pygmalion (Shaw), Stage Door (Kauf-
man and Feiber), The Plough and the Stars, Anne of Green Gables (With Radio Play).

9 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 90c 50?

ELEMENTARY ASSORTMENT; Anne of Green Gables, Captains Courageous, Edison the Man, Robin
Hood, Tom Sawyer Detective, The Wizard of Oz, Twenty-Three and a Half Hours’ Leave, Pinocchio,
Snow White, Treasure Island, David Copperfield, Union Pacific.

12 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $1.20 75?

BIOGRAPHICAL ASSORTMPINT: Conquest (Charles Boyer as Napoleon), Edison the Man, The Life
of Emile Zola, Man of Conquest (Sam Houston), Marie Antionette, Moonlight Sonata (Paderewski),
Queen of Destiny (Victoria), Stanley and Livingstone, Victoria the Great, Toast of New York, North-
west Passage. 11 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $1.30 75?

AUDITORIUM ASSORTMENT (16MIVL FEATURES); Harvest, In His Steps, Moonlight Sonata, 231/2
Hours Leave, Union Pacific, Stanley & Livingstone, Give Me Liberty, A Tale of Two Cities, Mutiny on
the Bounty, Servant of the People, Caiitains Couiageous, The Good Earth, Men with Wings, Treasure
Island, David Copperfield. 15 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $1.90 00

LITERATURE ASSORTMENT; Captains Courageous, The Citadel, Goodbye Mr. Chips, The Good Earth,
Gunga Din, Kidnapped (Stevenson), Mutiny on the Bounty, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Robin Hood,
Les Miserables, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copi)erfield, Treasure Island, Human Comedy, Pygmalion,
Tom Sawyer Detective. 1(3 IHustiated Booklets, Regularly $1.70 $1.00

INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING ASSORTMENT: Captains Courageous, The Citadel, Con-
quest, Drums, Goodbye, Mr. Chips; Edison the Man, The Good Earth, Gunga Din, The Life of Emile
Zola, Marie Antoinette, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Mikado, Moonlight Sonata, Music for
Madanie, Mutiny on the Bounty, Northwest Mounted, Pinocchio, The Plough and the Stars, Pygmalion,
Queen of Destiny, Victoria the Great, The Real Glory, Robin Hood, Saludos Amigos, Servant of the
People, Snow White, Stanley and Livingstone, They Shall Have Music.

28 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $3.30 $1.20

SOCIAL STUDIPIS ASSORTMENT: Allegheny Uprising, Boys Town, Conquest (Charles Boyer as
Napoleon), Drums (India), Give Me Liberty (Patrick Henry), The Good Earth (China), The Life of
Emile Zola, Man of Conquest (Story of Sam Houston), Marie Antoinette, Men With Wings (History
of Aviation). Mutiny on the Bounty (British History), Northwest Passage, The Plough and the Stars
(Irish Rebellion), Queen of Destiny (Biography of Victoria), The Real Glory (Philippine Constabulary),
Servant of the People (Adoption of the U. S. Constitution), Stanley and Livingstone, Toast of New
York (Wall Street Financial History), Union Pacific (First Transcontinental Railroad), Victoria the
Great (Biography of Queen Victoria), North West Mounted Police (Canada), Mr. Smith Goes to Wash-
ington, Les Miserables, The Citadel, Captains Courageous, Kidnapped, Robin Hood, In Old Oklahoma,
A Tale of Two Cities, Saludos Amigos, Winterset, Gunga Din.

32 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $3.50 $1.25

ORDER BLANK

TO: EDUCATIONAL & RECREATIONAL GUIDES, INC., 172 Renner Avenue, Newark 8, N. .1.

□ SEND the assortments checked above. Enclosed is

□ SEND COMBINATION ORDER of all these assortments. Regulaily $15.00 $6.95

□ ENTER or RENEW subscription to “Film & Radio Guide,” $2.00 a year.

NAME

ADDRESS

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A Quide to the Discussion of the 16mm Screen Version of

TREASURE ISLAND

TREASURE ISLAND. Running time, 44
minutes. 1 6mm condensation of the MCM
photoplay version of Robert Louis Ste-
venson's novel, directed by Victor Flem-
ing. Released through Teaching Film
Custodians. Available through YMCA
Motion Picture Bureau, 347 Madison
Ave., New York 17, N. Y., and branches
at Chicago, Dallas, and San Francisco.

Robert Louis Stevenson told
how he came to write Treasure
Island in an article entitled “My
First Book,” which appeared in
the August, 1894, issue of the
London Idler. While he was
writing the story originally as
a serial for Young Folks in 1881,
Stevenson wrote a letter to his
friend William Ernest Henley
(author of Tnvictus) , telling of
the project:

“I believe there’s more coin
in it than in any amount of
crawlers : now, see here. The Sea
Cook, or Treasure Island: A
Storg for Boys.

“If this don’t fetch the kids,
why they have gone rotten since
my day. Will you be surprised
to learn that it is all about buc-
caneers, that it begins in the
Admiral Benbow public house on
Devon Wast, that it’s all about
a map, and a treasure, and a
mutiny, and a derelict ship, and
a current, and a fine old Squire
Trelawney (the real Tre, purged
of literature and sin, to suit the
infant mind), and a doctor, and
another doctor, and a sea-cook
with one leg, and a sea-song with

BY WILLIAM LEWIN

the chorus “Yo-ho-ho and a bot-
tle of rum” (at the third Ho you
heave at the capstan bars),
which is a real buccaneer’s song,
only known to the crew of the
late Captain Flint (died of
rum at Key West, much regret-
ted) . . .

“Two chapters are written,
have been tried on Lloyd with
great success; the trouble is to
work it off without oaths, bricks
without straw. Both youth and
the fond parent have to be con-
sulted. . .

“A chapter a day I mean to do
— they are short — and perhaps
in a month The Sea Cook may
to Routledge go, yo-ho-ho and a
bottle of rum. No woman in the
story, Lloyd’s orders, and who
so blithe to obey? It’s awful fun,
boy’s stories; you must indulge
the pleasure of your heart, that’s
all; no trouble, no strain. The
only stiff thing is to get it ended
— that I don’t see, but I look to
a volcano.”

A subsequent letter of Steven-
son’s to Henley in 1883 “con-
fesses” that the idea of Long
John’s “maimed strength and
masterfulness” was “entirely
taken from” Henley, whose leg
had been amputated because of
tuberculosis of the foot.

Stevenson’s friendship with
Henley is significant- Both writ-
ers were uncommonly brave in
the face of physical handicaps.
Both were fearless and uncon-

ventional in their habits and
ideas.

Literary Source

How did Stevenson come to
write Treasure Island? What
type of story is it? What is its
theme ? When was Treasure
Island first published? How old
would Stevenson be if he were
living today? What sort of man
was he? How does his life show
that fine work is often born of
great suffering? Did you enjoy
the book? What elements make
the book good material for a
photoplay ?

Adaptation to Screen

How long did it take you to
read Treasure Island? If you
had to adapt Treasure Island so
that the story could be told on
the screen in 44 minutes, what
would be some of your prob-
lems? If Stevenson had used a
camera and actors instead of pen
and paper to tell his story, what
changes would he probably have
made? Is the story told by the
photoplay essentially the same
as in the book? Do you consider
it a good adaptation? Did any
incidents seem less horrible or
gory on the screen than in the
book? What differences did you
note ? Which does the screen ver-
sion resemble more, a drama or
a novel? What did the scenario
writer omit? What did he
change? Which did you find
more thrilling or absorbing, the

For reprints of this Quide to the Discussion of the 16mm ScreenV ersion of **Treasure Island/^
at 50 a copy, address the YMCA Motion Picture Bureau, 347 Madison Are., New York 1 7 , N.Y.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

TOP — Jim Hawkins and Coptoin Bones. MIDDLE — The death af Captain Banes.
BOTTOM — Arms against mutiny on the Hispaniola.

book or the film? Why? Which
has the stronger ending?

Costumes and Properties

Mention some of the “proper-
ties” necessary to re-create the
period of Treasure Island. What
were some items required, for
example, at the Admiral Ben-
bow, on board the Hispaniola, in
the stockade? Describe some of
the weapons of the period — cut-
lasses, dirks, flint pistols, mus-
kets. How were the leading char-
acters dressed? Describe their
hats, trousers, dresses, shoes,
hair, pipes, etc.

Plot Study

What is the “black spot”?
Where does suspense begin in
the photoplay? Enumerate inci-
dents that build suspense. Why
d i d Stevenson construct the
story with so many incidents
that end with suspense? Where
is the suspense greatest in the
book? In the film? What are the
most surprising turns in the
plot of the novel? Of the film?
Are these incidents logical, or
are they artificial coincidences?
Is the story-structure of the film
well knit? Is there any place
where the connection is not
clear? How does the film end?
Does the change in ending
change the spirit or the letter
of the story, or both?

Character Study

Make a list of the leading
characters and tell which char-
acters appeared on the screen
most nearly as you imagined
them and which least. Which
character is based on W. E. Hen-
ley? Explain. Who is the central
character of the story? Why did
Stevenson originally call his
story The Sea Cook? Was Jim
older or younger in the book
than the boy portrayed by Jackie
Cooper? Which characters are
portrayed most vividly on the

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

screen? Describe each briefly.

Dialog Study

To what extent does the dia-
log follow that of the book?
What difference is there? Find
some examples of close parallels.
Is there, relatively, more dialog
in the film than in the book?
Why? Is the language true to
the characters? Is the dialog of
the pirates true to buccaneer
life?

Work of the Director

Who directed the picture?
What were his duties and prob-
lems? Did he succeed? What is
the most famous picture he has
directed? How does that picture
compare with this in length?

ideals and Attitudes

Did this photoplay make you
wish to be a pirate? Would you
like to fight pirates today? How
did the book express Stevenson’s
spirit and ideals?

Suggestions for Reading

Does having seen the photo-
play make you wish to read
more of Stevenson’s stories ?
What stories of his have you
read? What story of his do you
intend to read next? Do you find
that a photoplay is more enjoy-
able if you have previously read
the book on which it is based?
Explain. Is it well to watch for
announcements of coming pic-
tures based on classics and to
read the books before seeing the
films? Do you know of any
classics soon to be screened?

The following books may in-
terest you : Stevenson’s Kid-
napjjexl and The Master of Bal-
lantrae. Irving’s Tales of a
Traveler. Marryat’s Master man.
Ready. Conrad’s Typhoon. Coop-
er’s The Pilot. Kingsley’s West-
ward Ho! Sabatini’s Captam
Blood. Dana’s Two Years Be-
fore the Mast. Masefield’s an-
thology, A Sailor’s Garland.

TOP — The Hispaniola. MIDDLE — Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver.
BOTTOM — The treasure in Ben Gunn's cave.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

Famous Characters Come Alive in 16mm

W. C. Fields os Mr, Micowber ond Freddie Bartholomew os David in "David Copperfield: the Boy."

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A Quide to the Discussion of the 16mm Screen Version of

DAVID COPPERFIELD

DAVID COPPERFIELD: THE BOY.
Running time, 44 minutes. DAVID COP-
PERFIELD: THE MAN. Running time, 44
minutes. 16mm condensations of the
MGM photoplay. Released through
Teaching Film Custodians. Available
through YMCA Motion Picture Bureau,
347 Madison Ave., New York 17, N. Y.,
and branches at Chicago, Dallas, and San
Francisco.

Max J. Herzberg, in his fore-
word to the guide prepared by
Mrs. Mary Allen Abbott at the
time of the theatrical release of
the screen version of David
Cojjperfield, pointed out that
the writings of Charles Dickens
are “proving to be, in essence,
extraordinarily cinematic. He
seems to have had a prescience
of what we call screen possibili-
ties, except that he offers an
embarrassment of riches.”

This embarrassment is all the
greater when the film cutter is
faced with the necessity of re-
ducing the running time of this
film to 88 minutes, making of
the original lengthy theatrical
feature a pair of 44-minute
16mm films for school use. Mrs.
Abbott’s analysis of the excel-
lent full-length feature as orig-
inally produced by David 0.
Selznick is therefore especially
appropriate in relation to the
new 16mm version :

“It was impossible, of course,
to show all the characters of
the book. Writing his story in
monthly installments, Dickens
was free to introduce a new
character or a new story-inter-
est whenever he felt so inclined.
Each character may be said to
live in a little world of his own.
It was Dickens’s task to bring
these characters, these story-

BY WILLIAM LEWIN

interests, together. Sometimes
he made use of a long-lost rela-
tive, husband, or friend who
“turns up” at a convenient mo-
ment— or rather an inconvenient
moment as far as somebody in
the story is concerned. In David
Copperfield, it is Aunt Betsy’s
husband, believed dead, who
“turns up” rather unconvinc-
ingly.

“Fortunately Aunt Betsy’s
husband does not turn up in
the film. Other characters omit-
ted, a host of them, are various
relatives or friends of the main
characters, important persons in
their own little world and nec-
essary to a full understanding
of the main characters, but not
essential or even possible in a
dramatic treatment of David
Copperfield. Such persons are
Uriah Heep’s mother and Mr.
Spenlow and Dora’s dear friend,
Miss Mills. Again, characters
are omitted because the whole
tale in which they figure is not
used in the screen play. You
will not see Mr. Creakle, the
whipping master, nor Tommy
Traddles, nor the cheerful un-
dertaker, Mr. Omer, nor many
others, but you will see a very
generous gallery of Dickens’s
characters.

“The problem of screening
David Copperfield seems to lie
first of all in deciding what in-
cidents to select, what to reject.
After you have seen the film,
you will want to go back to the
book, and try to discover what
was omitted and for what rea-
sons. The persons concerned in
these problems were the pro-
ducer, David Selznick ; the di-

rector, George Cukor ; the writer
of the screen play, Howard Es-
tabrook ; and the English novel-
ist, Hugh Walpole, who super-
vised the adaptation.”

In the light of Mrs. Abbott’s
suggestions, alert teachers will
find these two 44-minute films
of great value as springboards
from which to start lively dis-
cussions of plot elements, char-
acterizations, and human- rela-
tions problems. Students will
enjoy comparing the film and
the book, and they will be stim-
ulated to read additional vol-
umes from the Dickens book-
shelf.

The Characters

Aunt Betsy Edna Mae Oliver

Mrs. Copperfield Elizabeth Allan

Nurse Peggotty Jessie Ralph

David Copperfield, the boy

Freddie Bartholomew

David Copperfield, the man

Frank Lawton

Mr. Mui’dstone Basil Rathbone

Mr. Barkis Herbert Mundin

Ham Peggotty John Buckler

Mrs. Gummidge Una O’Connor

Little Em’ly Fay Chaldecott

Em’ly (sixteen years old)

Florine McKinney

Dan Peggotty Lionel Barrymore

Jane Murdstone.. Violet Kemble Cooper

Mrs. Micawber Jean Cadell

Mr. Micawber W. C. Fields

Mr. Dick Lennox Pawle

Uriah Keep Roland Young-

Dr. Wickfield Lewis Stone

Agnes Wickfield Madge Evans

Steerforth Hugh Williams -

Dora Spenlow Maureen O’Sullivan

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

Miniature Stills for Use by Students
As Illustrations in Notebooks
and Compositions

Characters and Scenes in the 16mm Feature, "David Copperfield: the Boy."

UPPER LEFT — Mr. Murdstone, Nurse Peggoty, Dovy, and Mrs. Copperfield. UPPER RIGHT — Davy and Peggofy. LOWER LEFT —
Davy, Aunt Bety Trotwood, ond Mr. Dick. LOWER RIGHT — Uriah Heep ond Dovy.

For additional copies of this Illustrated Quide to the 16mm version of
*^David Copperfield/^ address YMCA Motion Picture Bureau^ 347 Madi-
son Avenue, New York 17, N. Y. Enclose 5^ per copy to cover cost of
printing and mailing. Ask for complete list of film classics.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

APRIL, 1946

Characfers and Scenes in the 16nim Feature, "David Copperfied: the Man."

UPPER LEFT — Dora, David's childish wife. UPPER RIGHT — Dan Peggoty, David, Mrs. Cummid);c, and Ham. LOWER LEFT —
David, Mr. Dick, Agnes, Mr. Wickfield, Mr. Micawbcr, Aunt Betsy, and Uriah Heep. LOWER RIGHT — David and Agnes.

Suggested Activities

1. On a map of England lo-
cate some of the places where
the action of Darnel Copperfield
takes place: Yarmouth, Dover,
London, the Dover Road, Can-
terbury.

2. Make a list of the leading
characters in the film and men-
tion a bit of action or “business”
which serves to visualize some
character trait of each.

3. Discuss the camera tech-
nique of the film by pointing
out examples of close-ups, long
shots, lap dissolves, shots from
high angles and low angles.

What purposes may determine
the use of a close-up? What de-
termines the angle of a shot?

4. Discuss the editing (cut-
ting) of the film. Mention an ex-
ample of quick and effective cut-
ting from one scene to another
without breaking the logical con-
tinuity of the story. Mention an
example of cutting that weak-
ens the story structure by a loss
of clearness in connection.

5. Mention two or three scenes
in the film that you liked par-
ticularly. Mention a scene that
you did not like. Give reasons
for your selections- Did any
scene make you laugh? Did any

one make you very sad? What
part of the film was most excit-
ing?

6. In what respects are any of
the characters or episodes of the
story based on the life of Dick-
ens?

7. Bring to class one of the
following books, and be prepared
to point out some of the most in-
teresting parts or chapters :

a. Another book by Dickens.

b. Bartlett’s Familiar Quota-
tions (the sections dealing with
items from Dickens) .

c. The Greatest Pages of
Charles Dickens, by Stephen
Leacock.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

A Unique Audio-Visual Center

BY ERNEST TIEMANN

Director, Department of Visual Education, Pueblo Junior College

Today the spotlight of public
opinion has again been sharply
focused upon our educational in-
stitutions. Tremendous interest
is being shown in the methods
and techniques which our teach-
ers utilize in the classrooms of
the nation. To meet the chal-
lenging problems confronting
our country, no effort should be
spared to utilize the most effec-
tive teaching materials which
science has placed at the dis-
posal of the instructor. Never in
the history of public education
have the opportunities been
better for the educator to take
advantage of the great variety
of teaching tools which, if prop-
erly used, can enrich the learn-
ing experiences of students and
contribute toward a higher
standard of education.

To facilitate the distribution
and improve the utilization of
these new tools of learning, the
Department of Visual Education
of the Pueblo Junior College has
been authorized to set up a re-
gional Center of Teaching Ma-
terials. Sound motion pictures,
slide materials, transcriptions,
l)ictures, charts, and other teach-
ing aids will be incorporated
into the new library and distrib-
uted to schools and organiza-
tions within this Colorado re-
gion.

The Department has already
purchased over 500 titles of ed-
ucational films and filmslides.
An additional $5,000.00 has been
appropriated to purchase new
materials. A great deal of em-
phasis will be placed upon the
acquisition o f teaching films
dealing with vocational subjects.

The new shipping department

Ernest Tiemann, director of the visual-
education department ot Pueblo Junior
College.

provides space for over 500 mo-
tion picture films and an equal
number of slidefilms. Special
racks have been installed to as-
sist in filing guides for teacher
and student use.

An advisory committee has
been appointed to assist in the
selection of teaching materials
for the Center. This committee
has also been instrumental in
formulating a service policy
which would increase the effec-
tiveness of the Center as a co-
ordinating agency for all types
of teaching materials. The mem-
bers of this committee are com-
posed of representatives of the
various local school units, adult
education groups, and indus-
tries. Weekly previewing panels
have been organized to aid in the
selection of materials for the
Center. Criteria have been out-
lined, on the basis of which the
panels make their recommenda-
tions. Selected teaching materi-
als covering all phases of the
curriculum are analyzed. Only
those aids which meet educa-

tional specifications are retained
for permanent use.

Adequate administrative
forms and files for maximum
utilization of the audio-visual
materials have been developed.
The accession card lists each
type of material in the Center
and includes the necessary tech-
nical information about each
item. The master card contains
a more detailed analysis of each
piece of material and provides
space for a description of the
content to assist in selection and
utilization.

Within the next few months a
catalog of audio-visual materials
will be prepared to place into
the hands of those who wish to
use the materials. This catalog
will be supplemented by monthly
bulletins and news letters.

Extensive plans are being-
made to bring about more effec-
tive utilization of the teaching-
materials that will become avail-
able. A special pre-service train-
ing course will be offered. This
basic course, listed as “Utiliza-
tion of Audio-Visual Aids,” will
provide an opportunity to make
a study of the function of audio-
visual aids in the learning proc-
ess and analyze the general prin-
ciples underlying their selection,
use, and production. Some time
will be devoted to studying the
advantages, limitations, a n d
practical uses of various types
of audio-visual aids. A similar
course will be offered as a part
of the in-service teacher-train-
ing program and will be given
in connection with our regular
evening classes.

in addition to offering organ-
ized courses, demonstrations and

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

APRIL, 1946

clinics will be held at the vari-
ous schools throughout this area
to assist teachers in fitting the
various teaching materials into
their curricula. In the adult edu-
cation area, forum leaders will
be given assistance and offered
materials which might be incor-
porated into their educational
activities.

An annual regional conference
and a workshop are also being
planned. These activities will
provide opportunities for teach-
ers and administrators to be-
come acquainted with national
leaders in the audio-visual move-

ment and to learn new methods
and techniques of utilizing the
various materials which will be
placed at their disposal.

Pueblo Junior College is one
of the few junior colleges in the
country that have attempted to
meet the challenge of providing
teaching materials on a regional
basis. Winifred Long, acting Ex-
ecutive Secretary of the Ameri-
can Association of Junior Col-
leges, states, “I do not know of
any other junior college now of-
ering this type of service.” The
great bottleneck that exists be-
tween producer and consumer of

teaching materials can be alle-
viated if the educational institu-
tions in the various geographic
areas of each state build Centers
of Teaching Materials and fur-
nish the necessary professional
leadership to administer them
effectively. With production of
educational teaching materials
being stepped up tremendously,
it is up to the educational insti-
tutions of this nation to meet the
great need of channeling these
productions into the classrooms
of each school and to assist each
teacher to develop effective tech-
niques of utilization.

Audio-Visual Aids in the Davenport,
Iowa, Elementary Schools

BY C. J. BUTTERFIELD

Director of Elementary Education, Davenport, Iowa

The value and importance of
audio-visual aids in improving
and facilitating the educational
program has been demonstrated
over a period of twenty years.
During this time educators have
reached an almost unanimous
conclusion that these materials
save time and increase teaching
efficiency. The public elemen-
tary schools of Davenport, Iowa,
have made active and effective
use of many forms of audio-vis-
ual education in improving the
educational product. In this city,
the use of audio-visual aids is
based upon the premise that the
problem of meaning is central in
the whole problem of learning.
The prevalence of verbalism at
all levels has been pointed out.
In numerous instances abstrac-
tions are taught without rich
and varied backgrounds of con-
crete experience. It is our con-

viction that if school instruc-
tion is to become more meaving-
ful, audio-visual aids must be
used to enrich and vary the pu-
pils’ concrete and semi-concrete
experiences. Our school board’s
conviction that motion pictures
are valuable instructional aids is
backed up by adequate financial
support. Budgetary allowances
for audio-visual materials are in
proper relation to those for other
teaching materials, and the re-
sults of systematic instruction
through audio-visual devices
more than justify their use as
valuable aids for teaching.

Perhaps the most spectacular
and popular of the audio-visual
aids are silent and sound films,
but these are by no means the
only ones which are used in our
classrooms. Together with maps,
models, posters, pictures, graphs,
slides, strip films, radios, stere-

oscopes, and phonograph rec-
ords they go to make up a well-
rounded audio-visual program in
the schools. Increasingly, atten-
tion is being centered on these
devices to accomplish the educa-
tional objectives which are vital
in the lives of children. Many of
the audio-visual devices listed
have been classified for use with
various units and are made
available through library facili-
ties within the schools. Their
purpose is to motivate, to intro-
duce, to arouse interest, and to
raise questions and problems re-
garding a subject. They are used
singly, but often in combinations
when two or more of the media
correlate advantageously. Teach-
ers and pupils are thereby en-
abled to use these media to de-
velop more intelligent generali-
zations and provide new experi-
ences which are not possible un-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

der the textbook approach. In
other words, an integrated use
of a variety of audio-visual aids
helps to solve the old problem of
arranging learning material in
useful and understandable form.
However, since most of the
audio-visual aids used are by no
means new, and since the use of
sound and silent films is of com-
paratively recent origin, the
main emphasis in this article
will be centered on 16mm sound
and silent films. The question of
how and when either is used
must be answered in terms of
the particular class and the par-
ticular subject in which they
are presented. Each has a spe-
cific contribution to make, al-
though silent films seem to be
more beneficial in stimulating
the child’s imagination and con-
centration, while sound films are
of greatest value where sound
and voice may add knowledge
hard to acquire by other means
in the classroom. Projectors,
screens, a n d other materials
used with sound and silent films
are housed chiefly in auditor-
iums, although some classrooms
are equipped with shades for
darkening the rooms. Wide-scale
use of the auditorium has the
disadvantage of moving classes
through the corridors. Pupils
under these conditions, further-
more, are likely to look on the
film as a “picture show.”

In order to be assured that
films shall be available at the
right time and for a long enough
period of time, a film library for
the Davenport public schools
was begun several years ago.
These films were selected for the
purpose of adding realism to the
instructional program of the
schools in the areas of art,
health and safety, science, and
social studies. Many teachers
want more film materials in
their teaching areas. This condi-
tion will undoubtedly exist until

a back-log of films for all cur-
riculum areas and grades is
available. Films are stored in a
central place, but slides, film-
strips, projectors, and transcrip-
tions are the property of each
school. Thus, distribution is not
a major problem. Each year ad-
ditional films are added to the
library. These additions are
made by a committee which ex-
ercises extreme care in the se-
lection and evaluation of new
films. In the absence of a Direc-
tor of Visual Instruction, the
committee assumes the respon-
sibility of selecting films, classi-
fying and organizing them in re-
lation to curriculum units, and
listing them for the information
of teachers. Each film is evalu-
ated by the teacher who uses it.

One of the most important
factors in audio-visual educa-
tion is the development of a
readiness on the part of teach-
ers to use visual aids as an aid
to instruction. The percentage
of teachers now using films in
their teaching is not so large as
it should be. The utilization
practices of many teachers using
films leaves much to be desired.
Few teachers have had special
training in visual education, and
time is needed to develop the
confidence and the sui)port of
the inexperienced. Teachers
must believe in the value of vis-
ual and auditory aids. They must
prepare for the use of such ma-
terials in the classroom to the
same extent that they prepare
for the use of other instructional
matei’ials. They must know what
is in a film and prepare children
to look for answers to problems.
The teacher of today who is not
interested in using audio-visual
aids is failing to use devices
which have much to contribute.

Buildings and libraries
throughout the Davenijort sys-
tem are supplied annually with
annotated lists of films in the

library, indicating the areas to
which they apply, and the grade-
levels for which they are appro-
priate. Films are classified not
only by subject field, but in
units within that subject. Such
a classification supplies the
teacher with a ready reference
for audio-visual aids. Handbooks
which suggest proper techniques
of presentation and follow-up
activities are likewise made
available to teachers.

In order to develop active re-
ceptivity, teacher a n d pupil
preparation are essential. This
is assured to some extent by
correlating the audio-visual ed-
ucation program with supple-
mentary reading, field trips, and
activities which develop back-
ground and setting in the minds
of children. Through such first-
hand experiences children are
given an opportunity to see more
vividly the relationships and ob-
jectives in the course of study.
We believe that background and
experience are essential to nn-
dersfandiiifi, and that there is
as much danger in the over-use
of audio-visual aids as in their
under-use. Hence, concrete ex-
periences are emphasized to the
exclusion of the use of films for
entertainment.

In carrying out our audio-vis-
ual education program, we have
drawn heavily from experience.
We have found our experience
interesting and valuable in pre-
senting instruction to pupils of
vai’ying backgrounds and abili-
ties. During the school year of
1944-45 ninety-eight different
films were shown more than five
hundred times in twelve elemen-
tary schools. It is our hope that
what has been done constitutes
a beginning, and that eventually
the proper audio-visual aids and
the proper use of them will make
instruction more effective by
bringing it closer to the realitu
of cxpeiie)ice.

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A Suggested Policy as to "Free" Films

Formulated at the Michigan Audio-Visual Conference, April 6, 1946

While t-his issue of FILM AND RADIO
GUIDE was on the press, we received by
airmail from our contributing editor, B.
A. Aughinbaugh, this statement of sug-
gested educational policy embodied in a
resolution adopted by the meeting held
at Detroit, Michigan, to which Mr. Augh-
inbaugh refers in his article elsewhere in
this issue. The criteria herein set forth
ore of such educational significance that
we have delayed the issue in order to
include the item at once. Further ma-
terial in relation to the notable Detroit
conference will appear in the May issue.

Public schools should serve
the interests of all of the people.
Therefore, instructional mater-
ials used should be free of the
influence of special interests.

Audio-visual materials, partic-
ularly films, subsidized by spe-
cial-interest groups, are being
offered to the schools in increas-
ing quantities.

Some of these materials do
have significant instructional
values and do offer experiences
not otherwise available. The use
of the best of these, however, in-
volves furthering the sponsor’s
interest in some degree.

Schools cannot develop ad-
equate audio-visual programs
based solely on sponsored ma-
terials. Indeed, too great an ac-
ceptance of sponsored films will
retard the development of non-
sponsored educational-film en-
terprise.

The use of a sponsored film
can be justified only in terms of
bringing to the learner a valu-
able experience that would other-
wise be denied to him. Constant
care must be exercised in weigh-
ing the educational values of a
film against the furthering of
the sponsor’s special interest.

The final determination of
whether or not sponsored audio-

visual materials shall be used
and the conditions under which
they shall be used is a matter
for local decision. Each school
system has a responsibility for
developing its own criteria and
policy with regard to such ma-
terials.

Considerations for determin-
ing educational value of spon-
sored audio-visual materials are
these :

a. To what degree do the objec-
tives of the material harmon-
ize with the educational ob-
jectives of the school?

b. Is the material :

1. Accurate and authentic in

fact?

2. Representative in its selec-

tion of the fact?

3. Truthful and sincere in

treatment?

c. Does the material present
general understandings, facts,
processes or methods, or does
it present a particular point
of view or promote a specific
brand ?

d. To what extent is the mater-
ial sound in terrqs of educa-
tional philosophy?

e To what extent is the mater-
ial significant in the sense
that it promotes an educa-
tional program better than
any other material generally
available at the time?

f. Is the material adapted to the
needs, interests, and matur-
ity level of the students who
will use it?

g. To what extent is the spon-
sor’s relationship to the ma-
terials clearly known and ac-
ceptably stated?

Suggested scale for rating

audio-visual material with re-
spect to the emphasis on the

sponsor’s special interest :

a. Materials dealing with a gen-
eral field of accepted educa-
tional value, without refer-
ence to any specific make or
product, with a single state-
ment of sponsorship.

b. Materials where the sponsor’s
interest is shown as an inte-
gral part of the material
without emphasis on a speci-
fic brand or trade name.

c. Materials dealing with a prod-

uct exclusive to one company,
but without reference to a
trade name or slogans.

d. Materials making direct ref-
erence, either pictorial or in
text, to a specific product.

e. Materials making repeated
reference to a specific prod-
uct, to a point where the prod-
uct is the focal point of the
material.

f. Materials employing distor-
tion of facts.

g. Materials with purposeful
misdirection of conclusions.

A realistic view must recog-
nize that sponsors will continue
to produce instructional mater-
ials for school use. To those
sponsors who wish to be of most
assistance to the schools, the sug-
gestions presented here to show
gradations in detriments and
benefits which sponsored mate-
rials hold should be of value.

Finally, it should be recog-
nized that a desirable form of
cooperation between sponsors
and education would consist of
making financial contributions
to established or new founda-
tions or educational institutions
for research and development in
the field of audio-visual mater-
ials.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

A New Communication Art:

The Visual Article

THE TECHNIQUE OF THE PICTURE
STORY. By Daniel D. Mich and Edwin
Ebermon. 1945. McGrow-Hill Book Co.,
Inc., 330 West 42nd St., New York 18,
N. Y. Foreword by Paul A. McGhee. 239
pages. $3.50.

This volume, as General Edu-
cation Director Paul A. McGhee
of New York University points
out in his foreword, is the out-
growth of a course of lectures in
“The Technique of the Picture
Story,” the first course of its
kind, presented at N.Y.U. by
Mich and Eberman in 1944-45.
The book itself is a picture story,
with a minimum of verbal text
and a maximum of visual appeal.
The authors are members of the
staff of Look Magazine. They of-
fer some illustrations from Life
and Coronet. They see to it, how-
ever, that a majority of the il-
lustrations come from Look.

This pioneer volume will un-
doubtedly be followed by others.
The pictorial material will be-
come quickly obsolescent. It is
largely journalistic and ephem-
eral. Its significance lies in the
academic recognition of its tech-
nique— evidence of the powerful
upward trend in the use of pic-
tures to break down the barriers
of language.

L 0 0 k, Life, Coronet, a n d
scores of other popular maga-
zines have won their wide popu-
larity by adopting a technique in
which they were notably antici-
pated by National Geographic —
the technique of beginning with
pictures and ending with words,
reversing the traditional pro-
cedure of making the picture
secondary to the word.

A definitive volume in this
field remains to be written by
an author who will combine the
journalistic talents of a picture-
magazine editor and the scholar-
ship of a visual-communication
authority, one who will give due
credit to the techniques of the

many kinds of picture-story pur-
veyors.

The present volume, mean-
while, is a highly practical in-
troduction to the work of turn-
ing out current visual articles at
high speed. It traces the steps in
developing pictorial story ideas
for periodicals such as are sold
mainly on the newsstands — the
business of preparing the shoot-
ing script, photographing shots
on location and in the studio, de-
veloping the material in confer-
ences with editors and artists,
writing the captions and the
textual continuity, supervising
and censoring the finished arti-
cle.

Four basic types of articles
are described, ranging from the
more traditional illustrations,
designed to make the verbal text
clear and luminous, to the pure
picture stories requiring virtu-
ally no text at all.

Picture magazines of world-
wide appeal are just below the
publishing horizon. The atomic
bomb is stimulating forces tend-
ing toward that “one world”
in which the most widely circu-
lated magazines will be those
which require a minimum of
translation. They will speak the
universal language of pictures.

w. L.

FIT and FAIR. 16mm sound, 2 reels, in
color, FREE. Produced by Films for In-
dustry, Inc., and sponsored by Richard
Hudnut.

The importance of good pos-
ture, poise, diet, and grooming
to the achievement of real
beauty and charm is demon-
strated by Ann Delafield, wide-
ly known beauty authority. De-
signed for the teen-age girl, the
film shows how to utilize activi-
ties of daily living to develop a
sound and beautiful body and
how to apply make-up for nat-
ural effect.

Suitability suggested : High

schools, colleges, P.T.A.’s, indus-
trial and community groups.

Available for showings, free
of charge, from the Y.M.C.A.
Motion Picture Bureau, New
York, Chicago, San Francisco,
and Dallas.

★ ★ ★

MUTINY ON THE ELSINORE. Avail-
able through Bell & Howell and other
leading film libraries. Sound. 7 Reels.
Rental $17.50.

Super-feature that follows
Jack London’s sea thriller. Paul
Lukas (Academy “Oscar” win-
ner) plays the part of an author
who takes passage aboard a sail-
ing ship in search of color for a
novel, but finds more than he
had bargained for. The ship is
buffeted by storm, her captain
killed, and life aboard made ex-
citing by a mutiny. For days a
struggle for control is waged,
with victory by the writer, the
captain’s daughter, and the loyal
members of the ci'ew. This is a
clean, exciting, vigorous adven-
ture tale.

★ ★ ★

Influence of Television

T h e American Cinematog-
rapher reports as follows re-
garding evidences of the influ-
ences of television on film pro-
ducers :

Indication that motion-picture
executives are already beginning
to think of the possibilities of
television comes with the report
that Director George Sidney, in
the selection of players for Holi-
day in Mexico, is looking for
players suitable for both regu-
lar film projection and televi-
sion. It is pointed out that play-
ers with nervous habits and in-
clinations toward the exaggera-
tion of facial expressions will
have to be especially shunned.
While films already demand
greater repression than was ever
typical of the stage, television
will require this quality to an
even greater degree.

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

The Shooting Script of the
Forum Scene in "Julius Caesar"

A British Information Services Film, Directed by
Compton Bennett. Distributed by Eastin Pictures.

VISUAL

"ihe titles are superimposed over the reconstructed
Forum in Rome. The set is a combination of Corinthian
columns, flights of steps, a cobbled causeway, with the Col-
liseum in the background. The sky is an angry, vivid
color, piesaging a storm. A few people are seen running
through the street in various directions.

Some of them stop and talk for a few moments and
then run on. The titles clear, leaving the full set of the
Forum, and in the far distance a man comes running, wav-
ing a stick. He comes to the middle of the Forum, shouting.

From diffeient sides of the Forum, one or two men and
women begin to come into picture, and they approach the
shouting men.

This is immediately followed by men, women, and boys
appearing from different parts of the Forum until it s
filled with a struggling, fighting mass.

One of the citizens points away from the camera, and
we see in the distance Brutus and Cassius, surrounded by
Senators, all with drawn swords, and with a group of
citizens, thieatening them. They are coming toward the
pulpit in the Forum. The crowd in the foreground rush
toward them in an angry, threatening manner, and the
CAMERA CRANES with the crowd until it reaches a MID-
SHOT of Brutus and Cassius, and a few of the Senators.

The swords of the Senators, stained with the blood of
Caesar, are now pointed at the threatening crowd, keeping
them off.

The CAMERA CUTS to reverse angle MID-SHOT of
crowd.

We CUT TO LONG SHOT of Forum, and we see Cassius
go out of the picture, followed by three of the Senators
and a small group of citizens.

The Camera is facing the pulpit. Brutus comes toward
the camera, walks up into the pulpit, and the crowd
gather round — with their heads in the bottom of the frame.

Brutus raises his hand to speak. He finds he is unable
to make himself heard, lowers his hand and waits.

We CUT to the mob seen from Brutus’s angle.

We stay on the crowd.

We CUT to MID-SHOT of Brutus, from a slightly low
angle, with heads and shoulders of citizens in immediate
foreground. Beyond them are the swords of the Senators,
holding the crowd back, and above is Brutus.

SOUND

Fanfare of trumpets.

MAN: Liberty! Freedom! Caesar is murdered. Tyranny is
dead.

THE CROWD: Some are shouting “Liberty! Freedom!
Caesar is murdered. Tyranny is dead!” And from this the
cry is taken up by the citizens to: “We will be satisfied!
Let us be satisfied!” The cry reaches a crescendo.

Crowd shouting throughout.

Out of the melee of voices we hear one distinct voice shout-
ing: “We will be satisfied! Let us be satisfied!”

BRUTUS: Then follow me, and give me audience, friends.
Cassius, go you into the other street.

And part the numbers.

Those that will hear me speak, let ’em stay here;

Those that will follow Cassius, go with him.

And public reasons shall be rendered
Of Caesar’s death.

1ST CITIZEN: I will hear Brutus speak.

2ND CITIZEN: I will hear Cassius and compare their
reasons when severally we hear them rendered.

Citizens shouting

VOICE in the crowd shouts — “The noble Brutus has as-
cended. Silence!” Noise begins to die down.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

CUT to reaction of crowd.

CUT BACK to CLOSER shot, low angle of Brutus.

The CAMERA is now behind Brutus, who looms large in
one corner of the frame, with the mob stretching away
into the distance.

We see in the distance the bier of Julius Caesar borne
by four men, with Mark Antony following. As the heads of
the crowd turn in their direction, the CAMERA CUTS to
M.S. of the coffin and Antony. It is a simple bier of
roughhewn wood, covered with the mantle of Julius Caesar.
The CAMERA TRUCKS with the coffin until it comes to
rest by the pulpit. The crowd, with awed faces, let them
pass.

CUT to L.S. Brutus and crowd to include bier and
Antony. Brutus descends from pulpit.

By this time the swords no longer threaten the crowd.
Brutus is surrounded by the mob and Caesar and Antony
are somewhat isolated.

CUT to M.S. of 1st Citizen and group — 1st Citizen
pushes his way forward.

CUT to another group.

CUT to M.S. Brutus and crowd.

CUT to M.S. bier and Antony. Antony is puzzled ana
wondering which angle to take with the crowd, who seem
to be completely under the spell of Brutus.

CUT BACK to group shot as seen from pulpit. Brutus
raises his hand, giving the Roman salute — moves to
Antony — shakes his hand — which Antony does unwill-
ingly— and makes his way through the crowd — followed by

BRUTUS: Be patient till the last. Romans, countrymen,
and lovers, hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you
may hear. Believe me for mine honor, and have respect to
mine honor, that you may believe. Censure me in your
wisdom, and awake your senses, that you may the better
judge. If there be any in this assemply, any dear friend
of Caesar’s, to him I say, that Brutus’s love to Caesar
was no less than his. If then, that friend demand, why
Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: not that
I lov’d Caesar less, but that I lov’d Rome more.

BRUTUS: (Continued).

Had you rather Caesar were living, and die all slaves,

than that Caesar were dead, to live all free-men? As

Caesar lov’d me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I
rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honor him; but, as he
was ambitious, I slew him. There is tears, for his love;
joy, for his fortune; honor, for his valor; and death, for
his ambition. Who is here so base, that would be a bond-
man? If any, speak, for him have I offended. Who is here
so rude, that would not be a Roman? If any, speak, for

him have I offended. Who is here so vile, that will not

love his country? If any, speak, for him have I offended.
I pause for a reply.

CROWD: None, Brutus, none.

BRUTUS: Then none have I offended. I have done no
more to Caesar, than you shall do to Brutus. The question
of his death is enroll’d in the Capitol: his glory not ex-
tenuated, wherein he was worthy; nor his offenses en-
forc’d, for which he suffered death. Here comes his body,
mourn’d by Mark Antony, who, though he had no hand
in his death, shall receive the benefit of his dying, a place
in the commonwealth, as which of you shall not?

There is a hush — and we hear only the sound of the men’s
feet on the cobbles.

BRUTUS: With this I depart, that, as I slew my best
lover for the good of Rome, I have the same dagger for
myself, when it shall please my country to need my death.
CROWD: Live, Brutus, live, live!

1ST CITIZEN: Bring him with triumph home unto his
house.

2ND CITIZEN (In the same group): Give him a statue
with his ancestors.

3RD CITIZEN (Woman): Let him be Caesar.

4TH CITIZEN: Caesar’s better parts shall be crown’d in
Brutus.

5TH CITIZEN: We’ll bring him to his house with shouts
and clamours.

BRUTUS (Raising his hand): My countrymen —

VOICE: Peace! Silence! Brutus speaks. Peace ho!
BRUTUS: Good countryman, let me depart alone.

And (for my sake) stay here with Antony:

Do grace to Caesar’s corpse, and grace his speech
Tending to Caesar’s glories, which Mark Antony
(By our permission) is allow’d to make.

I do entreat you, not a man depart.

Save I alone, till Antony have spoke.

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

the Senators. They pass out of frame.

MARK ANTONY moves out of shot as we CUT to a
group of citizens.

The Camera PANS from speaker to speaker.

CUT to bier in foreground across right corner of frame
with Mark Antony on L. of frame. He is looking round at
the mob.

CUT to group of eight Citizens.

1ST CITIZEN (Turns his back to the camera and shouts
to the crowd): Stay, ho! and let us hear Mark Antony.
2ND CITIZEN; Let him go up into the public chair.
oRD CITIZEN; We’ll hear him. Noble Antony, go up.
MARK ANTONY; For Brutus’ sake, I am beholding to
you.

A Citizen (Touching the shoulder of a Citizen in front of
him); What does he say of Brutus?

2ND CITIZEN (Looking round): He says, for Brutus’s
sake he finds himself beholding to us all.

3RD CITIZEN (Slightly behind 2nd); ’Twere best he
speak no harm of Brutus here.

4TH CITIZEN (To the right of 3rd): This Caesar was a
tyrant. (He says this quickly to 5th Citizen who is to the
right of 4th.)

5TH CITIZEN; Nay, that’s certain: We are blest that
Rome is rid of him.

1ST Citizen (A voice off); Peace! Let us hear what
Antony can say.

ANTONY; You gentle Romans, —

VOICES OFF: Peace, ho! Let us hear him.

The hubbub dies away.

ANTONY; Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your
ears ;

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him:

The evil that men do lives after them.

The good is oft interred with their bones;

So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious;

If it were so, it was a grievous fault.

And grievously hath Caesar answer’d it.

Here, under leave of Brutus, and the rest,

(For Brutus is an honorable man.

So are they all, all honorable men)

Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.

He was my friend, faithful and just to me;

But Brutus says he was ambitious.

And Brutus is an honorable man.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome,

Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:

Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honorable man.

You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,

Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

And sure he is a honorable man.

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke.

But here I am, to speak what I do know:

You all did love him once, not without cause;

What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?

0 judgment! thou are fled to brutish beasts.

And men have lost their reason. Bear with me.

My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,

And I must pause, till it come back to me.

There is an immediate hubbub of sound from the mob, who
begin to talk in groups.

1ST CITIZEN: Methinks there is much reason in his
sayings.

2ND CITIZEN: If thou consider rightly of the matter.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

The camera TRAVELS to take in another group.

Cut to top L.S. of pulpit over heads of crowd holding
Mark Antony and people, and TRUCK IN slowly to M.S.
of Mark Antony.

CUT to small group of mob and CRANE back to hold
Mark Antony in foieground with back to CAMERA and a
sea of excited faces with their hands raised to the sky.
As their hands are raised, we CUT to a shot of hands
only and hold it until Mark Antony says “You will com-
pel me then to read the will?” Some of the crowd at the
back are trying to push their way to the front.

The crowd surges forward to the pulpit, and there is a
struggle for loositions.

CUT to M.S. with veloculator, toward Antony, with
crowd in foreground.

Caesar has had great wrong.

3RU CITIZEN: Has he, masters?

I fear there will a worse come in his place.

4TH CITIZEN: Mark’d ye his words? He would not take
the crown; therefore ’tis certain, he was not ambitious.
5TH CITIZEN: If it be found so, some will dear abide it.
6TH CITIZEN (A woman): Poor soul, his eyes are red as
fire with weepiirg.

7TH CITIZEN : There’s not a nobler man in Rome than
Antony.

8TH CITIZEN: Now mark him, he begins again to speak.
MARK ANTONY : But yesterday, the word of Caesar
might

Have stood against the world: now lies he there.

And none so poor to do him reverence.

0 masters! If I were dispos’d to stir
Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,

1 should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong —

Who (you all know) are honorable men.

1 will not do them wrong: I rather choose
To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you.

Than I will wrong such honorable men.

But here’s a parchment, with the seal of Caesar;

1 found it in his closet, ’tis his will:

Let but the commons hear this testament
(Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read)

And they would go and kiss dead Caesar’s wounds.

And dip their napkins in his sacred blood;

Yea, beg a hair of him for memory.

And, dying, mention it within their wills.

Bequeathing it as a rich legacy
Unto their issue.

4TH CITIZEN: We’ll hear the will; read it, Mark Antony
A GROUP: The will.

ANOTHER GROUP: The will.

A LARGER GROUP: We will hear Caesar’s will.
ANTONY:

Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it.

It is not meet you know how Caesar lov’d you:

You are not wood, you are not stones, but men;

And, being men, hearing the will of Caesar,

It will inflame you, it will make you mad:

’Tis good you know not that you are his heirs.

For if you should, 0, what would come of it?

A VOICE: Read the will.

ANOTHER VOICE: We’ll hear it, Antony.

ANOTHER VOICE: You shall read us the will.

ALL: Caesar’s will.

ANTONY: Will you be patient? Will you stay awhile?

I have o’ershot myself to tell you of it,

I fear I wrong the honorable men.

Whose daggers have stabb’d Caesar; I do fear it.
ANOTHER VOICE: They were traitors: honorable men
A GROUP: The will.
another GROUP: The testament.

A VOICE: They were villains, murderers.

A GROUP: The vnll.

ALL: Read the will.

ANTONY: You will compel me then to read the will?
THE CROWD SHOUTS: Ay!

ANTONY:

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

The CAMERA veloculates as Mark Antony descends
from the pulpit. We hold Mark Antony with men in fore-
ground.

The CAMERA TRUCKS in slowly to close shot of hand
of Antony on mantle, showing cuts made by daggers.

Here the CAMERA TRUCKS back until we hold Mark
Antony and whole of mantle and the bearers.

CUT to group of men and women. Shooting up at them
and against the angry sky.

CUT back to C.S. of Mark Antony’s hand whipping-
mantle off, and across CAMERA. Tier so that we do not
actually see the body of Caesar.

CUT from angle of tier to small group of citizens. They
are overcome; a woman faints and is carried out over the
heads of the crowd. Other people turn their heads away.
They cannot face the sight.

CUT to extreme top L.S. with Antony’s back to
CAMERA.

The crowd begins to dash in opposite direction.

Those in bottom L. hand corner of screen try to push
through to top R. hand of screen.

Those in top R. make for bottom L. and so on, and the
screen is a smashing mass of people. Antony i-aises his
hand without trying to calm them for the moment, but
only to whip them into a greater frenzy.

CUT to reverse C.S. of Antony.

Then make a ring about the corpse of Caesar,

And let me show you him that made the will;
bhall I descend? and will you give me leave?

CROWD: Come down.

2ND CITIZEN: Descend.

aRD CITIZEN: You shall have leave.

4TH CITIZEN: A ring, stand round.

ISr CITIZEN: Stand from the hearse, stand from the
body.

2ND CITIZEN : Room for Antony, most noble Antony.
ANTONY: Nay, press not so ui^on me, stand far off.
aLL: Stand back; room; bear back.

ANTONY : If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.
You all do know this mantle; I remember
ine lirst time ever Caesar put it on:

’Twas on a summer’s evening in his tent,

That day he overcame the Nervii;

Look, in this place ran Cassius’ dagger through:
fclee what a rent the envious Casca made:

Through this, the well-beloved Brutus stabb’d.

And as he pluck’d his cursed steel away,

Mark how the blood of Caesar followed it.

As rushing out of doors, to be resolv’d
If Brutus so unkindly kirock’d or no:

For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar’s angel.

Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar lov’d him:

This was the rrrost unkindest cut of all.

For when the noble Caesar saw him stab.

Ingratitude, more strong thair traitor’s arms
Quite vanquished him: then burst his irrighty heart.

And in his mantle muffling up his face.

Even at the base of Porrrpey’s statue

(Which all the while rair blood) great Caesar fell.

0 what a fall was there, rrry countrymen!

Then 1, and you, and all of us fell down.

Whilst bloody treason flourish’d over us.

0 now you weep, and I perceive you feel
The dint of pity: these are gracious drops.

Kind souls, what weep you, when you but behold
Our Caesar’s vesture wounded ?

Look you here.

Here is himself, marr’d as you see with traitors.

1ST CITIZEN (Whispering): 0 piteous spectacle.

2ND CITIZEN (Also whisperiirg) : 0 noble Caesar!

3RD CITIZEN: 0 woeful day!

4TH CITIZEN: 0 traitors, villains!

1ST CITIZEN: 0 most bloody sight!

2ND CITIZEN (Shouting): We will be reveng’d.

ALL: Regenge! About! Seek!

Burn! Fire! Kill!

Slay! Let not a traitor live.

ANTONY : Stay, countrymen.

1ST CITIZEN: Peace there! hear the iroble Antony.

2ND CITIZEN: We’ll die with him.

ANTONY:

Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up
To such a sudden flood of mutiny:

They that have done this deed are honorable;

What private griefs they have, alas, I know no .;.

That made them do it: they are wise and honorable.
And -will, no doubt, with reasons answer you.

1 come not, friends, to steal away your hearts.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

CRANE down to bier. Continue CRANE to crowd and
then draw back until we hold M.S. of Mark Antony in
foreground, slightly to one side, and the mob beyond.

The mob is swirling again.

CUT C.S. of Centre Forum.

We see the mob, joyful at the goodness of Caesar and
mad for revenge. The screen shows mob roused to kill.
It is a kaleidoscope of action.

The shouting mob rushes off in all directions, leaving
Antony. He has achieved his purpose.

Antony comes slowly down from pulpit and we CUT
to M.S. He is exultant, but quiet.

I am no orator, as Brutus is;

But (as you know me all) a plain blunt man.

That love my friend, and that they know full well,

That gave me public leave to speak of him.

For I have neither wit, noi words, nor worth,

Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech.

To stir men’s blood; I only speak right on;

I tell you that which you yourselves do know.

Show you sweet Caesar’s wounds — poor, poor, dumb
mouths —

And bid them speak for me: but were I Brutus,

And Brutus Antony, theie were an Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue
In every wound of Caesar, that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.

MOB: We’ll mutiny.

1ST CITIZEN: We’ll burn the house of Brutus.

3RD CITIZEN : Away then, come, seek the conspirators.
ANTONY: Yet hear me, countrymen, yet hear me speak.
VARIOUS CITIZENS: Peace, ho! Hear Antony, most
noble Antony!

ANTONY: Why friends, you go to do you know not what;
Wherein hath Caesar thus deserv’d your loves ?

Alas, you know not, I must tell you then:

You have forgot the will I told you of.

ALL: Most true, the will, let’s stay and heai the will.
ANTONY: Here is the will, and under Caesar’s seal;

To every Roman citizen he gives,

To every several man, seventy-five drachmas.

2ND CITIZEN: Most noble Caesar, we’ll revenge his
death.

3RD CITIZEN: 0 royal Caesar!

ANTONY ; Hear me with patience.

ALL; Peace, ho!

ANTONY:

Moreover, he hath left you all his walks,

His piivate arbors, and new-planted orchards.

On this side Tiber, he hath left them you.

And to your heirs for ever; common pleasures.

To walk abroad, and recreate yourselves.

Here was a Caesar! when comes such another?

1ST CITIZEN; Never, never. Come, away, away!

We’ll burn his body in the holy place

And with the brands fire the traitor’s houses.

Take up the body.

2ND CITIZEN: Go fetch fire.

3RD CITIZEN: Pluck down benches.

4TH CITIZEN: Pluck down forms, widows, anything.
Sound of mob in distance.

ANTONY;

Now let it work: mischief, thou art afoot,

Take thou what course thou wilt.

NOTE: A review of this film, with illustrations, appeared in the March, 1946, issue of "Film and
Radio Guide," together with a review and illustrations of a film presenting scenes from "Macbeth."

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Ten Questions on Sound Conditioning

and the Answers

Courtesy of The Celotex Corporation, Chicago

1. What is sound condition-
ing ?

Sound conditioning is the art
and practice of treating rooms
and the interiors of buildings so
as to improve hearing conditions
and to minimize the annoying
effects of noise, . . . “unwanted
sound.”

2. In a walled-in enclosure
ivhat happens when the sound
waves reach the walls?

Part of the sound energy is
absorbed and the remainder is
reflected back into the room.

3. Is there a method of test-
ing materials to determine their
ability to absorb sound?

Yes. Here are the absorption
coefficients of some common
building materials and furnish-
ings:

MATERIAL

ABSORBS

REFLECTS

Plaster

025

.975

Concrete ....

015

.985

Wood

.97

Glass

027

.973

Carpet

.80

Celotex ....

.30

4. Why do acoustical materi-
als absorb so much sound?

All acoustical materials are
porous. The sound impulses en-
ter the maze of tiny spaces in
the body either through the nat-
ural interstices on the surface
or through mechanical perfora-
tions made in the face of the ma-
terial expressly for the admis-
sion of those sound waves.

In penetrating and traveling
through this maze, the sound
wave encounters just enough re-
sistance to create friction which
transforms the acoustic energy

into heat.

Practically, the sound is
“soaked up” by the material
rather than reflected back into
the room.

5. How does sound condition-
ing “stop” noise?

Sound conditioning in itself
does not stop noise; a cough, a
footstep, a typewriter, a dropped
tray, a bookkeeping machine, a
ringing telephone bell, or any
other noise source generates as
much acoustic energy in one lo-
cation as another.

The loudness is lessened in a
sound-conditioned room because
the original sound dies out fas-
ter. It is not amplified by re-
peated reflections from ceiling
to floor and wall to wall as it is
in an average room.

Sound is reflected from a
hard surface just as light is re-
flected by a mirror. In the av-
erage room with hard plaster
walls and ceilings, the sound
traveling at an approximate
speed of 1120 feet per second,
will bounce around the room in
all directions many times before
the energy it contains is dissi-
pated, or absorbed.

The acoustical material used
for sound conditioning absorbs
far more of this energy than do
ordinary materials, thereby has-
tening the silencing of the sound.

6. How is “adequate absorp-
tion” determined for a room?

If your car travels 14 miles on
one gallon of gasoline and you
now have five gallons in the
tank, with a journey of 182
miles before you — you can eas-
ily calculate that eight gallons

more will be required to make
the trip.

Likewise, the Sound Condi-
tioning Engineer knows the
present absorption capacities of
the materials and furnishings in
a room, and how far present av-
erage noise levels can be profit-
ably lowered by additional ab-
sorption. From this he can eas-
ily calculate how much addi-
tional absorption is required to
bring a satisfactory result.

7. If the period of reverbera-
tion is too long, what are the ef-
fects ?

If a single sound remains aud-
ible too long after it has been
stopped at its source, it combines
with the following sound, or
sounds, from the same source,
creating a complex mixture of
the several sounds. When this
effect is pronounced, the ear
cannot distinguish clearly be-
tween the individual sounds. For
instance, a speaker’s words will
telescope with those previously
spoken making entire phrases
“blurred,” “fuzzy,” and unintel-
ligible.

Music is scrambled in the
same way by the “echoes” in an
excessively reverberant room. In
rehearsals, the conductor or in-
structor finds difficulty in lo-
cating and correcting mistakes.

8. Is reverberation the sole
cause of poor acoustics?

In the majority of instances
it is. With few exceptions, re-
moval of excessive reverberation
will create good hearing condi-
tions.

In occasional cases the shape
of a room or unwisely placed

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

curved surfaces \v h i c h focus
sound at specific points will in-
terfere with satisfactory sound
distribution.

9. Is all reverberation unde-
sirable?

No. A certain amount is es-
sential if speaking and music
are to have a pleasing “live”
quality.

10. Can loud speakers over-
come faidty hearing conditions
in an auditorium?

As a general rule, no. If re-
verberation is excessive, speech
can not be understood no matter
how much it is amplified. The
function of loud speakers is to
increase the power of the nat-
ural voice, when necessary.

★ ★ ★

B & H Service Trailers

The first of a fleet of mechan-
ically-equipped service trailers
which will provide door-to-door
service for users of Bell &
Howell Co. equipment was re-
cently exhibited. The trailers are
part of Bell & Howell’s post-
war program to provide skilled
maintenance service to schools,
churches, commercial firms, or-
ganizations, and other users of
its 16mm sound and silent movie
projection equipment. The trail-
ers, each to be in charge of a
graduate from the B & H train-
ing school, will operate on a reg-
ular schedule so that equipment
can be serviced periodically. The
trailers will also carry a supply
of B & H 16mm films from the
Bell & Howell rental library.

First of the units goes to
Pictosound Movie Service of St.
Louis, and will be manned by a
graduate electrical engineer who
has also completed the service
course at the Bell & Howell fac-
tory. Pictosound’s territory in-
cludes Southern Illinois, East-
ern Missouri, and metropolitan
St. Louis. Its officials believe

they will need from three to four
additional trailers to service the
territory when the program is in
full stride.

★ ★ ★

Cosmopolitan Films for
Schools and Churches

Edward K. Knop, proprietor
o f Cosmopolitan Films, 3248
Gratiot Avenue, Detroit 7, Mich-
igan, writes us:

“Our business differs from
that of the ordinary film rental
library in that we especially
service the schools and churches.
Every new print of religious or
educational value is added. In
doing this we have found our-
selves in a position to satisfy the
most critical users.

“Independently organized, we
are in a position to build our
programs without restriction.

“We have contracted for the
new product of Pictorial Films,
Astor Pictures Corp., and Allied
16mm Distributors. In addition,
we are securing all the history
and geography films we can. We
distribute Cathedral Films, Brit-
ish Information Services, and
Inter-American films. Our num-
ber of 16mm sound subjects runs
well over 3000 units.

★ ★ ★

“Service" Defined

Max H. Rarig, in an article in
the March, 1946, NAVEL) News,
writes :

What does the word “service” mean
to an audio-visual dealer? Some deal-
ers closed their service departments
during the war, due to lack of per-
sonnel, difficulty of obtaining parts,
etc., but the word “service” still means
allocation of space, hiring of compe-
tent personnel, and the building up of
all the factois which go to make an
effective service department. Some
dealers maintained their service de-
partments during the war, but prob-
ably had to change some of their poli-
cies. In the future, many dealers will
have to think through their service
policies anew from a number of an-
gles.

Mr. Rarig i s manager of
Rarig Motion Picture Company,
5514 University Way, Seattle 5,
Washington. The company spe-
cializes in motion pictures and
slides. It has fifteen employees,
having grown since 1935, when
it was located in a small residen-
tial basement.

Victor's Educational Director

A. J. McClelland, widely
known for his work with schools
in developing visual programs,
has been appointed director of
educational sales for the Vic-
tor Animatograph Corporation,
Davenport, Iowa, a major pro-
ducer of 16mm motion picture
projectors, cameras, and allied
equipment. Mr. McClelland i-e-
signed from his connection with
Encyclopaedia Britannica Films,
Inc., to join Victor.

In 1937 Mr. McClelland be-
came the first district manager
for Erpi Classroom Films. At
that time few schools owned
teaching films, and his work in
the field is credited with making
a material contribution to the
growth of this medium of edu-
cation.

Prior to joining Erpi, Mr. Mc-
Clelland was engaged in school
work, serving as a teacher, high
school principal, and superin-
tendent. He had his professional
training in the University of
Oklahoma and the University of
Chicago. For the past year he
has been a member of the board
of the National Association of
Visual Equipment Dealers.

With the Victor corporation
he will devote his time to the
educational field and give as-
sistance especially in the Mid-
western area. Mr. McClelland of-
fers free planning and consult-
ant services. His headquarters
are the Victor offices in Chi-
cago.

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A Dealer's Approach to
Visual Education

BY GENE CALKINS

New Mexico School Supply Co., Albuquerque, N. M.

When we first became inter-
ested in the visual field we
found New Mexico being served
by out-of-state operators who
slipped across the line, picked
up projector sales by the most
expedient methods, and departed
never to call on the same cus-
tomers a second time. Indeed, ed-
ucators had a very sad attitude
toward visual-equipment sales-
men. This called for a little
thought, and resulted in the ap-
proach to the visual education
field outlined below.

1. We don’t sell machines or
films. We sell ideas. If an edu-
cator and ourselves can get to-
gether on ideas which we both
think will work for him, then we
talk equipment, films, materials
to implement those ideas.

