Social Class in America (1957)

If this film was designed to stimulate thought, it succeeds. We follow the lives of three small town high school buddies; "Gil Ames" who is rich and happy; "Dave Benton" who is poor and doomed; and "Ted Eastwood," who is middle class and doomed. Gil is sent to an Ivy League school (where he meets "men of his own kind"), returns home wearing a bow tie, and takes over his father's very profitable business. Dave gets married, has lots of kids, and winds up working in a gas station. Ted wants to be an artist, but he falls in love with "Mary" and becomes a white collar bookkeeper.

Mary, however, wants a man with a bigger bank account, so she dumps Ted, who then decides to move to Manhattan and "make something" of himself. After many years of hard work as an advertising artist and art director, Ted lands a painfully dull white collar job in an advertising agency and gets to play golf with rich men. This is "vertical mobility," the narrator explains, "particularly characteristic of the United States." Ted returns home wearing a snappy hat, but Mary has married Gil, and both really don't want anything to do with him.

This film was produced to explain basic concepts of sociology, but ends up presenting a rather dark view of social class and mobility in America.

Producer: Knickerbocker Productions
Sponsor: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• 1957
• 1950s
• sociology
• class
• ephemera
• vintage film

[shaggylocks]

@SteveCarras Some of it (especially the railroad station scene) appears to have been shot in and around Convent Station, N.J.

[kingalow1]

Upperclass Gil and his Ivy League pals went on to eliminate middleclass Ted and his middleclass buddies, sinking them further into zero upward mobility and debt alongside good ole low-class Dave. Gil's great grandkids have only a few friends now, but they own everything! God Bless Free Enterprise and America!

[BloorigardEtcetera]

I love that they're clearly born in the 1950s, graduate high school in the 1950s, and hit their 30s in the 1950s. oof.

[SusieCruisie]

Ted, you dodged a bullet when Mary thought she was too good for you. Woof!

[alttab7890]

@Miikaika25 Happiness is the main thing but u see how even THEN,they would trash u if u were a mechanic even if that made U happy and they would price u if u own a company.Same thing today.What if a simple job made u happy?Is that WRONG?nobody should judge,it should be your own BUSINESS!

[alttab7890]

@BloorigardEtcetera they made a mistake right there.maybe they didn"t want to show how America changed drasdtically in the 60's and 70's

[alttab7890]

@kruserer Yes because people that knew you BEFORE you got your career,still will look at u the same.That sucks.

[alttab7890]

@mooncat1965 True

[mooncat1965]

Mr. Benton - low class worker that he was - could still support a family. Now it is impossible to support a family on ONE "low class" job.

[chickenygoodness]

The "only high-school educated", "won't rise further than his present station" middle-class Ted Eastwood, lives in a home (with the mortgage on its way to being paid off, no less) that you couldn't touch with a twenty-foot pole these days, unless you are college-educated with a job to match, and a "well-off" income.

[kruserer]

So you can become CEO of the largest company in the world, but you'll still be shit in Hometown USA if you were born that way.

[imajika2]

Mary is a huge gold digger. Gil needs to kick her butt to the curb.