LIFESTYLES USA Volume 6

This sixth volume of red-white-&-blue Americana takes us from countryside to chemical plants and from picking cotton to selling Pontiacs. Put it all together and it spells U.S.A.!
THE RIVER (1937, b&w), "a U.S. Documentary Film" made by the Farm Security Administration of the U.S.D.A., is "a record of the Mississippi: what it has meant to us - and what it has cost us." It’s that last phrase that provides the kick here. After lulling us into nostalgic serenity with lyrical shots of steamboats, cotton picking, and chopping down trees, it all goes bad. With a quarter century’s worth of eroded soil, and decimated forests, there’s nothing to absorb the rainwater that keeps running into and engorging the Mississippi until that old man river, it keeps on overflowing and a thousand acres of farms, homes, and towns are wiped out in some shocking flood footage that even includes a particularly disorienting shot of a house perched upside down in the mud! All of which is an explanation for why the Tennessee Valley Authority butts in. The first billed of the three photographers listed in the opening credits is FLOYD CROSBY, Roger Corman’s favorite cinematographer, whose amazing career ranged from the 1931 documentary "Tabu" through "Attack of the Crab Monsters" and "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini"!
DECISION FOR CHEMISTRY (1956,b&w) somehow or other equates boys’ love of choo choo trains with -- are you ready? -- the chemical industry. Freight trains pull into Small Town USA and boys get all misty eyed. Why? Because "the air is perfumed with diesel smoke." A boy looks wistfully at a train carrying a tank of Ortho-Nitrochlorobenzene and his little heart goes pitter-pat which segues into chemists happy at work with their beakers and Bunsen burners, the development of Skydrol hydraulic fluid (hooray!), and a press conference for good ol’ Krilium Soil conditioner (whoopee!). There’s also footage of a phosphorus plant at night which must be exactly what Hell looks like, and the narrator even waxes poetic over a giant chemical plant -- "The chemical engineers wrote their shorthand notes in steel against the sky!" -- which anyone else would consider urban blight. Inexplicably, it all ends with young boys splashing in the local swimming hole. Music by ALEX NORTH who went on to score "Spartacus", "Prizzis Honor", and "Shanks".
ONE-TWO PUNCH (1954, b&w) claims to be a "Report on Mileage and Money Savings with The General Truck Tire" but it’s just a big fancy commercial for truck drivers: "Call it Tire Science!" Then two "Training Programs for Retail Salesmen," MEN OF PONTIAC and LOCATING PROSPECTS (both 1952,b&w), find pleasant, soft-spoken salesmen explaining why working for Pontiac is better than going to Heaven and how their entire goal in life is to separate cash from their neighbor’s wallets. Both shorts are part I of a series called appropriately enough, Destination "Dotted Line."
Finally, MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE (1947, b&w) finds marriage "a richly rewarding experience," family men more "emotionally stable than bachelors," and even interviews a female doctor who blames America’s soaring divorce rate on annoying wives who also try to have careers. We assume she lives alone.

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Thank you!!

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My uncle Leo was a teamster driver in Detroit….had a big rig recap tire blow out on the Lodge freeway….all that was left was his gold teeth🙀

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00:00:00 - 00:00:19 Intro
00:00:19 - 00:30:31 The River (Western Electric)
00:30:32 - 01:06:48 Decision for Chemistry (Monsanto Chemical Company / MPO Productions)
01:06:49 - 01:19:33 One-Two Punch (General Truck Tire / Kraft System Recapping)
01:19:33 - 01:40:12 Destination Dotted Line: Men of Pontiac (Pontiac Motor Division of General Motors Corp)
01:40:13 - 01:54:20 Marriage and Divorce (Uncredited Production Company)