Business screen magazine (1946)

Parent cooperation is enlisted as trachrr and pupils participate in an all-out program to improve children's eating and licallli habits. A scene frotn '-The School That Learned to Eat." (continued from the preceding page) gram. The film What's Your Idea is one of the few on tliis subject sponsored by inchistry which helps promote the all-important employee suggestion system. This Is Your Company, for all employees, lells about the concern they serve— and which ser\es them. Farming for Facts is a typical film which explains their Formula Feed research program. Highly important in this area is a new film project dealing with flour mill fire pre\ention. The economy of a film which can help reduce losses (and insurance rates) is evident. This new picture, titled The Triangle of Fire, is based on the three elements of a mill fire, namely (1) oxygen (2) combustible material, and (3) ignition. Controlling any one ot the three eliminates fire hazard. The film should be widely useful to otlrer members of the industry as well, insurance experts think. For Women's Groups or Farm Audiences For women's club circulation, two new 15miniue soinid slides were added to General Learning more about nutrition is part of "The School That Learned to Eat" film. Mills' film library in 1948. Cash From Coupons features an aninrated coupon telling the ladies about the company's Coupon Savings Club Plan, and The Perfect Pair gives Betty Crocker's sisters-of-the-skillet the story of the Tru-Heat fron and Ironing Attachment. Smart Dairying, a 21-minute color-sound movie recently released, shows fanners and stock feeders the adxaiuages of using the company's Larro brand farm-tested feeds, while Pocketbook Poultry, its 22-miniite companion piece, shows tliem — and tlieir wives — how to get greater egg production from Larro Chick lUiilder and Larro Egg Mash. Pig Sense and Hog Dollars is a new film due early next year. National Nutrition Campaign Aided By "The School That Learned to Eat" ♦ Swelling this sponsor's audience gross totals is the nutrition film The School That Learned to Eat. Industry as a whole can take a bow on this one, which a British committee of film judges called "The best docinnentary film in The children visit a grocer to purchase foods — and learn more about them, too. Jk:>lri education." Subsetiuently chosen as one ot six U. S. documentaries for showing at the Intel national Film Festival in Edinburgh, SiDlland, last year, School is at once General Mills' most succcsslid school film \enture anil a definitive film work on nutritional education. After \'iewing it, a script writer not connected with its production said, "it makes me proud to be in this business." Basic Nutrition Problem Met By Film The film, a 22-minute color and sound production, is part of a general nutritional education program that started in 1944, following a survey that disclosed three out of five elementary school pupils did not have a well-selected diet. Over twenty-nine thousand pupils formed the survey base. Both the film and the overall program recognize all seven Basic Food Groups as set forth by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. The sponsor's own food products receive no special emphasis. The School That Learned to Eat is so lowpressured as to appear sponsorless and is therefore more effective than it would have been had intrusive and discursive asides been allowed to mar its authoritative quality. Actually there were two sponsors — General Mills and the University of Georgia. A Factual Documentary Film Report Produced by the Educational Film Production Service of Athens, Georgia, with the cooperation o£ the teachers, parents, children and community leaders in the cotton-mill village of East Griffin, Georgia, School shows these groups working together for a better nutrition campaign and school lunchroom program. This is so bare a description of its theme as to invite dissent from those who made the picture. They have not been misunderstood; the film is "about" a lot of things — significant ones all, and its many messages, including the one on nutrition and health, are delivered wilh finesse. Many of the actors are non-professionals, which may account for a great deal of its charm. There, the word is written — a documentary with charm. In this country, over 178,500 teachers and health workers have seen The School That Learned to Eat up to July 1st, 1949, and bookings, handled by General Mills, are reportedly heavy, with seventy-two prints sold; fifty-five others in distribution; eight in use by the LI. S. Department of Agriculture, and new requests arriving in each mail. Films Like This Have Long Life In approaching what looks like a record audience for their films. General Mills can count on getting a nice audience increineiu from School Tliat Learned to Eat for years to come. When you lia\e a film like this one, it's a fair assumption. The spirit ot the film, and perhaps of this sponsor, is suggested by the answer to a querv concerning the profit-potentials in the film. Unuttered, but implicit in every foot of the film is the answer— "That which helps ihc nation's health and welfare helps General Mills." .Something for sponsors to think about. 28 BUSINESS SCREEN MAGAZINE J