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Author
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Topic: Vintage 16mm "promotional" movies
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 10-25-2012 02:20 AM
My first "taste" of film came from my grandfather, who owned a 16mm sound projector. When I was a teenager I stumbled upon a catalog from Modern Talking Picture Service, and through my dad's business I started booking these corporate promotional films from them.
I borrowed Grandpa's projector and set up a makeshift "screening room" in my bedroom. (This was all mostly due to me not having much luck with the ladies back then.) I even had sound from the screen, provided by a 6x9" speaker I mounted in an apple crate.
Just wondering if anybody else here has ever seen any of this stuff....these are a few I remember.
- "Get Wet" and "What to Do on the Three Day Weekend," both directed and filmed by Homer Groening (father of the Simpsons' Matt Groening). These were quirky films, very offbeat and humorous. I think "Get Wet" was sponsored by Kodak and "Three Day Weekend" by Johnson Motors, although I might have them reversed. Groening did several movies in the "Wet" vein, such as "Psychedelic Wet" and a few others. One of his films, "Basic Brown Basic Blue," is available on YouTube and shows his offbeat sense of humor that he obviously passed down to Matt.
"Hot Dog Skiing," sponsored by Chevrolet. It was about, you guessed, it, hot dog skiing, which today would be called "extreme" skiing. Had some great snow skiing footage and stunts, and some pretty good music in it, as I recall.
"Ballad of the Big Ones" was a film by Budweiser that told about the famous Clydesdales. They actually had quite a few films about them that were usually good.
"Footprints 4" was sponsored by Goodyear and was a documentary about tires. Before that film I hadn't really thought about the fact that when driving, you are only contacting the road on those four little squares at the bottom of your tires. (Hey I was a teenager.)
"Show Me The Way to Go Home" was sponsored by Allied Van Lines and was a comedy about a family moving. Don't remember too much about it but it had its moments.
"A Report to Ole" was a history of outboard boating and the Evinrude motor company, and was released on the occasion of some landmark birthday -- either founder Ole Evinrude's 100th or the company's 50th, something like that. The first half was historical in sepia tone and then the second half was in color.
United Airlines sponsored a lot of travel films that were decent.
There was also a film sponsored by Champion Spark Plugs (and released by Paramount) about a stunt pilot, Art Scholl, called "Ballet In The Blue." It's available on YouTube in a horrible video transfer from a badly-worn and faded print. The music in it is far worse than I remembered but some of the stunts are amazing.
OK, well that's a trip through one of the more twisted hallways of my past.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 10-27-2012 05:04 PM
I've acquired about 15-20 16mm promo/sponsored films over the years, and have managed to get a few of them transferred and on to YT in cases where they're either orphan films or Crown copyright, now expired. My second favourite is this one - even Harry Enfield couldn't have dreamt up the 'housewife' cooking the evening meal in an evening gown and fur coat!
My favourite is one I quite simply could not dare to put on YT, or even show beyond a few friends whose sense of humour I know can cope with it (and besides, BA probably still own the copyright). It's a promotional film for BOAC's (the airline that later became British Airways) flights to South Africa made in 1946, featuring some great footage of Short Empire flying boats. Unfortunately, the commentary starts, over shots of passengers boarding the aircraft: 'If you're one of these chaps who think that the wogs begin at Calais, you probably won't be interested in joining us on this trip'. During a stopover in Mombasa we see footage of natives dancing, as the commentator explains that 'These darkie rituals do take a bit of getting used to, don't they?' And things don't get any better from there on in. In a way the film is fascinating social history: that sort of language went from being unremarkable to unacceptable, more or less within a single generation. But it's probably best kept for discerning audiences...
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