Sponsored Films

Color and Texture in Aluminum Finishes (1956)
Sponsor: Aluminum Co. of America. Production Co.: On Film Inc. Directors: Wheaton Galentine, Tracy Ward [Virginia Bell]. Producer/Writer: Tracy Ward [Virginia Bell]. Camera: Richard Bagley. Music: Frank Lewin. Narrator: Walter Abel. Transfer Note: Scanned from a 35mm print held by the Library of Congress. Running Time: 18 minutes.

Film from the leading American producer of aluminum illustrating the versatility of the material in building and design. Color and Texture in Aluminum Finishes was singled out in the trade press for its avant-garde qualities and considered by Howard Thompson as “probably the most strikingly imaginative industrial short subject ever filmed in the United States.”

Note: Although originally targeted at design professionals, the short was also successfully shown to general audiences. On Film Inc. continued making critically acclaimed and unusual films, including In the Suburbs and Pittsburgh. Richard Bagley went on to shoot Lionel Rogosin’s On the Bowery.

Resources
“Inspiration in Visual Design,” Business Screen 18, no. 3 (1957): 37; Ralph Caplan, “Industry on the Screen,” Industrial Design 7 (Apr. 1960): 61, 64; Howard Thompson, “New Arrivals in 16-mm,” New York Times, July 28, 1957, 69.