Business screen magazine (1942)

THE VICTORY TRAINING EDITION "The American morion picture is one of our most effective media in informing and entertaining our citizens. . . . The motion picture, especially as OF BUSINESS SCREEN MAGAZINE used by the Federal Government, has a ferg useful contribution to make during the War emergency." — Franklin D. Roosevelt ISSUE ONE • THE MAGAZINE OF VOCATIONAL & EDUCATIONAL FILMS • VOLUME FOUR Our Industry Answers the Call to Arms "^. • Visual EqiipM E N T m a n u f a c ■ hirers and industrial film producers alike have answered America's call to the colors. This is the hour of destiny for the industry, with the armed services and the industrial war production program, as well as civilian defense, health and nutrition programs, agricultural production and public morale depending upon the film mediums as the primary educational medium. .\nswering the call, our visual equipment manufacturers have pledged the Division of Civilian Supply of the Office of Production Management that the total resources of their plants are now turned to supplying the training classrooms and group centers of the nation with the essential equipment needed for these purposes. In this activity, your editor has given his services throughout the past months to serve as chairman of the industry's visual equipment manufacturers' association. \^ e have been proud to serve. Training for Viclor> if Visual educators, shop instructors and industrialists alike will he inspired, as we have been, by the tremendous production accomplishment now nearing completion by the U. S. Office of Education in the studios of the industry's most able and experienced industrial film producers. .\lready the reports are flowing into this magazine and to the training chiefs in \^ ashington of the results which the Victory Training program is accomplishing. Hardl\ begun, the program will gain momentum as the number of reels in use and the methods of use are increased and improved. We can honestly sav that these producers have given their all. The films were produced at half the cost the Government has paid in the past: at a trntli of the cost of some well-publicized creations. But into them has been poured the craftsmanship and skill of three decades of experience in this sort of work. They are training films, with technical animation, closeups. microphotography. and other industrial techniques applied without stint to assure real training results. Information Vs. Training "k I.et no man confuse the two tasks which lay before our Federal Government in this critical hour. To the Office of Government Reports and the Co-ordinator of Government Films. Mr. Lowell Mellett. the President has assigned the task of planning and organizing Government motion picture production and distribution "as is deemed neces.sary to inform and instruct ihr public during the war-time crisis." To Mr. Mellett and his able Deputy Co-ordinator Arch Mercey. your editor pledges the resources of Business Screen and the industry in carrying out this great task. We are. indeed, proud to acknowledge that we were the first and only publication to call attention to this need several months ago. The highly technical and complex job of providing the industrial training program with visual materials is being successfully carried out by the proper educational authorities already charged with VISUAL MEDIA SPEED TRAINING Motion picturt and ?ljd.rfilms are making passible the speedy training of millions of men who must man the machines in our new war production Program. To this Victory Training task. Business Screen dedicates this first issue of 1942. similar responsibilities. This is a training task which has earned the approbation of both Government and industrial officials concerned. The trained specialists who have been at work on this program for many months have the experience and the proven record of production to which the thirty films reviewed in this issue are sufficient testimony. There are no persons in all Government so well qualified to continue and to achieve even greater success than this hardworking crew and their efficient superiors in the United .States Office of Education. Civilian Defense Program ■^ We ha\e been in touch with responsible individuals in the auto industry and with dealers who heartily approve of this idea: hold weekly classes in civilian defense procedures in your local auto dealer's salesroom. Some of these are projector-equipped. They are more readily available in business sections, particularly in smaller cities, than the local schools. It costs money to keep a school open for these purposes in the evening. Heating plants, maintenance men. and janitors must be paid at considerable expense. The local auto dealer will be glad to help. Let's take advantage of his facilities, honor his courtesy and at the .same time do this public train 9 *>*>*!?*?' r ■ . -'T « ing task more efficiently. It can be done if we use every physical asset at this vast nation's command. Keep Them Rolling! 'k The income which the family auto produces in stale and federal taxes as well as the common sense of keeping the dealer organizations going, calls for a nation-wide program of service and conservation teaching directed at the public and the dealer's own organization. Mass ""selling" did a great job for Chevrolet and others — why not use mass "teaching" to preserve what we have. Washington will heartily approve of such conservation and ""anti-gyp" education. Safety, maintenance, tire care, all can be taught in a nation-wide series of free evening classes held under the joint auspices of motor, oil and tire companies. The public will do its part — the dealer urgently needs this kind of efTort and no better way could be imagined for the sponsors to retain the goodwill and advertising in which they have so many millions invested. X^Tiat are we waiting for? Do you need any more testimony to the value of this medium than its present wholesale adoption by Government is now providing? A Word of Regret Pages of unused articles, reviews of outstanding recent film productions, etc., (.some of them listed on the next page) remain in our publication files for appearance in our Mid-February number. In recognition of our country's great need — which is answered in this Victory Training program — we have dedicated every possible page to the greatest accomplishment in visual education the country has ever seen. — O. H. C. (;oveb: The Precisio.\ Gage Is America's Symbol of Victory: (picture by Loucks & Norling) Victory Training Edition 11