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Sponsored film

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Film genre

Sponsored film, or ephemeral film, as defined by film archivist Rick Prelinger, is a film made by a particular sponsor for a specific purpose other than as a work of art: the films were designed to serve a specific pragmatic purpose for a limited time.

A behind the camera look at the cast and crew filming the 1949 Sherwin-Williams Company sponsored film “Sell the Facts.”

Prelinger estimates that 300,000 industrial and institutional films were made in the U.S. – far more than theatrical films. Many of the films are orphan works since they lack copyright owners or active custodians to guarantee their long-term preservation. Sponsors often did not bother to register their productions with the copyright office.

Types of sponsored film

Films that fall under the sponsorship genre include industrial video or business films, industrial musicals, training films, advertising films, educational films, religious films, travelogues, medical and scientific films, government films, and advocacy films by social service organizations and/or trade organizations.

While some may borrow themes from well-known film genres such as western film, musicals, and comedies, what defines them is a sponsored rhetoric to achieve the sponsor's goals, rather than those of the creative artist.

Ronald Reagan and Fran Allison starred in “How will you rate in ’58?,” a General Electric dealer training film.
Prominent actors and other notables, including Basil Rathbone, recognized for his many portrayals of Sherlock Holmes, appeared in sponsored films.

Theatrical actors and other notables frequently appeared in sponsored films.

Sponsored films were usually loaned at no cost, except sometimes postage, to clubs, schools, and other groups. America's largest companies - AT&T, DuPont, Ford, General Electric, General Motors, Republic Steel, Standard Oil, and Westinghouse Electric Company - were for decades active sponsored film producers and distributors; others included airlines who offered travelogues on their destinations.

History

Sponsored films have been produced since the early years of the motion picture industry. Early sponsored films include Edison Studio's The Stenographer’s Friend (1910) or, What Was Accomplished by an Edison Business Phonograph; The Worcester Film Corporation's The Making of an American (1920)—a primer on how to be a good citizen—for the State of Connecticut Department of Americanization, and the Rothacker Film Manufacturing Company's The Heart of Cleveland (1924) for the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company.

The post-World War II period through the 1950s is considered the golden age of sponsored films. In that period, the sponsored film industry employed thousands and supported two long-running trade journals, Educational Screen (1922-1971) and Business Screen (1938-1982).

In the early years of commercial television, local television stations often used sponsored films as "filler" programming.

In the 1950s, almost every American city of any size had at least one sponsored film studio. Cleveland, Ohio, for example, was home to over a dozen sponsored film studios.

Theatrical film studios, including Walt Disney Pictures, produced sponsored films along with hundreds of studios that specialized in the genre.

Awards

The 1948 Cleveland Film Festival was the first American film festival dedicated to recognizing the importance of sponsored films. By 1956, dozens of cities and organizations were running sponsored film festivals, and the organizers of the Cleveland Film Festival stopped running the festival. Sponsored film festivals continued on but never regained their popularity or influence.

A number of sponsored films have been nominated for Academy Awards, and several have won Oscars, mainly in the Documentary Feature and Documentary Short categories.

Sponsored Films That Have Won an Academy Award

Film Title / Year Released/ Sponsor
A Time for Burning (1966). Sponsor: Lutheran Film Associates. Oscar for Best Documentary Feature (1967)
Benjy (film) (1951). Sponsor: Los Angeles Orthopaedic Hospital. Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject (1952)
Giuseppina (1959). Sponsor: British Petroleum Company. Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject (1959)
Skyscraper (1959). Sponsor: Tishman Realty & Construction Co.; Reynolds Metals Co.; Bethlehem Steel Co.; Westinghouse Elevator Co.; York Air Conditioning. Oscar for Best Live Action Short Subject (1959)
The House I Live In (1945). Sponsor: Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. Honorary Academy Award for director Mervyn LeRoy (1946)
The Redwoods (1967). Sponsor: Sierra Club. Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject (1967)
To Be Alive! (1964). Sponsor: S. C. Johnson & Son. Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject (1965)
Why Man Creates (1968). Sponsor: Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp. Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject (1968)
Wild Wings (1965). Sponsor: British Transport Films. Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject (1966)

At least a dozen sponsored films have been selected for the Library of Congress National Film Registry because they are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Sponsored Films Selected for the National Film Registry

Film Title / Year Released/ Sponsor/ Year Inducted
A Time for Burning (1966). Sponsor: Lutheran Film Associates. Inducted into the National Film Registry in 2005'
All My Babies: A Midwife's Own Story (1952. Sponsor: Georgia Dept. of Public Health. Inducted into the National Film Registry in 2002
Louisiana Story (1948). Sponsor: Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey. Inducted into the National Film Registry in 1994
Master Hands (1936). Sponsor: Chevrolet Motor Co. Inducted into the National Film Registry in 1999
Powers of Ten (1977). Sponsor: IBM Corp. Inducted into the National Film Registry in 1998
The City (1939). Sponsor: American Institute of Planners, through Civic Films Inc., with funding from Carnegie Corp. of New York. Inducted into the National Film Registry in 1998
The Forgotten Frontier (1931). Sponsor: Frontier Nursing Service Inc. Inducted into the National Film Registry in 1996
The House in the Middle (1954). Sponsors: National Paint, Varnish, and Lacquer Association; National Clean Up–Paint Up–Fix Up Bureau; Federal Civil Defense Administration. Inducted into the National Film Registry in 2001
The Making of an American (1920). Sponsor: Dept. of Americanization, State of Connecticut. Inducted into the National Film Registry in 2005
To Fly! (1976). Sponsor: Conoco Inc. Inducted into the National Film Registry in 1995
Westinghouse Works, 1904. Sponsor: Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co. Inducted into the National Film Registry in 1998
Why Man Creates (1968). Sponsor: Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp. Inducted into the National Film Registry in 2002

