O Arauto Brasileiro

Sponsors: The Chamber of Commerce of the United States, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company Production: John Sutherland Productions Producer: John Sutherland Associate Producer: George Gordon Director: Carl Urbano Lyrics: Bill Scott Layout: Victor Haboush Backgrounds: Joe Montell Animation: Ken O’Brien, George Cannata, Fred Madison Narrator: Marvin Miller Music: Les Baxter Production Manager: Earl Jonas Transfer Note: Digital file made from a 35mm negative preserved by the Hagley Museum and Library Time: 14 minutes. In the early 1910s just about every local Chamber of Commerce—from Redlands, California, to Chattanooga, Tennessee—was sponsoring a film to advertise the scenic, industrial, and commercial attractions of its own city. Even the Chamber of Commerce of Washington D.C. felt the need to do some cinematic boosting: “As it is impossible for every American to see his capital, the city can be taken, in a pictorial sense, to every part of the country” (Moving Picture World). Civic pride was part and parcel of national pride and patriotism. When President Taft addressed Congress in 1911 about the need for a central organization to keep in touch with the multitude of chambers of commerce across the country, he was responding to the threat of an increasingly radical labor movement that was expanding its vision and strategies beyond the local level. Four months later the United States Chamber of Commerce was founded. During the 1950s the US Chamber of Commerce launched a nationwide audio-visual service program for its members to use with their communities. The films produced at this time were more ambitious than the local booster films of the 1910s that simply sought to attract tourists and settlers to their towns. Now the country was in the midst of a global Cold War between the forces of capitalism and its opponents. The stakes were much higher, and sophisticated means were needed to instill in Americans “a greater public sentiment for private enterprise.” The US Chamber of Commerce hired John Sutherland, the influential sponsored-film producer who got his start in movies as one of the writers on Walt Disney’s Bambi. After leaving the Disney Studio, Sutherland was hired during World War II by the Department of Defense to create educational and training films. After the war he started his own production company and produced cartoons for United Artists, but it was in the late 40s that he was presented with the opportunity that would define his career. The Sloan Foundation commissioned him to create a series of animated propaganda films extolling the virtues of the American system of free enterprise, among them Make Mine Freedom (1948), and Albert in Blunderland (1950), a critique of New Deal liberalism. The Story of Creative Capital follows in the vein of these earlier films. Based on the 1955 pamphlet “This Is du Pont: The Story of Creative Capital”, it shows how personal investment makes the average Joe a partner in America’s ever-growing economic affluence. Riffing on the story of Rip Van Winkle, the film features a singing-and-dancing elf named Alf who is summoned by one such Joe who despairs of ever amounting to anything and would rather just sleep away the next 20 years. Instead Alf takes him back to colonial times for a lesson in entrepreneurship and good old American stick-to-itiveness. In the end, this Joe learns that he is not just another cog in the wheel but a dynamic part of the industrial system and that he is blessed with the opportunity to make things better for himself and his country. Though the ideological message of The Story of Creative Capital may have lost some of its fizz over the intervening years, the film remains as entertaining as ever thanks to its extremely talented group of animators, whose decades-spanning work ranges from Mister Magoo and The Bullwinkle Show to He-Man and The Smurfs, and composer Les Baxter, a frequent collaborator of John Sutherland best remembered nowadays for his “exotica” albums and B-movie soundtracks.

Production: John Sutherland Productions Distribution: The New York Stock Exchange Direction: Carl Urbano Animation: Arnold Gillespie, Emery Hawkins, Bill Higgins Music: Eugene Poddany Released: (Estimate). Time: 12 minutes. Technicolor John Sutherland was the go-to producer in the 1950s for industrial cartoons about how the American economic system worked. Although your appreciation of his work may vary according to whatever your political position is, he offered amusing vignettes in support of then-standard pro-capitalist theory. So when the New York Stock Exchange decided to produce a film to explain how they worked, they went to Mr. Sutherland. Unfortunately, this cartoon, while produced with Mr. Sutherland's usual attention to details, is dryer and less interesting than his other efforts. It is much more purely a message film than his usual efforts and no terribly engaging. © John Sutherland Productions

