Social guidance films

[washman]

I stumbled across these on youtube some time ago. Finding them, ahem, somewhat amusing, I forwarded some to dad for his review. I asked him if this was real or some kind of made up stuff to show to kids back then to kill time.

He assured me they were indeed real and the purpose was to teach kids how to develop and grow.

I kinda got hung up on them and viewed tons. To be honest, a lot of what is discussed has long since become passe however I did find some that discuss basic human behavior, like manners, respect, and being trustworthy to still have relevance today.

Below is "A date with your family". How much of this do you think matters today? Is it even possible to have a date with your family today? If so, would the characters have generic names like mother, father, daughter, son, and of course, Junior? or Brother? What do you think?



Next up is "habit patterns". While I did not grow up with sisters (or brothers), I find this one a bit harsh when listening to the narrator. Seems she came from an old school Catholic Convent where punishment was meted out freely. Or perhaps she never married and became an old maid. At any rate, the basic theme here is being organized, something I feel 95% of the youth today could benefit from. Even some adults. Would it be possible to stop texting, tweeting, twatting, trending, crowdsourcing, raising awareness, listening to the gab-fest on talk radio to take time to plan things a bit better?

Notice the fried bacon and eggs. I serious doubt that would pass muster with the Chief of Food police, Mz. Obama. And would that toast have, gasp, butter on it?



Naturally these films, hokey as they may be, harken back to a simpler time. Well simple in terms of all the information that we get bombarded with today. Sure, there was the Cold War. Polio was still a problem until 1954. Air travel was still in its infancy and not as safe as today. No one understood the effects of radiation fallout completely. No NEXRAD radar to warn us of an impending tornado.
Nevertheless, in a way I long for these days when, due to lack of instant information, credit cards, and instant mind numbing entertainment, people had little choice but to read and perhaps talk with one another. Is anyone old enough to remember being on a first name basis with your local grocer? The filling station attendant? The librarian? How about the waitress at the local greasy spoon?

Did you get excited when the circus came to town? I know I did. Do you remember when Christmas decorations didn't go up until it was.....well........Christmas?
Do you remember sitting down with the family to watch a movie or other show?

Sure, there was a lot less stuff. And I happen to believe that in this case, less certainly was more.

 

[whirlcool]

It's not only that there was a lot less stuff to worry about back then, but that most of what we had available was more important than things we have today.

 

[launderess]

Saw some of those films, and after awhile stopped watching.

Ones posted above were tame enough, but the others made one understand why things like marriage and sexual equality are so important today.

There was the one about the "creepy perverted" older man who attempts to lure young boys/men into "sin". The latter were advised to "keep away" from such "disturbed" individuals and report them to LE.

There was another about a "fast" girl who experiences what would be called date rape today and becomes with child. The first event causes her to be shunned by friends and basically family, while the second earns her a trip to some sort of detention or home facility (for unwed mothers?).

Oh there was another about a man complaining to his boss about being sent "another" woman to work in his department. This was something to do with machinery or whatever and not the typical secretarial "pink ghetto" jobs a woman usually was found in the 1050's. "Women don't understand", "women talk too much", and on and on the man goes. Happily his supervisor/boss sits the man down but you have a strong feeling those women in his department did not have an easy time.

And so it went. IMHO those films were all about how to live the "perfect" white upper middle class life that few really did. Men (especially white males) were at the top and everyone else had better toe the line. [this post was last edited: 8/28/2014-03:32]

 

[arbilab]

Not only did I see them, I SHOWED them. I was the projectionist. Since none of the teachers could thread a 16mm projector. Best I could tell, everybody took them as an escape from the classroom without a dentist appointment.

Look closely, you may see some future name performers. Whatever their intent they sure the hell didn't teach ethics, which we haven't had since the WW2 generation retired.

 

[mikael3]

A number of these weird films are interesting because of all the stuff in the background--kitchens and cars and clothes, wallpaper, carpet, uphostery, curtains, plates and glasses and flatware, hats and sweaters and socks, and all kinds of things.

 

[whirlcool]

Our families dinner time was the exact opposite of what is shown in movies. My father would be gone for 4 or 5 days at a time on trips. My mother used to bitch about that all the time, usually at the dinner table. Finally my father told her he didn't want to hear about it anymore.

So my mother switched to bitching about us! She'd complain that we are stopping over at friends houses after school and this causes her a problem because she needs "help" around the house and we are never there we are always in school. Then he'd dole out the punishment, you are stuck in the house for the weekend, or no television for the week. Then if he was out of town he'd call us and make sure we were there. Finally my mother came up with this system. She'd tell us all we are all worthless and that she is no longer going to care for us! She'd say "there is food in the refrigerator and you can fend for yourselves." So she and the old man would sit down to dinner and you could hear them arguing across the house. It was usually the same thing, my mother felt that she isn't getting the respect she deserves and that she wants him to punish the hell out of us for that.

When I was a teenager I just had enough of all this and stopped coming down for dinner completely. We tried to tell them that using dinner time for arguments is not really a nice thing to do, but the response was always the same "Who the hell do you think you are? This is MY house and you are not going to tell us what to do!"