2. We have informed our-
selves as thoroughly as possible
concerning every conceivable
phase of visual education. We
read some pretty deadly stuff,
and we listen to some amazingly
windy talks — from visual edu-
cators— but if we come up with
ideas worth passing on, the price
is cheap.

3. We believe in getting into
the visual swim all the way, and
we’ve found ourselves with
sweaty palms and knocking
knees before audiences of from
50 to 300 teachers giving them
the low-down on equipment and
films and what to do with them.
We’ve been wrong. We’ve pulled
some boners — and been told
about them. But we know a lot
of people, and they know us.

Condensed from "NAVED N ews,"
March, 1946.

4. We make equipment avail-
able to teacher-training institu-
tions when we can get them to
request it, and we cheerfully tell
them the name of our competi-
tion, where to find him and what
he has to offer, figuring that
since our competition will cer-
tainly get some of the business,
he might as well help do some
of the dirty work.

5. We have written articles
for the state education maga-
zine in a purely professional
vein because we want our cus-
tomer to know that we know
more about this visual business
than how to get his name on an
order blank. Incidentally, the
customer seems to enjoy it — par-
ticularly pointing out our errors.

6. We gladly blow the horn of
every agency in the state trying
to do work in the visual field.
We keep our customers informed
as to what the various federal
agencies have to offer in the way
of films, as well as a number of
state agencies.

7. Shooting movies isn’t our
business, but when the state uni-
versity wanted a film shot for
use in high schools throughout
the state we jumped at the
chance . . . and our name on the
title of that film before every
high-school teacher and princi-
pal in the state didn’t do us any
harm. And we learned a lot
about shooting pictures.

8. When the number of pro-
jectors in use became large
enough, we set up a service de-
partment with a factory-trained
mechanic. It is a nuisance. It will
never make us any money. But
a readily available service de-

partment is just as important to
a school out hei'e 1500 miles
from the factory as is a good vis-
ual director.

9. There was no entertain-
ment-film library in the state;
so, with the approval of the ed-
ucational rental libraries, we es-
tablished one. No gold mine, but
our schoolmen are happy to have
a few features, comedies, and
other photoplays available at all
times. Also we keep them thor-
oughly informed as to what is
available in the national libra-
ries we represent.

10. We do everything in our
power to help our customers get
the most good out of the equip-
ment purchased. Idle equipment
won’t do them any good, and it
won’t make us any money.

11. We have constantly and
selfishly impressed on our cus-
tomers the importance of buying
from the “man who will come
back,’’ who will see that service
is available, and will aid in or-
ganizing film procurement pro-
grams.

FILMS OF MERIT

16MM SOUND - SILENT - 8MM

For Teaching, Recess
and Entertainment

RENT SALE

Write for complete list

At seventeen a girl’s heart
is so wise — a boy’s so
achingly unsure. That’s the
way it is with Alison and
Robie in this tender pic-

M-G-M has caught, with vibrant warmth and
understanding, the spirit of this modem masterpiece . . .

THE GREEN YEARS

M-G-M presents A. J. CRONIN'S 'THE GREEN YEARS” starring CHARLES COBURN with TOM DRAKE • BEVERLY TYLER • HUME CRONYN • Gladys Cooper
Dean Stockwell • Richard Haydn • Screen Play by Robert Ardray and Sonya Levien • Directed by Victor Saville • Produced by Leon Gordon • A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Picture

APRIL, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Spanish Sound-Track 16mm Films

Available Through University Extension Divisions
and Leading Film Libraries

A Child Went Forth (Paraiso
de los Ninos) . 20 minutes, b & w.

Activities in a country play school
for younger children. Recommended
for limited use in schools.

Advanced Baseball Technique
(Beisboi para Expertos) . 20
minutes, b & w.

Stars from different major league
clubs in action, showing varied bat-
ting and fielding techniques. Recom-
mended for boys’ clubs, youth groups,
and general audiences.

Aircobra (La Cobra del Aire)
Military and Aviation. 10 min-
utes, color.

P-38 in production and in action.
Recommended for youth gioups, boys’
clubs and general audiences.

Busy Little Bears (Oseznos
Traviesos). 10 minutes, b & w.

Antics of three trained bear cubs
in the High Sierras. Recommended
especially for young people’s groups.

Cloud in the Sky (La Nube en
el Cielo) 20 minutes, b & w.

An excellent film dealing with tu-
berculosis. Spanish-American locale,
actors and story.

Defense Against Invasion.
(Defensa Contra la Invasion).
12 minutes, color.

Disney Technicolor film showing the
value of vaccination.

Evander Childs High School
(La Segunda Ensenanza en los
Estados Unidos). 20 minutes,
b & w.

All types of activitieis in a large
New York City high school. Recom-
mended for schools, teachers’ groups,
and Parent-Teacher Associations.

Five C Clubs of Cuba (Los
Clubs Cinco C’s de Cuba). 10
minutes, b & w.

Cuba’s 4-H Club movement. Recom-
mended for schools, workshops, and
institutes. Especially good for agri-
cultural communities.

G'vain That B u il t a Hemi-

sphere (La Semilla de Oro). 10
minutes, color.

Disney film on corn from prehis-
toric times, to the present.

Harvest for Tomorrow (La
Resurrecion de la Tierra) . 20
minutes, b & w.

New England farm showing the use
of minerals and other utrients to le-
plenish the soil.

Hetiry Browne, Farmer (El
Agricultor, Henry Browne) . 10
minutes, b & w.

Story of the Negro farmer and his
contribution to the war.

High Over the Border (Para
las Aves no Hay Fronteras). 20
minutes, b & w.

Migration of birds between North
and South America. Good, animated
maps and excellent photography.

Home on the Rayige (Gana-
deros y la Guerra). 10 minutes,
b & w.

Housing in Chile (El Prob-
lema de la Vivienda en Chile) .
20 minutes, b & w.

The story of a housing project in
Chile. A typical family in Santiago is
shown, living first in the slums and
then in one of the new housing units.
Julien Bryan educational film.

Magic Alphabet (El Alfabeto
Magico) . 10 minutes, b & w.

Popularized story of vitamins. Rec-
ommended for schools and teachers’
groups.

Of Pups and Puzzles (Prob-
lemas Psicologicos) . 10 minutes,
b & w.

Use of psychological tests in voca-
tional placement. Recommended for
teacher groups.

Sons of the Conquistador es
(En Un Lugar de America). 20
minutes, color.

Portrait of a Spanish-American
family in New Mexico.

Siveeney Steps Out (Una Av-
entura en el Parque Zoologico).

10 minutes, b & w.

An appealing youngster ventures
into the Bronx Zoo and meets with
many surprises.

Watei‘ — Frie'iid o r Enemy ?
(Aqua). 10 minutes, color.

Disney film showing the danger
of drinking contaminated water and
means of preventing contamination
in the well or spring.

Willie and the Mouse (El
Colegial ye las Ratas). 10 min-
utes, b & w.

How psychological tests with mice
influence kindergarten and elemen-
tal y school methods. Recommended
for teacher groups.

Winged Scourge (La Peste
Alada). 10 minutes, color.

Disney film on malaria control. The
Seven Dwarfs show how to control
the anopheles mosquito.

Make Literature

LIVE

In the Classroom

The following Teaching Film Custodian
(M-G-M) subjects ore ideally suited
to classroom study:

"Treasure Island"

Lionel Barrymore Wallace Beery

Jackie Cooper

"Tale of Two Cities"

Ronald Colman

"Mutiny on the Bounty"

Clark Gable Charles Laughton

Franchot Tone

"Romeo and Juliet"

Leslie Howard Norma Shearer

John Barrymore

"David Copperfield, the Boy"

"David Copperfled, the Man"

Lionel Barrymore Maureen O'Sullivan

W. C. Fields Freddie Bartholomew

Each subject 4 reels Rental: $6.00

(Special Series Rate)

In Our Free Catalog of

SELECTED MOTION PICTURES
Write to Dept. “Y”

Y.M.C.A.

MOTION PICTURE BUREAU

New York 17, N. Y. Chicago 3, III.

347 Madison Ave. 19 So. LaSalle St.
San Francisco 2, Cal Dallas 1, Tex.

351 Turk St. 1700 Patterson Ave.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

Save by Ordering Now

Before the Deadline for
New Subscription Rotes of

FILM & RADIO
GUIDE

A 64'page Magazine for Visual Educators

SUBSCRIPTION RATES

If Ordered Before July, 1946 Effective July 1, 1946

One Year 2.00 Each One Year 3.00 Each

Two Years 3.50 Each Two Years 5.00 Each

Three Years 5.00 Each Three Years 6.50 Each

Lets Than One Year 35c a Copy

In Canada, add 50c a year; in foreign countries, odd $1.00 a yeor.

ORDER BLANK

EDUCATIONAL A RECREATIONAL GUIDES, Inc.

172 RENNER AVENUE NEWARK 8, NEW JERSEY

0 0 Enter (or renew) my (our) order for subscription(s) to

FILM & RADIO GUIDE for year(s), beginning

(Radio Course or "What Shall We Read About the Movies" Free with
2-year Subscriptions. Both Free with 3-year Subscriptions.)

0 0 Send current issue of "Film and Radio Guide," 3Sc.

0 0 Send onnototed bibliography, "What Shall We Read About
the Movies," 25c.

0 0 Send "Course of Study in Radio Appreciation," 22 units, 50c.
0 0 Send "Get-Acquainted" Assortment of older Guides, $1.00.

NAME

ADDRESS

AUDIO-VISUAL DIRECTORY

National & International

INTERNATIONAL THEATRI-
CAL AND TELEVISION CORP,

ITTCO OF ILLINOIS, 100 W.
Monroe St., Chicago 3.

ITTCO OF THE WEST, 3123
W. 8th St., Los Angeles 5.
ITTCO OF THE WEST, 4247
Piedmont Ave., Oakland 11,
Calif.

ITTCO OF THE SOUTH, 756 W.
Peachtree St., N. W., Atlanta,
Ga.

ITTCO OF MISSOURI, 3326
Olive St., St. Louis, Mo.

ITTCO OF THE SOUTH, 3021/2
So. Harwood St., Dallas 1, Tex.

ITTCO OF NEW YORK, 25 W.
45th St., New York 19, N. Y.

ITTCO OF NEW ENGLAND,
1 1 5 Newbury St., Boston 1 6,
Mass.

ITTCO OF WASHINGTON, 51
H St., N.W., Washington 1,
D. C.

ITTCO OF NEW ORLEANS, 815
Poydras St., New Orleans 13,
La.

ITTCO OF CANADA, 21 Dun-
das Square, Toronto, Canada

Bell & Howell Co., Dept. "G"
FILMOSOUND LIBRARY
1834 Larchmont Ave., Chicago
30 Rockefeller Plaza, NTew York
716 N. LaBrea Ave., Hollywood
1221 G. St., N. W., Washington

FILMS INCORPORATED

330 W. 42nd St., New York 18
64 E. Lake St., Chicago 1
101 Marietta St., Atlanta 3
109 N. Akard St., Dallas 1
314 S.W. 9th Ave., Portland 5
1709 W. 8 St., Los Angeles 14

ASTOR PICTURES CORPORATION
130 W. 46th Street
New York, N. Y.

BRANDON FILMS, Inc.

1 600 Broadway
New York, N. Y.

BAILEY FILM SERVICE

2044 No. Berendo St., Holly-
wood 27, Calif.; 404 No. Good-
win Ave., Urbano, III.

COMMONWEALTH PICTURES
CORPORATION, 729 Seventh
Avenue, New York, N. Y.

CORONET PRODUCTIONS
Instructionol Films
Glenview, Illinois

EDUCATIONAL FILM GUIDE
H. W. Wilson Co., 950 Univer-
sity Ave., New York 52, N. Y.

EDUCATORS GUIDE TO FREE
FILMS, Educators Progress
Service, Randolph, Wis.

WILLIAM J. GANZ COMPANY
40 East 49th Street
New Vork, N. Y.

HOFFBERG PRODUCTIONS, Inc.
618-20 Ninth Avenue
New York 18, N. Y.

IDEAL PICTURES CORPORATION
28-34 E. 8th Street
Chicago, III.

Offices in principal cities.

INSTITUTIONAL CINEMA SERV-
ICE, Inc., 1560 Broadway
New York, N. Y.

MOTION PICTURE BUREAU—
YMCA, 347 Madison Avenue
New York, N. Y.

1 9 S. La Salle St., Chicago, III.
1 700 Patterson Av., Dallas, Tex.
351 Turk St., San Francisco, Cal.

NATIONAL FILM SERVICE

Raleigh, N. C. Richmond, Va.
424 Madison Ave., New York

NU-ART FILMS, Inc.
145 W. 45th Street
New York, N. Y.

PICTORIAL FILMS, Inc.
1 270 Sixth Ave.

New York 20, N. Y.

POST PICTURES CORPORATION
723 Seventh Avenue
New York, N. Y.

PROFESSIONAL FILM SERVICE
(N. H. Barcus)

Booking and exhibition of com-
mercial and industrial films.

342 Madison Ave.

New York 17, N. Y.

SKIBO PRODUCTIONS, Inc.
165 West 46th St.

New York 19, N. Y.

New Englond

HARVARD FILM SERVICE

Graduate School of Education
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts

A. H. RICE & CO.

Rentals and Projection Service
Hollis, N. H.

The West Coast

THE SCREEN ADETTE EQUIP-
MENT CORP., RCA Audio-Visual
Equipment.

314 S.W. 9th, Portland, Ore.
1709 W. 8th, Los Angeles.

68 Post St., San Francisco.

The South

I DISTRIBUTORS' GROUP, 756

Peachtree St., N.W., Atlanta,
Ga., and 302 ]/2 S. Harwood St.,
Dallas, Texas. Exclusive distrib-
utors of Monogram products,
ITTCO films, Ampro and SVE
equipment. Jam Handy teaching
films. Serving the South only.

CALHOUN COMPANY
101 Marietta St., N.W.

Atlanta 3, Georgia

WILFRED NAYLOR

1907 Fifth Ave., North
Birmingham 1, Alabama

SOUTHERN VISUAL FILMS
686 Shrine Building
Memphis, Tenn.

Indiana

DENNIS FILM BUREAU
29 E. Maple St.

Wabash, Ind.

Iowa

RYAN VISUAL AIDS SERVICE
409-1 1 Harrison St.
Davenport, Iowa

Michigan

CAPITAL FILM SERVICE, Film Li-
brary and Motion-Picture and
Visual-Aid Equipment, 1043 E.
Grand River Ave., East Lansing,
Mich.

COSMOPOLITAN FILMS
3248 Gratiot Avenue
Detroit, Mich.

LOCKE FILM LIBRARY
129 W. Michigan Avenue
Kalamazoo 9, Michigan

Minnesota

NATIONAL CAMERA EXCHANGE
Bell & Howell Branch, Filmo-
sound Library, 86 S. 6th St.,
Minneapolis 2.

New York

IDEAL MOTION PICTURE SERV-
ICE, 371 St. Johns Avenue
Yonkers, N. Y.

New Jersey

ART ZEILLER, Visual and Audio-

Visual Aids, Victor Distributor,

Factory Service. Entertainment.

868 Broad St., Newark 2, N. J.

Ohio

TWYMAN FILMS, Inc.

29 Central Ave.
Dayton, Ohio

West Virginia

E. B. SIMPSON

8 1 6 W. Virginia St.
Charleston 2, W. Va.

MESSAGES
TO AMERICAN
SCHOOL TEACHERS

% Ho- 15

Commended for Classroom Use hy
Leading Educators from Coast to Coast

IONG EXPERIENCE and personal observation have led educators to the sources of knowledge
_/ which best inspire in today’s youth a deep loyalty to the ideals cl democracy. The
following excerpts from recent signed statements testify to their appreciation of Tlu Reader’s
Digest ... as an effective classroom aid in perpetuating these ideals:

We must raise a generation committed to the improve-
ment of our democracy and constitutional government.
Accurate information on significant current developments
is a necessary adjunct in this task. Tlic Reader’s Digest pro-
vides a conci.se, readable handbook of world events and
trends. — Alonzo C. Grace, State Commissioner of Edu-
cation, Connecticut.

The youth of our land should be given abundant oppor-
tunity to inform themselves on current social, economic
and scientific matters, and 1 know of no better or more
pleasant way of securing such information than through
The Roller’s Digest. — Elizabeth Ireland, State Superin-
tendent of Public Instruction, Montana.

Tlic Reader’s Digest is a fortress of defense against ignorance
of what is going on in our own and other lands. . . .
I should like to see it in the hands of every high school
student, and of many in the upper elementary grades.
■ — James Haskell Hope, State Superintendent of Educa-
tion, South Carolina.

For use in schools, a magazine such as TItc Reader’s Digest,
which offers accurate and interesting summaries of sig-
nificant events and achievements in the social, scientific
and economic fields, is of high value. — Francis B. Haas,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Pennsylvania.

Tlic Rcailcr’s Digest is a continuing and impartial “diary”
of the American way of lire and the actual workings of our
democracy. At a time when world welfare is to be so
influenced by our course here at home, its value as an aid
to the teaching of good citizenship increases the need for
Its use in our schools. — John Callahan, State Superin-
tendent of Public Instruction, Wisconsin.

As never before, pupils in our schools need to read widely
if they are to think clearly on many and varied topics.
Because The Reader’s Digest presents up-to-the-month in-
formation on current events and personalities, this pub-
lication has come to be a valuable and widely used sup-
plem.ent to our reading in many high school and lower-
grade classes. — Esther L. Anderson, State Superintendent
of Public Instruction, Wyoming.

One of the first, and certainly one of the most important
duties of every school teacher today is the planting of
Lincoln’s sort of Americanism in the hearts and minds of
our youth. ... I feel that the School Edition of The
Reader’s Digest should be classed among the valuable me-
diums for aiding this vital task. — Vernon L. Nickell,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Illinois.

I would place The Reader’s Digest at the head of the list of
required reading for teachers and high school students.
— John A. Shaw, Superintendent of Schools, Spokane,
Washington. ‘

TIic Reader’s Digest is a fascinating record of events and
trends, which broadens the outlook of students and gives
them a more comprehensive grasp of the principles and
meaning of good citizenship. — Arthur E. Thompson,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, North Dakota.

As an auxiliary aid to classroom instruction in the build-
ing of bedrock Americanism, the value of The Reader’s
Digest IS very high. — Burgin E. Dossett, State Commis-
sioner of Education, Tennessee.

The Reader’s Digest is making a contribution to the main-
tenance of our form of government, especially by implant-
ing in young minds the concepts of desirable human rela-
tionships.— Rex Putnam, State Superintendent of Public
Instruction, Oregon.

The teacher who understands the scope of her assignment,
and sees her objectives clearly, will value The Raider’s
Digest, which keeps its readers in touch with the forces
which make TOMORROW. It offers information — ■
common knowledge for common understanding for com-
mon citizenship in a common world: one world. — John
Fred Williams, State Superintendent of Public Instruction,
Kentucky.

The Reader’s Digest is in an especially unique position, be-
cause of Its wide use in the schools, to play an important
part in strengthening the walls of democracy. — Wayne O.
Reed, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Nebraska.

Statements like these are more significant than anything we ourselves might say about the
place which TIic Reader’s Digest holds m the hearts and minds of teachers throughout the
country who are molding a new generation of Americans.

FILM & RADIO .

AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS TO EDUCATION

AAY. \W46m
Vol. XII, Ho
5c - $2 a Year^ "

Pass this copy to:

with VICTOR /millU/lTOPHOIllE

The ability to capture all the reality of voice or instrument ... is a thrilling
quality of the Victor Animatophone.

The secret lies in Victor’s superb amplifier ... its capacity to respond perfectly
at voice frequency, yet reproduce the higher and lower instrumental notes.

Also exclusive with Victor is the Wide Angle Sound Lens with greater focal
depth for deeper scanning of the sound track. Victor’s Stationary Sound Drum
has no moving parts to wear or get out of order and is instantly accessible
for cleaning.

Because of such features as Victor’s unsurpassed sound fidelity, easier threading,
brighter images and greater safety, it is first choice with thousands of educators,
churchmen, industrialists and the military. Ask for additional details of the
Victor Animatophone . . . the finest in l6mm craftsmanship!

VICTOR

AiyiMATOGRAPH CORPORATION

Home Office and Factory: Davenport, Iowa
New York (18) McGraw-Hill Bldg., 330 W. 42nd St. • Chicago (1) 188 W. Randolph

makers of I6MM EQUIPMENT SINCE 1923

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

EDUCATIONAL & RECREATIONAL GUIDES, Inc.

172 RENNER AVENUE, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY

VOLUME XII, NUMBER 8

MAY, 1946

IN THIS ISSUE

How Old is "Old" in Educational Motion Pictures? B. A. Aughinbaugh

Behind the Screen Credits Helen Colton

What Can Secondary Schools Learn from Educational

Experiences of the Armed Forces? Alexander Toffel

Stage Scripts to Improve Human Relations Felix Sper

The U se of Audio-Visual Aids Louis E. Roths

Radio and Audio Aids in Seattle

Radio, Dynamic Force in Education Ruth Weir Miller

The Ploy's the Thing Flora Rheto Schreiber

Five-Way, Five-Day Conference on Adult Education William F. Kruse

Forthcoming Walter Lantz Cartoons of Educational Interest

Arthur M. Loew Announces M-G-M's World-Wide Service for Schools
Audio-Visual Who's Who — No. 51; Edgar Dale — No. 52: Walter E.

Johnson — No. 53: J. R. Bingham

Advances in the Use of Films as Visual Aids Eric Johnston

Facts You Should Know About Teaching Film Custodians Eric Johnston

Bill Kruse, ANFA President and PICC Chairman, Comments on

Johnston's Report William F. Kruse

A Guide to the Appreciation of "Make Mine Music"

F. H. Low and Carolyn Harrow
In Briefer Review F. H. Law, Carolyn Harrow, and Emily Freeman

A Suggested Policy as to "Free" Films

A Central Audio-Visual Aids Service in the University Paul Wendt

Who's Who in Radio Education — No. 13: Judith Woller

16
17
24

28
31

Current Subscription Rates

One Year $2.00 Each

Two Years 3.50 Each

Three Years 5.00 Each

Less Than One Year ...

In Canada, add 50c a year; in forei

Effective July 1, 1946

One Year $3.00 Each

Two Years 5.00 Each

Three Years.... 6.50 Each

35c a Copy

countries, add $1.00 a year.

"Course of Study in Radio Appreciation" or "What Shall We Read About the
Movies" Free with 2-Year Subscriptians. Both Free with 3-Year Subscriptions.

WILLIAM LEWIN, Editor and Publisher RUTH M. LEWIN, Business Manager
FREDERICK HOUK LAW and B. A. AUGHINBAUGH, Contributing Editors
HELEN COLTON, Hollywood Editor
ROBERT L. GOLDFARB, West Coast Representative
MRS. GLENN M. TINDALL, Chicago Representative

Copyright 1946 by Educational and Recreational Guides, Inc. Published nine times a year, October to June by Educo-
Recreational Guides Inc., 172 Renner Avenue, Newark 8, N, J. Re-entered as second-class matter, October
12, 1942 at the post office at Newark, N. J. under the act of March 3, 1879. Printed in USA-All Rights Reserved.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

There Is No Substitute for Experience

For twenty-six years Ideal Pictures Corporation has
been offering the non-theatrical market the very best
in recreational^ religious, and educational pictures.

Our new product just coming in includes the very best

subjects in the field,

A Few New Subjects

JACK LONDON
STAGE DOOR CANTEEN
MIRACLE OF MAIN STREET
SHANGHAI GESTURE
MUTINY ON THE ELSINORE
MEET JOHN DOE
HOPALONG CASSIDY (Western)

We have new serials — new musicals — new features
— new educational subjects. Write for our catalogs.

IDEAL PICTURES CORPORATION

Home Office: 28 E. EIGHTH STREET CHICAGO 5, ILLINOIS

Bertram Willoughby Pictures, Inc.
Suite 600, 1 600 Broadway

New York 19, N. Y.

Ideal Pictures Corporation
18 S. 3rd St.
Memphis 3, Tenn.

Ideal Pictures Corporation
2408 W. 7th St.

Los Angeles 5, Calif.

BRANCHES AND AFFILIATES

Ideal Pictures Corporation
of Georgia

52 Auburn Ave., N. E.
Atlanta, Georgia

Ideal Pictures
714 18th Street
Denver 2, Colo.

Ideal Pictures Corporation
915 S.W. 10th Ave.
Portland 5, Oregon

Ideal-Southern Pictures Co.
828 Baronne Street
New Orleans, La.

Ideal Pictures Corporation
2024 Mam St.

Dallas 1, Texas

Ideal Pictures
219 East Main St.
Richmond 19, Va.

Ideal Pictures
Room 1 — Lobby Flour
Reliance Bldg.

926 McGee Street
Kansas City 6, Mo.

Ideal-Soutnern Pictures Co.
1 32 South Miami Ave.
Miami 36, Fla.

Ideal Pictures
108 W. 8th St.
Chattanooga 2, Tenn.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

WILLIAM LEWIN, EDITOR

May, 1946 Volume XM, No. 8

How Old is "Old" in Educational
Motion Pictures ?

BY B. A. AUGHINBAUGH

Director, Slide & Film Exchange, Ohio State Department of Education

Now and then we hear teach-
ers assert that a film is “old.” In
the thirty-six zone meetings we
recently held in Ohio we endeav-
ored to discover what was an
“old” film and how “old” it was.
We harbored a suspicion that in
this case “old” was akin to the
use of “old” in the phrase “old
man.” An old man has been de-
fined as one who likes babies —
especially those born about twen-
ty years ago. This brings us
around to the viewpoint that a
man is as old as he feels, and a
woman is as old as she feels —
that is, feels like admitting. An-
other aspect of the same idea is
found in the description of an
old-fashioned girl as one who
formerly stayed home because
she had “nothing to wear.” After
completing our investigations,
we concluded that these critics
were not only confusing the
meanings of the words “old”
and “obsolete” but that they
possessed no satisfactory yard-
stick for measuring the object of
their displeasure. They had a
vauge notion that the copyright
date on a film would be a satis-
factory measure. Such person-
ages are not confined to the
teaching profession ; in fact, we
know of some of them who edit
magazines directed to this field.

It is evident that some of ye
editors of aforementioned publi-
cations, have neither been near
this particular stream of knowl-
edge nor found a hickory limb
on which to hang their editorial
clothes. They never used a pic-
ture in a classroom, and when
such philosophy as they purvey is
sifted down, we find that they
are mere fronts for some com-
mercial interest. Praising their
brand of “dignified” rhetoric
is akin to mistaking biliousness
for piety or stagnation for se-
renity.

But back to our firing line.
When pressed for an example of
an “old” film, one person stated
that he had visited a classroom
where the children were laugh-
ing uproariously at a strange-
looking locomotive appearing on
the screen. A boy said to him,
“Look at that crazy engine; we
do not have such railroad en-
gines as that.” Investigation dis-
closed that the picture in which
the offending locomotive ap-
peared was “Steam Power” and
that the disgraceful iron horse
was the historic Claremont! The
revelation brought a wave of
laughter much to the discomfort
of the objector. By the same cri-
terion all history is obsolescent
and so are all books and all pic-
tures which relate to history.

Another objector cited the
out-of-style dresses worn by wo-
men in some pictures, which is
an objection worthy of the con-
sideration of both text-book and
text-picture makers other than
those who are devoting their ef-
forts to historical material. Of
course homo sapiens is intro-
duced into both still and mo-
tion pictures because the sap is
found wherever animal life
abounds, especially in cities, and
landscapes would be “lifeless”
without a him, or her, or both.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 8

They also offer fair yardsticks
by which the Grand Canyon, the
Empire State Building, and the
Eiffel Tower may be proven to
be big. But for social reasons the
sap must wear clothing, and we
doubt that were Eve still living
her feminine nature would per-
mit her to wear fig leaves for
more than one year, especially
with apple trees to provide a
change in style. Moreover, there
is that perverse attitude of the
female sap which makes moth-
ers’ dresses old-fashioned, grand-
mothers’ quaint, great-grand-
mothers’ adorable, and only the
great-great capable of attaining
a state of permanency, since
they alone are heavenly. If pic-
tures must entertain the pres-
ence of a garbed member of the
fair sex, there seems to be only
one answer, and that is to make
five or six different shots of the
scene, each portraying the dear
lady in a different costume, from
Godey’s Book up to “Today.”
Then, as the styles change, the
harassed distributor can insert
the one using the current issue.
In some cases, his film inspectors
will be compelled to work fast
to keep in touch with Paris.
Those who haven’t the funds for
this procedure had better stick
to lady toads and salamanders —
at least they are safe bets until
evolution or mutation gets in a
telling blow.

Photography should no longer
play a vital part in this prob-
lem, since it has reached near-
perfection ; but there are some
photographers, especially those
in the “Tight Little Isles,” who
don’t know it. This isn’t always
too disturbing, since the dialects
going with such “Henglish” pic-
tures are like Josh Billings’s
tight boots : they make one for-
get all one’s other ills. In Tar-
f/ef For Toiiight most people
could understand only one word
and that was spoken by an

American (we said an Ameri-
can, not a New Yorker).

After female raiment, the au-
tomobile seems to be the next
major offender as a dater. In
this immediate postwar (or
near - postwar) period, this
doesn’t mean much ; but the bat-
tle of models will soon be on
again, and woe to the offending
producer who shows a square ra-
diator when round ones are the
vogue. That is a positive sin to
juvenile minds (and some teach-
ers as well as pupils have them
— the minds we mean, not the
autos) . Some able psychologist
should make an analysis of why
a 1930 auto should be so funny
in motion pictures when school-
room inhabitants will endure
them without a grin in text-
books, and when they will also
endure with perfect aplomb
maps that still show Nagasaki,
the “Solid” South, “time belts”
in the U.S.A., and Russian boun-
daries. They will also follow the
same curricula that were fol-
lowed when Ben Harrison was
president, will continue to solve
problems wherein butter sells
for fifteen cents a pound and
chickens go at two bits each, will
worry over Caesar’s language,
will measure space between cit-
ies in miles instead of hours,
and will flunk a kid for not
knowing how many pecks in a
bushel. This situation was
strongly impressed on yours tru-
ly not so long ago in the follow-
ing manner.

I was seated beside the Presi-
dent of a Rotary Club of a large
city, where I was booked as the
speaker of the day. A man next
to me, noticing by the announce-
ment card that I was in educa-
tional work, took the liberty of
commenting that teachers did
funny things. I agreed and asked
him in what way he had discov-
ered this. He said his boy was
studying interest in arithmetic.

and the lad had sought his help
with his home work. He (that is,
the father) wanted to know of
what use it was to study inter-
est, and he answered his own
question by taking a small note-
book from his pocket. He opened
to an interest table in the book
and said, “There is all the inter-
est I have ever needed to know,
and I have been head of a big
lumber firm for years. In fact,
I haven’t needed that because
the bank doesn’t take my figures
— it has tables of its own.”

“But,” I rejoined, seeking to
draw him out, “you may not al-
ways have that book with you.”
In a flash he snapped back, “If
I didn’t, I could easily get one;
I’ll bet there are fifty in this
group.”

“Yes,” I returned, still seek-
ing to draw him out, “but didn’t
someone have to make that
book?” At this he gave forth one
of the best bits of educational
philosophy I have ever heard.
He said, “Yes, someone did
make it, and someone also made
that electric light, but I didn’t.
I snap a switch and use it. If I
had to go around making every-
thing I need, I would never have
the biggest lumber yard in this
city.”

MORAL: I showed a picture
to that group, and there were
some out-of-date items in it, but
no one bothered about that — it
was the overall view that they
sought, and they got it. They
were too hig to see tiny flaws:
“Errors like straws upon the surface
flow;

He who would search for pearls must
dive below.”

Are those pupils and teachers
who see the flaws seeking the
truth ? Are you as a teacher fail-
ing to do yoar duty by not tak-
ing this splendid opportunity to
teach this truth, which is great-
er than all superficial faults?

May, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

HELEN WALKER • REGINALD GARDINER • REGINALD OWEN

Sir C. Aubrey Smith • Richard Haydn • Margaret Bannerman • Sara Aligood • Ernest Cossart

Florence Bates • Una O’Connor • ERNST LUBITSCN

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 8

Behind the Screen Credits

BY HELEN COLTON

Hollywood Editor, "Film and Radio Guide"

For any woman who loves to
go shopping, especially the wo-
man who likes to find out-of-the-
way little shops with unique
merchandise, the ideal job is
that of a shopper for a Holly-
wood studio. Pretty Dorothy
Drake, who works for Interna-
tional Pictures, has one of the
less than two dozen shopping
jobs in Hollywood. These jobs
are so scarce because each stu-
dio or independent producer
needs only one shopper.

Dorothy’s work starts when
the designer on a picture has fin-
ished her designs, had them
okayed, and is ready to have
them made up. Every morning,
after talking with the designer
and the wardrobe mistress, Dor-
othy prepares a shopping list of
things she has to get that day.
With samples of colors, fabrics,
sizes, and styles, she goes on her
rounds of department stores,
wholesale houses, importing
firms, and specialty shops. Most
Hollywood shoppers have their

own cars, but Dorothy doesn’t,
so she is driven around by a
chauffeur in a studio limousine.

Before leaving on her eri'ands,
Dorothy usually checks the stu-
dio’s own supply of fabrics, to
see if they already have on hand
something which will fill their
needs. If she finds a bolt of cloth
in the stockroom that will serve
the purpose, that means money
saved for the studio and one less
item to be shopped for.

Right now, studio stocks are
quite depleted, since producers
have been drawing on them
during the war and post-war
periods without much chance of
replacements. But before very
long, all the studios hope to have
their textile supplies back to
normal.

A conscientious shopper like
Dorothy, who recently shopped
for Tomorroiv is Forever, The
Stranger, and Dark Mirror,
consults the stars for whom she
is shopping as to their personal
choices of gloves, shoes, purses.

hats, and jewelry. Some stars
want leather gloves, others
want suede ; some like large en-
velope-style purses, others want
over - the - shoulder or handle
styles. Some prefer shoes with
medium heels, others like high
heels.

Several Los Angeles depart-
ment stores maintain studio de-
partments under the supervi-
sion of people who devote full
time to helping studio shoppers.
Wholesale houses and specialty
shops are delighted to cooperate
with the studios, for these are
their best and most profitable
customers.

Specialty shops in Los An-
geles are many and varied, each
of them filling one specific stu-
dio need. One whole business,
for instance, is devoted to
nothing but the manufacture of
belts. Another business turns
out only beadery and embroid-
ery. There are other firms
which manufacture only rib-
bons, or handkerchiefs, or
scarves, and so on. A Beverly
Hills jeweler makes costume
jewelry to order and rents ex-
pensive jewelry to the studios.
One furrier does rather well
in renting luxurious fur coats.
These firms simplify the shop-
per’s work considerably. If
they do not have in stock what
she needs, they will usually
make it up to order on short
notice.

All the studios have charge
accounts in the various stores.
The shopper is allowed to take
perhaps half a dozen selections
of each item on approval. When
the studio designei’ has made a
final choice among the several

Save by Ordering Now

Before the Deadline for
New Subscription Rates

If Ordered Before July, 1946

One Year 2.00 Each

Two Years 3.50 Each

Three Years 5.00 Each

Effective July 1, 1946

One Year 3.00 Each

Two Yeors 5.00 Each

Three Years 6.50 Each

Less Than One Year 35c o Copy

In Canada, add 50c a year; in foreign countries, add $1.00 a year.

FILM & RADIO GUIDE

May, 1946

FILM AMD RADIO GUIDE

selections brought to her by
the shopper, the rejected items
are returned promptly to the
stores. A stock girl in the
wardrobe department is in
charge of keeping track of re-
turns, which are usually made
in a studio motorcycle or truck.

Each hour during the day,
the shopper phones back to the
studio to find out if there are
any changes in their require-
ments. For a scene in The Stran-
ger, it was suddenly decided
one day that Loretta Young
should wear a trench coat, in-
stead of a suit. In the middle of
the day, Dorothy had to change
her plans and start scouting for
a trench coat, on which altera-

tions were made that night, so
the coat could be ready on the
set at nine the next morning.

Most Hollywood shoppers
have had several years’ experi-
ence in the motion-picture bus-
iness, and have worked up to
the job of shopper through oth-
er jobs. Dorothy has been in
show business most of her life,
having started as a child ac-
tress, and gone on to modeling.
She has been in wardrobe work
for ten years now, and worked
as a stock girl and “set girl’’
(wardrobe worker on the set
who does mending and ironing,
sews in shoulder pads, and does
other odd jobs that arise) for
several years before becoming

a shopper. Another Hollywood
shopper got the job after work-
ing in the studio department of
a department store. Another one
used to be secretary to a pro-
ducer. She had such good taste
in her own clothes that the stu-
dio designer offered her the job
of shopper.

There ai'e so many different
jobs within the wardrobe de-
partment that Dorothy suggests
that anyone who would like to
learn about them should write
to the Motion Picture Costum-
ers’ Local in Hollywood and ask
what material they have avail-
able on the subject.

What Can Secondary Schools Learn
from Educational Experiences
of the Armed Forces?

Some time ago, a group of
secondary-school educators came
to visit the training unit at
which I was stationed. They
had heard much of the success
of the armed forces’ training
programs and had come in the
hope of discovering the ways
and means whereby that suc-
cess had been achieved.

When I spoke to some of them
afterwards, it was evident that
they were disappointed. They
had not found anything basi-
cally new. The armed forces
had better facilities, better
equipment, and more money to
spend than was generally avail-
able to them in the public

Reprinted from "High Points," March,
1946.

BY ALEXANDER TAFFEL

Textile High School, N ew York City

schools, but, essentially, the
teaching and training methods
they had seen were the same as
those used by competent teach-
ers everywhere. They were puz-
zled. What accounted for the
success of the armed forces’
training programs? What could
the public schools do to emulate
it?

Two Misconceptions

I was especially interested in
the remarks and attitudes of
these educators because they re-
veal two prevalent misconcep-
tions concerning the education-
al efforts of the armed forces.
The first is that the armed
forces developed utterly new
and different teaching and
training methods. The second is
that the armed forces have

somehow achieved objectives in
mass education that the public
schools have never been able to
achieve in the past and are
generally failing to achieve in
the present. The purpose of this
article is certainly not to belit-
tle the superb educational ac-
complishments of the armed
forces, but rather to establish
in better perspective some of the
lessons and implications of
those accomplishments for pub-
lic secondary education.

As for the first misconcep-
tion, it may be stated that the
success of the armed forces’
training programs was not due
to the discovery of anything
fundamewtaJJy neu' in educa-
lional principle or practice hut
rather to shillfid combinations

Volume XII, No. 8

of well-established teaching and
testing techniques. There was
lavish use of training films,
models, and other teaching aids,
but these were intended to sup-
plement, not to substitute for,
competent teaching. Perhaps the
single aspect most characteris-
tic of the armed forces’ train-
ing programs was their reliance
in so far as possible on learning
by doing; in particular, on
learning by working with mate-
rials and machines in the same
setting in which they would be
found on the job for which the
trainee was being prepared.

As regards the second miscon-
ception, it must be observed
that the objectives of the two
programs are so radically dif-
ferent as to make a general
comparison of their relative
achievements pointless. Judging
the training programs of the
armed forces in terms of the
realization of their legitimate
objectives, we find them success-
ful far beyond the most optimis-
tic original expectations. How-
ever, it should be recognized
that these objectives were quite
limited in scope. Most of them
were concerned with the devel-
opment of technical skills us-
ually involving mastery of only
a few processes or machines.
Furthermore, where an objec-
tive was concerned with impart-
ing an attitude or a mode of be-
havior, it was always an atti-
tude or behavior pattern deter-
mined by military requirements,
and therefore specifically defined
and imposed upon the trainee
from above. Indeed, it was this
very definiteness of the basic ob-
jectives which permitted the ef-
ficient simplicity and directness
of the programs that were or-
ganized to attain them.

Different Goals

In contrast, consider the ob-
jectives of the secondary-school

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A Classroom Film
for

English Teachers

^^The 8 Parts of a
Business Letter”

1 REEL, SOUND, 16MM

Written and Directed
By William Lewin

Chairman, English Department
Weequahic High School, Newark

Produced by Q. R. Taylor

Rental, $1.50 Sale Price, $24.00

INTERNATIONAL THEATRICAL &
TELEVISION CORPORATION

25 WEST 45th ST., NEW YORK 19

program. Certainly, they can not
be limited solely to providing
training in specific skills. The
development of character, the
imparting of democratic ideals,
the presentation of at least a
basic minimum of the general
knowledges and cultures neces-
sary for intelligent citizenship
(as well as for more interesting
living), and perhaps above all,
the stimulation and training of
the capacity to think — these
have been and must continue to
be among the great goals of the
educational program in a dem-
ocracy. What is more, the pro-
gram can be truly successful
only in so far as the attitudes,
ideals, and behavior patterns it
seeks to establish are finally
the result of the student’s own
selection and initiative.

The differences between the
two programs stand out even
more sharply when we consider
the ultimate function of the
trainee. In the armed forces, he
is being prepared to assume a
specifically defined role in a
highly regimented organiza-
tion. He is a cog in the machine.
It is not necessary for him to
understand the over-all situa-

tion in which he functions, nor
is he permitted to criticize or
make decisions about it. All his
time and effort are disposed of
in detail by the military organ-
ization, and such initiative as
he may wish to exercise is
sharply limited by the require-
ment of strict obedience.

In the public school, on the
other hand, the individual is be-
ing prepared to exercise intelli-
gently the wide freedom and
initiative that a democratic so-
ciety permits. Understanding of
the complex social picture is nec-
essary not only for the individ-
ual’s success, but also for the
success of the whole society of
which he is a member. As a cit-
izen, it becomes his duty to criti-
cize and help improve the con-
ditions under which all must
live, and the stimulus for such
action and progress must arise
out of the individual’s own initi-
ative and sense of social respon-
sibility.

Analysis

Granting the limited char-
acter of the objectives of the
armed forces’ training pro-
grams, their phenomenal success
still remains an important edu^
cational fact. It is illuminating
to analyze some of the elements
of that success.

1. Motivation : The outstand-
ing factor in the armed forces’
training program was the will-
ing learner. Being at war provid-
ed so unchallengeable a motive
for learning that it was unnec-
essary to “sell” any of the pro-
grams to the trainee. The trainee
was not merely willing. He was
anxious to learn anything that
would help him to function bet-
ter in the military environment.

2. Concentration : The con-
ditions under which the trainee
lived in the armed forces fav-
ored the concentration of his
maximum energy and effort on

Moy, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

the task at hand. In the first
place, all of the trainee’s time
was at the disposal of the train-
ing program. Secondly, by phys-
ically removing him from the in-
terests, responsibilities, and di-
versions that normally claim
his attention, the armed forces
made it possible for the trainee
to devote himself far more com-
pletely to his studies than he
could in a civilian environment.

3. Confidence of the Pro-
gram in the Learner: Because
of their urgency, the armed
forces’ programs made unusual
demands on the learner. The
tasks to be learned were some-
times quite difficult and the time
alloted for learning them, short.
Nevertheless, the programs pro-
ceeded on the assumption that
the learner could do the job. This
atmosphere of confidence in the
learner was an important fac-
tor in evoking from him a more
energetic effort than he exerts
in the usual learning situation.

4. Surprising Capacity of
the Learyier: Probably the most
significant fact that emerged
from the armed forces’ training
programs was the surprising
learning capacity and adapta-
bility exhibited by the average
trainee. At least in so far as the
acquisition of skills was con-
cerned, the trainees revealed a
reserve of ability that seldom
comes into play, or is even sus-
pected, while these same indi-
viduals are in the secondary
schools. To be sure, the power-
ful motivation, the concentra-
tion, and the highly purposive
atmosphere of the armed forces’
programs did much to bring
forth the trainee’s best effort.
Nevertheless, the results of that
best effort were impressive in-
deed.

It should be noted that, like
the public education system, the
armed forces too were called up-
on to provide universal train-

A Text Film for
Physical Educators

**T/ie Fundamentals of

BOXINQ^^

1 REEL, SOUND, 16MM
With Carl Seibert

Written and Directed
By William Letvin

Chairman, English Department
Weequahic High School, Newark

Produced by Q. R. Taylor

Rental, $1.50 Sale Price, $21.00

INTERNATIONAL THEATRICAL &
TELEVISION CORPORATION

25 WEST 45th ST., NEW YORK 19

ing. There was, of course, selec-
tion of candidates for special-
ized programs, but every man
had to be trained for something.
The overall program was thus
one of universal education. For
this reason, the new light shed
on the potentialities of the aver-
age trainee must be considered
especially significant for public
education.

5. Specific and Rapidly At-
tainable Objectives: The very
nature of the requirements of
the armed forces made it man-
datory to set up objectives that
were not only specific, but also
attainable after a short training
period. Such objectives made
possible definite and detailed
course organization, and gave
the training program a positive
direction. Both instructor and
trainee were fully conscious of
the goal from the beginning to
the end of the program. This
concentration on the objective,
coupled with the short duration
of the training courses, helped
to inspire and sustain a high
level of effort on the part of all
concerned.

6. Energetic Teaching : While
only some of the programs were
directly under the supervision

of trained educators, all instruc-
tors were alive to the importance
of good teaching. Teaching and
testing aids were available in
abundance. Text material was
constantly being revised, simpli-
fied, and brought up to date.
Many motion pictures, models,
and other teaching aids were in-
troduced, and adopted or reject-
ed on the basis of their effec-
tiveness as demonstrated by ac-
tual experience. There was in
the teaching effort a zeal and a
sense of motion and activity
which, if it did not always pro-
duce improvement, certainly
proclaimed a healthy unwilling-
ness to remain static.

Two Lessons

These, then, are some of the
aspects of the success of the
armed forces’ training pro-
grams. What can the secondary-
school educator learn from
them? There are, I believe, two
lessons to be learned.

First, the successful educa-
tional efforts of the armed
forces have demonsty'ated the
educability of the great masses
of our citizens, at least in so far
as the special requirements of
the armed forces were con-
cerned. This fact provides a ba-
sis for a restoration of confi-
dence in the potentialities of the
“average” secondary - school
learner, a confidence which
many secondary-school educa-
tors of today seem to have lost.

Second, the armed forces have
found no magic key to teaching
success. Instead, they have dem-
onstrated that the well-estab-
lished educational principles
and practices, applied with zeal,
imagination, and sincerity are
still the teacher’s most effective
tools. It is the proper use of
these tools that the educator
must relearn.

While the secondary school
can seldom provide motivations
as intense as those resulting

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 8

Announcing . . .

New Subscription Rates
FILM & RADIO GUIDE

Effective July 1, 1946

ONE YEAR $3.00

TWO YEARS 5.00

THREE YEARS 6.50

Enter or Renew Your Subscription
NOW at Current Low Rates:

ONE YEAR $2.00

TWO YEARS 3.50

THREE YEARS 5.00

In Canada, Add 50c; In Foreign Countries, Add $1

"What Shall We Read About the Movies’’ or "Course
of Study in Radio Appreciation” FREE With 2-Year Sub-
scriptions. BOTH FREE With 3-Year Subscriptions.

from a state of war, it must de-
vote itself most seriously to a
realistic justification of its pro-
gram that will be understood
and accepted by teachers and
pupils. Its program must have a
sharp sense of direction, and
must seem to be moving in that
direction with energy and self-
confidence. To make this possi-
ble, the first requisite is a clari-
fication of basic objectives in
the simplest and most specific
terms. Of course, this is a more
difficult task for public educa-
tion than it was for the armed
forces, but the educator cannot
expect intelligent human beings
to move rapidly in a vague di-
rection in search of a vaguer
goal. Only to the degree to
which objectives can be reduced
to terms that both pupils and
teachers clearly understand can
the mechanisms for achieving

those objectives be planned
with confidence.

Here, then, is a pivotal prob-
lem in modern secondary edu-
cation. The objectives are hazy
and confused. The educator has
not clearly decided what he is
trying to achieve. Individual
teachers are particularly aware
of this, for they find themselves
teaching their special subjects
without any conscious sense of
the connection between their
work and the objectives of the
secondary school at large. And
if the teachers are confused
about the objectives of the high-
school program, how much more
confused are the students! Yet
the students are most often the
final arbiters as to what course
or elective they shall undertake.

To Sum Up

Three great losses of faith
seem to plague the modern edu-

cator : a loss of faith in the abil-
ity of the learner, a loss of faith
in educational method, and a
loss of faith in the worth of the
educational process. The armed
forces’ training programs have
provided a basis for restoration
of faith in the first two : faith
in the learner, and faith in edu-
cational methods. However, the
loss of faith in the worth of the
educational process can be rem-
edied only by a clear evaluation
and restatement of the aims of
the educational process and a
zealous re-dedication of educa-
tors to the achievement of those
aims.

★

Correction

In our March issue, the arti-
cle entitled “Motion Pictures
Useful for the Study of Litera-
ture” was credited to Robert E.
“Schneider” instead of to Rob-
ert E. Schreiber. We deeply re-
gret the error, which was not
caught in time. We also regret
that Mr. Schreiber’s listings of
sources of the films was incom-
plete. For example. Adventures
of Tom Sawyer, As You Like It,
Count of Monte Cristo, Last of
the Mohicans, Little Lord
Fauntleroy, Little Men, Of Mice
a}id Men, and Prisoner of Zenda
are available not only through
Films Incorporated but through
Bell & Howell Company and
other leading film libraries.
Likewise P>ack Street, Great Im-
personation, Hoosier Schoolmas-
ter, House of Seven Gables,
Keeper of the Bees, Mother Ca-
rey’s Chickens, Swiss Family
Robinson, and When the Dal-
tons Rode are available not
only through 1. T. & T., but
through Bell & Howell Com-
pany and other leading libra-
ries. Things To Come has been
withdrawn from circulation
and cannot be had anywhere
just now.

May, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Stage Scripts to Improve
Human Relations

BY FELIX SPER

Thomas Jefferson High School, Brooklyn, New York

Now that the war is technically over, we must
continue to fight a revival of hate, discrimination,
and prejudice. If we believe in our Bill of Rights
and the other charters of liberty which have
sprung up from time to time, we must take on
the responsibility of teaching our students to prac-
tice these principles. We must make democracy
tvork.

The most effective aid, aside from the movies,
is the stage script (as distinguished from the
radio script) suitable for simple dramatization in
classroom, clubroom, and assembly hall.

Most of the pieces listed below have been issued
by special organizations busy with the problem
of bettering human relations. Unfortunately few
publishers have found it profitable to start a new
category or subdivision of the special-problem
play.

To be fully effective, these playlets must be
followed by classroom discussion on the day of
presentation. The English and history classes can
best reenforce the truth or truths projected by
one of these plays in the assembly. The wise
teacher will not be troubled too much with how to
motivate or correlate.

The listing herewith submitted has been
brought up to date. At the end of the title-lines,
the symbols E, J, S, signify Elementary, Junior
High, and Senior High levels. The other nota-
tions are self-explanatory.

Stage Scripts

All Aboard, by Ben Bengal S

Soldiers in a train argue the question of dis-
crimination when a Negro is forced to move to the
rear. Extremely good dialog.

Theatre Arts, September, 1944
Reprinted in Scholastic, December 4, 1944

As One Star Differeth J, S

A dramatic presentation of the virtue of being
different in manner, appearance, and ideas. Poetic
lines are quoted here and there. Suitable for
brotherhood week.

National Conference of Christians and Jews
381 Fourth Avenue, New York City Free

Divide and Conquer, by Allan Sloane and
Bob Russell. E, J

A Catholic, a Negro, and a Jewish boy play to-
gether. A bully divides their loyalty and picks up
their marbles. A bystander points out the analogy
to Hitler’s tactics.

Green Publishing Company

Box 823, Amityville, New York 15c

Haven of the Spirit, by Merrill Denison. S
Deals with Roger Williams and religious tol-
eration.

Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

6 E. 39th Street

New York City 30c

Huym Solomo7i, by Mildred J. Janusch J,S
The generous contribution of the Jewish pa-
triot and financier to the forces of George Wash-
ington is told simply.

Scholastic, May 6, 1930

Haym Soloinon, by Marcus Bach S

An interesting study of a little-known episode
in the period of the American Revolution.

Walter H. Baker
178 Tremont Street

Boston, Mass. 35c

A Hero Comes Home, by Jean Karsavina J, S

A returning veteran is surprised to find anti-
Semitism at home. When he learns that his friend
is a victim, he decides to join the counterattack
against the evil.

Stage for Action will perform it, free
130 W. 42nd Street
New York 18, New York

Jefferson Lives Today, by Anette Smith
Lawrence J, S

A plea for equality and freedom of all peoples.
Aynerican Uiiity, March-April, 1943
Issued by Council against Intolerance
17 E. 42nd Street

New York City Free

Reprinted from "High Points," March, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 8

Jefferson’s Spirit Lives E, J

A brief sketch written by students voicing a
plea to unite.

American Unity, March, 1944
Issued by Council against Intolerance
17 E. 42nd Street

New York City Free

Let My People Go E, J

A plea for Negro equality, written by students.
American Unity, October, 1943
Issued by Council against Intolerance
17 E. 42nd Street

New York City Free

Let No Tears Be Shed, by Henry Goodman S
A moving memorial of the Jewish defenders of
Warsaw.

Henry Goodman

11 Schermerhorn Street

Brooklyn 2, New York 10c

Look Beyoyid the Label,

by Irene D. Jaworski S

A witty playlet to prove that people are people
regardles of color or nationality. The label or
name or stereotype tells us nothing. We belong to
a single race : the human race.

Bureau of Intercultural Education
1697 Broadway

New York 19, New York 15c

Meet Your Relatives, by Alice B. Nirenberg,
with original lyrics by Don Karlin E, J. S.

A dramatization of some of the A B C’s of an-
thropology in the form of an illustrated lecture.
Light and gay.

Public Affairs Committee

30 Rockefeller Plaza

New York 20, New York 5c

Extend Your Subscription to

FILM AND RADIO

GUIDE

At Present Low Rates !

Playing Fair, by Fanny Venable Cannon S
Four short plays on the subject of understand-
ing and living with minority groups.

E. P. Dutton and Company
300 Fourth Avenue

New York City $1.00

Ring Freedom, Ring J, S

A pageant produced by the Rochester public
schools for casts of 250 and more. “A dramatic
picturization of our nation’s hard-won freedoms
which we treasure most carefully with each suc-
ceeding generation.” The growth of liberty in the
United States.

Address Hazel M. Stowell
Charlotte High School
4115 Lake Avenue

Rochester, New York 30c

A Salute to the Fourth,

by Elizabeth McFadden S

This playlet dramatizes the struggle for race
tolerance.

Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

6 E. 39th Street

New York City 30c

Skin Deep, by Charles Polachek E, J, S

A long play to demonstrate in witty fashion
that differences between races and peoples and
nationalities are mythical. Under the skin we are
all brothers. The facts from Races of Mankind
are cleverly dramatized.

Stage for Action will perform it, free
130 W. 42nd Street
New York 18, New York

Such Harmony, by W. Eric Harris S

This play suggests the possible beginnings of
authoritative control of freedom of speech, the
vague influences of which, if given free play,
might usher in fascism even in a country like
Canada. Its people are everyday people, and its
action is placed with a family having a picnic
supper in a city park.

Samuel French
25 W. 45th Street

New York 19, New York 35c

Who Built the Bridge? E, J

Many nationalities contribute to build a bridge,
which is America.

Council against Intolerance
17 E. 42nd Street
New York 18, New York

Free

Moy, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

The Use of Audio-Visual Aids

BY LOUIS E. RATHS

Professor of Education, The Ohio State University

Audio-visual aids may or may
not be aids. The very name sug-
gests that there are significant
aims pursued and the audio-
visual materials are supposed to
be aids to the accomplishments
of these ends. All too frequent-
ly, however, the movies, the rec-
ordings, the slides, the film
strips, and other resources are
ends in themselves. They are
used, and then the teacher and
students go back to the text and
disregard quite completely the
potentialities of the aids.

At The Ohio State University,
the writer and two of his for-
mer students. Dr. Henrietta
Fleck, now of Normal Univer-
sity, Normal, Illinois, and Dr.
Alberta Young, now of the Uni-
versity of Tennessee, at Knox-
ville, Tennessee, developed a se-
ries of guides to accompany the
use of audio-visual materials.
Dr. Fleck’s materials are re-
lated to a resource unit entitled
“The Relation of Schools to So-
ciety.” Dr. Young’s materials
are focused upon the furthering
of human relationships through
the meeting of human needs.

Both projects involved the de-
velopment of clear-cut purposes,
an outline of the major direc-
tions that each unit was to take.
For example, in Dr. Young’s
project she wanted to emphasize
greatly the needs that people
have, the social values that they
seem to champion, the personal
problems that they face, the
ways in which they treated other
people and responded to the

Summary of a talk at the Michigan
Audio-Visual Conference, Detroit, April
6, 1946.

treatment of other people, and
a consideration of how situa-
tions charged with personal
frustration might be recon-
structed.

A search was made for films,
recordings, and readings which
would illustrate these five head-
ings. When materials were
found which seemed adequate,
a rather elaborate analysis was
made. First of all, a synopsis of
the materials was written that
was much more complete than
the usual single paragraph. Fol-
lowing each synopsis are sev-
eral pages of writing in which
the human problems in the
materials are abstracted and
pointed up. This is followed by
some suggestions as to the needs
of the individuals who appear
in the films, the recordings, or
the readings. After some discus-
sion of the needs of each indi-
vidual, the guide presents an an-
alysis of propositions related to
social values and to teaching.
Then follows a section devoted
to ideas for assignments to stu-
dents, growing out of their use
of the aids. There is a section

FILMS OF MERIT

16MM SOUND - SILENT - 8MM

For Teaching, Recess
and Entertainment

RENT SALE

Write for comjtlcte list

also for related experiences, and
the whole is completed by sug-
gestions for further reading.

In the guide this matter of
human problems, human needs,
human behavior, social values
and social situations, reading,
writing, and direct experience
are all integrated as far as pos-
sible. Each guide is so rich in
possible suggestions that no
teacher coidd use all of them.
The guide constitutes a resource
from which the teacher may
choose problems, values, etc.,
that are appropriate for the
group. In some situations it is
possible that the teacher might
make very little use of the guide,
but its use does give a feeling
of security in handling new
teaching aids. Moreover, if this
service were widely available, if
adequate guides were prepared
for many of the aids, teachers
could read and study them be-
fore they chose the aid and
would have a much better basis
for deciding whether to use the
aid.

At The Ohio State University
these guides have now been used
over a period of three years by
as many as one hundred differ-
ent instructors, and we feel rea-
sonably sure that they fill a
need in the field. We have had
more use and more intelligent
use of teaching aids since Dr.
Fleck and Dr. Young started
their work. At this moment
sample copies of the guides are
available only for a number of
the human relations films that
were developed by the Commis-
sion on Human Relations under
the general direction of Dr.
Alice Keliher.

Volume XII. No. 8

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Radio and Audio Aids in Seattle

Radio in the Seattle Public
Schools is looked upon as being
one of three major services per-
formed by the Audio Aids De-
partment on a city-wide basis.
These services involve utiliza-
tion of transcriptions, recording
service, and broadcasting of six
school radio programs each
week, most of which are done as
“remotes” from the school dis-
trict studio. The radio work, as
well as the audio, operates on
the assumption that radio (or
audio) devices are a means to
an end, not an end in them-
selves. With this fundamental
premise in mind, the project is
set up on a purely functional
basis. Maximum opportunity is
given for student participation
and training. City-wide audi-
tions are held for radio talent,
writing staffs are organized for
script work, and operators are
trained to handle audio equip-
ment.

The center of the audio and
radio activities in the Seattle
Public Schools is the Radio
Workshop, located at Broadway
High School in downtown Seat-
tle. The Workshop has been de-
veloped by William Ladd, the di-
rector, in his capacity as Radio
Chairman for the Seattle Public
Schools. The work has now been
broadened to include the respon-
sibility for the promotion and
utilization of various audio aids
as well as radio.

It is Mr. Ladd’s belief that ra-
dio (audio) best serves the chil-
dren of the community when it
is related to the material of the
curriculum and to other teach-
ing aids. “It is a recognized
fact,” says Mr. Ladd, “that chil-
dren spend much of their leisure
time listening to the radio. Cer-

William Ladd, in charge of audio aids
in the Seattle schools.

tainly they ‘learn’ a great deal
from this listening experience.
In a sense they are being taught.
Consequently, it is a wise school
that, recognizing the education-
al effectiveness of the audio
method, provides time on its
program for hearing and eval-
uating broadcasts as either live
or transcribed shows.”

It is Mr. Ladd’s opinion that
it is high time that the schools
recognized the educational po-
tentiality of the audio method.
We must be aware that the stu-
dent’s generation is conditioned
to radio, while the teacher’s gen-
eration is not. The primary
problem for the person respon-
sible for the promotion of audio-
aids utilization in the school sys-
tem is that of in-service training
of the teacher corps. Children
are already accustomed to, and
dependent upon, audio aids for
much of their information and
entertainment.

School administrators must
come to recognize this lu’oblem
of in-service training. Equip-

ment must be purchased and fa-
cilities made available for the
training of teachers to use mod-
ern aids in the classroom.

The underlying philosophy
back of the audio work in the
Seattle Public Schools is that
“desirable materials are those
that bring out the understand-
ings presented in the course of
study, that teachers should be
certain that materials used
avoid stereotyped impressions
or ideas, and that administra-
tors must recognize that new
teaching aids, such as audio, are
necessarily a supplementary aid.
Actually, except for the mechan-
ics, an audio aid is not differ-
ent from a textbook, a map, a
globe, or a blackboard. These
are supplementary to the main
business of teaching. It is es-
sential that the teacher know
how to use the aid and be aware
of its relationship to the ma-
terial which he wishes to pre-
sent to his class. Again, it is
a means to an end, not an end in
itself.”

Mr. Ladd, who is now direc-
tor of the Radio Workshop, and
in charge of Audio Aids for the
Seattle Public Schools, has been
a teacher of speech and drama
in the Seattle Schools since 1936.
His undergraduate work was
done at Pacific University, For-
est Grove, Oregon. He graduat-
ed as the first speech major
from that institution in 1930
after a collegiate career in
which he specialized in oratory,
debate, public speaking, and
drama. After teaching in small
public schools in Washington, he
took his master’s degree in
drama and speech at the State
College of Washington. He has
had a number of years’ experi-

May, 1 946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

ence in radio acting, announc-
ing, and writing, and has been
a free-lance producer of educa-
tional and commercial shows.

“We in Seattle,” commented
Mr. Ladd, “recognize that this

is only the beginning of our use
of radio and audio aids. We shall
continue to watch the work of
others, to scrutinize our proce-
dures, and to keep in mind the
fact that we are teaching chil-

dren, not teaching radio. In the
light of these standards, we
hope to continue to make con-
tributions to the educational ex-
periences of those students with
whom we work.”

