Filmstrips

Summary: Motion pictures, video recordings, filmstrips and audio recordings, produced primarily for promotion and training purposes.

Filmstrips: Arranged alphabetically by title.

Sales training filmstrips for use by Lenox sales staff and dealers. Included are filmstrips for Lenox's fine china and crystal and for Temperware, as well as one entitled "The Making of Fine China," possibly produced as an accompaniment for the film of the same name. Corresponding audio recordings in LP format for several filmstrips can be found in the Audio sub-series.

Audio: Arranged by format; thereunder arranged by date.

Spoken-word and music recordings produced by Lenox, Incorporated, spanning from 1972 to 1998, produced mainly for promotional purposes. The recordings are found on audiocassettes, microcassettes, 1/4-inch reel-to-reel audiotape and vinyl records. Audio recordings related to filmstrips are cross-referenced to those productions.

One of the audiocassettes in the audio subseries contains an extensive interview with Richard Stearns, CEO of Lenox, Incorporated, on the eve of his retirement. The interview is over an hour long and covers many aspects of Stearns' tenure as CEO. Also included are several interviews on microcassette, including interviews with former Lenox president John M. Tassie and with Walter Scott Lenox descendant William Lenox Dunbar (the latter including Elizabeth Yermack and Ellen Paul Denker), both dated 1987.

The sub-series also includes four 10-inch LPs (long-playing records) and one 12-inch LP that were produced to accompany sales training filmstrips. The LPs are entitled New Ways to Sell Lenox Giftware, The Art of Selling Lenox China and Your Key to Selling More Lenox China and Crystal. Also included is a transcription of the audio accompaniment to a sales training filmstrip for Lenox's line of Oxford bone china.

Videos: Arranged by format and thereunder alphabetically by title.

Advertising, sales training and educational recordings, as well as a large number of recordings of television and news broadcasts, dating between 1975 and 2005, that pertain to Lenox, Incorporated, but were not produced by Lenox. Much of the material records the ways in which Lenox, Incorporated, interacted with the public throughout 1980s and 1990s. The recordings in this sub-series can be found on two-inch videotape, 3/4-inch U-Matic and U-Matic S videocassettes, VHS and Beta videocassettes and one DVD-R. Many of the professionally produced titles in this sub-series can be found on several different video formats and, in the case of Hallmark of Excellence and Lenox: The People, The Art, on film as well. Most of the video recordings are under 30 minutes in length, with the news broadcasts frequently running for less than two minutes.

During the early to mid-1990s, a series of videocassettes entitled Video News Briefs were produced for the circulation amongst the employees of Brown-Forman (of which Lenox, Incorporated, was a subsidiary at the time). The Video News Briefs consisted of various TV spots, such as news items or public interest pieces, for the companies under the Brown-Forman umbrella. Lenox is well represented on these tapes.

Among the videos are two U-Matic cassettes labeled 30 Something, possibly a reference to the television drama thirtysomething.

Motion Pictures: Bulk arranged alphabetically by title; items on largest reels grouped at end.

Motion picture films acquired or produced by Lenox, Incorporated, dating between 1945 and 1985, mainly for use in education and advertising. Many of these films explain in detail the steps involved in the making of fine china and crystal. Included are formats, such as 35mm film, 16mm film, Super-8 film and Super-8 film loop cartridges, containing both finished viewing copies and occasionally other versions or source materials. Most of the motion pictures were used heavily by china retailers or patrons of film rental companies, resulting in poor picture and sound quality in the surviving copies.

Prominently featured are the films The Making of Fine China and Of Earth and Fire. The Making of Fine China, produced in 1945, is a matter-of-fact description of the various steps involved in the creation of china pieces. There are three versions of The Making of Fine China: an educational, color version of twenty minutes and broadcast, black-and-white versions of twelve minutes and six minutes. Of Earth and Fire, released in 1967, features a musical accompaniment (performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra) complementing the actions of the factory workers. Of Earth and Fire was directed by Wheaton Galentine and produced by Ralph Steiner; it was a critical success and won several awards. The film has a short and a long version, both of which are in color, with running times of eight minutes and twenty minutes. Footage from Of Earth and Fire also appears in the documentary, Hallmark of Excellence, which was produced by Lenox several years later. Because source materials were available for this particular film, its viewing prints are of superior audio and visual quality.

Among the items in this sub-series are two Super 8 films with accompanying 1/4-inch audiotapes. In addition, three 1/4-inch audiotapes and one audiocassette accompany a film prepared for the launch of Lenox china in the Japanese market.

Also included in the sub-series are four reels of amateur 16mm motion picture film without sound. One of these films records a staff picnic, another is of what appears to be an employee outing to the Sally Starr Ranch and a third contains various shots of what is presumed to be an employee banquet and award ceremony. The fourth film, labeled "Industrial Engineering Ware Flow Project," depicts Lenox workers performing their jobs; it is likely part of a time and motion study.

The films that are not viewing prints are identified variously as negatives, internegatives, master copies or answer prints. These films have been retained as preservation copies and are not available for routine use. Similarly, the source materials (sound tracks for Of Earth and Fire) and the film excerpts (for Making of Fine China and Of Earth and Fire) are also restricted.