From Dawn Til Sunset

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WORK PAYS

MASTER HANDS

FROM DAWN TIL SUNSET

COG AND TREE IMAGE

Focus: Chrysler/GM (not “Steel: A Symphony of Industry” b/c this not sponsored by car companies/not prod. By Jam Handy?) include existence of this film in footnotes

INTRO

Define documentary (use ellis and stott)

Summarize pastoralism argument

MACHINE ART

Summarize machine art

Summarize argument in rel. to doc

PASTORALISM

Summarize pastoralism

Summarize arg. In rel. to doc.

CORPORATE FILMS (Prelinger info in parenth; film info after)

The Triumph of America (1933)
Master Hands (1936)
From Dawn to Sunset (1937)
Round and Round (1939)
To New Horizons (1940)

NONCORPORATE FILMS

Work Pays America (1937)
The River (1937)
We Work Again (1930s? Prelinger does not specify)
Valley Town: A Study of Machines and Men (1940)
People of the Cumberland (?)

Work Pays America (1937) USA WPA specified at “Finis”

Brass band playing in background
Construction projects: roads and damsemp on local labor and resources; tourism access
Juxtaposing scenic images with footage of men working
“plans are laid not only for the present but for the more demanding future”
“community stadium”
geometric transitions stemming from center
public health: water
airports (Newark, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia (1st airport for this city)); dangerous field clearing, housing demolition)
“in all parts of the country the letters WPA are symbols of progress and improvement” (check this quote)
giving work to ppl who can’t find jobs, etc.
tests for drivers so that “human infallibility may be eliminated”
Automobile inspections
Sewing rooms “expert craftsmanship”; “women who are the principal supporters of their families” (transitions diff. here?)
Weaving projects (for women)
Kitchens (for women)
Rebinding books (women); traveling libraries
Braille; “the tragedy of blindness”; visiting nurses
“useful employment which provides needed service” (check this quote)
(something missing here) Physical therapy ppl who would be helpless cripples given opp to overcome illness (check this quote)
Childcarechildren learning how to work at this age : sawing, bldg house
Adult ed”learn the language and customs of their adopted country”
Vocational training (“women are instructed in (areas?)to which they are best fitted”
Men’s tailoring classes (compare sewing &weaving above) focus on learning independence
Maid training; women learn homemaking (focus again on self-sufficiency)
“type of employment offered is determined by the needs of the community”
emphasis throughout on providing for the needy
Programs for youth:
Canning
Fishing
SECOND SECTION STARTS HERE:
“the sensitive fingers of artists are poorly suited to manual labor, and in finding labor for musicians and other artists, the WPA has contributed greatly to the culture of America. A typical project is this negro choir, singing the spirituals that are the real folk music of America”
“painters, too, contribute their bit to making the works program a real and terminate (?) accomplishement. These reproductions of the American scene today will make this one of the most fertile periods of our country’s art (?) Some of this work is done on canvas but much of it is created on the walls of our schools, libraries, and other public buildings in the form of mural paintings. Of particular interest is the mural in the mess hall of the military academy at West Point depicting great warriors of history.”
“An art long dormant in the united States is the creation of stained glass windows. One project devoted to this art has created a window for the military academy at west point depicting scenes from the life of Washington (check this quote)
“commemorative tablets like this are among the contributions of sculptors to the works program, and they also create works of art for our parks and public buildings. Many American museums have long been in need of highly skilled experts to restore valuable historical materials such as this Persian ceiling which is forming under the deft fingers of this wpa artist in the Philadelphia museum.”
“In many other museums, fossils and animal skeletons are being repaired and mounted for study”
image of water pouring down incline “inevitably comes disaster as it has throughout all the ages of history, so today floods, fires, and famine relentlessly persecute the human race. In this land of ours so bountifully supplied by nature with fertile lands and rich forests, disaster has taken a terrible toll, raging floods have swept the green valleys, imprisoning great cities in the grasp of icy waters, leaving destruction and the threat of disease in their wake”
