Out of the past: on Youtube, a 75-year-old short film about cancer

81GyGuy

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Joined : Oct 2012

Posts : 3870

Posted 7/22/2021 11:16 AM (GMT -5)

A short (10 minutes) cartoon-format film from 1946, alerting the public to what cancer is and what its symptoms are. A sort of public service announcement about cancer from long ago.

Of interest of course because of the picture it presents of cancer that existed three-fourths of a century ago.

To be expected, it offers some different perspectives on cancer, being from a bygone era, but, interestingly, it also seems very similar in a number of its points to modern perceptions of the disease and its treatment that we still have.

One notable difference between then and now: early in the film, when discussing how the public of 1946 views cancer, there seems to be a sort of implication that getting cancer is somehow shameful, or a personal failing. Surely that view has changed substantially since the 1940s.

But the cartoon-figure description it gives of how cancer operates would work today, and the discussion of what the film presents as the three major treatments, surgery, radiation, and what appears to be early use of radioactive seeds, is certainly still relevant today.

The film is a historical curiosity, but of interest for what it shows has changed, and what hasn't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xojpovr7fe

Cyclone-ISU

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Joined : Oct 2014

Posts : 3411

Posted 7/23/2021 2:15 PM (GMT -5)

A few thoughts ...

I wonder if this was presented in high school or college science classrooms, as an introduction to diseases, such as cancer?

Interesting to note --- as the introductory credits begin --- it proclaims that it is presented in TECHNICOLOR --- a rarity, in the 1940s, when many movies were still filmed in black and white.

It has a different approach than the anti-smoking campaign films I remember from my high school science classes.

My high 🏫 school also invited a local guest speaker who had had his larynx removed, due to cancer ---- as a cautionary tale about the dangers of smoking ---- and then showed presentation slides of what smoking did to one's lungs as the finale of the presentation.

Interesting, too ... this 1946 short film makes NO mention of childhood cancer ----essentially presenting cancer as a disease that impacts men and women.

There was a moment when the "good cells" were all working together in an animated rhythmic fashion that almost reminded me of Walt Disney's classic movie FANTASIA for a moment.

As one sees in a Disney movie, there was definitely a "good versus evil" theme embedded in that sequence --- as a monstrous and menacing cancer cell invaded the scene --- a dark and nebulous foe, overtaking the good work of the healthy cells.

Despite being filmed 75 years ago, the film outlined scientific understanding of cancer's ability to become metastatic ---- and classic warning signs of cancer's presence.

Filmed right after the close of World War II ---I also noticed the memorial crosses shown at the beginning closely resembled the cross monuments often used in cemeteries for World War II casualties, from that era.

Oncology research has certainly made strides in the past 75 years.

Here's to future breakthroughs in the years ahead!

CYCLONE - # Iowa State University

Post Edited (Cyclone-ISU) : 7/23/2021 2:11:47 PM (GMT-6)

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