16mm Filmography
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The City

Year Published: 1939

Creator: National Archives and Records Administration

Format: 16mm/video file

Description:

THE CITY (1939, sound, 44min, b&w, 35mm)

Sponsor: American institute of planners, through Civic Films inc., with funding from Carnegie Corp. of new york. production Co.: American documentary Films inc. directors: ralph Steiner, Willard Van dyke. producer: oscar Serlin. Writers: Henwar rodakiewicz, pare Lorentz, Lewis Mumford. Camera: ralph Steiner, Willard Van dyke, Jules V.d. Bucher, Edward Anhalt, roger Barlow, rudolph Bretz. MuSiC: Aaron Copland. Editor: theodore Lawrence. narrator: Morris Carnovsky. production Manager: John Flory. resources: Copyright 23Jun39 Mu9480; Karl Schriftgiesser, “Man and His Cities,” NYT, Apr. 30, 1939, 101; “Wonder City Seen in Film at Fair,” NYT, May 28, 1939, 21; “the American institute of planners presents The City,” Am City 54 (June 1939): 129; Living Films, 31–32; Film Forum Review staff, “The City,” in Ideas, 197–98; EFG (1951), 587; Henwar rodakiewicz, “Working on The City (1939),” in Unseen Cinema, 109–10; nicole Huffman, “The City,” new Frontiers in American documentary Film, xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/- Huffman/Frontier/city.html. Holdings: GEM, LC/prelinger, MoMA, uCLA.

Film advocating New Deal “green towns” as a healthy alternative to congested urban slums. Presenting the traditional New England town (represented by Shirley Center, Massachusetts, the home of pioneer planner Benton MacKaye) as an inspiration, The City shows the decay and overcrowding of New York City and Homestead, Pennsylvania, and finds alternatives in the newly planned communities of Radburn, New Jersey; Greenbelt, Maryland; Greendale, Wisconsin; and Greenhills, Ohio. “Year by year, our cities grow more complex and less fit for living. The age of rebuilding is here,” proclaims the narrator. “We must remold our old cities and build new communities better suited to our needs.” note: Produced for screening at the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair, The City was later released theatrically and made available to civic groups and educational institutions. It was excerpted in the MGM short This Is Tomorrow. Selected for the National Film Registry. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/CityTheP1939.

,

THE CITY (1939, sound, 44min, b&w, 35mm)

Sponsor: American institute of planners, through Civic Films inc., with funding from Carnegie Corp. of new york. production Co.: American documentary Films inc. directors: ralph Steiner, Willard Van dyke. producer: oscar Serlin. Writers: Henwar rodakiewicz, pare Lorentz, Lewis Mumford. Camera: ralph Steiner, Willard Van dyke, Jules V.d. Bucher, Edward Anhalt, roger Barlow, rudolph Bretz. Music: Aaron Copland. Editor: theodore Lawrence. narrator: Morris Carnovsky. production Manager: John Flory. resources: Copyright 23Jun39 Mu9480; Karl Schriftgiesser, “Man and His Cities,” NYT, Apr. 30, 1939, 101; “Wonder City Seen in Film at Fair,” NYT, May 28, 1939, 21; “the American institute of planners presents The City,” Am City 54 (June 1939): 129; Living Films, 31–32; Film Forum Review staff, “The City,” in Ideas, 197–98; EFG (1951), 587; Henwar rodakiewicz, “Working on The City (1939),” in Unseen Cinema, 109–10; nicole Huffman, “The City,” new Frontiers in American documentary Film, xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/- Huffman/Frontier/city.html. Holdings: GEM, LC/prelinger, MoMA, UCLA.

Film advocating New Deal “green towns” as a healthy alternative to congested urban slums. Presenting the traditional New England town (represented by Shirley Center, Massachusetts, the home of pioneer planner Benton MacKaye) as an inspiration, The City shows the decay and overcrowding of New York City and Homestead, Pennsylvania, and finds alternatives in the newly planned communities of Radburn, New Jersey; Greenbelt, Maryland; Greendale, Wisconsin; and Greenhills, Ohio. “Year by year, our cities grow more complex and less fit for living. The age of rebuilding is here,” proclaims the narrator. “We must remold our old cities and build new communities better suited to our needs.” note: Produced for screening at the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair, The City was later released theatrically and made available to civic groups and educational institutions. It was excerpted in the MGM short This Is Tomorrow. Selected for the National Film Registry. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/CityTheP1939.

, FDR Presidential Library

Video 353

The City

From IMDB: Made by a group of people with, if not an axe to grind, a purpose in mind, which appears to be a plug for future suburbia and back to the idyllic towns of the past and the Big City would just be a place where people work but not live. Or something like that, as it is told in a schizophrenic method that primarily drones on about ...it started like this and it was good, and it becames this and it was bad, yada, yada, yada. Based on how America looks today...large metroplexes surrounded by super highways surrounded by look-alike suburbs with more super highways leading out to other metroplexes--- the goal was accomplished but the results aren't what was envisioned in 1939. The film was made possible by funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and has a definite leftward-slant which is no surprise based on some of the names connected with the original film. It was later adapted and edited into an entry of John Nesbitt's Passing Parade at MGM in 1944 (PCA No. 9620) called "The World of Tomorrow" with a new score by Nathaniel Shilkret, adaptation and narration by John Nesbitt and edited by Harry Komer. Written by Les Adams.

