This is America, “Letter to a Rebel”, 1948, b&w

LETTER TO A REBEL (1948, sound, 17 min, b&w, 35mm)

SPONSOR: National Association of Manufacturers. PRODUCTION CO.: RKO-Pathé. DIRECTOR: Larry O’Reilly.

PRODUCER: Jay Bonafield. WRITER: Oviatt McConnell. CAMERA: Larry O’Reilly. MUSIC: Nathaniel Shilkret.

EDITOR: David Cooper. NARRATOR: Dwight Weist. RESOURCES: Copyright 25Jun48 MP3189; R.L.C., “Oklahoma

sans Song,” Wash Post, July 15, 1948, 12; A.H. Weiler, “By Way of Report,” NYT, July 18, 1948, X3; EFG

(1951), 285; Ec Ed, 24; “Better Living,” 167–68, 270. HOLDINGS: LC, MacDonald, UCLA.

Film sponsored by the trade group to promote the American economic system. Taking the form of a “visualized” letter from a newspaper editor to his son, the film responds to an anticapitalist column written by the son for his college newspaper. The father describes their heritage and their pioneer and abolitionist ancestors, and extols America’s free press and economic abundance. Wrote R.L.C., “Dad seems to live in a world where prices have not risen 100 per cent and where there seem to be no housing problems. While one wouldn’t disagree with Dad’s Americanism, he doesn’t seem to have a very clear idea, for a newspaper editor, of what’s going on.” NOTE: Letter to a Rebel was the ninth in the NAM’s This Is America series. It received a boost when the president of the Motion Picture Association of America, Eric Johnson, appeared in a prologue and urged screenings by local chambers of commerce. Director Larry O’Reilly shot on location in his own town, Monroe, New York. Updated in 1950.