Radio, Dynamic Force in Education

BY RUTH WEIR MILLER

Radio Assisfant, Philadelphia Public Schools

Nineteen forty-five marked
the twenty-fifth anniversary of
radio in America. During those
twenty-five years we saw radio
develop from a toy to a tool,
from a gadget to a gargantuan
force. Sometimes it has been
used as a tool by a far-sighted
advertiser ; at other times it has
been an all-powerful tool used
by the forces of evil which have
been let loose in the world in our
time. Radio has been used to
create, and it has been used to
destroy. Only comparatively re-
cently have we seen it used as an
effective tool in education. Edu-
cators have come to realize that
radio marks an advance in edu-
cation comparable to that
brought about by printing.

When we examine the signifi-
cance of radio to the teacher,
two facts are obvious at once.
First, the girls and boys whose
educational experiences are our
responsibility have never lived
in a world where radio has not
been part of daily living. Theirs
is, therefore, a sound-conscious
generation. The average Ameri-
can citizen listens to his radio
five hours a day; the average
boy or girl tunes in for two

Reprinted from Educational Outlook,
March, 1946, a publication of the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania School of Edu-
cation.

and a half hours a day. As
teachers, we dare not ignore ra-
dio. Every program that goes
out over the air educates for
good or for evil — creates atti-
tudes, moulds public opinion.
Even a cursory examination of
the effect of radio on American
life convinces us that our re-
sponsibility is a great one. We
have the opportunity of using
this tremendous new force in
the classroom. As educators we
can be editors of American ra-
dio. We can be articulate about
the kinds of programs that we
should like to hear on the air.

Let us consider first how pro-
grams planned for in-school lis-
tening can be used effectively in
the classroom. Many cities now
have radio programs as a regu-
lar part of school curricula,
planned and produced coopera-
tively by the school systems and
the broadcasters. Some, like
Cleveland and Chicago, have
their own FM Stations, owned
and operated by the school sys-
tem; and in that case planning
and production are handled en-
tirely by the school radio staff.
Some school systems, like those
of Detroit and Philadelphia,
plan and produce educational
radio programs in cooperation
with local commercial stations.
The important questions for the

teacher are : What can I do with
this new medium? What can ra-
dio do that no other medium can
do?

Radio as a teaching device
can help the teacher to attain
certain objectives. Used with in-
telligence and imagination radio
can (1) vitalize the work of the
classroom, (2) supplement and
enrich schoolroom educational
experiences, (3) motivate stu-
dents to further learning, (4)
integrate the learning of various
subject fields, (5) train young-
sters in good taste and in dis-
criminating listening. In the
light of our experiences in util-
izing radio in the Philadelphia
schools from the kindergarten to
the twelfth grade, let us see just
how effective a teaching tool ra-
dio can be.

In Philadelphia there is a va-
riety of radio fare which has
resulted in vitalized teaching in
that city. Radio is a vitalizing
force in classroom instruction,
first of all, because it is timely.
Children are compelled by the
immediacy of events. They feel
keenly a sense of participation
in world affairs when the
schools’ own news commentator,
Alexander Griffin, news analyst
of WIP, for example, comes to
the microphone with a weekly
newscast. Behind Today’s News

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

(Friday, 11 :15) . Children them-
selves set the stage for the
broadcast by reading newspa-
pers and trying to determine
what items of news Alexander
Griffin will choose for comment.
When he mentions foreign coun-
tries the youngsters are eager
to learn for themselves the man-
ners, customs, and forms of gov-
ernment of those countries. Con-
troversial subjects introduced
on the program usually result in
spirited discussions in the class-
room, after school, and at home.
The program can fit into any
subject in the curriculum, help
to vitalize any curricular activ-
ity.

The radio assistant who visits
classrooms regularly to observe
the utilization of this program
reports : “The program starts
a ball rolling, and where it stops
is simply a tribute to the re-
sourcefulness of the teacher and
the class.” Such a program helps
a child to adjust himself to this
modern, atomic, r a d a r-con-
tr oiled world. Another way in
which we can make curricular
activities real and vital and sig-
nificant is to bring a recognized
authority into the classroom via
the air waves. With a twist of
the wrist, it becomes our privi-
lege to hear from a well-known
news analyst or to go “Explor-
ing Music” with Mary Van Dor-
en, pianist and musician, every
Monday morning at eleven-fif-
teen (WIP). That the experi-
ence of listening to good music
presented by a recognized artist
does vitalize instruction is borne
out by the results. After Mary
Van Doren’s program, children
enter upon a variety of activi-
ties. Some of them paint in free
style what the music has sug-
gested to them. Sometimes, as a
class project, friezes are paint-
ed illustrating the music. Boys
and girls keep notebooks and
scrapbooks on musicians, on mu-

sical forms, on newspaper sto-
ries of musical events and per-
sonalities. The musical program
stimulates the writing of origi-
nal compositions, letters to the
broadcasters, letters of appre-
ciation to Mary Van Doren. The
wise teacher uses the musical
program also as an incentive to
vocabulary building.

Secondly, radio directly sup-
plements and enriches the regu-
lar work of the classroom. Ele-
mentary school girls and boys
have a valuable literary experi-
ence in hearing a story told with
artistry, sometimes “dressed
up” with dramatic interludes,
every Wednesday afternoon at
two-fifteen when they tune in
to the “Magic of Books”
(WEIL). The program brings
enchantment. It has the intangi-
ble but educationally valuable
quality of showmanship. The lis-
teners are compelled by the
“magic” in books. The program
stimulates interest in good read-
ing. It provides an enrichment
of the listeners’ emotional ex-
periences. This is apparent in
the rapt attention they give to
the program. Since all learning
begins with interest, the value
of such a program is obvious.

It has often been said that the
good radio writer creates char-
acters that are so real that
“what happens to them matters
to the listener.” We have learned
that when American history is
presented in highly dramatic
form, as it is in “The American
Adventure,” (KYW, 9:30 a. m.
on Wednesday) or “Lest We
Forget” (WIP, 11:15 Thurs-
day), personalities in the story
of the American dream become
real, flesh-and-blood people. The
student gets a sense of partici-
pation in the events of long ago.
Radio shatters time and space;
it transports the listener to oth-
er times and places. When the
narrator says, “The scene is

Philadelphia the year

1776” everyone in the

room becomes part of the Phil-
adelphia of the Revolution and
grapples for the moment with
the problems of that day. How
easy it is after such a broad-
cast to relate historic problems
to those which our young citi-
zens will have to face in the
America of today ! Only recently
I visited in a school and heard
with a class a broadcast in the
“American Adventure” series,
titled “Fourteen Points Over
Tokyo.” It was a dramatized
presentation of Wilson’s unsuc-
cessful fight for the League of
Nations, together with a graphic
radio picture of the bombing of
Tokyo — an incident that might
not have happened if Wilson
had succeeded. It happened that
the broadcast was presented
during the time of the UN meet-
ings in London, and newspapers
were carrying daily accounts of
the problems facing the repre-
sentatives of the nations of One
World. After the broadcast, the
significance of the meetings of
UN to every boy and girl in
that class was brought out in the
discussion. Children had a new
understanding and appreciation
of the importance of world
events to them as individuals.
They realized then that they
were a part of the “American
Adventure.”

Another program available
to Philadelphia teachers, “Once
Upon a Time” (KQW, Friday
9:30), dramatizes “stories be-
hind everyday things,” and pre-
sents the myths and legends of
every country in the world in
such a way that everyday things
take on new importance. The
imaginative and legendary an-
swers to “Why We Have Snow”
and “Why There Is Lightning
and Thunder” not only enrich
classroom experience, but en-
large the concepts of the young

Moy, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

audience and make for a hap-
pier understanding of all the
peoples of the earth. We know
in education that the further we
get from first-hand experience
the less meaningful an educa-
tional experience will be. Radio
is a good substitute for first-
hand experience, because, an-
nihilating space and time, it
gives children a sense of actual
participation in what is being
presented in the program.
In addition, we know that there
are certain emotional factors
that are important in the learn-
ing process. The progressive
teacher utilizes those factors
more and more. That brings
us to the third important role
that radio can play, the role of
motivator.

As a motivating force radio is
outstanding. The American ad-
vertiser suspected long ago that
radio might be used to cajole,
coax, and convince the Ameri-
can housewife that she ought to
buy his product, and he discov-
ered to his satisfaction that ra-
dio was a super-salesman. At
long last, educators have begun
to use that super-salesman as a
motivating and stimulating
force. Outstanding in the use of
radio to motivate classroom ac-
tivities is the “Science Is Fun”
program (Monday, WFIL,
2:15), for boys and girls of ele-
mentary grades. The program
capitalizes on the natural curi-
osity of the child. It convinces
him that science can be fun.
This series consists of dramat-
izations which illustrate elemen-
tary scientific principles. Pro-
grams are divided into units,
such as the weather, power, or
transportation. Sometimes sim-
ple experiments are done on the
air with instructions as to how
to do them in the classroom at
the same time. Children become
so interested in these classroom
“laboratories” that they carry

on with their experiments at
home and exchange reports with
their young fellow scientists.
One young man’s enthusiasm
caused a little trouble at home.
After a radio broadcast on con-
densation, he went home to con-
duct an experiment in connec-
tion with his nightly bath. He
not only used the entire family’s
supply of hot water for the eve-
ning, but he created steam for
so long a time that the paper be-
gan to come off the wall ! Chil-
dren become so interested in
their science programs that of
their own accord they bring in
pictures and newspaper clip-
pings regarding programs they
have heard. The demand for
books on science has increased in
all libraries. Teachers discover
new areas of interest among
their boys and girls, enthusi-
asms of which the teachers have
been previously unaware. The
same thing has happened in con-
nection with a program for ele-
mentary schools called “A Trip
to the Zoo” (WIP, Wednesday
11:15). The program begins
with a fanciful story, such as
“Why the Coyote Has So Many
Voices.” The story is followed
by scientific facts about the ani-
mal, his natural habitat, and
where he may be seen at the
Philadelphia zoo. The story stim-
ulates interest in the animal and
gives a new glamour to old zoo
friends. That leads to an inter-
est in geography and in re-
search. The heart-warming
thing to one working in radio
constantly is the spontaneous
enthusiasm with which chilch’en
“follow through.” After they
have heard a broadcast, chil-
dren want to find out more and
more. On their own, and not be-
cause of a formal assignment,
they go to books for further in-
formation. They take advantage
of educational agencies like The
Franklin Institute, the Univer-

sity of Pennsylvania Museum,
and the Zoological Gardens.

Radio as a motivating force is
not limited, however, to elemen-
tary schools. Philadelphia’s
“Junior Town Meeting” pro-
gram, designed to “Help Youth
Build Today for a Better To-
morrow,” acts as a powerful
motivating force in the high
schools. On this program, boys
and girls hear youngsters of
their own age discuss the atomic
bomb, the problems of world
peace, the local housing prob-
lem, and unemployment compen-
sation. They follow the program
with discussions of their own.
Here is a device for introducing
the controversial issue into the
classroom. The teacher can take
a place in the background and
give students an opportunity to
express their opinions, clarify
their thinking, and weigh argu-
ments which they hear. It is all
part of training them to think
for themselves, rather than to
accept dogmatic beliefs. It gives
them the experience of trying
to form their own hypotheses,
and thus prepares them to take
their places as citizens of a
free world. Follow-up activities
after such a program sometimes
take the form of written work
or further research to prove the
truth or falsity of a statement.
Teachers of almost any subject
find that this program, in addi-
tion to motivating students to
valuable classroom activities,
helps them to integrate their va-
ried learning experiences.

As an integrating force ra-
dio’s power is tremendous.
Teachers who believe in learn-
ing by units rather than by iso-
lated subjects are convinced of
radio’s usefulness. In the “unit”
or “core” curriculum all educa-
tional experiences are integrat-
ed, and the pattern of learning
beconu's cl(*ar to tlu' studenl.
Imaginative teachers have dis-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

covered that the science pro-
gram, for instance, can be used
not only to motivate the study
of a unit in science, but also to
encourage work in creative
drawing based on material in
the broadcasts, or in talks
based on research work done
after the broadcast, or in a
study of the historical back-
ground of the scientific data cov-
ered in the program. These are
just a few of the possibilities. A
music appreciation program,
“Music in the Air” (WFIL),
has resulted in varied experi-
ences. To quote a teacher :
“Reading was made easier and
more desirable because there
was a real purpose and a chal-
lenge to become better readers
in order to understand and ap-
preciate the books to be read
about the musicians who were
presented on the program.” Let-
ter-writing skills were also de-
veloped as a result of listening,
because of a desire to write to
the broadcasters and to the peo-
ple in charge of the program.
Each week, too, children wrote
paragraphs about the compos-
ers. They wanted to buy com-
poser booklets from the Presser
Company, and this resulted in a
project in arithmetic in order to
determine the cost of the book-
lets. The same skills were ap-
plied to measuring the bufietin
board for pictures, newspaper
clippings, and other announce-
ments relative to the “Music in
the Air” program. So it goes
constantly in the use of radio.
This medium cuts across sub-
ject fields, and, because it mo-
tivates learning, it helps to inte-
grate the learner’s experiences
and the various knowledges and
skills which he has acquired.

We all know that education
should develop concepts, that
half a dozen concepts in all their
richness are better than 100
unrelated facts, that everything

in the child’s world should take
on as many meanings as possi-
ble. Here again radio leads the
way as an educative device be-
cause of the way in which it
can integrate educational ex-
periences. It was found by
teachers that the “Magic of
Books” program stimulated an
interest not only in the story it-
self and in other stories of its
kind but also in the country
from which it came. Because of
that, during the broadcasts of
1945-46, the “Magic of Books”
program was planned to corre-
late with the “Music in the Air”
program, a music-appreciation
broadcast presented by WFIL.
The two series then are called
“round the world in song and
story.” On Wednesday, boys and
girls hear a story about Italy,
like “Gigi and the Magic Ring,”
and that is followed on Friday
by a concert of the music of
Italy. In other words, Italy and
its people are interpreted by
means of their folk tales and
their folk music. It makes for
an understanding of the coun-
try, for appreciation of the con-
tributions of Italians to Ameri-
can culture. Italy, then, becomes
more than just a place on the
map. It is people, it is legend, it
is music, it is dancing, it is sun-
light and mountains ; and the
boy across the aisle, whose name
is Italian, takes on a new digni-
ty. Such integration of material,
possible by the new api)roach of
radio, makes the teacher’s life
pleasanter, his work more effec-
tive.

Of course, using radio as a
force to vitalize, to enrich, to
motivate, and to integrate class-
room instruction does not come
with merely tuning in a radio
program. Nor is this accomp-
lished by an indiscriminate use
of any or all radio programs.
Some i)eople believe erroneously
that radio takes the place of the

teacher. On the contrary, radio
in the classroom can be success-
ful only if the teacher makes in-
telligent use of it. That means
that the “radio lesson” coiisists
of preparation for the broad-
cast, active and interested lis-
tening, and well-planned f ol-
io w-np activities. To facilitate
effective utilization, teachers’
manuals, outlining the purposes
of each series, giving sugges-
tions to the teacher for the use
of each broadcast, and a bibliog-
raphy and suggested list of
films to supplement the broad-
casts have been prepared for all
school programs of the Philadel-
phia area. It is important that
the teacher study the manuals
to determine which programs
fit his curriculum needs and are
suitable to the age and experi-
ence level of his students. Then,
before each broadcast, he can
establish in the minds of the pu-
pils a genuine purpose in listen-
ing and relate the program to
the experiences of the child.
Without this setting of the
stage, the program is not par-
ticularly valuable. It is import-
ant too that the listening situa-
tion be a good one, that good
reception be assured, that the
radio be tuned properly and on
time, and that children be
seated so that they can hear
without straining. Only in such
a situation can one encourage
good listening habits. Immedi-
ately after the broadcast, fol-
low-up activities should begin.
That is the time to go after the
purposes established in the pre-
broadcast period, to encourage
classroom discussion. Sometimes
this can be handled by class
committees. It is well to have
related illustrative materials on
hand whenever possible, or at
least to encourage the class to
bring them in later. In every
way, it is important to relate
the broadcast to the daily living

May, 1 946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

of each individual and of the
group. Of course, follow-up ac-
tivities do not take place only
immediately following the pro-
gram. Teachers are always de-
lighted with the fact that days,
sometimes weeks, after a broad-
cast something learned on a ra-
dio program will be brought up
in connection with a subsequeiii
classroom activity.

In addition t o motivating
the teaching of subject-matter,
techniques, and skills by radio,
we have a real job to do in
training our youngsters to be
discriminating listeners. This
means that we have to tram
them in good listening habits.
We have said that the average
American “listens” to the radio
for five hours a day. What we
mean is that he turns his radio
on for that length of time. Blu
we know that the radio listener
has frequently been equipped
with “boilermaker” ears. Radio
should be received as a guest in
the home or the classroom. As
such, it should be treated gra-
ciously and with the good man-
ners one accords to a guest.
Courteous radio listening should
be encouraged by using the ra-
dio properly in school. In a pro-
gram planned for kindergarten
and primary grades, “Radioland
Express” (WFIL — Tuesday at
two-fifteen), we are attempting
to establish good listening hab-
its at an early age. One kinder-
garten teacher observed that the
first or second time the pro-
gram was tuned in the children
talked during the broadcast.
Then they became aware that ii
was a program just for them;
they were invited to sing a
song with the lady on the pro-
gram ; t o participate in a
“sound-effects game” ; to listen
to some one tell a story all
dressed up with a musical back-
ground. And then they began to
listen attentively. Now they re-

mind the teacher : “Today’s
Tuesday ! Don’t forget we’re go-
ing to Radioland.” When the
program is on the air, they sit
in rapt attention and participate
in everything. The same thing
holds true with programs at
higher grade levels. Students
are learning good listening hab-
its. That is the first step in dis-
criminating listening.

A n important development
in radio-in-education is that
teachers are being trained in
summer workshops and in eve-
ning courses in the techniques of
radio broadcasting. Then they
use their knowledge and skill to
train children in how to dis-
criminate between good and bad
radio programs. Children learn
not to accept a program simply
because it is on the air. In other
words, they learn to evaluate
what they hear. They are be-
coming aware that the Ameri-
can system of broadcasting is
theirs, that they are now, and
will be in future, the editors of
American radio. Pointing the
utilization of a radio program
toward an appreciation of radio
as a form of art and literature
as well as a means of communi-
cation carries over, of course,
to out-of-school listening.

Many teachers who cannot,
because of poor equipment or
rigid bell schedules, use radio
broadcasts in the classroom find
that they can make excellent
curricular use of the programs
on the air outside of school
hours. We make use of books
and periodicals as sources of in-
formation, to supplement text
books. Why not make use of the
many excellent radio programs
now on the air for the same pur-
pose? The American School of
the Air (broadcast daily this
year in out-of -school time, five
o’clock, E.S.T., WCAU), The
Ha mail Advent arc, Exptoriaii
the Unkaoivii, Cavalcade of

America, Within These Gates,
Hate, Inc., America’s Town
Meeting of the Air — these are
only a few examples of the ex-
cellent radio fare to be had for
the asking at times when stu-
dents can listen. Wise utilization
of these programs can result in
specific curricular activities in
the field of social studies, sci-
ence, or English. In addition,
such listening on the part of
students can be directed to an
appreciation of radio as an art
form and as a social force. An
understanding of network and
local broadcasting, of the sig-
nificance of the FCC, of radio’s
role in the community, of its in-
fluences on American life — this
should be part of the educa-
tional experiences of young
America.

Another way in which out-of-
school radio can be used to ad-
vantage in the classroom is by
applying radio techniques to
classroom activities. We can use
the program ideas and tech-
niques of such broadcasts as Ta-
formation Please, Hobhij Lobbij,
Quiz Kids, or John Nesbitt of
the Westinghouse Hour to stim-
ulate pupils to engage in desir-
able actvities. We can use the
techniques of radio script writ-
ing and production instead of
“composition” writing and the
assigned formal “talk.” We can
use certain radio programs as
desirable standards of speech.
We can also use the simulated
broadcast in the classroom to
motivate children who other-
wise might be shy and inarticu-
late. Teachers tell of students
who never had volunteered or
had anything to say, who sud-
denly under the stimulus of
these new techniques developed
new skills. They write radio
scripts, they do make-believe
newscasts before a “dummy
mike” (made i n the school
workshop) ; they develop the
ability to think on their feet as

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

they become “ad lib” radio an-
nouncers. In one school, a class
heard a program about the first
moving picture. That same af-
ternoon two boys who had never
volunteered to do anything be-
fore asked the teacher rather
shyly whether they could make
a moving-picture machine of
their own in the school shop.
She was delighted, of course,
and in a few days they came to
class with their “invention.” It
was a long sheet of shelf paper
attached to a crank that kept
the paper moving; as the crank
on the gadget was turned by
one of the boys, he explained
that they could have moving
pictures by painting a series of
pictures on the paper. The whole
class was enchanted with the
idea of making the “movie.”
Then the children who were in-
terested in art painted a series
of pictures based on incidents
in all the broadcasts they had
heard. The whole thing was a
valuable class project and the
idea came entirely from the chil-
dren. Learning was definitely
fun. Experiments with radio,
then, usually result in new and
improved teaching methods.

The interest in radio pro-
grams does not stop with listen-
ing, however. As students get
the opportunity to participate in
school broadcasts, as they do on
Junior Town Meeting, American
Adventure, Science I s Fim,
Great Moments in Scieyice, they
begin to learn radio technique
and apply their knowledge to a
n e w understanding of radio
itself. Moreover, the fact that
boys and girls have the oppor-
tunity to participate in pro-
grams has encouraged many
teachers to organize radio clubs,
where children can actually
learn radio skills. In addition,
Philadelphia stations encourage
teachers to bring classes to the
studios to see the broadcasts go

on the air; and from an experi-
ence such as this, students al-
ways come away with a whole
new concept of the skills and
techniques necessary to good ra-
dio production. Just as the stu-
dent of the piano is more appre-
ciative of the skill of an Arthur
Rubenstein than one who is un-
familiar with the instrument, so
is the boy or girl who has
learned something of radio tech-
niques more appreciative and
more intelligently critical of
what comes to him out of the
loud speaker, whether in school
or at home.

Radio, then, is a dynamic force
in education. We have seen how
in-school broadcasts can vital-
ize, enrich, motivate, and inte-
grate classroom activities. We
are aware of our responsibility
in training youngsters in good

Tom Bennett, NBC producer
and composer, has composed
three movements of his pro-
jected Franklin D. Roosevelt
Symphony, which in finished
form will contain five move-
ments. When he was asked to
compose music for Rendezvous
With Destiny, a two-hour re-
cording of a series of Roosevelt
speeches broadcast during the
President’s twelve years in the
White House, Bennett adapted
the symphony as a musical ac-
companiment. He later made an-
other adaptation for a smaller
orchestra for a half-hour broad-
cast version of Rendezvous With
Destiny on NBC. To top it off,
Bennett was then assigned to
produce the program on the air.

listening habits and in the se-
lection of good programs. We
have learned that methods that
work in radio can be applied
successfully to classroom meth-
ods. But to accomplish these
ends, let us avail ourselves of
the variety of radio fare avail-
able to us ; in-school broadcasts,
transcriptions, out-of-s c h o o 1
broadcasts, participation in pro-
grams, and all the services now
offered by the radio industry to
the educator. We are dealing
with a sound-conscious genera-
tion, a generation conditioned in
part by radio listening. Let us
accept the challenge of that con-
ditioning and utilize the oppor-
tunities offered to us by this
powerful medium of mass edu-
cation. Let us realize radio’s po-
tentialities as a dynamic force
in education.

When the symphony is com-
pleted it will have five move-
ments with these sub-headings :
Childhood, The Sea, Home Life,
Sickness, and Leadership. The
major theme of the symphony is
the traditional presidential song,
“Hail to the Chief.” However,
the complete theme is not stated
until the final movement. A part
of the melody is stated as the
theme of each movement, grow-
ing in length as it progresses to
the finale.

Bennett is composer of the
music for the recent Theatre
Guild production of Shake-
speare’s Othello, starring Paul
Robeson. On NBC one of his ma-
jor assignments is ])roduction
of the daily “Fred Waring
Show.”

Bennett, NBC Producer^ Composing
D* Symphony for Radio
and Recording

Moy, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Goodman

Arthur J. Crowley, Director
of the Educational Department
of Popular Science Publishing-
Company and Reader's Digest
has announced the appointment
of Dr. David J. Goodman as
Editor-in-Chief of the new Au-
dio-Visual Department of Popu-
lar Science Publishing Com-
pany, New York, N. Y. This di-
vision has been created to pro-
mote the development and sale
to schools and colleges of audio-
visual education aids on a na-
tion-wide basis. The depart-
ment’s program will be one of
gradual expansion, and in time
it will handle all of the major
audio-visual aids to learning, in-
volving all levels of education.

The first announcement of
the new Popular Science Teach-
0-Discs and Teach-O-Filmstrips
appears on pages 32-33 of this
issue of Film and Radio Guide.

Dr. Goodman’s solid back-
ground and splendid accom-
plishments thoroughly qualify
him for his new post. While at
New York University, he ma-
jored in Administration and
Supervision of Audio-Visual Ed-
ucation. His doctor’s thesis is
entitled, “Comparative Effec-
tiveness of Pictorial Teaching
Materials’’ (Motion Pictures vs.
Filmstrips). He has had nine
years of full-time experience in
public school work in the prep-
aration of audio-visual curricu-
la and the direction of audio-
visual instruction. He has also
had extensive experience in ed-
itorial work, still and motion
picture photography and rec-
ording.

Dr. Goodman has had rich
and varied experience in his

Joins "Popular Science" as
-Visual Editor-in-Chief

David J. Goodman, Editor-in-Chief of
the new Audio-Visual Department of
Popular Science Publishing Company.

chosen field. His background in-
cludes positions as Editor for
Young America Films, Inc; De-

partment Editor for Educa-
tional Screeri, Chicago, since
1941 ; Educational Supervisor
for New York City’s Board of
Education Program on the De-
velopment of Objective Train-
ing Materials and Techniques.
During the war for a two-year
period he was Educational Spe-
cialist for the Army Air Forces,
Training Aids Division, in
charge of preparation of In-
structors’ Guides to accompany
Army Air Forces training films
and filmstrips. He conducted an
extensive survey in the utiliiz-
ation of filmstrips.

He has contributed numerous
articles to educational journals,
including Journal of Education-
al Research, Safety Education,
Journal of Education, Film and
Radio Guide, and other publica-
tions.

Curriculum Films f Inc,, Announces Plans

Monroe B. David, President
of Americolor Services, has an-
nounced the formation of Cur-
riculum Films, Inc. The new or-
ganization will perform an edu-
cational, research, and distribu-
tion service for independent
producers of educational films.
Americolor Services, sales and
management organization for
the Colorfilm Company of Amer-
ica, will act in the same capac-
ity for Curriculum Films.

Mr. David, in discussing the
basic plans of the new company,
said, “After carefully deter-
mining specific classroom needs,
through research, we will have
subject-matter specialists pre-
pare script material for pro-
ducers. From this material the

producers will create packages
o f full-color filmstrips, each
package consisting of a num-
ber of individual strips of logi-
cal teaching length. Where they
will serve the purpose best,
16mm motion pictures will be
included. The complete package
will cover the visual needs of an
entire course.”

“We are not producers,” Mr.
David added, “but our educa-
tional research and develop-
ment staff will work with se-
lected producers through all
phases of production. The com-
pleted packages will be sold di-
rect to schools.”

Offices of the company are in
the R.K.O. Building, Radio
City, N. Y.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

The Play's the Thing

BY FLORA RHETA SCHREIBER

"The Would-Be Gent-lemon"

Bobby Clark has a way with
Congreve, Sheridan, and Mo-
liere. His own way. Currently,
in Michael Todd’s production,
he approaches Moliere’s The
Would-Be Gentleman as he has
approached Congreve’s Love
For Love and Sheridan’s The
Rivals — as if the play had never
had a performance before, as
though it were written yester-
day, finishing touches added
hurriedly this morning, espe-
cially for Bobby Clark.

Bobby Clark behaves as if he
had never heard of Moliere —
that is, with a mercifully beauti-
ful freedom from academic awe.
The result is that Moliere’s play
serves as the framework for de-
lightful, madcap improvisation.
It ceases to be a satire on the
nouveau riche and becomes the
occasion of resounding belly
laughs and joyous guffaws. One
thinks of the image of laughter
holding both his sides, of Sir
Toby Belch, of Falstaff. The
abandon of the production is
complete and exhilarating. Even
though the law of diminishing
returns begins to operate as an-
tics and capers suffer from rep-
etition, this is a superlatively
good show. Particularly the
early part.

"Lute Song"

Michael Myerberg, who had
the courage to present Thorn-
ton Wilder’s Skin of Our Teeth
after it had been turned down
by less enterprising producers,
now gives us Lute Song. Again
Mr. Myerberg shows courage.
For Lute Song might easily have
miscarried. For one thing, it is

an adaptation of an adaptation.
For another, it is both simple
and earnest. But it did not mis-
carry. This is a production of
compelling beauty.

The simple folk-story is of a
country wife and her scholar
husband. The wife sends the
husband to the capital for gov-
ernment examinations. He is
more of a success than was an-
ticipated. But he is the slave of
his success, for he is detained
and forcibly married to a prin-
cess. All unknowing, his wife
waits. She goes through a fam-
ine, sells her hair to bury her
husband’s parents, and then in
the guise of a nun wanders
through the country. At long
last she finds her husband who,
at first, doesn’t know her. In
the end, though, through the
magnanimous intercession o f
the princess, the lovers are re-
united.

The story is simple, the char-
acters (all but the husband’s
mother) idealized, yet the play
has the breath of humanity. One
watches this lavish production,
brilliant in its pageantry, with
wide-eyed wonder. And one is
passionately concerned that
everything turn out right.

Mary Martin, most recently
seen in One Touch of Venus,
plays the wife with graceful
earnestness — which is difficult
to achieve, since earnestness us-
ually leads to tenseness. Yul
Brynner plays the distraught
husband, whose heart is heavier
than his gold-quilted costume.
Mildred Dunnock as the mother,
Cassandra-like in foreseeing ca-
tastrophe, suspicious and nag-
ging when catastrophe comes.

gives a moving performance.
McKay Morris makes the gran-
diose prince plausible. The most
difficult acting assignment falls
to Helen Craig, who plays the
princess-wife. The princess is
neither heroine nor villain. She
means well, but she is not real.
Clearly she is pure cleus-ex-ma-
china for reuniting the husband
and wife. Helen Craig’s per-
formance is dignified but stiff.
The fault, as indicated, is not
wholly hers.

The sets, which are by Robert
Edmond Jones, suggest grand
opera. Maybe they suggest
grand theatre, for it is exciting
to be lifted out of the natural-
ism of the conventional three-act
drawing-room set. In addition
to grandeur, there is subdued
beauty in these sets. They melt
into each other with the unaf-
fected ease of snow falling on
snow, mingling and becoming
one.

Raymond Scott’s songs are
tuneful and suitable. I don’t
think any more can be said for
them. They certainly don’t
measure up to the grandeur of
the sets nor to the solidness of
most of the acting. Yeichi Nimu-
ra’s choreography is also merely
adequate. Appealing in itself, it
falls short of the potentialities
for dance inherent in the script.
Too often the occasion for dance
gives way to mere parade.

The adaptation is by the late
Sidney Howard and Will Irwin
from a French version of a fam-
ous fourteenth-century Chinese
play, Pi-Pa-Ki. The direction is
by John Houseman, once asso-
ciated with Orson Welles in the
experimental Mercury Theatre,

May, 1 946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

and since then active in Holly-
wood.

"He Who Gets Slapped"

The Theatre Guild, which, for
almost a year, has been in a re-
viving frame of mind on the air,
has now carried its mood into
the theatre as well. It now re-
vives Andreyev’s He Who Gets
Slumped, which it produced orig-
inally some twenty years ago.
Comparisons are in order, but
your reviewer, for reasons of
youth, did not see the first pro-
duction. Rumor has it that there
are more differences than simi-
larities. The earlier production
is said to have been allegorical
and soul-searching. He who gets
slapped was treated as the sym-
bol of outraged humanity buf-
feted about by a cruel world.
The present production, on the
other hand, emphasizes the hu-
man and spectacular aspects of
the play. He who gets slapped is
merely another husband, whose
wife has proved unfaithful. Un-
able to face this infidelity, he
has retreated to the circus,
which he joins as a clown, just
as other men retreat to monas-
teries.

The profundities of the play
— profundities by now less ap-
parently profound because of re-
iteration— are conspicuously ab-
sent. Their absence detracts
from the cohesiveness of the
play. Tyrone Guthrie’s brilliant
staging, the lavish costumes,
and the intriguing sets seem en-
tities apart. The play has be-
come a pageant with occasional
overtones. One watches with
pleasure, but one feels little.
Dennis King creates a mock-he-
roic effect as the clown — an ef-
fect somewhat in the tradition
of Pagliacci. Stella Adler is a
little incredible as the lady lion-
tamer who cherishes the desire
that the fiercest of her beasts

should love her. Perhaps this in-
credibility is the result of the
vanished symbolism which
leaves the role itself bared of
anything but grotesque mean-
ing. Susan Douglas, a young
Czech actress who has made her
mark in New York radio during
the past few years, but who is
new to the stage, gives a win-
ning performance as the wisp-
like ingenue loved by too many.
John Abbott, also new to New
York, plays the reprobate fath-
er, ready to auction off his love-
ly daughter to the richest bid-
der. Mr. Abbott’s performance
is visually compelling. His bear-
ing and stance suggest, perhaps,
a painting by Daumier. There is
implied satire in all he does, but
he himself remains an engaging
fellow, even though one is thor-
oughly aware of his fundament-
al baseness.

★ ★

CAPITAL FILM SERVICE
EXPANDS IN MICHIGAN

Capital Film Service has
moved into new and enlarged
quarters at 224 Abbott Road,
East Lansing, Michigan, to of-
fer better service to film pa-
trons in Michigan. Robert Clay-
ton, commentator and writer,
has been appointed Chief Li-
brarian.

The library has a unique con-
tract arrangement for schools.
Programs are sent out every
two weeks and are composed of
subject matter for every grade
level. All the material is de-
signed to fit the State of Mich-
igan’s educational curriculum
for elementary schools. Each
film is provided with a synopsis
for the instructor.

Since the inauguration of the
program, the service has been
extended to fifty schools.

J. R. Hunter is Sales Direc-
tor.

Annotated
Bibliography
on the

MOVIES

"WHAT
SHALL WE
READ

about the

MOVIES?"

A Guide to the Many Books obout
Motion Pictures — Their History,
Science, Industry, Art, Future.

By WILLIAM LEWIN, Ph. D.

Chairman, Department of
English, Weequahic High
School, Newark, New
lersey

25c a Copy

Free With Two-Year Subscrip-
tions to "Film & Radio
Guide."

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

PICC Aids New Film Council

Bill Kruse Heads Notable Coordinating Committee

The Photographic Industry Coordinating Committee, of which William F. Kruse
(seated, second from left) was recently elected choirmon.

The Photographic Industry
Coordinating Committee, com-
prising nine trade associations
in the photographic industry, at
its recent meeting in Buffalo as-
sured the newly-formed Film
Council of America of full co-
operation in the latter’s cam-
paign to organize local groups
throughout the country.

The method of extending this
aid is extremely simple — and ef-
fective. For instance, when Ern-
est Tiemann, Director of the De-
partment of Visual Education
at the Pueblo Junior College,
Pueblo, Colorado, called on C. R.
Reagan, President of the Eilm
Council of America, for advice
and aid in the formation of a
local group, one of Reagan’s
first steps was to pass this in-
formation along to William F.
Kruse, Chairman of the Photo-
graphic Industi'y Coordinating
Committee. He in turn relayed
this to each of the nine member
groups with the request that
they put their members in
Pueblo or nearby in touch with
organizer Tiemann. The constit-
uents of PICC include: Allied
Non-Theatrical Film Associa-
tion, Educational Film Library
Association, National Associa-
tion of Visual Education Deal-
ers, Photographic Manufactur-
ers & Distributors Association,
Visual Equipment Manufactur-
ers Council, National Microfilm
Association, Master Photo Deal-
ers’ and Finishers’ Association,
National Association of Film
Producers for Industry & Com-
merce, and, indirectly, several
other groups.

The members of these groups
offer their cooperation to the
Film Council organizer as indi-
viduals, and also constitute
themselves as an industry com-

mittee to work out ways and
means of further local coopera-
tion through their channels.

The establishment of a net-
work of local organizations, em-
bracing every type of film and
photographic user, is the aim of
this joint effort of PICC and of
the Film Council of America.
The latter also includes such or-
ganizations as the American Li-
brary Association, the National
Education Association, and the

The March of Time, besides
its regular monthly editions
covering world events and the
March of Time Forum Editions,
will produce a limited number
of sponsored film s, Richard
de Rochemont, producer, an-
nounced recently.

The first film scheduled for
production will cover the New
York Stock Exchange and its
allied activities. This will be fol-
lowed by a story on Pan-Amer-
ican Airways.

National University Extension
Association. Every teacher, club
chairman, film review commit-
tee member, trade union or
fraternal educational director,
film-using physician or other
professional man, and plain gar-
den variety amateur photog-
rapher will be able to participate
on an equal plane with profes-
sional and commercial photog-
raphers and motion-picture pro-
ducers through this project.

“No separate department will
be established for the produc-
tion of these sponsored films,’’
Mr. de Rochemont said. “They
will be edited, written, and pro-
duced by the same staff that
now turns out The March of
Time. The company’s foreign
staff will also be available for
work on such of these films as
may be of an international na-
ture,’’ he added.

Before the war the company
produced some industrial and
business films.

Richard de Rochemont Announces
March of Timers Sponsored Films

Moy, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Five-Way, Five-Day Conference
on Adult Education

REPORTED BY WILLIAM F. KRUSE .

Detroit was host, April 22-26,
to a national conference on adult
education, arranged jointly by
five outstanding national or-
ganizations concerned with this
field. These included the Ameri-
can Association for Adult Edu-
cation, the American Library
Association, the Educational
Film Library Association, the
National Education Associa-
tion, and the National Univer-
sity Extension Association. It
drew a large attendance of top-
flight people from all over the
country, and worked with en-
thusiasm through a long and
varied program of talks, panel
discussions, film demonstrations
that kept things humming from
9:00 a. m. until after ten each
night.

Education More Than
Kindergarten to Campus

Well-nigh universal empha-
sis was placed on the use of
visual aids in “informal” educa-
tion, and especially on the use
of motion pictures as a mass
medium of education. Too many
of us have come to realize the
value of films in classroom
teaching — but have stopped
there. This conference demon-
strated that this is only one of
many fields for the use of films,
and probably by no means the
largest, or the most immediately
vital.

So extensive is the recognition
of the great immediate future of
these extra-curricular uses of
the film that a certain “compe-
tition” seemed to develop be-
tween libraries, extension divi-
sions, film centers and other

groups as to which was best
qualified to administer the dis-
tribution and the utilization of
films.

L. C. Larson, in reporting on
the functions of an audio-visual
center, said : “Educational film
centers are immeasurably aided
and reinforced in their capacity
for effective service by the ex-
istence in their area of a well-
managed commercial film li-
brary, such as we have in Indi-
anapolis. No educator hesitates
to recognize his local newspaper
editor or radio station manager
as having a definite place in
the educational picture. Com-
mercial film libraries occupy a
similar position in our commu-
nities, and, given the same level
of responsible direction, deserve
the same level of recognition by
educators.”

Larson set his sights higher
than some of his colleagues
would endorse, but the scope of
activities that he foresees should
certainly encourage those who
make a business of supplying
this market. Each center, he
holds, should have at least 5,000
prints of 3,000 titles, represent-
ing a $200,000 investment with
a ten-year life, thus averaging
$20,000 a year for renewals. An-
other $10,000 a year should be
allowed for equipment, film-
strips, slides, etc., and $25,000
a year for staff and administra-
tion— in all about a $60,000-a-
year budget, with perhaps half
to two-thirds coming back in
fees, the rest covered by subsidy.
In answer to objections that this
represented a bigger allotment
of school funds than was spent

for comparable items, Larson
stated that some things were
so vital that they had to be
measured in terms of their own
values. For example, adequate
teaching of medicine demanded
the maintenance of clinics, hos-
pitals, and research facilities on
or near the campus, only a part
of the heavy costs of which was
recovered in fees. Audio-visual
services were so great, in every
subject-matter area they served,
that their costs should be meas-
ured by special standards.

Ernest Tiemann told of the
local library that serves fifty
local groups in an “expanded
campus service,” and main-
tained that all income from dis-
tribution should be spent for
more film, the administration
costs to be covered from regular
school funds.

Library of Congress Puts Films

on Level with Printed Word

Luther H. Evans, Librarian
of Congress, told of the position
that the Library of Congress
has recently taken with respect
to the accession, cataloging, and
limited distribution of motion-
picture films, on exactly the
same basis henceforth as gov-
erns books and other graphics.
Temporary storage space, in
cinder block vaults, accommo-
dates eighty million feet of film,
but this is being vastly expanded
by accessions from various war-
born sources. It will be some
months before actual services
can be extended, but it is the
intention to catalog adequately,
l)rovide access to reference cop-
ies, possibly loan out some ma-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

terials, and facilitate commer-
cial arrangements that will give
general access to government
films, and possibly other films
on which rights have been
cleared, on a purchase basis.

EFLA Goes Non-Commercial

Among the important deci-
sions announced and approved
at the annual convention of the
Educational Film Library Asso-
ciation was its withdrawal
from the buying and selling of
films for and to its member
libraries, except in rare cases
where this is the only way it
can support a worthwhile
school-made film for which com-
mercial demand is inadequate.

Another decision was to in-
tensify and expand its film eval-
uation procedures as a guide to

members in their purchasing of
school films. Because of a trend
to base evaluations particularly
upon current use reports from
centers that already have prints,
there is some danger here of fa-
voring already established films
at the possible expense of newer
material that would first have
to fight for screening time.

Film Council of America
Governing Board

Called by President C. R. Rea-
gan, a Board meeting, very well
attended, took up a number of
essential matters. A joint survey
will be conducted with the Na-
tional Committee on Atomic In-
formation, to check conflicting
stories on atom-bomb films and
filmstrips reportedly in produc-
tion, and to help avoid duplica-

tion in worthwhile production
activity. A pledge of $5,000 to
$10,000 to be spent on such a
production was noted. Collabor-
ation with the Film Society of
Canada was arranged.

The status of local Film Coun-
cil chapters was clarified. They
are to be chartered by the Gov-
erning Board, and are to oper-
ate with almost unlimited local
autonomy, provision being made
for representation on the Gov-
erning Board as soon as a min-
imum of twenty local chapters
makes the democratic selection
of two such representatives pos-
sible. A brochure on the pur-
poses and procedure of the lo-
cal Film Council is being pre-
pared by Don White and will
be printed at the expense of
NAVED.

Forthcoming Walter Lantz Cartoons
of Educational Interest

Walter Lantz, head of the
Walter Lantz Cartune Studio,
and creator of such animated
cartoon characters as Woody
Woodpecker, Andy Panda, and
Wally Walrus, is producing a
new series, titled “Musical Min-
iatures.” These shorts will pre-
sent well-known classical music
played “straight” rather than
as an adjunct to the gags and
comedy situations of cartoon
subjects.

Already completed is Poet
and Peasant. In production are
Chopin’s Musical Moments and
Overture to William Tell. The
Chopin film will feature two
well-known pianists, Ted Said-
enberg and Ed Rebner ; the
other two films will furnish mu-
sic with a full orchestra. The

studio will produce four of these
pictures each year.

Heretofore, in cartoon musi-
cals, the stories have been writ-
ten first, and the music made to
fit the action of the picture. But
in this new Lantz series the mu-
sic is first recorded, and then
the story department goes to
work fitting the script to the
music.

In these pictures, a movie-
goer can close his eyes (if he
chooses), and just listen! There
will be no discordant sounds to
jar him. Thus if the music-lover
wishes to hear one of his favor-
ite selections played without the
distraction of the cartoon com-
edy that accompanies it, he may
do so.

Producer Lantz believes that

many people, children particu-
larly, do not like “good” music
because they have never been
exposed to it. It is his convic-
tion that music served up with
popular cartoon stars will make
these selections from the clas-
sics palatable to audiences that,
up to now, have been interested
only in boogie-woogie and juke-
box numbers.

"Reddy-Mode Magic"

The Lantz studio has also
just completed a twelve-minute
Technicolor and sound cartoon,
which portrays episodes in the
history of electricity and drama-
tizes present-day electric serv-
ice. The film is available
through local power comi)anies.

Prepared in both 16mm and

May, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

An early scientist, pondering over the nature of elec-
tricity, is interrupted by a heckler: a scene in "Reddy-
Mode Magic," Walter Lantz cartoon history of elec-
tricity, available in 16mnfi through the sponsorship of
local power companies.

Andy Panda, maestro of on extraordinary barnyard
symphony orchestra, conducts a concert in the "Hol-
lywood Washbowl": a scene in "The Poet and the
Peasant," one of a series of Walter Lantz musical
miniatures, available as yet only to theatres.

35mm, the film is non-commer-
cial and suitable for use in
churches, schools, and clubs, as
well as theatres.

The film introduces a new
cartoon character, “Reddy Kil-
owatt.” Walter Tetley, the “Le-
Roy” of the Great Gildersleeve
radio show, is Reddy’s voice.

The picture outlines the his-
tory of electricity from the year
600 B.C., when Thales, the
Greek philosopher, first discov-
ered magnetism in a piece of
amber. The spirit of electricity
is personified by Reddy Kilo-
watt. The trials that he has en-
dured up to the present time are
portrayed. After Thales’ experi-
ments, which he recorded but
abandoned because of public rid-
icule, Reddy lies dormant for
2000 years until an English sci-
entist, Dr. William Gilbert, re-
vives Thales’ theory and proves
that it is correct.

From Gilbert, the cartoon fol-
lows Reddy’s career through the
invention in 1660 of Otto Von
Guericke’s friction machine,
which produced sparks, to Ste-
phen Grey’s experiments in
1729, which proved that some
materials are conductors and
some non-conductors of electric-
ity. Next Reddy went to Leyden,

Holland, in 1755 and let Profes-
sor Musschenbroek prove a fur-
ther enlightening theory about
his power by storing him up in
what came to be known as “Ley-
den Jars.”

Reddy’s big chance came in
1752 when Benjamin Franklin,
with his well-known kite-and-
key experiment, announced that
electricity and lightning were
one and the same. On that day
Reddy shook hands with Frank-
lin and made an announcement
himself: “Now I’m getting some
place !”

Following Franklin were
Michael Faraday, who in 1831
produced continuous electric
currents, Alexander Graham
Bell’s telephone in 1876, and Ed-
ison’s incandescent light bulb
in 1879. Reddy really went into
action when Edison started the
first power plant, and electric
power was given to the world.

In addition to presenting side-
lights of the epic of electricity,
the film illustrates the modern
system of distribution from gen-
erating station through trans-
mission lines to sub-station, and
into the “Reddybox” where the
user can always plug in and find
Reddy ready. The film concludes
with a brief description of

Reddy’s many services in the
home.

★ ★ ★

EASTIN WEST

Eastin Reopens Western
Headquarters

Eastin Pictures, Inc., has re-
opened its office at Colorado
Springs, Col., under the man-
agement of Major Robert K.
Hieronymus, and is now ready
to serve old and new customers
in fifteen Western states, in-
cluding the Rocky Mountain re-
gion, the Pacific Coast area and
Texas.

The Eastin concern, which has
its main office in Davenport,
Iowa, carries on a nation-wide
business in the rental and sale
of 16mm sound films for educa-
tional and recreational pur-
poses. The reopened branch at
Colorado Springs is located on
the fourth floor of the Colorado
Savings Bank building at the
corner of South Tejon Street
and Colorado Avenue. Here the
company will maintain a stock
of 16mm sound propectors and
a large library of feature pic-
tures and short subjects, ready
for quick delivery anywhere in
the West.

(Continued on Page 34)

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

Ampro\s Extraordinary Laboratory

Harry Monson, Vice-Presi-
dent of Ampro, reports that
Ampro is now ready to take ad-
vantage of the work of the lead-
ing physicists and engineers on
the staff of the new General Pre-
cision Equipment Research and
Development Laboratory, estab-
lishment of which was an-
nounced recently by Earle G.
Hines, President of General
Precision Equipment Corpora-
tion.

Dr. R. L. Garman will head
the staff. He is the same Dr.
Garman who has contributed so
much to radar trainer design for
N.D.R.C. and who has been re-
sponsible for the design of more
than twenty systems in that
field. Dr. Garman has authored
many publications and is co-au-
thor of “Experimental Electron-
ics.”

Dr. M. E. Droz is also a staff
member, probably better known
for his service at the Radiation
Laboratory of M.I.T. on radar
trainer problems, which includ-
ed electrical and mechanical
computers, pulse circuits, super-
sonics in both air and water.

Also assigned as Chief Engi-
neers of projects are M. B.
Karelitz, F. B. Berger, R. W.
Lee, and G. T. Lorance. Dr. Gar-
man lists an additional nineteen
physicists and engineers already
assigned to various departments
of research and development for
the Pleasantville, New York, ac-
tivity.

Mr. Monson states, “Ampro
and other subsidiaries of Gen-
eral Precision Corporation will
have complete access to the serv-
ices of these physicists and engi-
neers and to the research and
development carried on by the
.staff in this great new labora-
tory.

Harpy Monson, Vice-President
of Ampro

“We already have a fine engi-
neering staff, which the demand
for Ampro proves. In addition,
Ampro will be in a position to
employ scientific accomplish-
ments which emanate from the
Laboratory, passing them on to
dealers and consumers. Here is
an activity which we frankly
could not support ourselves, and
we doubt that any single manu-
facturer of 16mm projectors
could possibly afford to main-
tain such a laboratory.

“There is no question in our
minds but what Ampro will
bring to the photographic world
improvements far ahead of pres-
ent projection equipment.”

THE NEW ALCO
TRIPOD

Alco Photo Supply Company,
17 West 47th Street, New York
City, announces the New “Alco
De Luxe Professional Tripod,”
designed for studio, commercial,
and cine camera uses.

This tripod is precision ma-
chined, entirely of aluminum,
steel, and bronze, yet is light in
weight and easily transport-
able. It can be instantly set up
or folded and is sufficiently

rigid to support an 11" x 14"
camera. It will support a weight
of 200 pounds without vibration.
Its gear-operated raising and
lowering mechanism is operated
by a crank. Operation is ex-
tremely smooth, rapid, and pre-
cise.

The tripod head is adjusted
l)y a universal joint, permitting
every possible position of the
camera, from vertical to hori-
zontal. The camera plate has
four holes, permitting the at-
tachment of the camera for
proper balance. The tripod legs
are held firmly in place by lock-
ing tripod braces to minimize
vibration.

Fully extended, the tripod has
a height of 6 ft. 3 in., but it can
also be used as low as 35 inches
from the ground. Its overall
length, when folded, is 39
inches, its weight 15 pounds.

The tripod is finished in
crackled gray enamel and nickel.
The price is $60.00.

New Alco Tripod

Moy, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Arthur M. Loew Announces M-G>M's
World-Wide Service for Schools

Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer i s
ready to launch its widely dis-
cussed 16mm educational film
distribution program outside the
United States a n d Canada,
Arthur M. Loew, president of
Loew’s International Corpora-
tion, recently announced.

Main features of the new
plan, perhaps the most compre-
hensive yet attempted in the
field of educational films, are
a proposal for long-term financ-
ing of film costs to schools and
other organizations and a new
system of annual leasing of
prints, with cost adjusted to the
number of pupils in a school or
the number of members in a club
or trade union.

This is the first time in the
history of American motion pic-
tures that a major company has
placed its resources and world-
wide organization behind films
that will be used for something
more than straight entertain-
ment.

The new venture is outside
and completely independent of
the commercial entertainment
theatre. According to Mr. Loew,
one of its chief purposes is to
make classroom, documentary,
and fact films “as readily avail-
able as the textbook is now,” not
only to schools and colleges
throughout the world, but also
to trade unions, farm groups,
clubs and all other organizations
that are potentially an audience
for films of cultural and instruc-
tional content.

Mr. Loew emphasized that
Metro- Coldwyn - Mayer ap-
proaches the whole problem
quite humbly. He said: “We do
not believe we know all there is

Arthur M. Loew

to know about educational films
and their use. Nor do we wish
to impose an American or any
other point of view on the coun-
tries we serve. We believe that
education should have an inter-
national character, and that cul-
tural interchanges among the
nations of the world are highly
desirable at this juncture in hu-
man history.”

Under the supervision of Or-
ton H. Hicks, head of Loew’s
International 16mm depart-
ment, and R. Haven Falconer,
chief of the educational divi-
sion, the new program will ac-
tually get under way with the
coming school year this fall.

Paving the way for this activ-
ity, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has
just issued a 16-page illustrated
pamphlet entitled The M-G-M
Budget-Service Plari, which is
now receiving wide distribu-
tion among Ministers of Educa-
tion, school administrators, and
teachers.

The pamphlet, a carefully
worked out “statement of pol-
icy, plan, and program,” dis-
cusses practical details and also
stresses the broad implications
of using the potent device of
the motion-picture screen as a
means of educating the peoples
of the world on how to get along
with each other.

While stating that Hollywood
will not be looked to as the prin-
cipal source for product, Mr.
Loew said that many M-G-M
shorts and features will be
adapted for educational pur-
poses. In addition, he expects to
release pictures made by spe-
cialists in 16mm cultural and
school subjects.

More important than this,
however, he said, is his proposal
to purchase documentary and
educational films made abroad,
as part of a “cultural exchange”
plan. In this way, countries that
have developed the art of the ed-
ucational and documentary film
will be able to find world-wide
outlets through Metro-Goldwyn-
Mayer, achieving wider dissem-
ination of their national cus-
toms, literature, and contribu-
tions to science and the arts
than might otherwise be pos-
sible.

Although distribution to
schools of the United States was
not originally contemplated in
the plan, some of the outstand-
ing films bought abroad will be
made available to schools in this
country, Mr. Loew stated. As an
example, he cited two films re-
cently purchased that will short-
ly be ready for domestic distri-
])ution. They are an English-
(Continued on Page 34)

We Believe TEACH-O-DISCS i
Remarkable Achievement:

Of Qreat Sigi

Teach-O-Discs for use in elementary, junior and senior high
schools are one of the most exciting and rewarding develop-
ments in the important field of Audio-\'isual Education! These
professionally re-enacted scenes from the immortal works of the
masters of literature create an amazing student response.

They greatly stimulate interest in English Literature and U.S.
History and are responsible for vastly improved reading and
speaking habits. English, Speech Training, Public Speaking, Dra-
matics and Radio Techniciue classes will find them valuable.

Teach-O-Discs bring you a carefully selected library of the
great classics of English Literature by Dickens, Shakespeare,
Tennyson, Scott, Browning, Goldsmith, Longfellow and others;
as well as dramatizations of momentous events in American His-
tory, written by Alarquis James, the noted Pulitzer Prize winner.

The subjects have been selected from the syllabi of the various
states, with the advice and assistance of teachers and school ad-
ministrators wdio also helped to choose the scenes and passages
that should be dramatized from the longer works. These discs
complement the books used ; they are not a substitute.

Teach-O-Discs are 12-inch, double-faced records of 78 r.p.m.
l)repared especially as a teaching medium for school tise. They
may be played on any standard phonograph.

AIAIL THIS COUPON NOW

AUDIO-VISUAL DIVISION
Popular Science Publishing Co.

353 Fourth Avenue
New York 10, N. Y.

I I Please send Complete List and Full Information on Teach- :
O-Discs. As a reader, it is understood that I enjoy the privi- :
lege of receiving One FREE Teach-O-Disc of my own selec- I
tion, for each ten purchased by September 30, 1946. j

I I Payment enclosed for Teach-O-Discs checked in this ;

; adxertisement. Send prepaid.

; n Send C.O.D. the Teach-O-Discs checked in this adver- ;

; tisement. I will pay postman full price, plus shipping charges, ;

; on delivery. I

I I Send, with bill, the Teach-O-Discs checked in this adver- ;
i tisement. I will pay shipping charges. j

; 101 102 107 136 137 151 152 153 159 160 I

i rH Send me conii)lete information on Rembrandt Portable ;

: Electric Phonograph. i

; □ I wish to order the Rembrandt Portable Electric Phono- :

■ graph. j

EH Check EH Aloney Order EH C.O.D. EH Send Bill ^

It is understood that I enjoy the return and refund privi- :

; lege mentioned in your guarantee. FRG 546 :

i NAME i

; SUBJECT TAUGHT •

SCHOOI ;

: .ADDRESS i

ST.\I'L

Mode of Vinylite

I cstcrday — Vinylite made military planes tougher.

Today — \ inylite makes Teach-O-Discs practically unbreakabl
under normal usage. \ inylite is the amazing new plastic tha'
weathered all kinds of wartime abuse in \^-discs. These non
breakable records were produced during the war for the Offic
of W ar Information. A’inylite is a new plastic, which, in additioi
to its toughness, has these advantages in Teach-O-Discs : ( 1 ) Ha
far superior tonal quality to old type record; (2) Provides longe
playing time per Disc; (3j Provides for safer handling on par
of children and for safer transportation ; (4) Does not easily w'aiq

Guarantee — If, after making actual classroom tests with th
feach-O-Discs for seven school days, you are not fully convince-
that they arouse interest, illuminate and interpret what is reat
and stimulate good reading and speaking habits — then simply re,
turn the Teach-O-Discs and we will promptly refund your mone}

Introductory Offer — Limited Time Only!

Readers of this magazine are especially privileged to be offere-
One FREE Teach-O-Disc with each ten purchased at the Schoc
Price of $2.50 each ! You may select from the complete list which
ever one you desire for your FREE record. This offer will expir
September 30, 1946. Orders for quantities less than ten will b
accepted at the regular School Price of $2.50 each.

Popular Science presents 74 New Teach-O-Discs (134 Titles
in Adnylite! New titles are constantly being added to the Englis
Literature and .American History Series. In addition, other serii
will be added in the future, dealing with such subjects as Geogi
raphy. Chemistry, Foreign Languages, etc. Teaching Giiidel
accompanying these recordings will suggest their use in the clas^

room.

Disc

No.

Title

Author

101

The Man Wdthout .-A Country, Parts 1 & H

Hale

102

The Alan AAdthout A Country, Part HI

Hale

( cotic.)

107

Paul Revere’s Ride (cond. )

Longfellow

Incident of a Fretich Camp

Browning

O Captain! Aly Captain!

AA'hitman

1 nvictus

Henley

136

David Coiiperfield, Parts I & H (cond.)

Dickens

137

1 )a\id Coi)])erfield, Parts III & IV (cone.)

Dickens

151

Patrick Henry, Parts I & H, Original

-Adaptation

James

152

Patrick Henry, Part HI, Original Adapta-

tion Paul Revere, Part I

James

L53

Paul Revere, Parts H & HI, Original

.Adaptation

James

159

Drafting the Constitutioti, Parts I & II

James

160

Drafting the Constitution, Parts HI & lA^

Janies

The

Rembrandt Portable Electric Phonograph

The Rembrandt Phonogra])h is designed especially for scho
use. It has indei)endent tone and volume controls, 5" speake
3-tube anqilifier. built-in compartment to hold 12 records; ope
ates on alternating current only. (.Available for immediate delivei
at $48.90, f.o.b., N. A', (inch h'ed. ta.xes).

CITY

ZONE

id TEACH-O-FILMSTRIPS To Be
in Audio-Visual Education

icance to Schools

The Teach-0-Filmstkip is a visual-aid and teaching tool
having the following advantages: (a) It presents a carefullj-
organized pictorial story along a planned continuity; (h) It is a
“still” story, the use and presentation of which is controlled by the
teacher, thus providing great flexibility; (c) It is excellent for
detailed study and observation by pupils. Each frame can be held
upon the screen during as long a period as necessary to permit
pupils to absorb and understand subject presented; (d) It has
such practical advantages as ease in handling, easy storage, low
cost and readiness for use.

. The Teach-O-Fihnstrip complements the te.xtbook and should
be used in connection with textual materials. Each Teach-0-
, Filmstrip is organized as a self-contained teaching unit and in-
: eludes the basic elements of good teaching meth(xls. The principles

j of motivation, concept teaching, summarization and provocative
; questioning are employed. By combining words with meaningful
; pictures, they provide direct word-picture associations so essential
in teaching children.

i Teach-O-Filmstrips are accompanied by teachers’ guides which
i outline in detail their use as integrated classroom aids.

Now Ai’ailnlile. FOUR Teach-O-Filmstrips, 35 mm., and in
’ color are now available. They are designed specifically for use in
' primary classes in reading, story telling, social studies and nature
! study.

[' ]. HEIDI describes two adventures of Heidi and her friend

I, Peter. In the first adventure they sjvend a lovely summer day to-
^ gether ; in the second they visit Peter's grandmother during a
j winter day. 44 Frames. Price; $5.00.

2. FUN WITH MITZIE depicts the story of Mitzie, a black
and white kitten. It shows how' a neighbor gives Betty Smith, a
little girl of seven, a kitten called "Alitzie.” Betty takes the kit-
ten home and gives her good care. Three months later, we see
Mitzie as a full-grown cat and Betty playing with her, feeding
her and loving' her. 41 Frames. Price: $5.00.

3. THE LOST DOG depicts the story of Tommy and his
dog “Inky.” It shows Tommy losing Inky one day. Jimmy, a
^mall boy of five, and his mother find the dog and take him home.
At this point the Teach-O-Filmstrip shows the proper care of
I (logs. On the following day. Tommy finds where Inky is and

il goes to get him. The Teach-O-Filmstri]) ends wdth the provoca-
I tive problem, “What will Inky do? — Will he stay with Jimmy
or will he go back to Tommy?” 40 Frames. Price $5.00.

4. LET’S MAKE A POST OFFICE shows how our postal
system works, illustrates the need for stamps, the role of the
] postman, where and how different types of mail pieces may he

! mailed, and the purpose of mail trucks. It suggests student activi-

1 ties, and it develops cooperation by showing several children

working together to make their own post office, 38 Frames.

Price : $5.00.

I EIGHT Teach-O-Filmstrips in black and white, 35mm.. form a
1 series designed primarily for use in social studies classes in the
‘ middle grades (4,5,6). This series is entitled Living Together In
1 The United States.

5. THE WORKERS IN OUR COUNTRY depicts the va-
I riety of workers in the United .States, all working together to
jirovide the goods and services that we need. Approximately 45
frames — Black and White — Price $2.50.