Significant collections of sponsored films exist in the Anthology Film Archives, A/V Geeks, George Eastman Museum, Hagley Museum and Library, The Museum of Modern Art, National Archives and Records Administration, Northeast Historic Film, the Orgone Archive, Prelinger Archives, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, UCLA Film & Television Archive, and the USC School of Cinematic Arts Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive.

See also


References

  1. EPHEMERA: The Prelinger Archives (March 2013 Edition) on Vimeo
  2. Prelinger, Rick (2006), The Field Guide to Sponsored Films, San Francisco, California: National Film Preservation Foundation, retrieved 10 July 2023
  3. "Online Field Guide to Sponsored Films". filmpreservation.org. National Film Preservation Foundation. Retrieved 15 January 2025.
  4. Prelinger, Rick (2006), The Field Guide to Sponsored Films, San Francisco, California: National Film Preservation Foundation, retrieved 10 July 2023
  5. Learning to Love Sponsored Films|Arts & Culture|Smithsonian
  6. Godfried, Nathan (2014). "Labor-Sponsored Film and Working-Class History: The Inheritance (1964)". Film History. 26 (4). Indiana University Press. doi:10.2979/filmhistory.26.4.84. JSTOR 10.2979/filmhistory.26.4.84.
  7. Jim, Dubelko. "Cinecraft Productions: The Historic Film Company Produced by a Love Srory". ClevelandHistorical.org. The Center for Public History + Digital Humanities at Cleveland State University. Retrieved 15 January 2025.
  8. Navigating the well-curated, deeply weird Sponsored Films online archive-The Verge
  9. "The Stenographer's Friend (1910)". filmpreservation.org. National Film Preservation Foundation. Retrieved 15 January 2025.
  10. "The Making of an American (1920)". filmpreservation.org/. National Film Preservation Foundation. Retrieved 15 January 2025.
  11. "The Heart of Cleveland". Hagley Digital Archive. Hagley Museum and Library. Retrieved 15 January 2025.
  12. "The Educational screen". Media History Digital Library. The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. Retrieved 15 January 2025.
  13. "Business Screen Magazine". Internet Archive. The Internet Archive. Retrieved 15 January 2025.
  14. "Business Screen Magazine". Hagley Digital Archive. Hagley Museum and Library. Retrieved 15 January 2025.
  15. "Sponsored Films". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Case Western Reserve University. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  16. From 1951 to 1973 Business Screen magazine listed U.S.-based sponsored film studios by city and region.
  17. Learning to Love Sponsored Films|Arts & Culture|Smithsonian
  18. Cleveland’s Film Festival Surprise Hit, Business Screen, 1948, vol 9 no 8 (December 1948), pg 26-27. https://digital.hagley.org/BusinessScreen_1948_V09_N08
  20. ^ Prelinger, Rick (2006), The Field Guide to Sponsored Films, San Francisco, California: National Film Preservation Foundation, retrieved 15 November 2024
  21. ^ "A Time for Burning". Internet Archive. The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit.
  22. "" SKYSCRAPER " CONSTRUCTION OF 666 5TH AVE. NEW YORK CITY". Internet Archive. The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  23. "The House I Live In". Internet Archive. The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  24. "The Redwoods". Internet Archives. The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  25. "To Be Alive! (1964)". National Film Preservation Foundation. National Film Preservation Foundation. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  26. "Why Man Creates (1968)". National Film Preservation Foundation. National Film Preservation Foundation. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  27. "Library of Congress: Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
  28. "All My Babies (1952)". National Film Preservation Foundation. National Film Preservation Foundation. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  29. "Internet Archive". Internet Archive. The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  30. "Master Hands (4K)". Internet Archives. The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  31. "City, The (Part I)". Internet Archive. The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  32. "The Forgotten Frontier (1931)". National Film Preservation Foundation. National Film Preservation Foundation. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  33. "The House in the Middle (1954)". National Film Preservation Foundation. National Film Preservation Foundation. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  34. "The making of an American". Library of Congress. Library of Congress. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  35. "To Fly!". Hagley Library Digital Archives. Hagley Museum and Library. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  36. "Inside an American Factory: Films of the Westinghouse Works, 1904". Library of Congress. Library of Congress. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  37. "Why Man Creates (1968)". National Film Preservation Foundation. National Film Preservation Foundation. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  38. "Sponsored Films". filmpreservation.org. National Film Preservation Foundation. Retrieved 15 January 2025.

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