Public Enemy

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DATE: 1960

LENGTH: 28 min

CATEGORY: Educational & Instructional, Sound, Black & White

DIRECTOR: Jerry Lee

PRODUCER/PUBLISHER: Westinghouse Broadcasting Co. and US Public Health Service

Summary

Film historian Jennifer Peterson analyzes a set of six 1960s-era films about air and water pollution and the growing environmental and human ruin they’ve wrought. The 1960s marked a turning point in the expansion of popular awareness about environmental problems. The six titles, made between 1960 and 1972, show the emergence of modern environmentalist discourses. All frame pollution as a problem caused by human industry. But in the films made later in the decade, we see the emergence of a broader critique of post-World War II consumerism and waste. Co-produced by the U.S. Public Health Service and a range of commercial and nonprofit institutions, the films reflect an era in which government took a leading role in educating the public about environmental health threats. The earliest film in the group begins with a shot of a frustrated housewife tracing the words “PUBLIC ENEMY” in a deep layer of black soot coating her coffee table, while ominous music rises to emphasize the coming danger. A collaboration between the PHS and the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, it’s is a black-and-white 16mm Kinescope of a television program, which would have originally been seen live by millions of people…. Read The Essay

Supplementary Materials

Stills from Public Enemy

Woman drew "public enemy" onto coffee grounds on a table

A sooty coffee table serves as a title card in Public Enemy.

a man in a suit staring into the camera with a thinking face.

a bar graph with the y axis ranging from 0 to 100 and the bar show "heart Diesease"; the top quarter of the bar is lighter color.

painting of scenery with the sun in the top middle of the picture, with the silhouette of a city in a deep hole.

the USA map with a bunch of dark and white dots on the states

some sort of cylindrical tool with a pyramid on one side of it

a man in a suit and hat standing into front of a waterfall, looking into the camera

view of looking onto a highway of cars come at us

a poster area with papers that has a sign on top that reads Community Air Pollution

a sign on top of two windows that read : Areometric Station, U.S public health service

woman about to sneeze with a napkin up to her face

Woman in a collared shirt and pencil skirt sitting on a couch with her fist on her chin.

“Mrs. Public” contemplating her television in Public Enemy. National Library of Medicine #

4 large cylindrical tanks standing parallel to each other, next to some machinery

The Duquesne Works of the U.S. Steel Corporation, as shown in Public Enemy.

a view of a graveyard looking over a a few houses in the background

Other Films Featured in the Essay “Darkening Day: Air Pollution Films and Environmental Awareness, 1960-1972”

Countdown to Collision
Children walk with signs that read The End.

Don’t Leave It All to the Experts
A man stands to speak in a microphone at a public meeting.

Beware the Wind
Cars in a junkyard sit next to factory smokestacks.

The Run Around
An animated image of a tall slick man grinning at a small grumpy male figure.

Sources of Air Pollution
A landscape of an urban industrial area.

In the Collections of the National Library of Medicine

NLM Rare Books & Early Manuscripts Collection

Air pollution in Donora, Pa: Epidemiology of the Unusual Smog Episode of October 1948

Free Films on Air Pollution [Many of these films are available from the National Archives and Records Administration]

Cover of a pamphlet advertising public health films for group showing.

First page of a pamphlet advertising films on air pollution for public screening.

Page of a pamphlet advertising a film called Pall Over America.

Page of a pamphlet advertising a series of films titled Sources, Effects, and Control of Air Pollution..

Page of a pamphlet advertising a film called This Buisiness of Air.

Page of a pamphlet advertising a film called Take a Deep Breath.

Back cover of a pamphlet advertising Public Health Service films for group showing.

NLM Archives and Modern Manuscripts Collection

Pope A. Lawrence Papers 1924-1983. Located in: Archives and Modern Manuscripts Collection, History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD; MS C 539. Series 3: Air Pollution Control Office.

Remarks by John E. Fogarty at the Air Pollution Control Association Dinner, 1958 in Profiles in Science

NLM Prints & Photographs Collection

Let’s Fight Air Pollution, 1977
*National Library of Medicine #101584655X41*

An artistic rendering of a town with smog blowing along a bend in a river seen from a flowered hillside. — Donora, Pa. 1949 #40 Artist’s rendition of smog episode of 1948
*National Library of Medicine #101450758*

Donora, Pa. – 1949 #7 Riverboat adds to air pollution on Monongahela River
*National Library of Medicine #101450738*

Water Pollution, 1881. Nineteen vignettes of dams, watersheds, and pollution evident in the water supply of New York.
*National Library of Medicine #101435651*

A poster illustrated by a black boy and an asian girl playing in the surf. — Let the World Breath, ca. 1980s
*National Library of Medicine #101444671*

A four color poster illustrated with an industrial skyline and line of smoke rising throught the text. — Ill Winds on a Sunny Day: A Film on Air Pollution, ca.1970s
*National Library of Medicine #101454436*

Men sit at a table signing documents while many other men in suits stand behind them. — President Richard Nixon and Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny sign the agreement May 23rd on joint action against cancer, heart disease and air and water pollution, 1972
*National Library of Medicine #101677201*

A row of smokestacks along a railroad track in an industrial area. — Donora, Pa. 1949 #8 American Steel & Wire Co. Plant
*National Library of Medicine #101450739*

Related Resources from the National Library of Medicine

See current information on air pollution from MedlinePlus and NLM Environmental Health & Toxicology resources.

External Resources

Articles and Websites

A woman speaking and wearing headphones in an outdoor setting. — Jennifer Lynn Peterson, PhD, presents at the NYU Orphan Film Symposium, held virtually, 2020

Orphan Film Symposium 2020: Climate, Water, Migration. Several of the films featured in this essay were presented at the 2020 Orphan Film Symposium. Dozens of other rare titles dealing with the environment were also presented at the international conference.

Watch: Darkening Days, 11:00 am session on “Climate Wednesday,” Orphans Online, May 27, 2020.

Other Related Resources

Learn more about disparities in the impact of air pollution, how to check air quality in your area, and children and the environment.