Hello!

These are fascinating!  Michael McQuarrie finds another winner at The Internet Archive.

The hard-sell approach in American-International’s Radio Spots is hard to believe now … but we occasionally heard advertising announcements like this back in San Bernardino, on ‘KMEN 129.’

Double Bill Radio Spots features the marvelous Paul Frees at his diabolical best, doing voiceovers for a combo of  Blood Bath and  Queen of Blood, with the ‘dare you see it?’  carny pitch.

Then Quadruple Bill Radio Spots is an amalgam of quickie spots for A.I.P. four-feature all-night Drive-In attractions … for blaxploitation pix, horror, action exploitation and giant Japanese monsters.

McQuarrie’s radio picks finish by jumping to Warner Bros., for a not-bad comedy sell for Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles.

And also from the estimable Mr. McQuarrie, is tahis link to an expensive genuine pro- Big Oil propaganda from the U.S. of the 1950s. It’s a 14-minute animated cartoon in Technicolor from John Sutherland productions, produced by  The American Petroleum Institute and directed by Carl Urbano, a career animation pro with a massive TV filmography. Urbano made several other Technicolor Sutherland shorts sponsored by big corporations, to promote American values and counter Soviet propaganda … with pro-Capitalist propaganda.

Other Urbano / Sutherland / Corporate ‘message’ animated films are  It’s Everybody’s Business  (DuPont — “Capitalism guarantees America’s freedoms”),  Man-Made Miracles  (B.F. Goodrich),  The Story of Creative Capital &  Fill ‘Er Up  (DuPont) and  Rhapsody of Steel  (U.S. Steel).

It’s pretty obvious, patronizing stuff … but nicely produced. The link has its own rather liberal analysis, which relieves me of the responsibility of being annoying. But I did like the detail of the pompous Dictator of Mars faking enthusiastic crowds of followers: “Thank you for this spontaneous outburst of support!”  Here’s the link:

Special bonus paranoia:
The weirdest Urbano / Sutherland animation reminds us of the sinister ‘infotainment’ lampooned in the sci-fi satire  The President’s Analyst. Produced by Bell Telephone,  A Missile Named Mac has to be seen to believed … it tells the happy-go-lucky story, simplified so a gerbil could undertand, of how wonderful new technology guarantees that Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles can be relied on to hit their targets. Just so you don’t get lost, the lecture starts with a funny caveman throwing rocks, and a funny Injun shooting arrows. Nowhere are nuclear weapons mentioned – the dissussion instead moves on to the impressive early 1960s satellites:

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson