When the Hagley Museum and Library acquired the Cinecraft film archive, an industrial film production company in Cleveland, Ohio, the collection included films from another Cleveland industrial producer, General Picture Inc. Cinecraft merged with General Pictures in 1971 and received the General Pictures film archive as part of the merger. All of these films landed at Hagley in 2019.
General Electric was among General Pictures' many prominent clients. They produced television commercials as well as training and promotional films for GE. Among the promotional films is one from 1960 featuring the cast of the popular television program Leave it to Beaver. The film, with the actors in character, touts the upcoming advertising campaign for GE photographic flashbulbs and related products. GE produced the film for retailers and salesmen to educate them about their photographic products and the point-of-purchase material offered to retailers as part of the ad campaign.
While we do not know for sure that General Pictures produced this film, we do know that its presence in the Cinecraft archives resulted from the 1971 merger that combined the archive of the two Cleveland industrial film production houses. Here it is:
We have another film similar to this from General Electric with legendary actor Charles Bronson that you can watch here.
Kevin Martin is the Chief Curator of Library Collections at Hagley Museum and Library