THE MAGIC KEY

Year Published: 1950

Description: Sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, this highly optimistic, 1952 full color animation/live-action hybrid film presents the USA in the forefront of the world. It examines the medium of advertising as “the magic key” to continued American economic prosperity in the post-war era, suggesting a relationship between ads and modern refinements to household appliances (TRT 21:54). It was produced by the Raphael G. Wolff Studios. Animated searchlights over a city skyline. Opening credits (0:26). A painterly interstellar atmosphere. Comets, stars and planets with towers and craters (0:44). Earth appears (1:08). A man and woman cast shadows on a stone wall. A man with a scythe. Classical architecture (1:20). Stone doric columns crumble and fall (1:32). A surreal landscape of ancient ruins (1:44). A hand with a signet ring stamps a wax seal. A man in chainmail swings a sword. An axe followed by a skull (1:46). Crossfade to live-action footage of a medieval helmet being forged with an anvil and hammer (2:11). Illustration of an Egyptian charioteer with bow and arrow. A horse-drawn buggy (2:24). Animation of primitive man piling rocks, chopping wood. Cut to live action city skyscrapers, 1940s cars and freeways (2:37). A polished internal combustion engine (3:11). Children play on the sidewalks of suburban housing. A man struggling to read by fire. A college student with a lamp (3:14). A hydroelectric plant (3:24). Bustling crowds of people on the move, tractors, oil derricks, melted ore (3:58). Sheet metal is stamped. Fade to a train, switchboards, cars with whitewall tires (4:27). A downtown theater district with marquees (5:09). Montage: Men in hard hats. A woman’s leg. A garbage disposal. Trying on a ballgown. A steaming locomotive (5:15). Earth at a distance zooms into a cartoon man at a potter’s wheel (5:37). The potter’s creation is exchanged for a gold coin. A hand takes his money and presents a receipt for “taxes paid.” The shop becomes cobwebbed (6:08). A sign is hung in the shape of a tea kettle, setting a trend (6:50). Montage of weaving at a loom, a diamond shoe buckle, churning butter, feet in a wash bin, a tombstone (7:08). Writing with a quill pen. A printing press. Advertising evolves in newspapers and magazines (7:33). Rendering of two heads: “manufacturer” and “consumer” (8:53). “Distributor” and “salesman” heads. A lens labeled “advertising” focuses (9:11). Magazine and newspaper advertisements are examined. Fade to an appliance store and cash register, piles of ads (9:35). An advertising agency reviewing print layouts, artist’s sketches (10:59). A clean glass is removed from a top-loading dishwasher. Ironing and stoves from manufacturing to showroom (11:28). A man typing on a manual typewriter. Fade to ads and a woman typing while a man dictates (12:24). Reading by lamplight, using a telephone, driving a car, car advertisements (13:09). A crowd of skeptics with crossed arms. A man speaks into radio microphones (13:58). The skull returns, along with the cavemen (14:21). A woman modeling nylon pantyhose before a mirror. Another takes a photo with a medium format camera. A refrigerator, an early television, a candlelit dinner, a woman sniffing perfume. Another mysterious skull (15:17). A grey men’s suit with wide lapels and branded canned goods (16:18). Scenes of heavy industry and shipping (17:08). Outhouses, a well water pump, a spinning wheel. Butter churns replaced by modern machinery (17:40). A 16mm projector screens a film before a small audience (18:37). A neon sign: “Fly DC-6 Douglas” (18:51). Women working in a textile mill. A boy takes an apple. A woman modeling a swimsuit, factory workers. A roast is removed from an oven (19:07). Oil wells and a Shell gas pump. Aluminum and a pan of eggs (19:56). A “nuclear” family at a kitchen table (20:21). Signs: “CBS, Coca-Cola, NBC, Super Chief to Chicago, ABC” (20:30). Scenes of scientific research (20:42). The animation process behind the film’s opening shot is revealed by hands moving animation cells on a drafting table (21:18). End credits (21:30).

