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DATE: 1944

LENGTH: 22 min

CATEGORY: Educational & Instructional, Sound, Black & White

DIRECTOR: Arthur Lubin

PRODUCER/PUBLISHER: Walter Wanger with United States Public Health Service
Warning: The film contains explicit images of disease and intrusive medical treatment. Viewer discretion advised.

Summary

Convinced that motion pictures could convey information more effectively than almost any other medium, the United States Public Health Service, led by Dr. Thomas Parran, produced or contributed to about a dozen films on venereal disease in the 1930s and ‘40s. Some were aimed at clinicians, others at soldiers, and others at the public. Parran and his colleagues at the PHS sought to frame the battle against VD as a public health concern—how to prevent it, how to treat it—rather than a moral one focused on abstinence….Read the Essay

View another film featured in the essay.

Know for SureTitle text on a poster featuring an illustration of a man with a tourniquet around his upper arm.

DATE: 1941
LENGTH: 22 min
PRODUCER/PUBLISHER: Research Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, US Public Health Service
CATEGORY: Educational & Instructional, Sound, Black & White

Supplementary Materials

Film Stills from To the People

In the Collections of the National Library of Medicine

NLM Prints & Photographs Collection

Syphilis: A Million New Victims Each Year, ca. 1945 National Library of Medicine #101450678
No Home Remedy or Quack Doctor Ever Cured Syphilis or Gonorrhea, mid-1900s National Library of Medicine #101450677
Know for sure – get a blood test for syphilis, mid 1900s National Library of Medicine #101453071
Make our men as fit as our machines: regular physical check-ups…with blood tests, mid 1900s National Library of Medicine #101439384
Know for sure: get blood tests before marriage, 1944 National Library of Medicine #101438702

NLM Rare Book Collection

Venereal Disease and National Defense, by Federal Security Agency, United States Public Health Service, 1941

Sex Hygiene and Venereal Disease by U.S. Surgeon-General’s Office, 1943

NLM Historical Audiovisuals Collection

Explore digitized films on venereal disease in the NLM Digital Collections

A newborn wrapped in blankets.

Related Resources from the National Library of Medicine

Online Resources

Visual Culture and Health in Profiles in Science

PubMed Central Full-Text Journal Articles

PubMed Central® (PMC) is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM).

Explore current and historical research on sexually-transmitted diseases.

MedlinePlus Consumer Health Information

MedlinePlus is an online health information resource for patients and their families and friends.

Find current, accurate health information about sexually-transmitted diseases.

External Resources

Articles and Websites

Read a 1955 article about the American Social Hygiene Association’s continuing efforts against prostitution, vice, and venereal disease.

Visit the website of the American Sexual Health Association (formerly the American Social Hygiene Association.)