Sponsor: United Fruit Co. Production: John Sutherland Productions Narrator: Marvin Miller Resources : Copyright not registered; advertisement, Bus Scrn 18, no. 1 (1957): 63; “United Fruit on the Screen,” Bus Scrn 17, no. 3 (1957): 35. Holdings : MacDonald. Short sponsored by the United Fruit Company to blunt “communist propaganda claims” in the American and Latin American press. Using animation and live action, the short describes the benefits of the “living circle” of interdependent trade between Central America and the United States. Note: The companion to Bananas? Si, Señor! (entry 40), The Living Circle was reportedly seen by more than 17 million viewers during its first eight months of release. Both films were distributed with Spanish sound tracks for Latin American audiences. Produced in Eastmancolor. © John Sutherland Productions

Sponsor: Harding College Production: John Sutherland Productions Characters: John Q. Public, The Devil. Voice actors: Frank Nelson, Harry Morgan, Bud Hiestand, Herb Vigran. Directed by: Carl Urbano. Producers: John Sutherland, George Gordon. Animation: Arnold Gillespie, Emery Hawkins, Bill Higgins, Russ Van Neida. Music: Les Baxter. Released: 1952 (estimate). Time: 9:42 minutes. Technicolor Cartoon produced at the request of Harding College addressing the Cold War with the Soviets and the risks of the impacts of inflation on the economy due to the Cold War scenario. First, the Devil himself confers with the War demon about his failure to lead the United States into global conflict and an escalating arms race. He asks the devil to continue to heighten the climate of conflict in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, with the help of his "communist" friends. Meanwhile, the Devil begins to study a plan to destroy the United States from the inside, by increasing inflation and destroying the American economy from the inside. He puts this into practice during a conversation between Joe Farmer and John Q. Public about the impact of inflation on agricultural products. Then he does the same during a conversation between John Citizen and a businessman at a dinner, and then in line at the bank in a conversation between John Q. Public and a factory worker. We then see John Q. Public reading a newspaper with terrible news about inflation on agricultural products, rising business costs, strikes for increases in workers' wages and increased investment in arms production. Alarmed by this, he still watches a call for a live interview that night with a politician (Senator Brimstone, who is none other than the Devil himself), whom he recognizes as the disseminator of intrigues about "there are no risks to be considered with rising inflation" and that the people should not be concerned. John Q. Public decides to intervene in the farce and publicly confront the "senator" representative of the city of "Hell Dorado" (literally a pun between ElDorado and Inferno in English), unmasking him live. An excellent class on economic principles and political manipulation of the economy, a very common practice on the diabolical left. © John Sutherland Productions

Sponsor: U.S. Steel Corp. Production Co.: John Sutherland Productions Director: Carl Urbano Art Director: Eyvind Earle Music: Dimitri Tiomkin Narrator: Gary Merrill Resources : Copyright 17/11/1959 MP9970; “Pittsburgh Premiere of the United States Steel Technicolor Film Rhapsody of Steel,” Bus Scrn 20, no. 8 (1959): 35–37; Howard Thompson, “High Budget Film on Steel Slated,” NYT, Jan. 9, 1960, 14; “Rhapsody of Steel,” Bus Scrn 21, no. 3 (1960): 35–38; “PR Films: Soft Sell in the Chemical Industry,” Chemical & Engineering News, July 11, 1960, 76. Holdings : LC/Prelinger. 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. © John Sutherland Productions

Sponsor: Harding College, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Production: John Sutherland Productions Resources : Copyright 31/01/1949 MP3889; Ec Ed, 27. Holdings : AAFF, LC/Prelinger, UCLA. Pro-business cartoon explaining the role of investment capital in building America’s prosperity. Because of far-sighted investment in industry, the American worker, personified by Brooklyn-accented Joe, is “king of the workers of the world” and has higher wages and shorter hours than his counterparts abroad. Meet King Joe argues that in view of the rewards workers reap from the American economic system, it is in labor’s best interest to cooperate with management. Note: Part of Harding College’s Fun and Facts about America series. Also distributed in 16mm. For more about the National Education Program, see Cabell Phillips, “Wide Anti-Red Drive Directed from Small Town in Arkansas,” NYT, May 18, 1961, 26. © John Sutherland Productions

