First Fifty: EBE's Golden Anniversary Retrospective (1978)

now it is time for everyone to gather around the breakfast table and here as in every phase of life in the little Eskimo dwelling there is much crowding together [Music] [Music] silence silence I say [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] fine clothing silks old manuscripts works of art all was vanity pump and [Music] vanity don't scream push you got to do it on your own okay shoulders are out here comes the baby here comes the baby and you have a baby boy how about that hello I'm Jim Brill you have probably heard my voice before because I have narrated hundreds of educational sound films since our company started operations in 1928 you may recall that Thomas Edison was one of the first Americans to work seriously with film Edison said I believe that the imparting of exact information through the motion picture camera will be a matter of course in all of our schools and that the printed lesson will be largely supplemental and not Paramount but movies rapidly became entertainment [Music] although the Eastman codec company made a number of silent educational films the real potential of film as a communication medium was not apparent until sound brought a new dimension to the motion picture theaters of America almost immediately Western Electric formed a subsidiary company called electrical research Products Incorporated known as herie to the trade in 1928 we started work on educational sound films I was privileged to be among the first to work in this new medium it didn't take us long to realize that teachers needed tools they could use in the classroom to fill this need we began to produce films like Eskimo children by the late 1930s we were able to plan films in series and we began to work with the University of Chicago under the sponsorship of its president Robert Hutchins among our distinguished collaborators at the University was the great physiologist Anton J Carlson who worked with us on a human biology series that included a film about the heart and circulation in this film the sight of a living Beating Heart electrified Educators everywhere and this scene taken from inside the heart of a horse set a new high for camera technique the consequent success of our films seemed to promise the end of the company's long struggle to show a profit in the meantime William Benton an advertising innovator then vice president of the University of Chicago took over our film company forming encyclopedia britanica films ebf as it was called a sister Corporation to his encyclopedia britanica in the meantime private competition to ebf began to enter the AV field helping to focus the academic creative and Commercial forces in the field towards greater classroom Effectiveness but the world of knowledge was also changing we were at the threshold of the atomic era scientists were experimenting with rockets and dreaming of space travel then in 1957 the Soviet Union launched its first Sputnik into orbit Awakening America to the fact that our schools were not geared to handle the knowledge explosion in science more than that we expected students to learn many times what we had had to learn and in the same number of classroom hours that my generation enjoyed to bridge the gap the federal government began to support modernization of education and at long last with the signing of the National Defense Education Act by President Eisenhower the first Nationwide step had been taken in the recognition of film as a necessary tool for Education let's take a look at some of the ways this vital medium can contribute to the educational process [Music] how many children in the world can witness the eruption of a [Music] volcano the motion picture camera enables each of us to participate in events we couldn't otherwise expect to see for the classroom teacher film vividly and accurately enriches the experience of students of any age does the average classroom hous the equipment needed to x-ray the human digestive [Music] system through the medium of film classroom students can witness the violent surface of the Sun from a vantage point in the classroom every student can join the hurricane Hunters on a flight into the eye of one of Nature's most awesome spectacles a hurricane okay according to radar looks like we got a 20 M wide High our altitude is 18,000 ft our winds have drop down now to about 45 to 50 knots and pressures are falling also we're approaching the eye of the storm now meteorologist standby to Mark the center or visit a science laboratory to to watch water droplets coales to form larger raindrops demonstrating the electrical characteristics of a storm cloud now the two streams are passing through an electrostatic field the drops coalesce forming larger drops and then watch in slow motion the exquisite beauty of a raindrop as it falls to Earth the time-lapse camera helps us see things that happen too slowly to perceive [Music] otherwise this remarkable cinem micrography of chromosomes reproducing is from the film [Music] mitosis film can take us into space [Music] and we can share many of Darwin's rare observations in the galapagus: [Music] [Music] most of these life forms are still more or less intact but will they stay that way we can learn life-saving techniques from this film on choking begin with four back blows if unsuccessful apply four abdominal thrusts back blows dislodge a foreign body abdominal thrusts create air pressure to force it out our mental Horizons can be broadened through a film introduction to Children of other countries we can catch the flavor of the entire Middle Ages at chart Cathedral one of the great Treasures of Western Civilization [Music] we can explain a complex Concept in physics through this demonstration of wave [Music] action more enzymes continue this process until two complete molecules of DNA are built up this is the process of DNA replication animation can help us achieve an accurate mental image of complicated subjects or simplify for elementary students principles of economics well why don't you just keep it if you're scared to spend it wrong and you can buy the right thing when the right thing comes along yeah that's what I'll [Music] try film can capture a child's fancy and provide multiple language arts experiences [Music] this demonstrates how effectively film can give New Dimensions to an already famous short story the Lady or the Tiger all was ready the signal was given now half the audience had not known that so Grand a youth had lived among them no wonder the princess loved him she had done what no other person had done she had possessed herself of the secret of the doors following custom the youth bowed to the king she knew in which of the two rooms that lay behind the doors stood the open cage of the tiger and in which waited the lady which one now the point of the story is this did the tiger come out of that door or did the lady the camera lets us travel into prehistory from cave paintings away to the modern worldwide Communications depicted in TV news behind the scenes educational films continue to bring the world to the classroom but behind the camera and in the control room lies a world most of us never see bober standby here we go okay stand by five them we finish better the 6:00 report in color and the eye witness news team that's the motto we adopted at the beginning bring the world to the classroom we thought Edison was a Pioneer then when I retired a few years ago they spoke of me as a Pioneer along the way I witnessed many exciting developments such as the television the video cassette along with all the other Delivery Systems that now exist as a Pioneer in audiovisual education I would like to use the prerogative of my many years of experience to say we've come a long way but the pioneering is not yet over there is still the challenge of the audiovisual revolution [Music] for