Before YouTube, Cable TV, or broadcast TV even, there was Jam Handy’s educational films. For anyone that happen’s to catch the name today, Jam Handy sounds like a 1930’s whizz kid movie producer that also did feature films on the side. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Jam Handy Organization created short films for GM’s Chevrolet division, along with a few other clients like Coca-Cola. The intent of these short films were to educate the public and in many cases, the salespeople that were charged with knowing the product.

What was the Jam Handy Organization?

Founded by Henry Jamison Handy, which explains where the name came from, the organization came to be after Handy studied how consumers were driven to make purchases. Knowing that the public relied on informed and knowledgeable salespeople, Handy began making educational films that gained him a well respected reputation.

Handy founded the Jam Handy Organization off of that reputation, and the group continued to make educational videos into 1968. Chevrolet was their biggest client and many of the vintage Chevrolet films people can see today on YouTube, were the product of the Jam Handy Organization.

We happened to find a video from the Jam Handy crew that was one of a series of educational films in 1935 titled “Incorporating Various Desirable Car Design Features Into One Vehicle.” Our featured video discussed the highly desirable “Balance” car design feature.

Watching the Handy videos, we still chuckle at some of the non-politically correct statements, and the odd comparisons, like Malcolm Campbell’s Bluebird, the popular land speed car of the time, against the pigmy British cars.

Stay tuned as we bring you more of these vintage videos from the Jam Handy Organization, and other old videos from the 30s, 40s, and 50s.