Sponsors: American Petroleum Institute Production: United Productions of America (UPA) Animation: Art Babbitt, Roger Daley, Pat Matthews, Tom McDonald, Grim Natwick Direction: Bill Hurtz Producer: Herb Klynn Music: William Lava Voices: Vic Perrin, Bill Scott Released: 1951 The American Petroleum Institute presents an inspiring tale of man's history taming nature through ingenuity and invention, culminating in the modern American farmer, who relies on the oil industry to fuel his machinery. This short movie starts with prehistoric times and ends in the present, showing how oil-powered machines have banished the threat of famine. Originally a public domain film from the Library of Congress Prelinger Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original). Agriculture is the science and art of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in cities. The history of agriculture began thousands of years ago. After gathering wild grains beginning at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers began to plant them around 11,500 years ago. Pigs, sheep and cattle were domesticated over 10,000 years ago. Plants were independently cultivated in at least 11 regions of the world. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture in the twentieth century came to dominate agricultural output, though about 2 billion people still depended on subsistence agriculture into the twenty-first. Modern agronomy, plant breeding, agrochemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers, and technological developments have sharply increased yields, while causing widespread ecological and environmental damage. Selective breeding and modern practices in animal husbandry have similarly increased the output of meat, but have raised concerns about animal welfare and environmental damage. Environmental issues include contributions to global warming, depletion of aquifers, deforestation, antibiotic resistance, and growth hormones in industrial meat production. Genetically modified organisms are widely used, although some are banned in certain countries. The major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels and raw materials (such as rubber). Food classes include cereals (grains), vegetables, fruits, oils, meat, milk, fungi and eggs. Over one-third of the world's workers are employed in agriculture, second only to the service sector, although the number of agricultural workers in developed countries has decreased significantly over the centuries... The American Petroleum Institute (API) is the largest U.S. trade association for the oil and natural gas industry. It claims to represent about 650 corporations involved in production, refinement, distribution, and many other aspects of the petroleum industry. The association describes its mission as to influence public policy in support of a strong, viable U.S. oil and natural gas industry. API's chief functions on behalf of the industry include advocacy, negotiation and lobbying with governmental, legal, and regulatory agencies; research into economic, toxicological, and environmental effects; establishment and certification of industry standards; and education outreach. API both funds and conducts research related to many aspects of the petroleum industry...

Sponsor: Harding College Funding: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Falk Foundation Production: John Sutherland Productions Music: Scott Bradley, Paul J. Smith. Resources : Copyright 06/04/1948 LP1607; Frank Hughes, “Rights Sold to Harding College Film,” CT, Jan. 25, 1948, 6; “Foundation Assets Put at 2 Billions,” NYT, Aug. 17, 1949, 21; Raymond Spottiswoode, “Make Mine Freedom,” in Ideas, 204; Ec Ed, 26, 31. Holdings : LC/Prelinger, MacDonald. Cartoon parable presenting the American system of government as the best in the world. “Dr. Utopia,” a snake-oil salesman of “foreign” appearance, convinces Americans to drink his quackish “ism” formula. Citizens are plunged into a totalitarian nightmare in which strikes are banned, private property is confiscated, and dissenters are brainwashed. Fortunately “John Q. Public” takes charge and expels the bad doctor from town. Make Mine Freedom was part of the public relations offensive by business to loosen government controls after World War II. Note: Part of Harding College’s Fun and Facts about America series. Produced and released in Technicolor, the cartoon was distributed theatrically through MGM and made available in 16mm for school and factory screenings. The New York Times reported that the Sloan Foundation estimated that 20 million viewers saw the film in its first year of release. Received awards from the Freedoms Foundation in 1949 and the Cleveland Film Festival in 1950. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/MakeMine1948. For more about the cartoon series and its reception, see Thomas F. Brady, “Cartoon Film Stirs Dispute in West by Satirizing U.S. Farm Planning,” NYT, Mar. 18, 1951, 1, 38. © John Sutherland Productions (*) ISM: In this specific case it would refer to SOCIALISM, but the rhetoric also refers to association with FASCISM and NAZISM, all three totalitarian, authoritarian and collectivist regimes.

Sponsor: Harding College Production: John Sutherland Productions Distribution: MGM Directed by: George Gordon, Carl Urbano. Producers: John Sutherland, George Gordon. Animation: Arnold Gillespie, Phil Monroe, Armin Shaffer, Bob Bemiller. Music: Darrell Calker. Released: 1951 (estimate). Running time: 8:37 minutes. Anthropomorphic bird animation produced to show how the profit motive in a competitive system stimulates competition, resulting in new products and better services for the consumer. Another of the short films produced by John Sutherland at the dawn of the cold war singing the praises of capitalism. Inside the Chicken Coop is a Cold War-era cartoon series produced by John Sutherland and sponsored by Harding College with the aim of introducing students to business concepts and convincing them of the superiority of the American way of life. The theme of this cartoon is the importance of research and development (although that phrase is never used). The cartoon's setting is the small town of Cackle Corners, which is populated entirely by talking chickens and ducks. This utopia has almost everything: cars, banks, televisions, etc. But somehow they never invented toaster technology, which leads to the story's central conflict. There are two shop owners who have shops down the street: a duck named Mr Pop Webfoot and a rooster named Mr Redcomb. Both are rivals for the deep pockets of a Margaret Rutherford-like hen named Mrs. Consumer. Pop almost sells her some old-fashioned toasting contraption when Mr. Redcomb takes her away with an electric toaster. Crazed by constantly losing out to Redcomb's technological advances, Webfoot sneaks into Redcomb's shop to learn his secret of success. The purpose of the design is to present ideas such as competitiveness, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship, as tools for motivating profit and for achieving success and prosperity, with the achievement of customer preference.

