‘Till It Helps!

[Much of the footage from this film was in another film made for the United Way]

1959 St. Louis; footage of United Way of Greater St. Louis services for elderly, disabled, sick, and impoverished.

Young boy with back to camera lying in crib begins to cry; title credits superimposed over shot; nurse room and flips on light and checks up on crying boy in crib.

CU old woman eating with a spoon; LS woman using her can gets up from table with box of cereal on it.

High-angle shot looking down downtown St. Louis street in 1950s, Mercantile Trust Co. sign along right side of frame.

Old woman walking with walker assisted by a nun followed by other old women and nurses and nuns pushing old women in wheel chair through the corridor

Little girl with cerebral palsy trying to walk, camera slowly zooms to CU little girl with cerebral palsy

CU young boy’s legs strapped into heavy braces of metal and leather, slow pan up struggling to control his arms while trying to exercise on weight machine, nurse stands by weight machine watching boy

Pan over room with children with cerebral doing physical therapy with nurses.

Pan over greater St. Louis in 1959.

St. Louis city bus speeds past camera, man walks out of building and dodges 1950s cars cross street toward camera; VS following older man walk down busy St. Louis sidewalks; VS busy St. Louis, MO sidewalks in 1959.

Two elderly Jewish couples walk down front steps of house; VS Golden Age Club with elderly seated at various tables playing different games; two old men playing checkers

High-angle pan over St. Louis.

VS St. Louis slums in 1959

CU bricks on street along curb, group of boys enter frame and pick up bricks; tracking shot interracial gang of 5 teenage boys walking up sidewalk toward camera holding bricks
Crouching teenage boy wearing white t-shirt and backwards hat stands up and throws a brick; cuts to boy in baseball uniform throwing a pitch

MS boy about 12 to 13 years old using a drill, United Fund Agencies sign above power drill.

Pan over St. Louis, Missouri

Children playing on playground, little girls riding tricycles, nun supervises children on slide.

VS tornado

Young child enters from bottom of frame carrying a doll in hand walks up steps and tries to open door; MS back of child as she tries to open door, little girl knocks; sign for Family and Childrens Serves of Greater St. Louis with Closed sign taped diagonally over it; front door to the Lighthouse For the Blind St. Louis Society for the Blind with Closed sign placed inside door; Closed sign hanging from bottom of sign pointing toward entrance to Washington University Clinics

Young child about 10 years old wearing hospital gown lying in hospital bed reaches for glass of water, takes drink, and lies back down, nurse enters frame and checks up on little child who smiles at nurse; dissolves to same little girl in bed at home, walls around child’s bed smeared with dirt, child is filthy

Disembodied hands raise plastic protective bubble over child sucking its thumb, oxygen tank beside child’s hospital bed

09:59:27:27 tracking shot down rows of old women in wheel chairs.

09:59:32:19 Great shot nurses wearing sanitary masks walk toward camera holding babies in their arms

09:59:41:12 sad looking child with leg in cast lying in hospital bed holding toy in hand, nurse hands child a ball and tries to turn his head; CU young girl with cerebral palsy.

• 3:33:30- 3:46:42
We view a trash man on a side street in a poor neighborhood in Saint Louis, Missouri. Cut to the backs of row houses and then to piles of trash in an empty lot.

• 3:52:20- 3:59:15
Interesting shot of young “hoodlums” (three white and two African American boys) walking down a St. Louis street (in a lower income residential area) carrying bricks.

worth noting: short but interesting shot of African-American and white children playing on a playground (6:28:09- 6:32:25). Cusp of the 1960s.

We digitized and uploaded this film on behalf of the Prelinger Archives. Email us at footage@avgeeks.com if you have questions about the footage and are interested in using it in your project. till-it-helps