On the Firing Line
On the Firing Line is a short film from ca. 1936 released on 16mm. It is held in the Prelinger Archives collection.
"All over this broad land of ours, a bitter war is being fought against tuberculosis. Able warriors, armed with modern weapons around the firing line. How goes the battle?" Showing the efforts being made by The National Tuberculosis Association, including their offices, sanitoriums, hospitals and on-the-road trailer clinics. An animation sequence with the years 1910, 1920, & 1935 uses urns to represent the number of deaths from tuberculosis. There are illustrations of crowds of people, labeled "white", and a pointer stick outlines the argument. Another animation sequence contrasts the death rate among Negroes and whites. A third animation sequence outlines the deaths from T.B. among industrial workers -- most deaths occurring from unskilled laborers. It emphasizes that tuberculosis is a national problem because, "no home is safe until every home is safe".
"There's another sore spot on the optimistic picture. Certain racial groups such as Negroes, Mexicans, and Indians suffer heavy losses from tuberculosis. The death rate among Negroes is three times as high as among Whites. Not only in the Southland, but also in the northern industrial centers. Poverty, bad housing and the depressed scale of living seem to be largely responsible."
details the progress in the fight against Tuberculosis by way of a railroad trip. The journey begins in Washington, DC when the National Tuberculosis Association was founded, and continues through New York City where the NTA has its headquarters), into the Adirondack mountains (birthplace of Edward Livingston Trudeau, the man who introduced the modern method of treating TB in America) and to California, where many victims and their families relocated on the presumption that the warm climate might cure them.
Posing interesting and still relevant statistics linking poverty to the disease as well as surprising breakdowns on the racial demographics of Tuberculosis victims, THE FIRING LINE also includes fascinating footage of early Sanitoria (treatment centers) and mobile health clinics.| On the Firing Line | |
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| Produced by | Courier Productions, Inc. |
Production companies | Courier Productions, Inc. |
| Distributed by | Courier Productions, Inc. |
Release date | ca. 1936 |
Running time | 19:13 |
| Language | English |
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