Capitalism (1948)

A fascinating video from Coronet Instructional Films about Capitalism.

Coronet Instructional Films were shown in American schools starting in about 1941. The company was an offshoot of Coronet Magazine, a digest-sized magazine that itself was owned by Esquire, Inc. Owner David Smart was deeply interested in visual education and the power of the film to teach and convince, and built a full studio on his estate in Glenview, Illinois, where at its height hundreds of films were cranked out each year. The films were sold to schools and libraries by a network of distributors and were quite successful — in 1976 Coronet celebrated its sale of 1 million prints. Most Coronet films were shot in Kodachrome, but Kodachrome prints of many titles are quite rare. It was cheaper to purchase black-and-white prints, and most sales were black-and-white.

For more Coronet history, see Ken Smith’s excellent book “Mental Hygiene,” published by Blast Books.

You can enjoy the video below:

You must be logged in to post a comment Login