They Grow Up So Fast

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They Grow Up So Fast is a short film from 1956 released on 16mm. It is held in the Prelinger Archives collection.

On the importance of physical education and recreation for children.

19:01:10:28 pan up yardstick beginning with the height of Joannie marked on the yardstick at three years old, then to Paul at 10.

19:01:57:16 Classic 1950s house. Blonde girl in red dress comes downstairs singing “All around the mulberry bush, pop goes the weasel.” Cut to her mother, classic 1950s housewife, working in the kitchen excitedly waiting her daughters downstairs arrival. Mother and daughter meet at the foot of the stairs “Goodbye Mom” “Goodbye dear. Come right home after school now”

19:02:15:04 Mother says goodbye to children as they leave for school and to husband as he leaves for work. From affectionately seeing her daughter Joannie off, her son Paul comes rushing down the stairs with a tennis racket in hand. She quickly looks up the stairs tracing him with her eyes as he rushes out the door “Oh Paul what time will you be home?” “Late. Tennis today. Goodbye.” Mother follows her son just outside the door of the house to watch her children head out to school. Her husband steps out the door in 1950s suit, blue shirt, red tie, hat and notebook in hand and approaches his wife who worriedly looks on into the distance. As he lovingly places his arm around “Don’t fret dear, they’re just growing up” “Oh I wasn’t fretting, just thinking. Now what time will you be home?” “Six as usual” and jokingly as he kisses his wife on the forehead, “I don’t have a thing to do after school.”

19:02:52:02 CU wife standing outside the door of her house after her kids and husband have left the house. The audio track takes on the voice inside her head “Just thinking…that they are growing up so fast. It used to be they were mine, all day long. But now, school. It seems I hardly see them anymore. Still when school is the right kind of a place, it’s such a pleasure to watch them go.” The voice inside her head becomes the narration to a classic shot of Joannie skipping to school on the sidewalk with her brunette friend to her blonde, books under their arms.

19:03:29:28 LS two young female elementary schoolteachers, one redhead the other brunette in a pink sweater and blue bandanna around her neck holding a volleyball, are talking in the halls when Joanni and her friend (two young school girls) approach them.

19:03:51:08 Middle aged teacher in a classroom talking to a table of her students with a pineapple in the center. The teacher hands a potato to young boy with glasses and dark hair.

19:04:11:21 VS classic footage of schoolchildren running and playing outside in the schoolyard during a recess as a teacher in a yellow sweater supervises the kids.

19:04:30:20 CU pan down of measurements along the edge of a wall (growth marks) to mark the height of the children.

19:04:39:18 Paul, a young boy says goodbye to his mother, looking lethargic and sad, as he descends the stairs on his way out the door. “Goodbye mom” “Paul, you’ve forgotten your shoes again, here” CU “Okay Mom” as she kisses him on the head and he sadly looks away; “Have a nice day dear.”

19:04:53:28 CU of concerned Mother watches her son walk out the door, she sighs; LS of her walking back to the kitchen.

19:05:00:02 Classic 1950s footage of concerned parents over the breakfast table. The husband sits at the table and reads the paper, then is joined by the mother in her apron. VS during dialogue between husband and wife at the kitchen table both in CU and MS: “I don’t know what is wrong with that boy” “Now don’t start worrying about Paul, he’s coming along fine” “No He isn’t; he doesn’t seem to take an interest in things” “What things!”

“Well you know last night he asked me again to give him an excuse from gym class at school” 

“So did you?” “You know I didn’t. The doctor told me last week there is nothing wrong with him” “Of course there isn’t, you should see the arm he’s got, I was watching him Saturday morning pegging stones at a tin can”

“Yes, but by himself; that’s no way for a growing boy, he needs…well I don’t know something’s mixed up” “Oh forget it Helen, Paul’s still a child, he’ll come along alright, he’s got all the time in the world.”

19:05:54:21 Paul, a ten year old boy, solemnly walking down a sidewalk toward the camera as he drags his hand along a white picket fence on the right and carries a pair of sneakers by the laces in his right. His mother’s voice narrates “He seemed to be turning into himself for satisfaction he should have been getting with others.”

19:06:10:09 CU boy in red flannel shirt looking somber and uncertain of himself cross-cut with an empty field he is looking out into

19:07:12:17 Boy playing alone on the monkey bars. Great MS of boy struggling to do a pull-up.

19:07:45:03 VS boy playing alone on jungle gym, struggling to make it across the bars. Strange audio of a voice inside the boys consciousness instructing him “I’ll show you how, now swing your feet, that’s right, let go and breath, let go and breath, let go and breath, let go and breath…”

19:08:27:27 Boy walks, head down, along the sidewalk passing a mailman who pats him on the head. MS mailman nodding his head in disapproval of the boys negative disposition.

19:08:39:09 VS of a man in suit passionately addressing a Parent-Teachers Association (PTA) meeting. American flag in the back corner of a classroom. Great shots of the back and forth between the meeting leader and audience. Man in the crowd gives an impassioned rebuttal.

19:09:40:03 Boy walks on tree-shaded sidewalk, briefly hesitates, then breaks into a sprint then turns away from the camera and runs into the school.

19:10:03:04 Wonderful MS camera pan from outside (in rainstorm) looking in at schoolchildren lined up along a window staring out into the storm. Bored and disappointed looks on nine childrens’ faces, many with one hand cradling their chin in a vacant but thoughtful pose.

19:11:12:03 A class of students (approximately 20) line up in front of the gym teacher in the school gym as she announces that the class will play dodgeball. The teacher selects team captains and the students excitedly wave their hands vying for attention, trying to get picked. Rude child who is picked first tells Paul, the antisocial kid to “Get out of the way!”