Sponsors: Chamber of Commerce of the United States; E.I. duPont deNemours & Co. Production: John Sutherland Productions Producer: John Sutherland Writers: John Sutherland, William Scott, George Gordon Art Director: Maurice Noble Music: Eugene Poddany, Les Baxter Animation: Carl Urbano, Bill Melendez, Emery Hawkins, Abe Levitow, Bill Higgins Narrator: Macdonald Carey Resources : Copyright 01/06/1954 LP4570; “The Chamber of Commerce of the United States Believes It’s Everybody’s Business,” Bus Scrn 15, no. 4 (1954): 31–33; “Better Living,” 269 Holdings : AAFF, LC/Prelinger, MacDonald. Animated history of the American economic system told from a pro–free enterprise perspective. Free enterprise, the narrator argues, can be traced to the Bill of Rights, and the Founding Fathers regarded “political and economic freedom” as “interlocking inseparably.” However, in contrast to what the film characterizes as the favorable economic climate of colonial America (where individuals had the “freedom to go into business”), today’s government imposes taxes and regulation. The film features John Sutherland’s usual humor and memorable visual devices, including images of the “tax monster,” the tidal wave of war, and paper money riding a railroad train. Note: Released in Technicolor. Also distributed in 16mm. Awarded a Freedoms Foundation Gold Medal. © John Sutherland Productions

Sponsor: American Studies Institute at Harding College Production: John Sutherland Productions. Distributed by: MGM Cartoon Characters: Freddie Fudsie, Profit Motive Produced By Fred Quimby Originally Released in 1948 (Estimate) Originally Released Theatrically Running Time: 8:34 minutes. Technicolor This Harding College short defines the profit motive and dramatizes the part that it has played in the economic development of America. It stars Freddie Fudsie, a lazy soap maker, who just wants to go fishing. He invents bar soap, makes some money, and is about to retire in peace and quiet when the sexy female Profit Motive walks by. Freddie, who suddenly needs more money to win her affection, never sees a fishing hole again. © John Sutherland Productions * Profit Motive (name of the character Freddie marries) is an allusion to the theme of the story: the Motivation for Profit!

Sponsors: Harding College Production: John Sutherland Productions Animation: Arnold Gillespie, Armin Shaffer, Pete Burness, Carl Urbano Direction: George Gordon Music: Paul J. Smith Voices: Bea Benederet, Daws Butler, Pinto Colvig, Joseph Kearns Distribution: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) A comedy of errors befalls a chicken community as a result of trying an owl-professor's "crackpot" ideas on price guarantees, farm payment, consumer subsidies, rationing, black market policing and taxation to pay the costs. The main character of this animated short is the politically minded owl, Dr. Owsley Hoot. Brainchild of one time Disney employee John Sutherland, Fresh Laid Plans caused quite a stir when it was released, as many farmers saw it as knocking President Truman's Brannan Plan, which offered federal support of farm prices. Humanized fowl - a duck grocer, a rooster policeman, a hen housewife, all residents of Eggvill - are the characters. Into Eggville, where the feathered populace is complaining of high prices and low wages, comes Dr. Owsley Hoot, who talks himself into the mayor's job. His "planned economy," he promises, will bring prosperity to all. The new mayor displays a portfolio filled with "plans" labeled WPA, subsidies, price control and other familiar alphabet combinations. When the execution of all these plans leads to disaster, the populace runs Mayor Hoot out of town. Apparently he is spared a worse fate only because he already wears feathers and a barrel of tar is not handy.

