What’s New at the Internet Archive

In honor of the recent announcement that the Internet Archive is partnering with NASA to archive and manage all of their photographs and audiovisual materials, this blog entry is devoted to space science. The archive has several titles that address our fascination with space exploration, including historic newsreels, educational shorts, TV programs and kitschy ephemera.

Science in Action: Aero Medicine (1956): In two parts, Part I and Part II. Science in Action was a 1950’s TV series produced by the California Academy of Science. The host was Dr. Earl Herald, a Bay Area science community mainstay from the Steinhart Aquarium. This episode: the physiology of space travel! What happens to the human body during launch, and in orbit?

Space Progress. ‘Man-In-Space’ Capsule Recovery Successful (1960): Newsreel covering a capsule launch test from NASA’s Project Mercury.

Space History. Reds Orbit Two Craft (1962): In this newsreel, “the Russians chalk up another victory in the space race, as they put two manned spacecraft into orbit within 24 hours.” Cue ominous “Reds” music …

The Big Bounce (1960): A detailed overview of NASA’s development of Echo, the world’s first passive communications satellite, with layman’s terminology galore to explain why the satellite is relevant and important for the average person, “For instance, we would like to see live television programs, history in the making, from all over the world. But TV broadcasting presents a special problem. One TV channel requires the space of almost 1,000 telephone circuits.” Technicolor makes for some gorgeous archival imagery here.

Net Café: Space Science (1998): The Internet Café was a TV program that ran for seven years in the late 1990’s to early 2000’s, covering early web culture from the vantage point of the average internet café. This episode is a fantastic overview of the presence of space culture on the web circa 1998.

Way Stations In Space (1961): Despite the fact that, as one user mentions, “the physics are bad” this is still a gem of Cold War ephemera. As archive enthusiast “Spuzz” points out, this is exactly “the type of space race film you would see in the late 50’s and early 60’s to teach people what to expect in space in the next decade or so.”

Highlights 1965: A Progress Report (1965): In three parts, Part I, Part II and Part III. If ever a NASA progress report was eventful, it was during the mid 1960’s. Smack in the middle of the “space race,” the organization gives a fairly technical but fascinating overview of its activities and advancements from the year 1965.

Cheerios (1960): This commercial features “a team of JUNIOR spacemen with an OUT OF THIS WORLD breakfast!”

Space Ace: Commercial for a video game that features a character named Dexter, who’s been blasted with an “infanto-ray” by the evil commander Bork and turned into a child. The goal of the game is to “run the bad guy out of the solar system and regain your manhood.” For more on this quest, see the “Reds Orbit Two Craft” film one more time. Pay attention to the ominous music.

Written by: Stephanie Sapienza

It’s easy to forget that film was always a tangible, physical medium before the advent of inexpensive digital technologies. Even though the archive’s primary moving image collections are digital by the time they reach us in mpeg, quicktime, or flash formats, many of our assets were originally shot on film. And many of them are self reflexive about the process, as evidenced by some of the items below.

Before Production:

Technicolor for Industrial Films (ca. 1949): Technicolor was an early color film process in which film was shot on three different film strips (red, green and blue), and then recombined through a special process to produce a unique level of color saturation that modern film stocks – much less digital video – cannot achieve. This film shows industrial film producers how Technicolor can help them showcase their products in a way that really highlights their visual qualities.

The Alchemist In Hollywood (1940): In two parts, Part I and Part II. A film attempting to explain the chemical concepts involved with the production of (primarily) black and white film stocks, or “how the alchemist in Hollywood makes entertainment out of silver.” Even if you don’t fully grasp all the concepts presented here, you can still gain an appreciation to all the steps that went into the early production of film.

Film Production:

Behind the Lens (1940): An explanation of how certain kinds of special cinematography “see things for science” by allowing us to see how dandelions grow, how tires and suspension absorbs shocks, and how cats land on their feet.

How to Make Home Movies Your Friends Will Want to See Twice: A unique film whose title is fairly self-explanatory. The film is silent, tinted red and thoroughly subtitled to show the viewer how they can make interesting home movies.

#Bfl O {ggGX = STwWcfl x 2s4 (Calvin Workshop) (ca. 1963): This highly entertaining spoof of the filmmaking process shows us how monkeys might do it.

