I feel like I’ve been running long the past couple of days, so I’m going to try to get back into the “fits into a coffee break” mode today. I’m also going to serve up yet another slice of processed 1970s cheese.
“Use Your Eyes”, a police training film on how to spot evidence of…marijuana!
Bonus video: “Burglary In Progress”. To be honest, this is another one of those lower quality tranfers from old Motorola training films. I still think it’s interesting. The first couple of minutes go over the standard “how to prevent being burgled” advice, but after that, there’s a lot of “how to search buildings” and “how to prevent suspects from escaping”.
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.
I thought today I’d reach back for some rocket geekery.
First up: “The Space Age: Dr. Goddard to Project Gemini”. This is a 1965 film sponsored by the Metropolitan Life Company about the early days of rocketry. Includes some home movies of Dr. Goddard that I think are pretty neat.
Bonus video #1: “Report From Aerojet”, a promo video for Aerojet General, “a subsidiary of the General Tire and Rubber Corporation”.
Bonus video #2: “All Systems Go”, a 1963 NASA promo film about Gemini.
Here’s a little bit more Bell System history for you.
“Challenge of Change”, from 1961. I think this is noteworthy as a very early depiction of the first modem (among other things). That punch-card dialing system is pretty neat for 1961, too.
Bonus video #1: This goes out to all the radio people and “Mannix” fans out there: “Mobile Telephones”, or: what cell phone technology looked like in the late 1940s. Show this to your children.
Bonus video #2: “The Far Sound”, a Bell Labs history of the development of long distance service.
We’ve heard from various organizations and individuals in this series. But do you know who we haven’t heard from until now?
The intelligence community.
Unless you’re as geeky as I am (or more) you’ve probably never heard of CORONA/DISCOVERER. CORONA was an early satellite reconnaissance program: DISCOVERER was the name of the disinformation program associated with it, which claimed to be a technology development program.
CORONA shot photos on film – actual, physical film. But how do you get the film back from space for development? CORONA would eject a capsule containing the film, which would re-enter the atmosphere…
Here’s a vintage video from Lockheed of “DISCOVERER”, which (of course) doesn’t discuss CORONA at all. But it does show the capsule retrieval process.
Bonus video #1: “Oceanography: Mining Minerals In The Ocean” from Martin Marietta. This is pretty much what it says on the tin: exploring deep undersea using early remote operated vehicles to find deposits of underwater mineral nodules.
I can’t tell when this video was made, so I’m not clear on whether it was pre or post the Project Azorian revelations. I’m guessing it was some time during the 1970s, because that music.
Bonus video #2: from 1964, “Undersea Pilot”, about the Reynolds Aluminum built deep sea vehicle Aluminaut. This doesn’t have quite as many intelligence implications as the other two videos, but Aluminaut did see some military use. (It is a well known fact that it was used in recovery operations after the 1966 Palomares B-52 crash. Some other books I’ve read on Navy deep sea operations in the 1960s and 1970s lead me to believe it was involved in other classified missions as well.)
I thought Aluminaut and Trieste and Alvin were incredibly cool, back when I was in the single digit age range. (I’m pretty sure I read about them in a How and Why Wonder Book, thought I don’t remember which one.)
And another, even though the (original) lyrics are a little dated:
All right, one more:
Steve Dalkowski, minor league pitcher. This is actually one of those sad stories: he was famous for spending nine seasons in the minor leagues, mostly with the Baltimore Orioles’ teams. He apparently had an amazing fastball, but was also erratic as a pitcher. (“He walked batters almost as often as he struck them out..”) Supposedly, he inspired “Nuke LaLoosh”, the pitcher in “Bull Durham”.
He also had problems with alcohol. At the time of his death, he’d been in a nursing home with “alcohol-induced dementia” for 26 years.