THE STORY OF OUR FOOD

6. Part I — WHERE OUR FOOD COMES FROM ex-
plains the reasons why the United States ])roduces much food,
and shows the sections of the country from which various foods
come. Approximately 45 frames — Black and White — Price
$2.50.

7. Part H — HOW OUR FOOD IS PRODUCED shows
the many people who work together to provide our food : the peo-
ple who grow our food ; the people who process our food ; the
people who bring us our food ; and the people who sell us our
food. Approximately 45 frames — Black and White — Price
$2.5U.

8. HOW WE ARE CLOTHED illustrates how' cotton,
woolen and rayon clothes are made, and -shows the workers who
produce these clothes. .Apiiroximately 45 frames — Black and
M'hite — Price $2.50.

9. OUR HOMES AND OUR COMMUNITIES points out
and illustrates the various types of homes and communities in the
United States, explains the reasons why there are so many, and
show’s examples of each. Approximately 45 frames — Black and
White — Price $2.50.

10. COMA-IUNICATING WITH OUR NEIGHBORS de-
picts the many ways we have of communicating with our friends
l)y telephone, telegraph, mail, new'spaper, radio and television. Ap-
proximately 45 frames — Black and White — Price $2.50.

11. TRANSPORTATION IN OUR COUNTRY shows the
varied ways w^e have of traveling in our country, Iry auttunohile,
bus, boat, railroad and airplane. Approximately 45 frames —
Black and White — Price $2.50.

12. OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAY AND RECREATION
IN OUR COUNTRY points out and illustrates that our lurmes,
schools and communities offer opportunities for play and recrea-
tion. Approximately 45 frames — Black and White — Price
$2.50.

Tri-Purpose Projector

For single- or double-frame 35 mm. filmstrips and 2" x 2"
slides. Excellent for schools, colleges and large audiences. Com-
I)lete wdth 5" focal length Anastigmat lens, rewind take-up, semi-
automatic vertical slide changer, leatherette carrying case. .Avail-
able for immediate delivery at $76.75 — f.o.b., N. Y.

; MAIL THIS COUPON NOW

i AUDIO-VISUAL DIVISION FRG 546

■ Popular Science Publishing Co.

; 353 Fourth Avenue j

■ New York 10, New York

; Di vish to order the Teach-O-Filmstrips circled belowc !
i 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 ;

i Dl vish to order the Tri- Purpose Projector. ■:

: O Payment enclosed O Send C.(3.D. Q Send Bill ;

: CH Send lie complete information on Teach-O-Filmstrips. i
• n Send me complete information on Tri-Purpose Projector. I

: NAME I

i SCHOOI POSITION i

i SCHOOI. \nnRFSS
j CI TY

ZONE

STATE,

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

(Continued from Page 31)

made documentary entitled Pen-
icillin and a French film, The
Pasteur Institute.

The high point of The M-G-M
Budget-Service Plan, accord-
ing to Mr. Loew, lies in the fact
that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is
prepared to aid in financing
the entry of a school system,
trade union, or other organiza-
tion into the educational and
cultural film field over a period
of years.”

‘‘Before a group or school can
get started in the educational
field, a large initial cost is in-
volved,” Mr. Loew explained.
‘‘It is to help schools and organi-
zations to get over this first, and
for many, formidable hurdle
that the proposal is put forward
for long-term financing. That is
why we have named our plan,
‘The M-G-M Budget-Service
Plan’ — full film service on a
budgeted basis.”

The other unique feature of
the plan, which is that film serv-
ice will be offered on an annual
or longer leasing arrangement,
is a prosopal that cuts to the
heart of the educational-film
distribution problem, Mr. Loew
contended. He pointed out that
adjusting cost to the number of
pupils in a school or the num-
ber of members in a club or
trade union will make it pos-
sible for costs to operate on a
sliding scale. At the same time,
it will do away with the large
initial expense required for a
school or organization to build
up a film library of worth-while
size. The annual leasing plan, he
said, is also quite different from
and a considerable improvement
over older systems of outright
purchase or renting on a per
diem basis.

Declaring that too often edu-
cational administrators, partic-
ularly in countries abroad, have
had to use films that were im-

Reprints of the Illustrated
Guides to ‘‘David Copperfield,”
‘‘Treasure Island” and ‘‘A Tale
of Two Cities” are available at
5c a copy.

posed on a given course of study
instead o f being an organic
part of it, Mr. Loew asserted
that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has
plans for overcoming this weak-
ness, too. In the first place, all
sound tracks will be made in
the language of the country of
distribution. Secondly, special
arrangements will be possible
whereby the commentary can be
written by the Minister of Edu-
cation himself or by an educa-
tional authority designated by
him. Thirdly, in cases where
no suitable films are available,
M-G-M’s technical experience
and know-how will be utilized
to have such a film or series of
films made.

In this way, Mr. Loew pointed
out, there will be no question
but that the film will be, not
only an extension of the partic-
ular textbooks and course of
study used in a given country,
but also an expression — where
that may be important — of the
national point of view.

He said that he will not make
any attempt at specific educa-
tional film-making at the pres-
ent time, preferring first to
learn by actual experience in the
field what motion picture sub-
jects are needed before under-
taking production. In the mean-
time, he said, Metro-Goldwyn-
Mayer will do all it can to
smooth the path of schools and

There is a 25% discount on
orders for 5 or more
subscriptions to

FILM & RADIO QUIDF

organizations desiring to bring
the advantages of motion pic-
tures to their pupils and mem-
bers, and will strive to make
available almost all cultural and
educational films from all lands.

‘‘We hope that our efforts will
result in the extension and in-
tensification of the use of ed-
ucational films,” Mr. Loew said,
‘‘and we hope for something
more. This something more is a
cultural interchange among the
peoples of the world, so that
schools in one country may
profit from the creative work
done in other countries, and peo-
ple everywhere may participate
in the building of the kind of
international understanding and
good-will that is based on
friendly knowledge of one an-
other.”

EASTIN

(Continued from Page 30)

Major Hieronymus was re-
cently discharged from the
army after serving for fifty-
three months with the infantry,
tank destroyers, and inspector
general’s department. He land-
ed in France three weeks after
D-day, and spent eighteen
months overseas, helping set up
and operate various ports and
staging areas. He wears two
battle stars and the meritorious
service award.

The Eastin office in Colorado
Springs was originally opened
by Major Hieronymus in Aug-
ust, 1938. He served as man-
ager until August, 1941, when
he left to join the armed forces.
In June, 1942, it became neces-
sary for the branch to close on
account of the wartime short-
age of trained personnel. Since
that time most of the custom-
ers previously served from Col-
orado Springs have been deal-
ing with the Eastin home office
in Davenport.

Moy, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Audio-Visual Who's Who

No. 51: Edgar Dale

Edgar Dale was born in Ben-
son, Minnesota, on April 27,
1900. He graduated from Rug-
by (N. D.) High School at 15,
and taught in a rural school in
Pierce County, No. Dakota, at
the age of 18. He received his
A.B. degree from the Univer-
sity of North Dakota in 1921.
While studying for his master’s
degree at North Dakota in his
early twenties, he was superin-
tendent of schools at Webster.
After receiving his A.M. degree
in 1924, he taught in the Skokie
Junior High School in Winnet-
ka, Illinois, until 1926.

From 1928 until 1929, Dale
was a member of the editorial
department of Eastman Teach-
ing Films, Rochester, New
York. He received his Ph.D. de-
gree from the University of
Chicago in 1929 and joined the
faculty of Ohio State University
in that year as a research asso-
ciate and assistant professor of
education in the Bureau of Edu-
cational Research. In 1934 he
became an associate professor,
and has been a professor since
1939.

Dale was a delegate to the
Child Welfare Commission of
the League of Nations at Gen-
eva in 1936. He has been a
member of the Advisory Board
of the Institute for Propaganda
Analysis, and president of the
N.E.A. Department of Visual
Instruction (1937-38). He has
been chairman of motion pic-
tures and visual education for
the National Congress of Par-
ents and Teachers since 1943.

Dale is the author of How to
Appreciate Motion Pictures
(1933) ; Content of Motion Pic-
tures, combined with Children’s

Edgar Dale, Professor of Education,
Ohio State University

Attendance at Motion Pictures
(1935) ; Teaching with Motion
Pictures (with L. L. Ramsey-
er) (1937) ; Motion Pictures in
Education (with others)
(1937) ; How To Read a News-
paper (1941). His book on Au-
dio-Visual Methods in Teach-
ing has just gone to the printer
and will be available in August
from the Dryden Press. He is
co-editor of the News Letter,
and a frequent contributor to
educational journals.

★ ★ ★

No. 52: Walter E. Johnson

Walter E. Johnson, Educa-
tional Director of the Society
for Visual Education, Inc., was
born at Milwaukee in 1915. He
is a graduate of Washington
High School, Milwaukee, class
of June, 1932. He received his
bachelor’s degree at Milwaukee
State Teachers College in 1936.
While attending the College he
sang in a Male Quartet at Sta-
tion WTMJ.

While doing graduate work
at Northwestern University,
Johnson served as an elemen-
tary teacher at Beloit, Wiscon-
sin, and later as vice-principal.
On completion of his work for
the master’s degree, in 1939,
Johnson became coordinator of
Instructional Material in the
River Forest public schools and
later an elementary-school prin-
cipal. Meanwhile he continued
his studies at Northwestern Un-
iversity, and in the summer
session of 1942 he served as in-
structor of the course in Visual
Aids and Radio in Education.

Johnson joined the U.S. Navy
in 1943, receiving his indoctrin-
ation at Dartmouth College.
During the two and one-half
years preceding his appoint-
ment at SVE, Johnson served as
Training Aids Officer for the
Naval Training School at Ohio
State University, Columbus,
Ohio, and at the Naval Train-
ing Center in Gulfport, Missis-
sippi. His work was of a pion-
eer nature, and he is credited
with the development and util-
ization of visual aids in the
training of lookout-recognition
officers for the U.S. fleet.

Johnson utilized slidefilms
and 2x2 slides as fundamen-
tal training tools in this notable
U.S. Navy program for teach-
ing ship and plane recognition.
As a result, Johnson has devel-
oped great faith in the slide and
the slidefilm as the true giants
of visual education.

In spite of his busy years as
a teacher, principal, and naval
officer, Johnson has found time
to enrich the bookshelves of
children’s literature with a vol-
ume entitled h'rankn — A Cnidc
Dog, published by Albert Whit-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 8

Walter E. Johnson, educational direc-
tor of S.V.E., succeeding Ellsworth C.
Dent, who is now a Coronet executive.

man & Co. Professional articles
by Johnson have appeared in
recent years in Educational
Screen, The Journal of Educa-
tion, and Educational Method.

★ ★ ★

No. 53: J. R. Bingham

J. R. Bingham, Director of
the Y.M.C.A. Motion Picture
Bureau, was born in Melbourne,
Ark., October 24, 1900. Having
received his degree from Hen-
drix College in 1922, he served
briefly as principal and athletic

coach of the Warren, Ark., High
School. Awarded a fellowship by
the New York City Y.M.C.A.
for study at Columbia Univer-
sity, he received his degree in
education from Teachers Col-
lege in 1924. For the next 20
years, he served with the New
York City and Brooklyn Y.M.
C.A.’s as Boys’ Work secretary
and director of Camping and
Young Men’s Programs. During
this time, he became President
of the National Association of
Boys’ Work Secretaries of the
Y.M.C.A.; Chairman of the
Youth Committee of the Greater
New York Federation o f
Churches ; Chairman, Group
Work Section of Welfare Coun-
cil of New York City; and of-
ficer in the New York Section,
American Camping Association.

From 1941 to 1944, Bingham
was National Program Director
of the Army-Navy Y.M.C.A.-
USO, and was responsible for
more than 400 clubs under
Y.M.C.A. direction. Since Feb.
1, 1944, he has served as secre-
tary of the Advisory Commit-
tee for Audio-Visual Education

J. R. Bingham, Director of the Y.M.

C.A. Motion Picture Bureau, producing
Association Films.

Services, National Council of
Y.M. C.A.’s, and director of the
Y.M.C.A. Motion Picture Bu-
reau. Under his direction, the
“Y” Bureau has greatly ex-
panded i t s film circulation,
established i t s “Association
Films” production unit, initi-
ated a n extensive program
aimed toward improving untili-
zation of films by the Bureau’s
25,000 exhibitors, and devel-
oped the Film Service for Chap-
lains and the Film Service for
Prisoners of War. Bingham also
helped to organize the notable
Protestant Film Commission.

Advances in the Use of Films
as Visual

BY ERIC JOHNSTON

President, Motion Picture Association of America

There has been much talk
about motion pictures for the
classroom. The need has been
only partially met. The time has
come to mobilize the resources
and know-how of Hollywood
and finish the job.

Some progress has been made
during the last 25 years. Cen-
turies ago the methods and con-
tent of teaching were revolu-

tionized by technical advances
in the art of book-making. To-
day technical progress in film-
making indicates similar rev-
olutionary possibilities. What
has been done so far at best
dimly foreshadows the accom-
plishments of the future.

From the outset, this Asso-
ciation has actively interested
itself in furthering the peda-

gogical use of motion pictures.
Many years ago, Mr. Hays,
speaking before a national meet-
ing of educators, declared that
it would be just as silly to use
language exclusively for writing
novels as it would be to use mo-
tion pictures exclusively for
theatrical entertainment. Un-
der his leadership, the Associa-
tion pursued a policy of inquiry

May, 1 946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

and experimentation in the field
of classroom films.

What has been achieved un-
der that policy in the last ten
years is the foundation for the
progressive steps now to be tak-
en.

In 1936 the members of this
Association engaged in a coop-
erative project with the Com-
mission on Human Relations of
the Progressive Education Asso-
ciation. This called for experi-
mentation with the use of se-
lected excerpts from regular
theatrical films dealing with
character building and human
relations problems. The film ex-
cerpts were prepared for school
use by educational authorities.

A year later the Association
formed its own Advisory Com-
mittee on Motion Pictures in
Education. A grant of $50,000
enabled the Committee to search
the archives of theatrical films
no longer in circulation, for
short subjects having a definite
educational value for use in
schools. Then in 1939 Teaching
Film Custodians, Inc., was set
up as a non-profit cooperative
agency for the purpose of dis-
tributing to the schools the short
subjects which had been select-
ed and edited.

During subsequent years the
scope of Teaching Film Custo-
dians has been broadened. It
was empowered to distribute
to schools excerpts from feature
pictures which were based on
classics of literature, biogra-
phy, or history. The present
work and future development of
Teaching Film Custodians are
discussed elsewhere in this re-
port. To date its activities have
been limited to distribution of
film materials made for other
purposes than those of the class-
room.

Any effort to go beyond this
limited service necessarily in-
volves the actual production, as

well as distribution, of films for
classsroom use. Some important
steps in this direction have al-
ready been taken.

In 1943 member companies of
this Association contributed
$125,000 to the American Coun-
cil on Education for a five-year
program of its Commission on
Motion Pictures in Education.

Eric Johnston, President of the Motion
Picture Association of America.

The Commission undertook to
survey the need for classroom
films, and to outline screen
treatments for needed films. At
the present time more than 75
film treatments have passed se-
vere critical scrutiny and have
been approved for their educa-
tional worth. Of these about 50
deal with the subject of global
geography; 18 with the prob-
lems of freedom — political, re-
ligious, and economic ; and nine
or more with mathematical sub-
ject matter. To date, however,
none of these film treatments
has been turned into a shooting
script or made into a picture.

On the recommendation of our
own Subcommittee on Educa-
tion we allocated $50,000 of this
year’s research budget to the
field of visual education. Within
the current month arrange-
ments have been completed for
the use of this money to pro-
duce some experimental films,
one on the circulation of the
blood in mammals, another

probably on some phase of glo-
bal geography, and perhaps a
third. on some problem in ninth-
grade mathematics.

These films are to be “exper-
imental” in the sense that each
is to be made in half a dozen
different versions to test the ef-
fectiveness of various produc-
tion techniques. The versions
will differ with respect to the
use of sound, music, diagrams,
animation, and montages. Some
versions may use commentators,
either off or on stage. In some
versions children may be pic-
tured discussing with each oth-
er the problem or theme of the
film.

At least one of these films is
scheduled for completion by
September. It will then be ex-
hibited under controlled condi-
tions in a number of schools
with different versions of the
film tested to see which produce
best results under classroom
conditions.

Concurrent with the making
of these three experimental
films, we now propose to use the
know-how of our member com-
panies to make a substantial
number of films based on the
most challenging of the 75 treat-
ments already prepared by the
Commission on Motion Pictures
in Education. These films are to
be models for classroom use, ex-
emplifying the best production
techniques available. They are
also experimental in that they
must prove their effectiveness in
the classsroom before going into
general distribution. An educa-
tional survey has already deter-
mined the need for visual aids in
the subjects with which these
films will deal.

Conceived as a public service,
these model films are to be made
without any expectation of or
desire for profit. But we shall
try to see that production costs
do not exceed a figure at which

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 8

the pi’oduction of equivalent
films would be commercially
possible, for our primary inten-
tion is to set practicable stand-
ards.

There are stumbling blocks
in various fields of instruction
— difficulties in exposition or
understanding — which teachers
believe films would help to
remedy. For example, to un-
derstand the scientific facts
about the circulation of the blood
requires the student to picture
a complicated course of motions.
Unless the student has an ex-
traordinary imagination, the ac-
tual perception of the circula-
tory motion is almost indispen-
sable. There are, similarly, many
problems in geology, astron-
omy, and physics in which mov-
ing pictures or animated dia-
grams can do what words and
charts fail to do. All of us who
have tried to grasp the process
of atomic fission which under-
lies the explosion of the atomic
bomb want screen animation of
the diagrams we have seen on
the printed page.

From mathematics and the
physical sciences at one extreme
to biology and the social sci-
ences at the other, there is no
subject in the whole curriculum
of studies, at elementary, inter-
mediate, or advanced levels
which would not benefit peda-
gogically from the use of films
integrated with other means
and methods of teaching.

The educational use of films
is by no means limited to class-
room instruction. Motion pic-
tures can and should be used as
visual aids in every process in
which knowledge and informa-
tion are disseminated. The war
taught us how valuable they are
in the training of industrial and
military skills, in adult educa-
tion, and informing different
groups of the population about

the lives and activities of their
fellowmen.

Thousands of 16mm projec-
tors in war plants carried com-
plete reports from far-flung
battle fronts to workers eager
to see how the tanks, planes,
guns and ships which rolled
from the production lines stood
up under combat conditions.
Other thousands of 16mm pro-
jectors carried war information
to schools. Red Cross Chapters,
and various civilian defense or-
ganizations. Still other thou-
sands of 16mm projectors sent
overseas by American war
agencies told the story in a doz-
en different languages of the
United Nations’ efforts.

The experimental work we do
in the production of instruc-
tional films for classroom use
should facilitate the expansion
of the educational usefulness of
motion pictures in other fields.
The urgent problems of our
day, domestic and internation-
al, will not be solved unless edu-
cation succeeds as it has never
succeeded before. The effective-
ness of education must be multi-
plied many times — to an extent
and at a rate which existing edu-
cational facilities and methods
cannot manage. The education-
al promise of motion pictures
has been demonstrated at the
very moment in history when
the social need challenges us to
make good that promise with
all speed. And we shall.

Reprinted from "The Motion Picture
on the Threshold of a Decisive Decode,"
24th Annual Report to the Motion Pic-
ture Association of America, Inc. (for-
ferly Motion Picture Producers and Dis-
tributors of America, Inc., of which Will
H. Hays was president), by Eric Johnston,
President, March 25, 1946. 54 pages.
This excerpt may be found on pages 3-7.

2 GREAT FEATURE
MOTION PICTURES

Now ready for
16mm RELEASE

BALFE’S OPERETTA

All the warmth of great music, the hilarious
comedy of a grand team, and top flight
Hollywood Production.

Presents

laurel and HARDY

IN THE HAL ROACH PRODUCTION

Me BOHEMIAN

JACK LONDON’S BEST

Film Daily said —"One of the best sea
yarns that the screen can claim!" Jack Lon-
don at his besti" "Photography at its finesti"
"Masterly direction."

srOR PICTURES

Presents

IACK LONDON'S

mighty sea drama

MUTINY on the
ELSINORE

Willi PAUL LUKAS

-V...

Vti.

You can consistently depend
upon the extensive program
of major Hollywood prod-
uct available to the 16mm
market from

ASTOR

PICTURES

CORP.

130 West 46th Street
NEW YORK CITY 19, N.Y.

May, 1 946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Facts You Should Know About
Teaching Film Custodians, Inc.

From Eric Johnston^s First Annual Report

Corporate Facts: Organized
December 1, 1938 under the
laws of New York to advance
and promote the distribution
and use of motion pictures for
educational purposes in schools.

President and Chairman of
THE Board: Dr. Mark A. May,
Director, Institute of Human
Relations, Yale University.

Directors: James R. Angell,
President Emeritus, Yale Uni-
versity ; Frederick H. Bair, Su-
perintendent, Bronxville (N.
Y.) Schools; Isaiah Bowman,
President, Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity ; Karl T. Compton,
President, Massachusetts Insti-
tute of Technology; Edmund E.
Day, President, Cornell Univer-
sity; Royal B. Farnum, Execu-
tive Vice-President, Rhode Is-
land School of Design; Willard
E. Givens, Executive Secretary,
National Education Associa-
tion; Jay B. Nash, Professor of
Education, New York Univer-
sity, and Francis T. Spaulding,
Dean, Graduate School of Edu-
cation, Harvard University.

Trustees: James R. Angell,
Williard E. Givens and Carl E.
Milliken.

Teaching Film Custodians,
Inc., the second largest nation-
al distributor of instructional
films, has in its catalog 639
titles for classroom use which
are proving increasingly popu-
lar and effective as visual aids
in courses of history, geography,
literature and biography, biol-

From Eric Johnston's first annual re-
port as president of the Motion Picture
Association of America, Inc.

ogy and nature study, chemis-
try, physics and astronomy,
geology, general science, art and
music, sociology and religion,
health, physical education and
recreation, agriculture, home
economics, industrial arts and
various vocations.

Sixteen mm. prints of select-
ed subjects are licensed on a
three-year non-profit basis. By
December 31, 1945 there were
10,332 reels of 16mm film in
active use through 423 film li-
braries across the nation, serv-
ing thousands of schools located
in every state. For example, one
film library operated by the Los
Angeles Public School System
supplies 464 schools ; another in
Ohio services 1,500 schools; nu-
merous state university libra-
ries supply schools throughout
their respective states. Use of
all films is restricted by license
to the instructional programs
of the institutions exhibiting
them. These classroom films
may be shown only in school
buildings during school hours.

Illustrative films, widely used
in schools, include :

American History: Servant
of the People (story of the Con-
stitution) ; The Perfect Tribute
(Lincoln’s Gettysburg Ad-
dress) ; Story That Couldn't Be
Printed (Freedom of the press) ;
Give Me Liberty (Patrick Hen-
ry) ; Monroe Doctrine.

Biography : The Story of Dr.
Jenner (Smallpox control) ; The
Story of Dr. Carver; Romance
of Radium (The Curies) ; The
Story of Charles Goodyear
(Vulcanizing rubber) ; They

Live Again (Dr. Banting and
insulin).

Literature: A Tale of Two
Cities; Romeo and Juliet; Dav-
id Copper field; Master Will
Shakespeare; Treasure Island.

Science: New Roadways to
Science; Willie and the Mouse;
Beneath Our Feet (Microscopic
study of insects) ; Song Birds
of the North Woods.

Politics and Government:
Inside the Capitol; Inside the
White House; U. S. Treasury;
The Mint; Inside the F.B.I.

At the present time admin-
istrators of informal programs
of adult education in factories,
schools, churches, labor unions,
health associations, and commu-
nity forums, are seeking to use
these visual aids. Directors of
Teaching Film Custodians are
negotiating with various copy-
right owners for liberalization
of contracts to permit extension
of the social contribution of
these motion pictures into these
wider areas under controls ade-
quately protecting commercial
theatres.

Funds above expenses of op-
eration have been appropriated
to such projects as (1) a study
by the American Council on Ed-
ucation for curriculum areas
in which visual aids are most
needed; (2) a study by Harvard
Graduate School of Education
of existing film materials and
motion picture needs in the field
of American history, and (3)
experiments in utilization of
classrooms films by the Insti-
tute of Human Relations at Yale
University.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

Bill Kruse, ANFA President and
PICC Chairman, Comments
on Johnston's Report

BY WILLIAM F. KRUSE

If good will alone could bridge
the gap that still divides the ef-
forts of theatrical and non-
theatrical wings of “the motion
picture,” here would be ample
building material. But more
than good intentions are needed
as paving blocks for these uphill
roads. The forward-looking maj-
ority, at least, of those active in
the various organizations that
function in the two fields would
welcome a chance to implement
this common desire to work to-
gether for the common good.
The movies’ theatrical wing is
well-knit, with Johnston’s or-
ganization at the head and the
various organized exhibitor
groups and certain public rela-
tions affiliates rallying behind.
The non-theatrical wing, too,
though necessarily grouped into
a larger number of separate
organizations reflecting the
greater diversification of in-
terest areas, is also more homo-
geneous than ever before. Sev-
eral trade organizations, includ-
ing the Allied Non-Theatiical
Film Association, the Educa-
tional Film Library Association,
the National Association of Vis-
ual Education Dealers, the Na-
tional Microfilm Association,
the Photographic Manufactur-
ers and Distributors Association
and the organizations of photo-
graphic dealers and photo-fin-
ishers, follow a joint public and

From "Educational Screen," by per-
mission of the author.

Roger Albright (left), administrator of
Teaching Film Custodians, chats with
Bill Kruse, 16mm industry leader, at
a meeting of school odministrators.

industry relations policy un-
der the guidance of their Photo-
graphic Industry Co-ordinating
Committee. Several of these
trade bodies have joined with
such consumer groups as the
American Library Association,
the National Education Assoc-
iation, the National University
Extension Association, and
others, to form the Film Coun-
cil of America, with a local and
a national organizational pro-
gram of uniting all elements
(commercial, professional, and
consumer) interested in any
phase or form or application of
photography, in any of its
branches.

In view of the interest in
“every phase and function of
the motion picture,” so elo-
quently and emphatically ex-
pressed in President Johnston’s
report, should not the Motion
Picture Association of America
participate with these many

other specialized groups o n
matters affecting the broader
goals and common services of
the motion picture? This might
be done by broadening the
Photographic Industry Co-or-
dinating Committee, or by hav-
ing the Motion Picture Associa-
tion issue or underwrite a call
for a clearing house for all mo-
tion-picture matters of major
public interest.

One field of activity for such
a motion picture “Senate” or
“UN” industry-wide grouping
might well be the encourage-
ment of greater support for cul-
turally outstanding film forums
for the broad, non-partisan dis-
cussion of domestic and inter-
national affairs.

A negative aspect, but an
essential one, might be an objec-
tive, fair, but implacable opposi-
tion to police or other political
or pressure-group censorship.
The Motion Picture Associa-
tion’s own machinery for self-
regulation, as a substitute for
political censorship, might be
made more effective and at the
same time more liberal if there
were a chance of recourse to a
top-level public jury which such
a “Senate” could provide. Per-
haps the weakest spot in the
Johnston report is the confine-
ment of discussion of self-regu-
lation largely to violators of the
Code, overlooking the possibil-
ity that the Code itself might be
used to stifle or at lea.st constrict
the .screen’s freedom to grow in
the very direction charted by the

Mav, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

report itself. The Code, even in
its negative, defensive, tradi-
tional application, was devised
in order that the film industry
might better serve its public. If,
in the normal operation of this
self-regulatory apparatus, a
given ruling might be challenged
as harmful to the industry’s
true service to its public, a ref-
erence of that issue (at least for
counsel) to a responsible group
competent to speak for the pub-
lic welfare, might prove very
helpful.

Regardless of the limits the

Motion Picture Association
might wish to put upon organ-
ized collaboration with other
public-spirited trade and con-
sumer groups, some sort 'of ma-
chinery for collaboration in the
general field of the motion pic-
ture and its public would seem
to be as necessary now as is the
United Nations Organization in
that of international affairs.
There are undoubtedly some in
the theatre ranks to whom this
public recognition of the grow-
ing importance of the non-the-
atrical field must sound like

sheer heresy. There are, too,
some rather influential voices in
the educational and social film
worlds who have become soured
on the very thought of working
with “Hollywood.” But there are
skeptics, too, who see no hope
in international collaboration.
Good will and high purpose, so
well expressed in the report here
under discussion, if carried out
into mutual action, will dispel
remaining doubt, advance the
common interests of the indus-
try, and augment its services to
mankind.

Kruse's Inaugural Address as
President of ANFA

PresidenNelect William F. Kruse, suc-
ceeding Horace O. Jones and introduced
by Toastmaster Orton H. Hicks at the
annual banquet of the Allied Non-The-
atrical Film Association, held at the
Hotel New Yorker, New York City, May
11, 1946, made the following address:

We look forward to the time
when, year after year, those
people who contribute most ef-
fectively to the improvement
and expansion of the motion pic-
ture in socially significant activ-
ities will be recognized. The the-
atrical industry has its awards,
from the leading female star to
the most skillful film techni-
cian. The theatrical industry, in
honoring those of its members
whom it considers most deserv-
ing, honors those individuals, to
be sure, for the contributions
they have made. However, in so
doing, it honors itself, for it be-
stows these awards in recogni-
tion of the services which it, as
an industry, has rendered to its
public.

That public includes everyone
who at any time looks at a mo-

tion picture. Everyone in this
country, everyone in any other
country who is, by means of the
motion picture, enabled to get a
better understanding of how the
real people live and think and
act in this country, is a better
person, a better human being, a
better citizen. This is the con-
tribution 0 f those members
of the motion-picture industry
whose superior creative and
technical achievements in every
branch have helped to make the
motion picture the potent force
it is today. At this convention,
we have already taken cogni-
zance of the varied nature of
their contribution and interest
and have departmentalized our
own organization into six major
divisions : Producers, Distribu-
tors, Libraries, Projection Serv-
ices, Laboratories, and Equip-
ment Manufacturers and Deal-
ers. We hope, furthermore, that
the day will be not far distant
when non-theatrical awards of
merit will recognize achieve-
ments not only in these United

States, but in all the other lands
with which, in this Atomic Age
especially, we are so closely in-
ter-related. The motion picture
industry, as a whole, can be
proud of the recognition its
leaders extend to this essential
international character of the
medium that we all serve. At the
luncheon of the SMPE last
Tuesday, William Rogers, of
Loew’s Incorporated, called at-
tention to the fact that no other
medium was so well-adapted to
carry the message of the broth-
erhood of man, as was the mo-
tion picture. In his annual re-
port to the Motion Picture As-
sociation of America, Eric John-
ston gave similar recognition in
a most outstanding presentation
of the role of the film.

We, of the 16mm industry,
have responsibilities in relation
to this most potent medium of
mass communication that in
no way are secondary to those
which confront any other group.
Our films are shown primarily
in schools, churches, club rooms.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 8

factories, homes — right in the
social units that are basic to our
society in every civilized land.
The use of the 16mm film dur-
ing the war is too well-known to
need re-counting. Audiences to-
taling hundreds of millions were
reached not in any casual man-
ner but in gatherings where the
generally serious subject-matter
of our films was the principal
and very often sole appeal to
the gathering. Enlightenment,
clearer thinking, and very of-
ten, purposeful action, followed
the showing of these films di-
rectly, with an effectiveness and
proximity that is unique to our
medium.

In realizing the potentialities
of the motion picture in helping
to meet the serious problems
that confront us in these dis-
turbed post-war days, there is
no dividing line between 16mm
and 35mm, between theatrical
and non-theatrical fields. We all
have a common job to do and to
each there comes the challenge
to do it, to the best of his abil-

ity, with all the resources that
he can command. We glory in
the social contributions of many
outstanding workers in the the-
atrical field. We know that
every time that a worthy social
concept is presented, worthily,
on the theatrical screen, hun-
dreds of millions will have their
thinking and action moved in
the direction the world has to go
if there is to be a better day for
all of us. We of ANFA are pre-
pared to do our share equally
and welcome every opportunity
to aid our whole industry to
speak with one voice in the in-
terest of human progress.

We hope that some organiza-
tional means will be found to
implement the desire we all
share to work together for the
common good. The crying need
of our day is united effort for
the common good. At this very
convention, initial steps have
been taken to explore the pos-
sibility of combining the forces
of two major trade associations
in the 16mm field, the Allied

Non-Theatrical Film Associa-
tion and the National Associa-
tion of Visual Education Deal-
ers. Furthermore, a strong li-
aison committee has already
started functioning, and at the
coming convention of NAVED
in August we hope that further
steps in the direction of unity
may be taken. All the major
branches of the photographic in-
dustry, likewise, are combined
in the Photographic Industry
Co-ordinating Committee, only
a little more than a year old.
Finally these interests and a
much wider circle of educational
and social groups are combining
for the formation of local chap-
ters of the Film Council of
America which, on the local or
community level, will include
every individual or group inter-
ested in any way in the motion
picture as a social instrument.
We hope that our good friends
of the 35mm industry will co-
operate in these efforts. We
need their help. We have every
confidence that we shall get it.

150 Biblical Films Planned

An ambitious program of
transferring the Bible to the
screen is planned by the Ameri-
can Bible Society in cooperation
with the Anson Bond Production
Company of Hollywood.

The films will be in color,
with a narrator reading the
Biblical text. The musical back-
grounds will include original
scores by Clarence Williams for
symphony orchestra and choir.

A total of 150 20-minute films,
it is estimated by Henry Harris
Ragatz, spokesman for the
American Bible Society, will be

necessary before the entire
scriptures are filmed. Produc-
tion will be started first on the
events of the four Gospels.

The initial three episodes to
go before the cameras will be
The Nativitij, The Parable of
the Sower, and The Woman of
Samaria.

The motion pictures, which
will be non-denominational, will
be made in 16mm as well as
35mm.

Plans are also under way to
prepare the films with foreign
sound tracks for use abroad.

The first set of episodes is
scheduled for completion in Sep-
tember.

The staff handling the pro-
duction includes Richard Le-
Strange, producer ; William
Rousseau, director ; Harry Cos-
wick, technical director ; and
Byron DeBolt, costume and set
designer.

The project is a non-profit
venture, and all income above
costs will be used for producing
films. The pictures will be dis-
tributed by the American Bible
Society.

May, 1 946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A Guide to the Appreciation of
Walt Disney's "Make Mine Music"

Reviews by Frederick H* Law and Carolyn Harrow

MAKE MINE MUSIC. Walt Disney's
color fantasies. RKO Radio. Recom-
mended for oil.

A kaleidoscopic melange of
color, lines, and modernistic
symbolism delights the eyes of
all who see Walt Disney’s latest
presentation, a series of ten mu-
sical cartoon acts, all of which
carry humorous or poetic stor-
ies. Chief among these is “Peter
and the Wolf,’’ in which a small
boy with a popgun, accompan-
ied by a small bird, a duck, and
a cat, goes out in a Russian
winter to hunt “a big, bad
wolf.’’ Appropriate orchestral
music symbolizes each charac-
ter and accompanies each action
of a Russian fable that will hold
the rapt attention of every child
— old or young. Then there is
the cartoon exaggeration of the
famous “Casey at the Bat,’’ now
an American legend. “A Moun-
tain Feud’’ tells a “Huckleberry
Finn’’ story of two mountain
clans whose battling became
perpetuated, instead of being
stopped, by the marriage of
what we may call a mountain
Capulet and a mountain Mon-
tague.

The most original acts are
those that tell the story of “The
Singing Whale’’ and “Alice
Bluebonnet and Johnny Fe-
dora.” Certainly it took cartoon
imagination to picture a whale
standing on the stage of grand
opera and singing to a delighted
audience. The cinematic “figure
of speech” implies that Nelson
Eddy has a “whale of a voice.”
To some persons the romantic
narrative of the gentleman’s fe-

dora hat that fell in love, in a
show window, with a lady’s
Easter bonnet will prove most
pleasing of all the vaudeville
cartoon acts that form a kind of
silly symphony of story, song,
music, charming effects of line
and color, and pleasing symbol-
ism. Such tone poems as “The
Bayou” and “Silhouettes” pleas-
ingly unite many sense appeals.

Not in the least intended to
equal Snmv White and the Seven
Dwarfs, Make Mine Music skil-
fully combines humor and artis-
tic effects. F. H. LAW.

Mrs. Harrow Present's the
Woman's Viewpoint

And now Walt Disney has
given us a revue, which includes
Nelson Eddy, Benny Goodman,
and other famous favorites. In
the matter of Technicolor, it
surpasses anything so far
achieved on the screen. Parti-
cularly in the number entitled
“Tone Poem,” the color effects
are most artistic, and in “Song
in Blue” the design is ultra-mod-
ernistic and esthetic.

Disney’s gift for comedy is
shown to great advantage in his
interpretation of “Casey at the
Bat” and “The Whale Who
Wanted to Sing at the Met.” The
latter number shows rich im-
agination when the whale is
seen towering over the operatic
audience.

In “Peter the Wolf” the cat,
bird, and duck are as lovable as
any of the animals in Snow
White. Of all the numbers, this
one is the most instructive and

enjoyable for the child. The im-
personation of the instruments
is charmingly explained, and the
music is beautifully rendered.
Of all wolves, this present cre-
ation of Disney’s is the most
terrifying. But he is vanquished
in the end, and Peter survives
with his pals, the duck, the cat,
and the bird, much to the relief
of all in the audience.

CAROLYN HARROW

★ ★ ★

SYNOPSES OF NOTABLE
STORIES IN THE FILM

"Peter and the Wolf"

Narrated by Sterling Holloway

This is a short musical
cartoon, based on the Serge
Prokofieff musical theme and
characters. The opening scene is
a forest in winter — deep snow,
in Russia. There is a storm in
the woods. The wind is howling
and snow is blowing about. We
see the footprints of the Wolf
and then, in the shadows of the
trees, we see his fearful form
slinking in and out until we
come suddenly face to face with
him in a closeup. The scene
shifts to a cottage in the dis-
tance. The camera trucks
toward the house in a creeping
movement. The door opens slow-
ly and the boy, Peter, comes
out. A huge hand yanks him
back quickly; Grandfather ad-
ministers a sound smack and ad-
monishes him sternly to stay in
the house, frightening him with
a tale of the dangerous Wolf
outside, and making a Wolf’s
shadow on the wall with the aid
(Continued on Page 46)

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

ABOVE — Peter sets out on his amazing adventure. BELOW — A charming procession of Peter, the Bird, ;he Duck, and the Cat.

May, 1 946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

The Wolf — Before and After

The Wolf before Peter captured him- — and after.

Volume XII, No. 7

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

(Continued from Page 43)

of his long beard. When Grand-
father goes to sleep, Peter takes
his hat and little pop-gun away
from Grandfather, and out he
goes.

Little Peter wanders happily
through the woods, and sudden-
ly meets the little Russian Bird
character, who is one of the
principals in the story. The bird
flies around Peter and sits on
his gun. Peter pops the gun, but
the bird makes a trapeze swing
out of the string and engages
in fancy gymnastics. They be-
come close friends and travel
along together, until they meet
the Duck. Peter tells the Duck
they are going to hunt the Wolf.
The Duck gaily joins the party.
As they are passing some reeds,
the Cat enters the picture, steal-
thily creeping out, with an eye
to eating the Bird. After various
skirmishes between the Cat and
the Bird, Peter talks seriously to
the Cat about their hunt. The
Cat joins the party. On they go.
Their happy adventure turns
into a panic when they actually
encounter the Wolf soon after.
Peter shoots him in the nose
with his little pop-gun, which,
to Peter’s dismay, does not kill
him. At this point, Peter dashes
out of the scene as do the others,
except the Duck, who is left face
to face with the Wolf. Chase
scenes follow between Duck and
Wolf, some of them over ice —
but the Duck escapes into a
hollow tree.

As the Wolf is about to inves-
tigate the tree, the brave little
Bird, who is perched upon a
limb of the tree, together with
the Cat and Peter, decides to
come to the rescue. He flies
down, and the ensuing business
between the Wolf and the Bird
has the Bird in and out of the
Wolf’s mouth. However, as the
Bird is about to lose the contest,

the Cat comes down from the
limb with a noose of rope and
manages to get one end of it
around the Wolf’s tail and the
other over the tree limb. Just as
the Bird falls into the Wolf’s
mouth, the Wolf is jerked
out of the scene, and next we
see Peter and the Cat pulling on
the rope. They pull so hard they
fall off the limb, thereby pull-

ing the Wolf up as they fall,
until he is even with them, as all
hang by the rope. The Wolf
snaps his jaws viciously at them
as they swing back and forth
and around. Meanwhile the Bird
is watching this struggle with
extreme anxiety. He hears hunt-
ers off-stage. He flies off to en-
list the aid of the hunters, who
hurry to the scene to find Peter

Moy, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

and the Cat swinging on the
Wolf, who is tied fore and aft
to the tree-limb, making a ham-
mock. There is much rejoicing
in the village over this capture.
A parade : Cossacks, girls, and
Grandfather are dancing.

The next scene shows the Bird
weeping beside Duck prints in
the snow. The Bird is gazing
disconsolately at a lone Duck
feather sticking up in the snow
and is mourning for his friend.
However, the Duck emerges
from the hollow in the tree at
this moment and, standing in
back of the bird and observing
that he is weeping, weeps also.

They then see each other and
embrace happily. Picture ends
with Duck and Bird going over
the horizon to the village. IRIS
OUT.

★ ★ ★

"Casey at the Bat"

Narrated by Jerry Colonna

The story is based upon the
famous poem written by Ernest
Lawrence Thayer, depicting a
memorable baseball game be-
tween the “Mudville Nine” and
an unknown opponent, with
mighty “Casey,” local hero, the
feature of the game.

The opening scene picks up
the game in the eighth inning,
with the score four to two and
the opposing team in the lead.
As the picture opens, the man-
ager of the home team is giving
the players a pep talk and call-
ing Cooney to bat. Cooney bunts
the ball, but is called “out” at
first base. The second batter has
the same fate. The fans, dis-
gusted, begin to leave the
stands, with a vociferous show
of disapproval. Flynn, the third
player called to bat for Mud-
ville, has an unhappy time with
his mustache, which continually
gets tangled with the bat, but
finally makes first base. Blake,
next to bat, with the help of a

The t-errific pitcher

hot-foot given him by the catch-
er on the opposing team, suc-
ceeds in getting to second base,
putting Flynn on third and de-
lighting the Mudville fans.

At this point, Casey enters
amid a great fanfare of shouts
and cheers from the rooting sec-
tion, particularly the feminine
contingent. After considerable
strutting, climaxing in an as-
tounding feat of pyrotechnics
with baseball bats, Casey takes
his place at the home plate.
Flynn on third and Blake on
second are giving the pitcher a
rough time of it, which is helped
not at all by Mighty Casey, who
looks as if he means business,
(■asey, particular, lets the first
ball go by. The Umpire yells.

“Strike one!” The pitcher,
nervous and sweating, pitches
the second ball, but Casey, in-
volved in the “Police Gazette,”
again disdains the pitch. Two
down, and one to go. Casey
spits. The crowd is in an up-
roar, but is reassured by Casey’s
scornful look. The moment is
tense, the crowd is hushed, the
pitcher throws the ball, and the
air is rent with the force of
Casey’s blow.

The next scene depicts the
Mudville Ball Park, later that
evening; it is raining and the
bleachers are empty. Casey, in a
mad fury, is still trying to hit
the ball. The game is lost for
Miulville, and Mighty Casey has
“struck out!”

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

Scenes in "The Whole Who Wanted to Sing at the Met."

"The Whale Who Wonted to
Sing at the Metropolitan"

Music and Voices by Nelson Eddy

This episode opens with a
program page giving the title.
The page turns. We read : “Any
similarity between voices in this
story is easily explainable be-
cause they are all Nelson Eddy.”
Then there is a long ahhhhh
note, and more pages are blown
over one by one in a great gust
of wind. A montage effect fol-
lows, with music notes, hats,
curtains, flowers, lightning,
clouds, rain, snow, and finally
newspapers being blown along.
We truck in to one newspaper to
read the headlines : “Phantom
Voice Sings At Sea,” “Seaman
Sights Singing Sea Monster,”
etc. The sheet swings away to
reveal a newsboy selling papers.
The man about to purchase the
paper is crowded out by two
Kibitzers who say: “A Singing
Whale.? Well, Whadda Ya
Know? Imagine That!” A
head rises through a manhole
cover in the street, and a voice
says: “I Don’t Believe It.” The
policeman on his beat and a fat
woman, hanging out wash, echo :
“I Don’t Believe It. Who Ever
He.4rd Of a Singing Whale?”

The scene changes to a con-
ference of eminent doctors ; one
is speaking, and an argument
ensues. There is another scene
of four masters debating in
front of a blackboard with a
diagram of a whale. We cut to a
close-up of Prof. Tetti Tatti at
his desk. He is studying an item
in the paper regarding the Sing-
ing Whale and is comparing it
with the incident of Jonah and
the Whale. We see that Tetti
Tatti gets the idea that this new
phenomenon is nothing but a
repetition of the Jonah-and-the-
Whale incident and decides that
an opera singer of much talent
must have been swallowed by a

whale at sea. He immediately
sees the possibility of cashing in
on the publicity and calls for
press photographers and news-
men, to give them the story that
he is setting out on an expedi-
tion to rescue the unfortunate
vocalist.

Later, a seagull picks up the
newspaper, which says: “Im-

PREssARio Searches Ocean For
Singing Whale.” As he flies
with it past Tetti Tatti’s boat
and to the whale, the narrator
says : “There really is a

WHALE NAMED WiLLIE, WHO
CAN SING. You CAN HEAR HIM
NOW.” We then see and hear the
whale singing “SHORTENIN’
Bread” to his friends, the seals

Moy, T946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

and pelicans. As he finishes, the
gull flies in with news that he
is about to be discovered by Pro-
fessor Tetti Tatti, the great im-
pressario of the Metropolitan.
The whale is delighted with this
good news, because he loves to
sing opera. He waves goodbye to
his friends and goes in search of
Tetti Tatti. When he finds him,
he serenades him first with
“Figaro” . . . and then with
“Lucia” (in three voices). Al-
though the songs completely win
over the crew, Tetti Tatti is
more convinced than ever that
the whale has swallowed an op-
era singer — in fact, three opera
singers. He is determined to res-
cue them.

As he struggles with his crew,
trying to reach the harpoon gun
to kill his new discovery, the
narrator says: “Why can’t
THEY BEAT SOME SENSE INTO

Tetti Tatti? Here he is try-
ing TO HARPOON HIS BIGGEST

DISCOVERY. Imagine what a
SENSATION HE WOULD BE IN THE

Met !”

We dissolve into the Metro-
politan, with the whale as a sen-
sation, as he sings the roles of
“Lucia,” “Mephistopheles,”
“Tristan & Isolde,” and “Pag-
LiACCi” — winning acclaim from
the audience ; from his friends
the seals, pelicans, and seagulls;
from Tetti Tatti and his crew ;
and from the newspapers and
magazines of New York — and
even the rest of the world.

At the height of this acclaim,
the dream disintegrates. An ex-
plosion wipes out the whale, re-
vealing Tetti Tatti at the har-
poon. He yells with glee as the
rope plays out. Three sailors
jump on him. The whale, with
the harpoon stuck in his chest,
dives and swims off into the
distance. The boat is on the
crest of a wave as the harpoon
rope pays out and pulls taut.

The gun breaks loose from the
deck and hits the water, caus-
ing a big splash. The water is
stormy, and lightning is flash-
ing in the sky. Willie (the
whale) is in the extreme dis-
tance, silhouetted by a lightning
flash. There are more stormy
waves, lightning bolts, and
flashes. The waves are then
highlighted, and the water is
whipped into extreme fury. The
storm begins to taper and a sea-
gull comes into the scene. He
flies down toward the water
searchingly, in a hunt for Wil-
lie. He circles the watery grave
of Willie, which is marked by
the debris of the harpoon gun.
The seagull lands on the debris
and looks dejectedly at the spot
where the whale sank to the
ocean depths. A glow from heav-
en strikes the seagull, and he
looks up with resignation. Fi-
nally, Willie is revealed singing
on a celestial stage. IRIS OUT.

In Briefer Review

CLUNY BROWN. Comedy. 20th-Fox.
Ernst Lubitsch, Director. Screen Ploy by
Samuel Hoffenstein and Elizabeth Rein-
hardt. Based an a novel by Margery
Sharp. Strongly recommended for all.

“Perfectly delightful humor”
anyone well may say of Climy
Broum, a brilliantly produced
motion-picture play, in which
Jennifer Jones and Charles Boy-
er play the leading parts, admir-
ably aided by Sir C. Aubrey
Smith, Richard Haydn, Helen
Walker, Peter Lawford, Regi-
nald Gardiner, Reginald Owen,
Margaret Bannerman, and oth-
ers of a large cast.

Practically every character in
Cliinij Brown is humorous, dif-

ferent from all others, fantastic,
and yet within the bounds of
probability. There is a laugh at
every moment. Seldom, indeed,
has a motion - picture play
brought together such a number
of oddities in human nature,
caricatures, to be sure, but suf-
ficiently near to the actual
to be fantastically real.

In this first comedy role in
which Jennifer Jones has ap-
peared, she plays her part with
distinction, most of the time
wearing a parlor maid’s cos-
tume, and only at the end ap-
pearing in rich attire that sets
off her striking beauty.

The novel upon which the mo-

tion-picture play is based made
an instant hit in its serial form,
and quickly became a best seller
and Book-of-the-Month-Club se-
lection. In spite of that fact, the
story is so bizarre and so slight
in event that only the most
skilled direction, the best cast,
and the most effective acting
could give it the delicious humor
that it has in motion-picture
form.

An utterly unsophisticated
English girl (Jennifer Jones)
with an ambition to be a plumb-
er and to mend kitchen sinks,
suddenly becomes a parlor maid
in the house of a British lord.
There, in a “frightfully formal.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 8

don’t you know” mansion, she
commits many indiscretions,
meets an unconventional and
brilliant writer (Charles Boy-
er), shocks everyone, and gains
complete happiness in an un-
trammeled life.

Chinn Brown is a “must”
for all who wish to laugh.

F. H. Law.

* ★ *

TOMORROW'S MEXICO. March of
Time. Strongly recommended.

Tourist Mexico — and the
Mexico that lies beyond the av-
erage tourist — both appear in
fascinating detail in Tomorrow’s
Mexico, a new March of Time
presentation.

Restrictions brought about by
the war, preventing trans-ocean
travel, have turned hundreds of
thousands of sight-seers “across
the border” into the colorful
land beyond the Rio Grande.
The March of Time first shows
what most of these visitors from
the United States particiularly
enjoy — well-paved automobile
highways, great modern build-
ings, luxurious hotels, and night
clubs that ape those at home,
the mountains, the volcanos, the
cathedrals, and the picturesque
individuals along the highways
and in the city crowds. Then the
March of Time takes one into
the real Mexico, to the semi-
arid regions where men still
work with crude agricultural
implements, and to places where
progressive leaders have set in
motion work to educate every
person in all of Mexico’s popula-
tion. It is a law that those who
can read and write must, within
each year, teach others also the
rudiments of literacy.

The March of Time recounts
recent Mexican history and
shows the leaders in bringing
about modernization and indus-
trialization of Mexico. It gives
us glimpses here and there of

the changes that are taking
place. So far as pictures can do
so, the March of Time shows the
spirit of the new Mexico, or bet-
ter still, “The Mexico of To-
morx’ow.”

F. H. Law.

WANTED — MORE HOMES. The
March of Time. Recommended for all.

Into a comparatively short
film the March of Time has
crowded a mass of interesting
and pertinent information about
the pi'esent housing shoi’tage in
the United States. Beginning
with the human interest in-
volved in the search of a young
married couple for a home,
whatever it may be, the film
proceeds to consideration of all
sides of the housing problem. If
it has any editorial purpose
whatever, that purpose is to lead
to immediate repeal of long-
standing building laws that in-
terfere with rapid construction.
Particular interest attaches to
the making of prefabricated
homes. Everyone will sympa-
thize with the pictures that
show the difficulties that arise
when a newly-married couple
live with the parents of one or
the other. This March of Time
presents the views of distin-
guished authorities on housing.
Best of all, it calls sharp atten-
tion to a national need. The
March of Time’s film on hous-
ing is personal, amusing, in-
structive, and thought-provok-
ing.

F. H. Law.

DAYS AND NIGHTS. War drama.
Artkino. Directed by Alexander Stolper.
Highly recommended for all.

Based on a famous Russian
novel, this film portrays the suc-
cessful defense of Stalingrad.
Picturized is “an authentic eye-
witness report” which was
“photographed in the laiins” of
the Russian city. For these rea-

sons a few shots of towering,
jagged wrecks of buildings ap-
pear terrifying.

Very impressive in face and
character are the Russian sol-
diers whose type is glorified —
but with fine restraint — in the
hero. It is a type of hero who
wants to live and to enjoy love
and life in a Russian city, but
gladly faces death, since in its
wake follows the extermination
of the Nazis.

Unforgettable is the scene in
which a harassed mother hopes
that a bomb will wipe her out
with her little ones. Full of
irony is a situation towards the
end, when the hero, relaxing at
a banquet, does not realize that
a faint noise comes from the
bomb which critically wounds
his girl.

While the film cannot offer the
literary descriptions of the nov-
el, yet on the screen may be
heard the songs of the soldiers.
There is a love story, but no Hol-
lywood glamour such as we
found in For Whom the Bell
Tolls. In its Russian counter-
part, emphasis is placed on cam-
araderie between generals and
common soldiers, and on life in
its darkest and bravest aspects.

Carolyn Harrow
★ ★ ★

DISTRIBUTING AMERICA'S GOODS.
The Twentieth Century Fund ond En-
cyclopaedia Britannica Films. 16mm
sound. Recommended for all.

A highly instructive film con-
cerning basic principles in eco-
nomics explains why 59 cents of
every consumer dollar goes for
distribution of goods. By means
of action pictures, animated dia-
grams, and spoken words, the
10-minute film sets forward a
number of important economic
lessons.

The Twentieth Century Fund
is an endowed foundation devot-
ed to research and to public edu-
cation. A Board of Trustees se-

May, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

lects subjects for investigation
— subjects concerning t a x a-
tion, collective bargaining, hous-
ing, distribution costs, foreign
trade, national resources, car-
tels, monopolies, and similar
topics. The Fund presents the
results in the form of books,
radio talks, motion pictures,
pamphlets and teaching direc-
tions. The work has unusual
value for schools and colleges.

F. H. Law.

★ ★ ★

NEVER SAY GOODBYE. Social com-
edy. Warner Bros. James V. Kern, Di-
rector. Screen play by I. A. L. Diamond
and James V. Kern. Original story by
Ben and Norma Benzman. Recommended
for all.

Never Say Goodbye is an alto-
gether pleasing comedy found-
ed upon divorce — and incident-
ally, and at the same time
strongly, emphasizing the harm
that divorce does to children.
Little Patti Brady plays the
part of a seven-year-old girl
set adrift on the sea of life by
the quarrels of her parents, and
hoping with all her heart to
bring the two together again.
Errol Flynn is the artist-father
who has an eye for his models as
well as for his art. Eleanor
Parker is the beautiful, sharp-
sighted wife, eager to return to
her husband but constantly dis-
covering him in the company of
another woman.

The director and co-author,
James V. Kern, skillfully avoid-
ed all that might prove heavy
and serious and kept the entire
production in the spirit of good-
nature and good humor. To the
humor of the picture-play S. Z.
Sakall, as a sympathetic friend
of all concerned, adds much. In
the latter part of the action For-
rest Tucker, as a more-than-six-
foot Marine, provides counter-
action and suspense.

Whimsical, farcical as Never
Say Goodbye is, the story runs

smoothly, constantly suggesting
the coming of a happy ending,
always showing the fundament-
al good nature of a quarreling
pair, and at all times holding the
sympathy of the audience.

“Imagine,” says S. Z. Sakall
as Luigi, the friendly restaurant
keeper, “you take a girl out to
dinner two or three hundred
times and right away folks
think you are interested in her.”
Such malapropic remarks, and
his constant blundering, help to
lead the events on their merry
— or temporarily semi-tragic —
way.

Never Say Goodbye is a cheer-
ful, kindly play that enables us
to laugh at others — and think a
bit seriously also. F. H. Law.

★ ★ ★

NIGHT IN PARADISE. Satiric fable.
Universal Pictures. Directed by Arthur
Lubin. Recommended for all.

Imaginary fable is woven
around that master of fables,
Aesop, his historical trip from
Samos to visit, first, the rich
Croesus, and, after that, the
Delphic oracle. By means of lav-
ish Technicolor, the romance of
the story is heightened and the
debaucheries of a dissolute court
given the right setting.

Although the plot seems more
like that of a fairy tale, inter-
est and suspense are maintained
throughout. An excellent script
provides the satiric note remin-
iscent of the operetta Helen of
Troy, and it is always amusing
to hear characters who belong
to ancient history speak our ver-
nacular. Even a minor comic
role is played by such a talent-
ed actor as Ernest Truex, who
was one of the hits in Helen of
Troy.

Children will love this film for
its fantasy. Adults will enjoy it
for its satire. All will appre-
ciate the colorful, artistic sets
and the competent acting.

Carolyn Harrow.

DO YOU LOVE ME? Musical romance.
20th-Fox. Gregory R a t o f f. Director.
Screen play by Robert Ellis and Helen
Logan. Based on a story by Bert Granet.

Beautiful Maureen O’Hara
transforms herself from a staid,
plainly-dressed, extremely con-
servative head of a college of
classical music and becomes a
glamour girl of the first degree,
a lover of swing and the wife of
a crooner. Do You Love Me?
shows the stages in opening the
cocoon and letting the butterfly
emerge. Necessarily, throughout
all those stages we hear music
and song — sometimes classical
music, sometimes swing, and
sometimes crooning. The mo-
tion-picture play is a charming
melange of music, color, and ro-
mance. If one should object that
the bespectacled dean of a col-
lege, brought up to be a conserv-
ative of the conservatives, would
not be likely to be swept off her
feet by love of feminine finery,
and to forsake classical music
for swing and crooning. Direc-
tor Ratoff might reply, “Who
said this is real? It is simply
fantasy based on swing.”

Throughout the action Harry
James and his “million-dollar
band” provide plenty of swing
with the new songs, “Do You
Love Me,” “As If I Didn’t Have
Enough On My Mind,” “I Didn’t
Mean a Word I Said,” and
“Moonlight Propaganda.” In
the course of events also we hear
selections from Tschaikowski,
Mozart, and Mendelssohn.

Technicolor, costuming, and
make-up give Maureen O’Hara
glamour with a capital “G.” Be-
cause the story tells how she
comes forth from the chrysalis,
she makes the entire motion pic-
ture what it is, dominating its
action from start to finish. Gen-
eral feminine yearning for phy-
sical beauty and fashionable
dress appear to give popularity
to a whole series of motion pic-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 8

tures that tell about plain wo-
men becoming glamorous al-
most over night. Perhaps for
men and women alike, Do You
Love Me? will prove a kind of
fountain of youth.

F. H. Law.

ONE MORE TOMORROW. Comedy.
Warner Brothers. Peter Godfrey, Direc-
tor. From 0 ploy by Philip Barry.

“Let the rich man beware of
the gold-digger and cling to one
who loves him for himself
alone” summarizes the thought
and the moral of One More To-
morroiv, an altogether pleasing
entertainment.

Alexis Smith and Ann Sheri-
dan both appear to delightful
advantage in this comedy in
which two blondes contend for
one mere man, the one appeal-
ing by fashionable clothing and
society savoir faire, and the oth-
er by energetic business life and
the spirit of take-care-of-one’s
self.

If the hero of the story had
followed the principle, “Always
to court and never to wed is the
happiest life that ever was led,”
he might have been saved many
difficulties. As it was, the hero
(Dennis Morgan) makes the
mistake of marrying one of the
ladies and then wishing that he
had married the other. That
makes the story of the film, and
a very interesting story it is.

The hero is one of those hap-
py, irresponsible multi-million-
aire sons of multi-millionaire
fathers that appear occasionally
in motion pictures. His club-lov-
ing father (Thurston Hall) just
can’t understand him at all, es-
pecially when he tries to do any-
thing intellectual and at all
worth doing. For no apparently
good reason, the very rich hero
has as butler an utterly irre-
sponsible boon companion and
former pugilist (Jack Carson),
with whom he lives in liberty

hall, doing as an unattached
bachelor would do. Naturally,
the bride who enters this estab-
lishment quickly wishes a new
butler.

What stays longest in mind
after having seen One More To-
morrow are the pictures of
stately Alexis Smith in gorgeous
costumes, the clowning of the
pugilist-butler, the efforts of a
liberal group to publish a lib-
eral magazine, and the energy
of Ann Sheridan as a newspaper
photographer.

F. H. Law.

"One More Tomorrow" from a
Woman's Viewpoint

This is an adaptation of
Philip Barry’s The Animal
Kingdom. For some reason
which eludes this reviewer, it
has been felt necessary to try to
bring it up to date by making
the heroine a crusading photo-
grapher and the hero a play-
boy who reforms under her in-
fluence and becomes the edi-
tor of a liberal magazine. The
hero’s wife and his wealthy
father ti’y to make him betray
his principles and stop his jour-
nal’s expose of the delivery of
inferior materials to the army
by the copper trusts. All these
attempts to inject social signifi-
cance into what is, after all, a
polite social drama, make the re-
sulting picture neither flesh,
fish, nor fowl.

Alexis Smith, as the false
wife, and Dennis Morgan, as the
playboy, give superb perform-
ances. Jack Carson and Regi-
nald Gardiner are outstanding
in minor parts. Ann Sheridan is
badly miscast as the photogra-
pher but nobly tries to do her
best.

This photoplay makes us wish
that movie moguls would learn
to leave good enough alone and
not subject a perfectly good play

to a lot of unnecessary rewrit-
ing. Emily Freeman.

★ ★ ★

SOMEWHERE IN THE NIGHT. 20th-
Fox. Directed by Joseph L. Monkiewicz.
Post-war detective melodrama.

A war victim of amnesia,
George Taylor (John Hodiak),
after his discharge from the
army, tries to discover his own
identity. This is an absorbing
topic both for the hero and the
audience, especially since the
former is so well depicted by
John Hodiak. Towards the end,
the plot becomes so tangled that
a printed synopsis of the story
might be welcome if supplied at
the end of the picture.

In addition to the star, Lloyd
Nolan, Richard Conte, and Fritz
Kortner deserve high praise. Of
the women, I thought Josephine
Hutchinson showed the talent
and intelligence she displayed
on the legitimate stage.

The mental processes of a
person struggling with loss of
memory were portrayed on the
screen with fine ingenuity on
the part of the director.

Carolyn Harrow.

RENDEZVOUS 24. Detective melo-
drama. 20th-Fox. James Tinling, Dicer-
tor.

