This historic films collection follows the origins of Americas obsession with beauty and physique. The proper diet, lots of exercise, and sleep were touted as the keys to a happy and successful life. This DVD includes some amazingly progressive films focused on teaching how to plan balanced meals and a good exercise routine…the fundamental practices of a healthy lifestyle. Looking good never looked so good.
Included Films:
Exercise and Health
Exercise and Health
Produced: 1949
Length: 9 Minutes
This oddball and antiquated social etiquette and health video is a funny post World War II film. Three teens: Ernie, Jean, and Hal, are basically normal kids who have some health problems that they solve by discovering exercise. Ernie is in a run down condition and gets colds all the time. He solves this problem with stomach crunches and trunk stretches. Jean is shy and awkward. But when she joins in a tennis game, her awkwardness turns to poise and confidence and she finds new friends and social contacts. Hal reads too much and is nervous and irritable. After reading about exercise in a book, he decides to try it out for himself and discovers that it can relieve all his tensions. He starts an acrobatics club. All the teens find exercising in same-sex clubs or teams a great outlet for their emotional tensions (read sexual hormones) in this bizarre Coronet social guidance film.
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Fun That Builds Good Health
Fun That Builds Good Health
Produced: 1950
Length: 10 Minutes
Fun That Builds Good Health is a frightening instructional video from the 1950s that earnestly introduces strict notions of social and personal conformity in American society. Ostensibly the film is about children playing, and what kind of play will be most healthy for them. But when little Jimmy Baxter doesnt enjoy football, why, his father will just have to keep working on it until he does! This film captures the essence of fifties homogenized America perfectly. A great historical video.
Good Sportsmanship
Good Sportsmanship
Produced: 1950
Length: 9 Minutes
Good Sportsmanship teaches young teens how to build relationships with opponents and how fitting into social groups is more important than winning or getting what you want. This exemplary 1950s social guidance film uses sports as a metaphor for life in order to teach social conformity and deference to the needs of the group over those of the individual. Several scenes of kids playing basketball and other daily life situations, such as sibling interaction are used to teach this lesson. The film is full of good sportsmanship stories, as well as defining the rules of good sportsmanship in the context of high school sports. The social life of teens and social groups in high school are also explored. Male bonding activities in 1950s culture werent always easy to come by, and this film champions the relationships that can be built in sports as ideal for teen athletes. The film is also an excellent look at school history and what life in the 1950s schools was like.
They Grow Up So Fast
They Grow Up So Fast
Produced: 1950s
Length: 24 Minutes
This 1950s film, sponsored by the American Association of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, uses the individual story of a worried mother and her son Paul to advocate schools hiring certified gym teachers. Paul has social anxiety and is picked on in his high school gym class, which is taught by his regular classroom teacher. There are scenes of kids playing poorly supervised games or playing randomly on the playground. Pauls mother, who also narrates the film, worries that Paul is going to be scarred by this experience and lobbies the school board to hire a real gym teacher, against some opposition from other parents, Just leave them on the playground and let them be! She argues for the importance of gym class, properly taught. Accreditation for physical education teachers is crucial! Eventually, the school board gives in and the school gym class becomes a model of regularity, discipline, and structure. There are some great playground scenes in this film that exude 1950s culture, including shots of 1950s style uniforms and long forgotten phsyical education activities. A gem in the history of physical education.
Eat For Health
Eat For Health
Produced: 1950s
Length: 10 Minutes
One of the great educational videos from the 1950s, Eat for Health follows a typical young boy named Ralph who spoils his dinner with junk food, and then wonders why he has no energy all day. The film then enters into some amusing nutrition facts, like suggesting that everyone should eat an egg every day! Ralph learns from the narrator to count off the five basic food groups on his fingers in order to make sure he eats a more balanced healthy diet. Soon Ralph is back to his peppy self again. Produced by Encyclopedia Britannica, this movie is hilariously old fashioned and offers some absolutely antiquated healthy eating guidelines and discusses the effects of junk food.
Foundation Foods
Foundation Foods
Produced: 1951
Length: 11 Minutes
This an unusual guide to a made up Seven Basic Food Groups, which includes body building, foundation foods, and also margarine as a food group! Food planning, something Mrs. Brown learns from reading, television, and the radio, is discussed as a way to keep the diet in balance. The film captures a typical day in the Brown household as they plan, make, and eat meals. This gem features some classically antiquated 50s wisdom about good, healthy eating.
Good Eating Habits
Good Eating Habits
Produced: 1951
Length: 9 Minutes
This educational film about nutrition opens with youngster Bill sitting down to dinner but not being able to eat because he feels ill. His mother puts him to bed and we see through a food-based nightmare and flashbacks of the day how Bill got himself into this mess. One of many fine examples of gluttony, in the morning he wolfed down his breakfast because he was late for school. Then, he inhaled his lunch at school and afterwards bought junk food to eat with the rest of the weeks lunch money. The result is the consequences of bad eating that we saw before. The next day, a reformed Bill sits down to a comically diminished breakfast, with bacon cut up into tiny bits, and juice taken only in tiny sips. Eating a balanced diet is important, as well as knowing nutritional facts. This does the trick, and Bill feels so much better he can go fly kites. This film reveals the way otherwise healthy and well-fed people eat poorly and end up malnourished. This cautionary tale is a good healthy eating guide and an interesting examination of the way dietary nutritional information as thought of in the 1950s.
Show the Content
It’s All In Knowing How
Produced: 1954
Length: 12 Minutes
This is a hilarious promotional film which, while nominally focusing on nutrition, follows the story of Bob, a high school football player who finds that his girlfriend thinks he is boring, his bowling score is no good, and his skills on the field arent cutting it anymore. His football coach tells him that he isnt eating a balanced diet, and Bill gets a crash course in nutrition, 1950s-style. Since this film was sponsored by the National Dairy Council, the nutrition information is heavily skewed toward dairy products. Bobs little sister even brings him a bowl of ice cream while hes studying to help keep his energy up. After the changes in his diet, Bill feels great, gets more sleep, and even his bowling game is better!
Wartime Nutrition
Wartime Nutrition
Produced: 1943
Length: 10 Minutes
The United States Office of War Information produced this film to educate the public about how to maintain basic nutrition even during wartime food shortages and rationing. It briefly notes how the Europeans had to learn some lessons from us about rationing. It then talks about how improving the diet helps the war effort by translating into healthier workers who can produce more military equipment.
Getting Ready Physically
Getting Ready Physically
Produced: 1951
Length: 11 Minutes
Getting Ready Physically shows how soldiers get into tip top shape for combat. Made just after WWII, the film shows the rough and physically demanding training routines men have to go through. Starting as early as freshman year in high school, if a boy is devoted enough, he can be ready by the time he graduates. The film shows one boy going to the doctor and getting a full examination. Having the chest and heart checked is as important as getting the eyes and ears looked at, just to make sure nothing will hinder the training involved. Getting Ready Physically takes a great cultural look at how people perceived the military in the post war era.
