Guest
“Industry On Parade was a television series created by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) from 1950-1960. The series consisted of weekly episodes that highlighted American manufacturing and business. Hundreds of companies and products were documented during the [program’s] decade-long run.” This film is a collection of three episodes from the series (1952 episodes 82 and 89, and 1951’s episode 40). Episode 82 begins with a look at the first gas turbine electric motor built by General Electric. A Union Pacific locomotive with the new engine pulls freight from Green River, WY to Ogden UT. A man monitors the engines in the locomotive. The train arrives at Ogden’s Union Station. Women operate sewing machines at the Kentucky Sanitary Bedding Company in Louisville, KY (02:51). Compressed mattress springs are allowed to decompress (04:05). A man blends cotton fibers and runs them through a machine to make cotton felt. A man puts the felt over the bed springs as an insulator. The bed’s seams are stitched together in the finishing department (05:48). The next segment shows phonograph needles being produced at Permo Incorporated in Chicago, IL. A woman works with fine metal alloys to create the needle tips (07:48). A man operates a centerless grinder. Needles are poured into a drum for tumbling; a wall-sized machine tumbles a number of drums. The needles are then plated through electrolysis (10:15). A woman inspects the needles using a shadowgraph. Women box the needles for shipping. Viewers then see the testing of skid-less, puncture-proof tires from B.F. Goodrich. Cars slide on snowy roads in a midwestern snow storm (12:03). A test car stops at a stop sign while another car slides through the intersection. On a track in Florida, the tires are tested on various surface conditions. Episode 89 begins with testing fire safety equipment at the Factory Mutual Laboratories in Norwood, MA. A drum of gasoline explodes and goes up in flames (14:34). Fire extinguishers are hung on a wall to test for corrosion over time (15:30). A man tests a sprinkler system in an oven (16:03). A new sprinkler is tested on a gasoline fire in Building 18. Men spray flame retardant onto a fire. At Quaker Oats manufacturing plant in Cedar Rapids, IA, viewers see how Puffed Wheat is produced. A man uses a mechanical lift to empty a freight car of grain. The grain travels along conveyer belts to storage bins (19:44). The grain is put into a gun/oven machine where heat and pressure build up; then the door opens and the cereal explodes out. A machine fills boxes with the Puffed Wheat (22:10), then the boxes are sealed. There is a shot of other cereal boxes coming off the production line. In the next segment, viewers see a General Motors 6x6 military truck driving through a forest (22:58). Another 6x6 drives through the surf, and another is driven into a pond, completely submerging—underwater footage shows the truck underwater with its driver wearing a scuba mask. The final segment of this episode features manufactured homes from Pressed Steel Car Company in Chicago, IL. A manufactured home is hauled out on a truck bed from the manufacturing plant (25:10). A manufactured home is lowered by crane onto a foundation. Men install corrolux roofing over the terrace. In the last episode of this set, 1951’s no. 40, viewers see the original shop of C.W. Post in Battle Creek, MI (28:18). At the company’s modern factory, Post Toasties cereal is made: kernels are lumped then blasted with hot air. A man prepares the kernels for flaking. A machine flattens them out into their flake appearance. They are toasted then boxed for shipping. Next, viewers see a coal mining operation in Floyd County, KY (31:16). Under the green hills, miners ride in boxcars to mechanical diggers. Coal is loaded into cars and hauled out of the mine. Coal is put into a rotary machine (33:10), and then water is used to separate the coal from other elements. A train hauls away the pure coal. Next, a train pulls away from a station at Sylacauga, AL (34:28). Footage shows the town’s Main Street and then Avondale Mills. Raw cotton is loaded into machines that fleece and open the cotton. A man oversees a combing machine. Cotton fibers are spun into yarn. A man watches bobbers work (36:10); the new cotton fabric is run through machines to preshrink it. This segment ends with kids playing in a sandbox and others playing at a swimming pool. Women shop at the Wallis Store. At the Comet Metal Products Company factory in New York (39:33), people make miniature diecast ships, planes, and tanks from military blueprints. This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit
