Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

FEBRUARY, 1946 FILM AND RADIO GUIDE 51 and Radio Appreciation Club, an extra-curricular activity. At a Junior Conference of the National Board of Review, three members of Gilburt’s club delivered their own versions of “Movies in 1960.” These highly amusing and imaginative reports caught the fancy of newspaper reporters who were present. Full accounts appeared in New York papers the next day. The club won first prize in an essay contest conducted by the Motion Picture Council for Brooklyn on “Movies and the War.” It was awarded the doctor’s chest used by Fredric March as a prop in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, because of the members’ high score in the National Board’s annual “Ten Best Movies” contest. As a result, these extra-curricular activities were made part of the regular curriculum. A bright class was assigned to Mr. Gilburt, with a view to integrating the communication arts — movies, radio, and journalism. This course and the activities of Gilburt’s pupils have become widely known. In October, 1943, the class participated in an OWI broadcast to England. The “radio projects” of Gilburt’s class were shown recently at an exhibit of the U. S. Office of Education. What’s Ha})pening in Hollywood of November 11, 1944, devoted a section to his class’s “movie scrap-books.” These were described as ingeniously devised, set up with title page, index, and bibliography, and reflecting enthusiasm, worthwhile conclusions, and “quite an amazing insight into this many-sided subject.” Other movie and radio projects of the class were displayed at the 1945 Audio-Visual Conference held at the American Museum of Natural History. At the invitation of Thomas Samuel G. Gilburt H. Briggs, Gilburt prepared the radio section of a new text on Leisure Time Activities. He has appeared as a participant on audio-visual forums over Station WNYC and is a frequent guest speaker at audio-visual courses of colleges and universities. Gilburt’s talks are always practical and profusely illustrated with concrete proof of what has been done in junior high schools in the audio-visual field. His success in fusing movies and radio with the regular English curriculum on the junior-high-school level is influencing teachers to do likewise. Some of Gilburt’s articles and reviews have appeared in our Film and Radio Guide, The English Journal, High Points, Journal of Education, Neiv Movies, Teaching in Practice, and the Federal Radio Education Bidletin. He has been called on for advice by the American Council of Education and the Hays organization. Several advertising agencies have consulted him before producing children’s radio programs. As a member of the New York City Association of English Teachers’ Movie Committee, Gilburt helped prepare a film-study report in relation to bright, normal, and slow pupils. At present he is a member of the Photoplay Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English and the Motion Picture Committee of the NEA Department of Secondary Teachers. His students have been addressed by the great and the near-great. The pupils, in turn, have spoken at innumerable audio-visual conferences, forums, and over the radio. They have travelled great distances to interview colorful personalities. The club boasts of having one of the largest collections of autographed pictures in the country, as well as letters from President Truman, Mrs. Roosevelt, General Eisenhower, Helen Keller, Marion Anderson, John Barrymore, and almost everyone of note in the movie and radio fields. The class experiences and activities of Mr. Gilburt’s groups have been realistic, informal, profitable, and satisfying because they have been based on deep, genuine, out-of-school interest in movies and radio. As a result, Gilburt asserts with assurance, “I’ll match the social competency of my pupils with those of any other junior high school.” He is proudest of his inscribed copy of Credo, by Elias Lieberman. New York City’s Associate Superintendent in charge of Junior High Schools. The inscription is to “Mr. Gilburt, whose educational vision goes far beyond the walls of a classroom.” It was presented when the class won the music box used as a prop in the Academy winner, Going My Way, for the highest national score in the 1944 “Best Movies Contest.”