Author Archive: Retro

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.

The film opens with a newspaper from the distant future of October 5, 2000 with headlines reading “Space Travel to Mars” and “tax cuts.” The protagonist of the short begins by debating whether to buy a new car or not as his family watches 3-D television. A show then comes on explaining the history of the automobile. The show within the show moves through the beginning of the 20th century starting with hand cranking cars and topless buggies. The clip moves through the decades explaining new inventions like windshield wipers and suspension systems.

Three cavemen court Miss Araminta Rockface. She favors the one who apparently slew the Missing Link … but a dinosaur did the deed.

A film about American capitalism.

Joe, who paints doll faces at the Dilly Dolly doll factory, is down in the mouth. He can’t make ends meet. An unexpected wage raise brightens his spirits. Now he can buy his young daughter a birthday present. He decides upon, not surprisingly, a doll. At the toy shop, he flies into a rage. The doll costs two dollars. He knows there is only ten cents worth of material in the thing. The store manager tries to explain that because Joe’s company increased the cost of its latest shipment, his store had to increase the price of the doll. Joe will have none of it. It’s up to the narrator to talk some sense into Joe and give him an economics lesson. Soon Joe understands such things as labor costs and profits. Suddenly he hits upon an idea that improves productivity at his company, drives down costs, and thus improves the economy. Now, a Dilly [...]