Sponsors: E.I. du Pont de Nemours Production: John Sutherland Productions Voices: Marvin Miller, Bud Hiestand, Herb Vigran Animation: Gerard Baldwin, Emery Hawkins, Ed de Mattia Music: Dean Elliot Director: Carl Urbano Productor: John Sutherland Originally Released on December 00, 1959. Originally Released Theatrically. Running Time: 12 minutes. Fill' Er Up is basically a short film created to talk about oil, petroleum products and finally, gasoline and fuels. It deals with the benefits promoted by the oil industry, presenting a humorous summary of it, from the processes of exploration and delimitation of oil fields, through the processes of drilling, extraction and oil production (in short, dealing with the Upstream aspect) and then entering the refining processes, industrial production of derivatives and product distribution (concluding in the Downstream aspect). It covers the beginnings of our civilization's history to the most recent days, to introduce the history of oil from the beginning of exploration to the present day. The film explains how research began on oil refining, which initially were only interested in kerosene for lighting purposes at night, (gasoline and other possible by-products were discarded - the era of the explosion engine had not yet arrived, and the industrial revolution had barely taken its first steps, with the advent of steam engines...). Then, the advent of the combustion engine and the beginning of the use of gasoline as a fuel with high energy potential for the benefit of humanity is presented. How this helped to produce the technological development of nations, especially the United States, including the improvement of the refining process itself, with the improvement of product quality and with the increase in productivity and the quantity of refined gasoline, through the process of cracking. This, allied to the competitiveness between oil companies and the freedom of the market, leveraged an economic growth in this industry, which is increasingly powerful and allowing more development and research in the area, leading to the production of vehicles with increasingly more efficient, less noisy and pollutants and increasingly powerful. Next, they briefly address the development of new processes applied to refining (polymerization, alkylation, catalytic reforming), which allowed for an even greater improvement in gasoline production, making the product even better for the consumer. Then, the short talks about the quantities produced on average to supply the North American consumer market, the logistical complexities of meeting internal and external demands and resisting foreign competitiveness. This includes the race for oil exploration for new deposits worldwide. It also addresses the estimated exploration cost per well and how much this cost is impacted in relation to the depletion of reserves already in production. In this line of analysis, a parallel is drawn between oil exploration and supply to the refining industry, in order to keep the costs of finished products low, especially gasoline. The short film ends, presenting an overview of the entire oil industry up to the present time (those at the time of the film's production, it should be noted!). In very good-natured language, he tells the average American citizen the perks he gets every time he orders "fill' er up"!

Sponsor: Harding College Production: John Sutherland Productions Music: Eugene Poddany Voice Actors: Frank Nelson, Herb Vigran. Direction: Carl Urbano. Producer: George Gordon. Animation: Arnold Gillespie, Emery Hawkins, Phil Monroe Released: 1952 (Estimate). Technicolor John Sutherland Productions' animated short "Dear Uncle", sponsored by Harding College, and directed by Carl Urbano, is one of the rarest films to find (mainly complete!), produced by John Sutherland (the other two are Fill'Er Up! and The Devil and John Q, and there will be probably others). This short is about raising taxes for all American citizens (workers, industrialists and farmers). It begins with a newsboy delivering newspapers through the streets of what we assume is Washington DC. First, he delivers the newspaper to a construction worker, then to an industrial entrepreneur, and then to a farmer who transported his products. And everyone complains about the unpleasant news they read. Finally, he delivers a newspaper to a famous American icon, none other than Uncle Sam, who has just left his "house" (the Capitol), and then it turns out that the news that everyone disliked was the tax increase. . Next, the three disgruntled characters (worker, businessman, and farmer) meet Uncle Sam as he strolls through a city park, reflecting on the newspaper's news about tax increases, and bombard him with accusations about taxation, alleging these actions are abusive. Patiently, Uncle Sam, explains to everyone the reasons for these taxes and why they are increasing. The rest of the film is basically about the patriotic reasons for the existence of taxes, how much it results in benefits for the country, and the influence of these benefits and social security. It also explains what most citizens do not see in the costs of the country and the products sold, the hidden taxation (or built-in surcharge) that results from the collection of taxes on services added to the products and/or services provided to citizens. In short, the movie is a superb class in economic management, public administration and state economics, showing mainly that the one who generates the most costs for the State, which affect the final costs to the citizen, is the citizen himself, and because of that, they have to pay their taxes, because that's the only way the country moves as a whole.

