1960’s PACIFIC TELEPHONE EMPLOYEE TRAINING FILM “PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR SAFETY” 87254 (1960)

Synopsis

This 1960s film is from Pacific Telephone Company which was founded in 1906 and has headquarters in San Francisco, California and it was to be used for employees of the company. It takes a look at safety standards and the notion of personal responsibility for safety on and off the job. It opens with a slew of traffic and warning signs as we are constantly bombarded with signs telling us to avoid accidents (:36) though human error still is prevalent as a man places a cigarette butt next to a flammable container of paint thinner (:56). Other examples of people ignoring safety procedures follow including a man trying to cross an intersection with the ‘don’t walk’ signal present (1:26) as well as a pair of women jay-walking and nearly getting hit by a car (1:42). The General Manager of Pacific Telephone Company at the time, Gordon Huff narrates the film (2:22) and he begins by addressing employees and informing them that in spite of well though out safety plans and procedures, they were seeing increasingly high rates of accidents on and off the job (2:56). In a one-month period there were 211 on duty accidents and a multitude of off duty (3:15). The Pacific Telephone Company building (3:47) leads to workers inside beginning with the toll and information operators (4:08) who had low record of on the job instances though a high record of off the job instances (4:20). A scene showing the aftermath of a car accident follows (4:36) as well as a man laying on the ground who had fallen…

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Details

Running time

15 minutes

Collection

Ephemeral Films

Subjects on the Internet Archive

• Stock Footage