Friday, December 11, 2020

DON'T BE AFRAID / Growing Up In the Early Fifties - 1952

Strangely enough, I found this one on Something Weird's MONSTERS CRASH THE PAJAMA PARTY Spook Show Madness compilation DVD. 

It's about kids and their fears, and how to conquer them, a public service short produced by Encyclopedia Britannia Films that was probably shown to 4th graders back in the day.

Billy's in his room looking through some books when mom comes in and says, time for bed. He reluctantly gets into bed and mom covers him up. 

She turns off the lights and shuts the door on her way out...

The little guy's having trouble falling asleep. He looks around the room, it's always a little spooky at night, things can take on a creepy feel you know.

He hears something outside and calls for help! Mom comes in and they sit down and talk about being afraid of the dark. She tells him many people have fear...

Like, remember the time she caught the skillet on fire while cooking breakfast, well, she was filled with fear about that.

Then Billy remembers the time he accidently threw a friend's ball on top of the roof at school and the boy told him to climb the wall and retrieve the ball. Are you kidding??!!!

Then Billy remembers the time his friend Kathy was scared to be around dogs and ran away when she saw him with one.

Oh, and when another friend hid in the basement after getting bad grades and scared his parents because they couldn't find him...

Mom says, that's why it's always good to talk about your fears with others, and Billy agrees.

Mom explains that dad just came over and put a lid over the fire and viola, it's out. But I'd like to know how she caught some eggs on fire!

Billy chimes in about how the maintenance man came and got the ball down from the roof at school instead of him climbing the wall...

And how Kathy now loves dogs after getting a cute little puppy of her own.

Or the friend who thought his parents wouldn't love him any more because of his bad grades, but after talking with his parents, they assure him that they'd love him no matter what, and they helped him improve his grades.

Then Billy tells mom that his fear is that her and dad might leave without telling him while he's asleep! Of course they would never do that and Billy feels better about everything.

It's okay to turn the lights off, but could you just leave the door cracked open? For sure! So, there you have it, good advice for back then. But today, it's like... DON'T BE AFRAID TO BE AFRAID!!! We're back tomorrow, see you then...

3 comments:

  1. Now I have to dig out my copy of the MONSTERS CRASH THE PAJAMA PARTY DVD, and dig for this short. If nothing else, I love the look of these old short films for their "vintage home movie" quality. Thanks!

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  2. Before I knew the date, I figured it had to be from the early fifties because of the look of the color, it's gorgeous -

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  3. Absolutely, the colors are not only beautiful, but very natural (to me)! And very realistic lighting, too! Looks like an old picture postcard!

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