Complete Record: Sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, this highly optimistic, 1952 full color animation/live-action hybrid film presents the USA in the forefront of the world. It examines the medium of advertising as “the magic key” to continued American economic prosperity in the post-war era, suggesting a relationship between ads and modern refinements to household appliances (TRT 21:54). It was produced by the Raphael G. Wolff Studios. Animated searchlights over a city skyline. Opening credits (0:26). A painterly interstellar atmosphere. Comets, stars and planets with towers and craters (0:44). Earth appears (1:08). A man and woman cast shadows on a stone wall. A man with a scythe. Classical architecture (1:20). Stone doric columns crumble and fall (1:32). A surreal landscape of ancient ruins (1:44). A hand with a signet ring stamps a wax seal. A man in chainmail swings a sword. An axe followed by a skull (1:46). Crossfade to live-action footage of a medieval helmet being forged with an anvil and hammer (2:11). Illustration of an Egyptian charioteer with bow and arrow. A horse-drawn buggy (2:24). Animation of primitive man piling rocks, chopping wood. Cut to live action city skyscrapers, 1940s cars and freeways (2:37). A polished internal combustion engine (3:11). Children play on the sidewalks of suburban housing. A man struggling to read by fire. A college student with a lamp (3:14). A hydroelectric plant (3:24). Bustling crowds of people on the move, tractors, oil derricks, melted ore (3:58). Sheet metal is stamped. Fade to a train, switchboards, cars with whitewall tires (4:27). A downtown theater district with marquees (5:09). Montage: Men in hard hats. A woman’s leg. A garbage disposal. Trying on a ballgown. A steaming locomotive (5:15). Earth at a distance zooms into a cartoon man at a potter’s wheel (5:37). The potter’s creation is exchanged for a gold coin. A hand takes his money and presents a receipt for “taxes paid.” The shop becomes cobwebbed (6:08). A sign is hung in the shape of a tea kettle, setting a trend (6:50). Montage of weaving at a loom, a diamond shoe buckle, churning butter, feet in a wash bin, a tombstone (7:08). Writing with a quill pen. A printing press. Advertising evolves in newspapers and magazines (7:33). Rendering of two heads: “manufacturer” and “consumer” (8:53). “Distributor” and “salesman” heads. A lens labeled “advertising” focuses (9:11). Magazine and newspaper advertisements are examined. Fade to an appliance store and cash register, piles of ads (9:35). An advertising agency reviewing print layouts, artist’s sketches (10:59). A clean glass is removed from a top-loading dishwasher. Ironing and stoves from manufacturing to showroom (11:28). A man typing on a manual typewriter. Fade to ads and a woman typing while a man dictates (12:24). Reading by lamplight, using a telephone, driving a car, car advertisements (13:09). A crowd of skeptics with crossed arms. A man speaks into radio microphones (13:58). The skull returns, along with the cavemen (14:21). A woman modeling nylon pantyhose before a mirror. Another takes a photo with a medium format camera. A refrigerator, an early television, a candlelit dinner, a woman sniffing perfume. Another mysterious skull (15:17). A grey men’s suit with wide lapels and branded canned goods (16:18). Scenes of heavy industry and shipping (17:08). Outhouses, a well water pump, a spinning wheel. Butter churns replaced by modern machinery (17:40). A 16mm projector screens a film before a small audience (18:37). A neon sign: “Fly DC-6 Douglas” (18:51). Women working in a textile mill. A boy takes an apple. A woman modeling a swimsuit, factory workers. A roast is removed from an oven (19:07). Oil wells and a Shell gas pump. Aluminum and a pan of eggs (19:56). A “nuclear” family at a kitchen table (20:21). Signs: “CBS, Coca-Cola, NBC, Super Chief to Chicago, ABC” (20:30). Scenes of scientific research (20:42). The animation process behind the film’s opening shot is revealed by hands moving animation cells on a drafting table (21:18). End credits (21:30).

