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Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should note that this film may contain images of deceased persons.
This home movie contains material mainly from three visits the Gair family made in Australia to Mildura and the Murray Valley in the State of Victoria in 1940, and central Australia in 1950 and possibly 1957 to the State of South Australia and the Northern Territory, especially central Australia. It contains sequences of travel with a prominent Australian tour company, Bonds Tours, utilizing an elongated, rugged car for travel.
There is significant footage from Mt. Buffalo National Park in Victoria and Alice Springs and the West MacDonnell National Park in the Northern Territory. Notable locations within Mt. Buffalo National Park include wonderful shots of Pulpit Rock and Wilkinson’s Lookout, Lake Catani, the Leviathan, Manfield’s Lookout, Bent’s Lookout, and Reed’s Lookout. Shots in South Australia include Parachilna Gorge and the Flinders Ranges, with a stop at the Ancorichina Hostel nearby, as well as William Creek.
A wonderful sequence of camera tilts reveals the various Kodak posters for Mt. Buffalo National Park. In the Northern Territory locations include Alice Springs (known locally as “The Alice”), the Fink Gorge National Park and West MacDonnell National Park, and the Hermannsberg Lutheran mission, an Aboriginal mission in the Ljirapinta Ward of the MacDonnell Shire. A majority of the final segment includes many profile and group shots of Aboriginal people at a mission possibly sponsored by the “Australian Board of Missions, Church of England, Alice Springs,” which was printed on a nearby car. Footage consists of color film stock with particularly beautiful title cards inserted for many new locations and sites.
McRobbie-Gair Family Home Movies Collection: Following the European leg of their trip, the Gairs then sailed from Southampton to New York on the Queen Mary but there is no footage of this trip as Mr Gair had misplaced his movie camera and had to have it replaced in New York. This movie consists of travelogue sequences mainly of the Eastern United States and Canada, with footage from New York, Washington D.C., Virginia, Illinois, and New Mexico.
The film opens with shots of the New York City skyline and Times Square at night with an amazing light show of entertainment and advertising signage. The marquee of several historic movie theatres can be seen, including the Loew's State Theatre and the Strand Theatre, showing Only Angels Have Wings (1939) and Indianapolis Speedway (1939), respectively. Other notable footage includes a particularly engrossing segment of the 1939-40 New York World's Fair with excellent shots of many of the individual country exhibits at this event. There is also footage from George Washington's Mount Vernon estate in Virginia, Chicago cityscapes, and wonderful footage of Niagara Falls.
Moving north to Canada the film captures shots from Montreal, Toronto, and Québec City. Notable sequences include shots of Montmorency Falls and Château Frontenac in Québec City. Finally, the film travels to the American Southwest of New Mexico, including the cities of Gallop and Albuquerque. The film captures in amazing detail an "Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial" in Gallop, according to a title card, which includes ritual dancing, games (including tug-of-war and foot and horse races), and a rodeo with broncos and bulls. Footage consists of a combination of color and black and white film stock with title cards inserted for new locations and cities.
McRobbie-Gair Family Home Movies Collection: This home movie contains mainly footage of a large military parade in Melbourne, Australia. It is most likely of an ANZAC day parade. ANZAC day is one of the major public holidays in Australia and is held annually on April 25. It commemorates the first landings of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) at Gallipoli, Turkey, on April 25, 1915. The year of this particular parade is not yet clear though it is probably in the early 40s. But the footage of the event is particularly important as it features shots of numerous senior Australian politicians and military officers, including former Australian Prime Ministers, William Hughes and John Curtin. There is additional footage of other military parades and school sporting events very typical of the time.
Demonstrates the administration of the revised Stanford-Binet intelligence test and the calculation of the I.Q. Gives a brief explanation of principles, and shows the administration of form L to a 5-year old child. Close-ups show the actual use of the testing material. Explains scoring standards and calculation of the I.Q.
