This industrial film “Working Together” from 1951 shows the firm Thompson Aviation Products and its TAPCO plant in Euclid, Ohio. The film is incomplete, in that it is missing the soundtrack, but the movie does give a good overview of the company as it operated in the late 1940s. Thompson Products became more widely known to the world as TRW. The company was incorporated in Cleveland in 1916. Frederick C. Crawford became president in 1933 and espoused a philosophy of industrial relations which came to be called “Crawfordism”. It was antagonistic to outside labor unions and sought to promote internal harmony through management-led education of employees. Thompson’s development of an effective replacement-parts system during the 1920s allowed it to survive the Depression, and as a dramatic sales promotion, the company initiated the Thompson Trophy Race in 1929. After Thompson’s death in 1933, Crawford took over the firm. To quell unionizing efforts by the CIO through the Natl. Labor Relations Board in the 1930s and 1940s, Crawford fostered the organization of the Automobile & Aircraft Workers of America, a company union. In anticipation of World War II, Thompson Prods., with government funding, built the TAPCO plant in EUCLID in 1941 to increase its production of aircraft engine components. During the period leading up to World War II, through the end of the Korean war, Thompson Products was a key manufacturer of component parts for aircraft engines, including aircraft valves. The TAPCO plant, owned by the US government but operated by Thompson Products, extended for almost a mile along Cleveland’s Euclid Avenue. It employed over 16,000 workers at the peak of WW II production. As jet aircraft replaced piston-engined aircraft, Thompson Products became a major manufacturer of turbine blades for jet engines. Following the war, Thompson diversified further into the aerospace industry, manufacturing parts for jet engines and entered the fields of electronics and ballistic-missile development, principally through investing in the Ramo-Wooldridge Corp. of California in 1953. Five years later, the two companies merged into Thompson Ramo Wooldridge, which shortened its name to TRW in 1965. The firm played a prominent role in the U.S. space program, producing a third of the satellites, and the descent engine for the Apollo Lunar Lander.

The film starts out with shots of the Thompson plant in Euclid, Ohio. At 3:50 construction of the plant is seen. At 5:20 a new employee gets his photo taken for his picture ID. These photos were made into badges which employees wore for security purposes. At 6:00 employees meet to discuss safety. At 7:29 the safety committee visits the factory floor where aircraft components including turbine blades are made. At 8:10, white and African American employees are seen punching the clock as they start another shift. At 9:25 a jet turbine blade assembly is seen being produced.At 10:20 turbine blades are inspected. At 11:20 employees visit a sick employee in the hospital — probably someone who was injured on the job. The sick man watches TV from his luxurious hospital bed. At 14:19 engineers work on drawing boards, drafting plans. At 14:42 another industrial plant is planned using a model. At 15:08 the company bulletin board is shown. At 15:25 a female worker has her eyes checked. At 15:56 the employee cafeteria is shown. The food at 16:23 appears to be hotdogs and mashed potatoes. Pie slices are also shown. At 16:49 Sealtest fried chicken sits on a plate and gelatin and other desserts are shown. At 17;30 a man reads the newspaper at lunch. At 18:10 you can see a live band that played at lunch. At 19:42 a special event for the 50th anniversary of Thompson takes place with a live band and singers. Wish we knew who they were! The band is sort of a jazz hybrid with someone playing the trumpet, lots of percussion and brass, and a piano.

The film was made by Cinecraft, directed by Bob Welchans, and written by Frank Siedel of Storycraft.

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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