“but in the moment of greatest need, the shock troups of disaster go into motion, with the courage and perseverance which armed our forefathers against despair. The shock troops of disaster, the great army of wpa workers diverted from their work of construction and improvement to meet a pressing emergency have proven their merit through many tragic hours which have harried at far-flung areas of the nation, working hand in hand with other agencies of relief, men and women of the wpa take up rescue, evacuation, and relief” etc.
“the orderly program goes switftly forward”
“food is distributed to flood victims from outdoor kitchens and cartons of warm clothes and bedding are rushed to shivering refugees from wpa sewing rooms in many states”
“in emergency hospitals thousands of lives are saved by red cross and volunteer nurses and doctors assisted by trained wpa workers”
…”the wpa supplies the shock troops that hold the river within manmade walls. Levy workers transport the materian by hand, by truck, by boat. Working day and night they fill countless thousands of sand bags, raising the levies above the record threat. Often working under the skilled direction of army engineers, relief workers fight the flood at every point”
“the ppl of the flood area will not soon forget the courage of these heroic workers. For Administrator Harry Hopkins heard their praise along the full route of his inspection visit as head of the president’s committee”
“as the water subsides after the work of rescue is completed comes a new battle against the threat of disease. The wreckage and debris left by the flood must be quickly removed. Proper conditions of sanitation must be quickly reestablished to prevent the epidemics which were once certain to take an additional toll of life.”
“so from the first moment of danger to the day when life again takes up its even flow, the works program offers aid to those who need it most”
“the roaring waters” … “have a terrible rival in the drought which has afflicted thousands of square miles of our western plains. Ruin and famine come in the wake of the hot dry winds which tear the fertile soil from the grassroots. Here again the shock troops of disaster marshall their forces against devestation. Dust, once the valuable topsoil of the farm country, is now carried in burning clouds, choking and blinding ppl and livestock, rolling on higher, wider, and blacker until the land itself, upon which everything else depends, the land it took nature 100 yrs to the inch to build up, is blowing away”
ppl running through dust storm
“in this emergency too the shock troops of disaster marshall their forces against devastation.”
“food, medical care” etc. provided “to those who have been driven from their homesteads by the threat of famine’
“there is great immediate danger from inflammation of eyes, throats and lungs tortured by dust. Expert clinical care…is provided to minimize the adnager to life and health” boy with thermometer, eyes being examined
horses plowing, music picks up; wpa employment of farmers “to them, this work provides a means of carrying on in the face of the hardships afflicted by nature”
“drought is a grave national danger, correcting it a mammoth undertaking” dam construction
drought victims now working “thus the works program answers the need of both the individual and the community”
fire; men running to board makeshift fire trucks
“when the hot sun through long rainless weeks has baked leaves of wood to the dryness of timber, it requires only the spark of a cigarette or a flash of lighting to bring about devastation and ruin” MESSAGE THROUGHOUT: CONSTANT THREAT
“and again, the shock troops of disaster rally to the challenge, dropping their normal work of construction and improvements to respond to the emergency needs of the nation”
“Parks, playgrounds, and other recreation areas play an increasingly important part in the lives of our people” ducks and seals
“recreational areas easily accessible to those who live in large cities’
playgrounds in cities have employed “thousands (?) of skilled and unskilled workers” kids on monkeybars, circular ride, seesaw
swimming pools w/slides, ppl involved with construction “have been removed from relief roles”
“toy lending library”
“the conservation of human resources is one of the great objectives towards hich the works program has directed its resources”
taps at camp, row of children eating “underprivileged children and those (until recently?) cared for in institutions” sent to camp
us flag being lowered to bugle and salute
fort niagra maintenance; “frontier forts…restored to their original condition to commemorate the valor of the nation’s pioneers’
“several historic shrines to Lincoln’s boyhood” shows these
then map w/retrospective clips of film filling up area of united states. “under this program, work pays America!’ finis