Sponsor: National Education Program, Harding College, with funding by Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Production Co.: John Sutherland Productions. Resources : Copyrights 03/01/1950 MP5112 and 15Aug1950 LP347; Irving Spiegel, “Sloan Unit Denies Aid to Extremists,” NYT, Sept. 21, 1964, 31; L. Edward Hicks, “Sometimes in the Wrong, but Never in Doubt”: George S. Benson and the Education of the New Religious Right (Knoxville, TN : University of Tennessee Press, 1994), 63–74; “Better Living,” 176. Holdings : LC. Animated critique of New Deal–type liberalism. In a dream “Albert,” a worker in a statist economy, is forced to watch a state-sponsored “free movie” on national planning. On awakening, he is convinced of the failings of excessive government control. Note: Produced in Technicolor and distributed theatrically by MGM, this was among the cartoons in the Fun and Facts about America series. Received a Freedoms Foundation award in 1950. Also distributed in 16mm and revised in 1961. The Sloan Foundation provided funding to Harding College for other films extolling free enterprise, including Brink of Disaster (entry 64) and Make Mine Freedom (entry 246). For more about Harding College, see Gene Blake, “Aims of Conservative Freedom Groups Told,” LAT, July 2, 1961, B2. © John Sutherland Productions

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. Resources : Copyrights 18/02/1953 MP3815 (10-min. version) and 1June1953 MP3572 (15-min. version); “Atom Educational Film Made Available by GE,” Wash Post, Aug. 9, 1953, R11; “A Challenge to Free Enterprise,” Bus Scrn 15, no. 5 (1954): 33; advertisement, Bus Scrn 18, no. 7 (1957): 5. Holdings : AFANA, LC/Prelinger, MacDonald. 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. © John Sutherland Productions

Sponsor: Goodrich (B.F.) Company Producer: John Sutherland Productions Distribution: United Artists Corporation Technicolor Originally a public domain film, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original). A synthetic rubber is any artificial elastomer. These are mainly polymers synthesized from petroleum byproducts. About fifteen billion kilograms (thirty-three billion pounds) of rubbers are produced annually, and of that amount two thirds are synthetic. Global revenues generated with synthetic rubbers are likely to rise to approximately US$56 billion in 2020. Synthetic rubber, like natural rubber, has uses in the automotive industry for tires, door and window profiles, hoses, belts, matting, and flooring... History of synthetic rubber The expanded use of bicycles, and particularly their pneumatic tires, starting in the 1890s, created increased demand for rubber. In 1909, a team headed by Fritz Hofmann, working at the Bayer laboratory in Elberfeld, Germany, succeeded in polymerizing isoprene, the first synthetic rubber. The first rubber polymer synthesized from butadiene was created in 1910 by the Russian scientist Sergei Vasiljevich Lebedev. This form of synthetic rubber provided the basis for the first large-scale commercial production by the tsarist empire, which occurred during World War I as a result of shortages of natural rubber. This early form of synthetic rubber was again replaced with natural rubber after the war ended, but investigations of synthetic rubber continued. Russian American Ivan Ostromislensky who moved to New York in 1922 did significant early research on synthetic rubber and a couple of monomers in the early 20th century. Political problems that resulted from great fluctuations in the cost of natural rubber led to the enactment of the Stevenson Act in 1921. This act essentially created a cartel which supported rubber prices by regulating production, but insufficient supply, especially due to wartime shortages, also led to a search for alternative forms of synthetic rubber. By 1925 the price of natural rubber had increased to the point that many companies were exploring methods of producing synthetic rubber to compete with natural rubber. In the United States, the investigation focused on different materials than in Europe, building on the early laboratory work of Fr Julius Nieuwland, a professor of chemistry at the University of Notre Dame, who developed the synthesis of neoprene. Studies published in 1930 written independently by Lebedev, the American Wallace Carothers and the German scientist Hermann Staudinger led in 1931 to one of the first successful synthetic rubbers, known as neoprene, which was developed at DuPont under the direction of E. K. Bolton. Neoprene is highly resistant to heat and chemicals such as oil and gasoline, and is used in fuel hoses and as an insulating material in machinery. The company Thiokol applied their name to a competing type of rubber based on ethylene dichloride, which was commercially available in 1930... In 1935, German chemists synthesized the first of a series of synthetic rubbers known as Buna rubbers. These were copolymers, meaning the polymers were made up from two monomers in alternating sequence. Other brands included Koroseal, which Waldo Semon developed in 1935, and Sovprene, which Russian researchers created in 1940. B. F. Goodrich Company scientist Waldo Semon developed a new and cheaper version of synthetic rubber known as Ameripol in 1940. Ameripol made synthetic rubber production much more cost effective... The production of synthetic rubber in the United States expanded greatly during World War II, since the Axis powers controlled nearly all the world's limited supplies of natural rubber by mid-1942. Military trucks needed rubber for tires, and rubber was used in almost every other war machine. The U.S. government launched a major (and largely secret) effort to improve synthetic rubber production. A large team of chemists from many institutions were involved, including Calvin Souther Fuller of Bell Labs. The rubber designated GRS (Government Rubber Styrene), a copolymer of butadiene and styrene, was the basis for U.S. synthetic rubber production during World War II. By 1944, a total of 50 factories were manufacturing it, pouring out a volume of the material twice that of the world's natural rubber production before the beginning of the war. It still represents about half of total world production... © John Sutherland Productions

