Henry Ford - Movie Mogul?

March 22, 2011 - PRLog -- PMS Press is pleased to announce the release of motion picture film researcher Phillip W. Stewart's latest work, "Henry Ford’s Moving Picture Show: An Investigator’s Guide to the Films Produced by the Ford Motor Company, Volume One, 1914-1920."

Because of Henry Ford's interest in the potential of motion pictures as an educational, training, and advertising medium, he started a motion picture department in his company in 1914. The department concentrated mainly on current events, educational features, and historical presentations. During World War One manufacturing and patriotic efforts on the home front were emphasized. After the war, the focus turned to promoting Ford products, modern farming methods, good roads, and traffic safety. The department also documented the activities of Ford, his family, and his friends. For about a decade, Henry Ford was the largest motion picture film producer in the world.

This is the first volume of a multi-book set, which identifies and describes the content of the motion pictures produced from 1914 to 1954 by the Ford Motor Company.  These historically significant films are now in the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration where they are well preserved, but research is challenging.  This book and the future volumes in this series, resolve this issue by providing a film’s title, description, and catalog numbers together in the same cite.  This critical information has never been published before.  Together with the 935 identified titles and 891 entries in the subject index, this book provides a timeless reference to the moving images produced from 1914 through 1920 by Henry Ford.

"Henry Ford’s Moving Picture Show: An Investigator’s Guide to the Films Produced by the Ford Motor Company, Volume One, 1914-1920." (ISBN 978-0-9817444-7-6, hard back, $39.95/978-0-9817444-6-9, trade paper, $34.95, 301 pages, pms press, 2011) is the fifth book in Mr. Stewart's Historic Footage Project.  More information is available at the author's website at www.pwstewart.com.  All of Mr. Stewart's valuable motion picture related reference works are available from Amazon.com and other ususal sources.