Steve Who?

This program is made possible by a grant from the Scandinavian anti-defamation league and the unwilling cooperation of a number of government agencies under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act once upon a time north central Iowa looked like this land of unbroken prairie a land of unbroken silence early in the year 1910 that silence was broken and the voice of the filmmaker was heard throughout the land fortunately the child lived and grew and it was in that isolated area bordering Minnesota that young Steve Knudsen spelled with an e please derived all of his misconceptions about Iowa farming practices and of course off to school in addition to normal indiscretions Steve exhibited an affinity for music performing on a variety of instruments including the Scandinavian Steinway after graduating from skaar ville hi Steve went to college first at Cedar Falls then on to obtain a master's at Iowa City rather than becoming a filmmaker he elected to go into a completely disassociated field teaching this was not his only mistake in 1935 he got married well I guess in the long run he did pretty well anyway Steve and Zora settled in Sioux City where Steve was teaching at Central High but then came the war Steve was stationed with torpedo boats in the southwest Pacific however his political party wasn't the same as that of another prominent PT boat man operating in the area so he was assigned to the training film branch of the Navy here he would find a true addiction in every community and throughout the military establishment millions of dollars are spent each year for painting to protect structures and equipment a good paint job should last four or five years but too often the paint looks like this after only a few months proper preparation of the surface and proper application of the paint will diminish the frequency of repainting and thus reduce maintenance costs after a brief stint at post-war Sioux City central the real call finally came the film unit was established initially to provide motion picture support to the new TV facility on the Iowa State campus but things rapidly grew out of hand Steve and his small crew started to make educational films for general distribution here are some excerpts from those early days and in the basement of the courthouse itself janitor Willis Lee is saying to the county auditor I hope I'm not cleaning up the place when the walls fall out and the roof comes in March 20th 1952 to the presenter Iowa town with a problem comes television to catch the face then voice of America itself this is the Guthrie County Courthouse erected 70 years ago in 1882 tonight in this courtroom before the eyes of the television cameras and the entire quarter million viewing audience of woi TV leading citizens of Guthrie County have come together to talk over a serious problem their County needs a new courthouse no one knows this fact better than these men they are Destry County's Board of Supervisors they have the power to raise the money for a new courthouse but they have the power only if that's what I'm going to do then I got that henna laying an egg in my filter pan the head third time this week the next chicken egg is an egg but thanks took an IHS messing up my room is gonna get its next round fan those chickens are to evaluate keep all my bars where I don't know why we keep chickens mile after endless miles sand and mud and slime and water and destruction until everything looks the same until the silence becomes the roar and the everlasting frogs becomes face the job of cleaning up starting over maybe there's some of the wreckage it can be saved maybe before spring is out we can deep plow and get a crop in hope it will grow maybe it will maybe it won't only one thing remains to be done get started the coin let's begin this ball and my hands help to make it grow and I can't help thinking about how many things the farmer uses his hands for yes for all of these and of course proposing gates - it's about short time and Jean must be somewhere out here in the barnyard probably looking after her peppers she takes care of her cows like there were her own babies she picks out the names for him - I don't know where she gets the ideas did you ever stand in the big barn door and look housing in an Iowa farm somehow it seems different perhaps because you see it as a whole one farm one farm home that's the way it is Here I am getting dinner in the old kitchen every time I needed potatoes or eggs I tried on summer after them we raised our own potatoes and I kept chickens too and stored my eggs in the cellar till time to take them to town stooping takes a lot of energy puts a lot of strain on the back because it throws you off balance I did plenty of it in that kitchen that yarn was stretched to show all my movements both steps and hand motions as I prepared this meal nothing ever seemed to be where I needed it I walked and walked we didn't have hot water there was no counter space by the range either that made a lot of extra steps you can't have cabinets next to a coal range that power look messy there but at least I didn't have to walk across the room every time I wanted to dry my hands it took so much yarn to trace all my movements that it just looks like a tangle but that's because I didn't have storage and counter space next to the range and refrigerator we will return to our program in a moment but first this message and look another wonderful thing no bathtub rain now Steve didn't make films all the time he was also intensively interested in the growth of the entire field of educational production and distribution accordingly he was an early member of the infant University film producers Association and he and Zora were regular participants at their annual meetings he served as president of UF PA and later became the first president of the university film foundation he collaborated in the establishment of the Kodak teenaged Film Awards and speaking of awards Steve picked up a goodly number of awards for the University as well several of these were the Golden Eagle Awards of the Council for international none theatrical events cine a national organization which Steve was to serve as a member of the board of directors for 12 years he was an active participant in the American science film Association a fellow of the Society of motion picture and television engineers also serving that organization as vice president for educational affairs Steve continued in active status with the Naval Reserve maintaining his contacts with the naval photographic Center and retiring as a commander he is active in Kiwanis and both he and Zora are longtime members of the Ames play makers group if that wasn't enough every now and then Steve and son Larry were known to head out to deplete the local supply of Fish and Game but all in all these were busy years at Alice Norton house Steve kept