A case of “old wine in new
bottles” is what we have in
“Rendezvous 24,” a story woven
around Anglo-American detec-
tives and German spies. It
seems that Hitler’s dream is to
be fulfilled by some scientists,
who in a laboratory somewhere
in a deep recess of the Hartz
Mountains of Germany, are ex-
perimenting with the atomic
bomb. What brings rather time-
worn situations and killings up
to date is the bomb element.

The large cast is highly com-
petent in every respect and ex-
pertly directed.

Carolyn Harrow.

May, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

WITHOUT DOWRY. Amkino release,
produced in Russia.

First, we attend a wedding;
next, we and some boatmen are
on the Volga; nor do we under-
stand why we left the wedding
and came to the river. This film
would make a good classroom

exercise for students to provide
transitions between sequences.

The opening promises much
by contrasting the frozen face
of the bride with that of her
younger unmarried sister who
looks ripe for a happy marriage.
But as the story unfolds, she too

falls into the clutches of the
mercenary mother and of an
ironic fate. Except for the
mother and one or two others,
the acting tends towards carica-
ture. The film, on the whole, is
a feeble one.

Carolyn Harrow

A Suggested Policy as to "Free" Films

School use of sponsored in-
structional materials creates
significant problems, yet group
thought and expression on the
matter has been very limited.
To achieve some unity of opin-
ion and action on these problems
as they relate to audio-visual
materials, numerous leaders in
the field were invited to Detroit
in conjunction with the Mich-
igan Audio-Visual Conference
held April 4-6. Of those invited,
the following twenty-three were
in attendance.

Howard Allen, West Virginia
University

Gerald Bench, Chicago, Illinois
Floyde Brooker, United States
Office of Education
Lester Doerr, Grand Rapids,
Michigan

Mark Flanders, Waterloo, Iowa
Leslie Frye, Cleveland, Ohio
William Hart, Dearborn, Mich-
igan

Rita Hochheimer, New York,
New York

Carl Horn, Michigan State Dept.

of Public Instruction
Ford Lemler, University of
Michigan

Doris Lynn, Indianapolis, Indi-
ana

Harley Lyons, Cincinnati, Ohio
Lillian McNulty, Louisville,
Kentucky

M. Lincoln Miller, Akron, Ohio

Marvin Perkins, South Bend,
Indiana

Paul Reed, Rochester, New York
Merlin Richard, South Bend,
Indiana

Roy Robinson, Highland Park,
Michigan

Carolyn L. Schoeffler, Univer-
sity of Kentucky
L. Merle Smuck, Baltimore,
Maryland

Arthur Stenius, Detroit, Mich-
igan

C. H. Tabler, Massillon, Ohio
Cyril Woolcock, Royal Oak,
Michigan

Although those present re-
presented direction of school
audio-visual programs in areas
having a total population of
approximately seventeen million
people, all realized that leader-
ship in the field was represented
only in part. It was not the
thought of the group that their
deliberations and discussions
should carry finality. In order
to gain benefits from the reac-
tions of others, the statement
issued by the group is being sent
to selected individuals and or-
ganizations throughout the
country, as well as to any others
who may request it, for their
comments.

The group spent the better
part of three days in working
toward the statement hereafter
given. Only the first session on

April 4 was open to the press
and to representatives of indus-
trial sponsors and film produ-
cers. At this session, three dis-
tinct views were formally pre-
sented by the following individ-
uals : Dr. S. A. Courtis, Profess-
or Emeritus of Education, Uni-
versity of Michigan ; Dennis
Williams, Field Supervisor, En-
cyclopaedia Britannica Films,
Inc. ; and Allen Orth, Director of
Educational Service, Depart-
ment of Public Relations, Gen-
eral Motors Corporation. Gen-
eral discussion followed these
presentations.

In releasing the results of
their deliberations, the group
expressed the hope that their
action might have two results :

1. That the statement would
serve to focus attention on
the significance of prob-
lems springing from school
use of sponsored instruc-
tional materials.

2. That the statement would
act as a basis for more com-
prehensive and detailed
study of these problems.

Just as the members of the
group evaluated carefully each
proposal placed before them,
just so they expect others to
evaluate the statements which
follow. The result of wider ex-
amination, challenge, and criti-
cism may be a re-emphasis of

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 8

what is here stated or develop-
ment of a different pattern of
suggested action. Growth will be
indicated by either course, and
those who joined to suggest the
following policy will be com-
pletely satisfied. The group held
no higher aim than that of pro-
viding a basis for further con-
sideration.

Suggested Policy

Public schools should serve
the interests of all of the people.
Therefore, instructional mater-
ials used should be free of the
influence of special interests.

Audio-visual materials, partic-
ularly films, subsidized by spe-
cial-interest groups, are being
offered to the schools in increas-
ing quantities.

Schools cannot develop ad-
equate audio-visual i)rograms
based solely on sponsored ma-
terials. Indeed, too great an ac-
ceptance of sponsored films will
retard the development of non-
sponsored educational-film en-
terprise.

The final determination of
whether or not sponsored audio-
visual materials shall be used
and the conditions under which
they shall be used is a matter
for local decision. Each school
system has a responsibility for
developing its own criteria and
policy with regard to such ma-
terials.

Arthur Stenius

Considerations for determin-
ing educational value of spon-
sored audio-visual materials are

these ;

a. To what degree do the objec-
tives of the material harmon-
ize with the educational ob-
jectives of the school?

b. Is the material :

1. Accurate and authentic in

fact?

2. Representative in its selec-

tion of the fact?

3. Truthful and sincere in

treatment?

c. Does the material present
general understandings, facts,
processes or methods, or does
it present a particular point
of view or promote a si)ecific
brand ?

d. To what extent is the mater-
ial sound in terms of educa-
tional philosophy?

e To what extent is the mater-
ial significant in the sense
that it promotes an educa-
tional program better than
any other material generally
available at the time?

f. Is the material adapted to the
needs, interests, and matur-
ity level of the students who
will use it?

g. To what extent is the spon-

sor’s relationship to the ma-
terials clearly known and ac-
ceptably stated?

Suggested scale for rating
audio-visual material with re-
spect to the emphasis on the
sponsor’s special interest :

a. Materials dealing with a gen-
eral field of accepted educa-
tional value, without refer-
ence to any specific make or
product, with a single state-
ment of sponsorship.

b. Materials where the sponsor’s
interest is shown as an inte-
gral part of the material
without emphasis on a speci-
fic brand or trade name.

c. Materials dealing with a prod-

uct exclusive to one company,
but without reference to a
trade name or slogans.

d. Materials making direct ref-
erence, either pictorial or in
text, to a specific product.

e. Materials making repeated
reference to a specific prod-
uct, to a point where the prod-
uct is the focal point of the
material.

f. Materials employing distor-
tion of facts.

g. Materials with purposeful
misdirection of conclusions.

Moy, 1 946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A Central Audio-Visual Aids
Service in the University

BY PAUL WENDT

Director of the Audio-Visual Education Service, University of Minnesota.

A number of colleges and uni-
versities have organized their
audio-visual aids services by
placing in one department the
authority, activities, and equip-
ment relating to the use of these
aids. The following discussion
points out some of the services
required, and indicates why cen-
tralization of these services is
advantageous.

Problems in the Use

of Audio-Visual Aids

College and university teach-
ers find that the problems con-
nected with the use of audio-
visual aids often provide an in-
surmountable handicap. These
problems arise from the mech-
anics of projection or sound
recording, obtaining good ma-
terials, and using the aids pro-
perly. Especially at the univer-
sity level the teaching staff does
not have the time, the experi-
ence, or the patience to track
down, for instance, the sound
films available on a particular
subject; to select the nearest,
cheapest, and most dependable
source for the desired film; to
requisition it ; to see that it
arrives on time; to inspect it
before showing to be sure it
will go through the projector;
to arrange for a projector in
good operating condition ; to
find a man to run the film who
is competent to do a good job;
to attend to several other details
to ensure that the showing
comes off smoothly; and finally
to return the film and see that

Reprinted from "Higher Education,"
May 1, 1946.

the charges paid are correct. All
these things constitute an oner-
ous burden for a teacher at any
level, and members of a college
faculty cannot spare the time
to be bothered with them. All
these details should be handled
by a central office with a staff
that is fully experienced in all
phases of the work so as to
carry it on most efficiently.

The University of Minnesota
has in operation its Visual Ed-
ucation Service to handle all
these matters. It is only neces-
sary for an instructor to tele-
phone the Visual Education Ser-
vice that on a certain day, in a
particular classroom, he wants
a showing of a certain special-
ized film in his subject. After
this phone call, he can forget
about the matter with complete
assurance that on the day that
he wants to use the film as part
of his lecture he can walk into
his classroom, find the shades
down, the lights on, a screen in
position, a modern sound pro-
jector in perfect operating con-
dition in position in the rear of
the room threaded with the cor-
rect film preinspected, and an
operator in attendance who has
been thoroughly trained not only
to run sound films but to take
care of all the petty details
of classroom projection. Under
these circumstances, an instruc-
tor finds it easy to plan his use
of audio-visual aids without
worrying about the mechanics.
When the time comes for the use
of the sound film, he knows it
will be run off without any dif-
ficulties whatever to distract

him or his students from the
subject matter.

Tracking Down
Audio-Visual Aids

The tracking down of audio-
visual aids suitable for class-
room use is an important part
of a visual education service at
the university level, because,
at this level — in sharp distinc-
tion from the secondary school
level — materials are highly spec-
ialized. A university visual ed-
ucation center should be able to
prepare bibliographies of teach-
ing materials, especially of mo-
tion picture films, on any sub-
ject.

A centralized service, as many
universities and colleges are
discovering today, provides for
numerous economies which will
make the use of audio-visual
aids in teaching much less ex-
pensive. One way of accomplish-
ing this saving is by channeling
requests for materials through
one booker or staff of bookers.
At first, when films are not used
intensively, it may be feasible
for many university depart-
ments to order their own films,
but, as the use increases — as it
most surely will in coming years
— confusion will result from this
practice. There actually have
been instances of two depart-
ments on a campus requesting
the same film from a distant
source for the same day. A cen-
tral booking service eliminates
such duplication and disappoint-
ment by obtaining the film for
both showings at the cost of one
day’s rental. Further than this,
the staff of a central booking

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 8

office are specialists in sources
of materials and in evaluation
of these sources. The centralized
booking of films on a campus
is directly parallel to the estab-
lished practice of centralized
ordering of books for all univer-
sity departments by the univer-
sity library.

Purchase and Maintenance
of Equipment

A centralized visual educa-
tion service can save the uni-
versity large sums of money in
the purchase and maintenance
of the equipment, provided it is
given authority over and con-
trol of such equipment, whether
portable or permanently placed.
All projection and sound re-
producing equipment coming on
the market should be scientific-
ally tested by sound and projec-
tion engineers who are exper-
ienced in the practical uses of
this type of equipment. Further
savings can be accomplished by
standardization of equipment. A
centralized service should also
maintain a supply of common
replacement parts and a main-
tenance shop for replacing all
equipment owned by the univer-
sity, from microphones to 35mm
sound projectors.

Dist-ribution of Audio-Visual
Aids to Departments

Another activity which should
be centralized at a university is
the distribution of teaching
films to the departments. The
film libraries are usually oper-
ated by the extension division.
Because many universities have
had extension film libraries long
before the campus visual-aids
service was considered, the
latter is often an expansion of
the work of the film library and
under the direction of the exten-
sion division. When no one else
would undertake campus ser-
vice, the extension divisions

have been willing to organize
this work. Logically, however,
providing visual aids in the
campus classes is not properly
the function of the extension
division. Institutions of higher
education would save funds and
avoid confusion by establishing
centralized visual education ser-
vices.

Recently some university and
college libraries have become
interested in providing a cen-
tral campus service in audio-
visual materials. There are sev-
eral objections to placing this
work under the library. First,
audio-visual education com-
prises not only materials, but
also engineering services for
equipment. They should never
be separated into two depart-
ments; the faculty cannot be
bothered with calling two offices
in order to plan a classroom
showing. All audio-visual mater-
ials and equipment should be
centralized in one department if
the program is to succeed. Pro-
viding engineering services is
foreign to the traditional func-
tions of a library.

Second, the field of audio-vis-
ual education is already too
specialized and too complex to
be included as a subdivision of
the library. The director’s train-
ing should be in education and
liberal arts rather than in
library subjects.

Third, visual education has
had to fight the tyranny of the
printed word in order to make
a place for itself in teaching
methods. It has won recognition
in spite of — rather than because
of — the attitude of libraries to
it. Today it still needs enthusi-
astic sponsors, and most librar-
ies do not fill this requirement.

Production of Audio-
Visual Aids

A centralized service should
also provide the facilities and

staff for the production of ma-
terials of all types from slides
and charts to sound motion pic-
tures. The production of teach-
ing films at universities has
been going on for decades, but
in the last 5 years there has been
a greatly increased interest in
this work. Many leaders in vis-
ual education feel that the uni-
versities will become centers of
production not only of special-
ized films needed at the uni-
versity level, but also of the
more generalized films needed
at lower instructional levels.

The increasing interest in uni-
versity production has also been
accompanied by an increase in
the amateur efforts of individ-
ual faculty members. Their
films are sometimes well pro-
duced and invaluable additions
to university film libraries, but
in 90 percent of the cases the
amateurishness of the photo-
graphy, of the planning of the
production, and of the subse-
quent editing and later produc-
tion stages, has consigned the
films to the storage shelf or the
trash can after the film has been
shown a few times.

It should be the function of a
visual education service to pro-
vide a production staff which
will see to it that the quality of
productions is kept high enough
so that the films will have per-
manent value. This does not
mean that fully professional
Hollywood quality should be in-
sisted upon. On the contrary,
universities cannot afford the
commercial prices in production
which are concomitant to this
highest quality. The university
production should, on the one
hand, avoid commercial stand-
ards and costs and, on the other
hand, avoid the great waste of
amateur efforts. The production
of motion jiictures is work for
specialists in the field.

Moy, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Keeping Abreast of
New Developments

It is also the business of a
visual education service to keep
abreast of new developments
in the field. This is done through
contact with professional organ-
izations and the reading of sev-
eral dozen professional journals.
New developments must be eval-
uated against previous experi-
ence, and if significant, they
should be followed closely. The
faculty should be informed of
important new materials or new
uses for materials as they are
developed. As new materials
come on the market, they should
be brought to the campus and
offered to the appropriate facul-
ty members for free preview.
All previewed films should be
thoroughly evaluated by both
the visual education director
and the subject-matter special-
ists concerned with them. These
evaluations should be indexed
and filed so that they will be
available for future reference.
In other words, it is the function
of the visual education service
not only to fill immediate needs,
but also to anticipate future
needs.

Planning New Buildings

A centralized service should
take an active part in the plan-
ning of new buildings, so that
complete provision will be made
for the future use of audio-vis-
ual aids in any room. This is not
merely a simple matter o f
arranging for power outlets or
light switches in convenient
places. For example, 16mm
sound films provide a crucial
test of the acoustics of class-
rooms. Again, there arises the
problem of surmounting the me-
chanics of visual aids with the
least disruption of the class. If
the rooms are properly planned
in new buildings, the use of

teaching aids will be greatly ad-
vanced.

The specialized knowledge re-
quired for planning a room for
the use of audio-visual aids is
generally the result of specific
training in that field, not of
common engineering knowledge.
This point cannot be stressed
too strongly. On campuses today
buildings are being constructed
for which there has been no ade-
quate planning for the use of
audio-visual aids. The simple
mechanics of projecting in these
rooms will present almost in-
surmountable obstacles to the
convenient use of teaching aids ;
and, because of the long life
of university buildings, this
will be a handicap for future
generations of teachers and stu-
dents.

Training in fhe Use
of Audio-Visual Aids

A visual-aids service should
establish and supervise an in-
formal training school for oper-
ators of audio-visual equip-
ment. At the university level it
i s important, a s mentioned
above, that all showings be
made with a minimum of dis-
traction to the instructor and to
the class. Break-downs and in-
terruptions should not occur in
college classes. Elimination of
these disturbances can be accom-
plished only by a training pro-
gram which will teach operators
the bare essentials of operating
the equipment and also the nice-
ties that make up a good show-
ing.

Another important function
of a centralized visual education
service is the teaching of courses
in this field for the colleges and
schools of education associated
with the university. The teach-
ing of these courses depends
greatly on varied resources in
materials aiul equipment. It will
profit greatly from association

with an active visual education
service which has such resources
at its command.

Conclusion

In summary, it may be re-
peated once more that the cor-
nerstone of a healthy program
of the use of audio and visual
aids in university classrooms is
the centralization of all activi-
ties and equipment in this line in
one department and under one
head. This point needs to be em-
phasized because the practice on
most campuses is that individ-
ual items of equipment are pur-
chased by separate departments
with no attempt whatever to
test, pretest, evaluate, maintain,
and amortize them. Besides
these disadvantages, equipment
bought by one department is not
available, as a rule, to others.

The highest function, how-
ever, of a centralized visual ed-
ucation service is not to provide
service at lower cost but to as-
sist in the improvement of in-
struction in college classes, (1)
by relieving the teaching staff
of the mechanical details of vis-
ual aids, (2) by locating and
evaluating good teaching mater-
ials, and (3) by stimulating the
faculty to use effective visual
aids. In this work, the visual
education service takes a more
active part in actual classroom
instruction than even the li-
brary. Therefore, ideally the vis-
ual education services should be
supported entirely from general
support funds, and the services
should be provided entirely free
to the teaching staff. Several
universities and colleges are
now following this plan in whole
or in part. In the end it is the
best policy. Inasmuch as the
primary function of visual aids
is to improve instruction, their
use should not l)e chai'ged for
any more than should library
books.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 7

Save by Ordering Now

Before the Deadline for

New Subscription Rates of

RADIO

COURSE

FILM & RADIO

"A Course of

GUIDE

Study in Radio
Appreciation"

BY ALICE P. STERNER

FILM & RADIO GUIDE is a 64-page illustrated magazine

Barringer High School

for audio-visual educators and for teachers of film and

Newark, N. J.

radio appreciation. It is an outgrowth of pioneer committee

22 Curriculum Units

activities in the N.E.A. Department of Secondary Teachers,

— Free Listening

the National Council of Teachers of English, and the Amer-

— Listening Processes

ican Educational Theatre Association.

— Music Programs
— Popular Programs

SUBSCRIPTION RATES

— News Broadcasts

If Ordered Before July, 1946 Effective July 1, 1946

— Radio Comedy
— Radio Drama

One Year 2.00 Each One Year 3.00 Each

Two Years 3.50 Each Two Yeors 5.00 Each

— Sports Broadcasts

Three Years 5.00 Each Three Years 6.50 Each

— Radio Discussions

Less Then One Yeor 35e o Copy

— Radio Speeches

In Canada, add 50c a year; in foreign countries, add $1.00 a year.

— Literary Programs
— Radio Censorship

ORDER BLANK

— Radio Advertising
— The Radio Industry

EDUCATIONAL 6c RECREATIONAL GUIDES, Inc.

— Foreign Broadcasting
— Planning Our Listening

172 RENNER AVENUE NEWARK 8, NEW JERSEY

— Radio and the Home

0 ^ Enter (or renew) my (our) order for subscription(s) to

— Political Programs

FILM & RADIO GUIDE for year(s), beginning

— Radio and Propaganda

(Radio Course or "What Shall We Read About the Movies” Free with

— The History of Radio

2-year Subscriptions. Both Free with 3-year Subscriptions.)

— Radio Technicalities

0 0 Send current issue of "Film and Radio Guide,” 35c.

— Influence of Radio

0 ^ Send annotated bibliography, "What Shall We Read About
the Movies,” 25c.

50;^

^ % Send "Course of Study in Radio Appreciation,” 22 units, 50c.

Free With 2-yeQr Subscriptions to
“Film and Radio Guide"

^ % Send "Get-Acquainted” Assortment of older Guides, $1.00.

EDUCATIONAL AND

RECREATIONAL GUIDES, Inc.

NAME

172 Renner Avenue Newark 8, N. J.

ADDRESS

WILLIAM LEWIN, Editor

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

KIND WORDS

To The Editor:

I enjoy each issue of your
magazine. It certainly embodies
a tremendous amount of worth-
while reading material. I like
the frank discussions of contro-
versial issues. I think it about
time that we gave these topics
a little airing.

ERNEST TIEMANN
Dept, of Visual Education
Pueblo Junior College
Pueblo, Colorado

★ ★ ★

Before showing Stanley and
Livmgstone, we were fortunate
enough to secure a copy of Pho-
toplay Studies (Vol. 5, 1939, No.
13), which helped greatly.

THERON CASTLEMAN
Minister, The Methodist Church
New Palestine, Indiana

Make Literature

LIVE

In the Classroom

The following Teaching Film Custodian
(M-G-M) subjects ore ideally suited
to classroom study:

"Treasure Island"

Lionel Barrymore Wallace Beery

Jackie Cooper

"Tale of Two Cities"

Ronald Colman

"Mutiny on the Bounty"

Clark Gable Charles Laughton

Franchot Tone

"Romeo and Juliet"

Leslie Howard Norma Shearer

John Barrymore

"David Copperfield, the Boy"

"David Copperfied, the Man"

Lionel Barrymore Maureen O'Sullivan

W. C. Fields Freddie Bartholomew

Each subject 4 reels Rental: $6.00

(Special Series Rate)

In Our Free Catalog of

SELECTED MOTION PICTURES

Write to Dept.

Y.M.C.A.

MOTION PICTURE BUREAU

347 Madison Ave. Chicago 3, 111.

New York 17, N. Y. 19 So. LaSalle St.
Son Francisco 2, Cal Dallas 1, Tex.

351 Turk St. 1700 Patterson Ave.

I’m ordering my own sub-
scription to your grand Film
AND Radio Guide. We get it at
the office, but so many people
want to read it that I don’t have
the opportunity to really digest
the contents. I wish I had
started reading your publication
fifteen years ago when I started
with Bill Ganz. jack lane
William J. Ganz Company
New York City

★ ★ ★

Aughinbaugh's Targets

Thank you for the effective
space you gave the Film Council
of America in your March issue.
We are all deeply indebted to
you for providing an excellent
publication both in content and
form, which hits the target more
and more on vital problems.

The Aughinbaugh series is
extremely good, and I hope that
you or Aughinbaugh will later
release the series in book form.

c. R. REAGAN, President
Visual Education Incorporated
Austin, Texas

I want you to know that in
many ways I find your Film
AND Radio Guide valuable.
While not always agreeing with
Mr. Aughinbaugh’s points of
view, there is no question but
that he is a real pioneer in our
field, and I think it is a fine
thing that you got him to put
down his experiences and points
of view, so that they are avail-
able in print.

DAVID E. STROM, Director
Audio-Visual Aids Center
University of Connecticut

★ ★ ★

In our school library Film
AND Radio Guide is my favorite
magazine. bob SCHULTZ

Niagara Falls, N. Y.

MILLIONS

of FEET of INDEXED

LIBRARY FILM

You Name It. We Have It!

You can get the film you wont
WHEN YOU WANT IT from
the LARGEST Stock Shot Li-
brary in the Industry offering
for your selection over Twenty
Million Feet of indexed nega-
tives and positives containing
scenes of every conceivable
description — celebrities, post
and present — events, current
and historical — catastrophes
and carnivals — fashions and
floods — airplanes and animals
— pictures of industry, sport,
and science — scenic and civic
shots from every port of the
world.

• Film for EVERY place and
purpose

• Dramatic, advertising, in-
dustrial, educational

• Backgrounds, atmosphere,
unusual effects, etc.

• We are constantly adding
new negatives to our library
and are always in the mar-
ket to purchase any new
and interesting scenes or
sequences.

• Special department: Films
for TELEVISION.

You can save time, trouble and money
by putting your stock shot problems
up to us. We con give you IMMEDI-
ATE SERVICE on oil your require-
ments. Your film will be on its way
to you within o few hours after re-
ceipt of your order.

SPECIAL SCENES
Photographed

We are equipped and pre-
pared to shoot special scenes
at any time, on any subject,
anywhere in the world.

Telephone, Wire, or Write

GENERAL

Film Library, Inc.

1600 BROADWAY,NEWYORK19
Telephone: Circle 6-6441-6442

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 8

Who's

Who in Radio Education

No. 13: Judifh Waller

When the School Broadcast
Conference selected Judith Wal-
ler for its first annual award of
merit in 1940, it turned the
limelight on a quiet, unassum-
ing person who has labored for
many years in radio’s educa-
tional field.

To the hundreds of persons
who know Miss Waller person-
ally, her selection seemed a just
recognition of her influence and
effect upon education in radio.
As a radio pioneer, who from
the very beginning felt that ra-
dio should offer something more
than entertainment, Miss Waller
made arrangements for hun-
dreds of informative lectures
over Station WMAQ, of which
she was director from 1922 to
1932. It was she who suggested
that actual pickups of class-
room lectures at Northwestern
University and at the Univer-
sity of Chicago were feasible
and desirable. It was she who
arranged for what was very
likely the first music-apprecia-
tion hour, a program which
made its debut on October 12,
1922, with Mr. and Mrs. Marx
E. Oberndorfer as commenta-
tors on the work of the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra. It was she
who pioneered in the children’s
field with a Hearing America
First musical series, Miss Geor-
gene Faulkner’s Story Lady se-
ries, Russell Pratt’s Topsy Turvy
Time program, and a thrice-
weekly program presented in
collaboration with the Chicago
public schools. It was she who
not only conceived the idea of
the celebrated University of
Chicago Round Table, but who
also saved it from possible ob-

Judith Waller, NBC public service
executive in Midwest.

livion by persuading the Na-
tional Broadcasting Company to
retain it when Station WMAQ
joined that network in 1931.
It was Miss Waller, too, who
worked out the plans for the
NBC-Northwestern University
Summer Radio Institute which
has been conducted annually
since 1942.

But Miss Waller’s experience
in radio has not been confined
to education by any means. As
director of one of Chicago’s
most enterprising stations for
ten years, she has so many
“firsts” to her credit that she
has forgotten many of them.
Yet it was her personal inter-
view with William Wrigley, Jr.,
that led to the first play-by-play
broadcast of a major-league
baseball game from Wrigley
Field. True, the World Series
had been aired in the fall of
1924; but no one, so far as is
known, had ever thought of
broadcasting a play-by-play de-
scription of a regular game un-
til Miss Waller booked the first

game in the late spring of 1925.
Miss Waller also booked the
first play-by-play account of a
football game — that between the
University of Chicago a n d
Brown University in 1924. Her
station was the only one in Chi-
cago to broadcast the inaugura-
tion of Coolidge on March 4,
1925. Prior to that, it had been
one of the few stations to broad-
cast the Democratic and Repub-
lican national conventions by
land wire in 1924.

Miss Waller was responsible
also for booking such diverse
radio programs as the first
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
broadcast and the debut of
Amos ’n’ Andy. She recalls con-
siderable misgivings regarding
the addition of Amos ’n’ Andy
to her WMAQ staff. “They
wanted $25,000 a year,” she
says, “and my budget from the
Chicago Daily News for all
other program talent was ex-
actly that figure. Frankly, I
didn’t know how much of a gam-
ble it would be to try to make
stars out of a team that had ac-
quired a certain amount of fame
as Sam ’n’ Henry, but which
would have to change that name
on my station. Luckily, they
proved their worth in short or-
der.”

Another “first” which Miss
Waller recalls with a chuckle,
because of the furore it created
at the offices of the American
Telephone and Telegraph Com-
pany, is the first international
broadcast ever made — t h e
broadcasting of a telephone con-
versation between John Gun-
ther, Chicago Daily News cor-
respondent in London, and Hal
O’Flaherty, then foreign news
(Continued on Page 62)

, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

PHOTOPLAY GUIDES

MUSIC ASSORTMENT: April Romance (Schubert), The Mikado, Moonlight Sonata (With Paderewski),
They Shall Have Music (Jascha Heifetz), Saludos Amigos.

5 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 60c 25?

FRENCH-SPANISH ASSORTMENT: Harvest (Guide in French), Les Miserables (Hugo), Marie An-
toinette (French Revolution), A Tale of Two Cities, Saludos Amigos.

5 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 60c 25?

DRAMA ASSORTMENT: Hollywood Cavalcade (History of the Movies), A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
The Mikado, As You Like It, Winterset (Maxwell Anderson), Pygmalion (Shaw), Stage Door (Kauf-
man and Feiber), The Plough and the Stars, Anne of Green Gables (With Radio Play).

9 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 90c 50?

ELEMENTARY ASSORTMENT: Anne of Green Gables, Captains Courageous, Edison the Man, Robin
Hood, Tom Sawyer Detective, The Wizard of Oz, Twenty-Three and a Half Hours’ Leave, Pinocchio,
Snow White, Treasure Island, David Copperfield, Union Pacific.

Rd Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $1.20 75?

AUDITORIUM ASSORTMENT (16MM. FEATURES): Harvest, In His Steps, Moonlight Sonata, 231/2
Hours Leave, Union Pacific, Stanley & Livingstone, Give Me Liberty, A Tale of Two Cities, Mutiny on
the Bounty, Servant of the People, Captains Courageous, The Good Earth, Men with Wings, Treasure
Island, David Copperfield. 15 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $1.90 ^*1 QQ

INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING ASSORTMENT: Captains Courageous, The Citadel, Con-
quest, Drums, Goodbye, Mr. Chips; Edison the Man, The Good Earth, Gunga Din, The Life of Emile
Zola, Marie Antoinette, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Mikado, Moonlight Sonata, Music for
Madame, Mutiny on the Bounty, Northwest Mounted, Pinocchio, The Plough and the Stars, Pygmalion,
Queen of Destiny, Victoria the Great, The Real Glory, Robin Hood, Saludos Amigos, Servant of the
People, Snow White, Stanley and Livingstone, They Shall Have Music.

28 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $3.30 $1.20

SOCIAL STUDIES ASSORTMENT: Allegheny Uprising, Boys Town, Conquest (Charles Boyer as
Napoleon), Drums (India), Give Me Liberty (Patrick Henry), The Good Earth (China), The Life of
Emile Zola, Man of Conquest (Story of Sam Houston), Marie Antoinette, Men With Wings (History
of Aviation), Mutiny on the Bounty (British History), Northwest Passage, The Plough and the Stars
(Irish Rebellion), Queen of Destiny (Biography of Victoria), The Real Glory (Philippine Constabulary),
Servant of the People (Adoption of the U. S. Constitution), Stanley and Livingstone, Toast of New
York (Wall Street Financial History), Union Pacific (First Transcontinental Railroad), Victoria the
Great (Biography of Queen Victoria), North West Mounted Police (Canada), Mr. Smith Goes to Wash-
ington, Les Miserables, The Citadel, Captains Courageous, Kidnapped, Robin Hood, In Old Oklahoma,
A Tale of Two Cities, Saludos Amigos, Winterset, Gunga Din.

32 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $3.50 |J1 ^5

ORDER BLANK

TO: EDUCATIONAL & RECREATIONAL GUIDES, INC., 172 Renner Avenue, Newark 8, N. J.

□ SEND the assortments checked above. Enclosed is

□ SEND COMBINATION ORDER of all these assortments. Regulaily $15.00 $6.95

□ ENTER or RENEW subscription to “Film & Radio Guide,” $2.00 a year.

NAME

ADDRESS

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 8

00 VOU KN0|N'

loday^

reasons ^or

mission being

there i

BO roo BHOVj-

A«ie>) 9°''"

nmen'

what we 7" ,

meats ore dowg-

W ;,ed Gerwoay 9've

the firs'

official
these a

film on

nd other q'

occup

uestions

you

have

been

Health Films
YOUR CHILDREN'S EARS • YOUR CHILDREN'S EYES
YOUR CHILDREN'S TEETH

These films ore particularly suitable for parents and teachers. Amusing animated dia-
grams explain the physiology of the organs treated and the films stress the advantages
of simple, common-sense health precautions which can easily be taught to children.

Educational Films
ACHIMOTA • FATHER AND SON
A MAMPRUSI VILLAGE

During recent yeors, the people of Africa have made such great strides forward# that It
has become a major undertaking to record th'eir rapid progress. These films are the first
to show the development of social# educational and administrative standards in the
native villages.

These films are on loan from fhe following offices of

BRITISH INFORMATION SERVICES

An Agency of the British Government

30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20, N.Y. • 10 Post Office Square, Boston 9, Mass.
360 North Michigan Ave., Chicago 1, III. • 391 Sutter St., San Francisco 8, Calif.
907— 15th Street, N. W., Washington 5, D. C.

BRITISH CONSULATES: Detroit ■ Houston ■ Los Angeles ■ Seattle

(Continued from Page 60)

editor, regarding the condition
of King George V, then gravely
ill. This broadcast, made on De-
cember 4, 1928, cost a mere $75
in toll charges, but it brought
the wrath of the A. T. & T. down
on her head because of a rule
forbidding the broadcasting of

telephone conversations.

It was not until WMAQ joined
NBC in 1931 and made Miss
Waller its educational director
in the NBC Central Division
that she began to devote most of
her time to the field of educa-
tion in radio. Since then she has
developed, in addition to the

University of Chicago Rouvd
Table, such programs as Music
and American Youth, the Na-
tional Music Camp broadcasts
from Interlochen, Mich., the
High-School Studio Party — pre-
sented in cooperation with the
Radio Council of the Board of
Education of Chicago, Student
Opinion, an ad lib discussion
program for high-school young-
sters, Parent-Teacher Associa-
tion programs, and the Ameri-
can Medical Association’s pro-
grams.

As public-service director of
the NBC Central Division, Miss
Waller is responsible for all cul-
tural programs, such as opera
pickups, in the division ; for all
talks, except political ones; for
all outside lecture pickups, for
all women’s activities, and for
all children’s programs. As the
representative of NBC at an-
nual meetings and conventions
in these particular fields, she is
one of the most widely-traveled
executives in radio, having vis-
ited broadcasting centers i n
Italy, Germany, and Great Brit-
ain, as well as all the larger
cities in the U. S. A.

Her hobbies are books, i)ho-
tography, the theater, and good
music in that order. She has al-
ways had great energy and un-
usually good health. She lives
with her mother and her sister
in Evanston, 111. As a “career
woman,’’ wholly devoted to her
work, she has had absolutely
“no time for romance.”

To save moneys enter or
renew your subscription
to FILM & RADIO
QUIDE now* Neiv rates
go into effect

July 1, 1946

AUDIO-VISUAL DIRECTORY

National & International

INTERNATIONAL THEATRI-
CAL AND TELEVISION CORP.

ITTCO OF ILLINOIS, 100 W.
Monroe St., Chicago 3.

ITTCO OF THE WEST, 3123
W. 8th St., Los Angeles 5.
ITTCO OF THE WEST, 4247
Piedmont Ave., Oakland 11,
Calif.

ITTCO OF THE SOUTH, 756 W.
Peachtree St., N. W., Atlanta,
Ga.

ITTCO OF MISSOURI, 3326
Olive St., St. Louis, Mo.

ITTCO OF THE SOUTH, 3021/2
So. Harwood St., Dallas I, Tex.

ITTCO OF NEW YORK, 25 W.
45th St., New York 19, N. Y.

ITTCO OF NEW ENGLAND,
115 Newbury St., Boston 16,
Mass.

ITTCO OF WASHINGTON, 51
H St., N.W., Washington 1,
D. C.

ITTCO OF NEW ORLEANS, 815
Poydras St., New Orleans 13,
La.

ITTCO OF CANADA, 21 Dun-
das Square, Toronto, Canada

Bell & Howell Co., Dept. "G"
FILMOSOUND LIBRARY
I 834 Larchmont Ave., Chicago
30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York
7 16 N. LaBrea Ave., Hollywood
1221 G. St., N. W., Washington

FILMS INCORPORATED

330 W. 42nd St., New York 18
64 E. Lake St., Chicago I
101 Marietta St., Atlanta 3
109 N. Akard St., Dallas 1
314 S.W. 9th Ave., Portland 5
1709 W. 8 St., Los Angeles 14

AS FOR PICTURES CORPORATION
1 30 W. 46th Street
New York, N. Y.

BRANDON FILMS. Inc.

I 600 Broadway
New York, N. Y.

BAILEY FILM SERVICE

2044 No. Berendo St., Holly-
wood 27, Calif.; 404 No. Good-
win Ave., Urbana, III.

COMMONWEALTH PICTURES
CORPORATION, 729 Seventh
Avenue, New York, N. Y.

CORONET PRODUCTIONS
Instructional Films
Glenview, Illinois

EDUCATIONAL FILM GUIDE
H. W. Wilson Co., 950 Univer-
sity Ave., New York 52, N. Y.

EDUCATORS GUIDE TO FREE
FILMS, Educators Progress
Service, Randolph, Wis.

WILLIAM J. GANZ COMPANY
40 East 49th Street
New York, N. Y.

HOFFBERG PRODUCTIONS, Inc.
6 I 8-20 Ninth Avenue
New York 18, N. Y.

IDEAL PICTURES CORPORATION
28-34 E. 8th Street
Chicago, 111.

Offices in principal cities.

INSTITUTIONAL CINEMA SERV-
ICE, Inc., 1560 Broadway
New York, N. Y.

motion picture bureau—

YMCA, 347 Madison Avenue
New York, N. Y.

1 9 S. La Salle St., Chicago, III.
I 700 Patterson Av., Dallas, Tex.
351 Turk St., San Francisco, Cal.

NATIONAL FILM SERVICE

Raleigh, N. C. Richmond, Va.
424 Madison Ave., New York

NU-ART FILMS, Inc.
145 W. 45th Street
New York, N. Y.

PICTORIAL FILMS, Inc.
1270 Sixth Ave.

New York 20, N. Y.

POST PICTURES CORPORATION
723 Seventh Avenue
New York, N. Y.

PROFESSIONAL FILM SERVICE
(N. H. Barcus)

Booking and exhibition of com-
mercial and industrial films.

342 Madison Ave.

New York 1 7, N. Y.

SKIBO PRODUCTIONS, Inc.
1 65 West 46th St.

New York 1 9, N. Y.

New England

HARVARD FILM SERVICE

Graduate School of Education
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts

A. H. RICE & CO.

Rentals and Projection Service
Hollis, N. H.

The West Coast

THE SCREEN ADETTE EQUIP-
MENT CORP., RCA Audio-Visual
Equipment.

314 S.W. 9th, Portland, Ore.
1709 W. 8th, Los Angeles.

68 Post St., San Francisco.

The South

DISTRIBUTORS' GROUP, 756

Peachtree St., N.W., Atlanta,
Ga. Exclusive distributors of
Monogram products, ITTCO
films, Ampro and SVE equip-
ment, Jam Handy teaching
films. Serving the South only.

CALHOUN COMPANY
101 Marietta St., N.W.
Atlanta 3, Georgia

WILFRED NAYLOR

i 907 Fifth Ave., North
Birmingham I , Alabama

SOUTHERN VISUAL FILMS
686 Shrine Building
Memphis, Tenn.

Indiana

DENNIS FILM BUREAU
29 E. Maple St.

Wabash, Ind.

Iowa

RYAN VISUAL AIDS SERVICE
409-1 1 Harrison St.

Davenport, Iowa

Michigan

CAPITAL FILM SERVICE, Film Li-
brary and Motion-Picture and
Visual-Aid Equipment, 224 Ab-
bott Road, East Lansing, Mich.

COSMOPOLITAN FILMS
3248 Gratiot Avenue
Detroit, Mich.

LOCKE FILM LIBRARY
129 W. Michigan Avenue
Kalamazoo 9, Michigan

Minnesota

NATIONAL CAMERA EXCHANGE
Bell & Howell Branch, Filmo-
sound Library, 86 S. 6th St.,
Minneapolis 2.

New York

IDEAL MOTION PICTURE SERV-
ICE, 371 St. Johns Avenue
Yonkers, N. Y.

New Jersey

ART ZEILLER, Visual and Audio-

Visual Aids, Victor Distributor,

Factory Service. Entertainment.

868 Broad St., Newark 2, N. J.

Ohio

TWYMAN FILMS, Inc.
29 Central Ave.
Dayton, Ohio

West Virginio

E. B. SIMPSON

8 1 6 W. Virginia St.
Charleston 2, W. Va.

Commended for Classroom Use hy
Leading Educators from Coast to Coast

10NG EXPERIENCE and personal observation have led educators to the sources of knowledge
_/ which best inspire in today’s youth a deep loyalty to the ideals ol democracy. The
following excerpts from recent signed statements testify to their appreciation of The Reader’s
Digest ... as an effective classroom aid in perpetuating these ideals:

We must raise a generation committed to the improve'
ment of our democracy and constitutional government.
Accurate information on significant current developments
is a necessary adjunct in this task. The Reader’s Digest pro-
vides a concise, readable handbook of world events and
trends. — Alonzo C. Grace, State Commissioner of Edu-
cation, Connecticut.

The youth of our land should be given abundant oppor-
tunity to inform themselves on current social, economic
and scientific matters, and 1 know of no better or more
pleasant way of securing such information than through
The Reader’s Digest. ■ — Elizabeth Ireland, State Superin-
tendent of Public Instruction, Montana,

Tilt Reader’s Digest is a fortress of defense against ignorance
of what IS going on in our own and other lands. . . .
1 should like to see it in the hands of every high school
student, and of many in the upper elementary grades,
— James Haskell Hope, State Superintendent of Educa-
tion, South Carolina.

For use in schools, a magazine such as The Reader’s Digest,
which offers accurate and interesting summaries of sig-
nificant events and achievements in the social, scientific
and economic fields, is of high value. — Francis B. Haas,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Pennsylvania.

Tilt Reader’s Digest is a continuing and impartial "diary”
of the American way of life and the actual workings of our
democracy. At a time when world welfare is to be so
influenced by our course here at home, its value as an aid
to the teaching of good citizenship increases the need for
Its use in our schools. — John Callahan, State Superin-
tendent of Public Instruction, Wisconsin.

As never before , pupils in our schools need to read widely
if they are to think clearly on many and varied topics.
Because Tlic Reader’s Digest presents up-to-the-month in-
formation on current events and personalities, this pub-
lication has come to be a valuable and widely used sup-
plement to our reading in many high school and lower-
grade classes. — Esther L. Anderson, State Superintendent
of Public Instruction, Wyoming.

One of the first, and certainly one of the most important
duties of every school teacher tod.iy is the planting of
Lincoln’s sort of Americanism in the hearts and minds of
our youth. ... I feel that the School Edition of The
Reader’s Digest should be classed among the valuable me-
diums for aiding this vital task. — Vernon L. Nickell,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Illinois.

I would place Tlic Rcadcr’.s Digest at the head of the list of
required reading for teachers and high school students.
— John A. Shaw, Superintendent of Schools, Spokane,
Washington.

The Reader’s Digest is a fascinating record of events and
trends, which broadens the outlook of students and gives
them a more comprehensive grasp of the principles and
meaning of good citizenship, — Arthur E. Thompson,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, North Dakota.

As an auxiliary aid to classroom instruction in the build-
ing of bedrock Americanism, the value of Tlic Reader’s
Digest is very high. — Burgin E. Dossett, State Commis-
sioner of Education, Tennessee.

Tlic Reader’s Digest is making a contribution to the main-
tenance of out form of government, especially by implant-
ing in young minds the concepts of desirable human rela-
tionships.— Rex Putnam, State Superintendent of Public
Instruction, Oregon.

The teacher who understands the scope of her a.ssignmcnt,
and sees her objectives clearly, will value Tlic Reader’s
Digest, which keeps its readers in touch with the forces
which make TOMORROW. It offers information —
common knowledge for common understanding for com-
mon citizenship in a common world: one world. — John
Fred Williams, State Superintendent of Public Instruction,
Kentucky.

TIic Reader’s Digest is in an especially unique position, be-
cause of Its wide use in the schools, to play an important
part in strengthening the walls of democracy. — Wayne O.
Reed, State Superintendent of Public instruction, Nebraska.

Statements like these are more significant than anything we ourselves might say about the
place which Tlic Reader’s Digest holds in the hearts and minds of teachers throughout the
country who are molding a new generation of Americans.

FILM & RADIO

Know Your Library

A scene in the new textfilm,
“Know Your Library,” pro-
duced by Coronet Instructional
Films in collaboration with
Alice Lohrer, Assistant Pro-
fessor of Library Science at
the University of Illinois.

Soccor for Girls

A scene in the new textfilm,
"Soccer for Girls,” produced
by Coronet Instructional Films
in collaboration with Marjorie
Fish of New Jersey State
Teachers College ot Trenton.

AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS TO EDUCATION

Pass this copy to:

T^fficult processes, intricate methods,
hard-to-understand subjects — are all readily
clarified with l6mm motion pictures. The rapidly
increasing use and world-wide acceptance of this
better teaching and training method forecasts sensational

progress for all mankind.

These dynamic films take on added brilliance and
superb sound fidelity with a Victor Animatophone —
whether they are Color or Black and White. Films are
safer, too, because of Victor’s Easier Threading,
Safety Film Trip, Duo-Flexo Pawls, and 180°
Swing Out Lens Mount.

Yes, "Show' How” with Victor Equip-
ment brings fast, penetrating and re-
tentive Know How.

VICTOR

AiyiMATOCRAPH CORPORATION

Home Office and Factory: Davenport, Iowa
New York (III McGraw-Hill Bldg., 330 W. 42nd St. • Chicago ill 188 W. Randolph

makers of I6MM EQUIPMENT SINCE 1923

that^s how easy it is
to thread the new

De VRY

16nim Sound-On-Film Projector

Conveniently-accessible, free-moving con-
trols make it easy for anyone to thread the
new DeVRY portable 16mm. sound-on-film
projector. A 12-year-old student (following
the simple, clear direction chart) can easily
and speedily thread, frame and focus a
DeVRY.

And the best is back again! Once more,
the incomparable DeVRY RS-ND30 profes-
sional 16mm. projector is available — with
even greater electronic, optical and me-
chanical refinements. Compact . . . simpli-
fied . . . rugged . . . precision-built, the
amazing DeVRY RS-ND30 assures sound-
on-film projection with theater quality per-
formance.

The DeVRY RS-ND30 is a 3-purpose pro-
jector that: (1) SAFELY projects both sound
and silent films; (2) shows both black-and-
white and color film without extra equip-
ment; (3) and that has separately housed
30-watt amplifier and sturdy permanent
magnet speaker which afford portable Pub-
lic Address facilities — indoors and out.

See it! Hear it! It's improved . . . different
. . . in a class by itself. Clear-ly — - your best
buy is a DeVRY.

SOUND-ON-FIIM

PROJECTOR

PROJECTION SCREENS -Gef
the most and the best out of
your film and slide invest-
ments with genuine DeVRY
glass-beaded motion picture
screens. Sizes from 30" x 40"
to 52" X 72". Screens to meet
every projection need— ceil-
ing, wall, wall-and-celling,
and table models up 1o 20 ft.
X 20 ft. Note lock and ad-
justment features of this port-
able tripod projection screen.

SLIDE & SLIDE FILM PROJEC-
TORS—With Motor-Driven Forced-
Air Cooling — Use it three ways;
(1) for 2" X 2"' Paper or Glass
Slides; (2) for single-frame Slide-
film; and (3) for double-frame
Slidefilm. This new DeVRY gives
smooth, fast-focusing to hairline
sharpness . . . Eosily adjustable-
instant framing . . . Uses 300-watt
os well as 200 or 100-watt lamps
for brilliant screen illumination.

SEND FOR FREE FILM CATALOG

Make DeVRY your source of
Educational, Entertainment and
Religious films. Write for the
BIG, NEW, FREE DeVRY FILM
BOOK— a comprehensive tabu-
' lotion of carefully selected
16mm. sound and silent films
particularly suited for classroom teaching.
Also selected short subjects, full length
features and comedies. For Sale or Rent.

In llie field of

Vkuol idycsfion

5»TiME WINNER

.DrVi^Y MOHt MVE Consecy^ivij

©f pK-tur*?

OPS AMD IMPROVtP£0_l pn,,ABIt n t I O N P ClUPf PRO SCI

SEIIP FOK THi$ rittE flowj

MofiON weruw CAMWA.S Am

Volume XII, No. 9

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Love scene intimate ... But not private ... as movie
technicians crowd Dorothy McGuire and Guy Madison

GOT HIS JOB BACK. Rehearsing a love
scene for RKO's Till The End Of Time are
DOROTHY McGUIRE, brilliant star, and
GUY MADISON, just out of Uncle Sam's
Navy. You remember him — the sailor in
Since You Went Away. Cast includes
ROBERT MITCHUM, BILL WILLIAMS.

BING CROSBY’S FOUR SONS visit
ROSALIND RUSSELL, star of RKO’s
Sister Kenny, and present her with
toy train for youthful inmates of
the Elizabeth Kenny Institute for
infantile paralysis victims. This not-
able film about the famous nurse,
co-stars ALEXANDER KNOX.

June, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

SINBAD IN BAD? Sinbad the Sailor, first film
after 5-year military service, finds DOUGLAS
FAIRBANKS, JR. seeking favor of lovely, but
aloof, co-star, MAUREEN O'HARA. Sharing
stellar honors in RKO's romantic and lavish
Technicolor production is WALTER SLEZAK.

SUSPENSE ON THE SET. Producer-
director ALFRED HITCHCOCK Is
held in suspense by CARY GRANT
and INGRID BERGMAN, between
scenes of their forthcoming picture,
RKO's Notorious. Hitchcock has
just made a dive (in vain) for a
piece of Grant’s birthday cake.

THESE BIG RKO PICTURES WILL
SOON BE SHOWN AT YOUR THEATRE

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

PHOTOPLAY GUIDES

MUSIC ASSORTMENT: April Romance (Schubert), The Mikado, Moonlight Sonata (With Paderewski),
They Shall Have Music(Jascha hleifetz), Saludos Amigos.

5 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 60c 25?

FRENCH-SPANISH ASSORTMENT: Harvest (Guide in French), Les Miserables (Hugo), Marie An-
toinette (French Revolution), A Tale of Two Cities, Saludos Amigos.

5 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 60c 25?

DRAMA ASSORTMENT: Hollywood Cavalcade (History of the Movies), A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
The Mikado, As You Like It, Winterset (Maxwell Anderson), Pygmalion (Shaw), Stage Door (Kauf-
man and Feiber), The Plough and the Stars, Anne of Green Gables (With Radio Play).

9 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly 90c 50?

ELEMENTARY ASSORTMENT: Anne of Green Gables, Captains Courageous, Edison the Man, Robin
Hood, Tom Sawyer Detective, The Wizard of Oz, Twenty-Three and a Half Houis’ Leave, Pinocchio,
Snow White, Treasure Island, David Copperfield, Union Pacific.

It! Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $1.20 75?

BIOGRAPHICAL ASSORTMENT: Conquest (Charles Boyer as Napoleon), Edison the Man, The Life
of Emile Zola, Man of Conquest (Sam Houston), Marie Antionette, Moonlignt Sonata (Paderewski;,
Queen of Destiny (Victoria), Stanley and Livingstone, Victoria tne Great, Toast of New York, North-
west Passage. 11 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $1.30 75?

AUDITORIUM ASSORTMENT (16MM. FEATURES): Harvest, In His Steps, Moonlight Sonata, 231/2
Hours Leave, Union Pacific, Stanley & Livingstone, Give Me Liberty, A Tale of Two Cities, Mutiny on
the Bounty, Servant of the People, Captains Couiageous, The Good" Earth, Men with Wings, Treasure
Island, David Copperfield. 15 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $1.90 00

LITERATURE ASSORTMENT: Captains Courageous, The Citadel, Goodbye Mr. Chips, The Good Earth,
Gunga Din, Kidnapped (Stevenson), Mutiny on tne Bounty, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Robin Hood]
Les Miserables, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperlield, 't reasure Island, Human Comedy, Pygmaiioni
Tom Sawyer Detective. 16 Hlustiated Booklets, Regularly $1.70 $1.00

INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING ASSORTMENT: Captains Courageous, The Citadel, Con-
quest, Drums, Goodbye, Mr. Chips; Edison the Man, the Good Earth, Gunga Din, The Life of Emile
Zola, Marie Antoinette, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Die Mikado, Moonlight Sonata, Music for
Madame, Mutiny on the Bounty, Northwest Mounted, Pinocchio, The Plough and the Stars, Pygmalion,
Queen of Destiny, Victoria the (Ireat, The Real Glory, Robin Hood, Saludos Amigos, Servant ot tne
People, Snow White, Stanley and Livingstone, 'fhey Shall Have Music.

28 Illustrated Booklets, Regularly $3.30 J"!

SOCIAL S'fUDIES ASSOR'I’MEN'l’: Allegheny Uprising, Boys 'fown, Conquest (Charles Boyer as
Napoleon), Drums (India), Give Me Liberty (Patrick Henry), The Good Earth (China), The Life of
Emile Zola, Man of Conquest (Story of Sam Houston), Marie Antoinette, Men With Wings (History
of Aviation), Mutiny on the Bounty (British History), Northwest Passage, The Plough and the Star's
(Irish Rebellion), Queen of Destiny (Biography of Victoria), The Real Glory (Philippine Constabulary),
Servant of the People (Adoption of the U. S. Constitution), Stanley and 'Livingstone, Toast of Nevv
York (Wall Street Financial History), Union Pacific (First Transcontinental Railroad), Victoria the
Great (Biography of Queen Victoria), North West Mounted Police (Canada), Mr. Smith Goes to Wash-
ington, Les Miserables, The Citadel, Captains Courageous, Kidnapped, Robin Hood, In Old Oklahoma
A Tale of Two Cities, Saludos Amigos, Winterset, Gunga Din.

32 Hlustiated Booklets, Regularly $3.50 2^^

ORDER BLANK

TO: EDUCATIONAL & RECREATIONAL GUIDES, INC., 172 Renner Avenue, Newark 8, N. J.

□ SEND the assortments checked above. Enclosed is

□ SEND COMBINATION ORDER of all these assortments. Regulaily $15.00 $6.95

□ ENTER or RENEW subscription to “Film & Radio Guide,” $2.00 a year.

NAME

ADDRESS

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

EDUCATIONAL & RECREATIONAL GUIDES, Inc.

172 RENNER AVENUE, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY

VOLUME XII, NUMBER 9 JUNE, 1946

IN THIS ISSUE

A Protestant' Looks at Films Paul F. Heard

Newark's Program of Audio-Visual Aids Service to Schools... Edward T. Schafield

"When Will You Visual Instructionists Teoch Children to Use

Maps, Charts, Globes, Specimens, and Models?" B. A. Aughinbaugh

Virginia Forges Ahead in Audio-Visual Education

First 16mm Industry Trode Show Wilfred L. Knighton and William Lewin

New Coronet Instructional Films

Extraordinary Conference on Children's Theatre University of Washington

Teachers Look at the Movies Frederick Houk Law, Carolyn Harrow,

Benjamin Harrow, Flora Rheta Schreiber

Audio-Visual Who's Who — No. 54; David E. Strom — No. 55: Alexander B. Lewis

The Enlarging Concept of the Motion Picture as an Instructional Aid

Robert E. Schreiber

Who's Who in Radio Education — No. 14: Kathleen N. Lardie

Continuing the Battle of "Free" Films Dennis R. Williams

Notable Series of Elementary Teach-O-Filmstrips

Crakes Reports on Audio-Visual Movement in Canada DeVry Corporation

New Movie-Mite Projectors Now Availobic Movie-Mite Corporation

Teaeh-O-Disc Recordings Popular Science Publishing Company

Index to Volume XII, Film and Radio Guide

Less Than Five Subscriptions Five or More Subscriptions

One Year $3.00 Each 25% Discount on

Two Years 5.00 Each Quantity Orders

Three Years 6.50 Each to One Address

Less Than One Year 35c a Copy

In Canada, add 50c a year; in foreign countries, add $1.00 a year.

"What Shall We Read About the Movies" Free with 2-Year and 3-Year Subscriptions.

WILLIAM LEWIN, Editor and Publisher RUTH M. LEWIN, Business Manager

FREDERICK HOUK LAW and B. A. AUGHINBAUGH, Contributing Editors
HELEN COLTON, Hollywood Editor
ROBERT L. GOLDFARB, West Coast Representative
MRS. GLENN M. TINDALL, Chicago Representative

Copyright 1946 by Educational and Recreational Guides, Inc. Published nine times a year, October to June, by Educa-
tionol and Recreational Guides Inc., 172 Renner Avenue, Newark 8, N. J. Re-entered as second-class matter, October
12, 1942 at the post office at Newark, N. J. under the act of March 3, 1879. Printed in USA— All Rights Reserved.

26
27
30
34

53
56
59

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

The Singing Troubadour

Directed by Produced by

LOUIS KING • ROBERT BASSLER

Screen Play by Lillie Hayward, Dwight Cummins and Dorothy Yost • Based on the Novel by Will lames

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

WILLIAM LEWIN, EDITOR

June, 1946 Volume XII, No. 9

A Protestant Looks at Films

BY PAUL F. HEARD

Executive Secretary, Protestant Film Commission, Inc.

The idea that most Hollywood
feature films are “pure enter-
tainment” and nothing more is
sheer producer propaganda.
Both in content and in tech-
nique, Hollywood feature films
are designed, often with canny,
diabolical insight, to refiect the
public mind and the philosophy
of life whereby people, often
without admitting it even to
themselves, really live. Often
these films probe beneath the
surface and portray those de-
sires and drives which society,
in the interests of civilization,
has channeled or suppressed.
People generally, who are not
too much sold on being civilized
anyway, see in these films a me-
dium of temporary escape. At
the same time, such films inten-
sify our maladjustment and un-
conscious feelings of revolt, since
on the screen we are presented
with a make-believe but remark-
ably realistic world in which
people solve their problems in
ways which are socially unac-
ceptable or morally wrong.

Perhaps producers do not
consciously intend it, but Hol-
lywood films do have a content
and a message. Often it’s a mes-
sage which exploits and intensi-
fies the frustration and tragedy
of life. Yet, to cover up this
highly lucrative exploitation of
the human spirit, producers and
l)ress agents shout to high heav-
en that what they are making is

“pure entertainment.” They
“simply want to make you laugh
or cry.” You are supposed to
enjoy the acting, direction, and
sets. The content — well, that is
simply incidental — the vehicle
for their latest star.

This type of producer prop-
aganda has been effective. Mo-
tion picture criticism, in the
columns of our newspapers and
magazines, has degenerated into
the most stylized and effeminate
drivel about technique — acting,
direction, photography. The
critics and the public seem
obsessed with these important
but secondary aspects of a pic-
ture— the way in which it is
done. They seem incapable of
forming a judgment on the con-
tent of a film, or what the pic-
ture says. Their minds shy away
from grappling with the deeper
issues of life which, however
badly or superficially portrayed,
are nevertheless inherent in the
stories of many of our Holly-
wood films.

Many producers set up suc-
cessful smoke screens to divert
the attention of responsible ele-
ments of the American public
from the content of their films
— a content often designed, un-
der the guise of giving the pub-
lic what it wants, to appeal to
the primitive, the brutal, and
the uncontrolled.

This becomes (piiti' clear even
in the titling and advertising of

Hollywood films. Turn to the
movie page of your local paper.
Titles such as A Stolen Life,
Pardon My Past, They Made Me
a Criminal, I Married, a Mwi
derer are all cases in point. A
less vicious but equally cheap
appeal to public taste is indi-
cated in the titles of such films
as Hold That Blotide and that
masterpiece of Hollywood alli-
teration Gettmg Gertie’s Gar-
ter. Everyone, I think, is famil-
iar with the technique used in
movie ads of implying that the
film contains scintillating scenes
of illicit love, brutality, bared
emotions and seared souls.

Not satisfied with appealing
to such relatively normal phe-
nomena as illicit love and the
suppressed desire to kill, an at-
tempt has been made in one re-
cent Hollywood film to appeal to
perversion, the darkest corner
of the human soul. The great
play which the movies have
given in recent years to the
“treat-’em-rough” school of he-
roes, who delight the heroines
with their sheer brutality, is a
definite appeal to the masochis-
tic and sadistic impulses of hu-
man beings.

What the movies have done
in reflecting the worst in hu-
man nautre has, in turn, made
human nature worse. The mov-
ies’ emphasis on brutality in
love has gone fai' towai'd mak-
ing masochism and sadism a

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

part of America’s emotional life.

Of course, there are excep-
tions. There are pictures which
deal with basic human problems
in a way which is constructive,
artistic, and ethically sound. But
many films are either innocuous
and stultifying, or appeal to re-
pressed emotions or anti-social
impulses, thereby intensifying
what someone has called the in-
sanity of our culture, in which
we preach one thing and pas-
sionately desire another.

It may be said, however, that
if this is true, it is not the pro-
ducers’ fault, but ours. They are
in business to make money.
They are making money — by
correctly interpreting the public
mind.

There is no question that the
content of Hollywood films is a
reflection of much of American
life. The crying need is for ed-
ucation of public taste. But this
does not relieve motion pic-
ture producers of responsibility.
They have at their command a
tremendous medium which not
only entertains but often, un-
consciously, teaches and per-
suades.

Producers are coming to a
realization of their responsibil-
ity through the work of pressure
groups, which are exerting a
powerful influence to establish
political censorship.

I abhor censorship as much as
any Hollywood producer does. I
think it is dangerous and un-
democratic and a threat to our
American freedom. But if the
movies do not want the dead
hand of government control,
they must reform themselves.
This does not mean accepting
arbitrary or superficial codes of
decency forced on them by spe-
cial interest groups. It means
understanding what life is all
about, what morality is, what
decency is, and what good art

Paul F. Heard, Executive Secretary
Protestant Film Commission, Inc.

is. It means something far more
complex than the acceptance of
artificial rules. It means the de-
velopment and application of
artistic and ethical standards.

I do not mean that Hollywood
entertainment films are not ar-
tistic in a purely technical sense.
The technique of entertainment
films is often superb. What pro-
ducers must realize is that art
involves more than technique.
It involves having something

Make Literature

LIVE

In the Classroom

The following Teaching Film Custodian
(M-G-M) subjects are ideally suited
to classroom study:

"Treasure Island"

Lionel Barrymore Wallace Beery

Jackie Cooper

"Tale of Two Cities"

Ronald Colman

"Mutiny on the Bounly"

Clark Goble Charles Laughton

Franchot Tone

"Romeo and Juliet"

Leslie Howard Norma Shearer

John Barrymore

"David Copperfield, the Boy"

"David Copperfied, the Man"

Lionel Barrymore Maureen O'Sullivan

W. C. Fields Freddie Bartholomew

Fach subject 4 reels Rental: $6.00

(Special Series Rate)

In Our Free Catalofi nf

SELECTED MOTION PICTURES

Write to Dept. “Y”

Y.M.C.A.

MOTION PICTURE BUREAU

347 Madison Ave. Chicago 3, III.

New York 17, N. Y 19 So. LaSalle St.
San Francisco 2, Cal Dallas 1, Tex.

