This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/magazine/7392324.stm
The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 3 | Version 4 |
|---|---|
| A little dash of panic | A little dash of panic |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| By Jo Meek Boys were warned to watch out for sick predators like Ralph | By Jo Meek Boys were warned to watch out for sick predators like Ralph |
| American public information films weren't like the British ones. They were scary, for starters. | American public information films weren't like the British ones. They were scary, for starters. |
| It was in post-war Britain and the US that public information films truly came into their own. In the wake of morale-boosting incitements to help the war effort came movie shorts designed to educate young people on the perils of everything from hot pans on stoves to the terrors of "reefer madness". | |
| But a search through the archives shows there was a marked difference in approach on either side of the Atlantic. | But a search through the archives shows there was a marked difference in approach on either side of the Atlantic. |
| Growing up is a hazardous business. We've all been warned of the dangers: fire burns, dogs bite, knives cut and open water is best avoided, at least until we can swim. | Growing up is a hazardous business. We've all been warned of the dangers: fire burns, dogs bite, knives cut and open water is best avoided, at least until we can swim. |
| As we get older, the lessons include other people, like avoiding bullies and overfriendly adults. | As we get older, the lessons include other people, like avoiding bullies and overfriendly adults. |
| But as many of us probably have delighted in ignoring our elders and betters, public information ads have also done their best to prevent us from coming to harm.For girls, contact with boys could lead to drink, pregnancy and an early death | But as many of us probably have delighted in ignoring our elders and betters, public information ads have also done their best to prevent us from coming to harm.For girls, contact with boys could lead to drink, pregnancy and an early death |
| Some of the most well known and loved British public information films have included Jimmy Savile encouraging us to belt up with his "clunk-click every trip" campaign or the slightly scruffy and crazed (but extremely streetwise) Charley the Cat making sure we always told mummy where we were going. | Some of the most well known and loved British public information films have included Jimmy Savile encouraging us to belt up with his "clunk-click every trip" campaign or the slightly scruffy and crazed (but extremely streetwise) Charley the Cat making sure we always told mummy where we were going. |
| But these characters and the subjects they aimed to educate us about were tame compared with the fare being served up to kids in post-war America. | |
| By the end of World War II, the US had become the wealthiest nation in the world, in marked contrast to the grey austerity of post-war Britain. Instead of spreading contentment this prosperity coincided with a rise in gang crime, drug taking, drunkenness and dangerous driving among young people. | |
| Rebellious pupils | Rebellious pupils |
| Worried parents and teachers welcomed a new generation of specialist films designed to be shown in classrooms with titles like Boys Beware, Drug Addiction, and What About Juvenile Delinquency? | Worried parents and teachers welcomed a new generation of specialist films designed to be shown in classrooms with titles like Boys Beware, Drug Addiction, and What About Juvenile Delinquency? |
| These films were characterised by a lack of restraint on the part of their makers. The scarier the film, the likelier it was that schools would buy it to keep their rebellious pupils in the line. | These films were characterised by a lack of restraint on the part of their makers. The scarier the film, the likelier it was that schools would buy it to keep their rebellious pupils in the line. |
| There was no regulation, and this industry of social education moviemakers could say and show pretty much anything. Often working out of their garages, they would pull kids off the street and put them in starring roles. FIND OUT MORE... Archive Hour, presented by Tom Robinson, is on Radio 4 on Saturday, 2000 BSTOr catch up at Radio 4's Listen Again site Stop, look, listen | There was no regulation, and this industry of social education moviemakers could say and show pretty much anything. Often working out of their garages, they would pull kids off the street and put them in starring roles. FIND OUT MORE... Archive Hour, presented by Tom Robinson, is on Radio 4 on Saturday, 2000 BSTOr catch up at Radio 4's Listen Again site Stop, look, listen |
| In Drug Addiction, made in 1951, crazed "weedheads" laugh hysterically as they cut their mouths drinking from broken soda bottles. One toke of a joint would inevitably lead to mainlining heroin in these films, but the plot would be rounded off with a nice, happy, moral ending. | In Drug Addiction, made in 1951, crazed "weedheads" laugh hysterically as they cut their mouths drinking from broken soda bottles. One toke of a joint would inevitably lead to mainlining heroin in these films, but the plot would be rounded off with a nice, happy, moral ending. |
