Sponsored Films

Land of White Alice (1960)
Sponsor: Western Electric Co. Production Co.: Knickerbocker Productions. Director/Producer: Willard Van Dyke. Writer: Norman Rosten. Music: Daniel Pinkham. Narrator: Shepperd Strudwick. Transfer Note: Scanned from a 16mm print held by the Library of Congress. Running Time: 27 minutes.

Film sponsored by Western Electric (AT&T’s equipment manufacturing division), the builder of the United States Air Force’s White Alice Communications System in Alaska. Land of White Alice introduces the people and geography of the new state as well as the Western Electric radio-relay system, which links far-flung military sites, alert stations, and missile-warning facilities. Ralph Caplan praised the film’s “intrinsically dramatic and highly photogenic” portrayal of communications equipment.

Note: According to Caplan, the sponsor found fault with the film’s “soft-sell” approach and added a three-minute prologue.

Resources
“Journey to the Land of White Alice,” Business Screen 21, no. 7 (1960): 39; Ralph Caplan, “Industry on the Screen,” Industrial Design 7 (Apr. 1960): 54.