Carey Wilson

A short biography of William Shakespeare that highlights the various jobs he worked at in the theater. (imdb)

Carey Wilson narrates this MGM Miniature short in which an average office worker suffers all week-end because his boss, who had a bad case of indigestion, didn't speak to him when he came to work on Friday and is convinced he is going to get fired. (imdb)

About the ill-fated King Louis XVII of France: the lost "Dauphin" who probably died in 1795. (IMDB Comments)

In Chinese culture, live theater performances are attended by all classes of society. This short shows a performance of "The Rainbow Pass," a tale of a wife who challenges her husband's murderer to combat. (imdb)

After John Wilks Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln, he escaped to Maryland. According to the history books, he was discovered hiding in a barn; after he refused to surrender, the barn was set afire, and Booth died in the conflagration. However, in 1903 a Mr. David E. George, while on his deathbed in Enid Oklahoma, claimed to be John Wilks Booth. This film presents evidence of the possibility that Mr. George's claim was true. (imdb)

This short explores extrasensory perception. Does it really exist? (imdb)

This short looks at the possibility that those who have passed on can communicate with us in ways we least expect. (imdb)

Olsen plays Kurt Larsen, a larcenous lecher who has bilked the islanders of the pearls they have harvested from the sea. He brings nearly worthless trinkets, supposedly attractive to the people, and lists their debts in a book. As they bring him the pearls that are of much greater value, he marks off their debts. One day a comet - they call a fire in the sky - passes by and the chief forewarns of a great storm. Unbelieving Kurt makes no preparations and suffers a loss of all the pearls, as his store is burnt to the ground in a fire caused by a suspiciously shifting wind. (IMDB Comments)

During the American Civil War, General Ulysses Grant carries out the 'Tennessee Plan,' which involves stopping the Confederate supply line on the Tennessee River. This proved to be a vital action for the North in its push south... (imdb)

The story of Abraham Lincoln's 30-year struggle of persistence-through-failure is told to an unemployed 50 year old man. (imdb)

A satirical visualization of strange and forgotten, but (at that time) nevertheless still existing laws in the U.S.A.. (imdb)

This short starts with a short biography of Nostradamus and highlights some of his prophecies that came true in his own day (e.g., telling a young priest that many years later he would become Pope Sixtus V). Then we come to the present and learn that Nostradamus' writings foretold WWI. Several of his prophecies are then applied to the events leading to WWII, as well as to current war events. (imdb)

The story of Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873), an American Naval officer, who developed the first maps that charted the oceans' winds and currents. (imdb)

This short tells the story of Joseph Damien de Beuster (1840-89), the Belgian priest known as Father Damien, who worked for many years among the lepers on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. (imdb)

This 1940 presentation, "Cavalcade of the Academy Awards," features highlights of past Oscar ceremonies including Shirley Temple and Walt Disney, plus acceptance speeches for films released in 1939 with recipients and presenters including Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Hattie McDaniel, Fay Bainter, Mickey Rooney, Thomas Mitchell, Sinclair Lewis, and more, with host Bob Hope.

Legends associated with the lost treasures of Incan gold, thought to be located at the bottom of one of the many shafts of what is called the hawk's nest above the city of Cusco, Peru are presented. These stories begin in 1531 with the arrival of explorer Francisco Pizarro, under the direction of King Charles V of Spain, Pizarro who is in search of the gold associated with the legendary El Dorado. Pizarro holds captive the Emperor of the Incas, Atahualpa, to discover the location of the gold.

Documentary short film depicting the work of the United Service Organizations (USO) in providing recreational and morale-boosting services for American troops.

This shows the natives of Bikini Island as they were being evacuated and relocated (o.k., dispossessed) from their island prior to the atom bomb tests.

This short begins with a newspaper headline, "Mussolini Kicked Out". Narrator Carey Wilson emphasizes that this prediction by Nostradamus was featured in one of his previous short films dealing with the seer's prophecies. The focus of this short is on the "Fossan" Quatrain, in which Nostradamus foresees the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler.

Leonardo Da Vinci was seen as a great artist during his lifetime. The same cannot be said for his life as an inventor. His genius as an inventor was only truly known through reading his secret manuscripts after his death. His want to invent was because of his curiosity and insatiable quest for knowledge. He was able to invent the earliest prototypes of such things as the steam cannon, the machine gun, the submarine, the depth charge, and the tank, all which were welcome inventions of the day.

The prophecies of Nostradamus are applied to the events of World War II.

MGM short film questions whether Napoleon Bonaparte died on the island of St. Helena in 1821 as recorded in history. It is noted that for many years Napoleon employed a look-a-like by the name of Francois Eugene Robeaud. This allowed the Emperor to work on matters of State while Robeaud attended public functions. There are several other anomalies including Robeaud's sudden disappearance and his family's acquisition of wealth; the fact that Robeaud is also recorded as having died on St. Helena.

This short follows the early career of actress Jane Barnes. She starts by doing extra work. After several months she is offered a studio contract (the “first step”). However, her work consists mostly of fashion shoots and bit parts that end up on the cutting room floor. She is even used as a stand-in for Maureen O’Sullivan on the set of a Tarzan movie when camera angles and lighting must be set up.

Using clips from several unidentified films of the preceding decade, featuring many well-known stars of the day, this short demonstrates that an endless variety of music to entertain all tastes can be heard when you go to the movies.

Author Frank R. Stockton, often asked the question, finally decides to divulge the untold ending of his story, The Lady or the Tiger?. The story itself... In olden times, a barbaric king often used the façade of being genial to lull his enemies into a false sense of security. If there was a criminal case that caught his fancy, he would bring the accused into an amphitheater which had two closed doors side by side, one of which he was to open.

Nostradamus writes a letter to his young son, and his prophecies are compared to events of the French Revolution. (imdb)

The Story of United States Air Force support to the Atomic Energy Commission on Continental Atomic Tests.

This initial entry in a series of several MGM shorts on Nostradamus starts with a short biography of the seer into the future. His early predictions concern European monarchs. His prophecies also foretell the American Revolution in 1776 and later the French Revolution of 1789. There is even a prediction about an event in Paris, France in 1999!

In 1948, the U.S. nuclear stockpile consisted of approximately 50 atomic bombs. Since the industrial complex to produce more nuclear weapons was not fully complete and there were limited amounts of plutonium, researchers wanted to develop more efficient implosion bombs. Operation Sandstone was a series of atmospheric nuclear "proof tests" conducted in the Pacific Proving Grounds Marshall Islands area April and May 1948.