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Want to support this channel and help us preserve old films? Visit Visit our website This black & white promotional film “And the Pursuit of Happiness“ is a sales film for Hotpoint Calrod Ranges. It was made in 1941, and told the story of “woman's triumph over the drudgery of cooking“ through the use of modern appliances which help “give more liberty and freedom in life.“ The Hotpoint Electric Heating Company brand of domestic appliances still exists, although the brand is now simply called “Hotpoint“. (Note: The “calrod“ referred to in the film is the name of the burners on the Hotpoint stoves. Calrods are electric heaters which produce radiant heat, and are used in a variety of electric appliances including water heaters.) Opening: An announcer talks about the prior movie that was just shown in the theater. He then mentions the new movie that 'Hotpoint' has, this is next. Credits: Hotpoint presents “…And, The Pursuit of Happiness“ (:06-1:28). A mother feeds a baby. A woman picks up a book. A woman listens to the radio. Two women drive in a car. Three women sit outside under an umbrella at a table, a woman dives into a pool, a woman serves other women. Various women doing tasks: a woman washes clothes, hangs them on a line, climbs the stairs, irons. A man places a giant cube of ice into an ice box, the woman prepares the dinner and then cleans up after it. She heats up water on the stove, washes dishes. She takes off her apron. She awakens her husband and is berated by her husband for not being very productive(1:29-4:12). Men stand around a car and smoke. Horses pull carriages through town. Original attempts at planes and flying. Water flows through a damn. Power. Inside a factory. A hand turns a switch and a light goes on. A woman irons clothes, her friend visits and they discuss. Hotpoint quality advertisements (4:13-5:51). A woman sits in a chair reading a magazine. Two men talk near an electric stove. They go through what an electric stove should do. One of the men puts some meat into a pan on the stove (5:52-7:57). Meat cooked lies on the oven top. A woman removes cooked meat. Hotpoint Electrical Appliances factory. Exterior of a factory in Bridgeport, CT, factory in Schenectady, NY, Factory in Erie, PA, and Fort Wayne, IN. White house in Washington, D.C. Men move dirt near low income homes. Housing development. Battleships at sea. Planes take off from a Navy ship (7:58-9:26). Navy ships sail at sea. Hotpoint oven - the Calrod Unit. Heating burner unit is explained. Assembly line. Calrod unit burner. An engineer in a factory does an experiment using shadows to save on heat and get rid of the loss of heat. Split screen: men in a meeting while a woman opens the oven. Women talk. A woman explains what she wants when it comes to an appliance. Other women talk about what they want in a range (9:27-12:42). Superimposed are women smiling down as men work on equipment for a range. Burner units have pots slammed down on them. Benefits to having a Calrod unit are shown - the coil burns itself clean during spillage. Hotpoint engineers at work. Calrod units are being run to death to see how they will do. Switch tests are done (12:43-15:03). Men put the ranges together by welding. Range drawers made out of steel. The ranges go down the assembly line. Every feature is checked and a man opens all of the oven doors. A man checks on an electric water heater, he does experiments on it. A woman cuts vegetables over a sink. She drops the excess and uses a garbage disposal. Piles of dishes. A woman puts dishes in a dish washer , puts a spoonful of dishwasher soap and the dishwasher turns on. We see the interior of the dishwasher. Every stage of washing and rinsing is shown. The woman opens the dishwasher. The dishes are clean and look good. Children run in to the kitchen to visit a woman. The woman walks over to towards the viewer and smiles (15:04-19:31). End credits (19:32:19:39). We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: “01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.“ 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
