Make Mine Freedom (1948)

Sponsor: Harding College
Funding: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Falk Foundation
Production: John Sutherland Productions
Music: Scott Bradley, Paul J. Smith.
Resources : Copyright 06/04/1948 LP1607; Frank Hughes, “Rights Sold to Harding College Film,” CT, Jan. 25, 1948, 6; “Foundation Assets Put at 2 Billions,” NYT, Aug. 17, 1949, 21; Raymond Spottiswoode, “Make Mine Freedom,” in Ideas, 204; Ec Ed, 26, 31.
Holdings : LC/Prelinger, MacDonald.

Cartoon parable presenting the American system of government as the best in the world. “Dr. Utopia,” a snake-oil salesman of “foreign” appearance, convinces Americans to drink his quackish “ism” formula. Citizens are plunged into a totalitarian nightmare in which strikes are banned, private property is confiscated, and dissenters are brainwashed. Fortunately “John Q. Public” takes charge and expels the bad doctor from town. Make Mine Freedom was part of the public relations offensive by business to loosen government controls after World War II.

Note: Part of Harding College’s Fun and Facts about America series.

Produced and released in Technicolor, the cartoon was distributed theatrically through MGM and made available in 16mm for school and factory screenings. The New York Times reported that the Sloan Foundation estimated that 20 million viewers saw the film in its first year of release. Received awards from the Freedoms Foundation in 1949 and the Cleveland Film Festival in 1950. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/MakeMine1948. For more about the cartoon series and its reception, see Thomas F. Brady, “Cartoon Film Stirs Dispute in West by Satirizing U.S. Farm Planning,” NYT, Mar. 18, 1951, 1, 38.

© John Sutherland Productions

(*) ISM: In this specific case it would refer to SOCIALISM, but the rhetoric also refers to association with FASCISM and NAZISM, all three totalitarian, authoritarian and collectivist regimes.