Author Archive: Retro

Great Jazz Bands of the 30’s.

Ford authorized a massive, star-studded network television spectacular to give their new Edsel maximum exposure. Bing Crosby was hired to host a LIVE jazz music extravaganza on CBS Television shortly after the Edsel’s introduction. Crosby convinced pals Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, and Louis Armstrong to join him, with a “surprise” visit by Bob Hope. These well known and loved entertainers were at the peak of their careers at the time, and their presence virtually assured a massive audience. Indeed, “The Edsel Show” telecast was one of the highest rated and well regarded programs of the year.

Pro-business cartoon explaining the role of investment capital in building America’s prosperity. Joe, who wears overalls and talks with a pseudo-Brooklyn accent, is king of the workers of the world because the machinery in his factory multiplies strength and efficiency. This is part of the American way of doing things, the narrator tells us. Because of far-sighted investment in industry, the American worker, personified by Joe, is “king of the workers of the world,” and he has higher wages and shorter hours than his counterparts abroad. Meet King Joe argues that in view of the rewards workers reap from the American economic system, it is in labor’s best interest to cooperate with management.

General Electric sponsors this explanation of atomic energy, detailing some of its uses besides the bomb. Using animation and an off-screen narrator, the film describes the atom, elements and isotopes, the discovery of transmutation, experiments in artificial transmutation, and the reasons for the power of nuclear fission. The film argues that now, besides war, the atomic age holds promise for energy, farming, medicine, and research. The promise of the atomic age will depend on human wisdom.