This late 1950’s film was presented for public information services by the American Petroleum Institute. API is the largest US trade association for the oil and natural gas industry. “Progress Parade” (:15) showcased new innovations and improvements in the petroleum industry. The segment “Rice and Old Shoes” (:29) opens with an anecdote about a couple; Bill Thompson and Carole Cook, and their Model T Ford (:46). As the engine back fires (1:22) the gas tank is noted as being strapped to the running board of the car. The car rolls down a dirt roadway in Rochester, NY (2:15); the setting in which George Selden had developed a patent for the internal combustion engine in in 1876. A Citadel gas station follows (2:49). The next segment; “Heap Good Medicine” (3:21), features the Seneca tribe. They were of the most popular tribes to trade crude oil and claimed it to have medicinal value. The film turns to Samuel Martin Kier (3:51) and “Kier’s Rock Oil” (3:57). Edwin L Drake (4:07) is featured as the man who sought to revolutionize a century. After retiring as a railroad conductor, in 1858 he became the General Agent for Seneca Oil and began to drill for oil through pipe (4:41). Uncle Billy Joe (4:53) was Kier’s driller. As traditional methods failed, they began to drill using modern methods (4:59). On August 27th, 1859 they hit 69 feet (5:01) and were able to strike oil sometime after. The year 1959 is the centennial celebration of this major event (6:56). Modern oil drilling appears shortly after (7:08) as well as an offshore oil drilling installation (7:31). The “Lindy Hop” segment opens with images of party—goers dancing the “Charleston” and the “Black Bottom” (7:51) in the 1920’s amidst the jazz age. Charles Lindberg is shown standing near the Spirit of St. Louis (8:36) in 1927 as he readies to take off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, NY. Massive crowds greet his arrival in Paris (8:48) on May 21st. A Boeing 707 passenger plane (9:06) is captured. The film turns to December 7th, 1941 as Japan attacked Pearl Harbor (9:58) during WW2. Combat footage shows US forces storming the beaches in counter attack (10:28) spilling from landing craft (10:42). Bombs drop from planes during the Normandy attack (10:58) on June 6th, 1944. The necessity of the oil industry is drawn upon here as no boats, aircrafts, tanks nor much else of the weaponry or machinery could have been operated without oil. A medium tank from the armored division follows (11:10). Admiral Chester Nimitz (11:28) and General George Marshall (11:40) are pictured. Military activities using oil follow including troops unloading oil drums (11:55), refueling of military planes (11:59) and a US Missile taking off (12:08). “Entertainment by the Barrel” (13:18) opens with a shot of a movie set’s sound stage (13:24). The director cuts the film (13:41) and uses petroleum derived products to adjust scene props. Make-up products such as mask bases (14:50) are also derived from petroleum. A family vacation is depicted; first in 1917 (15:39) and later in 1957 (19:14), showing the innovation and growth of the automobile industry (19:14). A large base for oil use is in Hollywood, California (23:01). The 20th Century Fox studio in West LA (23:04) is viewed from above as well as from the ground with costumed characters milling about a musical set (23:16). A soundproof oil rig is utilized to prevent any disturbances while filming is taking place (23:49). A geologist specializing in paleontology inspects a core sample pulled from an oil rig (25:20). The scrapings collected are zoomed in on (26:13) showing them to be tiny sea shells (26:36). “A Case for Glamour” shows a woman featuring makeup products from Egyptian times (29:02), to Roman (29:25), and 18th century France (29:51). Often as theses cosmetics were made with animal or vegetable fat, they had a bothersome smell which led to a chemist in 1890 (30:34) turning to petroleum white oil. “Service in Moscow” compares how citizens receive gas for their vehicles in Moscow, Idaho (32:21) compared to how citizens receive gas in Moscow, Russia. In the US, cars are serviced by Citadel gas service station men (32:59). In Russia, the citizens refuel the vehicles themselves (33:51). Soviets had to purchase gas coupons from the government (33:55) in order to refuel and while there were multiple car types, which took multiple types of oil (34:21) each station only provided one type of gasoline. Presented by API as public service (35:38).

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