Sponsors: The Automobile Manufacturers Association Production: John Sutherland Productions Direction: George Gordon. Produced by: John Sutherland. Animated by: Ken O'Brien, George Cannata, Fred Madison, Cal Dalton. Written: Norman Wright. Music: Eugene Poddany. Originally Released in 1956 (Estimate). Originally Released Theatrically. Running Time: 12 minutes. Technicolor Your Safety First was a 1956 promotional cartoon created by the Automobile Manufacturers of America. The 13-minute short film set in the year 2000 explains the history of the automobile and the improvements to comfort, performance, and safety that have been made over the years. It led to the development of the animated series The Jetsons, which borrowed heavily on the ideas presented in the cartoon including a three-hour work day, automated flying cars, and robotic arms performing most tasks. Your Safety First opens with a newspaper from the distant future of October 5, 2000 with headlines reading "Space Travel to Mars" and "tax cuts". The protagonist of the short begins by debating whether to buy a new car or not as his family watches 3-D television. A show then comes on explaining the history of the automobile. The show within the show moves through the beginning of the 20th century starting with hand cranking cars and topless buggies. The clip moves through the decades explaining new inventions like windshield wipers and suspension systems. At the close of the short the character shown in the flashback history of the automobile jumps into a flying car and drives off. © John Sutherland

Sponsors: New York Stock Exchange. Production: John Sutherland Productions Cartoon Characters: Mr. Finchley, Mrs. Finchley, Boss Direction: John Sutherland Originally Released in 1956 (Estimate). Originally Released Theatrically. Running Time: 10:44 minutes. Color A cartoon for grownups explaining how the stock market works, told through the story of an everyman named Mr. Finchley. It suggests that the best place for those extra dollars is the New York Stock Exchange. Just ask for a Monthly Investment Plan and watch those "satisfactory dividends" roll in. Many people, like Mr. Finchley, the hero of this film, may have wondered how to go about owning a share of American business, or about the new "pay-as-you-go" Monthly Investment Plan. Or, perhaps they'd just like to know more about how the stock market works -- about market opportunities and risks, stocks, bonds and dividends. If so, they will find the adventures of Fred Finchley as one of the best ways to find out what goes on at the Stock Exchange. Mr. Finchley is a likeable, average sort of fellow. His wife calls him "Fred" ... and his boss calls him "FINCHLEEEEEY!" -- like that! He has a comfortable, well-equipped house in an attractive suburb ... insurance (just in case) ... and a savings account for emergencies. But there was never anything extra left over for those special dreams until one day, Mr. Finchley's boss bellowed "FINCHLEEEEEY!" even louder than usual. And when Mr. Finchley returned from his employer's office -- with a cigar and a slightly dazed look on his face -- his salary was $60 fatter every month! What Mr. Finchley did with his extra $60, the perils of his ventures in "Utopium, Unlimited," and how he finally caught on to a sensible way to become the man of his dreams is the essence of this sparkling cartoon story of WORKING DOLLARS. [Business Screen, Vol. 17, No. 5, 1956] © John Sutherland

Sponsor: Harding College Production: John Sutherland Productions, American Studies Institute at Harding College Animation Studio: John Sutherland Productions Distributed by: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Cartoon Characters: Joe, Workers. Awards: Winner, Freedoms Foundation Award, 1951. Originally Released in 1950 (Estimate). Originally Released Theatrically. Running Time: 9:30 minutes. TechniColor Joe, who paints doll faces at the Dilly Dolly doll factory, is down in the mouth. He can't make ends meet. An unexpected wage raise brightens his spirits. Now he can buy his young daughter a birthday present. He decides upon, not surprisingly, a doll. At the toy shop, he flies into a rage. The doll costs two dollars. He knows there is only ten cents worth of material in the thing. The store manager tries to explain that because Joe's company increased the cost of its latest shipment, his store had to increase the price of the doll. Joe will have none of it. It's up to the narrator to talk some sense into Joe and give him an economics lesson. Soon Joe understands such things as labor costs and profits. Suddenly he hits upon an idea that improves productivity at his company, drives down costs, and thus improves the economy. Now, a Dilly Dolly doll is only one dollar; and Joe's wage raise really means something. Inflation is explained in this Cold War-era cartoon aimed at convincing workers that increased productivity brings about greater purchasing power. What plays leapfrog are wages and prices in a capitalist economy, as is explained to the cartoon's hero, an employee at the Dilly Doll Company who gets upset after getting a raise and then finding out that the price has gone up on his own company's product. The explanation given for inflation is that labor costs so darn much. Essentially, the doll's higher price is directly attributed to worker Joe's raise. But there's a way out in the form of technology: advances in manufacturing technology increase productivity, and this keeps wages ahead of prices. © John Sutherland Productions

