Sponsored Films

Design for Dreaming (1956)
Sponsor: General Motors Corp. Production Co.: MPO Productions Inc. Producer: Victor D. Solow. Cast: Thelma “Tad” Tadlock, Mark Breaux. Transfer Note: Scanned from a 35mm print held by Prelinger Archives. Running Time: 9 minutes.

Best-known of the films presenting “Motorama,” General Motors’ annual traveling automobile and appliance trade show. This example introduces the 1956 automobile models, Frigidaire’s “Kitchen of Tomorrow,” electronic highways of the future, and GM “dream cars” the Oldsmobile Golden Rocket and the turbine-powered Pontiac Firebird II. An amalgam of styles drawn from industrial stage shows and Hollywood musicals, Design for Dreaming has become emblematic of 1950s futuristic modernism.

Note: Debuting at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the 1956 “Motorama” show attracted 2 million people during its five-city tour. It was released in 35mm Eastmancolor and 16mm Anscocolor prints and shown in theaters and at automobile dealerships.

Resources
“Motorama: Vision of the Future,” Business Screen 17, no. 4 (1956): 40.