19:11:35:01 CU blonde freckled boy, face down, looking dejected , looks up with an expression of rejection after not being picked in the dodgeball game along with three other classmates, one boy and two girls. The kids turn their backs to the camera and line up along the wall of the gym. One boy, shoes dangling in his right hands slips out of the gym.

19:12:19:19 MS Boy opens an already partially cracked door and stops a moment in the doorway. He looks upset and hurt; CU boy’s hand clenching the laces he is holding his shoes by; MS boy angrily throws his sneakers into trash can. CU one shoe in the trash the other dangling outside of the trash can.

19:12:41:15 CU school principle dangling boys shoes over his desk. GS principal behind his desk dangling the high-top sneakers by their laces talking to boys parents. American flag in the back corner of the office.

19:12:46:06 VS concerned mother speaking of her child: “Well I have had a feeling that something was wrong, they way Paul has been going off by himself. And those shoes, always forgetting them. Paul isn’t a stupid child” (while shaking her head).

19:14:39:24 Nice pan over seated parent audience at school meeting then zooming out to include a man addressing the attentive audience.

19:15:30:00 Large group of men and woman in green and white tennis outfits receiving tennis instruction on one side of the court. All are simultaneously imitating the teacher’s forehand.

19:15:37:26 Cute little children outside climbing on the monkey bars and jungle gym of the playground supervised by a teacher with her back to the camera.

19:15:41:24 Gym teacher in all black giving a demonstration in the center of a half circle of teenage boys in gym or track clothes.

19:15:43:21 LS five boys diving into a handstand while five other boys catch them by their ankles and keep them upright standing on in their hands.

19:15:47:25 High-angle shot of boys playing soccer on a field.

19:15:50:26 Class of approximately 20 boys looks on as a gym teacher in a white t-shirt spots a strangely strong looking boy as he does a pull up.

19:15:57:23 Two teacher s, one in a red sweater and blue dress the other in black and grey point out each type of ball shelved on five row for a mixed gender class seated in a semicircle with their backs facing the camera.

19:16:20:11 VS of a PTA group of interested and attentive looking parents seated in chairs before a speaker. There is one vacant seat on the far left of the first row of chairs in the frame.

19:16:31:00 A large group of boys in track clothes clustered in a group across each lane of a track. A gym teach in all gray brings one boy before the group to bend over and demonstrate his starting block racing position.

19:16:39:18 Six girls, three in blue dresses and three in perform a strangely choreographed experimental expressionistic dance, leaping in the air, kicking their legs and throwing up their arms.

19:17:03:06 Woman helping a young boy along climb the monkey bars.

19:17:35:02 Pan up yardstick marking the kids’ growth over the years.

19:17:43:08 Typical shot of kids playing in the schoolyard on the asphalt.

19:17:54:13 Great shot of nine children, boys and girls, running away from the camera after entering from outside the frame, stopping then running back past the camera.

19:18:04:16 Group of boys and girls running in a circle inside of a gym.

19:18:09:07 Kids in a funny pose waddling along the floor in a crouch with their hands on their hips.

19:18:14:05 Boys in girls in pairs square-dancing together in gym.

19:18:19:17 Boys and girls bouncing balls in rows inside gym.

19:18:24:27 Great shot of eight boy-girl pairs running toward the camera holding hands then splitting up before reaching the camera and returning to the start of the line.

19:18:30:04 SQUARE-DANCING: Boys and girls in a gym in groups of four each joined by one hand in the air dancing in a circle.

19:18:42:05 Teenagers practicing slow dancing with their partners in the gym. Teacher interrupts one groups to move the boys hand further up the girl’s back.

19:18:55:02 High angle of girls in blue, pink and red dresses doing stretches following the lead of a teacher in baby blue.

19:18:56:10 Classic shot of kids playing on the jungle gym.

19:19:05:11 Mixed gender group of children in gym jumping 360 degrees simultaneously in rows then jumping up hands outstretched from a crouching position followed by a break dancing-like move walking in a circle with one hand planted.

19:19:28:23 A row of six children doing a somersault while another row behind them do handstands.

19:19:36:14 Boys in a line running toward the camera and jumping over a rope one by one followed by boys long jumping toward the camera.

19:19:59:03 Boys doing gymnastics in the gym followed by the girls separately doing various types of gymnastic in uniform.

19:20:08:27 LS boys in gym jumping on the trampoline and on the horse.

19:20:52:06 Kids playing volleyball indoors.

19:21:03:05 Boys playing football outdoors on a grass field.

19:21:09:10 Teenage girls playing softball.

19:21:18:27 Boys in two rows wearing red shorts and white t-shirts passing a ball down the row over their heads then between their legs.

19:21:52:24 Boys and girls in pair dribbling basketballs from three rows while holding hands.

19:22:07:01 Low-angle of girls in blue dresses line up in a long shooting arrows; archery.

19:22:18:15 Boys playing basketball in gym.

19:22:42:24 Four boys diving toward the camera into the pool at once then proceeding to swim toward the camera.

19:23:14:13 Girls in red bathing suits doing a synchronized swimming routine.

19:23:36:29 Long montage sequence of professional athletes beginning with woman doing backward high dive, sprinter running across finish line, Sox baseball player swinging bat, football play, gymnast on horse, tennis point, ice skate, bowling a strike, female left-handed golfer, badminton, archery, firing range, fishing.

19:24:44:22 Little girl in red dress runs toward camera along the sidewalk as a boy, her brother, chases behind her, tennis racket in hand.

They Grow Up So Fast
Produced by0
Production
company
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Release date
1956
LanguageEnglish
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ewid: 1092 | Fresh | || dopt: {{{dopt}}}

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