Business screen magazine (1946)

the camera ey< VIEWPOINT AND COMMENTARY BY O H COELLN "Wf H\m RiACHEi) a poini where politics as usual is turning the American dream into a nightmare . . . Never have we needed a new hero worse than now." Gov. Dale Bumpers of Arkansa.s told Mis.souri DcmiKTats in late July. "The anli-nialcrialistic >oung must be convinced that there is nothing square and insensitive about economic securitN and basic physical comforts ... It is a cruel hoax," he said, "to hold out the hope of overnight or instant liberty, instant everything to the poor, the minorities, the downtriKlden. It is the ploy of the amhjtioiis man." Labor and management at odds, drug abuse flourishing and world problems undiminished . . . make us remember the admonition: "unless your employees and your publics are given the facts to undersiarul. they will draw their own conclusions, often adversely to your interest and as much to their own interest." Television's colorful tube, mighty as it is, left Americans in confusion and doubt in Vietnam. Simply reporting the strikes and their aftermath this past summer hardly explains the urgency of /irochu livity and its effect upon all of us. The "key to plenty" remains unturned in the dtxirway to a more productive America, more jobs, more ta.xable profits, more ^oods and services thai can brinn lower prices. less inflation. This, again, in TIME for corporate management and their trade groups to lake iltr ladx. in factual films, to its people and publics. The audiences and the means for getting to them are at hand; it costs pennies-per-person to deliver comprehensive knowledge via sound films through public service tv.. in theater screenings, to adult and youth groups via hundreds of thousands of 16mm sound projectors .iM across the U..S.A. Happiness Is: More Pictures lliiiij)itu\s i\ .1 25lh "an 11 1 versa ry parly" for Modern's president, Carl l.enz; the growing list of awards being won by U.S. entries (through (INI-, of course) at overseas film festivals: the upcoming 12th International Industrial F-ilm I'estival scheduled lor Barcelona with a ginnl U.S deleg.ilion again on hand, we hope. 14 .And happiness is a fall upturn in tactual, documentary films out of the most creative film makers in our business overdue at a time when Americans, (and Canadians) need to know as only film can bring it to them. Happiness could well be President Nixon wielding a "big stick" on the heads of do-nothing for a full day's pay railroaders and welfare "loafers" who would rather wait for a monthly handout than do an honest day's work. Happiness? Better call for a "miracle" out of the lethargic White House. But nia>tv the President could be reminded to show Mao and Chou a print of Project Mekong; and turn the tide to better lives for Southeast Asians by getting that tremendous, fruitful river control program moving toward completion. Despite the loll of war. Viet Nam and other populations dependent on that rice bowl are inexorably doubling in this decade. The Shell-sponsored Project .Mekong, sadly enough, remains the only lucid exposition of where the Itiiurc of Southeast Asia may yet lie. While millions face starvation in Hast Pakistan, • • • Books That Make Films There's .1 lilni in so many recent non-fiction books. Take a cue from John Burby's new book "The Great American Motor Sickness" ( Little Brown, $8.95), which takes you in the real realm of our urban transportation problems: is rightly called "the lxH)k ol the \ear on transport.ition." Look over the best-seller list of similar non-fiction titles and build on their popularity with followup factual films. Audiovlsuals 12-Month Year 1 he new trend to \ear-round schiH)ls means that audii>-visual equipment will be getting more use. puts the heat on a-v administrators to streamline their teacher requests throughout the 12-month operating calendar. More than 60() schixil districts in the U.S. are currently stuiKing the possibilities of evpanding the schiK>l year to stretch their educational dollars. • • • A Word of Appreciation Ih.mks to I.W.-Vs past-president. Lee Coyle (Ohio Bell) and program chairman of its recent .Montreal ing, Jim Damon (IBM World Tr for those kind letters of apprecia for our coverage of this event. • • • The Past is Prologue . . . I> yiiir\ rjv" the 85th Congn passed the National Defense Ed tion Act to be administered by United States Office of Educal providing S.1 million alone for search & Experimentation in A Visual Media under Title Vll. whatever happened to all that mi and where can anyhtnly find any really useful to account for all grants-in-aid approved bv the "n established Advisory Committcel New Educational .Media" which supposed to "disseminate the infi tion obtained by publishing repo studies and surveys, preparing publishing catalogs, reviews, hi raphies, abstracts and analyses, by providing advice, counsel, tech, assistance and demonstrations?' hate to mention that an addition million was provided for each three succeeding fiscal years. • * * len Years ,4);o. This Monti brought the news of Bill Conn election as president of the Nati N'isual Presentation Association: Union Carbide exhibits and adv ing executive was als<.> to become of the Industrial Audio-Visua ciation. And in that September 1 96 1 we were to comment that "i \icken to read the h\t ol aimless and continued on page