Preserving Film, Preserving History

University of Delaware alumnus Jim Culley’s capstone project in the Master Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) program led the archive of one of Cleveland’s largest industrial film studios to a new home in Delaware at the Hagley Museum and Library. The move is giving new life to a one-of-a kind collection that includes thousands of films, scripts, photos and more from the silent era through the mid-20th century and is Hagley’s largest ever film collection.

The films were produced at Cinecraft Productions, a motion picture studio Culley’s father Ray founded in 1939. The movies include motivational sales training shorts, full-scale musicals promoting new products and the very first TV infomercial.

A far cry from today’s blockbuster action movies or 30-second TikTok videos, industrial or “sponsored” films are any type of movie designed to be shown to a smaller, non-paying audience, rather than the general public. The films were watched in classrooms, auditoriums and churches and at corporate events, board meetings, luncheon clubs and union halls, among others.​

Looking at the films today offers a glimpse into the history of American manufacturing and culture from the 1930s through the 1970s in what was then the sixth largest city by size and one of the country’s top industrial centers.

Cinecraft’s client list included corporate names recognizable today, including Westinghouse, Goodyear, General Electric, Standard Oil and more. “This is 50 years of telling Sherwin-Williams’ story, and relationships with other companies,” Culley said.

The Hagley Library is preserving and digitizing the films, scripts and other materials, putting them on the Library’s website. It’s a huge task as more than 6,000 film canisters and other materials made the eight-hour journey from Cleveland to Wilmington in 2019. More than 600 films are currently available online, and there will be more than 2,500 productions when the project is complete. The project is expected to take as long as 10 years to complete.​

From Cleveland to Delaware

“This project would never have happened without the MALS program,” Culley said.

MALS students finish their programs with either a project or a thesis. Culley had written about his mother and Cinecraft during a memoir writing class and continued to write about them throughout the program.

A chance encounter with Cinecraft’s then-owner Neil McCormick in a Cleveland restaurant led Culley to visit the company’s archives, which was full of film canisters, scripts, photos and more from productions beginning in 1938. When McCormick said he wasn’t sure what the company was going to do with them, Culley had his project.

“Neil and I talked about where we were going to put the stuff and who would be interested in it,” Culley said. He had learned the Hagley Library specialized in the history of business and technology and thought it would be a good fit. “I thought, ‘We’ll put it here in my own backyard. Hagley’s here and I’m here.’”​

The Cinecraft collection “is one of the most comprehensive collections from an industrial film company in the country,” said Kevin Martin, the Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Audiovisual and Digital Collections, who received his master’s degree in history with a minor in museum studies from UD.

“The collection fit so well with our collecting interest because it covers all these companies over a long period of time,” he said.

The audience for many of the films in the past has been researchers and scholars, but by digitizing the collection, Martin said the Library has received requests for more information from new audiences such as documentary filmmakers and producers.

“The number of requests that we have has just gone through the roof. People are looking for a specific image or they see something online that they're interested in,” Martin said.​

About Cinecraft Productions

In the mid-20th century, Cleveland was home to national manufacturing companies like Westinghouse, B.F. Goodrich and American Gas Association, along with numerous regional and local businesses. Cinecraft, which is still in business today, was the largest of 13 film studios in the city, creating productions for industry clients as well as trade groups, government agencies and social service organizations. The company was also a pioneer in the early days of television programming.

Culley’s parents co-owned Cinecraft, and it quickly became a family affair. Culley, his parents, brothers, cousins and other family members were involved both on screen and behind the scenes, and Culley’s uncle eventually bought the company from his brother.

“My mother would get upset when people from the studio would take things from our house to use in the sets,” Culley said, smiling.

Among Culley’s favorites are Freewheelin’, the story of a group of van owners driving to a van and truck rally, which promoted a new line of B.F. Goodrich tires made specifically for vans. Culley also loves Milestones of Motoring, a musical about the history of motor vehicles to announce Sohio Oil’s new boron-based gasoline and featured future TV star Merv Griffin and vaudeville actor Joe E. Brown.

“The shooting of that film was so difficult. My uncle was laying in the back of the car. He’s the sound guy playing the music on a record player in the seat so they could lip sync as they’re driving down the road singing,” Culley said.

Other famous faces included former president Ronald Reagan, and then-Vice President Richard Nixon in a 1960 film asking Republic Steel Corporation employees to support his presidential campaign in the race against John F. Kennedy, Jr.​

And actor Alan Alda appeared in an episode of The Ohio Story that featured historical reenactments of events in the state. Alda appeared briefly in a scene depicting the siege of Fort Meigs near Toledo during the War of 1812. Comedian Tim Conway appears in several films as well.

With the advent of television Cinecraft began producing local TV programs and commercials. Long before Martha Stewart, the company helped make Louise Winslow “America’s Home Economist” with shows like Food is Fun and Through the Kitchen Window, sponsored by the American Gas Association. Winslow demonstrated sewing techniques, cooking, interior decorating and crafts on the show.

And you can thank Cinecraft for TV infomercials. In 1949 it created the very first infomercial for Vitamix blenders, with the lively Papa Bernard as pitchman.

McCormick joined Cinecraft as a director and film editor in 1976 and bought the company in 1986. During his career, McCormick saw the company transition from using 16-millimeter film to video tapes to digital e-learning products. He also saw Cleveland’s decline as an industrial giant as manufacturing moved overseas in the 1970s and 1980s.

“In my time at Cinecraft I saw the erosion of America's making of things,” he said. “The stories we told of these companies chronicle that in an indirect way, but it certainly chronicles it. So somewhere down the road, people studying what happened to America may find this collection that gives some perspective of how we got to this point?”​

About the MALS program

The MALS program is an interdisciplinary master’s degree program that can be completed on a part-time basis. Classes are small seminars featuring lively discussions about topics ranging from what it means to be human to how we understand the world around us. Students can shape their own curriculum to pursue their passions once they have completed the introductory and core courses. Learn more about the MALS program. ​

Article by Hilary Douwes 

Photos by Evan Krape and courtesy of Hagley Museum and Library

March 26, 2024