The World's Largest Electrical Workshop
1938 film
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The World's Largest Electrical Workshop (1938), is a 30-minute, black and white, sound documentary film produced by Tri-State Pictures for General Electric. The film examines GE's research and manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Canada, highlights key GE inventors, and shows GE workers manufacturing a variety of products, including radios, refrigerators, televisions, and turbines.
company
| The World's Largest Electrical Workshop | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Ray Culley |
| Narrated by | Alois Havrilla |
| Cinematography | Robert Sable |
Production company | Tri-State Motion Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 30 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The film's entry in the 1946 Educational Film Guide describes the movie as providing "an intimate glimpse into America's largest electrical workshop".[1]
Background
An article in Business Screen indicates that "The World's Largest Electrical Workshop" was included in a 50-city 1939 GE appliance dealer/distributor program called "Get Over Into Clover."[2] The program included the movie and a professional stage show. Two full crews were hired to put on the program – one in the east and one in the west. Each crew had its own special Pullman car, baggage car, professional actors, stage sets, stage crew, and projection equipment.[3]
On January 27, 1939, the movie and stage show were presented to an audience of national trade and consumer magazine editors.[4]
"The World's Largest Electrical Workshop" was one of three GE-sponsored films on the benefits of electricity produced by Tri-State Motion Pictures[5] and coordinated by Fuller & Smith & Ross,[6] an advertising agency. The other two films were "From Now On" (1937), a five-reel movie showing how a newly married couple can build an electrified home on a limited budget,[7] and "Bill Howard R.F.D. " (1937). This "six-reel" motion picture shows how the advantages of electricity can benefit farmers.[8]
Synopsis
Alois Havrilla, the film's narrator, opens the movie saying: "The march is on the steady march of a new peacetime army, in the quest for a better way of living. Men, money, knowledge, research machines, visions carefully, painstakingly perfecting, which contribute to man's mastery of his destiny."
As a huge electrical storm wages outside, the film peers through a window to see a grandfather explaining electricity to his granddaughter.
In the section that follows, the film discusses the contributions of famous GE scientists.