Business screen magazine (1961)

Here's yoni chance to see the new motion pictnie . maildng the 100th Anniversary of Oil Well Supply Divbion of United States Steel ' Screen Magic Re-Creates Historv from Stills of 1860's : These Maturing Years of U. S. history corporate "birthdays" marking 25. 50 and years of business existence are becoming e frequent. Often, there's an "anniversary t" involved in the observance and the film's er is challenged to re-create the past with llity. while still retaining audience appeal r screen interest. ■or the 1 00th Anniversary Year of the Oil Wl Supply Division of United States Steel. Ijding. Inc.. has turned out a 13-minute thettal short titled. Piiluile. U. S. A. The picture re than meets the first requirement in its blute fidelity to the subject and its popularity n theater managers and patrons across the [jntry indicates that it has more than fulfilled J premise of genuine audience appeal. I'ithole. Pa., the oil boom town that was m. boomed and died within a span of 500 ^s in the early 1 S60's, was the site of the fid's first oil pipeline and a fitting subject 3 Oil Well Supply's sponsorship. But not a ;;e of the town remains on the site. Without iding expensive sets, the producer has skillii used the still-pictures-in-motion technique 3>ring the town to life on the screen. he miracle was made possible through acE to thousands of pictures taken by a pioneer ttographer. John Mather, who recorded the 1 11 date was January 7, 1865, in Venango mty, Cornplonfer Township, Pennsylvania . on this sleepy hillside farm . . . entire saga of Pithole on the fine glass negatives of his day. Many of these were lost in a fire but thousands remain at the historic Drake Well site in Titusville. Pa., and it was to this collection that Wilding turned for the story of Pithole. Through the cooperation of the Historical and Museum Commission of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, these 97-year-old negatives were borrowed and their images transferred to present acetate negatives. The final result was the 13-minute film applauded b\ premiere audiences at Titusville last February and at Dallas. Texas, home of Oil Well Supply, later that same month. D. S. Stevens, executive director of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, said. "Oil Well Supply Division of United States Steel is to be complimented for the authenticity with which they have recaptured the exciting flavor of the life and times of Pithole — in fact, those earliest days of the oil industry. Anyone interested in the history of .America or the oil industry will enjoy the film." Pithole's boom was short-lived but its memory is being recreated nightly on theater screens across the land to graphically illustrate the risk and daring so characteristic of the world's continuini;. dramatic search for oil. . . . when the Frazier Well came only weeks to give one of oi boonn towns a name . . . ....^ in. It took Pithole, U. S. A., where the main street was history's wildest soon jammed with hotels, saloons and boarding houses, thronged with boomers! were many who built their futures by Drinking water sold for more inun un . . . uui Today, there is no Pithole City . . . not even o on the spot with things oilmen had to that soon ran dry, too, and Pithole was actually ghost town! These ruins, since erased by time, 'imber, rope, engines, tools. on its way into history. were mindful of those 500 hectic days!