Care of film prints:

Murder on the Screen (Eastman Kodak sponsored film): Info-tainment at its kooky best, this Kodak-sponsored film leads us through a crime investigation to find out who murdered a once-beautiful film print. Was it Jones the lab man? Smith, the film disributor? Brown, the station director? Or Harris, the projectionist? You’ll have to watch the film to find out …

Facts about Film (1948): This film was intended for anyone who planned on using film in their classroom, library, or at home. It includes tips on how to store, handle and project your film collection.

Written by: Stephanie Sapienza

What better way to spruce up a potentially boring subject than through film! The archive has several films that all find different ways – sometimes bizarre, sometimes clever but always entertaining – to attack the subject of cleanliness and personal hygiene.

With the exception of any General Health Habits from 1928, most of these films are from the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. Regarding this trend, archive reviewer “Marysz” probably put it best when she said in her review of Body Care and Grooming:

“Was there a grooming crisis on America’s college campuses in the late forties? This was a generation that had grown up during World War II. Dad was in the service and mom worked in a munitions factory. Nobody was around check if the kids had brushed their teeth or not. In any case, I guess films like this worked. These students grew up to be the tidy, conformist parents of the fifties. But those old unhygienic habits came back to haunt them in their counter-culture children, who used sloppy grooming as a sign of political protest.”

With that in mind, let’s look at some of the influences at the front end of this cleanliness trend.

Soapy the Germ Fighter: Young Billy learns a lesson about fighting germs and disease from a talking bar of soap. Cleanliness ensures.

Kitty Cleans Up (1949): A somewhat creepy black and white short about a girl named Helen who is perhaps a bit too attached to her cat Kitty. Helen compares her daily cleanup routine to her Kitty’s self-cleaning, on the day she brings her cat in for a show and tell pet show.

Good Health Practices (1953): Jim and Judy are the role models who know how to be good, clean children. Thankfully, this film teaches us not to be bashful or silly about toilet habits.

General Health Habits (1928): Very early silent hygiene film that is sparse yet contains some interesting comparisons between urban and rural life, and the contaminants that may exist in each.

Personal Hygiene (1950): In two parts, Part I and Part II. Everyone knows that the best way to teach hygiene is through folk music … er, maybe not everyone, but the residents of the army barracks depicted in Personal Hygiene certainly have their fingers on the pulse. They teach the stinky, music-obsessed soldier Homer to keep the bugs off through music. I can’t help but think that the filmmakers were influenced by “The Washing Song,” sung by the seven dwarves from Disney’s Snow White. .

Body Care and Grooming (1948): Younger children aren’t the only ones who need to hear about grooming habits – dirty college students need to know that frumpy slips and bobby socks won’t help them nab that squeaky-clean boy or girl they’ve been eyeing.
Written by: Stephanie Sapienza

Part II of our series on stop motion animation at the archive features commercials, industrials and innovative shorts from both the early years of cinema and from recent years.

Commercials and Industrial Films using stop motion:

Saint Paul Police Detectives and Their Work: A Color Chartoon (ca. 1941): This clever informational short contains lots of stop motion, to illustrate the daily activities of the Saint Paul police force.

Lucky Strike Tobacco Commercials (1948): Who doesn’t like dancing cigarettes telling them to smoke? The archive has them, courtesy of Lucky Strike, both marching cigarettes and square dancing cigarettes. *NOTE* The archive does not recommend smoking dancing cigarettes.

Japanese Coca Cola commercial (2001): Although the archive does not endorse feeding your infant child sugar soft drinks, it does endorse watching great miniature model animation like this.

Auto-Lite on Parade (1940): Auto parts have never been this exciting! The climax of this sponsored film features various auto parts (as well as pots, pans and other consumer goods) in a miniature town parade.
(animation begins approximately 19:37)

Aluminum on the March (Part I) (1956): In a strange way, this film heralds the onset of factory automation with its portrayal of marching steel, even including a foreman character made of steel who “directs” small blocks of steel to go forward to their “specific fabricating sequences.”

Other great stop motion films in the archive:

Checkmate (2003): In this independent short film, some random soundstage inhabitants mix up their daily routine with a short game of chess and various other shenanigans involving boxes and laptops.

Mud animation by Joseph Sunn (1926): The archive has three films by stop motion pioneer Joseph Sunn. Very little is available online about Sunn, who may or may not be the same man featured in this San Francisco Weekly article. Either way, the films are a joy to watch:
The Penwiper
Green Pastures
Long Live the Bull

Written by: Stephanie Sapienza