his finger on the production of research films classroom films extension films Public Relation films a considerable variety of filmic styles and purposes just watch because a land-grant college is more than just buildings it is more than students more than teachers the land-grant college is a missionary for an idea an idea which during the past century has grown to be one of the most important parts of our whole higher educational system in America where the leading objects shall be without excluding others scientific and classical studies and including military tactics to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life each fall this idea bears fruit anew as young men and women from all walks of life and with all kinds of aspirations and ideas come again to democracy's College well so far we've talked about building insurance and crop hail insurance now let's talk for a minute about liability insurance and what we should do about it some farmers can afford the loss of a cow or two and a few can afford the loss for crop but not many can afford the consequences of a lawsuit those 12 jury members don't know you the lawyers made sure that yet they have the legal right to take away your money if you haven't enough cash you may have to sell your farm your equipment your stock or your car he can rise out of one of those common accidents the kind you read about too often or it can be a freak accident and sometimes when this happens a man is too old to start all over again as this motor continues to run it is being overloaded and develops a certain amount of heat which may start a fire even after the motor a shot off but it is more likely the v-belts will catch fire from slipping where the motor and drive of this type are located in the cupola the trouble may go unnoticed for some time before employees realize there is a fire many times it's too late let's see how the earlier fire would have progressed if there had been no sprinkler system and if the fire department without pre-planning had made some common mistakes opening the driveway doors too soon no protective clothing no direction running no outside access unfamiliar with equipment unfamiliar with upper areas and the danger of falling they here to stop spreading through spouts overhead machine water being applied to the outside doesn't reach the fire making a futile attempt from nearby buildings failure to take advantage of inspection movements like well draft I'm the livestock buyer I see hundreds of cattle go through here every day think how many steaks they'd make and some of them will make better steaks than others some steaks are tender others tough it could be two cooking the bidding has narrowed down to Jim why have these three men bid on these cattle follow them through their routine of cattle buying and feeding to see how their operation compares with yours are you a specialized cattle feeder like Jim early in the fall you fly out west to the ranches for a first-hand look at how the cattle you buy are raised and handled you flew right over that corporation arrangement about twice as many kettles your entire county fed last year can't help wondering where he gets his corn what his costs of gain would be that's your competition it's big getting bigger early next morning they brought the cowboy what cool calc of a salad or a talk to you musulega key desk algo mal good of fresh new neighbors Claudia the squad is out moose caribou soon carapace the talk to you at a beetle Moines colony the basic idea let Matt you've assumed d'azyr's per attendee caper an obscure small guard well the pachuco from order via level 12 orders of tea looking for a snake yeah look at the color of this one right cherry red this means young tender juicy beef look at this bone it's red and porous now that's another sign it's from a young animal and the fat white brittle at just the right amount see the marbling all those white flecks perfect the texture smooth and velvety cherry red colored porous red bone right amount of fat marbling those a texture we'll take it of course what's wrong honey go to quiet this morning oh they're putting me in charge of the pork counter today that's no reason to be nervous you can handle the job you're a great butcher I know look they're putting Gorge bratwurst in charge of the beef counter weren't competition the one who sells the most see the next manager the whole meat depart George bratwurst can't hold a hemlock to you it's a butcher you'll beat him I know you will you know just like my mother always said whatever is worth doing is worth doing well now behind every great butcher stands alone this is one of the single concept films which Steve was instrumental in developing particularly for the super 8 millimeter format apart from its virtue is an example of the single concept style I've always been intrigued to learn how to give artificial respiration to a guinea pig now you know what you've got to do the first thing and keep at it all day long from one thing to the other there's you had a good days and bad days you my mom do life everywhere else whenever you ruin you you look at that roof when you watch yourself and you try to take care of yourself in there you know I had to create a man out around 30 years and better then a stretcher there's never been unfolded so we're pretty good record in 1969 Steve became head of media resources formerly the visual instruction service and set about to organize and coordinate its activities with other on-campus functions he set up media graphics reoriented the film library toward a higher education emphasis and evolved the satellite equipment system within the last several years one of Steve's long term associations has led to the establishment of the American archive of the factual film as a part of the Iowa State Library a significant development with national potential our last example represents a labor of love a favorite subject and shows typical Knutson insight and sensitivity his engine was his and Farah was the other two guys hit his way the bushel they don't and then that let allgäu made to dance to the bushel unloading the heads now had to be all in the same direction there was finesse here I think the dirtiest job but the whole crashing rang was the man that built the sky well trashing no matter how you looked at it was a little berry but I've always marveled at their we had one neighbor he was crazy he'd never seem to get dirty old guy that I worked with had a great deal of pride in his ability to build a load of bundles burn anybody else it's a great satisfaction that last round Oh so this is Steve Knudsen teacher administrator film maker innovator respected member of his profession loving husband father grandfather colleague and good friend what do you say to him at a time like this well I think we can all agree on two things our very best to you for the future and thank you Steve