Premium Only Content

A is for Atom (1953)
Sponsor: General Electric Co.
Production Co.: John Sutherland Productions.
Director: Carl Urbano.
Writer: True Boardman.
Art Directors: Gerald Nevius, Lew Keller.
Production Designer: Tony Rivera.
Music: Eugene Poddany.
Animation: Arnold Gillespie, Emery Hawkins.
Resources : Copyrights 18/02/1953 MP3815 (10-min. version) and 1June1953 MP3572 (15-min. version); “Atom Educational Film Made Available by GE,” Wash Post, Aug. 9, 1953, R11; “A Challenge to Free Enterprise,” Bus Scrn 15, no. 5 (1954): 33; advertisement, Bus Scrn 18, no. 7 (1957): 5. Holdings : AFANA, LC/Prelinger, MacDonald.
Science film positioning atomic energy as both a peaceful and a warlike force. Sponsored by a corporation involved in the nascent nuclear industry, the film is an animated introduction to atomic energy and designed to be, as a Business Screen reviewer reported, “entertaining but scientifically accurate.” The periodic table, represented as “Element Town,” depicts each element in a distinctive shape suggesting its use by humans. Radium, whose giant head resembles an atomic nucleus, decays into an unstable state and begins to jitterbug to the sound of an old Victrola. The short ends with a majestic atomic giant straddling the earth. Our future, the narrator says, “depends on man’s wisdom, on his firmness in the use of that power.”
Note: This example from GE’s Excursions in Science series presents a portentous message in a humorous, self-deprecating manner. In its first three years of release, it was seen by more than 12 million people. Ten-minute theatrical version released in 35mm Anscocolor; 15-minute nontheatrical version, in 16mm Kodachrome. Received a Freedoms Foundation award in 1954 and the Second Grand Award for science films at the Venice Film Festival in 1954.
© John Sutherland Productions
-
LIVE
VINCE
2 hours agoThe Democrat Party Is Falling Apart | Episode 6 - 03/24/25
59,588 watching -
1:03:13
BonginoReport
4 hours agoGen Z Men: The Most Based Demo in America - Early Edition With Evita (Ep.166) - 03/24/2025
46K74 -
LIVE
Matt Kohrs
11 hours ago🔴[LIVE TRADING] Welcome To PUMP CITY!!! || The MK Show
1,711 watching -
LIVE
Wendy Bell Radio
6 hours agoThe Same Old Song & Dance
9,745 watching -
LIVE
Dear America
16 hours agoAOC/Bernie 2028? + Snow White BOMBS & Wrestling Crowd Goes WILD For Trump!
3,297 watching -
LIVE
Jeff Ahern
1 hour agoMonday Madness with Jeff Ahern
198 watching -
1:15:20
JULIE GREEN MINISTRIES
3 hours agoLIVE WITH JULIE
94.7K233 -
1:30:46
Game On!
15 hours ago $3.31 earnedIt's March and we were promised MADNESS!
29K1 -
LIVE
The Pete Santilli Show
16 hours agoPete Santilli Infiltrates Tesla Protestors & This Is What He Found: THEY’RE INSANE! [EP 4487-8AM]
1,044 watching -
24:04
CatfishedOnline
18 hours agoMy Mom Thinks My Girlfriend Is A Romance Scammer!
17.4K16