351 Turk St. 1700 Patterson Ave.

worthwhile and constructive to
say. It involves the application
of artistic and ethical standards
in the production of entertain-
ment films. Properly applied,
such standards will contribute
to financial success.

What Do We Meon
By Standards?

People who talk about ethical
and artistic standards are often
incorrigible emotionalists. They
become righteously vague when
asked to say what they mean.
Let us, however, try to analyze
specific films from artistic and
ethical viewpoints. From this
analysis, certain concrete prin-
ciples may emerge.

1. Superficiality — The Green
Years.

This is one of the films which
Hollywood has produced to ap-
peal to the carriage trade. Based
upon a book by the same name,
it is a rather inconsequential
story about an Irish orphan boy
who grows up in the austere
home of his Scotch relations,
and, with the aid of his salty
and incorrigible great-grand-
father, leaves his job in the coal
mines to study medicine at the
university.

The whole is fraught with an
air of “significance.” It is done
in that imitation epic style
which Hollywood reserves for
the picturization of best-selling
period novels. With the excep-
tion of some good scenes be-
tween the boy and the great-
grandfather and some revealing
incidents about the boy’s early
school days, the story seems
hardly worth telling. Its scenes
often fade out just when they
begin to get interesting.

Apart from superficiality of
theme, which is as much an ar-
tistic as an ethical lack, one as-
pect of the picture deserves spe-
cial comment.

A religious motif is inter-

June, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

An essential part of your

MOVIE EQUIPMENT -A

GRISWOLD
FILM SPLICER

GRISWOLD Model R-2 tor 35mm. film or
Model R-3 tor 16mm.

Every maker and user of motion pictures needs
o good film splicer for film editing and repair.
GRISWOLD Splicers fill all needs. They come
in models for all film sizes and all models
splice both sound and silent film. They have
special design features which make it easy for
anyone to do a quick, accurate splicing job
every time. Their sturdy, precision-built con-
struction assures a lifetime of hard service.
GRISWOLD Splicers are sold by Photo Supply
Dealers. If your dealer has none on hand, order
from us direct.

GRISWOLD MACHINE WORKS
PORT JEFFERSON, N. Y.

woven into the story. The little
Irish orphan boy is also a Cath-
olic, and his relatives in Scot-
land, who adhere austerely to
their Protestant faith, resent
the boy’s efforts to attend the
church of his choice. The boy’s
faith, however, is strong, and
with the aid of his great-grand-
father, a non-churchgoing free-
thinker devoted to the cause of
freedom, the boy continues his
religious life in the Catholic
church.

The picture has been soundly
criticized for its identification
of religious persecution with a
faith which has more often been
the object of such persecution
than its cause. Our concern here,
however, is the degree and man-
ner in which religion, as exem-
plified in the Roman Catholic
Church, is brought into the film.

In addition to his attending
church services regularly, the
boy turns, at critical periods of
his life, to the church for so-
lace and help. The priest is por-
trayed in a most favorable and
humanly attractive way. He is
sympathetic to the boy’s prob-
lems. At the same time he is the
mystical emissary of God. Yet
at a crisis in the boy’s life, the
priest stands helplessly and in-
effectually by while the boy
loses h i s faith. Subsequent
scenes do not give us the feeling
that the boy has effectively re-
gained that faith, nor do they
answer the profound theological
questions which the boy asked,
during his moment of trial, as
to the nature of God and man,
and why God allowed the death
of his friend.

This is an incidental, peri-
pheral, and thoroughly super-
ficial treatment of religion in a
film which is mostly about some-
thing else. Religion is by no
means necessary to, or an inte-
gral part of the story, since one
is not convinced that the boy’s

life is influenced, in any pro-
found degree, by his faith. His
religion and his church attend-
ance are simply an insurance he
takes out against evil, a proce-
dure which is reminiscent, in a
mild way, of the superstition of
African tribes.

This superficial treatment of
an important subject is inexcus-
able. It matters little whether
the relig'o'i po trayed is Catho-

lic, Protestant, or Jewish. Re-
ligion should be included in a
film only when it is the main
subject of the film or an inte-
gral part of the story. When in-
cluded, it should be dealt with
honestly and profoundly.

Religion in The Green Years
seems to have been injected into
the film for some other reason
than that the story demanded it.
This, plus its superficial treat-

FILMS OF MERIT

•16MM SOUND - SILENT - 8MM

For Teaching, Recess
and Entertainment

RENT SALE

Write for complete list

ment, would seem to point the
need of films which deal hon-
estly, dramatically, and rever-
ently with religion’s great pro-
fundities. Even in the recent se-
ries of films on religious sub-
jects, including Gtnug My Way
and The Bells of St. Mary's, the
producers seem to have dusted
religion off a bit and given it
the usual once-over lightly in
the traditional Hollywood man-
ner. There are great stories in
the field of religion for motion-
picture treatment. These stor-
ies have not yet been told.

2. Ethical Values— T/tc Post-
man Always Rings Twice:

The Postman Always Rings
Twice is a tough, fast-moving
drama of the kind Americans
love. Most of it is given over to
illicit love and murder. The hero,
or the villain, depending on your
point of view, undergoes only
the briefest and most perfunc-
tory moral regeneration at the
end.

The acting and production are
superb. The photography is skil-
ful. Each scene is directed to ex-
tract the last drop of innuendo
and excitement. As a produc-
tion, it illustrates what we have
referred to as Hollywood’s tech-
nical excellence— a remarkable
ability to handle scenes on the
screen so that the audieiice is
alternately amused, surprised.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

and emotionally aroused.

But it is more than the hard,
fast-moving, incisive style which
accounts for this film’s appeal.
It is the content that appeals.
This is the story of a filling-sta-
tion attendant who makes love
to the owner’s wife and plots
with her to murder her husband
and get his combination filling-
station and restaurant to them-
selves, thus insuring their emo-
tional and economic security.

The reason, I believe, for the
film’s appeal is that its unsenti-
mental qualities, in these post-
war days, are growing in favor
in the public mind. The brutal
passion between the station at-
tendant and the owner’s wife is
something which manv Ameri-
cans, in spite of our romantic
tradition, can thoroughly under-
stand. This feeling later devel-
ops into love, thus satisfying the
audience’s romantic impulses as
well. When the couple plot to
kill the husband, not because of
their love for each other or be-
cause of meanness, but simply
because it is the most immedi-
ately practical means of insur-
ing their economic security, this
is something, too. which the
American audience can grasp.

There is nothing wrong with
the portrayal of sex or the de-
sire for economic security as
motivating forces in people’s
lives. I do not mean to sugge.st
that, to be ethically sound, films
should avoid portrayal of evil or
the more sordid aspects of life.
We must face these things. The
portrayal of such things, how-
ever, should be constructive.

Whether or not it is construc-
tive depends on the point of
view which the film takes
toward its material. In The Post-
man Always Rings Twice the
point of view is reflected in the
effect of crime on the people
who commit it.

Now ready for
16mm RELEASE-^

THE MIRACLE MUSICAL HIT!

NEW YORK CITY 19, N. Y.

\\\ \\ / ///

RADIANT

R*t. U S. P«t OH

BETTER SCREENS FOR BETTER PROJECTION

^// 1 \\\\

RADIANT Screens

make aH pictures look better

Make Your Pictures "POP OUT" Clearly

Your motion pictures or stills seem to jump out from the
screen with startling realism! You get brilliance, clarity, richer,
more accurate colors. The secret of this astonishing improvement
lies in the New Radiant "Hy-Flect” screen surface— composed of
thousands of tiny glass beads embedded in the snow-white plastic
screen surface— glass beads that reflect light instead of absorbing
it. And in the New 1947 line of Radiant Screens you get this . . .

all these Wonderful

1. Automatic Leg Opening (Pat.
Pending)

2. Screen Levelier (Pat. Pending)

3. Shakeproof Safety Catch

4. Feather Touch Adjusting Handle
(U. S. Patent)

5. Double-Action Auto-Lock (Pat.
Pending)

Exclusive New Features

6. Built-In Shock Absorbers

7. Automatic Leg-Lock

8. Rubber Ball Tripod Feet

9. Triangular Steel Tube Construction

10. Automatic Leg Adjustment

11. Finger Grip Carrying Handle

12. Streamlined Design and Duo-color
Scheme

Radiant Screens set up quickly, hold firmly in position, are easily ad-
justed—add more pleasure and effectiveness to all picture projections.

The Radiant "DL" here illus-
troted is portable, sturdy, com-
pact,easily set up, quickly
adjustable. The Radiant line in-
cludes Wall, Ceiling and Table
Models in sizes 22" x 30" to 20
feet by 20 feet and lorger.

Send for FREE Screen Guide

'‘Secrets of Good Projection," a
32-page booklet, gives proper
screen sizes, correct projec-
tion lenses, tips for improv
ing projection and many
other valuable facts.

Mail couponforyour
FREE copy.

e. Wall,

Zone

State

Once the couple were absolved
of the crime they had commit-
ted, they overcame the mutual
distrust engendered by the fact
that each had testified against
the other at the trial, and then
fell thoroughly and convincingly
in love. Only an auto accident
which killed the girl finally sent
her lover to the chair and to a
belated regeneration and re-
pentance. The fact that a satis-
factory love could be based upon
a murder is held out as a real
possibility which only an acci-
dent kept from complete fulfil-
ment. Yet the fact that the lov-
ers had deliberately killed a man
revealed flaws in their charac-
ters which were symptoms of
spiritual degeneration.

To make a film like this ethi-
cally sound, it is not enough to
bring the criminal to a perfunc-
tory and l')elated justice at the
end. The wages (jf crime must he
its spiritual effect on the crim-

inals themselves. Otherwise, in
spite of any ultimate punish-
ment, crime is made feasible and
attractive, and the fear of be-
ing caught becomes a minor de-
terrent. If criminals can pass
off their crimes lightly, the very
fact that they are not affected
by their crimes should be shown
as a clear indication of their
deadening, repulsive superficial-
ity.

To be ethically sound, such a
film should emphasize the effect
of crime on those who commit
it. It should show the drama of
their spiritual degeneration. The
most profound effects of crime
take place within people them-
selves. The criminal’s most ter-
rible punishment is the effect
on his eternal soul.

It is difficult to portray this
effect. Attempts to do so are
often heavy-handed, moralistic,
and inept. But it is this difficult
job of a constructive and con-

vincing portrayal of the deeper
issues of life which I believe
Hollywood must ultimately face.
3. Social Values — Vacation
From Marriage:

There is hardly any other area
of our American life on which
entertainment films have had a
stronger influence than that of
love and marriage. The movies
have, I believe, reflected the cur-
rent trends of our culture in
this regard and have tended to
standardize a n d perpetuate
these trends. The liberalization
and breakdown of our moral
standards following World War
I was faithfully and sensation-
ally reflected in film. In films
of that day, bad women were
made attractive; goodness be-
came almost symptomatic of an
ascetic or a withered soul. Il-
licit love was made intriguing,
e.xciting, and dramatic: to be
laithlid in love was to he either
stodgy or foolish, or both.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

00 nil w*'

m Germany

loday?

00 '(00

00 ^00 Wjjt' ,ea 90V--.. ^090..-
; me... oro

UEfEIrtS®

,,aGe.-"y.J-

the firs*

official ft'ni O''

these

jnd other q'

occup

uestions

you

have

been

Health Films
YOUR CHILDREN'S EARS • YOUR CHILDREN'S EYES
YOUR CHILDREN'S TEETH

These films are particularly suitable for parents and teachers. Amusing animated dia-
grams explain the physiology of the organs treated and the films stress the advantages
of simple, common-sense health precautions which can easily be taught to children.

Educational Films
ACHIMOTA • FATHER AND SON
A MAMPRUSI VILLAGE

During recent years, the people of Africa have made such great strides forward, that it
has become a major undertaking to record th^ir rapid progress. These films are the first
to show the development of social, educational and administrative standards in the
native villages.

These films are on loan from the following offices of

BRITISH INFORMATION SERVICES

An Agency of the British Government

30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20, N.Y. • 10 Post Office Square, Boston 9, Moss.
360 North Michigan Ave., Chicago 1, III. • 391 Sutter St., Son Francisco 8, Calif.
907— 15th Street, N. W., Washington 5, D. C.

BRITISH CONSULATES: Detroit * Houston ■ Los Angeles * Seattle

After a while, however, the
pendulum swung to the other
extreme. Heroines in our cur-
rent movies are often quite good
indeed. They have a mild, innoc-
uous charm, based primarily
upon their niceness. Yet they
have neither the dynamic, dis-
turbing attractiveness of the

screen bad women of the past,
nor the strength of character
which the villainesses, for all
their wickedness, possessed. It
does not seem to us that Holly-
wood has done the cause of mor-
ality too great a service by thus
creating a stereotype in the pub-
lic mind that good women do not

possess dynamic charm.

There are exceptions to this,
of course. In some instances, I
believe, Hollywood has per-
formed a definite service in the
cause of love, marriage, and
morality in sex relations. Cer-
tain feature films have done a
great deal to break down the
stereotype, built up by both mu-
sic-hall gags and romantic mov-
ies of the past, that marriage
ends romance. The casting of
attractive Myrna Loy in the role
of the perfect wife did a great
deal to revive faith in the ro-
mantic potential of marriage,
while comedies such as the Irene
Dunne-Cary Grant film The
Awful Truth helped to spread
the conviction that marriage can
be fun. Even the old Maurice
Chevalier - Jeanette MacDonald
comedies of the thirties, risque
as they were in spots, did much
to promote the rather radical
idea, for that day, that mar-
riage, not illicit love, is the sat-
isfactory sex relationship.

Yet these films went to ex-
tremes. They surrounded mar-
riage with a false aura of
glamor and excitement, neglect-
ing the deeper values of love,
loyalty, and companionship upon
which the real strength of that
institution is based.

While not going into the mat-
ter too deeply, it may be noted
that Vacation From Marriage is
an English film which, in the
(luiet British manner, recaptures
some of the more basic quali-
ties essential to a happy mar-
riage. It begins with the por-
trayal of the quiet, deadly mon-
otony of a middle-class mar-
riage. The young husband is a
meek, frustrated, punctilious
bookkeeper ; the wife, once
rather vacuously attractive on
her honeymoon, now has a per-
petual cold. The war takes the
husband into the Royal Navy,
h i s wife into the Wrens.

June, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Plunged into the excitement of
war, the characters of both hus-
band and wife take on color and
depth. They do not meet for
three years. At the end of that
time, each of them, not realiz-
ing that the other has changed,
separately decides on divorce.
Their subsequent meeting and
realization that they have grown
together and not apart is warm-
ing and amusing drama. The
film points the necessity for
that growth and development
which should take place in mar-
riage without the stimulus of
war.

Vacation Fro m Marriage
should provoke stimulating dis-
cussion among married people.
It dramatizes the problem of
how marriage can become an
emotional and spiritual adven-
ture, despite the limitations of
a routine and humdrum life.

This kind of stimulating and
thought-provoking presentation
of vital problems confronting
real people is a positive contri-
bution which entertainment
films can make to the develop-
ment of our moral life.

4. Non-Theatrical Films:

In the field of non-theatrical
films, the problem, unlike Holly-
wood’s, is not one of subject-
matter, but one of technique.
Hollywood has developed the
technique of motion-picture pro-
duction into a fine art. The stu-
dios know all the means of hold-
ing interest, arousing the emo-
tions, touching the heart. The
trouble is that Hollywood often
has little of significance to say.
In the non-theatrical field, par-
ticularly in the field of attitude-
forming documentaries, the
problem is exactly the opposite.
These films have a great deal to
say. Many of them deal with im-
portant social problems or with
pressing issues of the day. Yet
often they do not know how to

say it in a way that is interest-
ing, dramatic, a n d exciting.
They let you in at once on the
fact that you are seeing a prop-
aganda film. Many documen-
tary films worry along in a pa-
thetic way about a problem.
Some are fraught with preten-
tious social significance. Some
have commentators whose voices
are heavy with a sense of social
woe.

This situation is improving,
however. There are attitude-
forming films on important
themes which are incisive, dra-
matic, and persuasive.

A. The Brotherhood of Man
(Color and Animation — 10 min-
utes) .

This ten-minute animated
short produced in color by
United Films is a case in point.
It should be of great usefulness
to churches, schools, and other
organizations interested in a
constructive solution of the con-
troversial problem of race.

By means of color animation,
which is clever, amusing, and
pointed, this film manages in
ten minutes to strip the fact of
race prejudice of every shred
of intellectual respectability, and
to blast all of the rationalization
which we muster to support our
unfounded prejudices. The film
is notable evidence that it is
possible to make animated
shorts both entertaining and in-
structive.

One reason for this film’s suc-
cess is that the United Films has
devised a technique whereby the
medium of animation is freed of
the difficult job of forcing its
message into the mold of a story
in the traditional Disney way.
Brotherhood of Man contains
neither a story nor any of the
carefully drawn life-like charac-
ters (usually animals or chil-
dren) which you see in a Disney
film. This is not the Disney style

at all. It is something else.

The characters in Brother-
hood. of Man are simple and
stylized. They are symbolic of
certain abstractions, such as the
races of mankind — red, black,
white, etc. The film, rather than
telling a story, attacks the prob-
lem directly. It begins at once
to portray what happens when
black meets white, etc. The mo-
tion is worked out in smooth,
continuous detail only when it
is vital to the theme to do so.
Often only extremes of motion
are shown, omitting the inter-
mediary steps. With animation
thus relieved of the restrictions
of story, action, and character
which are applied to the live-
action film, the imagination of
the film-maker is given free
play. The result is truly remark-
able. It is difficult to do full jus-
tice to the sheer originality em-
ployed not only in this film on
brotherhood, but in many of the
other productions of United
Films, some of which were pro-
duced for the Navy during the
war. These are as amusing as
the best of the Disney shorts,
and vastly more instructive.

Of course, the subject-matter
approach of Brotherhood is in-
tellectual and negative. The film
is concerned primarily with un-
dermining the rationalizations
with which we support our prej-
udices. It plays the light of in-
tellect and wit upon our thor-
oughly irrational behavior. It
leaves the field open for the pro-
duction of further films which
take the positive approach and
promote a feeling of brother-
hood by applying emotional and
spiritual dynamics.

To show, however, that there
is no rational basis for prejudice
is important.

This film should be a part of
any church sti]dy-[)r()gratn on
race. It will supplement other

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

materials and films using the
emotional and spiritual ap-
proach.

Incidentally, the technique of
animation used in this film
should be ideal for animated
shorts for Sunday Schools.
Through proper utilization of
shorts, it would be possible for
the religious teacher to put
across more moral truth in one
lesson than he ordinarily could
in a year, and to make moral
teachings attractive, dynamic,
and something which will actu-
ally “take.” If any one still dis-
believes in visual education in
churches, let him read this hand-

writing on the wall.

B. The Cumington Story
(Black and White — 30 min-
utes) :

The Cumington Story is a doc-
umentary produced by the State
Department for distribution by
the Overseas Office of War In-
formation. It is the story of a
European refugee and his fam-
ily, who, under the auspices of
a New England minister, spent
the war in a New England town.
It depicts the gradual breaking
down of the townspeople’s prej-
udice against the newcomer. It
introduces the novel note that
the refugee, too, had a prejudice

to overcome.

It is a delicate little film, basi-
cally a masterpiece of psycho-
logical strategy. It assumes the
best in people, blaming neither
the townspeople nor the refugee
for mutual distrust. It takes the
viewpoint that decent people,
once they have grown to know
and understand each other, will
gradually overcome their mu-
tual fear of strangers. This is a
subtle and persuasive technique
and one which will help to keep
prejudice from taking root in
the hearts of our people.

The handling of this theme,
in the direction and in the act-

A scene in "The Brotherhood of Mon," 16mm sound film, available beginning September 1, 1946 through the Religious Film

Association, 1 1 West 42nd Street, New York City.

June, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

ing, is sometimes delicate, some-
times faltering and inept. One
feels that, even in such a simple
and unpretentious film, the
scenes could be built up more
and their message given sharp-
ness and point.

The Cummgton Story is none
the less effective, a rather un-
usual and ingratiating presen-
tation of a highly controversial
subject. It should be very useful
in the churches’ study of race.

C. FILMS ON POST-WAR RELIEF :

(1) The Pale Horseman
(Black and White — 20 min-
utes) .

The Pale Horseman, produced
by the Office of War Informa-
tion, is a powerful portrayal of
the spread of disease in war-
torn areas, the inevitable after-
math of war. This film has little
relief or variation, but in ruth-
less progression piles scene upon
scene of physical and mental
horror. The film then finds it-
self in a peculiar dilemma. Be-
cause the audience does not wish
to accept what it sees, the ulti-
mate reaction to this film is
tinged with disbelief. Neverthe-
less, The Pale Horseman is an
effective and stirring portrayal,
and should be of definite use to
the churches in their campaigns
for post-war relief.

(2) He Restoreth My Soul
(Black and White — 17 min-
utes) :

This film, produced jointly
by the Presbyterian and Baptist
churches, has a more religious
approach than The Pale Horse-
mmi. It portrays both the phy-
sical and the spiritual need of
the peoples of war-torn areas.
Edited from existing footage, it
lacks the visual continuity of
The Pale Horseman and depends
for its effectiveness upon the
commentary. It is, however,
more profound in its approach
to the subject. It makes a

plea for the reconstruction of
churches not merely to preserve
the church as an institution, but
to meet the needs of people for
spiritual solace and help.

D. NEW PRODUCTION IN RELIG-
IOUS FILMS.

(1) The American Bible Soci-
ety is cooperating with the Prot-
estant Film Commission, Inc., in
beginning the production in Hol-
lywood of a series of 26 color
films on the New Testament, for
release to churches in 16mm.

This is the most elaborate pro-
duction effort yet undertaken in
the field of religious films.

These films will involve dra-
matization of Bible stories with-
out lip-synchronization, to be
accompanied by music and by a
commentary which is based pri-
marily on the Bible text. This
technique provides unusual pos-
sibilities for effective and cre-
ative visualization. Pictures and
music to a large degree will
carry the burden of the story.

(2) A film on race is nearing

completion under the auspices
of the Congregational Mission
Board. This film will center
chiefly around the educational
work being carried on among
the Negroes of the South by
the Congregational Christian
churches, with background ma-
terial regarding the economic,
social, and spiritual life of the
Southern Negro today.

Denominational emphasis will
be slight, so that this film may
be of use to other churches as
well.

(3) A film on using films in
churches is being prepared by
Cathedral Films of Hollywood
for the Protestant Episcopal
Church. With removal of its spe-
cific denominational emphasis,
this film should be of wide use-
fulness to America’s Protestant
churches. It should be a notable
stimulus to the use of visual
aids.

Prints of ^^The Pole Horseman** may
be obtained from Brandon Films, Inc.,
1600 Broadway, New York 19, N. Y.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

Newark's Program of Audio-Visual
Aids Service to Schools

BY EDWARD T. SCHOFIELD

Assistant Librarian, Board of Education Department of Libraries, Visual Aids,
and Radio at Newark, New Jersey

Foreword

The history of the Newark
Department of Libraries, Visual
Aids, and Radio shows an inter-
esting development in the coor-
dination of teaching materials
to the end that they better sup-
plement each other and the cur-
riculum. In 1929, the Board of
Education Library was estab-
lished to provide professional
librai'y service to the Superin-
tendent and his staff. Marguer-
ite Kirk, head of the School and
Children’s Department of the
Newark Public Library, was em-
ployed as librarian, so that there
would be a minimum duplica-
tion of the Newark Public Lib-
rary’s excellent service to
schools. The development of
school libraries was also includ-
ed in this new department’s
functions. In 1937, upon the res-
ignation of Arthur Balcom, as-
sistant superintendent in charge
of visual education, the Newark
Board of Education Library ex-
panded its services to include
the selection, distribution, and
utilization of visual aids. Rec-
ordings seemed to slip in cpiite
naturally as a part of the lib-
rary’s resources shortly there-
after. In 1942, the inventory of
textbooks was added to the de-
partment’s activities. In prepar-
ation for the use of radio in
classrooms when the Board of
Education’s EM station is in op-
eration, the department has
been busily occupied trying to
coordinate radio programs and
recordings with the curriculum
and with other teaching aids.
The latest assignment for the

staff is to prepare a short report
on the possibilities of the use of
television in the Newark schools
for WAAT, the local radio sta-
tion, when its television pro-
gram is in operation.

The Newark Department of
Libraries, Visual Aids, and
Radio is fortunate in having
Edward T. Schofield, a former
member of the department, re-
turn from Army service with
enthusiasm over methods of
securing better film utilization
in the classroom. Mr. Schofield’s
background is that of an Eng-
lish teacher and librarian. He
taught at Pennsauken Junior
High School, North Merchant-
ville. New Jersey, for two years
(1933-35) and at the Fleming-
ton. New Jersey, High School
for two years (1935-37) before
entering the Newark system in
1937 as a librarian at Weequahic
High School. He served in the
Army from October 2, 1942 to
January 31, 1946. Mr. Schofield
has outlined the department’s
services and its resources.

How widely are visual aids
used in schools? What types are
used? How well are they related
to the curriculum of the school?
Is the best aid for the purpose
used? Are the teacher’s tech-
niques in using audio-visual aids
based on strong educational
foundations? Are text and li-
brary books, pictures and rec-
ords coordinated? These, and a
host of other queries, are con-
stantly raised by workers in
school.s. I’rincipals and supei--
visors concerned with raising

educational standards want to
know the answers to these ques-
tions. Certainly, members of
boards of education, parents,
and tax-payers generally would
like to know how carefully
funds being expended for the
new tools of learning — audio-
visual aids — are used.

A visit to any one of the sev-
enty schools in Newark, New
Jersey, would provide concrete
evidence of the value of these
aids to learning and would go a
long way towards answering the
questions raised above. Let’s
look at a typical Newark school.
In the kindergarten of this
school, the observer notes that
the director is delighting the
children by the showing of color-
ful pictures from a favorite
story-book by use of the opaque
projector. Down the hall in the
third grade, where the children
are studying Indian lore, the
class is examining models of
primitive villages, looms, ar-
rows, and other items borrowed
from the Newark Museum. In
the eighth-grade classroom there
has been a discussion of neigh-
borhood relationships, and one
of the older students is about to
project the March of Time film,
Americans All. Slides on the in-
dustries of the city are being
viewed in another room. A fifth-
grade teacher is enriching the
student’s background on west-
ward expansion in the United
States by playing a dramatiza-
tion from the Lest We Forget
series of transcriptions. A film-
slide projector is in use in an-
other classroom, where the voca-

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

June, 1946

tional-guidance program has
reached the study of radio occu-
pations. The teacher is illustrat-
ing opportunities through the
use of a recently prepared film-
strip. One of the most attractive
rooms in the building has its
many bulletin boards decorated
to match the season of the year
with large, colorful pictures of
spring flowers, borrowed from
the Newark Public Library. In
other classrooms there is ample
evidence of the motive-power of
audio-visual aids used on prev-
ious occasions ; illustrated maps,
models, and notebooks of student
manufacture are on display.

Teachers in Newark schools
are able to use audio-visual aids
frequently because all types of
aids — still pictures, models, lan-
tern slides, records, transcrip-
tions, and films are readily
available from a variety of sour-
ces. Coordinating these tools of
learning is one of the chief func-
tions of the Department of Li-
braries, Visual Aids, and Radio
of the Newark Board of Educa-
tion. The department serves not
only as a clearing-house of infor-
mation about materials of in-
struction available to all of the
city’s schools, but also as a de-
pository and distributing center
for a large collection of project-
ed audio-visual aids, music
records, and radio transcrip-
tions. With over 2,000 reels of
film ; some 25,000 lantern slides,
2x2 slides, and filmstrips;
and several hundred records in
the department, every subject in
the curriculum can be enriched.
In addition, schools maintain
their own basic collections of
lantern slides to supply fre-
quently needed aids to learning.
A request to the Newark Public
Library or the Newark Museum
will bring deliveries of mounted
pictures, models, or specimens
to the door of any school in the
city.

Edward T. Schofield

The department circulates
materials weekly to the schools
and attempts to supply audio-
visual aids when they are want-
ed by permitting teachers to
send their requests each week.
“Block-booking” or long-term
orders are not necessary under
the flexible policy of the depart-
ment. During the school year
1944-1945, over 16,000 reels of
film were circulated for school
or community use. Each month
of the year reflects a steady
growth in the use of audio-vis-
ual aids, not only in the schools,
but in adult discussion groups,
boys’ clubs, public-library film
forums, and other community
activities. The department func-
tions on a continuous, twelve-
month basis. It is just as active
during Christmas, Easter and
summer vacations in helping to
plan programs for playground,
community, and summer-school
film showings, as it is during
the traditional ten-month school
year.

Keeping the 2,500 teachers of
the city’s schools well informed
is the constant task of the per-
sonnel of the department. Tea-
chers of many years’ service in
the system know of the activities
of the audio-visual aids pro-
gram, but they desire regular

notes listing new materials, new
services and changes in policies.
Teachers entering the service of
the city’s schools need orienta-
tion to the department’s activi-
ties in order to know adequately
how to plan for their use. Regul-
ar publications of the depart-
ment, such as its catalogs, and
its monthly bulletin. Current
Lifit of Teaching Aids, assist in
keeping teachers well informed.
However, an exact description
of the functions of the depart-
ment, its resources, and its
methods of purveying service is
provided by publishing a gen-
eral circular and placing it in
the hands of all teachers. This
circular offers the following in-
formation :

Audio-Visual Aids Services
to Schools

1. Resources of Audio-Visual
Aids Center:

2,000 Motion pictures
25,000 Glass lantern slides
400 2 x 2 film slides

2,600 Filmstrips
700 Stillfilms
100 Recordings of litera-
ry masterpieces, dra-
matizations, Newark-
goes - to-school radio
programs, and sam-
ple recordings of in-
school broadcasts of
other educational ra-
dio stations.

200 Music records

2. Bibliographic Service:

a. The department has an ex-
haustive collection of catalogs
of producers and distributors
of all types of audio-visual
aids. These may be consulted
by teachers at all times. Since
the department maintains a
complete file of information
sources, Newark teachers are
relieved of the necessity of
attempting to gather such in-
formation through wasteful
and at best sketchy individual
attempts to collect a file of

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

A Newark teacher receives instruction in the operation of a projector.

this kind. Bibliographies, per-
iodicals, and source lists in
the department files include,
among many others :

( 1 ) Bibliographies o f
16mm films:

Educational Film Guide. H.
W. Wilson Company, 950-
972 University Avenue,
New York 52, N. Y.
Educational Film Library
A Hsocia tio n Eva lua tio .s.

EFLA, Inc., 45 Rockefeller
Plaza, New York 20, N. Y.
Educators Guide to Free
Films, rev. 1945. Educators
Progress League, Randolph,
Wis.

Library and Related Films.
Henshaw, Francis H. (No-
vember, 1941) Public Rela-
tions Committee, American
Library Association, 520
North Michigan Avenue,
Chicago 11, Bl.

One Thousand and One:
the Blue Book of Non-The-
atrical Films. Revised an-
nually. Educational Screen,
Inc., 64 Ea.st Lake Street,
Chicago, 111.

Selected Educational Mo-

tion Pictures: a Descriptive
Encyclopedia. American
Council on Education, 744
Jackson Place, Washington,
6, D. C.

Sources of Educational
Films. National Education
Association, Research Divi-
sion, 1201 Sixteenth Street,
N. W., Washington 6, D. C.
Soui'ces of Visual Aids for
Instructional U s e i n
Sclunds. Pamphlet No. 80
(rev. 1941). Federal Secur-
ity Agency, U. S. Office of
Education. Washington 23,
D. C.

(2) Sources of 16mm films
(Note: P — purchase; R —
rent ; F — free) :

American Red Cross, Mo-
tion Picture Distributing
Office, 40 East 49th Street,
New York 17, N. Y. (P, R)
American Museum of Nat-
ural History, Department
of Education, Central Park
West at 79th Street, New
York 24, N. Y. (R)

Braiulon Films, Inc., 1600
Broadway, New York 19,

N. Y. (P, R)

British Information Serv-
ices, 30 Rockefeller Plaza,
New York 20, N. Y. (P, R,
F)

Business Education Visual
Aids, 330 W. 72nd Street,
New York, N. Y.

Castle Films, RCA Build-
ing, Rockefeller Plaza, New
York, N. Y. (P, R, F)
Coronet Productions, Glen-
view, 111. (P)

DeVry School Films, 1111
Armitage Avenue, Chicago,
111. (P, R)

Encyclopaedia Britannica
Films, Inc., 20 North Wack-
er Drive, Chicago 6, 111.

(P, R)

Films Inc., 300 West 42nd
Street, New York 18, N. Y.
(P. R, F)

Ideal Motion Picture Serv-
ice, 393 St. Johns Avenue,
Yonkers, N. Y. (P, R)
International Theatrical
and Television Corp., 25
West 45 th Street, New
York 19, N. Y. (P, R)

J. C. Reiss, Visual Aid De-
partment, 10 Hill Street,
Newark, N. J. (P, R)

King Cole’s Sound Service,
Inc., 203 26th Street, New
York, N. Y. (P, R)
Knowledge Builders Class-
room Films, 625 Madison
Avenue, New York, N. Y.
March of Time, 369 Lex-
ington Avenue, New York
17, N. Y. (P, R)

Modern Talking Picture
Service, 9 Rockefeller
Plaza, New York 20, N. Y.
Free educational films from
industry. (P, R, F)

National Film Board of
Canada, 620 Fifth Avenue,
New York 20, N. Y. (P, R,
F)

New Jersey State Museum,
State House, Trenton 7, N.

June, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

J. Free loan basis to
schools. Booked for one day
only unless otherwise re-
quested.

New York University Film
Library, 71 Washington
Square South, New York
12, New York. (P, R, F)
Non - Theatrical Pictures
Corporation, 165 West 46th
Street, New York 19, N. Y.
Official Films, Inc., 25
West 45th Street, New
York 19, N. Y. (P, R)
Pictorial Films, Inc., RKO
Building, Radio City, New
York20, N. Y. (P, R)

Castle Distributors Corp.,
30 Rockefeller Plaza, New
York 20, N. Y. Distributor
for U. S. Office of Educa-
tion; Army and Navy film-
strips (P)

Coronet Productions, Glen-
view, 111. Filmstrips (P)

Eye Gate House, Inc., 330
West 42nd Street, New
York 18, Slides, Filmstrips

(P)

General Electric Co., Mo-
tion Picture Division, 1
River Road, Schenectady 5,
N. Y. Filmstrips (F)

Jam Handy Organization,
1775 Broadway, New York
19, N. Y. Filmslides (P)
Keystone View Co., Mead-
ville. Pa. Slides (P)

Kime Kolor Pictures, 1823
East Morada Place, Alta-
dena, Calif. 2x2 Koda-
chrome slides (P)
Metropolitan Museum of
Art, Extension Division,
5th Avenue and 82nd
Street, New York 28, N. Y.
Princeton Film Center, 106
Stockton Street, Princeton,
N. J. Rental covers a 24-
hour period. Films may also
be purchased. (P, R, F)
Teaching Film Custodians,
25 West 43rd Street, New

York 18, N. Y. Long-term
lease.

United Nations Informa-
tion Office, 610 Fifth Ave-
nue, New York 20, N. Y.
(P, F)

William J. Ganz Company,
40 East 49th Street, New
York, N. Y. (P, R)
Y.M.C.A. Motion Picture
Bureau, 347 Madison Ave-
nue, New York 17, N. Y.
(P, R, F)

Visual Aids, Inc., 41 Wash-
ington Street, Bloomfield,
N. J. (P)

(3) Sources of glass slides,
filmstrips, and filmslides :
American Museum of Nat-
ural History, Department
of Education, Central Park
West at 79th Street, New
York 24, N. Y. Slides (R)
Slides (R)

National Association of Au-
dubon Societies, 1006 Fifth
Avenue, New York 28, N.
Y. Slides (R, P)

National Housing Agency,
Federal Public Housing Au-
thority, Washington 25, D.
C. Filmstrips (F)
Photographic History Serv-

ice, Box 2401, Hollywood,
Calif. Slides (P)

Sims Visual Music Com-
pany, Inc., Quincy, 111.
Slides (P)

Stillfilm, Inc., 8443 Melrose
Avenue, Hollywood, Calif.
Filmstrips (P)

Society for Visual Educa-
tion, 100 East Ohio Street,
Chicago 11, 111. Filmslides,
2x2 slides. (P)

Yale University Press, 386
Fourth Avenue, New York,
N. Y. Pageant of America
lantern slides. (P)

(4) Publications about or
including audio-visual ma-
terials :

Business Screen — 157 East
Erie Street, Chicago 11, 111.
Educational Screen — 64
East Lake Street, Chicago
1, 111.

Film and Radio Guide —
Educational and Recrea-
tional Guides, Inc., 172 Ren-
ner Avenue, Newark, N. J.
Film Neivs — American
Film Center, Inc., 45 Rocke-
feller Plaza, New York 20,
N. Y. Donald Slesinger,
Publisher.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

Films of the Umted Na-
tions— United Nations In-
formation Office, 610 Fifth
Avenue, New York 20, N. Y.

Librarij Journal — 62 West
45th Street, New York, N.

Motion Picture Letter —
Public Information Com-
mittee, Motion Picture In-
dustry, 28 West 44th Street,
New York, N. Y.

Nation’s Schools — 919
North Michigan Avenue;
Chicago, 111.

New Tools for Learning
about War and Postwar
Problems — New Tools for
Learning, 280 Madison
Avenue, New York 16, N.
Y.

PCW Film Service — Month-
ly Bulletin — Pennsylvania
College for Women, Pitts-
burgh, Pa.

Progressive Education —
221 West 57th Street, New
York, N. Y.

Scholastic — 220 East 42nd
Street, New York, N. Y.

School Management — 52
Vanderbilt Avenue, New
York, N. Y.

Secondarij Education —
Dept. Sec. Teas., N.E.A.
Greenwich, Conn.

See and Hear: the Journal
on Audio-Visual Learning
— Eau Claire, Wis.

Social Studies — “Visual
Aids and Other Aids Col-
umn,” 809-11 North 19th
Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
Visual Review — Annual
publication of the Society
for Visual Education, Inc.,
100 East Ohio Street, Chi-
cago, 111.

b. Publications which list ma-
terials that are in the library’s
collections are prepared at

"Pulling trip," doily routine ot the
Nework Audio-Visuol Aids Center. A
film librorion selects the reels to be
delivered to the schools on the doy's
trip.

stated times and are for-
warded to the principals and
librarians in all the schools.
They are always on file in
your school for your examina-
tion.

(1) Current List of Teach-
ing Aids is issued to ac-
quaint the teacher with new
audio-visual and book ma-
terials added to the depart-
ment.

(2) Motion Picture Cata-
log Subject and Title List.
A complete guide to films in
the library. Kept up-to-date
through supplemental cards
on file in school library or
office.

(3) Complete Catalog of
Visual Aids. An al]ffiabeti-
cal list of all visual aids in
the Department.

(4) Catalog of Music Ap-
preciation Records and Ed-
ucationcd Recordings and
Trayiscriptions. A special
list of materials in the de-
partment.

(5) Listen and Learn is is-
sued to aid the teacher in
the adaptation of commer-
cial radio programs in the
total learning experience of
the child.

c. Lists of audio-visual aids
materials to fit special needs,
such as a list of art slides, are
available for consultation.
Bibliographies of this nature
will be assembled on request.

d. All revised courses of
study contain the audio-visual
materials related to the sub-
jects covered in them.

3. Selection of Audio-Visual
Aids:

a. Any audio-visual materials
desired for use in schools may
be requested through the de-
partment for preview and
possible purchase.

b. Previews and evaluations
of all new materials are ar-
ranged for by weekly show-
ings at the projection room in
the Audio-Visual Aids Center,
Lawrence Street School.
Teachers and specialists are
consulted at this time regard-
ing material in their fields.
All teachers are invited to at-
tend Wednesday previews.

(1) 3:00 P. M.— Second-
ary-school aids.

(2) 5:00 P. M.— Elemen-
tary-school aids.

c. Teachers who may wish to
examine any materials al-
ready purchased may arrange
to do so at any time by calling
the department, and mate-
rials will be sent to the .school,
or they will be shown in the
Lawrence Street School pro-
jection room.

FILM AKD RADIO GUIDE

June, 1946

4. School Use of Audio-Vis-
ual Materials :

a. Requests for material and
services may be made by any
Board of Education employe.
There is a service charge for
use of films outside of New-
ark.

(1) Request forms may be
mailed weekly from schools.

(2) Telephone to audio-
visual aids center at any
time.

(3) Planning well in ad-
vance ensures having mate-
rial at time it is needed.

b. Distribution of requested
materials to schools is made
weekly by the department.

c. Projection :

(1) All senior-high and
junior-high schools have
their own sound and silent
projectors and arrange for
their own showings.

(2) Increasing numbers of
elementary schools are pur-
chasing sound machines,
while all have silent projec-
tors.

(3) Sound machines are
sent every other week (or
as needed) to schools not
owning them, on request,
for one day of use.

(4) Special showings for
community group use or
parent-teacher association
meetings are arranged on
request.

(5) Playback machines for
recordings will be sent to
schools on request.

d. Care and use of equipment :

(1) Licensed operators from
the department are avail-
able to instruct teachers
and advanced students in
the operation of all types of
equipment for projection
of these aids.

2. Repaii's to films and ma-

chines are made at the Au-
dio-Visual Aids Center.
Schools are urged to avail
themselves of this service
rather than to attempt such
procedures with inader-
quately trained personnel.

5. Preparation of Original
Materials of Instruction:

a. Staff of the department
includes a photographer.

b. Pictures of significant
school activities will be made
when desired.

c. Slides of units of work
may be developed by request-
ing the services of the photog-
rapher, who will cooperate
with the teacher in the devel-
opment of the project.

6. Special Radio Services :

a. Reference and circulating
files on radio in education, in-
cluding:

(1) Sample scripts from
other educational radio sta-
tions ; also from commercial
stations.

(2) Sample teachers’ man-
uals for educational radio
series.

(3) Sources of recordings
and transcriptions.

(4) Pamphlets and period-
icals dealing with all phases
of educational radio.

(5) Bibliographies on edu-
cational radio.

b. Radio workshop materials :

(1) Radio Workshop Hand-
book. This is available in
quantity to any teacher
who has such a workshop
or club. It is planned for
both teacher and student
use.

(2) Sample exercises for
speech (diction) improve-
ment.

(3) Sample lesson plans
for radio workshops.

c. Aids to the script writer :

(1) Mimeographed mate-
rials available to any teach-
er preparing a radio script :

Directions for script
writers.

Suggestions for teachers
preparing radio scripts.
Script form — with notes
and samples.

(2) Bibliography on script
writing.

(3) Collections of pub-
lished scripts and hand-
books on script writing.

(4) Also, sample scripts
and program recordings
listed elsewhere.

d. Personal services— by ap-
pointment. A member of the
department is available for :

(1) Script conferences
with any teacher preparing
a script for WBGO.

(2) Planning conferences
with supervisors and heads
of departments for pro-
gram series.

(3) Visits to school radio
workshops to advise and
consult with workshop lead-
ers.

(4) Talks on educational
radio to interested groups.

e. On the air :

(1) Edit scripts, rehearse
and produce radio pro-
grams for in-school listen-
ing for special subject
fields.

(2) Plan and produce en-
richment programs — litera-
ture, drama, music, etc.

(3) Plan and produce pro-
grams of interest to the
community at large.

f. Central radio workshops :
(1) Maintain central radio
workshops of the most tal-
ented students from New-
ark’s

Senior high schools
Junior high schools

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

These students and teach-
ers who have been tested
will make up the casts of
WBGO programs,
g. WBGO — Weekly program
schedule and program listings
from other stations.

7. Services of the Public Li-
brary. The Art Department
of the Public Library lends a
variety of visual materials to
the schools for a period of one
month. Materials include :

a. Small pictures mounted on
cards, 13 inches by I7V2
inches.

b. Large pictures, charts, dec-
orative maps, mounted on
heavy board, and an exten-
sive collection of other vari-
eties of maps.

8. Services of the Newark
Museum :

a. Appointments for class
visits with docentry service
any weekday morning or aft-
ernoon except Monday. Write
or telephone the Museum
(Mitchell 2-0011).

b. Objects to be borrowed
from the Lending Department
for use in classroom teaching.

c. Gallery talks for young
people on current exhibitions,
Tuesdays and Fridays at 4
o’clock.

Utilization

The utilization of audio-vis-
ual aids is a further function
which receives constant atten-
tion at Newark. Study guides by
personnel of the Department of
Libraries, Visual Aids, and Ra-
dio accompany all films and
many of the recordings which
are used in the schools. Sugges-
tions for teacher and class prep-
aration for the use of aids to
learning are incorporated in cat-
alogs and other publications of

the central office. The inclusion
of audio-visual aids in courses
of study and units of work is a
practice that is especially re-
warding because of the more in-
telligent selection and use by
teachers of such aids in class-
room work. Talks by staff mem-
bers to teacher groups and circu-
lation of such motion pictures as
Britannica’s Using the Class-
room Film assist in the program
of in-service training for teach-
er use of audio-visual aids. Dem-
onstrations which serve to in-
troduce teachers to new films,
slides, or recordings are repeat-
edly employed to keep teachers
abreast of the resources of the
expanding library of audio-vis-
ual materials of instruction.

Summary

Through selection, evaluation,
a n d distribution procedures,
the office of the Newark De-
partment of Libraries, Visual
Aids, and Radio makes available
to the seventy schools of the sys-
tem a lending collection of mo-
tion pictures, lantern slides,
filmslides, music records and
radio transcriptions. Individual
schools have limited libraries of
lantern slides, filmslides, and
mounted pictures for display
and opaque-projection purposes.
The Newark Museum’s service
offers exhibits, specimens, mod-
els, and objects for school use.
The Newark Public Library of-
fers a mounted-picture collec-
tion of thousands of subjects.
Nearly every acceptable type of
audio-visual aid to learning is
within easy access of every
Newark teacher. The employ-
ment of the teaching aid to fit
each classroom situation that
arises is a matter merely of
selecting, from the wealth of
materials available, the correct
tool for learning.

Annotated
Bibliography
on the

MOVIES

'WHAT
SHALL WE
READ

about the

MOVIES?"

A Guide to the Many Books about
Motion Pictures — Their History,
Science, Industry, Art, Future.

By WILLIAM LEWIN, Ph. D.

Chairman, Department of
Fnglish, Weequahic High
School, Newark, New
lersey

25c a Copy

Free With Two-Yeor Subscrip-
tions to "Film & Radio
Guide."

June, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

"When Will You Visual Instructionists
Teach Children to Use Maps, Charts,
Globes, Specimens, and Models?"

BY B. A. AUGHINBAUGH

Direcl'or, Slide & Film Exehonge, Ohio State Department of Education

This question, or some varia-
tion of it, has been hurled at me
many times. I usually reply that,
not being one of the so-called
“visual instructionists,” I am
unable to answer. This of course
leaves the would-be heckler
rocking on his heels. And while
he rocks, I ask what was done
about this detail of education,
to which he apparently attaches
so much importance, before the
year 1929, the year which saw
the birth of this non-descript
creature called a “visual instruc-
tionist.” Surely maps, charts,
globes, specimens, and models
existed far back in history — es-
pecially models. It appears that
either the questioner places
great stress on the importance
of the so-called “visual instruc-
tionists” as discoverers, or that
the human race for a long time
was unimpressed as to the
value of maps, charts, globes,
and specimens, not to mention
the models. If this is the case,
then perhaps it ivas, after all,
Hollywood that discovered their
existence— -at least the models,
and perchance some of the speci-
mens. This approach merely in-
tends to lead up to the thought
which Sir Walter Scott so well
expressed in Marmion:

“Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive.”

The “visual instructionist” is
not going to teach anyone any-
thing. I have the very latest edi-
tion of two unabridged diction-
aries and neither one recognizes
such a word as “instructionist.”

If anyone is going to instruct
anyone about maps, globes, or
charts, that person will be one
versed in those subjects using
them, or a cartographer. If any-
one is going to instruct any-
one concerning specimens, it
will be a person versed in the
particular type of work to which
the given specimens belong.
These persons may be biologists,
geologists, chemists, bakers,
bankers, or candlestick makers,
but they will not be “visual in-
structionists.” And as for “mod-
els”— well, that field is broad,
high, short, medium, ugly, and
(oft-times) one of sheerest
pulchritude. To embrace it all,
or them all, this so-called “vis-
ual instructionist” must indeed
be one of many parts. Indeed he

would be that paragon who
could represent Charity itself,
for most assuredly he knoweth
all things, believeth all things,
hopeth all things, and endureth
all things — including the mod-
els! There “just ain’t no sich
animal” this side of the Pearly
Gates.

It is our oft-repeated opin-
ion that the sooner we forget
“visual education” and “visual
instruction” the sooner we shall
be free from the absurd connota-
tions such illogical diction
prompts and deserves. A dual
existence can get more than a
bat into trouble. I prefer to re-
main a teacher, a teacher of a
given subject or subjects; a
teacher who uses books, maps,
charts, specimens, models, lan-
tern slides, motion pictures, the
phonograph, the radio, televi-
sion, and travel, or ivhatever is
available, to put across most ef-
ficiently the lesson I am teach-
ing. But knowing the motion
picture intimately as I do, and
knowing its history, its place in
the evolution of human commu-
nication, and its efficiency with
respect to man’s psychological
aspects and behavior, I know it
is any teacher’s master tool, be-
cause it is the last and fairest
fruit on the long-growing tree
of communication — the last
qualitative gain to communica-
tion.

Unfortunately there exist some
who make a living by prolong-
ing this deception and others
who are too lazy or cowardly to

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

break with what to them seems
a status QUO. In this case, as in
too many other college-nur-
tured linguistic - gymnastics,
there is a close relationship be-
tween “linguistic” and its next-
door neighbor in the dictionary,
which is linament — and lina-
ment, “gentle reader,” may be

snake-oil at “just twenty-five
cents or one-fourth part of a
dollar a bottle — step right up,
friends, and buy your bottle
now while Jerry plays Tiirken
in the Straw.” If anyone doubts
the oiliness of the game, let him
spend a nickel and procure a
copy of the May, 1946, issue of

Woman’s Magazine at any A &
P Store, turn to page 25, and
read. No, we do not need to plug
A & P ; it is doing very well on
its own. There may be greener
fields than this, but did you ever
count the Greens in this one?
And they are all models ! They
smoke “Model.”

Virginia Forges Ahead in
Audio-Visual Education

SIX TWO-DAY AUDIO-VIS-
UAL INSTITUTES are to be
held in cooperation with Vir-
ginia collegiate institutions
from July 8 through 2.3;

July 8 and 9, Virginia State
College: July 11 and 12, William
and Mary; July 15 and 16,
Farmville S. T. C.; July 17 and
18, Madison College; July 19
and 20, University of Virginia;
July 22 and 23, Radford College.

Nine Virginia teacher-train-
ing institutions are offering
courses in audio-visual educa-
tion this summer.

Opaque Projection

OPAQUE PROJECTION is
the title of a pamphlet by J. Y.
Taylor. State Bureau of Teach-
ing Materials, Richmond, Vir-
ginia. It includes many helpful
teaching suggestions concerning
ways in which the opaque pro-
jector may be used.

ANOTHER NEW PAMPH-
LET issued by the BTM in
Richmond is titled Classroom
Planning for Andio-Visnal Aids.
Prepared by Ollie B. Fuglaar,
Assistant Supervisor (jf the Bu-
reau of Teaching Materials, the

eight-page pamphlet treats in
outline the problems of seating
arrangement, screen sizes and
types, darkening and ventila-
tion, projector and speaker
stand construction, and other
topics.

Projector Covers

H. L. FIREBAUGH, princi-
pal of the Powhatan, Virginia,
High School, suggests that
Home Economics classes pre-
pare dust-proof covers for all
projection equipment. Such cov-
ers are valuable in protecting
mechanical and electrical parts
of projectors.

Dark Shades

HOW TO DARKEN CLASS-
ROOMS is one of those prob-
lems facing everyone interested
in making increased classroom
use of projected audio-visual
materials. The method developed
by Charles L. Jennings, princi-
pal of the William King High
School, Abington, Virginia, may
be of some help to others. Mr.
Jennings has placed a screw eye
on each side of the upper exten-
sion of the window casing.
Through these eyes he runs a

loop of cord which extends to
the bottom of the casing. Tied
to the cord is a snap which can
thus be hauled to the top of
the casing. The window cover-
ing is made of black cloth on an
old window shade roller wide
enough to cover the window
completely. To darken the room
the shades are placed on the
sill, the snaps are attached to
the shade, and the shade is
drawn to the top of the window,
thus allowing the shade to un-
roll on the sill as it is drawn up.
Mr. Jennings reports that he
darkened twenty-three class-
rooms at a cost of only $35.

How to Win Friends

MRS. MARGARET JETER,
principal of the Courthouse
School, Princess Anne County,
Virginia, has an interesting an-
swer to some of the parents’ con-
cern over the use of educational
films in the classroom. She has
organized a “demontration” les-
son around the film, Virginia
— T h e Old Dominion. Par-
ents are the “students” for the
evening as she attenqjts to in-
terpret for them how films can

June, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

help to vitalize teaching and
learning.

For Microscopic Slides

CARL HOOVER, Principal,
Bassett High School, Bassett,
Va., has developed a device for
using microscopic slides in an
ordinary SVE Tri-Purpose pro-
jector. A piece of hardwood the
size of the semi-automatic slide
changer (which comes with the
projector) does the job. A slot
is sawed in the wood the width
of an ordinary microscopic
slide. A “window” or hole the
proper size is then cut in it. The
block is made short enough to
allow portions of the slide to
protrude from each side for easy
handling. The device is particu-
larly good for projecting mic-
roscopic stains, fly legs, wood
specimens, cells, skin, and other
translucent materials in slightly
enlarged form so that the entire
class may see them at one time.

YEARBOOK

JACK ALICOATE, Editor. THE 1946
FILM DAILY YEARBOOK OF MOTION
PICTURES. 28th Annual Edition. 1056
pages. New York: The Film Daily, 1946.

It is to be hoped that this
standard reference book of the
film industry will be used in-
creasingly by directors of visual
education and by teachers and
students in progressive schools
and colleges of the English-
speaking world. This product of
research is just as valuable to
educators as to those who thumb
the volume constantly in film
studios, theatres, picture-com-
pany offices, and newspaper
offices.

Motion picture facts mar-
shalled here are basic to all writ-
ing and critical discussion in
this field. Subjects covered in
the Yearbook include television,
the use of color, labor problems,
story material, 16mm films, for-

eign markets, the history of film
awards, war films, production
credits, original titles of books
and plays made into films, fea-
tures released since 1925 (over
20,000 titles) , personnel of film
companies, equipment sources,
film associations, books about
films, the production code, and
a list of theatres in the Lk S. and
Canada.

New Recordings

NBC’S RADIO-RECORDING
DIVISION, RCA Building, Ra-
dio City, New York, has an-
nounced a new two-volume al-
bum of recordings — “Rendez-
vous With Destiny.” The record-
ings present excerpts from
twenty-three of the most impor-
tant addresses of Franklin D.
Roosevelt. There are 12 records
in the albums ; they are cut at
78 r.p.m. speed.

First 16mnn Industry Trade Show

A record turnout of members
from all parts of the country,
as well as large numbers of deal-
ers, salesmen, librarians, teach-
ers, and other film users marked
the annual convention of the Al-
lied Non-Theatrical Film Asso-
ciation, held May 9, 10, and 11
in New York City. This year’s
meeting offered the first all-in-
dustry trade show combining all
types of 16mm interests. More
than fifty exhibits included
many newcomers as well as such
well-known trade names as Am-
pro, Ansco, Bell & Howell, De-

Reported by Wilfred L. Knighton
and William Lewin

Vry, General Electric, Neumade,
Victor, Westinghouse, and many
others. One day was devoted to
previews of selected 16mm mo-
tion pictures, 28 in all, from al-
most as many sources, films for
school and church, for enter-
tainment, and for discussion
groups.

The convention opened under
the chairmanship of Past Presi-
dent William K. Hedwig. Presi-
dent Horace O. Jones reported
that whereas a yeai’ ago ANFA
numbered 115 members and two
years ag’o only 83, activity at

this meeting brought the total to
158.

Public Relations to Fore

The second session, under the
chairmanship of William F.
Kruse, was marked by his re-
port as Secretary, as Chairman
of Regional Committees and
ANFA representative to (and
chairman of) the Photographic
Industry Co-ordinating Commit-
tee. This new trade federation
of nine existing bodies repre-
sents the chief public relations
channel within the industry — as
does the even younger Film

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

Council of America in relation
to the general film-using public.

Next came brief addresses by
Benjamin A. Cohen, United Na-
tions’ Assistant Secretary-Gen-
eral in charge of Public Infor-
mation, and by Chester A. Lind-
strom, of the United States De-
partment of Agriculture.

A lively panel discussion fol-
«)\ved on the general problems
of the 16mm industry. Lincoln
V. Burrows spoke for the manu-
facturers, Jacques Kopf stein for
the distributors, Clem Williams
for the libraries, Bernard A.
Cousino for the visual educa-
tional dealers, N. H. Barcus for
the projection services, and Em-
erson Yorke for the producers.

ANFA-NAVED Unity

Principal item of business was
the report of the special com-
mittee on exploration of pro-
posed collaboration for possible
future unity between ANFA and
the National Association of Vis-
ual Education Dealers. The com-
mittee reported that the sugges-
tion originally raised four years
ago by ANFA President W.
K. Hedwig had now become cur-
rent as a result of the initiative
of 1). T. Davis, President of
NAVED, and his Board of Di-
rectors. A resolution was unani-
mously adopted, by rising vote,
welcoming “the cordial sugges-
tion of NAVED for the explora-
tion of the possibilities of unity”
between the two organizations.
NAVED’s courtesy is to be re-
ciprocated by sending an ANFA
committee to the NAVED con-
vention in Chicago on August
6th for the puri)ose of continu-
ing these explorations.

Library of Congress
Film Collection

Another feature of this ses-
sion was an unscheduled speech
by John Bradley, of the Library
of Congress. He reiterated the
announced policy of the Library

henceforth to consider the mo-
tion picture on a par with the
printed word and that the Lib-
rary’s facilities for cataloging,
accessioning, and making avail-
able these new media of visual
communication would follow the
same general lines which had
long applied to printed matter.

Informofive Symposium

The morning session of the
second day, under the chairman-
ship of Canada’s Stan Atkin-
son, was featured by six infor-
mation talks, each followed by
questions and discussion. J. A.
Maurer spoke on 16mm projec-
tion practice: William MacCal-
lum, on sponsored films; L. E.
Jones, on 16mm accessories; Na-
than Golden, on the services
rendered by the U. S. Depart-
ment of Commerce to American
business: Rev. William L. Rog-
ers, on religious films ; and C. R.
Reagan, President of the Film
Council of America, on the aims
and purposes of his organiza-
tion.

New Officers

William F. Kruse, Manager of
the Bell & Howell Films Divi-
sion and of the Filmosound Li-
brary, was elected President:
Stan Atkinson (General Films
Ltd.) and Sam Goldstein (Com-
monwealth Pictures Cor]).)
were chosen as vice-presidents.
Harold Baumstone (Pictorial
Films, Inc.) succeeded Kruse as
secretary. George H. Cole (King
Cole Sound Service, Inc.) con-
tinues as treasurer. Richard F.
O’Neil (Visual Education Serv-
ice, Inc.) ; Ed Stevens (Stevens
Pictures) ; Thomas J. Brandon
(Brandon Films, Inc.); Kent
Rlastin (Eastin 16mm Pictures
Co.) were elected to the Board
of Directors.

Resolutions of Interest

1. Formal endorsement was
given the Photographic Indus-

try Co-ordinating Committee,
which aims to promote better
public relations within the in-
dustry, and to the Film Coun-
cil of America, which aims to
do likewise in relation to the
general film-using public. All
ANFA members are urged to
support both.

2. Rapid expansion of re-
sources and facilities was urged
upon film manufacturers and
processing laboratories, to keep
up with the expanding needs
of the 16mm industry.

3. All forms of political film
censorship, and of arbitrary li-
cense requirements that “have
no possible justification on the
grounds of safety or competen-
cy,” as well as “unfair, unequal,
and discriminatory special taxes
levied upon the photographic
industry,” were strongly con-
demned.

4. The Library of Congress
program of recognition of the
motion picture as an avenue of
communication comparable to
the printed word was commend-
ed. The Hock Bill for a single,
federal-government film-agency
was condemned. The bill intro-
duced hy Representative Emily
Taft Douglas, on behalf of the
American Library Association,
for the extension of itinerant li-
brary services, was endorsed,
with the inclusion of motion pic-
tures among its proposed facili-
ties strongly urged.

.5. The formation of local
film councils, forums, and the
like was commended, but critic-
ism was leveled at “certain in-
dividual i)romotional elements
without roots in either the film
industry or in its public, con-
cerned instead with private
ends, cloaked with alleged pub-
lic services.”

6. A warning was issued
against prints of (luestional)le
quality or title. All members are

June, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A Classroom Film
for

English Teachers

*^The 8 Parts of a
Business Letter”

1 REEL, SOUND, 16MM

Written and Directed
By William Letvin

Chairman, English Department
Weequahic High School, Newark

Produced hy Q. R. Taylor

Rental, $1.50 Sale Price, $24.00

INTERNATIONAL THEATRICAL &
TELEVISION CORPORATION

25 WEST 45th ST., NEW YORK 19

urged to render every possible
aid to the Copyright Protective
Bureau and similar “better bus-
iness” organs.

Six Divisions Formed

The most far-reaching of the
resolutions dealt with depart-
mentalization of the organiza-
tion along functional lines. Six
divisions were established, to fa-
cilitate “specific, self-activated
functioning in the (1) library,
(2) distributor, (3) laboratory,
(4) producer, (5) equipment
manufacturer and dealer, and
(6) pro.iection-service fields re-
spectively, and for any other
special-interest groups within
the organization which the fu-
ture may define.”

These “self - contained and
self-regulating divisions,” open
to any and all ANFA members,
are to formulate codes of ethics
and standards of performance
for their own respective fields,
all to be co-ordinated by the di-
rectors into a composite code
that is to govern the Association
and its members.

New Board Meets

At the close of the conven-
tion an inaugural “no speech”
luncheon was held, for members
only. An open meeting of the
combined old and new directors
and officers immediately fol-
lowed. The Board decided to
continue Wilfred L. Knighton
as Executive Secretary. Division
chairmen were nominated : Ed
Stevens (libraries), Sam Gold-
stein (distributors), H. 0. Jones
(equipment and dealers), G. H.
Cole (pro,jection services), Saul
Jeffe (laboratories), Tom Bran-
don and Fletcher Smith (pro-
ducers) . Committee to revise by-
laws— Stan Atkinson, with au-
thority to select co-members.
Committee o n collaboration
with NAVED— W. F. Kruse,
Bertram Willoughby, R. A.
Cousino, R. F. O’Neil, W. K.
Hedwig.

