Last week we ran a post of mine about the Jam Handy Organization, a motion picture studio located in the Detroit area that created many of General Motors’ promotional films for decades. A couple of the readers liked my idea of posting some more of those vintage films as a recurring feature here on TTAC. Jam Handy, though, wasn’t the only person who recognized the potential of using motion pictures to promote the sale of automobiles.
Ford had its own Ford Motion Picture Laboratories, but there was another “indie” in Detroit, so to speak, besides the Handy company and that was Wilding Picture Productions. Based in Chicago, Wilding operated a Detroit office, from where they produced films like Trail of the Rocket. It features Lucille and Johnny, a couple of singers whose television show is sponsored by Oldsmobile, who offers them a V.I.P. tour of Oldsmobile factory in Lansing. Like many of the Handy produced films, this was intended for theatrical release, so it had to be entertaining, hence a rather lame science fiction subplot involving a possible Martian spy at loose in the factory (though the little bit of social commentary on how Earthling behavior would negatively influence Martian society starting at ~6:00 is pretty humorous, comic books, be-bop music and television commercials!).
Interesting to see a plant that by today’s standards is pretty much stone knives and bearskins. Amazing that there is so much variation in bore size that you need so many different sized pistons to make it work properly. So many areas for human error to creep in. Or for disgruntled workers to intentionally build it incorrectly…
Hah, martians = commies!
They looked like chromed Nazis
I think by 1951 facsim had been smashed and communism was the enemy flavor of the day right on till the mid 80’s.
The movie makes more sense if you imagine Johnny dropped acid right after Lucille left to get changed.
Wow.. crackle-finish lab gear, bakelite knobs and people healthy enough to climb airliner steps. I loves this stuff.
A weird meta-thought: what if real alien lifeforms saw this and thought it represented how humans really were?
Real alien lifeforms are smarter then that, they’ve been monitoring the internet for years and know we’re much worse and a whole lot dumber
Jeez, I hope they don’t read any YouTube comments. YouTube comments are the lowest common denominator of people who can still operate a keyboard. A veritable cesspool.
Wow ;
They spun that brand new Rocket V-ate engine to 3,500 RPM !! .
Highly entertaining if weird and goofy .
-Nate
This was great!
I have to share this with The Brougham Society, especially seeing how I have an Olds featured at the top of the page this week…
The General[s,] Johnny & Lucille were in for a shock it was Sputnik by Lada.
I found it charmingly quirky, it really did not take itself seriously (income tax? heh).
The production techniques were fascinating, the amount of skill and resourcefulness to mass produce engines without the modern crutch of computerized technology (which now covers up a lot of sloppy engineering… field problem? do a software update). Probably at that time these may well have been among the best mass produced engines in the world. GM, Ford and Chrysler had provided engines for the military, and with most of the industrialized world in pieces there was probably nothing like this plant anywhere else.
I’d match the skill of those production engineers, given their limited tools available, against anything today.
I have heard a few rumors over the years that Jam Handy was also something of a cloak and dagger internal GM spy network. No idea if it’s true, but it sounds interesting. At least more interesting than Harry Bennett.
That was just a swell futuramic moving picture. And very cheesy. But a good way to kill 30 minutes. Thanks for posting about it because I likely never would have seen that otherwise.
Thanks Ronnie! I was hoping for some recognizable scenes and found a few. In ’69 as a college co-op I guided a few tours of the plant. Running 24/7, it produced 1.25 million V8’s a year, the largest output from a single engine line anywhere, ever, iirc.
The scale model of the plant was still in use in my co-op days from ’69-’74. Olds also had a sophisticated wood model shop which made the models as well as mockup engine and other vehicle parts.
Some of the buildings still in use until the 3,000,000 square foot facility was demolished for the Lansing Grand River Cadillac plant dated to the teens and looked similar to those in the movie.