Sponsor: Oil Industry Information Committee, American Petroleum Institute Production: John Sutherland Productions Film Counselors Inc. Director: Carl Urbano Writers: Bill Scott, Michel Amestoy, George Gordon Production Designers: Tom Oreb, Vic Haboush Animation: George Cannata, Ken O’Brien, Bill Higgins, Tom Ray, Russ von Neida Resources : Copyright not registered Holdings : LC/Prelinger, MacDonald Science-fiction-influenced cartoon sponsored by petroleum producers to lionize their industry and promote free enterprise. “Colonel Cosmic,” an astronaut from the totalitarian planet Mars, flies to Earth, where he discovers cheap oil and the market economy. Returning home, he leads a revolution and frees Martian entrepreneurs to begin oil exploration, start small businesses, and lead the planet out of economic stagnation. note: Destination Earth played at New York’s Paramount Theatre and was later broadcast and distributed nontheatrically. Produced in Technicolor and released in 35mm and 16mm. © John Sutherland Productions

Na década de 1980, três pessoas dominaram a agenda de propaganda na Guerra Fria. O primeiro é o presidente dos EUA, Ronald Reagan , um anticomunista ferrenho que faria qualquer coisa para denunciá-lo e, ao mesmo tempo, colocar os EUA em uma posição positiva. Ele queria parecer durão, especialmente em meio a uma escalada militar, já que acreditava que os soviéticos superavam os americanos militarmente. Mas sua propaganda mudou conforme as questões mundiais ao seu redor mudavam, mais especificamente o primeiro-ministro soviético Yuri Andropov convidando a estudante do Maine, Samantha Smith, para uma visita de boa vontade na União Soviética, e os militares soviéticos abatendo um jato comercial no espaço aéreo soviético. O segundo é o polonês Papa João Paulo II. Sua sucessão ao Papa ocorreu em um momento tênue na Polônia. Mas sua postura anticomunista permitiu que Lech Walesa e o Solidariedade se levantassem na Polônia. No entanto, os comunistas não iriam cair na Polônia sem uma luta, liderada pelo general Wojciech Jaruzelski. E o terceiro é o primeiro-ministro soviético Mikhail Gorbachev . Apesar de ser comunista, seu período de crescimento durante o reinado de Stalin moldou sua visão de que o comunismo deveria ser transparente, o que foi apelidado de glasnost. Embora Gorbachev fosse visto com grande estima em todo o mundo, ele era menos visto pelos povos soviéticos, que viam que a propaganda não correspondia à sua realidade.

Na década de 1960, os baby boomers, que acabavam de atingir a idade adulta, participavam cada vez mais da batalha de propaganda da Guerra Fria. Embora barreiras físicas, principalmente o Muro de Berlim, mantenham cada lado isolado do outro, eles não podem impedir que itens como o rock americano e britânico se cruzem, por mais que os comunistas tentem forjar sua própria marca de música pop rock com mensagens políticas. Na corrida espacial, os soviéticos estão claramente vencendo a batalha, com ambos os lados tentando fazer o que quer que seja no espaço primeiro, até que o presidente Kennedy faça um movimento ousado que pode colocar o oeste à frente se ele e os americanos conseguirem sua proclamação. No terreno, ambos os lados levam um grande golpe internamente com suas máquinas de propaganda, os EUA com a divulgação de fotos de um dos seus sobre um massacre de civis no Vietnã, e a União Soviética com suas ações para a Primavera de Praga e o que os jovens ativistas na Tchecoslováquia e na União Soviética fazem em resposta. Na década de 1970, grande parte da batalha retorna ao reino do cultural - mais especificamente dos esportes - com as Olimpíadas e a série de encontros Canadá-Rússia sendo dois exemplos. Mas a mais dramática dessas batalhas esportivas pode ser a competição mundial de xadrez Fischer / Spassky.