For the next convention nom-
inations are to be prepared by a
committee charged with the re-
sponsibility of finding candi-
dates well-qualified to represent
the various divisions and to fill
the offices.

The Public Relations appoint-
ments : Photographic Industry
Co-ordinating Committee — W.
F. Kruse, Clem Williams; Film
Council of America — W. F.
Kruse, Merriman Holtz ; Com-
mittee on Government Relations
— T. J. Brandon, H. 0. Jones,
W. L. Brady ; Publicity Commit-
tee, to be headed by president
with authority to select co-mem-
bers.

The selection of a considerable
number of officers and directors
from outside the New York
area makes necessary the recog-
nition of a New York quorum,
headed by the vice-chairman.
The general-membei’ship oi)en
meetings, heretofore held in
New York, will be continued as

A Text Film for
Physical Educators

‘^The Fundamentals of

BOXINQ”

1 REEL, SOUND, 16MM
With Carl Seibert
Written and Directed
By William Letvin

Chairman, English Department
Weequahic High School, Newark

Produced hy Q. R. Taylor

Rental, $1.50 Sale Price, $21.00

INTERNATIONAL THEATRICAL Cr
TELEVISION CORPORATION

25 WEST 45th ST., NEW YORK 19

advisory, non-legislative gath-
erings.

The next meeting of the
ANFA directors is scheduled
for Saturday, August 3rd, 10 A.
M., at Continental Hotel, Chica-
go, .just prior to the NAVED
convention.

At the banquet, which
jammed the Grand Ballroom of
Hotel New Yorker, Orton H.
Hicks, of Loew’s International,
served as Toastmaster. High-
lights of the brief after-dinner
program were the presentation
of a parting gift and a distin-
guished-service plaque to the re-
tiring president, Horace 0.
Jones, and the inaugural ad-
dress of president-elect Kruse.

This convention and trade
show is reported to have stimu-
lated considerable new interest
and enthusiasm among the
ANFA membership, which, cou-
pled with the broader connec-
tions represented by the Film
Council of America and the
PICC, is expected to extend
the inllueiice and membership
of the organization.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

New Coronet Instructional Films

Six new one-reel sound mo-
tion pictures for classroom use
are announced by CORONET In-
structional Films. These are :

JVe Discover the Dictionarn
Ancient World Inheritance
Knoic Yonr Librarn
BegUining Tumbl ing
Hoir to Stndg
Soccer for Giiis

All have been produced in nat-
ural color, with prints available
in color or black and white.
Each has been further checked
by actual use in classrooms.
Prints are available for preview
by those interested in purchas-
ing. Requests for preview prints
should be sent to CORONET In-
structional Films, 919 N. Michi-
gan Avenue, Chicago 11, Illinois.

The following are brief de-
scriptions of the six films men-
tioned above :

WE DISCOVER THE DICTION-
ARY— 1 reel, sound, color or
block and white.

Teaching of dictionary skills
in intermediate grades is an im-
portant unit often neglected be-
cause of the lack of proper ma-
terials for effective group in-
struction. This film, based on a
careful study of dictionary prob-
lems by Viola Theman, Ph.D.,
School of Education, Northwes-
tern University, is an answer
to this problem.

Important points regarding
dictionary usage are developed
in an interesting and natural
way by means of a simple story
concerning three students who
are assigned the task of writing
a letter to a police sergeant
thanking him for assisting the
class in their safety w^eek pro-
gram. P>y the time tlu' lettei' is
finished, they learn a great deal

A scene in "We Discover the
Dictionary."

about dictionaries, including use
of the guide words, finding the
spelling and definition of words,
reading diacritical marks, and
distinguishing many kinds of
dictionaries.

ANCIENT WORLD INHERI-
TANCE— 1 reel, sound, color or
block and white.

A scene in "Ancient World
Inheritance."

The film motivates and vital-
izes the study of ancient history
by relating the achievements of
ancient civilizations to institu-
tions of the modern world. By a
visual comparison of the ancient
with the modern, the student is
shown how such every-day arti-
cles as textiles, paper, agri-
cultural implements and ma-
chine's, and institutions like
writing and organized law are

inherited from the cultures of
the Egyptians, Babylonians, As-
syrians and other ancient peo-
ples.

The film was produced with
the cooperation of the Oriental
Institute of the University of
Chicago, under the direct super-
vision of Richard A. Parker of
the Institute’s staff. The Orien-
tal Institute’s priceless collec-
tion of ancient art objects, tools,
jewelry, coins and other objects,
as well as its reconstructions of
ancient buildings, were drawn
upon in the production of this
unusual film.

Ancient World Inheritance is
recommended for any unit re-
quiring an appreciation of an-
cient civilization, and is espe-
cially suitable for setting the
stage for a study of the early
Mediterranean civilizations.

KNOW YOUR LIBRARY— 1 reel,
sound, color or block and white.

Betty, like so many other
high-school students, was at a
loss trying to find her way in a
library. To her, it was just a
room full of books, and when
she tried to find some material
for her assignment in civics, it
was like looking for a needle in
a hay.stack. She took her trou-
bles to her cousin, John, two
years her senior. A library, John
told her, can really be a helpful
and interesting place, once you
know how^ to use it. He gave her
a few^ hints, so she went back
and discovered that, with the
aid of a friendly librarian, find-
ing the material she needed
wasn’t a difficult matter at all.
“It’s really very simple,’’ she
exclaims, as the film ends —
“wh(*n you know how.’’

Knoir Yonr Lib rang was pro-

June, 1946

ducecl in collaboration with Miss
Alice Lohrer, Assistant Profes-
sor of Library Science, Univer-
sity of Illinois, to aid other stu-
dents like Betty to whom a li-
brary is a bewildering or even
a fearsome place. Like her, they
will learn something of the over-
all organization of a typical high
school library, how to use the
card catalogue, the principles
of the Dewey Decimal System,
the arrangement of books on the
shelves, and how to use such
supplementary materials as the
encyclopedia, the Reader’s Guide
and the vertical file.

BEGINNING TUMBLING — 1
reel, sound, color or block and
white.

This film provides the ele-
mentary or secondary school
physical director with a tested,
practical means of class instruc-
tion in this valuable and increas-
ingly popular sport. By means
of careful demonstrations, with
frequent use of slow motion, the
film presents in logical sequence
the stunts which can be mas-
tered by beginning tumblers.
Twenty-three stunts and com-
binations are shown. Safety pre-
cautions as well as skills are em-
phasized throughout the film.

This film is one of a series
produced under the personal su-
pervision of Dr. Karl W. Book-
waiter and Mr. Otto Ryser of
Indiana University, using ex-
pert tumblers trained by them.
It is designed to integrate with
Intermediate Tumbling and Ad-
vanced Tumblmg, both recent
CORONET releases.

Beginning Tumbling is a com-
pletely remade edition of an
earlier coronet film of the same
title, which was available only
in black and white. Though con-
taining the same basic material
as the previous edition, it iiicoi’-
porates improvements in camera

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

A scene in "Beginning Tumbling."

technique and progression of
stunts developed through a care-
ful study of several years’ use
of the earlier film in actual
classrooms.

HOW TO STUDY-—! reel, sound,
color or black and white.

A scene in "How to Study."

Encouraging students to make
efficient use of study time is
perhaps one of the most perplex-
ing problems facing secondary
school education. This film, pro-
duced under the supervision of
Dr. William G. Brink, Profes-
sor of Education, Northwestern
University, and author of Di-
recting Study Activities in Sec-
ondary Schoids, is (lesigtied to
motivate better study habits as

well as to give jiractical hints on
study technique.

The material is developed
around the experiences of a
ninth grade student who is pre-
paring a report for a class in
civics. As we follow him through
the steps of preparing his re-
port, we see just how he budg-
ets his time to give adequate
attention to all his studies ; the
reading skills employed in skim-
ming, rapid reading, and care-
ful study; and location of refer-
ence material in the library and
other outside sources.

The film makes a powerful
appeal to the student by show-
ing in practical terms how study
is made more pleasant and prof-
itable through cultivation of
proper techniques.

SOCCER FOR GIRLS — 1 reel,
sound, color or black and white.

Produced at Trenton State
Teachers College, under the su-
pervision of Miss Marjorie Fish
of that institution, this film
demonstrates the basic skills of
soccer in a game-like situation,
using skilled girl players. Each
fundamental skill is broken
down in easy-to-learn detail,
with closeups and slow motion
wherever needed to clarify a
point.

The techniques of the various
kinds of traps, dribbles and
passes are clearly shown, and
their application to game situa-
tions is indicated. An exciting-
action sequence at the end of
the film acts as a review of all
of the points shown in the reel.

Other new CORONET Instruc-
tional Films will be announced
each month. Those who wish to
receive the announcements of
the new films, as released,
should request this service from
CORONET Instructional Film s,
ill!) N. Michigan Av(‘iiu(', Chi-
cago 11, Illinois.

(jHeei

BETTY AND BILLY,

. . . the stars of Living Together in the U. S. A., our firs
black and white TEACH-O-FILMSTRIP production. Bett;
and Billy appear in all of the 8 Filmstrips comprisin;
this series, desijined for use in Social Studies classes ii
the Middle Grades.

These teach-o-filmstrips are particularly valuahL
for classroom use because each . . .

. . . is a self-contained teaching unit
. . . is a tailor-made job with I4rd original photograph
. . . was conceived, planned and written by experiencec
classroom teachers

. . . will he accompanied by a functional Teaching Guid(j
which will include a photographic reproduction o
the Filmstrip in its entirety.

TOtiKTHKU t\ TH K U. S. A.

OUR COUNTRY, ITS RESOURCES AND ITS
WORKERS

THE STORY OF OUR FOOD, Parts MI
HOW WE ARE CLOTHED
OUR HOMES AND OUR COMMUNITIES
COMMUNICATION IN OUR COUNTRY^
TRANSPORTATION IN OUR COUNTRY
PLAY AND RECREATION IN OUR COUNTRY
Price of each 45-framc teach-o-filmstrip, including
FREE Teaching Guide: $2.50

\tnr Arailtihlv far JPrintari/ firatlvs
1 TKACH -O-FILMSTHl PS IN COLOR.

These TEACii-o-FiLMSTRlPS Contain only original drav
ings in vivid colors, which, when combined with word
provide direct word-picture association. Each TEACH-(
Fii.MSTRiP will he aeconij)anied by a Teaching Guid

STORY OF Heidi -44 Frames

FTIN \\ ITH MITZIE — 41 Frames

THE LOST DOG -40 Frames

LET’S MAKE A POST OFFICE -38 Frames

Price of each teacii-o-filmstrip story in color, inclui
ing the FREE Teaching Guide: $5.(

AUDIO-VISUAL DIVISION

POPULAR SCIENCE PUBLISHING CO.
353 FOURTH AVE., NEW YORK 10, N. Y.

'^EACH-O-Disc Classroom Recordings arc favored by
teachers in Elementary, Junior and Senior High
Schools as an invaluable auditory aid and adjunct to
coui'ses in English, Speech, Literature, Drama, History
and Social Studies because they . . .

, . . illuminate and interpret what is read
. . . stimulate the use of good spoken English
. . . create the habit of good reading
. . . lead to wider reading of good literature
. . . bring history to life
. . . arouse student interest

. . . are a relaxing change from classroom routine

~ I-UG 646

A I T l» I O - V I S I, l» I > I S I O IV

Popular Science Publishing Co.
353 Fourth Ave., New York 10, N. Y.

I WIVH TO OKDElt:

■ TEACH-O-FILMSTRIPS (check in advt.)

■ TRI-PURPOSE PROJECTOR

■ TEACH-O-DISCS (check in a.ivt.)

■ PORTABLE ELECTRIC PHONOGRAPH

I Payment Enelosed H C. O. D. H Bill

PLEASE SEND ME, without cost or obliga-
tion, information about

■ TEACH-O-FILMSTRIPS

■ TEACH-O-DISCS

■ TRI-PURPOSE PROJECTOr.

■ PORTABLE ELECTRIC PHOINOGRAPH

Snmt» __ _

Subject Taught -

School

Address.

TEACH-o-Disc Classroom Recordings bring you a care-
fully selected library of the great classics of English
literature by Longfellow, Dickens, Tennyson, Gold-
smith, Brownfng, Shakespeare, Scott and others; as
well as dramatizations of momentous events in Ameri-
can History, written by Marquis James, the noted
Pulitzer Prize winner.

The Subjects— The Courtship of Miles Standish (202 ) ,
Paul Revere ( 152-153 ) , Drafting the Constitution (159-
160), A Christmas Carol (130-131), Evangeline (123-
124), Man Without a Country (101-102), Patrick
Henry (151-152), Macbeth (103), etc. — have been
selected from the syllalii of the various states, with the
advice and assistance of teachers and school adminis-
trators. These selections have been vividly and accu-
rately interpreted by professional actors.

TEACH-O-DISCS are 12-inch, double-faced records of
78 r.p.m. prepared especially as a teaching medium for
school use. They may he played on any standard phono-
graph or transcription macliine. TEACH-O-DISCS comple-
ment the textbooks and courses of study; they are not
a substitute.

There are now available 75 teach-o-discs ( 134 titles)
for use in Elementary, Junior and Senior High Schools.
Each teach-o-disc will he accompanied by a functional
Teaching Guide.

Price of each teach-o-disc including the FREE Teach-
ing Guide: $2.50

Zone-

. State

l^IJRPOSE PRO.TECTOR

for single- or double-frame 35
, Filmstripa and 2" x 2" slides,
liable for immediate delivery.
76.75 f.o.b. Ntar York.

EMRRANRT PORTAra.E^A
LECTRIG PHONOGRAPH^

as built-in record carrying eom-
nt. Available for tmmedi-
livery. #48.90 L-o.b. New
ncluding Federal tax.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

Extraordinary Conference on
Children's Theatre

AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL THEATRE ASSOCIATION
MEETING AT UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, SEATTLE
AUGUST 2, 3, 4, 5, 1946

Friday, August 2

9:50-12:00 A.M. Identification
Meeting, Guggenheim Hall.
George Savage, Department of
English, Presiding.

Carl Lucks, Seattle Junior Pro-
grams, Chairman.

Participants: All v'ho are regis-
tered.

1:40-2:20 P. M. Formal Open-
ing, Gnggenheini Hall.

D. I). Griffith, Department of
English, Presiding.

Welcome — D e a n Edward H.
Lauer, College of Arts and Sci-
ences.

“Children’s Theatre in Seattle.”
Ethel Hensen, Seattle Public
Schools.

2:20-4:00 P. M. Theatre for
Children — A Sgmpo.mum, Gug-
genheim Hall.

Louise C. Horton, Children’s
Theatre, Royal Oak, Michigan,
Chairman.

“The Audience,” Charlotte B.
Chorpenning, Goodman Theatre,
Chicago; “Planning a Year’s
Program,” Winifred W a r d.
Northwestern University, Ev-
anston, Illinois ; “Interpretation
Through Design,” Roy Morgan,
Palo Alto Children’s Theatre,
Palo Alto, California; “Inter-
pretation Through Directing
and Acting,” Hazel Robertson,
Palo Alto Children’s Theatre.

8:00-10:00 P. M. Writing for
Children (Theatre and Radio),
Meuny Hall.

Virginia Lee Comer, AETA
Ciuldreii’s Theatre Chairman,

Chairman.

Participants : Charlotte B. Chor-
penning, Goodman Theatre, Chi-
cago; Hazel Robertson, Palo
Alto Children’s Theatre; Sara
Spencer Campbell, Children’s
Theati’e Press; Nora Tully Mac-
A 1 V a y. Playwright ; Martha
King, Playwright; Gloria
Chandler, Consultant on Radio,
Association of Junior Leagues
of America ; Helen Platt, Radio
Script Writer.

Saturday, August 3
Group Meetings

10:00-11:30 A. M. 1. Puppetry,
Philosophy Hail.

Chairman: Dorothea Jackson,
Seattle Public Schools.

II. Creative Dramatics, Philos-
ophy Hall.

Chairman : Howard S. Lease,
Seattle Junior League, Seattle
Junior Programs.

Demonstration : Nancy Taft
Smuck, Seattle Public Schools.
Discussion Leader: Winifred
Ward, Northwestern University.
Participants: John Lehman,
P o r 1 1 a n d, Oregon, Public
Schools; Virginia Dorris, Asso-
ciation of Junior Leagues; Mil-
dred Harter Wirt, Gary, Indi-
ana; Geraldine B. Siks, Thorp,
Washington.

III. Play Production Techniqties,
Commerce Hcdl.

Chairman: Roy Morgan, Palo
Alto Children’s Theatre.
Participants: Bette Anderson,
Seattle Repertory Theatre; Vir-

ginia Dorris, Association of Ju-
nior Leagues; Charlotte Chor-
penning, Goodman Theatre;
Barbara Foley, University of
Washington; Bernice Riehl, Col-
lege of Puget Sound, Tacoma
Little Theatre; Pricilla Klepser,
Cornish School, Seattle.

1:30-3:00 P. M. Play 'for Chil-
dren: Shoud)oat, at University.
Analysis : Chairman : Lowell
Lees, University of Utah.
Participants : Hazel Robertson,
Palo Alto Children’s Theatre ;
Sara Campbell Spencer, Chil-
dren’s Theatre Press; Charlotte
Chorpenning, Goodman Theatre,
Chicago; Sarah Truax Albert,
Seattle, Washington.

3:30-5:00 P. M. I. Community
Organization, Philosophy Hall.
Chairman : M r s. George C.
Nickum, Seattle Junior League,
Seattle Junior Programs.
Participants: Virginia Lee Co-
mer, Association of Junior
Leagues; Louise Horton, Royal
Oak Children’s Theatre; Ben
Evans, Seattle Park Depart-
ment; John Richards, Seattle
Public Library; Lela Hall, Seat-
tle Housing Authority; Mrs.
Arthur Young, Seattle Art Mu-
seum; Irene Belcher, Muncie,
Indiana, Children’s Theatre;
Mrs. Clarence Muth, Wauwa-
tosa, Wisconsin, Children’s The-
atre; Anna Best Joder, Chey-
enne, Wyoming, Children’s The-
atre.

II. ('hddren’s Theatre and the
High Schools, Commerce Hall,

June, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Chairman : Mrs. Burdette Fitz-
gerald, East Bay Children’s
Theatre Association, Oakland,
California.

Participants : Hazel Robertson,
Palo Alto Children’s Theatre;
Nora Tully MacAlvay, Ham-
mond, Indiana ; Ivard Strauss,
Seattle Public Schools, Tryout
Theatre.

III. Childrev’s Theatre and the
Colleges.

Chairman : Barnard Hewitt,
Brooklyn College, New York.
Participants: Winifred Ward,
Northwestern University; C.
Lowell Lees, University of
Utah; Frank Whiting, Univer-
sity of Minnesota ; Ann Mat-
lack, University of Denver; Bar-
bara Foley, University of Wash-
ington.

8:30 P. M. Penthouse, Show-
boat, and Ti'i/out Theatre Pro-
ductions.

Reservations must be made in
advance. Write to the Depart-
ment of Drama, University of
Washington, for reservations
for the Penthouse and Show-
boat — to Tryout Theatre, 1316
East 42nd, Seattle 5, Washing-
ton.

Sunday, Augusf 4

2:00-3:00 P. M. Social Values in
Children’s Theatre, Guggenheim
Hall.

Address by George Freedley,
Curator Theatre Collection, New
York Public Library, Author
and Critic.

3:00-4:30 P. M. Group Meet-
ings, Guggenheim Hall.

1. Problems of a. Centralized
Childj-en’s Theatre.

Chairman ; Sara Spencer Camp-
bell, Children’s Theatre Press,
Anchorage, Kentucky.
Participants: Winifred Ward,
Northwestern University;
Frank Whiting, University of
Minnesota; Mrs. Burdette P''itz-

gerald. East Bay Children’s
Theatre ; Louise Horton, Royal
Oak Children’s Theatre ; Flor-
ence James, Seattle Repertory
Theatre; Nora T. MacAlvay,
Hammond, Indiana ; Mrs. Earl
Bloxom, Yakima, Washington.

11. Problems of a, Trowping Chil-
dren’s Theatre.

Chairman : Miss Gloria Chand-
ler, Association of Junior
Leagues.

Participants : Roy Morgan, Palo
Alto Children’s Theatre; Mrs.
Hamilton Meserve, Los Angeles ;
Mrs. Bruce Elmore, Jr., Shel-
ton, Washington.

Monday, August 5

8:30-9:50 A. M. Enrichment of
Children’s Theatre Through Ra-
dio and Film. Guggenheim Hall.
Chairmen : Gloria Chandler, Ha-
zel Robertson.

Participants : B et t y M e a r s
Meiggs, Los Angeles, Califor-
nia; William Ladd, Seattle Pub-
lic Schools ; Helen Platt, Port-
land, Oregon ; Emily Benton
Frith, Hollywood, California ;
Donald McQuade, Seattle.

9:50-11:30 A. M. 1. Showing of
film, “Titian,” Guggenheim
Hall.

Miss Robei’tson, Mrs. Chorpen-
ning.

11. Playing of Radio T)-anscrip-
tions. Philosophy Hall.

Books Bring Adventure, Read-
ing is Fun, Let Freedom Ring.
Discussion : Gloria Chandler,
Helen Platt, William Ladd, Mrs.
A. B. Blackburn, Seattle, P.T.A.

9:50-12:30 Individual Confer-
ences.

Speakers on the Conference will
be available for individual or
group conferences.

1 :00 P. M. Luncheon: The Con-
sensus— Glenn Hughes, Univer-
sity of Washington, Meany Ho-
tel.

3:00 P. M. Once Upon a, Clothes-
line, by Aurand Harris, Seattle
Repertory Theatre.

Analysis : Chairman : Martha
King. Participants : Charlotte
Chorpenning, Winifred Ward,
Hazel Robertson, Virginia Lee
Comer, Sara Spencer, Gloria
Chandler.

OFFICIALS

Virginia Lee Comer, Director
of the Children’s Theatre Con-
ference.

Mrs. George Savage, Assist-
ant Director.

Minnette Proctor, Executive
Secretary, Division of Adult Ed-
ucation, University of Washing-
ton, Seattle 5, Washington.

★ ★ ★

JULIUS CAESAR

For an 8-page, illustrat'ed
guide to scenes from Shake-
speare's "Julius Caesar" and
' Mocbeth," a British Informa-
tion Services film available in
16mm from Eastin Pictures Co.,
send 25c to FILM & RADIO
GUIDE, 172 Renner Avenue,
Nework 8, N. J.

25% Discount
On Orders for 5
or More Suh-
scriptions to One
Address

FILM & RADIO
QUIDE

172 Renner Avenue
Newark 8, N. J.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

Teachers Look at the Movies

Reviews by Frederick Houk Law, Carolyn Harrow,
Benjamin Harrow, and Flora Rheta Schreiber

ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM.
Oriental romance. 20th-Fox. John Crom-
well, Director. Based upon the biography
by Margaret London. Screen Play by
Talbot Jennings and Sally Benson. En-
thusiastically recommended.

The influence of a teacher in
shaping the affairs of the world
seldom has had better presenta-
tion than in Anna and the King
of Siam. One woman teacher
helped to liberate an entire na-
tion from the semi-barbaric cus-
toms of the past and turn a
whole people toward moderniza-
tion, not because she intended to
be a reformer, but merely be-
cause she tried to help children
over whom she was placed.

Anna and the King of Siam
takes high place as a motion
picture because, like the popular
biography upon which it is
based, it has originality, novelty
of scene and action, strikingly
interesting characters, the ap-
pealing human interest that
awakens sympathy, high spirit
and thought-provoking matter.
The events, that from the time
of Adam have amused mankind,
show a woman standing upon
her dignity and making even a
king do what she wishes. Un-
usual costuming and elaborate
oriental stage-sets add to the in-
terest of the film. The entire
production, made on a lavish
scale, “clicks.”

Anna Owens, a n English
woman (Irene Dunne), in 1862
goes to the little-visited land of
Siam to teach the King’s chil-
dren. The King (Rex Harrison)
has learnetl English, and wishes
to lu’ing better conditions to his

land. In spite of all his desire to
ape the Europeans, he remains
an oriental despot, wielding
power of life or death. Through
a long period of years, the spir-
ited English teacher, gifted
with quick temper as well as
keen ability, brings about great
changes in the ruler and in the
land.

Both Irene Dunne and Rex
Harrison play their parts su-
perbly. So, too, do Linda Dar-
nell, Lee Cobb, Gale Sonder-
gaard, Richard Lyon, Mickey
Roth, and many others.

World travellers may say that
the persons of the motion pic-
ture do not look or act exactly
like Siamese; historians may
say that the story slightly dis-
torts facts of history ; motion
picture goers will say, “This IS
a good play!”

F. H. LAW

A Woman's View of “Anno and
the King of Siom"

History offers the screen u
dramatic situation in the fact
that an English widow became
governess to the royal children
of Siam and used her influence
towards changing some barbaric
practices. The costumes, set-
tings, and customs called for
months o f research, which
makes the film extremely worth-
while from the educational
standpoint.

Irene Dunne looked and acted
the coquettish, pretty, petulant
flapper. I couldn’t see in her a
l)ersonality who would introduce
reforms. But Rex Hai'i'ison was
matchless in his interpretation

of the temperamental, intellec-
tually-confused monarch.

CAROLYN HARROW

★ ★ ★

CENTENNIAL SUMMER. 20th-Fcx.
Romance of 1876. Otto Preminger, Di-
rector. Based on a novel by Albert E.
Idell. Screen play by Michael Kani...
Strongly recommended.

A delightful, old-fashioned,
musical romance concerning the
great Philadelphia Centennial of
1876, replete with Technicolor
and the charming feminine cos-
tumes of seventy years ago, tells
the story of the rivalry of two
sisters for the love of a young
French exhibitor. Music, song,
and dancing lighten the entire
action, all together producing a
peculiarly pleasing effect.

We see the railroad engines
of that period, and one of the
“amazing wonders of science,”
a magic lantern that throws pic-
tures upon a screen. “What will
science do next!” someone ex-
claims. This particular film well
might have shown the first pub-
lic exhibition of the Bell tele-
phone— but it didn’t.

As Philippe Lascalles, exhib-
iting the products and the life
of France, Cornel Wilde is vi-
brant, light-hearted, and thoi’-
OLighly in romantic character.
Two Philadelphia belles (Jeanne
Crain and Linda Darnell) set
out to ensnare the fascinating
foreigner. Resorting to every
trick that they know, they show
what young women in love can
do. A worldly-wise relative
(Constance Bennett), who can

June, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Harry Sfradling, MGM ace, with the gold "Oscar" awarded to him in 1946 for best black-and-white cinematography in 1945^

based on his photography of "The Picture of Dorian Gray," directed by Albert Lewin,

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

trap any man, gives them help-
ful hints.

As Jesse Rogers, actually a
switchman, but posing as “a
railroad man,” Walter Brennan
gives his best performance to
date, ably aided by Dorothy Gish
as his wife.

One interesting episode shows
President Grant (Reginald
Sheffield) speaking to a Cen-
tennial audience.

All in all, Ceuteiniial Si<nimer
is a most amusing, colorful, and
pleasing production.

F. H. LAW

★ ★ ★

MONSIEUR BEAUCAIRE. Satiric force,
based on the novel by Booth Torkington.
Poromount. George Marshall, director.

It is rather a refreshing idea
to make a satire of this long-
cherished romance about the
barber who was in reality a
prince. Obviously, the teacher
can have the class do some re-
search to discover what of the
original the script writers have
retained for purposes of farce.
With Bob Hope as the lead.
Paramount has made a buffoon
of the hero and a rollicking cir-
cus of the plot.

If you can be amused by
horseplay derived from placing
a pauper in a prince’s shoes, and
if it will tickle you to hear twen-
tieth-century slang spoken at
the court of Louis XV, you will
get a great kick out of the mod-
ern version of Monsieur Beau-
caire. But if speech anachron-
isms and beggar-as-king plot
strike you as time-worn, you
may be bored.

CAROLYN HARROW

Editor’s Note: When pre-
viewed at Westwood, California,
before an audience of high-
school and college students.
Monsieur Beuucaire caused so
much laughter that whole
lengths (jf dialog were fi’e-
quently drowned out.

SPECTER OF THE ROSE. Psychological
drama of a bollet dancer. Written, pro-
duced, and directed by Ben Hecht for
Republic release. Highly recommended
for mature students.

(1) Ben Hecht’s Specter of
the Rose is what we have come
to expect from the better Con-
tinental studios and what we
rarely get from Hollywood : a
mature story, artistically de-
picted. None of the players be-
longs to the “star” group, and
yet each actor has been picked
with care by Hecht to convey
his impression. Three cheers for
Hecht and his American group!

BENJAMIN HARROW

(2) This is one of the most

artistic films in any language.
The script has humor and lit-
erary flavor; the acting shows
great talent; the direction ex-
hibits a gift for the dramatic
and subtle. What with beautiful
dancing, in addition to every-
thing else, we have a movie ap-
liealing to the esthetic sense as
well as to the intellect. In this
picture Hollywood, v i a Ben
Hecht, has achieved a master-
piece. CAROLYN HARROW

(3) It was a compelling de-
velopment of a psychological
theme, and I found myself think-
ing about it a great deal after-
wards. Each one of the charac-
ters played into that central
theme remarkably well.

LENORE VAUGHN-EAMES

(4) Ben Hecht’s Specter of
the Rose is an important film.
Not because subjective imagery
and peculiar film syntax are
new or unique. They are used
infrequently and then generally
in quiet places, off the main
thoroughfare of film produc-
tion. This kind of imagery is
what the avant-garde movement
.strove for throughout the twen-
ties. I am thinking of such
ava nt-gardists as Hans Richter,
Fernand Leger, V’alter Rutt-

man, Rene Clair, Jean Renoir,
Man Ray, Jean Cocteau. The
movement was quiescent during
the thirties, except for such oc-
casional rumblings as Cocteau’s
Blood of a Poet. Today (still
quietly) Hans Richter, Max
Ernst, Fernand Leger, Alexan-
der Calder, Marcel Duchamp,
and Man Ray are working in col-
laboration on an experimental
avant-garde film. Other con-
temporary esoteric film activity
is being carried on by Maya
Deren, an experimentalist who
has turned out three searching
film.s — Meshes of the Afternoon,
A Study in Choreography for
Camera and At Lan/l. Miss De-
ren is in no way concerned with
telling a story nor with enter-
tainment in the accepted sense.
Her whole purpose is to add a
dimension of profundity to our
perception of the world through
the use of cinematic idiom.

The importance of Specter of
the Rose is that here, as in The
Scoundrel and Tales of Manhat-
tan, Hecht uses the poetic cine-
matic image right on the main
thoroughfare of film produc-
tion. The present film is import-
ant, too, because, while the
avant-gardists were for the most
part content with film poetry
alone, it combines this poeti’y
with a story. The soul is there
but there is body, too. A body
which popular audiences can ap-
preciate and enjoy.

FLORA RHETA SCHREIBER

DEAD OF NIGHT. Psychalagical
drama. Directars, Cavalcanti, Charles
Crichton, Basil Deardon, and Robert
Hamer. British film released by Univer-
sal. Recammended.

When an English picture is
good, it is superlatively good.
This happens to be the case with
Dead of Night, in which each of
four characters relates the mo.st
startling incident of his life. The
stories are engrossing and in-

June, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

tensely dramatic. As in so many
English pictures, the mood of
the film is created at the start,
and one feels at once that the
film will be of a high order.

American audiences will get
the lines readily, for the diction
is unusually clear and distinct.
At his best is Michael Redgrave ;
in fact, the entire cast is excel-
lent. A middle-aged mother, who
comes in for a brief moment,
does a delicious bit of comedy.

High praise should be award-
ed the directors for a most ar-
tistic job and to the script writ-
ers for dialog that has distinc-
tion.

CAROLYN HARROV^

★ ★ ★

WITHOUT RESERVATIONS. RKO.
Wandering rail and road story. Screen
play by Andrew Solt. Mervyn LeRoy, Di-
rector. From a novel by Jane Allen end
Mae Livingston.

Much as in her triumphant
picture. It Happened One Night,
Claudette Colbert, in Without
Reservations, goes wandering
across the United States in im-
promptu adventures by railroad
and highways, in company with
an amused man of the world, in
this case John Wayne instead
of Clark Gable.

Setting out as a suddenly fa-
mous author of a popular novel,
Claudette Colbert, as Kit Mad-
den, hears a Marine flyer harsh-
ly criticize her book. Without
telling him who she is, she tries
to convince him that he is
wrong. Argument leads to be-
lief that the big Marine is just
the man to play the principal
part in the screen production of
her novel. In following him she
loses baggage and money. Put
off the train in the desert South-
west, she — a n d two faithful
Marines — have many wander-
ing adventures. They buy a sec-
ond-hand automobile, manage to
make it go, become guests at a
ranch inhabited by a numerous

family of Mexicans. They learn
what the inside of a jail is like,
and ultimately reach Hollywood.

Up to that point the director
has given the story amusing ac-
tion and lively interest, but from
then on he has permitted the
episodes to drag. Audiences like
action and event rather than
slow development.

Claudette Colbert plays her
part with all the charm and
youthful spirit that she had in
It Happened One Night. Her
vivacious personality and the
amused goodnature of the big
Marine, “Rusty” (John Wayne),
make the picture a success. In-
cidentally, Louella Parsons her-
self takes part in the picture,
broadcasting her gossip.

F. H. LAW

★ ★ ★

VACATION FROM MARRIAGE. MGM.
British wartime romance. Alexander
Korda, Director. Based on a story by
Clemence Dane. Screenplay by Clem-
ence Dane and Anthony Pelissier.

Vacation from Marriage illus-
trates remarkably well some of
the ways in which British film
direction differs from American
direction. Because of that, the
film gives students of the mo-
tion picture an unusual oppor-
tunity to suggest what cuts
should be made, or what plot ad-
ditions should be devised, if the
film is to be brought into line
with standard American mo-
tion-picture production.

The general fault is a slow-
ness that is extremely irritating
to American motion-picture aud-
iences. That fact, combined with
the marked British accents and
mannerisms of the actors, Rob-
ert Donat and Deborah Kerr,
makes the picture “foreign” to
United States viewers.

According to the story, a hap-
pily married British couple live
staid and routine lives, each
thinking the other wholly de-
pendent upon marriage. At the

coming of war the methodical
husband enters the British navy,
and the equally methodical wife
becomes a “Wren.” Several
years of war serve to wake each
of them to really vibrant per-
sonality. When at last they meet,
each one wishing divorce, they
discover that both at last really
live.

The story is both good and
amusing, but the heavy hand of
mistaken direction all but de-
stroys general interest.

F. H. LAW

* ★ A

"IT'S WANTON MURDER!" Tragedy
of automobile carelessness. American
Transit Association.

First presented in Washing-
ton, D. C., before President Tru-
man, the American Transit As-
sociation’s short film on safe
driving had its first public
showing in the Waldorf-Astoria
Hotel in New York City. The
distinguished company of in-
vited guests represented the
principal street and highway
transportation companies of the
United States.

By wide distribution of the
film in all states, the American
Transit Association hopes to do
much to remedy the evils
brought about by careless driv-
ing. Automobile killings, now at
the rate of 40,000 annually,
threaten to rise beyond the num-
ber of men killed per year in the
height of war. Automobile acci-
dents maim and cripple more
than a million persons a year.

Lowell Thomas, news com-
mentator, tells the story of a
soldier who escapes the hazards
of battle in war, rejoins his wife
and child, and almost at once
meets death because of a care-
less driver.

Because of its high educa-
tional value, It’s Wanton Mur-
der! is one of the most import-
ant shorts.

F. H. LAW

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

A meeting of the Memphis Central High School Photoplay Club, spring term, 1946, under the supervision of Corinne J. Gladding,
pioneer teacher of photoplay appreciation and sponsor of notable amateur film productions.

BADMAN'S TERRITORY. RKO. Bring-
ing low to Oklahoma. Melodrama. Screen
play by Jack Natteford and Luci Ward.
Tim Whelan, Director.

For much more than fifty
years Jesse James and the Dal-
tons have provided writers of
penny dreadfuls and of melo-
dramatic “westerns” with gal-
loping material about despera-
dos of the lurid West. In Bad-
man’s Territory the bandits ride
again, thudding their horses up
and down Oklahoma hills, shoot-
ing on every occasion, robbing a
bank, defying law and order,
and trying in vain to hold back
the coming of civilization.

Badman’s Territory, the nar-
row strip of what is now Okla-
homa just above the most north-
ren part of Texas, was a region
seemingly forgotten by govern-
ment, a natural refuge for law-
less men. To the extent that the
motion picture tells how, in
President Benjamin Harrison’s
administration, this last fron-
tier of do-as-you-please came
under law and order, the mo-
tion picture is historical. For the
rest, it is wild melodrama, with
Randolph Scott as the fearless
Texas sheriff who shoots from
the hip and is ready to face any-

one at any time. And there, of
course, is the lovely Ann Rich-
ards as the daring woman
newspaper editor who proposes,
single handed, to reform all
evils. All through the long se-
ries of desperate actions George
“Gabby” Hayes, bearded and
toothless, takes the limelight,
ready to ride with train robbers
or bank robbers, or to help the
noble hero.

Small boys and dime-novel
experts will rejoice in this wild
western — and who shall forbid
them? F. H. LAW

★ ★ ★

NIGHT AND DAY. Biographical mu-
sical. Warner Bros. Michael Curtiz, Di-
rector. Based on the career of Cole Por-
ter. Screen ploy by Charles Hoffman,
Leo Townsend and William Bowers.

Rich in Technicolor scenes of
great beauty; full of music,
song, and dance ; charming with
lovely costumes and beautiful
young women ; carrying a ro-
mantic story that holds inter-
est; and overflowing with the
drinking of all kinds of liquor.
Night (Old Day is a particularly
lively two-and-a-quarter-h our
picture.

Although the narrative takes
liberties here and there, in gen-

eral it holds true to the life story
of the distinguished composer
and lyricist. Cole Porter. Cary
Grant presents a strong por-
trait of the popular writer of
songs, musical hits, and motion
pictures ; Alexis Smith plays his
wife, Linda Lee Porter; and
Monty Woolley, who actually
was once an Assistant Profes-
sor at Yale, enacts himself. The
strong cast also includes Henry
Stephenson, Dorothy Malone,
Jane Wyman, and Selena Royle.

Aside from all interest in
present-day biography. Night
and Day stands out as a partic-
ularly good production pre-
sented with lavish beauty and
kaleidoscopic stage-scenes that
show the nature of Cole Porter’s
popular work. The art of the
motion picture gives new beauty
and new and powerful effects to
the long series of Cole Porter’s
musical comedies. The stage and
dancing numbers make superb
appeal. It is a pity that so much
charm is mixed with so much
presentation of liquor as a so-
cial custom.

In spite of its unusual length
Night and Day holds one’s at-
tention and constantly diverts
by change of event, purpose, and

June, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

tempo. Without lacking unity or
singleness of action, it presents
a broad and varying scene, in-
cluding classrooms and walks at
Yale, snow scenes, home life,
foreign life, and all the life of
the theater.

One who misses Night and
Dag will lose much pleasure.

F. H. LAW

★ ★ ★

THE PALE HORSEMAN. Produced by
Unit-ed Films. Released by Brandon
Films, Inc., in cooperation with UNRRA.
Written and produced by Irving Jacoby.
1 ? minutes. Rental $2.50 per day in
1 6 mm.

Pestilence, the fourth horse-
man of the Apocalypse, rides in
the wake of war and inflicts sor-
row upon millions of innocent
children and adults. No one can
see the documentary film that
reveals present conditions in
lands prostrated by the Second
World War, without feeling
keenly the intimate personal
misery that war causes. The pic-
tures are not morbid, but they
horrify. They stir one to do
something now to make war less
possible, and to help feed the
starving.

Herbert H. Lehman, former
Director-General of UNRRA,
recommends wide showing of
the film as an aid to support
the National Emergency Food
Collection Drive for starving
countries.

F. H. LAW

★ ★ ★

THE SAILOR TAKES A WIFE. MGM.
Home-making comedy. Richard Whorf,
Director. Screen ploy by Chester Erskine,
Anne Morrison, Annie M. Chapin, and
Whitfield Cook. For adults.

Those who at the present
time seek homes will feel grim
humor in seeing the troubles of
a newly married couple who find
themselves in quarters where
the elevator sticks between
floors, the windows and doors

refuse to open, the roof leaks,
and the other tenants are noisy.
With practically no furniture,
and with constant distractions,
the bride and groom (Robert
Walker and June Allyson) lose
their tempers and all but lose
each other.

Obviously, this is a farce
based upon gross exaggeration.
From the crude materials that
he had, the director, Richard
Whorf, made the most, especial-
ly in his use of the self-operat-
ing, always-sticking elevator,
and the noisy janitor-man-of -all-
work.

Perhaps no farce ever is high-
ly artistic : certainly this one is
not. F. H. LAW

SOMEWHERE IN THE NIGHT. Melo-
drama of lost identity. 20th-Fox. Joseph
L. Mankiewicz, Director. From a story by
Marvin Borowsky. Screen play by How-
ard Dimsdale and Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

How would you like to be un-
certain who you are, to wonder
if you are really you, to try in
vain to remember past events,
old friends and old associates?
That is the condition in which
John Hodiak as the central per-
son in Somewhere in the Night
found himself. The motion pic-
ture tells of his unceasing search
to identify himself. The play
holds its climax well, keeping
the audience just as much be-
wildered as the main character.

Such a situation unites Some-
where in the Night with other
recent films about the subcon-
scious, lost personality, hypno-
tism, and restoration to normal
sanity.

Unfortunately for psychiatry.
Somewhere in the Night makes
the hero do things that certainly
no sane person would dare to
do, walk knowingly into all
kinds of dangers, and to cap all,
take a defenseless young woman
down to the docks late at night
and go prowling about in the

known habitat of dangerous
men. Such escapades make
Somewhere in the Night unrea-
sonably melodramatic.

A detective (Lloyd Nolan),
gifted with information, always
calm, always on the spot in case
of need, appearing to be as fear-
less of danger as the hero him-
self, finally helps the distressed
man to answer the riddle, “Who
am I?” Nancy Guild, as Christy,
supplies the romantic angle, and
she, too, dares to go anywhere
at any time and face anybody.
Incidentally a bag containing
two million dollars leads to a
murder and to a great deal of
other trouble. Certainly the pic-
ture is exciting enough, and
far enough away from reality.
Interesting to say, Somerset
Maugham helped to improve
some of the episodes.

F. H. LAW

★ ★ ★

THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA
IVERS. Melodrama. Paromount. Directed
by Lewis Milestone.

This well-plotted story is de-
veloped in a thoroughly absorb-
ing manner and the acting is
highly competent. Kirk Douglas,
in his debut, makes an excellent
impression.

In the character of the hero-
ine there was an opportunity to
present an interesting study of
an iron woman, but all the char-
acterizations are on the surface.
The dialogue is lacking in dis-
tinction.

When the heroine and her
weakling of a husband meet
death, I felt this ending was a
sop to the Censor’s office, which
probably would insist that
Martha’s aunt be avenged. But
I wonder if a fatal beating up
wasn’t coming to the aunt. Af-
ter all, she had brutally clubbed
her niece’s cat, an act which
would rouse any lover of i)ets to
commit murder.

CAROLYN HARROW

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

Audio-Visual Who's Who

No. 54: David E. Strom

David E. Strom, director of
the Audio-Visual Aids Center at
tlm University of Connecticut,
was born in Hamilton, Montana,
on October 13, 1910. He attended
the public schools of St. Paul,
Minnesota, graduating from
Johnson High School in 1928.
He was a student at the Univer-
sity of Minnesota intermittent-
ly from 1929 through 1934, ma-
joring in Social Studies in the
School of Education. In Septem-
ber, 1934, he became director
of the Audio-Visual Aids De-
partment of the Minneapolis
Public Schools, and held this po-
sition until he resigned in De-
cember, 1941, to come to the
University of Connecticut.

Like many others in the held
of audio-visual aids, Strom be-
lieves strongly in the contribu-
tion that hlms and radio can
make to instruction. His convic-
tions in this connection became
increasingly strong during the
years he was working his way
through the University of Min-
nesota, in the commercial enter-
tainment motion-picture field.

As director of the Audio-Vis-
ual Aids Center at the Univer-
sity of Connecticut, Strom’s
work has four major aspects :

(1) The operation of an au-
dio-visual material service to
the State to help promote the de-
velopment of this held. Because
of its recent beginning and war-
time limitations, the Center at
present circulates only radio
transcriptions and motion-pic-
ture hlms.

(2) Operation of a campus
.service facility wherein any
member of the staff of the Uni-
versity may call on the Center

David E. Strom, director of audio-visual
aids at the University of Connecticut.

for help in securing audio-visual
aids and equipment. This also
includes service to .student or-
ganizations. This phase of the
Center works closely with Agri-
culture Extension Service, fur-
nishing both equipment and ma-
terials, as well as making avail-
able the U.S.D.A. hlms.

(3) Offering courses in the
held of audio-visual aids within
the School of Education.

(4) Offering a consultant
and advisory service to organ-
izations and agencies in the
State of Connecticut interested
in the use of films and radio.

It was in this latter capacity
that Strom served as Chief of
the Film Section of the Govern-
or’s State War Council and be-
came active in the Treasury
War and Victory Loan film pro-
grams.

Plans for future development
of the University’s Audio-Visual
Aids Center include the opera-
tion of a i)hotographic labora-
tory service and an educational
ladio station, the justification
for these activities being the

contribution they can make to
the in.structional program.

* ir *

No. 55: Alexander B. Lewis

Alexander B. Lewis, sponsor
of the notable pioneer photoplay
club at Newark Central High
School, and a leader among pro-
gressive English teachers, was
born at Pleasantville, Pa., Sep-
tember 4, 1890. He was gradu-
ated from the Osceola Mills
(Pa.) High School in 1907. He
received his A.B. degree from
Park College in 1911. He re-
ceived his master’s degree at
Rutgers University in 1932 and
is a candidate for the doctorate
in education at New York Uni-
versity.

Following his college gradua-
tion Lewis taught in private
schools and served as a Y.M.
C.A. boys’ work director. Dur-
ing World War I, he served 18
months overseas. After the war
he became director of religious
education at Forest Hill Pres-
byterian Church in Newark.
Thereafter he served for four
years as personnel director for
the Splitdorf Manufacturing
Company, a large electrical con-
cern in Newark. Lewis recent-
ly rounded out a quarter-cen-
tury as a member of the famous
English department at Central
High School, of which Max J.
Herzberg was head before he
became principal of the Wee-
quahic High School at Newark.
Lewis’s reputation in the mean-
time has extended well beyond
Newark. He has been in con-
stant demand as a speaker at
educational conventions.

Lewis founded the New Jer-
seii h'n</lish Leaflet, and served
as its editor for five years. He

June, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Alexander B. Lewis

The Newark Central High School Photoplay Club shoots a scene for one of its films.

has served on the editorial com-
mittee of The Eyiglish Journal
and on the editorial staff of
Secondary Education. He is a
member of the audio-visual com-
mittee of the National Council
of Teachers of English and of
the Council’s administrative

committee charged with setting
up the 36th annual meeting in
Atlantic City November 28-30,
1946. He is in charge of com-

mercial exhibits at that conven-
tion. Lewis is a member of the
committee of the New Jer-
sey Department of Education
charged with the preparation of
a new syllabus for the language
arts from the kindergarten
through the high school. Lewis’s
friends know that wherever a
job requiring progressive work
in education must be filled on a
voluntary basis, they may de-
pend on Alex for loyal support.
His interests are multifarious.
During his spare moments, for
example, he may be found (usu-
ally a few nights a week) at the
Hilltop Canteen for Teen-agers
in Newark.

Lewis has published many ar-
ticles on audio-visual topics, es-
pecially from the English teach-
er’s viewpoint, in such publica-
tions as Movie Makers, Photo-
play Studies, Leisure, Design,
The English Journal, Scholastic,
and The New Jersey Edu-
cational Review. He is co-author,
with Ray A. Barnard, of Activi-
ties for Skill la English. Lewis
has won |.)i'izes in competitions
sponsored by The New York
Times, The Golden Book, and

Newark Central High School Photoplay Club members moke titles for one of their

16mm films.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

other publications. In 1941 The
Reader’s Digest sponsored the
recording by Mutual Broadcast-
ing Company of a demonstration
in the utilization of magazines
in the classroom, as done by a
Lewis-trained group.

Herewith are presented pho-
tos of typical activities of
Lewis’s photoplay club, which
has done serious production
work in the amateur field. The
club has made films on shop
techniques, puppetry, library

work, and scenes from classics.
In 1939 the club won first place
in a national contest sponsored
by the Board of Review with a
film on Reaching for Knoivl-
edge, which has since been used
in many schools.

The Enlarging Concept of the Motion
Picture as an Instructional Aid

BY ROBERT E. SCHREIBER

Department of Educotion, University of Chicago, and
Consultant on Visual Education, Stephens College.

I. Introduction

Today, as the smoke of battle
clears, revealing the crucial is-
sues of a world at peace, educa-
tors in many quarters are re-
evaluating their curricula and
instruction to the end that so-
ciety, long suffering from an in-
adequate social technology with
which to solve its timeless and
perplexing problems, may look
with new hope to the agency
which now must play its great-
est role: the school. Educators
everywhere, viewing with mixed
emotions the generally effective
life-or-death instruction of the
armed forces, are wondering if,
with greater use of the motion-
picture medium, they, too, may
achieve for their pupils compar-
ably efficient learnings under
the motivations of peace.

II. The Silent Motion Picture
Arrives

Problems of the Motion
Picture in Education :

The motion picture in educa-
tion has had a short but hectic
history in the annals of instruc-
tional usage. Short, if twenty
years may thus be termed ; hec-
tic, if the evolution of the edu-

cational film may be considered
in the light of the forces that
made it what it was before and
continue to determine its devel-
opment today. Unlike the the-
atrical motion picture, whose
progenitors have had to contend
only with rather broad swings
in popular fancy, the classroom
film has continually been caught
in a three-way stretch among
the producers, the teaching pro-
fession as a guiding force, and
the demands of the educational
market.

The educational market for
motion pictures has ever been
a bleakly fickle proposition ;
one that most producers, seek-
ing the almighty dollar as much
as the market abhorred it, have
learned to steer clear of — or
dine on thin soup indeed. Un-
witting supervisor of the devel-
opment of the motion picture for
instructional usage has been the
teaching profession ; “unwit-
ting” because one would hesi-
tate to say that good judgment
has highlighted the role of the
profession in bringing the world
into the classroom. Unfamiliar
with the techniques and costs of
motion-picture production and

ever fearful of fostering the ap-
pearance of instructional mech-
anization in the classrooms of
the nation, the profession has
vacillated in its directions to the
producers with perhaps forgiv-
able naivete.

Early Concepts of the
Role of the Instructional
Motion Picture:

When the infant motion pic-
ture first came out of the West
and was harnessed by slender
threads to the curriculum, a film
for specific educational usage
had yet to be conceived. Enter-
prising educators used the cin-
ema as it was, and in the early
years paid scant attention to the
ideology under whose aegis their
new learning tool had been cre-
ated. The ideology of the the-
atrical film is, and always has
been, primarily the science of
entertainment ideas, while that
of the instructional film must
necessarily be the science of in-
structional ideas. The ideas used
in the development of a screen
presentation of subject-matter
must instruct first. Entertain-
ment may enter in during the
process of instructing, but what-

June, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

ever residual entertainment is
left with the viewer is inciden-
tals

Phrasing the ideology of the
instructional film more simply,
Don Carlos Ellis and Laura
Thornborough indicated as early
as 1923 that the film’s primary
purposes were to teach, to clar-
ify, to arouse interest, and to
stimulate to greater endeavor on
the part of the pupil.- Had these
discerning observations been il-
luminated by suggestions as to
how each of these desirable pur-
poses were to be achieved, the
course of the instructional film
until now might have run a
gamut of less confusion. A year
following the appearance of the
Ellis-Thornborough text, Pro-
fessor Frank Freeman cham-
pioned the value of motion in
the presentation of certain cur-
ricular ideas, but he amended
the previous contention that the
motion picture was to teach by
remarking that “motion pic-
tures should be so designed as
to furnish to the teacher other-
wise inaccessible raw materials
of instruction, but should leave
the organization ... to the
teacher.”®

The Crusade Against
Regimentation :

As the use of the motion pic-
ture in education struggled for
recognition as sound instruc-
tional practice, the profession
mulled over the possibilities of
the film medium and cast ag-

’Jensen, Lt. Herbert R. “The Training-
Film Art.” Business Screen, Vol. 5, No.
S, 1945. p. 73.

■Ellis, Don Carlos, and Thornborough,
Laura. Motion Pictures in Education.
N. Y. : The Cro-well Co., 1923. p. 91.

“Freeman, Frank N. et al. I'lsiial Edu-
cation. Chicago : University of Chicago
Press, 1924. p. 74.

'Jensen, Lt. Hei-bert R. up. cil.

^'Rotha, Paul. Documentary I'llin. f.oii-
don : Faber & Faber Limited, 1939. p. 213.

itated glances at the thousands
swarming to movie theaters
throughout the country. Then,
with the imagination, which,
when intelligently directed,
makes for good teaching, some
groups in the profession con-
jured up a celluloid monster that
might some day appropriate all
teaching processes, weld the im-
pressionable minds of the young
into one, and reduce the profes-
sion’s membership to the taking
of tickets at local Bijoux. This
sensational possibility moved
visual educators of the period to
the cautious policy of following
in the “raw material” tradition.
The Hollywood supply was thus
soon largely cut off, and that
which trickled through carefully
scrutinized for dangerous ideas.
The classroom motion picture,
amid emotional rather than in-
tellectual direction, was born.

The Early Silent
Motion Picture:

Production of the early silent
educational film was also deter-
mined by financial considera-
tions, and since the market for
such films was relatively unde-
veloped, few entrepreneurs en-
tered the field. Until the motion
picture narrowed to the non-in-
flammable 16mm size for edu-
cational purposes and Eastman
Kodak began school film pro-
duction, the fare was scant in-
deed.

The silent film in education
was, by present-day standards,
a relatively ineffectual affair.
Its use, however, grew. In addi-
tion to providing raw material
for instruction, the educational
film evolved some continuity in
the presentation of this mate-
rial. It apparently drew little
fire from the profession, albeit
the ideas employed in the screen
presentation were hung some-
what like washing on an outline
of subject-matter rather than

growing out of it.^ Since the mo-
tion picture was then addicted
to the presentation of mute evi-
dence, teachers evolved their
own lectures to accompany the
film exhibited and thereby set
the stage for the approach of
sound.

111. The Coming of Sound

A New Art Form :

When the motion picture
found its voice and had grown
out of the lisping stage through
improved sound-recording, the
visual- education movement
gained new impetus. At the time
few, including the theatrical
producers themselves, realized
the full potentialities of the new
art form as a medium for enter-
tainment and education. The
proper relationship of picture to
sound, and vice-versa, yet re-
mains to be completely deter-
mined.

In the theater, the closest ap-
proximation to the instructional
film was the travelog. With the
advent of sound, an off-screen
voice was provided to explain
what appeared on the screen. A
studio orchestra, also on the
sound track, presented music
quaintly related to the pictorial
exposition, somewhat in the
same manner as the early nickel-
odeon pianist or the more re-
fined pit orchestra. Barring the
somewhat ineffectual integra-
tion of sound and picture that
obtained in the theatrical trav-
elog, as well as the questionable
selection of material for the
commentator, progenitors of the
educational sound film might
well have followed a similar line
of action. “

Instead, the educational sound
film took on the form of an il-
lustrated lecture, since the silent
film had come to be used in such
fashion for instructional ijiir-
poses. Sound was exploited to
the detriment of pictorial ele-

Volume XII, No. 9

ments, and what had started out
to be a primarily visual aid
bogged down in verbalism. In
early sound films an outstand-
ing personality, an individual
talking at the audience, often
appeared. Words and personali-
ties were substituted for pic-
tures. The illustrated lecture
took the place of graphic, visual
presentation.'’

The Educational Sound
Film Assumes Its Familiar
Form :

In the early thirties, the per-
sonalities had largely disap-
peared from the educational
screen, but the illustrated lec-
ture approach still obtained.
Subject-matter specialists were
consulted, and several weeks’
school work were frequently
boiled down into a ten or twen-
ty-minute instructional film. In
nearly all cases, the prepared
lecture was the point of depar-
ture in developing the pictorial
treatment of the subject; the
picture was incidental to the
narrator, although some attempt
was made to achieve a sem-
blance of pictorial continuity as
well.

Perceptual Complications:

The usual results of the fore-
going approach to the produc-
tion of the educational film were
two continuities : a well-executed
discussion of the topic appeal-
ing to the audio sense and a
somewhat sketchy pictorial con-
tinuity appealing to the eye.
Either one separately might
have proved more effective than
the two together, but no one sat
down and listened or looked long
enough to find out. The effect
of this two-in-one presentation,
however, had a stimulating ef-

”Le\vis. ].t. Conidr. Richard D. "A
Checklist for Improving Training Pilrns.”
Hiisiiicss Screen. \’ol. 5, No. 5, p. 78.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

feet on the educational market,
and a growing line of schools
formed “on the right” to secure
the double-dip educational cones
for the kiddies. Indigestion often
resulted from the attempts of
pupils to consume all of the in-
formation at once. Hence, in-
structional method developed a
utilization that called for “eat-
ing around the edges.” The mo-
tion picture was shown a num-
ber of times ; first to roughly
appraise it, next to bite into the
data now warmed and softened,
and finally to consume the
whole. Despite the time required
for the additional showings, the
combination of sight and sound
proved more effective than
either the traditionally verbal
lecture method or the previous
silent film in terms of time sav-
ings and retentive values.

The Rise of the
Documentary Film :

In the late thirties, along with
the by then established illus-
trated lecture film, the docu-
mentary began infiltrating the
schools. Pare Lorenz’s Plow that
Broke the Plains and The River
found notable instructional us-
age and pointed the direction
that future educational films
might follow. The documentary
was a combination of sight and
sound like the usual instruc-
tional film. There, however, the
similarity ended, since sight and
sound were integrated towards
the most effective presentation
of the film’s ideas. Pictorial con-
tinuity was the guiding cri-
terion. The narration fitted this
continuity, explained what was
presented visually, related the
past, and set the stage for fu-
ture delineations. Music and
other sounds were on a par with
the narrator ; each fulfilled the
function that at any one moment
could serve best. Documentaries

were, unfortunately, long, few
in number, and financially
linked to organizations that in
many cases had an axe to grind.
Their use has, despite these
shortcomings, continued.

It Pays to Advertise:

The sometimes lavish spon-
sored film, early referred to as
an “industrial,” had likewise in-
vaded a curriculum sorely tried
for adequate supplies of visual
materials. The industrials came
to be, in many cases, a nice bal-
ance of Hollywood and educa-
tional ideologies and embodied
some of the documentary tech-
niques found effective. Visual
educators as a whole found them
useful additions to the supply of
films, but teachers were not
blind to the fact that occasion-
ally subtle propaganda was be-
ing included in the subject-mat-
ter thereof. One could hardly
expect something for nothing.
Nevertheless, despite the ful-
minations of a few hardy seers
on the fringes, the sponsored
film has continued in use as
among the most artistically con-
ceived of educational films and
perhaps often the most effective
instructionally. The question re-
mains in liberal quarters as to
whether the presentation offsets
the propaganda involved, but
visual educators are, in most
cases, proceeding on the policy
of judging each film on its in-
dividual merits.

Hence, as the recent war be-
gan, visual educators were pro-
vided with motion pictures in
these three categories : the tra-
ditional educational film of the
illustrated - lecture persuasion ;
the occasional, lengthy documen-
tary employing integrated audio
and visual elements ; and the ec-
lectic sponsored film, combining
Hollywood, private industry,
and education in a tasty pack-
age.

June, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

IV. The MoJion Picfure at War

Intelligent Cooperation
At Last:

With the coming of war, the
nation called on all its poten-
tially instructional specialists to
join in the common cause. Vis-
ual educators left their books,
technicians arrived from the
West, and Army and Navy per-
sonnel speaking the language of
war played their parts. Thus,
for the first time in history were
combined “know-how,” subject-
matter proficiency, and compell-
ing purpose. Money was no ob-
stacle ; the three-way stretch of
the hitherto educational film
had snapped in favor of a mar-
ket of marching men. The lei-
surely mood of the documentary
had to be quickened, the theat-
rical film lent an aura of appeal
and interest to the subject-mat-
ter framework, and the educa-
tional film as previously consti-
tuted sacrificed pyramided facts
to lucidity. The newly evolved
training film had to be interest-
ing, integrated in its audio-
visual components, true, and a
one-shot proposition with no
time for review.

Now, THE Peace:

The war was won, the educa-
tional program had proved un-
usually effective, and the train-
ing film was credited in many
quarters as the means of mak-

^Robcrts, Lt. Harold B. "Sonic Train-
ing P'ilnis arc Better than Others." l-liisi-
iicss Scrcoi, S, No. 5, 1945. p. 5.1.
'Lewis, Lt. Conidr. Richard B. up. ril..

p. 100.

“Cohen, Col. Emanuel. "The Film is a
Weapon.” Business Screen, tT.il. 7, No. 1,
1940, p. 43.

‘Jensen, Lt. Herbert R. op. eit.. ji. 107.
“Horgan, Lt. Col. Paul. "The Measure
of Army Films.” Business Screen. \'ol. 7,
No. 1. p. 39.

“Goldner, Lt. Comdr. Orville. “The
T'raining I' i 1 m l-'ormula." Ilnsiness
.S'ereen, \'ol. 5, No. 5, 1945. [i. 54.

'Cohen, Col. Fmanucl. up. eil.

ing it so. One thing is clear,
however ; the war period pro-
vided visual education a proving
and testing ground never before
possible. As the Army and Navy
Training Programs drew to a
peaceful pace, those responsible
for the training film production
began to review the planning
and results of the four-year pe-
riod of experimentation and re-
search. Many of their conclu-
sions have appeared far from
new, discovered or suspected
years ago, but without the
weight of experience to give
them adequate voice and cre-
dence. Now these, and other con-
clusions, may be entered author-
itatively on the record.

The Training Film :

To provide a frame of refer-
ence for the comments of those
participating in the Army and
Navy training-film programs,
Lt. Comdr. Orville Goldner’s
“Training Film Formula” seems
an appropriate vehicle.

These are the ingredients in
the order of their application in
the training-film production
process :

I. The truth about a condition
or set of conditions.

II. Interpretation of the truth
as it relates to human behavior.

A. Man requires frequent re-
orientation to a complex
problem during its solu-
tion.^

B. Training films must be or-
ganized into clearly de-
fined, large groups of
ideas, and within the large
groups, smaller groups
should be evident.-

C. The cumbersome language
of the field manual, the
stiffness of the classroom,
the tiresome repetitions,
all these were thrown out,
and we substituted the im-
agination and ingenuity of
presentation which make

for good pictures."

