Seeds of Destiny: A Case History

SEEDS OF DESTINY: A CASE HISTORY By Irene Kahn Atkins A veteran screen writer named Art Arthur occasionally wins bets from his friends by asking them the following question: What motion picture has brought in more money than any other in history? The usual answer is Star Wars or The Godfather I or J1L Arthur wins his bet by stating that Seeds of Destiny, a documentary short produced in 1945 and rarely shown in theaters, has raised the most money—over $200 million-not at the boxoffice, but in the form of donations to fund drives and as propaganda for war relief organizations and humanitarian causes. The bet is a "trick question," of course, but it is indicative of the enthusiasm and pride that the film's makers, including Arthur, who wrote it, still feel for the short film, which was produced at the request of United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, and which received the Academy Award as Best Documentary in 1947 J Before UNRRA's operations were terminated in 1947, over $4 billion had been spent on emergency aid. More than half of UNRRA's funds were provided by the United States. Large contributions came from voluntary non-governmental organizations. Confronted with the task of explaining the Administration's activities to its contributing nations and private agencies, UNRAA's public information staff sought the help of film makers in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. 2In 1945, a request to produce an UNRRA documentary was made to the Army Signal Corps by William Wells, Chief of the Visual Media Branch of the Office of Public Information of UNRRA. David Miller, a Signal Corps captain, was assigned to produce and direct. Considered an "up and coming" Hollywood director before entering the service, he had been Irene Kahn Atkins nesldes In Paclfalc Palisades, Califaonnla. This papen was onlglnalZy pnesented at The Salisbury Conference, which was co-sponsoned by the Histonlans Film Committee In June, 1980. 25 stationed at "Fort Wurtzel," the old Fox Studios in Los Angeles, making training films for the Frank Capra Unit. The UNRRA film was to be a two-hour feature, aimed at theater audiences rather than service personnel, and stressing the need to continue UNRRA's work, particularly in alleviating the devastating effects of war upon children. Miller began working with Lieutenant Gene Fowler, Jr., assistant in charge of production and head film editor at the Signal Corps Photographic Center at Astoria, and with Private Art Arthur. Fowler, whose Hollywood editorial credits included The Woman in the Window and the Ox-Bow Incident , had also edited John Huston's Army film, Let There Be Light. Art Arthur, a well-established screen writer before the war, was too old for the draft, but had enlisted as a private because, he said, "I believed it was a war that had to be fought."3 Arthur made a special point, as have others who have been interviewed about their World War II experiences, of the eagerness and willingness with which men enlisted in the service in that war, qualities that are sometimes incomprehensible to young people who have experienced the anti-war sentiments of the Sixties, the Seventies, and now the Eighties. "Damn it! We wanted to win!" was the way Leonard Spigelgass put it recently, with table-pounding emphasis. 4 Gene Fowler recalled, "The way our films were made, we were given a subject and put it together with the subject in mind. (We wrote on film.) I ordered over a mill ion feet of film printed up from our library on food and children. But David was a fighter and wanted more footage shot, animation made, and a special score written. "^ Both Miller and Arthur wanted a film that would show conditions as they actually were in Europe—scenes that weren't in any film library. They wrote a basic script which included narration, and flew to Paris to begin shooting. They arrived there shortly after the German surrender at Reims on May 7, 1945. Miller had instructions to pick up equipment and personnel from another Army film unit, the one commanded by famed film director George Stevens. The Stevens unit, while not receiving...