Summary

Ford Collection and United Newsreel

Source Archive Films by Getty Images
Title: Ford Collection and United Newsreel
File Number: DN-LB-263 Beta SP
Color: B W
Type: Documentary
Year: 1920s-1940s
Subjects: Aerials. Automobile industry. Ford Motors. Corporate propaganda. Instructional film. Detroit. WWII. B-17 bomber airplane. Mexico. Road construction. Los Angeles. Sports (track and field).
Description: B W 1920s - 1940s Miscellaneous Ford Motor Company history and propaganda. United newsreel, WWII era. 03:01:15:00 - 03:03:11:24 B W Silent 1920 Slate "Mexico, Hermosillo, Moeinode Camou Hacienda" Man, woman and child on veranda - VS from hacienda. VS of city with cathedral - MS cathedral spires. VS Mexican men and boys posing for CAM - boy next to large tomb. MS old gateway to mission. Beautiful shot of cathedral bells ringing. MS excellent street scene with men. VS men, wearing suits, walking through ruins. Good CU of man holding plant in his hand. 03:03:11:25 - 03:05:34:21 B W Silent 1920 Excellent road building, road construction, Los Angeles. VS road construction workers digging - large concrete mixer - cement mixer. VS workers pouring cement from mixer onto prepared bed - VS workers level and smooth out concrete, section by section. Two women and man look down at road through hills - car drives through hills - POV of car. Driver on long stretch of road, waves at CAM, as he passes - hills in BG. (Could this be what later became Route 66???) 03:05:34:22 - 03:11:46:15 B W Silent 1920 Unidentified streams and lakes. VS lake surrounded by woods. Dead trees in water. WA lake. VS dam on river. HA shallow river. VS streams and rivers. VS two people in rowing boat at sunset - in silhouette. VS rivers and lakes, farmland. MS Ford driving on dusty road through hilly countryside. Streams, rivers - some with small dams. 03:11:49:25 - 03:12:14:00 B W Silent 1928 Wake Up (6) - Ford Automobile Service Improvement Campaign. Mechanic and man wearing bowler hat talk by car - slate - "Well, guess you better get me one Walt? How soon can I get it?" Men shake hands. 03:12:15:01 - 03:13:26:03 B W Silent 1928 Part Two. Slate - "Soon Walter's garage was the most popular in town. It was the only one it town." EXT Sparks Ford Garage with mechanics at work. Ford cars drive in and out of garage. Slate - "As Walter dreams on, he revisions his faith in the future of selling Fords to the multitude." Man asleep at desk - dream sequence follows - man standing in middle of road dodges traffic - while man at desk flails about during dream. Secretary wakes him, giggling behind her hand. CU telegram. 03:13:26:04 - 03:16:04:11 B W Silent 1928 VS garage, as boss heads off to Ford dealer's meeting. Men wait on platform as train pulls in at Spring Haven station - good. MS Ford dealers congregate outside of factory - businessmen - hearty laughter and banter. Dealers tour Ford manufacturing plant - watch men working on assembly lines. Dealers receive service instructions at meeting. 03:16:04:12 - 03:16:54:14 B W Silent 1928 Essentials of good service slate - "Cleanliness in the Shop, Courtesy, Prompt attention when owner drives in shop, Clean Car Covers." Next slate "Approved Service Equipment - Good Workmanship, Proper inspection of work before car is delivered, Have car ready at time promised, Personal supervision by Dealer, Follow-up." 03:16:54:15 - 03:20:12:21 B W Silent 1928 MS dealers applaud enthusiastically. Ford dealer returns to clean up his shop and business - VS untidy, dirty shop and boss ordering workers around. VS employees at meeting in boss's office. VS "Vis-u-all" follow-up system organizer. Boss bangs desk and waves arms during speech to small group of workers about soliciting more business. Boss orders longer work day. 03:20:12:22 - 03:22:16:27 B W Silent 1928 EXT VS clean up at Ford dealership - boss kicks at trash, orders workers around. INT mechanics clean up shop. Workers load trash into truck. INT shop - man wearing Ford work coat hands car covers to mechanics to protect cars. 03:22:23:26 - 03:26:20:14 B W Sound 1943 UNITED NEWS - stories - "The Fall of Pantelleria" WWII, Italy. Air and naval bombardment. Troops ashore and advance through bombed town. Bombing destruction. VS Italian POWs. "Heroes of 25 Raids Brings Bomber to US" VS crew of "Memphis Belle" Flying Fortress preparing for furlough -flying from England to US Bomb symbols and swastikas on fuselage. VS Fortress in flight. Landing in Washington, DC B-17 03:26:20:15 - 03:28:48:26 B W Sound 1943 UNITED NEWS - "Swedish Champion Tops US Stars in Athletic Meet" VS Gunder Hagg in 5,000 meter race including slow motion. General Hap Arnold congratulates Hagg. "Army's Newest Weapon Travels on Land or Sea" VS DUKW driving from beach to water with troops aboard. DUKW lowered from ship to sea and equipment lowered into craft. Beach landing. WWII 03:28:48:27 - 03:31:19:06 B W Sound 1943 UNITED NEWS - "More Nurses Answer Call to Colors!" WWII. VS nurses graduating. VS work on hospital trains. VS nurses care for patients. "War on the Chinese Front" WWII - Chinese soldiers blow up road north of Burma's border - dynamite. Explosion. Chinese wounded and men with malaria treated on side of road. 03:31:19:07 - 03:32:59:07 B W Sound 1943 UNITED NEWS - "New US Fighter Plane Passes Thrilling Test" P-47 Thunderbolt being manufactured and armed. Guns tested - shells fall to ground. P-47 takes off, VS in flight. 