III. Visualization of the inter-
pretation of the truth in a way
that will permit individual iden-
tification with it.

A. Man learns steps in proce-
dure best when he can ar-
range those steps in
groups.^

B. Man is in a most favorable
learning condition when
confronted by a problem,
the solution of which will
contribute to his personal
welfare.'

C. Complete photographic
coverage requires that the
script, including the scenes
to be photographed, be
planned sufficiently in ad-
vance.-

D. Anything less than a full
exploitation of motion in
training film work is a
disservice to the instruc-
tional motion- picture
screen.'

E. Make it clear, make it log-
ical, make it human, and
drive home the necessity
of learning now. .

IV. Verbalization of the inter-
pretation of the truth in terms
and in a manner that will per-
mit the relatively effortless de-
velopment of definite behavioral
concepts.

A. The film maker . . . has to
understand the values of
audible forms, the spoken
language and sound, when
they are used with pic-
tures. He has to synthesize
carefully, adding just the
right kinds and amounts
of words and sounds to
pictures to guarantee
more meaning and more
learning. Always, this job,
too, must be done in terms
of a given audience."

B. We talked the way the
American soldier talked,
and he understood us.‘

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

('. The function of the narra-
tion in a training film is
to support, explain, and
clarify the picture. The
narration can explain the
“why” of the action. .

1). Three conditions are im-
portant in the use of
words in training films :

1. The vocabulary must be
“geared” to the audience.

2. Words should be used
only where absolutely nec-
essary to an understand-
ing of the picture.

3. Voices and voice quality
used for narration and di-
alog must give the impres-
sion of understanding the
subject-matter. . . “voices
of experience” . . . sincere
and straightforward. .

V. Emphases, both visual and
audible, which emanate natur-
ally out of the interpretation of
the truth, and which will add to
the immediate and retention
value of the whole.

A. Man appears to be moti-
vated to action more often
through his emotions than
by his reason.

H. Man is interested when he
is learning, but interest
does not guarantee learn-
ing.^’

C. Interest and liking usually
enhance attention.

^Lewis. ].t. Ciiindr. l\icliard K. o/’. cit.

''(joldiitr, Lt. Conidr. Orville, op. oil.
p. 50.

'"Roberts, Lt. Harold 1>. op. cit.

“ibid.

'"Horgan, J.t. Col. Paul. op. cit.

’ 'Dilliiiger. IMajor .\lphons AI. "Sound
Lflects and Film Alu.sic." Ihisincss
Screen. Vol. 7, No. 1. 1940. p. 86.

^‘Cohen. Col. Ivmanuel. op. cit.

’■'Lewis, Lt. Comdr. Ricbard B. op. cit.
p. 119.

’"Evans, Lt. AN’alter. "The Contribution ■
of Colf)r t(j Navy Training Films.” liusi-
iii’.s'.v .Screen. \’ol. 5, No. 5, Ibd.L ]i. oO.

’’This ixjint not included in Lt. Comdr.
Cobbler’s original list of five.

’’’Jensen, Lt. Herbert R., up. cit.

I). A dramatized training film
with live sound can in-
dulge in humor to help put
across its point. Sound ef-
fects and music have nec-
essarily played a secon-
dary role so as not to dis-
tract from the primary
importance of the teach-
ing. But, of course, music
contributes great emotion
to a screen story.’-’

E. We dressed up our produc-
tions with animation and
music.”

F. Pictures can be cut with
change of pace, can be
photographed with variety
in visual symbols. Narra-
tion can be delivered with
change of pace, change of
pitch, change of voice
quality. Monotony is un-
forgivable in any film.’'"’

G. Photographically, it is ad-
vantageous to show a sub-
ject precisely “as it is,” in-
cluding its true color.

1. Color increases audi-
ence interest and partici-
pation ; it is much closer to
reality.

2. The illusion of depth is
another very interesting
and technically valuable
attribute of color photog-
raphy.

3. Color enhances the clar-
ity with which a subject
can be visualized.

4. Color may be used to
emphasize important vis-
ual elements.”'

VI. Summarizing the Army
and Navy point of view.’’

The training-film art is the
skillful blending of the art
of instruction with the art
of the screen. Both of these
are complex and the suc-
cessful amalgamation of
them into an effective, ex-
cellent training film is iiot
an easy achievement.”’

And So . . . :

A new era of enlightened ed-
ucational film production in
peace-time may be here. Educa-
tion has had the text film, the
documentary, the sponsored film
for some time. The best attri-
butes of each may be incorpor-
ated into the films of tomorrow.
Visual educators are more en-
lightened on what constitutes a
good educational film and how
to use it, willing producers are
ready in numbers larger than
ever before, and the educational
market is growing steadily.
Now, then, is the time to plan
wisely and well for the instruc-
tional motion pictures of tomor-
row and the years to come.

Do You Hove on Electric
Phonograph?

The Rembrandt Portable
Electric Phonograph, a new ma-
chine designed especially for
school use, is being distributed
to schools exclusively by the
Audio-Visual Division of Popu-
lar Science Publishing Com-
pany, 353 Fourth Avenue, New
York 10, N. Y.

This phonograph has a built-
in 5-inch permanent magnet
speaker ; 3-tube amplification ;
lightweight crystal pick-up for
minimum record wear; inde-
pendent tone and volume con-
trols ; and an indicator light. It
plays 10- and 12-inch records;
is a standard 78 r.p.m. machine;
has a built-in compartment hold-
ing 12 records ; plays with cover
closed or open ; over-all weight
is 18 pounds; is in a handsome
case. The unit operates on alter-
nating current only.

The Rembrandt carries a fac-
tory guarantee. It is available
for immediate delivery a t
$48.90, f.o.b. N. Y. (including
Federal taxes).

June, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Who's Who in Radio Education

No. 14: Kot-hleen N. Lordie

Kathleen N. Lardie, president
of the Association for Educa-
tion by Radio, is a native De-
troiter, known to those in radio
as Kay Lardie. She entered the
profession in 1936 as a script
writer, completing five pro-
grams a week. After six months
of this work, she decided to take
a course in script writing and
enrolled in the first New York
University Radio Workshop, in
the summer of 1936, to study
script writing, acting, produc-
tion, and evaluation.

Previously to 1936, Mrs. Lar-
die had been a teacher in grades
one to nine. She had also taught
a university class in English.
She had held the position of as-
sistant principal in elementary
schools in Detroit and in inter-
mediate schools. Her work out-
side of administrative duties
was chiefly in the field of Eng-
lish and speech. Her chief love
was auditorium work. Her work
with speech students, plus seven
years as violinist in the school
orchestra, furnished a practical
background for future work in
radio.

Each year Mrs. Lardie has
enlarged her experiences in ra-
dio. Her calendar reads like
this :

1937 : Visited European stations
and spent some time at BBC
in London observing school
broadcasts and television pro-
grams.

1938-39: Served on committee
for evaluation of school
broadcasts in Radio Work-
shop at Sarah Lawrence Col-
lege. Worked with NBC and
CBS, observing broadcasts,
evaluating programs, a n d
preparing schedules for

Kathleen N. Lardie, head of the de-
partment of radio education in the
Detroit public schools.

schools.

1940-42: Directed Radio Work-
shop, National Music Camp,
Interlochen.

1943: Served on staff of Phila-
delphia Radio Workshop at
Station KYW. Lectured on
script-writing and production
for teachers of Philadelphia
public schools.

1944: Served on staff of the
KOIN Institute at Portland,
Oregon. Worked with leading
radio authorities in the work-
shop set up for the teachers of
Portland.

1945: Served on the staff of
the KOIN Institute at Port-
1 a n d a second summer.
Headed the Radio Summer
School at KFKB in Sacra-
mento, California. Worked
with leaders in the commer-
cial field, presenting all as-
pects of radio.

Since 1936 Mrs. Lardie has
devoted all her time to radio —
writing, producing, evaluating
programs presented by the De-
troit public schools, meeting
with executives of local railio
stations (Detroit’s educational

programs are presented over
commercial stations), and con-
sulting with teachers of radio in
the schools. She is director of
Detroit’s Saturday Radio Work-
shop for students, adviser to lo-
cal Parent-Teacher Associations,
and an instructor at Wayne
University.

"Ca meras and Classrooms"

The effectiveness of teaching
with films is discussed in the
June issue of the Ccdholic School
Journal, national Catholic edu-
cational magazine, by Reese
Wade, a teacher Kansas City.
In “Cameras and Classrooms,’’
Mr. Wade discusses the use of
visual education by the armed
forces and shows how the re-
sultant popularity and success
will bring a vastly expanded
program of visual education for
children and adults in the next
few years.

25% Discount
On Orders For
Five or More
Subscriptions To
One Address

FILM & RADIO
QUIDE

172 Renner Avenue
Newark 8, N. J.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

Continuing the Battle of "Free" Films

BY DENNIS R. WILLIAMS

Field Supervisor, Encyclopaedia Britannica Films Inc.

All considerations of the prob-
lem we now discuss should be in
the light of the origin, tradi-
tions, and purposes of the public
school system. Up to the present
time, the accepted pattern of ed-
ucational materials has followed
closely the basic philosophy of
compulsory education in our
democratic society of freedom-
loving people. Truth without any
trace of prejudice or bias for
special interest or group has al-
ways been the first requirement
for a course of study, instruc-
tional materials, or the instruc-
tors. If any of these failed to
meet this requirement, they
have been discouraged from en-
tering the door of American
classrooms — where impression-
able young minds and bodies
are growing into citizens of
tomorrow with power to vote.
Those who founded and have
maintained o u r public-school
system have said “no” even to
groups with as noble and un-
selfish motives as the churches
when they offered to sponsor
the educational system in a dem-
ocracy.

If we are considering at this
time asking and encouraging
our great industries and special
interests to prepare our class-
room films, textbooks, and other
teaching materials, to sponsor
our teachers and determine our
curricula, then we’d better re-
examine the purposes and objec-
tives of our schools and what
constitutes teaching as a pro-

Fram an address delivered at the
Michigan Audio-Visual Conference, De-
troit, Mich., April 4, 1946.

Dennis R. Willioms, Field Supervisor
of Encyclopaedia Britannica Films, Inc.

fession.

It might be well to ask indus-
tries to donate $1,000 each in
order to make a study of the
type and kind of teachers we
need in the schools. If we follow
such a course, we may soon pass
up and down the halls of Ameri-
can school buildings and hear
this announcement coming from
the classrooms: “Now we will
leave the American Revolution
for a few moments while I read
a message from my sponsor.” If
we are to seek the sponsor to
pay for our films, our textbooks,
and other instructional materi-
als, let us not overlook this same
formula in solving the problem
of better teachers and better
paid teachers.

In some recent meetings I
have heard a few educators ex-
plain their use of advertising
materials in the classroom by
saying that newspapers, maga-
zines, and radio programs have
advertising in them. This is
true, but there is certainly a
great difference as to how we
use these media and the natui’e
of their contents and effects. In

Time magazine there are no ads
on the front page. The part that
is advertising and the part that
is pure unbiased news are def-
initely separated. Furthermore,
Time publishes a school edition
containing no advertising. This
is not true of most sponsored
films and it is often impossible
for adults, let alone children, to
differentiate between that part
of the film which is advertising
and that which is not.

If you agree to depend upon
the industries of our country to
supply you with sponsored in-
structional materials, let me call
your attention to some other im-
plications and problems with
which you will be faced. Re-
cently there have been produced
five films on the care of a trac-
tor by various manufacturers.
All of them have teaching val-
ues. In your community you
have local citizens who are tax-
payers supporting your school
and representing these five trac-
tor agencies. How will you de-
cide which film to run for all
the students in your school? You
could not run one without being
unfair to the four other dealers.
If you run all five of them in
order to be fair to all business
men of your community, you
will be overdoing the care-of-
the-tractor films. After you
have run all five films, you still
have been unfair to the black-
smith who makes ploughs with
his own hands for the farmers
of your community, but whose
operation is so small that he
cannot afford to spon.sor any
films, (’an you afford to dis-
regard his interests just because

June, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

he is unable to sponsor some ed-
ucational films for your use?

Textbook publishers, map
makers, and producers of un-
biased, unprejudiced classroom
teaching films, made to fit the
curricula of American schools,
have had a rough road to travel.
The producers of these materi-
als have had to study carefully
the teaching problems of the
classroom in order to develop
films and other materials that
may be accepted by the schools
because they meet teaching
needs. This is in accordance
with the true spirit of the free-
enterprise system o n which
American business has been
built.

Most sponsored films in the
past were made for adult audi-
ences and potential purchasers
of the products concerned. They
were not made to show in
schools. During the early stages
in the development of visual
programs in schools, teachers
and administrators have been
prone to overlook well-estab-
lished criteria for the selection
of materials o f instruction.
Much film material has been
shown in our schools that is ir-
relevant to the objectives and
purposes of the curriculum.

Now we are having a new for-
mula recommended. Advertising
agencies are recommending that
our great industries cease pre-
paring films which legitimately
advertise their products and
turn to the production of un-
biased, unprejudiced, and au-
thentic truth films based upon
the objectives of the curriculum.
When a film of this type has
been produced, the schools will
be invited to utilize the teach-
ing tool at small cost and pay
for the bargain by running an
ad at the end or beginning of
the film. What you must now
decide is whether the schools
should pay for the instructional

materials they need by acting, in
part, as an advertising agency.

We are asked, “Why object to
letting an industrial concern
place its name on the end of a
classroom film any more than
letting McGraw-Hill or Ency-
clopaedia Britannica Films put
its name on a film or on a text-
book?” There is a great differ-
ence. McGraw-Hill and Ency-
clopaedia Britannica Films are
in the “truth” business. They
search for outstanding educa-
tional authorities, pay them to
produce authentic, unbiased
classroom films and textbooks,
and have no other interest than
that their product be measured
by how well it presents the
truth. This is different from a
film or a book produced by a

The Audio-Visual Division of
the Education Department, Pop-
ular Science Publishing Com-
pany, 353 Fourth Avenue, New
York 10, N. Y., has announced
a series of PSP Teach-O-Film-
strips, designed specifically for
use in primary classes in read-
ing, storytelling, social studies,
and nature study. Organized as
self-contained teaching units,
the simply-told stories in color
include the basic elements of
good teaching methods. The
principles of motivation, concept
teaching, summarization, and
provocative questioning are em-
ployed. The filmstrips contain
only original drawings in vivid
colors. By combining words with
attractively colored pictures,
these PSP Teach-O-Filmstrips
provide direct word-picture as-
sociation, essential in teaching
children of the primary grades.

company primarily interested in
selling toothpaste.

As stated by one of our great
educational associations, “We
certainly want our industries to
be public-spirited and to assist
in the concerted national effort
to enlighten our people, educate
our children, and raise our
standard of living. As educa-
tors, however, proud of our pro-
fession, we think that the way
we would want industry to con-
tribute to this great ideal is to
put up less resistmice when tax
programs for educatimi are ad-
vocated, and to leave it to un-
biased professional educators to
evaluate the needs of youth and
to interpret u’hat and how our
youths shall be taught for the
common good of all.”

Each of the PSP Teach-O-Phlm-
strips is accompanied by a teach-
er’s guide that contains specific
suggestions for the use of the
strip as an integrated classroom
aid. The following four subjects
comprised the initial offering of
the new division :

Heidi :

This tells about two adven-
tures of Heidi and her friend
Peter. In the first, they spend
a lovely summer day together ;
in the second, they visit Peter’s
grandmother during a winter
day. This PSP Teach-O-Film-
strip stimulates a desire to
read the book Heidi. It develops
various social-studies concepts,
such as : how people live in a
foreign land ; what clothes they
wear ; what houses they live in ;
what food they eat.

44 Fi'ames. Color. Price:
$5.00.

Notable Series of Elementary
Teach-O-Filmstrips

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

Fun With Mitzie;

This tells the story of Mitzie,
a black-and-white kitten. It
shows how a neighbor gives
Betty Smith, a little girl of
seven, a kitten called “Mitzie.”
Betty takes the kitten home and
gives her good care. Three
months later, we see Mitzie as a
full-grown cat and Betty play-
ing with her, feeding her and
loving her. In the course of the
story, the Teach-O-Filmstrip de-
velops various concepts, such as :
kittens should not be deserted ;
mother’s permission should be
secured before taking animals
into the house; animals should
not be teased ; animals deserve
care and kindness.

41 Frames. Color. Price:
$5.00.

The Lost Dog:

This tells the story of Tommy
and his dog “Inky.” It shows
Tommy losing Inky one day.
Jimmy, a small boy of five, and
his mother find the dog and take

Charles R. Crakes, Educa-
tional Consultant for the De-
Vry Corporation, has completed
a series of conferences with the
provincial educational officials
of five Canadian provinces —
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,
Prince Edward Island, Quebec,
and Ontario.

In addition to conferring
with educational directors, Mr.
Crakes spoke at the Provincial
Normal College at Truro, Nova
Scotia. He also adddressed the
teachers at Halifax, Nova Sco-
tia ; at Moncton ; and at St.
John, New Brunswick. Schools
were dismissed in order that all

him home. At this point the
Teach-O-Filmstrip shows the
proper care of dogs. On the fol-
lowing day. Tommy finds where
Inky is and goes to get him. The
Teach-O-Filmstrip ends with
the provocative problem, “What
will Inky do? Will he stay with
Jimmy or will be go back to
Tommy?”

40 Frames. Color. Price :
$5.00.

Let’s Make a Post Office:

This shows how our postal
system works. It visualizes the
need for stamps, the role of the
postman, where and how differ-
ent types of mail-pieces may be
mailed, and the purpose of mail
trucks. It suggests student ac-
tivities. It develops cooperation
by showing several children
working together to make their
own post office.

38 Frames. Color. Price :
$5.00.

Man y additional Teach-0-
Filmstrips are now ready for
use in all grades.

instructors might hear Mr.
Crakes discuss greater utiliza-
tion of audio-visual materials.
Speaking before the Prince Ed-
ward Island Teachers Federa-
tion at the Prince of Wales Col-
lege at Charlottetown, Mr.
Crakes urged teachers to im-
prove the learning process by
incorporating audio-visual ma-
terials into their techniques of
teaching children. In all confer-
ences and meetings, Mr. Crakes
stressed the fact that audio-vis-
ual aids will bring to the youth
of North America the simu-
lated experience of living with
other people. The resultant un-

Charles R. Crakes

derstanding and appreciation of
our world-neighbors will aid in
the preservation of the United
Nations Organization and weld
together the family of na-
tions. The Halifax Chronicle
commented : “His eloquent and
careful handling of the subject
delighted his hearers.”

When Mr. Crakes returned
from Canada, he reported that
all the provinces he visited had
started central film libraries
and had appointed provincial di-
rectors of audio-visual aids. He
further reported an intense in-
terest was indicated by the ed-
ucational leaders of Canada in
the need for providing audio-
visual tools of learning for the
rural areas and small villages of
that country. “Cooperative film
libraries,” Mr. Crakes said,
“seem to be an immediate need
in Canada. We in the United
States must give every possible
assistance to our neighbors to
the north in their efforts to
further the audio-visual move-
ment.”

Summer Activit-ies of
Mr. Crakes and Miss Barts

Again this summer Mi-.
Crakes is teaching a six-weeks

Crakes Reports on Audio-Visual
Movement in Canada

June, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

course in audio-visual aids at
Northwestern University and
will take charge of a two-week
laboratory at Leland Stanford.
Miss Norma Barts, also on the

staff of the Educational Depart-
ment of the DeVry Corpora-
tion, will conduct five one-
w e e k audio-visual workshops
this summer — Evansville Col-

lege, Western Illinois State Nor-
mal College, the University of
South Carolina, the University
of Georgia, and the University
of Colorado.

New Movie-Mite Projectors
Now Available

The new Model 63-L movie-
mite 16mm sound-on-film pro-
jector, stated to be the lightest-
weight, most compact projector
on the market to date, is ready
for delivery, it has been an-
nounced by Movie-Mite Corpor-

ation, Kansas City 6, Missouri.

Considered ideal for small
group showings, MOVIE-MITE
Model 63-L features :

(1) Portability: The projec-
tor weighs only 27^2 pounds,
complete with everything neces-

sary to put on a show. One case
houses projector, desk or table-
1 0 p screen, speaker, 800-ft.
take-up reel, cords, and reel
arms for 2000-ft. reels. The en-
tire unit is approximately 8 x 12
X 15 inches in size — only slight-

The new 'Movie-Mile" 16mni sound-lilm projector, notable for excellence of performance and simplicity of operation at low
cost, built for use with small groups requiring comparatively smoll screens and moderate output of sound.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

ly larger than a portable type-
writer.

(2) Simplicitij: MOVIE-MITE
Corporation states the Model
63-L can be unpacked, set up,
threaded, and “on the screen”
in less than three minutes. The
plainly marked film path makes
threading easy. Only one mov-
able part need be operated in the
threading operation. One elec-
trical plug completes all connec-
tions to the projector; cords
are permanently wired to the
speaker and cannot be lost. Reel
arms of 2000-ft. capacity slip

into accurate sockets. Universal
A.C.-D.C. operation for both
projector and amplifier elimin-
ates need of a converter for D.C.
operation. The number of work-
ing parts is held to a minimum
for trouble-free operation. A
single, inexpensive standard
projector lamp is used for both
picture and sound ; no separate
exciter lamp is necessary.

(3) Sturdiness: Model 63-L
is manufactured of best-quality
die-cast and precision-machined
parts. The unit is housed in a
durable ply-wood case covered

with attractive gray leatherette.
All bearings are fitted with
either oil-less bushings or oil-
sealed ball bearings, making for
infrequent oiling at a few plain-
ly marked points. The mechan-
ism is cushioned on gum-rubber
mountings for smooth, quiet op-
eration.

MOVIE-MITE is not intended
for use in large auditoriums. It
was designed to give smaller-
sized groups a truly portable,
low-priced unit with adequate
illumination and sound.

KIND WORDS

are more than coronets

Bridging the Gap

To The Editor:

You may take the following
for “eye-wash,” but I have been
thinking for some time that
Film and Radio Guide, in addi-
tion to its merits per se, fulfills
a real need for bringing into
closer contact the philosophies
of Hollywood and the Ivory
Tower. It seems to me that if
audio-visual education is to as-
sume the importance it seems
capable of, it will achieve that
distinction best through mar-
shalling all forces in the field to
a common end. Your publication,
it seems to me, is helping to
bridge the unfortunate gap that
has in some degree deterred the
progress of visual education to
date.

ROBERT E. SCHREIBER
University of Chicago

For several weeks I have
wanted to tell you how very
stimulating I found your last
issue. The article by B. A. Augh-
inbaugh aroused many questions
in my mind, as did the one by
Flora Schreiber.

I do not have a copy here, but
I remember the point presented
by Dr. Aughinbaugh concerning
the use of excerpts and synop-
ses. I have felt one must derive
pleasure from a short selection
often when life is so rushed and
full. I should like to hear more
from him on this phase.

The article by Miss Schreiber
about A Winter’s Tcde was beau-
tifully written, subtle, psycho-
logically sensitive and most dis-
tinctive. She has an unusual
feeling for language and vocab-
ulary and a fine aesthetic sense.

MARY W, DINGLE
Greeley, Colorado

Two Notes from Edgar Dale

Your November issue is excel-
lent and I recommend it highly.
We are carrying a News Note
on it in the News-Letter.

Your last issue of Film and
Radio Guide was a very good
one. I especially liked Bill
Kruse’s material and that of
Max Herzberg.

EDGAR DALE
Ohio State University

Found Mr. Herzberg’s article
in the Guide very stimulating.
It says some very important
things, indeed.

WILLIAM S. HOCKMAN
Lakewood, Ohio

June, 1 946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Henry Sazin Joins
Ast-or Pictures

Jacques Kopfstein, executive
vice-president of Astor Pictures
Corp., has announced the ap-
pointment of Henry Sazin, long
identified with the 16mm edu-
cational entertainment field, as
his assistant in charge of sales
and distribution.

Mr. Sazin, until recently, was
an executive of Post Pictures
Corp. Prior to that, he was man-
ager of the 16mm department of
the American Trading Associa-
tion. Sazin’s experience in the
library, educational and institu-
tional film field includes the
production of a series of educa-
tional shorts on Central and
South America — San Bias Is-
lands, Colombia, and Mining in
Colombia — and one entitled
Making Glass, filmed at the
World’s Fair in New York City.
Sazin was born June 17, 1899,
at Bangor, Maine.

In line with the expanding ac-
tivities of Astor Pictures 16mm
Division, Sazin is now handling
an annual product output of 35
features, as well as an extensive
program of short subjects, in-
cluding comedies, musicals, edu-
cational shorts, etc. The Astor
line-up of Hollywood produc-
tions this year includes 12 Hop-
along Cassidy Westerns; 6 Jean
Hersholt-Dr. Christian features ;
4 Laurel and Hardy features,
the newest of which is Flying
Deuces; Second Chorus, which
stars Paulette Goddard, Fred
Astaire, Burgess Meredith,
Charles Butterworth, and Artie
Shaw with his Band ; produc-
tions of special interest to
schools, including Little Men, by
Louisa May Alcott ; T o m
Brotvn’s School Days; Swiss
Family Robmso7i, and Beyond
Tonum'oiv ; Samuel Goldwyn’s
first feature picture in 16mm,
North Star; Jack London’s Mu-

Henry Sazin, executive in 16mm
department of Astor Pictures.

tiny on the Elsinore, starring
Paul Lukas; Melody Master, the
life of Schubert, with Ilona
Massey, Alan Curtiss, Binnie
Barnes, Billy Gilbert, and a
number of other equally notable
productions.

Mr. Kopfstein is lining up an
impressive array of product for
release in 1947, to assure a con-
tinuity of fine motion picture
product for leading 16mm film
libraries.

Orville Goldner Joins
Curriculum Films, Inc.

Orville Goldner, who until re-
cently was head of the Navy’s
Training Film Branch with the
rank of Lieutenant Commander,
has been retained as Chairman
of the Educational Staff of Cur-
riculum Films, Inc., New York.
This was announced by Monroe
B. David, president of the com-
pany.

Under Lt. Commander Gold-
ner’s supervision, the Training
Film Branch produced 3,500
training films and distributed
over 1,500,000 prints to fleet
units and movie establishments
all over the world. As part of
his work with our allies, the Lt.
Commander served as Chairman

of the United Nations Central
Training Film Committee.

Prior to the war, Mr. Goldner
had a varied experience in the
field of visual education, includ-
ing work in Hollywood as a de-
signer and technician, teaching
a t American University i n
Washington, D. C., and at Stan-
ford University, and doing ex-
tensive research work.

In his new position, Mr. Gold-
ner will be in charge of the plan-
ning and educational develop-
ment of all film-strips and mo-
tion pictures produced by inde-
pendent studios for distribution
by Curriculum Films.

Horry Slott Joins
Phof-o & Sound, Inc.

Harry M. Slott, former Holly-
wood producer and for many
years affiliated with the motion
picture industry, has joined the
staff of Photo & Sound, Inc.,
San Francisco industrial and
educational film producers, as
film production manager.

Slott began his motion picture
career in the sports field in 1928
as a co-producer of a series star-
ring Johnny Weissmuller and
Mickey Walker. He later became
production assistant on a series
of early Shirley Temple produc-
tions. He has also served as as-
sistant director in productions
for Republic, Columbia, and
Monogram. He is a member of
the Screen Directors’ Guild in
Hollywood.

During the war, Slott served
in the Office of Public Informa-
tion and Photographic Units of
the United States Coast Guard,
as production coordinator of
public-relations films.

The Photo & Sound staff is
being enlarged for the produc-
tion of educational, industrial,
and ])roniotiojial motion pic-
tures, slide films, and slides.

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

Teach -O- Disc Recordings

For Classes in Literature^ Speech,
Drama, and Social Studies

RECORD

NUMBER TITLE

101 The Man Without a Country, Parts 1 and II (cond)

102 The Man Without a Country, Part III (cone)

Horatius at the Bridge. Complete Poem

103 Macbeth, V, 1; Sleepwalking Scene (cond)

Macbeth, I, 7; Soliloquy (cond)

Macbeth, III, 4; Banquet Scene (cone)

104 Merchant of Venice IV, 1; (cond)

105 Merchant of Venice II, 7 ; II, 9 (cond)

106 Merchant of Venice III, 2; II, 2 (cone)

107 Paul Revere’s Ride (cond)

108 Hamlet I, 1 ; 2, 3, and 4 (cond)

109 Hamlet II, 2; III, 1; IV, 5 (cond)

110 Midsummer Night’s Dream II, 2; III, 1 and 2 (cond)

111 A Tale of Two Cities, Parts I and II (cond)

112 A Tale of Two Cities, Part HI (cone)

The House of the Seven Gables, Part I (cond)

113 The House of the Seven Gables, Parts II and III (cone)

114 Silas Marner (cond)

115 Launcelot and Elaine, Parts I and II (exrp)

116 Lancelot and Elaine, Parts III and IV (cone)

117 Gareth and Lynette, Parts I and II (cond)

118 Gareth and Lynette, Parts III and IV (cone)

120 She Stoops to Conquer, Parts I and II (cond)

121 She Stoops to Conquer, Parts HI and IV (cone)

123 Evangeline, Parts I and II (cond)

124 Evangeline, Part III (cone)

A Leak in the Dike. Complete Poem

125 The Skeleton in Armor. Complete Poem
Barbara Frietchie

126 Ivanhoe, Parts I and II

127 Ivanhoe, Part III (cone)

Treasure Island, Part I

128 Treasure Island, Parts II and III (cone)

129 My Financial Career (cond)

The Awful Fate of Melpomenus -Jones (cond)

130 A Christmas Carol, Parts I and II (cond)

131 A Christmas Carol, Parts III and IV (cone)

132 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Part I (cond)

133 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Parts III and IV (cone)

134 The Necklace (cond)

135 The Gift of the Magi (cond)

The Pit and the Pendulum

136 David Copperfield, Parts I and II (cond)

137 David Copperfield, Parts III and IV (cone)

145 A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig (cond)

Note: (cond), condensation; (exrp), excerpts; (cont), continued; (cone), conclusion.

GRADES

SUGGESTED

AUTHOR

7- 8

Edward

Everett Hale

7- 8

Edward

Everett Hale

7-10

Thomas

B. Macaulay

11-12

William

Shakespeare

9-10

William Shakespeare

7- 8

Henry W. Longfellow

William Shakespeare

10-11

William Shakespeare

10-11

Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens

10-11

Nathaniel Hawthorne

10-11

Nathaniel Hawthorne

10-11

George Eliot

11-12

Alfred Lord Tennyson

11-12

Alfred Lord Tennyson

11-12

Alfred Lord Tennyson

11-12

Alfred Lord Tennyson

10-11

Oliver Goldsmith

10-11

Oliver Goldsmith

7- 8

Henry W. Longfellow

7- 8

Henry W. Longfellow
Phoebe Cary

7-10

Henry W. Longfellow

7-10

John G. Whittier

10-11

Sir Walter Scott

10-11

Sir Walter Scott

7-10

Robert L. Stevenson

7-10

Robert L. Stevenson

7-10

Stephen Leacock

7-10

Charles Dickens

7-10

Charles Dickens

7-10

Washington Irving

7-10

Washington Irving

7-10

Guy de Maupassant

7-10

0. Henry

7- 9

Edgar Allan Poe

10-11

Charles Dickens

10-11

Charles Dickens

10-11

Charles Lamb

June, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

RECORD

GRADES

NUMBER TITLE

SUGGESTED

1 AUTHOR

151

Patrick Henry, Parts I and 11. Original Adaptation

9-10

Marquis James

152

Patrick Henry, Part III. Original Adaptation

9-10

Marquis James

Paul Revere, Part I. Original Adaptation

7- 9

Marquis James

153

Paul Revere, Parts II and III. Original Adaptation

7- 9

Marquis James

159

Drafting the Constitution, Parts I and II

10-11

Marquis James

]60

Drafting the Constitution, Parts III and IV

10-11

Marquis James

175

Aladdin and His Lamp (cond)

6- 8

Arabian Nights

177

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (cond)

6- 8

Arabian Nights

179

Les Miserables, Parts I and II (cond)

10-11

Victor Hugo

180

Les Miserables, Parts HI and IV (cone)

10-11

Victor Hugo

182

Captains Courageous, Parts I and II (cond)

7- 9

Rudyard Kipling

183

Captains Courageous, Part HI (cone)

7- 9

Rudyard Kipling

Sinbad the Sailor (cond)

6- 8

Arabian Nights

184

The Black Arrow (cond)

9-10

Robert L. Stevenson

185

The Black Arrow (cone)

9-10

Robert L. Stevenson

186

Penrod’s Busy Day (cond)

6- 8

Booth Tarkington

187

Cyrano de Bergerac (cond)

Edmond Rostand

188

Cyrano de Bergerac (cone)

Edmond Rostand

189

Huckleberry Finn, Parts I and II (cond)

6- 8

Mark Twain

190

Huckleberry Finn, Parts III and IV (cone)

6- 8

Mark Twain

194

Rip Van Winkle (cond)

6- 8

Washington Irving

200

Elegy Written in a Country Chhurchyard

9-10

Thomas Gray

201

Ode On Intimations of Immortality (cond)

William Wordsworth

202

The Courtship of Miles Standish (cond)

6- 8

Henry W. Longfellow

203

The Rape of the Lock (cond)

10-11

Alexander Pope

Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (cond)

Lord Byron

205

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Parts I and II (cond)

7- 9

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

206

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Part III (cone)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

To Hester. Complete Poem

Charles Lamb

The Old Familiar Faces. Complete Poem

Charles Lamb

207

Worship. Complete Poem

11-12

John G. Whittier

For You, 0 Democracy. Complete Poem

Walt Whitman

Snowbound. Complete Poem

7- 9

John G. Whittier

Old Ironsides. Complete Poem

7- 9

Oliver Wendell Holmes

208

The First Snowfall. Complete Poem

9-10

James Russell Lowell

To a Waterfowl. Complete Poem

William Cullen Bryant

208

Coronation. Complete Poem

Helen Hunt Jackson

Spinning. Complete Poem

209

If (cond)

7- 9

Rudyard Kipling

210

Sonnets XLHI, XIV, XXXV from the Portuguese

Elizabeth B. Browning

The Harp That Once Through Tara’s Halls. Complete Poem

9-10

Thomas Moore

Sonnet XXXI. Complete Poem

Sir Philip Sidney

Sonnet on Sleep. Complete Poem

William Drummond

Sonnet LXI. Complete Poem

Michael Drayton

211

The Cotter’s Saturday Night (cond)

10-11

Robert Burns

Auld Lang Syne. Complete Poem

7- 9

A Man’s A Man For A’ That. Complete Poem

9-10

Afton Water. Complete Poem

10-11

Robert Burns

212

Tam O’Shanter (cond)

9-10

Robert Burns

Bonnie Doon. Complete Poem

10-11

John Anderson, My Jo. Complete Poem

9-10

Mary Morison. Complete Poem

10-11

A Red, Red Rose. Complete Poem

10-11

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

RECORD

GRADES

NUMBER TITLE

SUGGESTED

AUTHOR

214

In Memoriam (cond)

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Break, Break, Break. Complete Poem

10-11

The Splendor Falls. Complete Poem

10-11

Crossing the Bar. Complete Poem

10-11

215

Song of the Brook. Complete Poem

9-10

Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Charge of the Light Brigade. Complete Poem

9-10

Flower in the Crannied Wall. Complete Poem

The Defense of Lucknow (cond)

10-11

216

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud. Complete Poem

9-10

William Wordsworth

Composed Upon Westminster Bridge. Complete Poem

The World Is Too Much With Us. Complete Poem

11-12

The Bridge of Sighs. Complete Poem

9-10

Thomas Hood

217

The Eve of St. Agnes (cond)

11-12

John Keats

218

Ode to a Nightingale. Complete Poem

Happy Is England. Complete Poem

Ode on a Grecian Urn. Complete Poem

Oh, How I Love. Complete Poem

11-12

John Keats

219

Ode to Autumn. Complete Poem

11-12

John Keats

Keen, Fitful Gusts. Complete Poem

11-12

A Petition to Time. Complete Poem

11-12

Adelaide Proctor

The Destruction of Sennacherib (cond)

9-11

Lord Byron

Ozymandias. Complete Poem

10-11

Percy Bysshe Shelley

220

Sohrab and Rustum (cond)

9-10

Matthew Arnold

221

The Deserted Village (cond)

9-10

Oliver Goldsmith

The Battle of Blenheim. Complete

9-10

Robert Southey

222

The Prisoner of Chillon (cond)

10-11

Lord Byron

223

To a Skylark. Complete

10-11

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Adonais

224

L’Allegro (cond)

On Shakespeare. Complete Poem

On His Having Arrived at the Age of

John Milton

Twenty-three. Complete Poem

On His Blindnes. Complete Poem

225

Locksley Hall (cond)

Rudyard Kipling

Teach-O-Discs are 12-inch, double-faced records of 78 r.p.m

prepared

especially as teaching aids for school use. They

may be played on any

standard phonograph.

Readers of Film and Radio Guide are offered one FREE

Teach-0-

Disc with each ten purchased at the school price

of $2.50 each.

You may

select from the complete list whichever one you

desire foi your FREE

record. This offer will expire September 30, 1946. Orders for

quantities

less than ten will be accepted at the regular school

price of $2.50 each.

New titles are constantly being added to the

English Literature and

American History Series. In addition, other series will be added in the
future, dealing with such subjects as Geography, Chemi.stry, Foreign Lan-

guages, etc. Teaching Guides accompany these recordings.

If you are interested, address Audio-Visual Division, Popular Science

Publishing Co., 353 Fourth Ave., New York 10, N .Y., or use the coupon

.tn page 32 of this issue.

June, 1946

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Index to Volume XII
Film and Radio Guide

October, 1945 to June, 1946

Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences, Awards of,
March, 21

Aceti. Mary, Dec., 16
Adult Education Conference,
May, 27

“Adventures of Michael Strog-
off, The,” Nov., 24
Amacker, John R., March, 19
ANFA Yearbook, Feb., 56
Arizona Cooperative Film Li-
brary, Oct., 30

Audio-Visual Aids in Davenport,
Iowa, April, 47

Audio-Visual Aids in Educa-
tional Reconditioning in an
A.S.F. Hospital, Nov., 18
Audio-Visual Aids to Social Ed-
ucation, April, 27
Audio-Visual Center, Unique,
April, 46

Audio-Visual Who’s Who, Oct.,
19; Nov., 29; Dec., 38; Jan.,
13; Feb., 50; Mar., 56; Apr.,
18; May, 35; June, 42
Aughinbaugh, B. A., Oct., 24,
31; Nov., 45; Dec., 7; Jan., 9;
Feb., 7; Mar., 7; Apr., 8;
May, 5 ; June, 25
Babson, Roger W., Jan., 42
Boxoffice Criteria, A Basis for
Discussing, Feb., 23
Battle of Soap Opera, On the,
Oct., 54

Baumstone, Harold, Oct., 22
Behind the Credits, Nov., 48
Behind the Screen Credits, Oct.,
52; Dec., 10; Jan., 10; Feb.,
10, Mar., 9; Apr., 28; May, 8
“Bells of St. Mary’s, The,” A
Guide to the Discussion of,
Dec., 56

Bernheim, Harriet, April, 37
Bingham, J. R., May, 35

Biography of a Radio Program,
The, Nov., 51
Brill, James A., Oct., 19
Brodshaug, Melvin, Oct., 19
Brokhahne, Van Rensselaer,
Dec., 26

Butterfield, C. J., April, 47
Calkins, Gene, April, 59
Canada, Crakes Reports on
Audio-Visual Movement in,
June, 52

Can Pictures Be Used Efficient-
ly in Church Work, Oct., 34
Can Radio Take It, Nov., 7
Carlin, Jerome, Feb., 14
Cartoons Enliven the English
Curriculum, Oct., 32; Mar., 40
Celotcx Corporation, April, 57
Central Audio-Visual Aids Ser-
vice in the University, May,
55

Chambers, W. Max, Feb., 44
Children’s Theatre, Conference
on, June, 34

Cinema Syndrome, March, 49
Classical Radio Music for Chil-
dren and Adults, Nov., 15
Classroom Films in a Small
School System, March, 25
Classroom Teacher’s Plea for
Social Studies Films, A, Feb.,
38

Coffey, Jack C., Dec., 38
Colton, Helen, Oct., 52; Nov.,
48; Dec., 10; Jan., 10; Feb.,
10; Mar., 9; Apr., 28; May, 8
Community Motion-Picture For-
um, A, March, 59
Cooperation Between Broadcas-
ters and Educational FM
Stations, Dec., 53
Corey, Stephen M., Dec., 38;
Apr., 12

Coronet Instructional Films,
June, 30

County Audio-Visual Center, A,
Dec., 37

Crakes, Charles R., Nov., 29;
June, 52

Cultural Week-End at the Wal-
dorf, Nov., 39
Dale, Edgar, May, 35
Dameron, Vernon G., Dec., 31
“David Copperfield,” 16MM
Screen Version of, Dec., 60;
Apr., 43

Dealer’s Approach to Visual Ed-
ucation, Apr., 59
Detroit Conference, April, 49
DeVry Corporation, June, 52
Dingle, Mary, Nov., 15
Disney, Walt, Nov., 26
Dobbertin, Rev. Charles W.,
Dec., 34

Educating the Emotions, Jan.,
42

Educational Recordings, March,
23

Educational Value of the Docu-
mentary Film, Oct., 35
Elementary Film Script on
Good Manners, Jan., 54
Elliott, Godfrey M., Jan., 13
Enlarging Concept of the Mo-
tion Picture as an Instruction-
al Aid, June, 44
Falconer, Haven, April, 18
Film Plans of the Protestant
Church, April, 22
Finch, Hardy R., Feb., 50
Fisher, Rev. Charles J., Oct., 34
Flight by Sight, Feb., 35
FM for Education, Nov., 22
Folkemer, Paul L., Mar., 20
Forthcoming Photoplays of In-
terest to Teachers and Stu-
dents, Oct., 39

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

Forthcoming Walter Lantz Car-
toons of Educational Interest,
May, 28

Foust, J. L., Oct., 34
“Free” Films, The Battle of,
April, 7

“Free” Films, Continuing the
Battle of, June, 50
“Free” Films, Suggested Policy
as to. May, 53

Freeman, Emily, Jan., 37; Feb.,
31 ; May, 49

Gilbert, Samuel G., Feb., 50
“Green Years, The,” as a Novel,
Apr., 37

Griswold Splicer, How to use
the, Nov., 54

Gruner, Elizabeth, Feb., 38
Gunstream, John, W., Apr., 18
Hagie, L. L., Mar., 25
Harrow, Carolyn, Oct., 49, 50;
Feb., 30; Mar., 55; Apr., 33;
May, 43, 49; June, 36
Harrow, Benjamin, June, 36
Hart, Gardner L., Oct., 16
Heard, Paul F., Apr., 22; June,
9

Hedrick, James A., Nov., 18
Herzberg, Max J., Mar., 49
Hicks, Orton H., Mar., 56
High-School Student Looks at
“The Green Years,” A, Apr.,
34

Hirliman, George A., Jan., 13
Hockman, William S., Mar., 30
Hollywood’s Interest in Class-
room Films, Oct., 16
Hollywood Quarterly, Jan., 50
Hollywood Trends Evaluated,
Jan., 50

Holtz, Merriman H., Mar., 56
“How Old is ‘Old’ in Educational
Motion Pictures,” May, 5
How to Organize a Local Film
Council, Mar., 17
Intercultural Radio at Chicago,
Feb., 33

Jennings, George, D e c., 47 ;

Feb., 33

Jett, E. K., Apr., 16
Johnson, Walter E., May, 35
Johnston, Eric, May, 36, 39
Jones, Horace 0., Nov., 29;
Feb., 56

Jules Verne Classic Made Avail-

able in 16MM, Nov., 24
“Julius Caesar,” Shooting Script
of the Forum Scene in, Apr.,
51

Junior - College Audio-Visual
Center in Colorado, A, Feb.,
47

Kind Words, Oct., 61 ; May, 59 ;
June, 54

Kline, Kathryn A., Mar., 59
Knight, J. D., Apr., 7
Knighton, Wilfred L., Feb., 56;
June, 27

Krieg, Saul, Nov., 51
Kruse, William F., Mar., 27;
May, 40

Ladd, William, May, 16
Lantz. Walter, May, 28
Lardie, Kathleen N., June, 49
Law, Frederick Houk, Oct., 42;
Nov., 55; Dec., 20; Jan., 33;
Feb., 24; Mar., 41; Apr., 30;
May, 43, 49; June, 36
Lazarsfeld, Paul F., Mar., 37
Legal Aspects of the Social Film,
Mar., 27

Lenten and Easter Films, A
Preview of. Mar., 30
Lewin, William, Oct., 11, 38;
Dec., 56; Jan., 19; Apr., 39,
43; June, 27

Lewis, Alexander B., June, 42
Loew, Arthur W., Oct., 11; May,
31

Lynn, Doris Louisa, Dec., 38
“Make Mine Music,” A Guide
to the Appreciation of. May,
43

Maynard, George, Nov., 9
McCarty, Harold B., Feb., 52
McCuskey, Dorothy, Nov., 35
McPherson, James, Dec., 37
Mersand, Joseph, Nov., 18
Mertes, Ray 0., Feb., 35
Metropolitan Youth Council,
The, Nov., 16

M-G-M-’s World-Wide Service
for Schools, May, 31
Mickey as Professor, Nov., 26
Miller, Ruth Weir, Feb., 43;
May, 17

Morley, Henry A., Feb., 46
Motion Pictures Useful for the
Study of Literature, Mar., 52
Movie-Mite Projectors Now

Available, June, 53
Munson, Edward L., Jr., Nov.,
29

Murra, Wilbur F., Oct., 55
Nachbar, Estelle, Apr., 34
National Council for the Social
Studies, Apr., 27
NBC’s Brilliant Array of Broad-
casting Courses, Nov., 11
NBC, USA, and UNO Cooperate
for World Unity Project,
Mar., 35

NEA Audio-Visual Service Divi-
sion, Dec., 31

Newark’s Educational Radio
Station, Feb., 53
Newark’s Program of Audio-
Visual Aids Service to
Schools, June, 18
Newark Evening News, Feb., 53
New York’s All-City High-
School Radio Workshop, Dec.,
26

New York Schools Experiment
with Television, Mar., 31
Noel, Francis W., Jan., 13
Norris, Kathleen, Oct., 54
Papp, Frank, Nov., 9
Patterson, Frances Taylor,
Nov., 32

Pictorial Films, Jan., 54
“Pinocchio,” A Guide to the
Appreciation of, Nov., 35
Play's the Thing, The, Dec., 12;
Jan., 40; Feb., 55; Mar., 13;
May, 24

Popular Science Publishing Co.,
June, 51. 56
Powell, E. H., Dec., 38
Protestant Looks at Films, A,
June, 9

Pyle, Ernie, Oct., 50
Racial Stereotypes in Our Eng-
lish Textbooks, Feb., 14
Radio and Audio Aids in Seattle,
May, 16

Radio, Dynamic Force in Educa-
tion, May, 17

Radio Plays, Fifty Inexpensive
and Non-Royalty, March, 38
Raths, Louis E., May, 15
Readings in Photoplay Appreci-
ation, Nov., 40; Feb., 20
Recommended Photoplays, Oct.,
42; Dec., 20; Jan., 33

June, 1946

Recordings for the Social Stud-
ies Classroom, Oct., 55
Recordings for Social Studies,
Speech, Dramatics, and Liter-
ature Classes, June, 56
Reed, Paul, Nov., 60
Roudin, Victor, Jan., 13
Salzburg, Milton J., Oct., 22
Schofield, Edvcard T., June, 18
Schreiber, Flora Rheta, Nov., 39,
56; Dec., 12; Jan., 40; Feb.,
55; Mar., 13; May, 24; June,
44

Schreiber, Robert E., Mar., 52;
June, 44

Science on the Air, Feb., 43
Screen Writer, The, Nov., 40;

Dec., 50; Feb., 20
Secretary Wallace’s Vie'ws on
Education, Dec., 19
Seiler, Grace, Oct., 30
“Seward’s Folly,’’ Nov., 38
16MM Exchange Practices, Oct.,
24; Nov., 45; Dec., 7; Jan., 9;
Feb., 7 ; Mar.,7

16MM Film Library, Operating
a Commercial, March, 33
16MM Sound, The Problem of
Quality in, Feb., 46
16MM Trade Show, June 27
Slides, Fifty Most Used Sets of,
Oct., 31

Sources of “ Free’’ 16MM Films,
Nov., 43

Spanish Sound-Track 16MM
Films, Apr., 61
Sper, Felix, May, 13
Sponsored Audio-Visual Mater-
ials for Schools, Apr., 49
Sponsored Films for Schools,
Apr., 12

Stackhouse, J. M., Oct., 27
Stage Scripts to Improve Hu-
man Relations, May, 13

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Stasheff, Edward, Mar., 31
Stenius, Arthur, Dec., 38
Stereotypes, How Writers Per-
petuate, Jan., 46
“Story of G. 1. Joe,’’ Oct., 50
Strom, David E., June 42
Summers, Harrison B., Nov., 9
Taffel, Alexander, May, 9
Teacher Looks at the Movies, A,
Feb., 24; Mar., 41; Apr., 30;
June, 36

Teaching Audience Behavior,
Nov., 23

Teaching Film Custodians, Facts
You Should Know About,
May, 39

Teach-O-Disc Recordings, June,
56

Teach-O-Filmstrips, Notable
Series of Elementary, June,51
Ten Questions on Sound Condi-
tioning, Apr., 57
Thompson, Howard E., Nov., 38
Thrasher, Frederick M., Nov., 16
Tiemann, Ernest, Apr., 46
“Treasure Island,” 16MM Screen
Version, Apr., 39
Tressler, J. C., Oct., 32
Tyler, 1. Keith, Jan., 31, 32
Use of Audio-Visual Aids, May,
15

Use of Films as Visual Aids,
Advances in the. May, 36
Use of Films in the Church Pro-
gram, The, Dec., 34
USOE Film Program, Extolling
the Execution of, Nov., 60
Variety’s Miniature Reviews of
Films, Dec., 24; Jan., 38;
Feb., 23

Virginia Appropriates $1,112,
000 for Visual Education,
Oct., 27

Virginia Forges Ahead in Audio-

Visual Education, June 26
Visual Aids in the Geneseo
Township High School, Dec.,
33

Visual Aids in a Small City
School System, Feb., 44
Visual Education Dealer, Ser-
vices of a, March, 19
Visual Education in the Church,
Mar., 20

Visual Program of Michigan
Workshop, Dec., 16
Visual Program at Owensboro,
Ky., Oct., 34

Wallace, Henry A., Dec., 19
Waller, Judith, May, 60
Wendt, Paul, May, 55
What Can Secondary Schools
Learn from Educational Ex-
periences of the Armed
Forces, May, 9

What Shall We Read About the
Movies, Jan., 19
What We Can Learn from
Army-Navy Training, Dec.,
18

“When Will You Visual Instruc-
tionists Teach Children to Use
Maps, Charts, Globes, Speci-
mens, Models,” June, 25
White, Arthur L., Dec., 33
Who’s Who in Radio Education,
Nov., 9; Dec., 47; Jan., 31;
Feb., 52 ; Mar., 37 ; May, 60 ;
June, 49

Why. Better Radio Programs
are Coming, Apr., 16
Williams, Dennis R., June, 50
Willoughby, Bertram, Mar., 33
World and the Classroom, The,
Oct., 11

Writers War Board, Jan., 46
York Film Library, Dec., 46
Young America Films, Jan., 18

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE

Volume XII, No. 9

25% DISCOUNT
On Orders for 5 or More
SUBSCRIPTIONS

Single Subscriptions

One Year 3.00 Each

Two Years 5.00 Each

Three Years .... 6.50 Each

5 or More Subscriptions

One Year 2.25 Each

Two Years 3.75 Each

Three Years .... 4.87 Each

In Canada, add 50c a year; in other foreign countries, add $1.00 a year.

“What Shall We Read About the Movies^** or Shooting Script of Forum Scene
in “Julius Caesar” Free tvith Z-year Subscriptions.

Both Free xvith 3-year Subscriptions.

Film & Radio Guide

A 64'Page Magazine Devoted to Audio-Visual Education. Edited
by William Lewin, Ph. D., Chairman^ Department of English,

Weequahic High School, Newark.

172 RENNER AVENUE

NEWARK 8, NEW JERSEY

AUDIO-VISUAL DIRECTORY

NoHonol & International

INTERNATIONAL THEATRI-
CAL AND TELEVISION CORP.

ITTCO OF ILLINOIS, 100 W.
Monroe St., Chicago 3.

ITTCO OF THE WEST, 3123
W. 8th St., Los Angeles 5.
ITTCO OF THE WEST, 4247
Piedmont Ave., Oakland 11,
Calif.

ITTCO OF THE SOUTH, 756 W.
Peachtree St., N. W., Atlanta,
Ga.

ITTCO OF MISSOURI, 3326
Olive St., St. Louis, Mo.

ITTCO OF THE SOUTH, 3021/2
So. Harwood St., Dallas 1, Tex.

ITTCO OF NEW YORK, 25 W.
45th St., New York 19, N. Y.

ITTCO OF NEW ENGLAND,
1 1 5 Newbury St., Boston 1 6,
Mass.

ITTCO OF WASHINGTON, 51
H St., N.W., Washington 1,
D. C.

ITTCO OF NEW ORLEANS, 815
Poydras St., New Orleans 1 3,

La.

ITTCO OF CANADA, 21 Dun-
das Square, Toronto, Canada

Bell & Howell Co., Dept. "G"
FILMOSOUND LIBRARY
1 834 Larchmont Ave., Chicago
30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York
716 N. LaBrea Ave., Hollywood
1221 G. St., N. W., Washington

FILMS INCORPORATED

330 W. 42nd St., New York 18
64 E. Lake St., Chicago 1
101 Marietta St., Atlanta 3
109 N. Akard St., Dallas 1
314 S.W. 9th Ave., Portland 5
1709 W. 8 St., Los Angeles 14

ASTOR PICTURES CORPORATION
1 30 W. 46th Street
New York, N. Y.

BRANDON FILMS, Inc.

1 600 Broadway
New York, N. Y.

BAILEY FILM SERVICE

2044 No. Berendo St., Holly-
wood 27, Calif.; 404 No. Good-
win Ave., Urbana, III.

CHURCH-CRAFT PICTURES. Bible
Stories Photographed in Color.
St. Louis 3, Missouri.

COMMONWEALTH PICTURES
CORPORATION, 729 Seventh
Avenue, New York, N. Y.

CORONET PRODUCTIONS
Instructional Films
Glenview, Illinois

EDUCATIONAL FILM GUIDE
H. W. Wilson Co., 950 Univer-
sity Ave., New York 52, N. Y.

EDUCATORS GUIDE TO FREE
FILMS, Educators Progress
Service, Randolph, Wis.

WILLIAM J. GANZ COMPANY
40 East 49th Street
New York, N. Y.

HOFFBERG PRODUCTIONS, Inc.
618-20 Ninth Avenue
New York 18, N. Y.

IDEAL PICTURES CORPORATION
28-34 E. 8th Street
Chicago, III.

Offices in principal cities.

INSTITUTIONAL CINEMA SERV-
ICE, Inc., 1560 Broadway
New York, N. Y.

MOTION PICTURE BUREAU—
YMCA, 347 Madison Avenue
New York, N. Y.

1 9 S. La Salle St., Chicago, III.
1 700 Patterson Av., Dallas, Tex.
351 Turk St., San Francisco, Cal.

NATIONAL FILM SERVICE

Raleigh, N. C. Richmond, Va.
424 Madison Ave., New York

NU-ART FILMS, Inc.
145 W. 45th Street
New York, N. Y.

PICTORIAL FILMS, Inc.
1 270 Sixth Ave.

New York 20, N. Y.

POST PICTURES CORPORATION
723 Seventh Avenue
New York, N. Y.

PROFESSIONAL FILM SERVICE
(N. H. Barcus)

Booking and exhibition of com-
mercial and industrial films.

342 Madison Ave.

New York 17, N. Y.

SKIBO PRODUCTIONS, Inc.
1 65 West 46th St.

New York 19, N. Y.

New England

HARVARD FILM SERVICE

Graduate School of Education
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts

A. H. RICE & CO.

Rentals and Projection Service
Hollis, N. H.

The West Coast

THE SCREEN ADETTE EQUIP-
MENT CORP., RCA Audio-Visual
Equipment.

314 S.W. 9th, Portlond, Ore.
1709 W. 8th, Los Angeles.

68 Post St., San Francisco.

The South

DISTRIBUTORS' GROUP, 756

Peachtree St., N.W., Atlanta,
Ga. Exclusive distributors of
Monogram products, ITTCO
films, Ampro and SVE equip-
ment, Jam Handy teaching
films. Serving the South only.

CALHOUN COMPANY
101 Marietta St., N.W.

Atlanta 3, Georgia

WILFRED NAYLOR

1907 Fifth Ave., North
Birmingham 1, Alabama

SOUTHERN VISUAL FILMS
686 Shrine Building
Memphis, Tenn.

Indiana

DENNIS FILM BUREAU
29 E. Maple St.

Wabash, Ind.

Iowa

RYAN VISUAL AIDS SERVICE
409-11 Harrison St.

Davenport, Iowa

Michigan

CAPITAL FILM SERVICE, Film Li-
brary and Motion-Picture and
Visual-Aid Equipment, 224 Ab-
bott Road, East Lansing, Mich.

COSMOPOLITAN FILMS
3248 Gratiot Avenue
Detroit, Mich.

LOCKE FILM LIBRARY
129 W. Michigan Avenue
Kalamazoo 9, Michigan

Minnesota

NATIONAL CAMERA EXCHANGE
Bell & Howell Branch, Filmo-
sound Library, 86 S. 6th St.,
Minneapolis 2.

New York

IDEAL MOTION PICTURE SERV-
ICE, 371 St. Johns Avenue
Yonkers, N. Y.

New Jersey

ART ZEILLER, Visual and Audio-

Visual Aids, Victor Distributor,

Factory Service. Entertainment.

868 Broad St., Newark 2, N. J.

Ohio

TWYMAN FILMS, Inc.
29 Central Ave.
Dayton, Ohio

West Virginia

E. B. SIMPSON

816 W. Virginia St.
Charleston 2, W. Va.

MESSAGES
TO AMERICAN
SCHOOL TEACHERS

Commended for Classroom Use hy
Leading Edueators from Coast to Coast

10NG EXPERIENCE aiiJ pcrsonal observation have led educators to the sources of knowledge
_/ which best inspire in today’s youth a deep loyalty to the ideals of democracy. The
followung excerpts from recent signed statements testify to their appreciation of The RcaJer’s
Digest ... as an effective classroom aid in perpetuating these ideals:

Wc must raise a generation committed to the improve-
ment ot our democracy and constitutional government.
Accurate information on significant current developments
is a necessary adjunct in this task. The Reader's Digest pro-
vides a concise, readable handbook of world events and
trends. — Alonzo C. Grace, State Commissioner of Edu-
cation, Connecticut.

The youth of our land should be given abundant oppor-
tunity to inform themselves on current social, economic
and scientific matters, and 1 know of no better or more
pleasant way of securing such information than through
The Reader’s Digest. — Elizabeth Ireland, State Superin-
tendent of Public Instruction, Montana.

The Reader’s Digest is a fortress of defcn.se against ignorance
of what IS going on in our own and other lands. . . .
1 should like to see it in the hands of every high school
student, and of many in the upper elementary grades.
— James Haskell Hope, State Superintendent of Educa-
tion, South Carolina.

For use in schools, a magazine such as Tlic Reader’s Digest,
which offers accurate and interesting summaries of sig-
nificant events and achievements in the social, scientific
and economic fields, is of high value. — Francis B. Haas,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Pennsylvania.

The Reader’s Digest is a continuing and impartial “diary”
of the American way of life and the actual workings of our
democracy. At a time when world welfare is to be so
influenced by our course here at home, its value as an aid
to the teaching of good citizenship increases the need for
Its use in our schools. — John Callahan, State Superin-
tendent of Public Instruction, Wisconsin.

As never before , pupils in our schools need to read widely
if they are to think clearly on many and varied topics.
Because Tlic Rcajer’s Digest presents up-to-the-month in-
formation on current events and personalities, this pub-
lication has come to be a valuable and widely used sup-
plement to our reading in many high school and lower-
grade classes. — Esther L. Anderson, State Superintendent
of Public Instruction, Wyoming,

One of the first, and certainly one of the most important
duties of every school teacher today is the planting of
Lincoln’s sort of Americanism in the hearts and minds of
our youth, ... I feel that the School Edition of The
Reader’s Digest should be classed among the valuable me-
diums for aiding this vital task. — Vernon L. Nickcll,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Illinois.

I would place Tltc Rcailcr’s Digest at the head of the list of
required reading for teachers and high school students.
— John A. Shaw, Superintendent of Schools, Spokane,
Washington.

TIic Rcflilcr’s Digest is a fascinating record of events and
trends, which broadens the outlook of students and gives
them a more comprehensive grasp of the principles and
meaning of good citizenship. — Arthur E. Thompson,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, North Dakota.

As an auxiliary aid to classroom instruction in the build-
ing of bedrock Americanism, the value of Tlic Rcaifcr’s
Lbgcst IS very high. — Burgin E. Dossett, State Commis-
sioner of Education, Tennessee.

Tlic Reader’s Digest is making a contribution to the main-
tenance of our form of government, especially by implant-
ing in young minds the concepts of desirable human rela-
tionships.— Rex Putnam, State Superintendent of Public
Instruction, Oregon.

The teacher who understands the scope of her assignment,
and sees her objectives clearly, will value The Reader’s
Digest, which keeps its readers in touch with the forces
which make TOMORROW. It offers information —
common knowledge for common understanding for com-
mon citizenship in a common world: one world. — John
Fred Williams, State Superintendent of Public Instruction,
Kentucky.

Tlic Reader’s Digest is in an especially unique position , be-
cause of Its wide use in the schools, to play an important
part in strengthening the walls of democracy. — Wayne O.
Reed, State Suf^rintendent of Public Instruction, Nebraska.

Statements like these are more significant than anything we ourselves might say about the
place which The Reader’s Digest holcis in the hearts and minds of teachers throughout the
country who are molding a new generation of Americans.

LI ART HUVl

CORNELL UNiVT'^SlTY THEATRE

Scanned from the collection of
Prof. Don Fredericksen

Coordinated by the

Media History Digital Library
www.mediahistoryproject.org

Funded by a donation from
Eileen Bowser

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)"

See other formats