Resources
“Atom Educational Film Made Available by GE,” Washington Post, Aug. 9, 1953, R11; “A Challenge to Free Enterprise,” Business Screen 15, no. 5 (1954): 33; advertisement, Business Screen 18, no. 7 (1957): 5.

Sponsor: General Electric Co. Production Co.: John Sutherland Productions. Director: Carl Urbano. Writer: True Boardman. Art Directors: Gerald Nevius, Lew Keller. Production Designer: Tony Rivera. Music: Eugene Poddany. Animation: Arnold Gillespie, Emery Hawkins. Transfer Note: Scanned from a 16mm print held by the Library of Congress. Running Time: 15 minutes.

Science film positioning atomic energy as both a peaceful and a warlike force. Sponsored by a corporation involved in the nascent nuclear industry, the film is an animated introduction to atomic energy and designed to be, as a Business Screen reviewer reported, “entertaining but scientifically accurate.” The periodic table, represented as “Element Town,” depicts each element in a distinctive shape suggesting its use by humans. Radium, whose giant head resembles an atomic nucleus, decays into an unstable state and begins to jitterbug to the sound of an old Victrola. The short ends with a majestic atomic giant straddling the earth. Our future, the narrator says, “depends on man’s wisdom, on his firmness in the use of that power.”

Note: This example from GE’s Excursions in Science series presents a portentous message in a humorous, self-deprecating manner. In its first three years of release, it was seen by more than 12 million people. Ten-minute theatrical version released in 35mm Anscocolor; 15-minute nontheatrical version, in 16mm Kodachrome. Received a Freedoms Foundation award in 1954 and the Second Grand Award for science films at the Venice Film Festival in 1954.

Note: Premiered at the 1958 conference of the American Society of Industrial Designers. Produced in Technicolor and SuperScope. Also released in 16mm Technicolor. Received Freedoms Foundation’s George Washington Honor Medal Award in 1958. Ralph Caplan characterized American Look as “a popular film that was unpopular with the designers who saw it, partly because the term ‘stylist’ was used exclusively, and partly because it presented so misleading a picture of how design gets done.” For more about “populuxe” design, see Thomas Hine, Populuxe (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986), 82–106.

Sponsor: Chevrolet Div., General Motors Corp. Production Co.: Jam Handy Organization. Directors: W.F. Banes, John Thiele. Camera: Roger Fenimore, Pierre Mols, Robert Tavernier. Art Directors: Robert Mounsey, Charles Nasca, Otto Simunich. Music: Samuel Benavie, James Higgins, Milton Weinstein. Editors: V.L. Herman, Harold Rogers. Transfer Note: Scanned from a 35mm print held by the Library of Congress. Running Time: 28 minutes.

Promotional film celebrating the 1959 Chevrolet automobile line as an exemplar of American industrial design and styling. American Look highlights the contribution of interior, indus­tri­al, product, and automobile designers to the “populuxe” era; the term was coined by writer Thomas Hine to describe the late-1950s stylistic fusion of luxury and mass-produced consumer goods. This wide-screen spectacular showcases an array of contemporary architectural exteriors, interiors, packaging, office equipment, and industrial machines and ends by revealing designers at work on the 1959 Chevrolet Impala at General Motors’ new Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. Declaring that “the greatest freedom of the American people is the freedom of individual choice,” American Look takes pride in the country’s abundance of consumer goods and the “customization” made possible by designers.

Resources
“Motorama: Vision of the Future,” Business Screen 17, no. 4 (1956): 

Sponsor: General Motors Corp. Production Co.: MPO Productions Inc. Producer: Victor D. Solow. Cast: Thelma “Tad” Tadlock, Mark Breaux. Transfer Note: Scanned from a 35mm print held by Prelinger Archives. Running Time: 9 minutes.

Best-known of the films presenting “Motorama,” General Motors’ annual traveling automobile and appliance trade show. This example introduces the 1956 automobile models, Frigidaire’s “Kitchen of Tomorrow,” electronic highways of the future, and GM “dream cars” the Oldsmobile Golden Rocket and the turbine-powered Pontiac Firebird II. An amalgam of styles drawn from industrial stage shows and Hollywood musicals, Design for Dreaming has become emblematic of 1950s futuristic modernism.

Note: Debuting at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the 1956 “Motorama” show attracted 2 million people during its five-city tour. It was released in 35mm Eastmancolor and 16mm Anscocolor prints and shown in theaters and at automobile dealerships

Note: This delightful film, produced in Technicolor and Superscope, exemplifies the enthusiasm and excess of mid-1950s advertising. Local telephone company offices distributed sheet music for “Castle in the Sky,” written by Richard Pribor, with lyrics by Al Stewart. Also distributed in 16mm.

Sponsor: American Telephone & Telegraph Co. Production Co.: Jerry Fairbanks Productions. Director: Gower Champion. Writers: Kenneth H. Bennett, Leo S. Rosencrans. Camera: Jerry Fairbanks. Production Designer: Theodore Holsopple. Music: Edward Paul. Editor: Milton Kleinberg. Cast: Virginia Gibson, Ward Ellis, Chick Chandler, Alan Mowbray, Veronica Pataky. Transfer Note: Scanned from a 35mm print held by Prelinger Archives. Running Time: 14 minutes.

Glossy musical made to promote color “decorator” telephones. The short tells the story of newlyweds whose honeymoon must be delayed until the husband completes a new song for his client. As the husband struggles with writer’s block, his wife dreams about a remodeled home with color phones in every room, from the bedroom to the kitchen. Fortunately the telephone dial clicks provide the needed musical inspiration for the husband, and the couple jubilantly sing his new song “Castle in the Sky” as they dance out the door.

Resources
“Pittsburgh Premiere of the United States Steel Technicolor Film Rhapsody of Steel,” Business Screen 20, no. 8 (1959): 35–37; Howard Thompson, “High Budget Film on Steel Slated,” New York Times, Jan. 9, 1960, 14; “Rhapsody of Steel,” Business Screen 21, no. 3 (1960): 35–38; “PR Films: Soft Sell in the Chemical Industry,” Chemical & Engineering News, July 11, 1960, 76.

Sponsor: U.S. Steel Corp. Production Co.: John Sutherland Productions. Director: Carl Urbano. Art Director: Eyvind Earle. Music: Dimitri Tiomkin. Narrator: Gary Merrill. Transfer Note: Scanned from a 16mm print held by the Library of Congress. Running Time: 23 minutes.

Big-budget film about iron and steel that was produced as part of U.S. Steel’s campaign against competing steel imports and alternative materials like aluminum. Told with animation and few words, Rhapsody of Steel presents the panoply of products made from steel, including a rocket that blasts into space.

Note: The film had a production budget of $350,000 and was shown theatrically in Pittsburgh and seven other cities. Dimitri Tiomkin’s score was also made available by U.S. Steel as a sound recording. Released in Technicolor. Distributed in 35mm and 16mm.