Here’s something on the shorter side. This is also animated, so you can share it with your children. After all, everyone knows that anything animated is for kids.
From 1962, and also from the Bell System: “A Missile Named Mac”. Nice short little animated video about how ballistic missile guidance systems worked at the time.
I’m not exactly sure who is doing the talking here. I’d figure once “Mac” hits the target at 300 miles puer minute, he’s pretty much obliterated. Does “Mac” transfer his consciousness from missile to missile? Does this open up a whole weird can of metaphysical worms?
You know, the police do have things other than cars and guns.
For example, tear gas. (Sorry: this is a bit on the longer side.)
As best as I can tell, the Lake Erie Chemical Company (a good Cleveland firm) eventually merged with/was acquired by Bangor Punta. Bangor Punta also owned Smith and Wesson during this period, and was trying to become a one-stop shop conglomerate for everything the well equipped police department needed: guns, tear gas, holsters, handcuffs, helmets…
Bonus video: here’s a slice of 1970s cheese for you. “Anything Can Happen”, a 1973 police recruiting film…
…a British police recruiting film. Those fashions! That music!
I especially appreciate the fact that this is subtitled.
The third and fourth films in the series were co-written by Frank Capra and Jonathan Latimer. Mr. Latimer was fairly famous as a crime novelist as well as a screenwriter. (He also wrote the screenplays for “The Glass Key” and “The Big Clock”, among other credits.) I haven’t read any of Latimer’s work, but I have heard the name come up before. According to Wikipedia, he wrote a book called Solomon’s Vineyard in 1941: it was so racy that it wasn’t published in the US until 1950, and was heavily censored at that time.
The third film in the series was “The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays”.
The fourth film in the series: “The Unchained Goddess”, about weather. Capra produced this one, and wrote the screenplay with Latimer, but did not direct: Richard Carlson did that job.
Apparently, the television ratings for these next two films were disappointing. Capra wasn’t happy either: I gather that he felt the Bell System was interfering too much with his creative vision. He was replaced after “The Unchained Goddess” and went back to directing Hollywood films. His first one after “The Unchained Goddess” was “A Hole In the Head”, with Frank Sinatra and Edward G. Robinson. You may remember that as the movie that introduced “High Hopes”.
But what happened with the Bell System Science Series? Next week: “Produced under the personal supervision of Jack L. Warner”.
A couple of things I wanted to make note of, but didn’t want to put in the main video feed:
Great and good FoTB (and official firearms trainer of WCD) Karl Rehn did a really cool short video targeted at newer shooters explaining ammunition (and the various types thereof):
This was done for the Polite Society Podcast, which does, of course, have a YouTube channel.
(I should note that any Amazon links here are affiliate links, and I do get a small kickback if you purchase something through those links. I use those small kickbacks for good, not evil, though others might differ with that assessment.)
There is a delightful book that came out in 2014, and which was adapted into a Netflix series. Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War is about John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler, and Frank Capra, and their WWII experiences making films for the military. I enthusiastically recommend this book, which is available for a very reasonable price on Amazon in a Kindle edition and used.
I’ve wanted to watch pretty much all of the wartime films Mark Harris talks about in that book, and I’m happy to report that some of them are available on YouTube in very decent quality.
“Thunderbolt” was made in 1944, but wasn’t released until 1947. Harris goes into the reasons for this in detail, but it basically amounted to: the war ended before the film was edited. William Wyler was, shall we say, distracted during the post-production: he’d suffered a total loss of hearing during a B-25 flight (in an attempt to “film more ‘atmosphere shots.'” for the movie.) He did eventually recover part of his hearing, and continued working as a director until 1970 with the help of hearing aids.
This is an unclassified United States Navy training film from 1967.
Bonus video: since today is Victims of Communism Day, and since this came up in my YouTube recommendations: “Face to Face With Communism”. A young airman discovers the town he’s visiting has been taken over…by Communists!
The YouTube description contains a spoiler, so be warned.