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Sometimes, in the days before instant classroom video, we would get a special treat: the teacher (or a smarmy kid) would thread up the projector and show us a film. Usually with some educational message, they usually lasted thirty minutes or less- just long enough to fill the classroom time.
Then there were filmstrips. Short slide show things with an audible "beep" that would tell the operator of the projector when to advance to the next slide to keep up with the pre-recorded narration track.
There were two films I have been remembering, and, thankfully, have found on YouTube. One is a Christmas one-reeler about a pine tree, too small and overshadowed by the tall pines to be of any account, that ends up being chopped down and dragged in to serve as a family Christmas tree. At the time, it seemed a pretty beautiful message about every person having value, no matter how small or insignificant they might seem during Red Rover at recess. Now it just plays as a poor tree hacked down to die in the weird performance of a human ritual. Christmas Rhapsody 1948:
[video=youtube_share;qdFrgvgPmmE]http://youtu.be/qdFrgvgPmmE"]http://youtu.be/qdFrgvgPmmE[/video]
Next is the story of a little boy who carves a figure of an Indian seated in a canoe and sends it on a treacherous journey to the sea. Less creepy, and I think we boys all begs for woodcarving knives after seeing it. Paddle to the Sea 1966:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olXmGz4iCxM&feature=youtu.be
The list of "Public Domain Shorts" at the bottom of this Wikipedia page gives a list of probable others: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RiffTrax
And then there were the films from later Health classes, shown to students divided up by sex, including this Disney film you've probably never seen. The Story of Menstruation 1946:
http://youtu.be/eLhld_PI2zg
Then there were filmstrips. Short slide show things with an audible "beep" that would tell the operator of the projector when to advance to the next slide to keep up with the pre-recorded narration track.
There were two films I have been remembering, and, thankfully, have found on YouTube. One is a Christmas one-reeler about a pine tree, too small and overshadowed by the tall pines to be of any account, that ends up being chopped down and dragged in to serve as a family Christmas tree. At the time, it seemed a pretty beautiful message about every person having value, no matter how small or insignificant they might seem during Red Rover at recess. Now it just plays as a poor tree hacked down to die in the weird performance of a human ritual. Christmas Rhapsody 1948:
[video=youtube_share;qdFrgvgPmmE]http://youtu.be/qdFrgvgPmmE"]http://youtu.be/qdFrgvgPmmE[/video]
Next is the story of a little boy who carves a figure of an Indian seated in a canoe and sends it on a treacherous journey to the sea. Less creepy, and I think we boys all begs for woodcarving knives after seeing it. Paddle to the Sea 1966:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olXmGz4iCxM&feature=youtu.be
The list of "Public Domain Shorts" at the bottom of this Wikipedia page gives a list of probable others: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RiffTrax
And then there were the films from later Health classes, shown to students divided up by sex, including this Disney film you've probably never seen. The Story of Menstruation 1946:
http://youtu.be/eLhld_PI2zg
Much better than those "educational" things we HAD to watch. But in retrospect, those old film strips were quaint.
