AN ADVENTURE IN CRAFTSMANSHIP

[music] [music] [music] If you're a boy from 12 to 19 years old inclusive, and can build a model Napoleonic coach like this by next summer, You're invited to join the Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild and to compete for a share of the $85,000 in awards. Or if you'd rather make a model automobile, if you'd like to design and build a model car like one of these according to your own ideas, then you should enter the Gill's other competition for model car design. Notice that there are two competitions, the Napoleonic Coach and the Model Car. Each offers its own awards of university scholarships, cash, and a free trip to the annual guild convention. You can choose either competition. We're going to tell you how to enroll in the one that you prefer and what valuable awards you can win. First, look over the models carefully. Decide which one you'd like to build. The Napoleonic Coach places great emphasis on reproducing many fine details through patient craftsmanship, while the model car competition allows you to work out your own ideas as to style, lines, and color. To enter these competitions, you must first enroll on the application for membership card. When you fill out this card, be sure of two things. First, write or print plainly. Second, fill in the card completely. This is important. [music] As soon as the guild receives your card, there will be mailed to you free of charge a membership card to identify you as a guild craftsman. There are no membership dues of any kind. You'll receive also a manual showing how to proceed step by step with the model you choose. For example, if you enter the coach competition, you'll receive complete plans and instructions for building the coach. After studying the plans, you'll see that materials can be obtained easily. With a few simple, inexpensive tools, you're ready to start. You can build your model wherever you like. Arrange a little place at home if you don't already have one. At school, your teacher may allow it as a project. Many schools cooperate in the guild's activities, and the guild has an educational staff to help teachers and craftsmen with technical problems. You compete only with boys of about your own age because there are two age groups. If you're 12 to 15 years old inclusive, you're in the junior group. If you're 16 to 19 years old inclusive, you compete as a senior. Junior and senior awards are exactly alike, and there's a complete duplicate set for each group. Here's a chance to combine the fun of building an interesting model with an opportunity to win part of the $85,000 in awards. There are 1,220 awards altogether. Now, just imagine that you follow these instructions. You've finished your model. You'll be proud to own it all your life and show it as an example of your fine craftsmanship. But your next step in the competition is to send your model to the guild judges who will check it carefully for the state, regional, and national awards. Instead of shipping it in a box in the ordinary way, let's imagine that you could get inside your model and go along with it. On this imaginary trip, you can look out the window to see what awards can be won. If you have built your model faithfully and well, it can carry you on one of the most exciting and profitable journeys of your life. This year in the coach competition, there are 12 cash awards for each state totaling $28,900. [music] If you win honorable mention in your state, you would receive one of the three junior or three senior awards of $15 each. And these are three higher cash awards. If your coach wins third place in your state, you would receive $50 in cash. For second coach award in your state, $75 in cash, whether junior or senior, you receive the same amount and $125 in cash. If your coach wins first award, [music] if your coach comes out first in your state, it would enter the regional competition. There are nine regions and if you win in your region of the country, you'd go on to the annual guild convention with a chance to win one of four university scholarships in the national coach competition. [music] [music] This part of the journey would not be imaginary. You'd get aboard a real train and take an actual trip to a craftsman's guild convention. You'd get a real thrill traveling to this national affair. And when you arrive, you'd have 4 days of the most interesting adventures imaginable with all expenses paid by the guild. Well, now you may ask, suppose I had chosen the model car instead of the coach. Well, if you had enrolled in the car competition, then first you would have received a complete set of plans and instructions for designing and building a model car. When your model is complete, it would enter the car competition. Remember, it's a separate competition from the coach with another set of state, regional, and national awards for both juniors and seniors. The finished model has to be sent in to be checked and judged for the car awards. Let's take another imaginary trip and see exactly what awards it might win for you. Now, there are 12 cash awards for cars in each state totaling $20,000. For honorable mention in your state, you'd receive one of the three junior or three senior awards of $10 each. If your car wins third award in your state, you would receive $25 in cash. for second car award in your state. $50 in cash. As usual, juniors and seniors receive equal amounts. If your car wins first award in your state, you get $100 cash. Then on to the regional car competitions. If your car wins in your region, you'd go to the annual GIL convention with a chance to win one of four university scholarships for the Grand National Car Awards. You'd enjoy the trip on your way to this national gathering