Recruit, Train and Motivate: The History of the Industrial Musical
http://www.furious.com/perfect/industrialmusicals.html
In 1963, the Xerox Corporation was the Cinderella story of the business world. When they introduced their weighty 914 copier in 1959, they had the ability to produce only 5 models a day, and costs were in the tens of thousands. Few thought that a bulky slab of metal like the 914 would perform well at all, much less revolutionize the copy business. Lucky for Xerox, the critics were wrong. In fact, they were way off. The 914 became known as the most successful product in history, doubling and tripling Xerox's sales figures over the next several years. In 1961, Xerox sales had reached 61 million. In 1962, they hit 104 million - far more than company president J.C. Wilson could ever have imagined. In 1963, Xerox was poised to introduce their first desktop copier - the 813. Since Wilson had flown his entire inner-circle of managers and salesmen to London the previous year to celebrate the 100 million mark, he wanted to try something different this year. Something rewarding, something that Xerox employees would remember forever.
What would he do? Well, Xerox quickly hired the Jam Handy Organization, a pioneer in the industrial film business. Jam Handy in turn hired Wilson Stone, an experienced film and Broadway composer. A cast and crew were hired, and voila! Xerox introduced Take It From Here, a musical about the company that was performed for their leading salesmen and executives at a banquet for two nights only, and then pressed in miniscule amounts as a souvenir record strictly for the attendees. The songs were big, brassy upbeat numbers following the adventures of Charlie, a good-natured rookie salesman for the company who learns why Xerox holds the key to a wonderful future.
(...)
Yes, Xerox made a musical about their company, something that in fact had been done many times before, by all types of corporations, though few would know it today. These records had absurdly limited private pressings, and they were given to employees only, never for public consumption. This elusive and almost completely unknown genre, known as the "industrial musical" or "industrial show", is one of the strangest and complicated types of music that has existed. It's not advertising music, nor is it quite Broadway. It's propaganda, yet it's also fun. It puts the listener in an odd place, as you are privy to the intimate dreams and the visions not of say, Tony and Maria, the doomed teen hero and heroine of West Side Story - but of U.S. Steel, or General Electric, or Maremont Mufflers. Yet it's with the same fervor that these lost records resonate. The coiled feelings of hope, industry and greed, coupled with a happy Broadway bounce and a joyous corporate cheerleading squad, singing anthem after anthem to boost the coming prosperity.
(...)
"Ideally, people would leave the show still singing the songs, reinforcing the messages the company wanted them to hear," says Steve Young, a New York City writer for the Late Show and proud owner of the largest collection of industrials in the world. "Some of the songs were more serious anthems, painting a stirring picture of why working for the company was a noble, almost sacred calling. Yes, when you work for Coke, you're doing well for yourself, but you're doing something great for America and all mankind. I've heard that this sort of song, powerfully orchestrated and performed, could bring middle-aged company men to tears." On the back cover of Ford's '64 Tractor show The New Wide World of Ford there's a quote from an attendee that says it all: "Today was the most beautiful day of my life!"
A few men of vision saw the need
A few short years ago.
And that's the way we find today
The Xerox that we know.
(marching beat begins)
A dream of destiny
Is a dream that we made come true!
A dream for you and me
A mighty future to pursue!
And though some knowing men
Once felt it could never grow -
An eager bunch of growing men
Said we can make it go!
From continent to continent
The world has come to know
This dream of destiny is destined to GROW AND GROW!!!
- "Dream of Destiny", Take It From Here, Xerox, 1963
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/ dave /