Me and my siblings all left the house when we were 18 by going off to college and we never came back to live there again. Probably one of the best decisions I ever made.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

FAMILY ACHIEVEMENT INSTITUTE, Vol. 6: Pat Boone

Pat Boone narrates THE TIMES OF YOUR LIFE (The most important work he gave us, which was not sung, but spoken word!) And I didn't need a '16' on my record player, either!

'Time For The Harvest', 'Time Counts & So Does Money', 'Clockwise & Counterclockwise', 'A Man For All Seasons'...!

-- Dave

 

[frigilux]

Beware imagining these films are realistic representations of life in the 1950s and early 1960s. My older sister, who remembers these films well, says she and her 1950s classmates snickered and rolled their eyes at them just as we do today.

Dads didn't come home from the office and sit down to dinner in their suits. Kids fought over whose turn it was to set the table/do the dishes/load the dishwasher/take out the garbage/mow the lawn just as they do today. Parents quarreled about money and how it should be spent. Wives suspected their husbands were doing more than working late with their secretaries.

The notion that "times were simpler" is true from a technological standpoint, but teenagers were having sex, acquiring alcohol for parties, and were often reckless behind the wheel. Cliques of mean girls and entitled jocks made life miserable for those outside their circles. Stay-at-home wives and mothers, often without a car or income of their own, were, like a child, forced to ask husbands for money to purchase things they wanted for themselves.

I wouldn't trade life in 2014 for life in 1955 for all the sit-down meals in the world---nor would most women, gays, minorities, or those with serious medical issues. These films are interesting to watch----as long as you remember they are a wildly unrealistic, hyper-idealized version of real life.

If I could transport the nostalgic among us back to that period to experience every aspect of mid 20th-century life, you'd claw your way back to the present in short order, despite the curses of cell phones/texting, social networking (which is exactly what AW is), designer drugs, and HE washing machines.

[this post was last edited: 8/30/2014-06:36]

 

[washman]

Oh Frig

If I could trade HE TL, PODS, liquids for powders, Aru-cuate 210, Spin drains and overflow rinses, I'd go back there in a heartbeat! No mode shifters, no electronic panels, plastic for knobs only, ah the possibilities!

At any rate, these are quaint, just like Ozzie & harriet, LITB, and Father Knows Best. Idealistic sure, but quaint nonetheless.

Besides, I dig the Desoto that Ward drove in LITB.

 

[launderess]

Few years back a study was done of the "good old days" (1950's) and despite the common perception many females and men who were young at that time reported having active and full sex lives outside of wedlock. The report was shocking to some as it put a huge dent into the "nice girl" image of the 1950's were good girls went to their marriage beds virgins.

Basically you had three types of females then:

Those that did
Those that didn't
Those that did and kept it from getting around

*LOL*

Watched the film 'The Last Picture Show" last night on telly and from the goings on in that small Texas town those young people seemed to have no problems with premarital sex, nor for that matter did many of their parents/adults.

The main worries then were on two fronts; pregnancy and VD. Both could be solved by a trip to a physician but one was illegal in doing so, but still went on anyway. If you was Big Daddy's daughter things could be worked out.....

One of the better films about life in the 1950's IMHO was Peyton Place. That book and later film shocked many Americans at the time mainly because it told of what everyone knew was going on.

Nothing, I mean *NOTHING* that goes on today didn't happen in the 1950's. Adultery, sexual abuse of minors, rape (spousal, gang and date included), domestic violence, sexual harassment and so forth were all there. As were gays, lesbians, transgender/drag queens, etc... It was just that everything had to be swept under the carpet for the sake of "respectability" or whatever.

 

[maytagbear]

Furthermore, in the 1950s......

there was an evil, evil man named Joseph McCarthy, who ruined lives very casually and without a shred of repentance.

Peoples' jobs and reputations were shattered by whispering campaigns if they were even suspected of being Communist, or homosexual.

It was not, in real life, a place/time where I would want to spend a lot of time.

The "good old days" were only good for a very thin sliver of people. Plus, Europe and Asia were rebuilding.......

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[frigilux]

I've listened to hundreds of podcasts of old radio shows (Jack Benny, Burns & Allen, Father Knows Best, The Fred Allen Show, My Favorite Husband, Our Miss Brooks, etc.) the past few years when working in the kitchen.  

 

At the end of some of the shows from the McCarthy era, the announcer says "Stay tuned for the House Un-American Activities Committee Hearings on your NBC station!"

 

[mikael3]

I woudn't go back to any past decade unless it could be as a short-term observer. There's no way I'd want to live in that mess. But there were lots of good things that we lost, and I don't mean social mores. I mean the great inventiveness of the period, the designs and innovations, and the high-quality American-made products.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

I saw the 1st video, A DATE WITH YOUR FAMILY before, but watched it again...

The 2nd video, HABIT PATTERNS, I had never seen, so it got played twice, here...

Agree that both of these get rather namby, pamby--and think of how much of an even greater effort, it must be to try to put this stuff out in Today's World, when there's more to it, than going from the old B&W, to COLOR...!

Now, as for the latter Vid's, I tried to do some Online research, looking up this Sorenson & Malm, who are Herbert Sorenson and Marguerite Malm, both long-time psycologists, in Family/Human study... (And most-likely it could be Marguerite narrating Barbara's plight in that latter film...)

Not much I could find on either individual in a personal life-perspective, just that Marguerite died in 2001...

-- Dave