We Work Again

“Produced by the Work Projects Administration of the Federal Works Agency”
emphasis on state “we” were in at beginning of depression
only relief came in “charity”
Fed Works program “took us out of the breadline”
“it changed the haggard faces of the breadline into faces filled with hope and happiness”
“unskilled laborers, the forgotten men of past generations” now working
skilled workers also
Tearing down old buildings “to make way for modern buildings containing comfortable sanitary apartments”
Swimming pool and bathhouse in Harlem “which will accommodate 21000 persons”
Skilled workers using knowledge gained BEFORE depression
Preventing “tragedies” “which were all to common of the old swimming pools” (check quote)
Playing in parks under supervision
Nursery schools “under competent instruction of workers removed from relief rolls” (chk qut)
Adult education ; teaching Spanish
Emphasis on numbers
Clerical work; “time-worn land records” “so that they may be available for future generations”
Household training “conservation of human resources”; “competent instructors” again
“here’s where you may be able to learn something: illustrates bedmaking
Sewing center “women who are the breadwinners of their families”
Classical music: names director; Afr Am? Extended clip “for cheerfully we sing”
Spiritual: “recognized the world over as the folk music of America” names director again; same choir as in prev movie “Ezekial saw the Wheel”
The End w/preppy brass music

Valley Town: A Study of Machines and Men (1940)

produced by Educational Film Insitute NYU & Documentary Film Productions, Inc.
“Script by …Spencer Pollard, Willard Van Dyke; Assisted by Helen Files and Paula Swarthe; Commentary by …Spencer Pollard; Assisted by David Wolff (Courtesy Frontier Films)”
“Music by Marc Blitzstein”
“Photographed by …Roger Barlow, Bob Churchill; Edited by …….Irving Lerner; Narrated by….Ray Collins; Recorded by Orchestra Conducted by Alexander Smallens”
“Directed by Willard Van Dyke”
Notice in beginning that ppl are not actors (check this to quote)
Opens with progression out domestic window to overlook quiet, smoky city
“for years and years there was always smoke over these houses”; mayor on the hill watching ppl for 20 yrs “men and women who lived by machines and bought machine goods” (chk)
clocktower chime as alarming
coffee from metal container
men waiting for train
“ I remember when those factories were built—we were pretty happy about it. Concrete and glass and steel—“ “it was like money in the bank”
“well, what about the men? That’s a complicated question” (chk) lose job, get another
“and this work was easier on the back”
name “was out of work for about 6 months”; now making parts for diesel engines
machines were easy to transition to; gave ppl opportunity to move around, “move into our town”
“steel rolling mills” req. skill, “nerves” ; jobs for 3000 families
“the machines brought life to our town”
sequence of working w/musical accompaniment; rhythmic (music somewhat arrhythmic, alarming?)
“good times make good Christmas” ; “the same all over the country” new goods, new stores
narrator says his daughter got married at Christmas
“we thought prosperity would last forever” (chk)
“we were able to buy good products shipped from other industrial towns” “the wheels kept going around” local sense of import, export
footage of train; “railroad crossing : danger” sign
trains standing still “but then the wheels stopped”
deserted street, damaged storefronts, “for rent” sign
“we thought prosperity would last forever; now it was over. We hoped it would return”
“the machines were idle a long time; so were the men. It wasn’t the fault of the machines; you can’t blame them for depression. In fact, the machines had often cdreated jobs; but now there was depression. I never thought I’d see it: snow on those rollers??. Then when recovery began, when there were orders for steel again, the old mill stayed shut. The years had bought a new method:a new machine: automatic high-speed strip mill. For every 30 men who worked before, now there was 1. No more strain on the back and shoulders! No more work for 3000 families! Automatic, high speed, accurate. Never lose time. Never get sick”
new machine & music
shantytown: “what am I going home for? What the devil am I going home for? Just to walk in the door and say, no job again? Is that what for?” feeling sorry for neighbors; jack who had to move to Pittsburgh “I’m trying to keep a home together here. Home, nice home. We’ve gottta get out of this dump soon. Pete and joe, we used to hang around together, working at the mill. And now, now I can’t stand to look at their faces. They’re thinking, and I’m thinking, when is that mill going to open again? When do we work? T here’s nothing wrong with me..i can still work..i’m ok…walk in the door, tell her the same old thing, see that look in her eyes again…I don’t wanna go home. What the devil am I going home for?”
woman counting money needed, husband enters “I new it. This ain’t anything sudden; it happens every day.” Woman staring out window as husband spoons gruel. Song “you add up the pennies…finding it’s just not enough…and over your head is some kind of room…and then you ask yourself …what happens after all your savings’ gone” “oh far away there’s a place with work and joy and cheer. Far away, oh far away from here. In my dream, some fine day, we’ll go away from here; some fine day, but not now. The dream in hand somehow” juxtaposing close ups of wife and husband
water dripping in pan, child crying
“I hear that they tell you we’re living in a wonderful age; an age of machines and gadgets and things, an age to wonder at. All right, I’m wondering, I’m wondering how much i…you can’t do no more than try” (looking at radio?)
men gather to watch smokestack being cut down; all smoking as it falls (played three times; then played more with close-ups of men’s faces intervening)
rubble of steel mill
“as long as the old mill was there, we kept on hoping we kept our eyes on it…maybe they’ll reopen …maybe next month…but when they cut those smokestacks out of the sky, we had nothing to look at anymore. Decent, fine workers, every one of them, their hands were trained, but now that training is no good; they’re no more than unskilled men, until they learn a new skill”
“but why?” “because the strip mills can make it cheaper and faster”
“but what good are the machines if they throw us out of work?”
claim machines came too quickly
“why should these men be thrown away, as if they were obsolete, as if they were broken machines?”
“I’m only 25 yrs old; I’m not obsolete”
worker claims couldn’t get a job making radios and refrigerators; he’s a steelworker
claim that this is national problem; one town can’t afford to retrain
“we’ve let our reservoir of skill run seriously low” “millions of man-years of work experience lost, of skills allowed to rust” (claims this is a ten-yr problem)
focus on training to solve problem
“what we’ve learned this year…can help a peacetime economy as well as national defense”
steelworkers able to be trained; shows them learning new tings
“government and industry are working together to retrain these men”
emphasis on lesson: “let’s keep the workers up to date; let’s keep their skills as modern as the new machines”

‘Round and ‘Round (1939)