Round and Round (Widgets)
Round and Round (Widgets) is a short film from 1939 released on 35mm/16mm. It is held in the Prelinger Archives collection.
'Round and 'Round is voodoo economics at its best. Even if we accept its dramatization of the market economy at face value, how can we explain its remarkable failure to explain the basis of it all: the profit motive? In fact, profit is never mentioned in this film, and economic activity -- widget-making -- is the activity of a gang of dim-witted puppets who don t even dare to admit their selfishness.
Round and Round was an institutional film produced by Jam Handy for the General Motors Department of Public Relations. The impetus for its making probably came from then-president of G.M., Alfred P. Sloan, who supported free-enterprise education while he headed G.M. and later through his own Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Its theme is consistent with other, similar films produced during the thirties at General Motors, like From Dawn To Sunset (1937), in which workers are portrayed, not as a class with specific interests and an agenda of their own, but rather as producers and consumers, with a major stake in the circularity of the economic process. If the wheels of production are to continue turning, 'Round and 'Round states, we must all willingly accept our codependence. The question asked at the end ( Don t you think so? ) leaves little room for other views.
14:26:55:02 CU toy music box with spinning top and illustration of clown and musical notes on it; dissolves to pan over various toys, tin car, little teddy bear, ceramic toy man, train set, alphabet blocks ending at a toy factory with toy workers inside
14:27:22:07 VS great footage of stop-motion animation with toy workers working in a factory; worker produces Widgets little metal cubes with W stamps on them
14:28:13:29 Stop-motion animation of toy workman carrying a box out of the factory, sign on outside of factory reads Widgets For Sale ; VS toy farmer buys widget from worker outside of factory; coal miner toy comes to factory to buy widget; various toys come to factory to buy widgets, the steel manufacturer, the lumberman
14:29:40:18 - 14:32:16:23 Stop-motion animation VS factory workman toy carries money into factory and pays the other factory workers; workman walks out back of factory passing beneath sign that reads Raw Material Wanted ; toy farmer brings huge stack of cotton; widget workman buys coal, steel and lumber from two other toys; VS widget workers in factory producing and selling widgets.
14:32:18:15 CU music box with spinning top, illustration of clown and musical notes on toy.| Round and Round (Widgets) | |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Handy (Jam) Organization |
Production company | Handy (Jam) Organization |
| Distributed by | Handy (Jam) Organization |
Release date | 1939 |
Running time | 5:53 |
| Language | English |
- Thumbnail
