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Films amd Filmstrips We Were Shown in Grade (grammar) School.

scotrace

Head Bartender
Staff member
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14,373
Location
Small Town Ohio, USA
Sometimes, in the days before instant classroom video, we would get a special treat: the teacher (or a smarmy kid) would thread up the projector and show us a film. Usually with some educational message, they usually lasted thirty minutes or less- just long enough to fill the classroom time.
Then there were filmstrips. Short slide show things with an audible "beep" that would tell the operator of the projector when to advance to the next slide to keep up with the pre-recorded narration track.

There were two films I have been remembering, and, thankfully, have found on YouTube. One is a Christmas one-reeler about a pine tree, too small and overshadowed by the tall pines to be of any account, that ends up being chopped down and dragged in to serve as a family Christmas tree. At the time, it seemed a pretty beautiful message about every person having value, no matter how small or insignificant they might seem during Red Rover at recess. Now it just plays as a poor tree hacked down to die in the weird performance of a human ritual. Christmas Rhapsody 1948:
[video=youtube_share;qdFrgvgPmmE]http://youtu.be/qdFrgvgPmmE"]http://youtu.be/qdFrgvgPmmE[/video]



Next is the story of a little boy who carves a figure of an Indian seated in a canoe and sends it on a treacherous journey to the sea. Less creepy, and I think we boys all begs for woodcarving knives after seeing it. Paddle to the Sea 1966:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olXmGz4iCxM&feature=youtu.be

The list of "Public Domain Shorts" at the bottom of this Wikipedia page gives a list of probable others: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RiffTrax


And then there were the films from later Health classes, shown to students divided up by sex, including this Disney film you've probably never seen. The Story of Menstruation 1946:

http://youtu.be/eLhld_PI2zg
 

Horace Debussy Jones

A-List Customer
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416
Location
The Bowery
We had a special cartoon time at my school in 2nd and 3rd grades as I recall. After lunch, each kid could pay a nickle to see a couple of cartoons in the auditorium one day each week. was the high point of my school week to see a Disney or Warner Bros. toon at school. :D Much better than those "educational" things we HAD to watch. But in retrospect, those old film strips were quaint.
 

Atomic Age

Practically Family
Messages
701
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
This is a weird one from 1963 called "One Got Fat", that we were forced to watch in grade school.

[video=youtube;VZzQDhYE2c0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZzQDhYE2c0[/video]

Doug
 

Atomic Age

Practically Family
Messages
701
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
And then there is the infamous "A Date With Your Family", that was hilariously roasted on Mystery Science Theater.

Here is the original version:

[video=youtube;XEtaaW3UFZA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEtaaW3UFZA[/video]


Doug
 

Chasseur

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,494
Location
Hawaii
Paddle to the Sea most stands out in my memory.

Through the series of Troy MccClure parodies in the Simpsons perhaps was the most educational...
 
Messages
13,369
Location
Orange County, CA
Hemo the Magnificent (1957)
They were still showing this film when I was in elementary and junior high school in the 1970s. I never even realized that this series was directed by Frank Capra.

[video=youtube;08QDu2pGtkc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08QDu2pGtkc[/video]
 
Last edited:

Old Rogue

Practically Family
Messages
854
Location
Eastern North Carolina
I also took a Safety Ed class in which we saw some real winners. My favorite segment was of a pitchfork propped tines-up against a haystack. The next shot was of some guy on the top of the haystack sliding off to drop to the ground. You didn't actually see him slide onto the pitchfork, but your mind filled in that part readily enough!
 

rjb1

Practically Family
Messages
561
Location
Nashville
"Hemo the Magnificent" was one of the Bell Science Series that were the best of the old-time school movies. And the best of those in my opinion was "Our Mr. Sun".
The thing I remember most from that one was the explanation of a nuclear chain reaction. In that demo they have a big table completely covered with cocked mouse traps with ping-pong balls on them. They throw one ping-pong ball into the mass of traps and that one sets off all of them in a mass of flying ping-pong balls and snapping traps.
Very vivid demo...

I just looked up the Bell Science Series and was surprised to find that the Series supposedly had a strong religious component. News to me... I didn't notice any of that as a kid. Maybe I would notice it now, but at the time the science was by far the most interesting and relevant part.
 

3fingers

One Too Many
Messages
1,797
Location
Illinois
We always watched films from Coronet. They had a film available to guide a youngster through any possible scenario. :) There are a bunch of them on Youtube now. I loved film days.
 

Gregg Axley

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,125
Location
Tennessee
The Mystery Science Theater 3000 show featured a lot of these.
I'll see if I can load a few of their best ones tomorrow.
Young Man's Fancy is good, but it's 22 minutes. A short about the new electronic house complete with an electric oven, dishwasher, and even an electric water heater. Still, one of their best.
 

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