“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 202, 109, and 219). Episode 202 begins with women at Philadelphia’s Sun Oil Company receiving stock in the company. The film shows the company’s waterside oil refinery (01:05) and potential outcomes of employees receiving the stocks: a young couple look at the construction of their new home (02:15); a boy and his older sister sit on a porch (02:32) as the children’s father talks to the girl about funding her education. The episode’s next segment features the DIY fur-making trend from furrier Harry Jay Treu. Men sort mink pelts (03:40); Treu sews strips of mink fur together in the letting-out technique (04:44). He shapes the strips together in a pattern that is sent to consumers as part of the DIY product. At a home, a woman transforms the fur pattern into a shawl. The episode then takes viewers to the Indianapolis factory of the Herff-Jones Company where class rings are made. A die maker studies a cast for a class ring (08:30). He matches up ring halves then rounds them (09:13). A woman enamels a ring by hand. Men add gems to the rings (09:51), which are then polished. The final segment of this episode features the manufacturing of amusement park rides by Everly Aircraft Company of Salem, OR. The episode shows viewers rides at an L.A. amusement park, then shows men of Everly Aircraft inspecting racer cars, a rock-o-plane ride carriage, and experimenting with a scaled-down version of a tea-cup ride.
The second episode begins with showing viewers the production of power shovels at the Marion Power Shovel Company in Marion, OH. A massive power shovel moves earth at a coal strip mine. At the Marion Power Shovel Company factory, an excavator part is machined on a massive boring mill (13:38). A man welds part of an electric shuttle (14:29). A medium-sized electric shovel is driven out from the factory. In Portland, OR, firemen train by putting out a fire on a petroleum loading platform tank (15:42). A crowd of spectators cheer on the firemen during the training. The firemen put out a fire on an arrangement of pipes called a “Christmas Tree.” The final segment takes viewers to an old mill in rural Massachusetts (19:05) where the founder of Pepperidge Farm, Inc. observes operations. Trucks hall flour to the Pepperidge Farm bakery in Norwalk, CT. A woman adds premixed ingredients to a drum that will make approximately 80 loaves of bread (20:06). The ingredient-filled drum is hooked up to a mixer, and a mixing hook stirs the dough. Women measure out the dough into 1-loaf segments (20:58) then knead the dough and put it on a conveyer belt. The dough goes into a mechanical oven and emerges ready to package (21:49). A bread slicing machine slices the loaves (21:58).
In the third and final episode of this collection, viewers see how new varietals of roses are made at the Jackson and Perkins Research Laboratory in Newark, NY. People stroll through trial rose gardens. A man grafts hybrid plants onto wild rose stems (25:05). A tractor digs up rose bushes. In Salt Lake City, UT, crystal used in naval equipment is manufactured by King Laboratory, Inc. Men prepare tanks where crystals are formed (27:42). A large crystal is processed and cut into thin wafers (28:50). A woman polishes the crystal wafer. In the next segment, corrugated boxes are loaded with products then loaded onto planes. Cardboard products are manufactured at the Samuel M. Langston Company in Camden, NJ (30:25). Men operate machines that corrugate the board using large rollers. The episode’s final segment shows a woman preparing a dessert in her kitchen (32:51). She uses a mixer to mix the ingredients for a cheese cake from a recipe out of Better Homes and Gardens. At the Meredith Publishing Company of Des Moines, IA (33:25), which publishes the popular magazine, women try out recipes in the test kitchen (33:56). People stage the cheesecake for photographing (34:38).
