“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, episodes 100 (1952), 34 (1951), and 85 (1952).

Episode 100 begins with men riding scooters off a ramp in a street in Lincoln, NE. At the Cushman Motor Works plant in Lincoln, Husky scooter engines are built on the production line. A man finishes the cylinder walls of the engine. Another man takes an engine block off a conveyer system and adds the fly wheel and cylinder head to the engine. Men weld and assemble scooter bodies (03:15). A group of people ride the scooters down a street. Next, viewers see a show home in Scarsdale, NY where the furniture and accessories are made entirely of plastic materials (05:16). W. P. Margulies sits in his office at the synthetic materials industrial design firm Lippincott and Margulies. Artists and architects design new synthetic products at the firm. A man molds a typewriter out of clay (07:59). In Colorado Springs, CO, guides to laws and past legal cases are produced by Shepherd’s Citations, Inc. Employees review cases and laws to add to the volumes of citations. The episode shows the printing room where the new volumes come off the printing presses (09:35), which are then assembled in order and stitched together. The final segment of this episode looks at how stained glass is produced at Jacoby Art Glass Works in St. Louis, MO. Fred Oppliger reviews stained glass blueprints at the frim (10:50). A man goes through the process of “cartooning,” cutting out paper templates for cutting the glass of a design. Another man cuts glass based on the cartoon templates. Bee’s wax is used to hold the pieces together before the work is heated in a kiln. The episode ends with shots of the Armstrong Browning Library at Baylor University and its stained-glass windows (13:08).

In episode 34, viewers see the massive new research and development campus of the DuPont Corporation in Wilmington, DE (14:29). Men test products with experimental test machines: two men test the synthetic filament fiber Dacron. Exhibition booths shows off the company’s new products, including the acrylic fiber Orlon as well as Dacron. A man shows of a dry silica powder made from sand which is used to make a new type of heat-resistant lubrication grease (17:32). There are several shots of people testing products with various machines at the DuPont facility. At the American Can Company in Brooklyn, NY (20:41), cans and boxes are manufactured on a large scale. Aluminum is rolled into cans, and the cans are moved on a conveyer belt. An air raid drill alarm sounds (22:15), and the employees go to the air raid shelters, prepare fire extinguishers, or set up a first aid station. In the episode’s final segment, viewers see the manufacturing of cash registers and adding machines at Burroughs Adding Machine Company in Plymouth, MI (23:08). Inside the factory, men and women assemble Sensimatic Accounting Machines and test the machines prior to packaging.

In this film’s final episode (no. 85), viewers first go to Newton, IA where they see shots of the town’s streets, buildings, and the outdoor amphitheater Fred Maytag Bowl (26:53). An aerial view shows Maytag’s massive plants. Footage inside a plant shows men casting and stamping metal, dipping a washer basin in porcelain enamel, and assembly of washing machines. Next, the episode shows disabled American veterans producing miniature license plates for car key rings at the Idento Tags facility in Cleveland, OH. That is followed by footage of men manufacturing insulation from glass at Gustin Bacon Manufacturing Company in Kansas City, MO (34:34). Mineral powder is heated into molten glass, and then made into glass marbles. The marbles are melted and turned into thin strands of glass used to create a filament for insulation rolls (36:15). The final segment of this episode shows the versatility of the new fabric organdy. A woman demonstrates an organdy umbrella on a New York rooftop (38:04). Viewers see organdy drapes and a woman modeling a dress and purse made from the synthetic textile. A young boy and girl walk down a New York City street in an organdy suit and dress.

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 http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com