Transcription

[Music] me [Music] so you know they say that the best way to really see a thing to get a good perspective is to stand off and look at it from a distance so for the moment we'll get out into space to the fringes of the solar system if you were an impartial observer who could exist in all time from its beginnings you'd see one small body in the endless galaxies of planets unique in all the universe this would be earth the place where the phenomenon of life was brought about now if you could watch earth's show like a vast pantomime throughout the ages of her history what age of man would overshadow all the rest bear this in mind you'd see great empires rise only to fall and dissolve again in dust you'd see worked out the schemes of kings and statesmen men conquering men men conquering the stubborn land men who wrote their names only on the wind others who wrote in stone one thing you would note how little real change there was from age to age look in on some early century and find that metal was shaped by sweat under a man's hammer then a millennium goes by and the anvil is still the factory in old rome or egypt the wheel covers the ground no faster than a horse can run after 3 000 years the horse-drawn buggy is a chariot still you watch this pageant go on designs and backgrounds merge and change but the basic life pattern is familiar from century to century then quite suddenly in the space of a heartbeat as history is reckoned the world is changed cities vault into the sky veins and arteries of concrete race out over the land to make neighborhoods of nations space and time slough off their age-old bulk and months and days are compressed into hours by internal combustion engines people by millions live in magic homes night is no longer dark if man wills it to be day like a strong white light this age of sudden progress comes into focus on the western hemisphere the last land mass to know the presence and work of civilized man what was it put this nation america in the forefront other nations have more people other nations have more land more square leagues of space other nations are as well or better endowed with stores of raw materials then it was not size or wealth of life and earth alone america was rich in people rich in land rich in natural resources and rich also in the immeasurable resources of human ingenuity here there were developed mass production and mass distribution materialistic they tell us yet these two agencies made it possible to take raw material from the earth to melt it press it into products that would make living better than it was before then put those products into the hands and homes of anyone in the land wherever they might be this was the system that made it possible to toss a human voice 25 000 miles or go from one end of the earth to the other by way of the clouds this is the system that made it possible to roll on the congeal juices of a tropical tree sped by energy stored in devious pockets of the planet a million years ago when you start to think about it this system is a mighty force but by what medium was it so suddenly set in motion what made the earth yield up substances for a lady's hoshery for garbage disposals for high fashion guns for locomotives what was it set the machinery in motion to extrude a whole new concept of living well as a special observer you may leaf back through the forgotten pages of the book to find the beginnings of the answer the first shape of the magic key it started a way back in the days when men first began to get things organized the trouble was there was a pattern that was hard to change for example there was once a potter he had learned that clay from the riverbank could be shaped on a wheel into vessels that could be used for cooking and everything else that pots are good for it was the beginning of the division of labor and of industry the potter made pots and sold them he exchanged his work for the work of others through the medium of money with which he could buy things pay taxes and so forth people had to have parts and they passed the news by word of mouth but finally the neighborhood market was saturated he had to find a way to tell more people about his pots nobody could read but they could understand a sign the sign of the pot so business picked up again everything else was sold the same way from gloves to butcher knives and the pattern was established a business was known as far as you could see the sign [Music] things didn't change much from one century to the next and men went on fabricating the goods of civilization by hand life was slow and simple and not as good as it looks from here the science of medicine was still in the barber shop the cemeteries were full of young folks and few families raised all the babies born to them [Music] along about this time someone picked up the magic key and hefted it in his hand the key that was to unlock the future it was a man with goods for sale and he realized he had news he also realized that he ought to reach more people than would ever see the sign over his door because it was news he decided that the logical place for his message was the newspaper he bought space in the public prince and told his story in type in effect he hung his sign where a good many hundreds or thousands would see it all at once he didn't know it but he had set in motion the greatest force for change and improvement that the world had ever seen [Music] it was the beginning of the program that was to bring refinements of life to all refinement far beyond the once great luxuries of kings at last the advertising idea had come advertising which was simply a way of spreading the news about new things for a better way of life the idea is basically simple the man who makes the goods has the information on how those goods will improve life for the consumer information that will encourage desire and realization of the need for new and better products between these two are the distributors and salesmen as the manufacturer projects his information through the distributor and salesman a lot of it may be deflected absorbed or scattered now advertising created by trained advertising people is a powerful lens that directs and concentrates the information the news of an improved way of life as you and i receive this information we realize our desire and need for the products that take us up step by step to higher and higher living standards we are encouraged to buy and have thereby set in motion the chain reaction that creates progress here's how it works as we buy others receive money as wages and they in turn are unable to purchase the goods and services we help to produce all goods and services are advertised in one way or another and a large part of the jobs of all of us today have been created through advertising the steel mill worker produces a raw commodity news of his work his product goes out to industry in general through industrial advertising manufacturing companies buy the steel to enable another group of workers to fabricate consumer goods news of these goods is spread where all of us will see it or the steel may become beams for a building to house a company that sells life insurance this company dramatizes our need for life insurance through advertising it's as simple as this money comes to us to buy the work of others largely because advertising men and women from new york to los angeles are sweating out ways of showing why americans everywhere need the things their fellow americans helped to produce upon this structure of