03:33:04:20 - 03:36:03:11 B W Silent 1926, 1921 Detroit Business District (some excellent material, some poor). VS traffic, streetcars, pedestrians, bustling sidewalk, tourist sight-seeing bus. POV car in heavy traffic. Policeman in elevated booth directs traffic. Cable cars. Traffic on tree lined avenue. Pedestrians cross busy street, film is speeded up. Caravan of trucks on country road. Driver cranks up and unloads coal truck (a Ford Model T) on sidewalk. Upper middle- and middle-class homes in suburbia. MS small brick building with wooden door (Henry Ford's first workshop). 03:36:03:12 - 03:39:01:09 B W Silent 1917 - 1926 Driver checks radiator and polishes parts of early model Ford. Drives on dirt road - gets out to remove obstacle. Henry Ford drives quadricycle across plant yard with light covering of snow. Ford speeds along country road. Man drives Model T slowly through snow. Make believe - man drives imaginary car. Model T Ford car driven down embankment - stunt - and over rough surface. Cars drive onto ferry - ferry crosses water - driver cranks engine, drives Model T off ferry. Horse-drawn wagon off ferry. 03:39:01:10 - 03:41:43:14 B W Silent 1917 - 1926 Horse-drawn US Mail wagon pulls up outside of house and mailman puts mail in box, drives off. Five men succeed in getting car that's stuck in mud moving again. MWA Ford plant with chimneys belching smoke. Pan plant with "Ford Motor Company" across top of one building - hundreds of workers in yard. Car drives through heavy snow. EXT workers leaving plant yard, running down stairs in plant building. Pan Ford plant. Hundreds of workers leave plant (HIGHLAND PARK). 03:41:51:08 - 03:43:10:18 B W Silent 1921 Ford Educational Library, Civics and Citizenship, Vol. 3. "Dynamic Detroit" Ford's version of Detroit's history. Caption "Detroit began with a small French Settlement on the West bank of the Detroit River early in the 18th Century..." Sun sets over harbor - VS skyline - pollution - harbor - ships - smoke stacks - excursion ship - ore freighters - smoke. 03:43:10:91 - 03:44:13:02 B W Silent 1921 Caption "On the threshold of the city, greeting a multitude of newcomers annually, is one of the finest Railroad Terminals in the world." EXT railroad terminal with pedestrians. "Within the bounds of this city, where life is worth living are 1,088,853 people ..." VS city from HA. Detroit. Construction workers build house. VS busy downtown scenes, traffic. 03:44:13:03 - 03:45:15:15 B W Silent 1921 Caption "Magnificent municipal buildings, hotels, clubs, schools, libraries, etc., have been showered upon Detroit..." Pan hotels, large buildings. EXT municipal buildings, cars parked, pedestrians. Dock lands. Beach and sail boats. Children outside of large building. Boys play baseball. EXT Detroit Public Library. 03:45:15:16 - 03:45:57:08 B W Silent 1921 Caption "Detroit's gigantic industrial work has made all this possible...." Nice shot of traffic with large buildings in BG - double-deck bus, cars, water truck. MWA plant with smoke stacks, buildings, storage tanks, etc. CU workers walking towards CAM with Highland Park plant in BG. Trolley cars, cable cars - traffic and pedestrians. 03:45:57:09 - 03:48:33:00 B W Silent 1921 VS open air market - buying and selling - trade - boy buys chicken. CU cashiers counting out money under grill. Men withdraw money. Caption "Detroit's a billion dollar town..." EXT and INT of bank with customers on line at teller windows. Pan up building under construction. VS traffic, church goers, children in playground, crowded public parks, boating on lake, excursion boat leaves dock - leisure - pollution. 03:48:39:13 - 03:53:16:08 B W Silent 1927 Henry Ford with Model A. Sign on engine "Model A No. 1 Completed Oct. 20, 1927" VS Henry Ford - uses hammer to stamp engine block with number "1". Posing with management, signing document. VS Model A assembly line, good. Headlights inspected. MS Model A automobiles and trucks driving out of factory. VS Test drives over rough terrain. CU speedometer. Car turns over. 03:53:16:09 - 03:56:33:09 B W Silent 1927- 1930 A Tour of the Ford River Rouge Plant. AV of Detroit with skyscrapers. Chambers sight seeing bus passes Lincoln Mercury building. VS tourists on bus. VS EXT Ford plant including pan of buildings, cranes, chimneys, docked ore ship. Tourists exit bus. Smoke stacks - pollution. MS tourists enter plant - INT tour of plant. VS loading railroad car with coke - steaming coke. EXT pan powerhouse. 03:56:33:10 - 03:59:31:08 B W Silent 1927- 1930 INT fertilizer plant - Workers and machines load bags with "Ford Ammonium Sulphate" fertilizer. MS Ford freight train moves along railroad track and enters plant yard. Excellent shots of power shovels with plant in BG. EXT Ford steel mill - INT steel mill - locomotive transports large vats. EXT Ford cement plant. Black worker load bags of cement onto flatbed trucks. Black and white workers in metal works. VS blast furnace - pouring molten metal into molds on conveyor belt. 03:59:38:00 - 04:00:18:24 B W Silent 1928 Lincoln automobile dealer's showroom inspected. A Lincoln Roadster parked outside of house - then driven away.
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