Close Harmony (1942, sound)

[Music] letter for you Sam for me yeah it looks important too um what's it say sam yes give us a Lowdown it's probably about my deferment in order to report for induction the president of the United States to Samuel Wellington Williams greetings haven't submitted yourself to Army very important Federal bill this ain't no deferment this is pre-firming I'm reporting the marble wow yes that means I'll have to get me another Porter hello Mr Jeffrey Max Hi Sam hate to lose you Sam but the Army needs men like you probably solve a few jobs for me Sam but Sam if all the boys shoot stuff away like you're going to the fellas that are making it they'd better get in there and pitch a lot of people talk about an offensive in 1943 but me I want some action now are we going to get it I'll tell you first we got to turn out the stuff my friend says we'll lose this war if we don't get busy pretty soon where you are Mr Thompson anything else yeah trim it a little around the edges okay well you're not the only people who think this stuff isn't being turned out fast enough every time the phone rings at the factory I know what the guy on the other end is going to say oh I wasn't talking about your place Jim I can see the light shining in your place at all hours of the night but you're only one not a very big one either we're not bragging yet but we are making a mistake along with the rest of the plants change for 20 Max my friend wow where are you getting all these fourth one today [Applause] sorry I can't help you hey you must be selling a lot of meat I'll say we're really busy well the butcher isn't making that mistake he's slicing a lot of meat and he's telling the world about it I don't get you it's like this the plants that have War orders are too busy building the stuff to tell the people what's actually going on the people have heard too little too late so often they think it's true everywhere the people don't have any confidence that's because they don't know the facts facts nuts Jim you're not going to tell me we're rolling it off at the peak that won't wash well we're not at Peak but we're way ahead of schedule yes that ain't what I heard Only Yesterday I heard if I was saying my boyfriend says we're behind on all those defense orders just what I was saying people think so because they don't know take our place for instance actually we're way ahead practically all the plans got off wrong like we did here we were with contracts for things we'd never made before what do you do next you make them and quick that's what we thought but not for long it wasn't any trick for the automobile companies to change over from commercial trucks to jeeps and stuff like that but when it comes to tanks and anti-aircraft guns and things you've never seen outside a newsreel got something let me talk to Mains because yeah mainly maybe you have got something at that oh but sharks what's so tough about tooling up and going to work on the new stuff here's what take automobiles for example you got the plant all set up to make Passenger cars your man comes back from Washington all covered with smiles and planks down in order for tanks so instead of making wheels you got to make caterpillar Treads only you got to buy a build of machines to do it with first yeah but you can stamp out bodies on a press sure but tank armor plates a horse of another color there's tampering riveting welding Machining cutting and even the engine's different and it's put in different you got to put in all new machines to do those things sure I get that but they give you plans and blueprints and all that the government does along with the order don't they anybody ought to be able to follow a plan not so easy Jeff take an airplane everybody knows of course that we're producing scads of planes and a lot of other things you don't hear so much about but here's the way you have to start on plane production and most of the new stuff that you have to keep popping to win a war like this one I'll take an airplane you have to make everything for the first one by hand then you test the design after that the army or navy tests the first finished plane even then usually something has to be changed I suppose today some of those new planes sure are slicks my boyfriend's trying to get into the air Corps hello this is Sam I can't take you out tomorrow man I got a date huh no this is with my Uncle Sam what's that for every new model on anything bigger than a clothespin yeah maybe but there's a lot more comes first when you want to make a whole lot of anything and quick those chairs were made in the chair Factory weren't they sure where else but what if that Chef actually got an order for barber chairs like this this is different from most chairs first you'll have to get the Machinery to build the gadget that lifts and lowers the chair then you'd have to get some Machinery to make the parts for this tilling business then you'd have to figure out tools that'll turn out swivels good and fast well I sure get around but you're overlooking the fact Jim that you'd still be making chairs a lot of things alike as well as different now look Jeff take a look at these two chairs you gotta admit they're not as much alike as they're different and the stuff they're made out of instead of then tubing in leather you got iron castings porcelain and even some machine steel pots that all takes long hard work yeah those different materials they would make a difference [Music] right okay well Jim about here we're ready to go into production I'm beginning to see what eats up the time now we got plans okay machine's okay we got the material let's go to town but you can't go to town yet Hey what is this a Slowdown what more do you want they'll tell me we've got to wait for the right moon phase you've got to teach the men who made those chairs to make barber chairs here I'll show you with this hat oh that's my new hat don't try to make a Barbie chair out of that suppose Madam queen or whatever her name is over on Second Avenue that made this hat got an order for steel helmets for the Army you can see she'd have to make some changes she'd have to hire new people and she'd have to train some of the old ones to do new things so you see he got new products to make new customers to make them for new materials to work with on new machines and you got mandatorying to run the machines it's a handful but we can do it I heard a fella say he's worked around machines for five years he can run any of them maybe he can run them but running them right is something else uh let me those Clippers a minute hey what are you going to do I've been working around machines for 20 years I can run any of these I'll show you oh no you don't know not all my hair what do you know about cutting hair I know how to run these Clippers don't I yeah I get what you mean you see Vince Jim means that when your Uncle Sam wants a job done he wants it done right yeah it's being done right and it takes time but don't get the idea the stuff isn't rolling remember what the president said about Uncle Sam already spending at the rate of 100 million dollars a day on this war that's a lot in anybody's language but before this war is over we've got to double it make it 200 million dollars a day double the Avalanche of raw materials to back up our men at the front and to keep our allies in there fighting we've got to do a lot more on the engineering planning and testing we've been talking about but the biggest part of that's already done production is rolling and every day new production lines are swinging into action making things faster faster and better producing more for victory thank you Miss Clark bye Bobby bye nice kid his dad's a second Lieutenant now oh I hadn't heard Wald had his commission well Sam I won't be seeing you for a while knows it but it sounds like we're gonna have plenty of that stuff we're gonna need I'm sure glad I heard you tell about that good luck Sam thank you thank you Eli Barbershop hello ain't you had it's all over town you is talking to private Samuel Wellington Williams [Music]