reciprocation rests the foundation of the civilization of today the increasingly better world of the years ahead but we don't have to wait for years advertising is constantly bringing us news about great things that only yesterday were undreamed of it tells us also of almost daily improvements on things we have always been familiar with a thing like a cook stove could constantly be made better and as the advertising idea became more widespread news of the changes sold the improved product by breaking down resistance to change here was a new idea developed through advertising people were encouraged to buy improved things like ranges for example long before the old ones wore out here were jobs created by advertising because there was an increased demand more people were employed making ranges more people were employed in transporting and selling them of course cook stoves had been in use for some time they were a familiar item but let's see about the typewriter typewriters of a sort had been worked on a long time before they came into general use but there was no way of convincing people that this system of writing was better there was no one to spread the news and dramatize its advantages business houses prided themselves on handwritten communications a machine written letter was unthinkable through advertising salesmanship the resistance to change was broken down businessmen were persuaded to try the typewriter and it became accepted as an integral part of all business if you read by electric lights if you use the telephone if you ride in an automobile the magic key has improved your way of life because all these things gained general acceptance and were unable to grow because of advertising yes the advertising idea has truly written copy that fills the most vibrant pages of history and has lifted the nation that has been its greatest exponent to heights undreamed of a century ago yet many of the people it benefits most question its value they say must we be persuaded to buy they say are advertising and selling persuasion really necessary they are all too eager to listen to new theories and utopian schemes i say we would be a lot better off with a planned economy and production for use a planned economy as a matter of fact and production for use are they so new and revolutionary after all remember the people who wrote their names only on the wind the lost races of the world let's hear what they had to say most of them had planned economies and production for use yes we had production for use [Music] when a club wore out we produced a new one for use when the deerskin wine cloth wore out we produced a new one for use you asked where is progress in this economy anything that changes the pattern doesn't belong forget it yes where is progress in the shape of the cotton skirt that should be replacing the loin cloth where is progress in nylon hosiery where are all the things that never could be invented under a planned economy things like cameras refrigerators where are the typewriters the television sets where are the refinements that make living an adventure where are refinements like chanel number five for the convertible with white sidewall tires no there was no place for progress here only production for use and it excluded ventures into new fields it excluded dreams so these are names written only on the wind a wind that blew and died a long time ago all right my friend you who would throw out the system that has made this the greatest age in history chances are you are wearing a nationally advertised suit and your shirt is another advertised product your shoes your eyeglasses the toothpaste you use the preparations you take when you're not feeling up to par the food you eat all advertised products all advertised brand names you typed your speech on a machine you first read about in the classified columns the car you drive you saw for the first time as an ad in a magazine only through the system which you wish to destroy are you able to enjoy these things at all the system that has given us the full flower of mass production mass distribution and mass selling and advertising is the driving force behind it all yes advertising too often taken for granted helped save america and her friends in war by preparing her as the greatest plant for the production of goods that the world has ever seen he prepared america also for her role as the greatest nation on earth and it has cost us only those things it has taken away from us it has cost us things like the old well and the pump it has cost us the hard way of doing everything the tough core of inconvenience and drudgery that lay just below the surface in all the seeming gracious living in the past maybe those people of other days sometimes dreamed of a bright future when things would be better you and i are more fortunate for us that great future is here today news of the things that will make life better are around you everywhere in the pages of your magazine in the newspaper you read news of your future hangs on your wall it is pictured in catalogs it comes to you by mail it comes to you by air it takes form in front of television cameras it demonstrates itself on the motion picture screen this news this advertising let you know about the better way of life in store for you about the exciting tomorrow you can have today about a future that is available now it tells what people you will never meet are doing for your future it tells what you are doing for this through advertising and salesmanship the textile mill workers in alabama are making clothes for kids in kansas bathing suits for girls in florida the refrigerator workmen in grand rapids are preserving foods for people in louisiana or virginia or wyoming the automobile worker in detroit is producing freedom of movement and new horizons for people from maine to oregon the electric generator builder in schenectady is turning out light to see buy and heat to cook with for families everywhere you may never clasp the hands that control the machine on which the shoes you are wearing were made you may never pass the time of day with the cow poke the road herd on the stake you'll eat for dinner they will always remain unknown the men who drilled the well and brought up the crude oil that became gasoline for the car you will drive away in you may never know the names of the faces of the aluminum workers who produce the metal for the skillet your breakfast eggs are fried in or the gang who fell the trees and ran the saw that cut the rafters for the roof over your head but advertising brought you together on the common ground of the things you use and own the food you eat the house you live in word of what everyone in the nation is producing for everyone else is common knowledge through advertising the news of new things for better living we saw the time when human progress crept along on slow wheels but here today every minute of every hour there is a whole new world in construction because the goods they dreamed up yesterday are being advertised the research men have been on new dreams today and there shall be no blackout of ideas no end to adventures of invention adventures of achievement men and women will be working for and not against one another each enjoying the fruits of the others labor as long as the principle and processes of advertising can grow and develop to light the way [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

1 user has this film:
Periscope Film

No related films.

Original permalink · Record added: 2025-01-23 17:19:48