Monday, October 16, 2006

Retro Retail Video - American Thrift


American Thrift (1962)

Yet another groovy old Jam Handy educational/industrial public domain film I found over at the The Internet Archive years ago. I present it here now, for your handy enjoyment.

The synopsis on this one said: "Expansive tribute to the 'Woman American', her thrifty purchasing habits, and the American system of mass production."

And while the film meanders a lot, there are some great shots peppered throughout, of not only vintage Suburbia, but also some nice shopping center and grocery store interiors too (the scene I screengrabbed at left actually looks like Lenox Square to me).

This video is 26 minutes long, so grab a cup of coffee and settle in. One reviewer summed this video up by saying:
"This film is a wonderful slice of idealized early '60s middle-class life, complete with spotless homes, perfect families, people dressing up for church, women and girls wearing little white gloves when they go shopping."
Note: the quality is decidedly low-fi here, because I had to really crunch the file down (I don't like two-parters) to bring it in line with the typical 100mb size limit Google (and all the video hosting sites) enforce, so please bear that in mind.

3 comments:

  1. Keith, too cool. Thanks as always, great job

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  2. Wow! Love this video!!!

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  3. Loved the mall and fashion scenes. My co-workers laughed at the outlandishness of the housewife tasks.

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