| Today's young and still innocent may never have had the opportunity to watch the films if it wasn't for a former writer on the Comedy Channel. Rick Prelinger is the founder of the Prelinger Archives, a collection of 60,000 educational, industrial, and amateur films. | Today's young and still innocent may never have had the opportunity to watch the films if it wasn't for a former writer on the Comedy Channel. Rick Prelinger is the founder of the Prelinger Archives, a collection of 60,000 educational, industrial, and amateur films. |
| A child of the 1960s, he believes the films were made in the wake of post-war moral panic. | |
| "World War II was traumatic for the way Americans imagined society was supposed to be like. Kids were unsupervised, parents had been away fighting or working, so children had autonomy. There was the worry that we'd lose a generation. | "World War II was traumatic for the way Americans imagined society was supposed to be like. Kids were unsupervised, parents had been away fighting or working, so children had autonomy. There was the worry that we'd lose a generation. |
| "Because of that a bunch of educators, sociologists and distinguished figures got together to try and train kids to be kids again." | "Because of that a bunch of educators, sociologists and distinguished figures got together to try and train kids to be kids again." |
| As early as the 1940s these 10-15 minute melodramas condensed and simplified complex social problems and wrapped them up with brazen scare tactics, to warn against drugs, dangerous driving, strangers and even homosexuals. | As early as the 1940s these 10-15 minute melodramas condensed and simplified complex social problems and wrapped them up with brazen scare tactics, to warn against drugs, dangerous driving, strangers and even homosexuals. |
| Wartime role | Wartime role |
| The 1961 film Boys Beware, made by an amateur film maker called Sid Davis, warned its young viewers against men who cruise around in their Buicks looking for young boys to pick up to give them a ride home or take them fishing or show them pornographic cards. The film describes such a man, called Ralph, as having a "sickness of the mind". | The 1961 film Boys Beware, made by an amateur film maker called Sid Davis, warned its young viewers against men who cruise around in their Buicks looking for young boys to pick up to give them a ride home or take them fishing or show them pornographic cards. The film describes such a man, called Ralph, as having a "sickness of the mind". |
| Across the Atlantic and the role of public information films in British society started as part of the war effort. In 1946 they were succeeded by material commissioned by the new Central Office for Information. A single marijuana joint would soon lead to heroin | Across the Atlantic and the role of public information films in British society started as part of the war effort. In 1946 they were succeeded by material commissioned by the new Central Office for Information. A single marijuana joint would soon lead to heroin |
| Whilst some of the films commissioned by the COI have tackled subjects as difficult and dangerous as strangers, road safety, drugs and diseases, in general they have tended to be gentler, subtler, and often more intentionally funny. | Whilst some of the films commissioned by the COI have tackled subjects as difficult and dangerous as strangers, road safety, drugs and diseases, in general they have tended to be gentler, subtler, and often more intentionally funny. |
| Sally Whetton, who has worked for the COI for nearly 20 years, believes humour has always been at the heart of their films. | Sally Whetton, who has worked for the COI for nearly 20 years, believes humour has always been at the heart of their films. |
| "The difference is that the American films are so much more instructional about how to live your life. There is less evidence of British films going into so much detail. We've always used wit and humour to get messages across." | "The difference is that the American films are so much more instructional about how to live your life. There is less evidence of British films going into so much detail. We've always used wit and humour to get messages across." |
| It's hard to measure the effect of the films on either side of the Atlantic, but for Ken Smith, an American enthusiast, social pressures and exposure to mass media may have nullified them. | It's hard to measure the effect of the films on either side of the Atlantic, but for Ken Smith, an American enthusiast, social pressures and exposure to mass media may have nullified them. |
| "Kids really tuned them out. By the 1960s it was just an exercise in futility." | "Kids really tuned them out. By the 1960s it was just an exercise in futility." |
| Below is a selection of your comments. | |
| "Wit and humour" in British public information films? I grew up in the 80s and the films I remember all terrified me. They were all live action, and never actually said what could happen if you spoke to, took sweets from or accepted a lift from a stranger, just that one child had done, and that all their family had been shocked by the consequences. You didn't even know if the kid was alive at the end of the story. I think part of why they scared me was that I couldn't understand them properly - that came a lot later. Having grown up with films like that, I find it hard to understand the nostalgia so many people feel for the older ones.Kate, Anglesey, UK | |
