Sponsored Films

The Ordeal of Thomas Moon (1957)
Sponsor: Smith, Kline & French. Production Co.: Gerald Productions Inc. Director: Michael Nebbia. Cast: Dominick “Dom” DeLuise. Transfer Note: Scanned from a 16mm print held by the Library of Congress. Running Time: 14 minutes.

Medical film sponsored by the Philadelphia-based pharmaceutical firm to illustrate how obesity affects the performance of simple everyday tasks. This unusual short made for physicians shows the struggle of an overweight traveler ascending the stairs at Pennsylvania station and trying to enter a phone booth to make a call. Fed up and exhausted, the man seeks medical advice.

Note: The Ordeal of Thomas Moon was shot on location and used natural sound. The film contains no direct advertising. Smith, Kline & French (now GlaxoSmithKline) produced the obesity drug Dexedrine.

Resources
“The Ordeal of Thomas Moon,” Business Screen 18, no. 4 (1957): 35.