Complete Record:

THE CITY (1939, sound, 44min, b&w, 35mm) Sponsor: American institute of planners, through Civic Films inc., with funding from Carnegie Corp. of new york. production Co.: American documentary Films inc. directors: ralph Steiner, Willard Van dyke. producer: oscar Serlin. Writers: Henwar rodakiewicz, pare Lorentz, Lewis Mumford. Camera: ralph Steiner, Willard Van dyke, Jules V.d. Bucher, Edward Anhalt, roger Barlow, rudolph Bretz. MuSiC: Aaron Copland. Editor: theodore Lawrence. narrator: Morris Carnovsky. production Manager: John Flory. resources: Copyright 23Jun39 Mu9480; Karl Schriftgiesser, “Man and His Cities,” NYT, Apr. 30, 1939, 101; “Wonder City Seen in Film at Fair,” NYT, May 28, 1939, 21; “the American institute of planners presents The City,” Am City 54 (June 1939): 129; Living Films, 31–32; Film Forum Review staff, “The City,” in Ideas, 197–98; EFG (1951), 587; Henwar rodakiewicz, “Working on The City (1939),” in Unseen Cinema, 109–10; nicole Huffman, “The City,” new Frontiers in American documentary Film, xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/- Huffman/Frontier/city.html. Holdings: GEM, LC/prelinger, MoMA, uCLA. Film advocating New Deal “green towns” as a healthy alternative to congested urban slums. Presenting the traditional New England town (represented by Shirley Center, Massachusetts, the home of pioneer planner Benton MacKaye) as an inspiration, The City shows the decay and overcrowding of New York City and Homestead, Pennsylvania, and finds alternatives in the newly planned communities of Radburn, New Jersey; Greenbelt, Maryland; Greendale, Wisconsin; and Greenhills, Ohio. “Year by year, our cities grow more complex and less fit for living. The age of rebuilding is here,” proclaims the narrator. “We must remold our old cities and build new communities better suited to our needs.” note: Produced for screening at the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair, The City was later released theatrically and made available to civic groups and educational institutions. It was excerpted in the MGM short This Is Tomorrow. Selected for the National Film Registry. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/CityTheP1939.
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THE CITY (1939, sound, 44min, b&w, 35mm) Sponsor: American institute of planners, through Civic Films inc., with funding from Carnegie Corp. of new york. production Co.: American documentary Films inc. directors: ralph Steiner, Willard Van dyke. producer: oscar Serlin. Writers: Henwar rodakiewicz, pare Lorentz, Lewis Mumford. Camera: ralph Steiner, Willard Van dyke, Jules V.d. Bucher, Edward Anhalt, roger Barlow, rudolph Bretz. Music: Aaron Copland. Editor: theodore Lawrence. narrator: Morris Carnovsky. production Manager: John Flory. resources: Copyright 23Jun39 Mu9480; Karl Schriftgiesser, “Man and His Cities,” NYT, Apr. 30, 1939, 101; “Wonder City Seen in Film at Fair,” NYT, May 28, 1939, 21; “the American institute of planners presents The City,” Am City 54 (June 1939): 129; Living Films, 31–32; Film Forum Review staff, “The City,” in Ideas, 197–98; EFG (1951), 587; Henwar rodakiewicz, “Working on The City (1939),” in Unseen Cinema, 109–10; nicole Huffman, “The City,” new Frontiers in American documentary Film, xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/- Huffman/Frontier/city.html. Holdings: GEM, LC/prelinger, MoMA, UCLA. Film advocating New Deal “green towns” as a healthy alternative to congested urban slums. Presenting the traditional New England town (represented by Shirley Center, Massachusetts, the home of pioneer planner Benton MacKaye) as an inspiration, The City shows the decay and overcrowding of New York City and Homestead, Pennsylvania, and finds alternatives in the newly planned communities of Radburn, New Jersey; Greenbelt, Maryland; Greendale, Wisconsin; and Greenhills, Ohio. “Year by year, our cities grow more complex and less fit for living. The age of rebuilding is here,” proclaims the narrator. “We must remold our old cities and build new communities better suited to our needs.” note: Produced for screening at the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair, The City was later released theatrically and made available to civic groups and educational institutions. It was excerpted in the MGM short This Is Tomorrow. Selected for the National Film Registry. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/CityTheP1939.
, FDR Presidential Library Video 353 The City From IMDB: Made by a group of people with, if not an axe to grind, a purpose in mind, which appears to be a plug for future suburbia and back to the idyllic towns of the past and the Big City would just be a place where people work but not live. Or something like that, as it is told in a schizophrenic method that primarily drones on about ...it started like this and it was good, and it becames this and it was bad, yada, yada, yada. Based on how America looks today...large metroplexes surrounded by super highways surrounded by look-alike suburbs with more super highways leading out to other metroplexes--- the goal was accomplished but the results aren't what was envisioned in 1939. The film was made possible by funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and has a definite leftward-slant which is no surprise based on some of the names connected with the original film. It was later adapted and edited into an entry of John Nesbitt's Passing Parade at MGM in 1944 (PCA No. 9620) called "The World of Tomorrow" with a new score by Nathaniel Shilkret, adaptation and narration by John Nesbitt and edited by Harry Komer. Written by Les Adams. NOTE: Two (or more) records have been merged together to create this data.

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