To Market, To Market
To Market, To Market is a short film from 1942 released on 16mm. It is held in the Prelinger Archives collection.
This film begins with a B&W sequence (19:55 long) and ends with a color sequence of Chicago city streets with billboards and outdoor advertising "poster panels." (4:35). This shot list relates only to the color sequence that ends the film.
06:30:45:01 LS 2 people walking down street, they get into car, car drives away CU 2 billboards side by side - MONARCH BEER & STAR (?) Camera pans to road full of moving cars Camera pans toward billboard- SUNKIST, A BIG GLASS DAILY and then 2 more billboards of SCHLITZ BEER & WRIGLEY GUM Camera pans quickly to highway, then boulevard. Camera pans billboards - HEINZ, Frozen Foods awning, RICE KRISPIES, SWAN, DREWRY'S
06:31:48:20 VS BUSES AND TROLLEYS: Greyhound, City Buses, Trolley MLS Billboard - PIPER'S DONUTS Camera pans with moving red bus as it passes billboards - 7UP People at train platform, VS moving trains VS Billboards - CAMEL'S, AUNT JEMIMA, DEL MONTE
06:32:33:26 MLS Man walking down street MLS Old A&P Food Store Front Billboard - SWIFT'S PREMIUM, DIAMOND WALNUTS, GOOD LUCK MARGARINE Ext. night: MLS Movie Theatre Marquee - PARADISE 2 Hits Daily; camera pans to billboard: IT'S SHOWTIME (advertising the Balaban and Katz theater chain) MCU Neon BOWLING sign, camera pans to billboard of RICHELIEU foods Billboard MARVELS cigarettes : Billboard HEINZ ketchup Man putting gas in car, in background billboard for TREK
06:33:16:11 Camera pans up to OLD COLONY billboard Aerial shot of people walking in front of bldg. Billboard 7-UP, HELLMANN'S mayonnaise MCU Men putting up last strips of HELLMANN'S mayonnaise poster panel MCU green bus passing by 2 posters
06:33:53:01 MCU man standing in front of SCHLITZ billboard MLS man standing at street curb as cars whiz by B'boards - CADILLAC, VS men putting up new billboard Camera pans to busy road, b'board LS COCA COLA, Trolley car rides by in front of billboard. Crowded city sidewalk, many pedestrians
06:35:20:02 "THE END" billboard is being pasted up; this functions as the end title of the film and says "A Jam Handy Picture"
KS sez: The last reel of this film is its high point, as the stock changes from b&w to color (much as in Looking Ahead Through Rohm & Haas Plexiglas) and we are taken on a whirlwind tour of wartime Chicago billboards. These "scientifically placed poster panels" are "strategic power plants designed to generate consumer acceptance for American industrial products." Billboard after billboard of forgotten products -- such as Trek detergent and Old Colony whiskey ("products necessary to daily living") -- are shown in their natural streetside surroundings. The narrator refers to children as "potential consumers" (see Education Is Good Business) but the youngsters don't seem to pay any more attention to the billboards than their munition-factory-bound parents. 1942 was not a good year to be hawking consumer goods.
worth noting: Good shot of a Sunkist billboard in Chicago. It stands by tall row houses in what looks like a working class neighborhood. The camera moves towards it quickly. (6:31:21:25- 6:31:25:21)
worth noting: The camera focuses on two billboards lying next to each other, the first a Schlitz as and the second Wrigley's chewing gum. The billboards look as though they are located in poorer neighborhoods-? (we see tall apartment buildings behind them), and placed "strategically" for the cars driving on the larger streets of Chicago to better neighborhoods (?). The camera swings from the billboards to the traffic moving along the "Outer Drive." (6:31:25:22- 6:31:32:15)
� 6:31:32:19- 6:31:45:12 Series of shots of cars going by billboards in various areas of Chicago. First we view cars moving down "the pleasant boulevards to the suburban neighborhoods." They pass by a billboard with a pie on it. Next cars go through an "immense industrial center" where they pass a Heinz Ketchup billboard. Finally, we see people walking by a Rice Crispies and a Swan billboard in a busy market area.
� 6:32:00:12- 6:32:11:14 Two good images�first is a street car moving along a Chicago boulevard. Behind it is a very large Reebie (?) billboard which stands in front of a tall building, and they pass two more billboards one of which is for Piper's Donuts. Cut to a red bus moving along a busy road (not downtown�looks like it's leading to suburbs) by a 7-UP billboard and what looks like a hot dog billboard.
� 6:32:27:13- 6:32:39:27 First the camera holds on a colorful Del Monte billboard (or as the narrator says, "poster panel"). It then swings to the left to show two women walking along the sidewalk with a baby carriage, cars driving by, and finally shoppers walking along the other side of the road (which is busy and lined with shops).
� 6:33:11:00- 6:33:23:11 Very interesting shot of factory workers leaving for the day and walking out into an industrial neighborhood in Chicago. The camera moves from the crowd of men to the two billboards "strategically" (more like shamelessly) located directly outside their workplace. One is for Old Colony (beer-?) and the other is for Budweiser. Obvious target�beer and blue collar workers.
� 6:33:23:12- 6:33:36:19 More obvious targets. First we have an overview of school children and mothers leaving school for the day. Cut to many of them waiting at a corner to cross. Behind them is a 7-UP ad with cartoons of children on it. The narrator shamelessly describes these "potential consumers." Several children on the corner glance briefly at the camera.
� 6:34:44:18- 6:35:04:12 Nice image of a busy Chicago street. Natty dressers (women in furs and men in hats) quickly walk by the camera. Out of the dozens of people walking by, there is one African-American woman who is
looking down as she walks.| To Market, To Market | |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Handy (Jam) Organization |
Production company | Handy (Jam) Organization |
| Distributed by | Handy (Jam) Organization |
Release date | 1942 |
Running time | 24:40 |
| Language | English |
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