New York Zoological Society, National Film Board of Canada
Summary:
In their routes of migration, birds "mock the man-made lines by which nations separate themselves," as the narrator states in this film intended to foster goodwill between the nations of the Americas. Two boys, Richie in the North and Ricardo in the South, both feel ownership of the barn swallows that reside in their respective homes at opposite ends of migratory routes. Aerial photography follows Canada geese migrating from northern Quebec to the Chesapeake Bay. Technically advanced high speed photography reveals the beating wings of the ruby-throated hummingbird. The bird banding and migratory data-collecting work of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is explained. Animated maps of the hemisphere illustrate some of the long-distance bird migration patterns between North and South America.
Shows how surface plates are used to check the flatness of surfaces, types of scrapers, how to remove high spots, and how to determine when a surface is scraped flat.
British Ministry of Information, Soviet War News Film Agency, Central News Reel Studios, Moscow
Summary:
A Soviet-British co-production reporting to the Allied nations on the lives of children in the Soviet Union, providing "a glimpse of the Soviet child from infancy to high school." Portrays an idyllic and well organized system for educating and caring for the 35 million Soviet children of the day. The scholastic, athletic, and creative accomplishments of Soviet youth are shown.
A social issue film directed at the problems of public health and malnutrition among rural southern tenant-farming communities. The film points directly to exploitative practices of the tobacco industry and reliance on tobacco growing as a cash crop in these communities as the cause of an ongoing cycle of poverty and poor public health. "Here is tobacco land: land of lost hope, land of broken promises, land of broken lives" states the narrator. Urging farmers to turn away from this single crop system in order to improve their own lives and those of the community, they suggest "the remedy is so close at hand - in the land itself." Farmers raising their own food, it is suggested, will lead to better health; community agents will provide guidance in raising food, gaining income from selling farm produce, education for children, and home economics programs. The concluding message to these communities is to "Eat well and be well. Learn about it, read about it, talk about it."
ERPI Classroom Films, Inc., Encyclopaedia Britannica
Summary:
Traces the history of mapmaking and representation of the globe on two-dimensional surfaces. Considers early problems of distortion in map projection, and reviews the projections of Mercator, Mollweide, and Goode. Uses animation to emphasize the concept of present-day map-making as influenced by the development of modern air transportation and the subsequent shrinkage in time-distance values. Narrator states "the airplane forces us to think of world travel and transportation in terms of great circle routes." These routes run independently of land and water and mark the shortest distance between points on the surface of the earth. The film shows that advances in human culture and technology transform our mapmaking and conception of space and distance.
United States. Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, R.H. Macy and Company, Inc.
Summary:
A Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs film reporting on a marketplace of goods from Latin American nations held at Macy's Department store in New York City's Herald Square. Promoting more than commerce between nations, both the bazaar and the film are intended to reinforce alliances between all the nations of the Americas during wartime. Showing the flags of the nations represented, narration states "21 symbols of American solidarity, 21 Republics firmly consolidated, to make up our western hemisphere." Color photography accentuates the beauty and exoticism of the displays. As shoppers are shown admiring the displays of art and culture and purchasing from each nation's vendors, the audience is told "they bought the goods that Latin America has to sell, money from merchandise, goodwill build on good trade relations, every sale a guarantee that the Americas mean business. Business that means friendship in the western hemisphere."
United States. Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, Borge Hansen-Moller : produced and directed by, Kenneth Richter : camera
Summary:
A Coordinator of Inter-American affairs film intended to foster alliance and educate U.S. audiences about the Ecuadoran nation. "All who live in our hemisphere know that it must be kept as a place of freedom" states narration, urging the alliance of all the Americas in the fight against the Axis. The role of Ecuador and its Galapagos Islands territory in the defense of the Panama Canal are emphasized. Ecuadoran natural resources in service of the Allied cause include balsa wood and oil. Narration characterizes the viewpoint of the Ecuadoran people as supportive of the U.S. in the war: "Ecuador can hope for its rightful and untrammeled place in the family of nations only through the triumph of the United States and its allies." Concurrently, U.S. viewers are assured, "it’s good to know in these days of war that here is a friendly nation, a land ready for cooperation, for mutual defense..."
United States. Office of War Information. Domestic Branch. Bureau of Motion Pictures
Summary:
Shows how the Extension Service of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture helped recruit and place young people from towns and cities on farms during World War II to combat farm labor shortage.