| I was in the seventh grade during the Summer of Love, and living in Sacramento, CA, a mere two hours away from San Francisco. My classrooms were inundated with these films. Reefer Madness and similar films were forced on us in the mid to late 60s. Unfortunately, our teachers didn't grasp that television had made us a more worldly group of adolescents and we found these films humorous. On the other hand, I think many of us wanted to try the drugs the movies warned us about just to prove to ourselves that the movies were based on hyperbole.Len Probert, Rochester Hills, MI | |
| Having grown up and being educated in the United States in the 60s I remember some of these films. I remain personally convinced the fact kids were able to see through the ridiculousness of assertions they began to laugh at them. There was also a dangerous result. Every kid knew smoking grass was nothing but silly fun. The consequent reaction by many was: if they were lying about reefer, they are probably lying about hard drugs, too. Disaster. These scare-mongering attempts at creating perfect robotic like kids backfired and helped "romanticise" counter culture types, inadvertently boosting the appeal of the situations they were trying to avoid.Ronn, Bangkok, Thailand | |
| A single joint leads inexorably to a short and squalid life on heroin - the message clearly sunk in on both sides of the Atlantic, because I still see this tripe peddled regularly to this day. Steve Payne, Leicester, UK | |
| Public information films have an important role to play in getting messages across to children in particular. I remember well, the many road awareness films on TV when I was growing up, from the hedgehog family to the more controversial Green X Man. But they worked very well in making children aware of the dangers of not paying attention to roads and traffic. I am very concerned that the onus for our children's safety today is always on someone else. All of the road safety messages are directed at the drivers and no responsibility seems to rest with the parents or the child on the street any longer. Is this an example of the nanny state gone haywire? I tend to think it is. I made my children aware of road safety because I felt is was my responsibility to do so. Yet I watch as youngsters saunter across busy roads as if they are untouchable and invulnerable - almost daring a car to hit them. This attitude must surely come from the messages they receive that "if anything happens it will be someone else's fault". Humour is a great way of getting a dull message across, particularly to youngsters who yawn at the very thought of yet another lecture.Derek Arnold, London, UK | |
| The film Boys Beware, from your description, does not seem to be warning boys against homosexuals at all but against predatory paedophiles. I'm surprised that the writer appears to have confused the two. While a homosexual can, of course, also be a paedophile, a paedophile need not necessarily be a homosexual.Jon McKnight, Plymouth, England | |
| Unfortunately, American schools haven't learned much over the past few decades. I graduated from high school two years ago and was also subjected to scare-tactic films about sex, drugs and alcohol, and this is even after studies have shown these methods to be either ineffective or counter-productive.Emily, Los Angeles, CA | |
| As an American now living in Britain I can see now how restrictive life in America is. It's bad enough now so I would hate to have been around during the post war years. American society is super moralistic and ultra wholesome where everything fun is demonised from going to the pub for a beer to pre-marital sex, even despite the fact that you are an adult. Even if you walk down the street a little tipsy you could find yourself in trouble with the law. Give me a liberal society like such as in Europe any day.Alex Graham, Edinburgh | |
| But our US scare educational films make for great MST3K (Mystery Science Theater 3000) fodder.Matt Lamers, San Rafael, California, USA | |
| As a child in the 1950s most warnings came from our parents. The local bobby walking his beat around the streets was a normal sight. There were still the usual sickos around but being allowed freedom to roam developed streetwiseness and you always with you had older children looking out for you. It is sad that today a lot of parents are genuinely afraid to let children outside, some my grandchildren included, it's unnatural. I think there is too much emphasis and publicity given to the scum element in society.Tim McMahon, Pennar/Wales | |
| The term "Public Information Film" is NEVER heard in the United States. The phase is usually "Public Service Announcement" if on TV or before a longer film in a theater. I've heard these types of films called "Social guidance films", but I don't know if that is a common phrase. Also worth mentioning are "Girls Beware", "Are You Popular?" and the disturbingly inappropriately cheerful music in many of Sid Davis' films.Lurker, South Jersey, United States |