of outstanding craftsmen from the nine regions of the United States. The regional winners of the coach and of the car competitions, juniors and seniors travel to this affair and attend the guild convention for all regional winners. You'd spend your time the way these boys did in Detroit. The national winners of the four coach and four car university scholarship awards will be announced later at a huge guild banquet. But in the meanwhile, there's fun to be had and sites to be seen. So, let's go with them. A convention is especially exciting if it's your first long trip from home, and more so when it has been planned entirely for boys. The buses cross the international border from Detroit into Canada. For some of the boys, this is their first trip out of their own land. After a short tour in the neighboring country, they return again to the United States and visit famous Greenfield Village, which attracted millions of visitors from all over the world. Here they see a reproduction of Independence Hall, replica of the building that still stands in Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was signed. In this bicycle shop, the Wright brothers built their first airplane. The building stood originally in Dayton, Ohio, and was moved here piece by piece. Included among the wonderful sites are interesting machines and early inventions, things of special attraction to all model makers. Convention events vary somewhat from year to year, but on this particular excursion, the boys went aboard a streamlined cruiser and took a trip across picturesque Lake St. Clair. Some find it's a nice time to relax and enjoy the scenery. Others busy themselves taking pictures to show the folks at home what a grand time they had. After landing, they find themselves on a beautiful island, an ideal spot to spend a summer's day with recreational facilities of every kind. Gildsmen are real boys as well as craftsmen. So, a ball game gets underway. East against the west. They're here from the nine regions from Connecticut to California, Texas to Minnesota. And these boys won more than $4,000 in state awards before coming to this convention. Later, there are relay races with plenty of action all the way. Excitement grows high as the boys run it out in the finals and their teammates cheer them on to the finish. In the sack race that follows, the main idea is to have fun and the losers provide their share of it, especially for the spectators. While the winners know how to get together and keep going without stumbling over difficulties. And what better way to end a day of sports than to take to the water. These boys from farms, from towns and villages, from big cities all over our country match their skill in a few friendly races. The underwater swim is breathtaking for some of the contestants, but the winner stays to the end and comes up smiling. These are good times and wonderful sights never to be forgotten. On one of the days, they visit the proving grounds, famous outdoor laboratory for testing automobiles. Here, cars of every type are subjected to grueling tests of their performance and durability. What excitement as car after car flashes by. Perhaps you can construct a model of a car that will be tried out here someday. Many an engineer and technician received his early experience by designing and building model automobiles. At a nearby factory, shiny new cars roll off the final assembly line, ready for shipment throughout the world. The boys examined them with keen interest because inside this plant, they had watched every step in the car's manufacturer and had seen them assembled from beginning to end. In the meanwhile, the Guild's board of judges have been hard at work carefully checking the models that the boys submitted for national awards. They make sure that everyone's work is given fair consideration. The judges score each model strictly on its merits. Each is examined in the same way. After the winning models have been determined, the craftsmen are honored at a large banquet where the winners of the university scholarships are announced. Distinguished educators and other prominent people look on as Dr. George J. Fiser, National Boy Scout Commissioner and honorary president of Fisher Body's Craftsman's Guild, presents the awards. The scholarship winners take seats at a table of special honor. These boys can be proud of their achievement in craftsmanship and of the scholarships they have won. The awards apply to any university chosen by the winner. Junior and senior coach winners receive a $5,000 scholarship each for first place and scholarships of $3,000 a piece for second place. Model car winners, junior and senior, each receive a $4,000 scholarship for first award and a $2,000 scholarship a piece for second award. Eight scholarships altogether. And so at the close of this great banquet, another year's competition comes to an end. And the winners join the long list of those who've achieved so much through the Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild. Their models carried them to the highest awards. Now, new competitions are underway. These same opportunities are calling to you, determined to take advantage of them. Think of the fun in building these models. the 1176 cash awards, 36 trips to the National Guild Convention, eight university scholarships. Boys from 12 to 19 inclusive, here's your chance to join the guild and enter one of these competitions. Decide whether to build a model car or the Napoleonic coach. Whichever competition you choose, your model can carry you to rich rewards. So enter now. Be on your way to a great adventure in craftsmanship. [music] Your ticket for this trip is your application card. Fill it out completely, plainly, and return it right away.